A Pod Meets World Preview: The Red Weather with Rider Strong

00:00:19
Speaker 1: So I'm really excited to finally share with you guys something that I've been working on for so long.

00:00:26
Speaker 2: A longing, a long time in the making, a long time.

00:00:30
Speaker 3: You had to ignore us on tour, you had to say, no, I will not go hang out with you guys, I am working. I know.

00:00:39
Speaker 2: He was just happy about that. Yeah, uh yeah, So I've been.

00:00:45
Speaker 1: I've been really working hard for over a year on a project that I can now share with you and with our listeners. And it really goes back to like my love of mysteries and crime stories, crime book especially like novels I'm a huge fan of like ton of French and Michael Connolly and I just I not only do I read these, but I also listen to them on audiobooks a lot. And I also love podcasts, true crime podcasts, any kind of podcasts. I've been listening forever.

00:01:17
Speaker 2: And that's true.

00:01:18
Speaker 4: By the way, you were one of the original podcasts listed. I think the first time I ever heard the word podcast was from that out of my mouth.

00:01:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, I think I got into him in like two thousand and eight, you know, like when I was still had like a regular old iPod and had to download it, so it's actually made sense to call it a podcast. But anyway, Yeah, so I started this project. I had I had an idea at first it was full documentary, which was that I would interview people that I grew up with, because you know, there's a lot of where I grew up was like a lot of alternative family situations, like the high school that I went to, you know, where I graduated in the class of twelve, a lot of like kids growing up with like communes some may say, cults, situations where like people would be like, oh, they're half brothers and half sisters, and it was like, because they're the child of the same leader of their like.

00:02:09
Speaker 2: Group, they'd be like your cousins, you're related?

00:02:13
Speaker 5: How does this all work? And how?

00:02:14
Speaker 1: You know? So I decided to like interview some of my old friends and my family about those situations and just see like if there was material there or something to make a sort of podcast out of it. And I quickly realized that, uh, there might be a fun way to do this and actually fictionalize it, and so I decided to take a lot of the real material that I was gathering and write a fake true crime podcast. So essentially like Blair witching some real aspects of my life. So I ended up changing the names of everybody involved except for my immediate family. So my wife is in it, my son, isn't it? My parents, my brother. Then I kept interviewing friends, I kept gathering material. I spent a lot of time outlining, and then this fall I spent weeks running around with the microphone, which was like the most fun I've had in so long.

00:03:09
Speaker 5: Anyway, I'm really proud of it.

00:03:11
Speaker 1: I am.

00:03:11
Speaker 5: Now I've been editing and.

00:03:12
Speaker 1: Creating music with Kyle Morton of Typhoon, who did our who created our podcast theme, has been composing all this incredible music for me, and I got to go up to Portland and like do that anyway, I want to play the first seven minutes forty So.

00:03:27
Speaker 2: What's it called? Can we ask? What's it called? The Red Weather? The Red Weather?

00:03:44
Speaker 5: The Red Weather is a work of fiction.

00:03:46
Speaker 1: Any resemblance to actual persons or events reflects the adaptation of real, publicly available materials for creative and legal reasons. The content of this podcast is the sole responsibility of Red Weather LLC and does not reflect the views of responsibilities of iHeartMedia or It's affiliates. A few days before she died, I got a letter from Willow. Willow was my neighbor and one of my best friends as a kid. We grew up in the Redwoods outside of Sebastopol, California.

00:04:15
Speaker 5: It's about sixty.

00:04:16
Speaker 1: Miles in north of San Francisco, and even though we were just through the woods from one another, we had very different childhoods. Willow was part of a commune or what they called it a collective. It was a group of maybe thirty people and it was called Tender Hearts.

00:04:31
Speaker 5: It was one guy, really, the leader, Elric, and then women and kids. That's Sheriff Maldonado.

00:04:38
Speaker 1: He was the sheriff back in the eighties and the nineties, so he ended up dealing with the tender Hearts when neighbors would complain or if kids got into trouble. It was hard to wrap your head around.

00:04:46
Speaker 5: It was nature and trees and praying.

00:04:51
Speaker 1: I guess it would be called meditating.

00:04:53
Speaker 5: Today, and drugs. It was pot, mushrooms, mescaline.

00:05:00
Speaker 1: Willow's mom was a founding member of Tender Hearts, so she lived there with Willow and her sister Anna when we were young. Willow and I were close, really close. We used to meet in the woods between our houses and spend all afternoon together, sometimes camping out, but things got complicated in our teens. By the time I got her letter, I hadn't talked to her in years. I didn't even know she had my address. She was in Panama, in Pocas del Toro. It's a series of islands close to Costa Rica. Apparently she'd gone with an organization to help sea turtles protect their habitat or something, but really it sounds like she.

00:05:34
Speaker 5: Went to get away and to get sober.

00:05:37
Speaker 1: The letter was mostly about what she was up to in Panama, working in a vegan pizza place down there. Before I could write her back, I found out she took her own life. My mom saw it on Facebook. So you're still in tough with her mom.

00:05:50
Speaker 6: Well, only through Facebook. I mean, it's not like I see her or talk to her, have private phone calls, but you know, she posts things. This was one of the things she posted. I was surprised. It's really sad. It's really sad.

00:06:06
Speaker 7: She was begging me to come visit her.

00:06:08
Speaker 5: This is Noah. He grew up with Willow too.

00:06:11
Speaker 7: She begged me. She was like, kid, please please come visit. I'm really lonely. I need a friend, I need some help. You know. She wrote me this poem that was very you know, in that context, was quite deep and dark and basically just talking about loneliness and isolation and kind of meaninglessness of everything.

00:06:25
Speaker 5: He's now a psychiatrist up in Seattle.

00:06:28
Speaker 7: And it's really challenging. It's really I mean, I've had a number of patient suicide and even with that, it's really hard to reconcile that of like, could I have done something more?

00:06:44
Speaker 5: If I was.

00:06:44
Speaker 1: Honest, I might not have even written her back. I mean, we were in very different places. She was single, childless, hopping around a different countries. I'm married, I have a kid. I live in LA I work as a writer director, and as you might know, I host a podcast about the TV show I was on as a kid.

00:07:03
Speaker 2: Welcome to Podney's World.

00:07:04
Speaker 5: I'm being official. I'm rather strong, and I'm Wilfordell.

00:07:10
Speaker 1: Willow was still chasing new experiences, new people, and new places in a way that when we were young was exciting and admirable, but now that we're in our forties, it felt a little desperate, erratic.

00:07:22
Speaker 7: I remember for the first few years of our friendship, you know, it was like it was kind of like being a being on a drug near her. She had so much energy and excitement and spontaneity and like. But then I remember as she started to decompensate in our teen years, it was like it was very it was really challenging to be around her. I should say all this with a caveat that it's impossible for me not to like use my psychiatric nosology on her now now looking back, I mean, she was just the archetype of someone who had had clearly had a lot of childhood trauma.

00:08:07
Speaker 5: There's a few traumas Noah could be referring to here. There was the fact that.

00:08:11
Speaker 1: She grew up on a collective in the woods. She definitely had some awful boyfriends, there were drugs. But the central trauma of Willow's life had to do with her sister Anna. Anna was two years older than us, which isn't much except when you're fifteen. Back then, she was in a whole other category of existence, and I probably would have gotten to nowhere better except on Halloween night nineteen ninety five, Anna disappeared. It was a horrible time for a couple of months there, it seemed like everyone we knew was.

00:08:44
Speaker 5: A suspect or had a secret. We all got interviewed by the cops.

00:08:48
Speaker 1: People blamed Willow's mom, people blamed the Tender Hearts and his boyfriend, and people blamed the town. But no one knew what actually happened. Nobody was ever found, no charges ever filed. Most everyone assumed that Anna ran away, that she just wanted out of Tender Hearts or small.

00:09:07
Speaker 5: Town took off.

00:09:08
Speaker 1: The Willow never thought that she knew her sister would never leave without her, or at least without saying goodbye. This is from Willow's letter. I know I made you promise something about the night Anna disappeared. You and chrysto Vecchio and Ryan and Connor were there too. Do you remember we pinky swore. So here's the deal. I want you to know I don't fucking care anymore. I release your pinky sir.

00:09:38
Speaker 5: I am no. I can't read this, but I think she wrote authority, but I want to know the truth.

00:09:44
Speaker 1: If Anna is still out there, or the person who killed her is out there, then keeping my secret is stupid.

00:09:49
Speaker 5: It always has been. I kept going back over the letter.

00:09:53
Speaker 1: Going back over my memories and my relationship with Willow, I kept wondering, why did she send this to me? Why didn't she decide to tell the truth herself. In nineteen ninety five, my neighbor and a trainer disappeared.

00:10:10
Speaker 5: She was seventeen.

00:10:11
Speaker 1: Her body was never found, no one was ever arrested, no explanation given. And back then, I lied to my parents, I lied to police, I lied to everybody because Ana's sister.

00:10:23
Speaker 5: Willow, asked me to. I've decided to go back.

00:10:27
Speaker 1: To my hometown, interview my friends and family, and talk to police and journalists whoever I can to try to find out what actually happened. I am actor and filmmaker, right strong, this is the red weather.

00:10:40
Speaker 2: Cool, It's crazy. It sounds amazing.

00:10:44
Speaker 5: I got chilled.

00:10:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, it sounds amazing. It's very dark.

00:10:47
Speaker 1: I probably should have worn people it.

00:10:49
Speaker 2: Gets dark fast.

00:10:50
Speaker 5: But yeah, ah, I'm so excited.

00:10:52
Speaker 2: Did you really have a neighbor that committed suicide?

00:10:54
Speaker 1: I'm not going there was a real suicide. Uh inspired this story? Yes, But you know the character of Willow. A lot of the characters are combinations of people you know, to sort of sort of like take take like two or three people and sort of merge them together and you know, create a fictional version. But yeah, it's it's how many episodes, how many episodes? Eight episodes, they're like, you know, thirty five forty minutes each. I can't wait for you guys to listen to it. And I can't wait for people to Yeah, it's you know, it's it's like, even though it's you know, it's very fictional, it's also very personal. So it's like in this weird way, like I've spent all this time on this thing and now it's like terrifying to kind of expose it to the world and like, you.

00:11:40
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, but when does the drop? When can we hear it?

00:11:44
Speaker 1: January twenty eighth, so soon, And the trailer has more, like, you know what, the action because this this opening is mostly just me talking and like my mom in there and some friends and stuff, but like, you know, it actually gets into scenes. I mean everything is like documentary style, but you know it was me like running around with an actual like head microphone, microphones and in the woods and like real scenes. It's like really fun stuff. Yeah, I can't wait for guys to listen to it.

00:12:09
Speaker 2: I can't wait.

00:12:10
Speaker 4: I love that.

00:12:11
Speaker 3: It's that you while you're listening to that that for seven minutes, you're thinking, like, yeah, I'm interested, why why did this girl kill herself? I'm going to get to the bottom of of Willow's death. And then at the end you're actually like, no.

00:12:25
Speaker 2: Mom is about what happened to her sister.

00:12:29
Speaker 3: That will uncover things about Willow.

00:12:31
Speaker 2: Oh man, I'm so excited. That's really cool. I'm very I'm excited too. That's great.

00:12:36
Speaker 1: It's very much like nineties nostalgia, and you know, it's it's kind of about nostalgia too, you know, it's about the sort of pitfalls of that. So, you know, and I'm very much not the hero like I am. I am a bad detective. That's part of the fun of it, you know. It's like I'm you know, I get to poke fun at myself a lot, but also pay homage to my hometown and like, you know, all the weird and wonderful things about sebastopoling up north and like the way I grew up and the people around me.

00:13:03
Speaker 3: It's really are all of the episodes coming out at once? Are you going to release one?

00:13:07
Speaker 7: Yeah?

00:13:08
Speaker 1: Wednesday?

00:13:08
Speaker 2: Wednesday?

00:13:09
Speaker 1: The twenty eighth, the first one comes out, and then Friday the second one will come out, and then it will be a Wednesday Friday for the next like three weeks after that. Yeah, so there's eight episodes. Yes, so cool.

00:13:19
Speaker 2: I can't wait for people.

00:13:20
Speaker 1: I can't wait to Yeah, so if you give a listen to the whole thing and then let me know what you think.

00:13:24
Speaker 5: And you know, I'm so excited to share this.

00:13:27
Speaker 3: Man, congratulations, I'm proud of you. Now, will we should go on the road and see if writers still has still won't have lunch with us?

00:13:35
Speaker 2: Well he still?

00:13:36
Speaker 5: Well, now I got to write it.

00:13:37
Speaker 1: Now, I'm actually writing a novel, so I'm going to like say, see you guys, I can't I can't stay out. I gotta write.

00:13:42
Speaker 4: But yeah, no, I have to get better at that. I'm actually sitting down and writing. Yeah hard, I know it's your pages in no.

00:13:50
Speaker 1: I mean what I started doing with this is I just woke up at four thirty every morning because it was the only way because otherwise it's like you don't get it done, man, and life just keeps happening.

00:13:58
Speaker 2: But see, I don't need to do that because I don't have it. So I can do it at four thirty in the afternoon.

00:14:01
Speaker 1: It's true, yeah, but will you That's the thing that's the problem when you wake up and there's nothing else to do and everyone else is still asleep.

00:14:10
Speaker 2: It's like, Okay, you and.

00:14:11
Speaker 4: I have had this conversation for years about what you've done here, about the combination of genres. Yes, which is so much fun. Which is the book that I'm writing the same thing. It's my memoir with a fantasy novel. And so that the idea of taking the two things and then but actually together out the way that you did, because at first I was like, wait, if you're just doing a podcast, why are you like running around the woods?

00:14:31
Speaker 2: Right?

00:14:31
Speaker 4: And then but when you think about it, it's the perfect way to do it because it's like it's kind of the new film.

00:14:36
Speaker 2: It's like an old school radio show totally. It's it is.

00:14:39
Speaker 4: It's the shadow that my dad and I used to listen to when he when you know, he was a kid. Then he had me listen to it exactly. It's almost like you're on a foly stage. You've got exact people, but you're actually doing it your wad.

00:14:48
Speaker 1: That was the big thing for me it was like because I I've tried to listen to a lot of scriptive podcasts, and you know, there's just a level of like when you're when you know actors are sitting in a booth and recording it, it feels little it's harder.

00:15:00
Speaker 2: To like buy into it.

00:15:01
Speaker 1: You know, you can always tell when someone's acting with their voice. And so that's why I wanted to use real material. Like we never were in a booth, Like we never you know. Besides my voiceover. Everything is on location, Like so if a scene took place at a diner, we're like in a real diner while it's open. We're just like having real conversations. I improvised like crazy, like, so it was a lot of outlining, but the whole goal was to just make it as real as possible, you know. And when I listened to scripted stuff, it's hard for my ear to like buy in, you know. But when I listened to like people just actually talking, it's really intriguing, you know.

00:15:31
Speaker 5: Like podcasting.

00:15:32
Speaker 1: That's what's so great about it is like it's it's like a window into somebody's I guess a window is a bad metaphor because that's like a visual one. But you know, it's like there's something about like the audio that just like draws you in for me at least, and so I just wanted to try and make it as real as possible. And you're right, like making a fake documentary became the best way.

00:15:48
Speaker 4: To do that. All right, So when this becomes a huge success, you have to do another one, but you have to use Danielle and I.

00:15:52
Speaker 1: Oh no, I already know what Season two is. Okay good, and it will definitely involve your guys, Okay.

00:15:56
Speaker 4: Good, all right, we got to be involved in that in some way because it's too cool.

00:15:59
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, if I get a season two, I will definitely I will definitely include you guys, Yeah, for sure, as yourselves.

00:16:07
Speaker 5: So much fun.

00:16:08
Speaker 3: Well, congratulations writer, We're proud of you. I can't wait to hear it all. I think it'll be perfect timing for me because I'll be on the road. Uh, and so even with the three weeks at least most of it, I'll be able to the minute they come out.

00:16:19
Speaker 2: Yeah. Awesome, Well, it's awesome.

00:16:21
Speaker 3: You all can listen to red Weather starting January twenty eighth on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. We can't wait to hear your thoughts. I'll be sure to send you my notes. Yes, can we can we get early episodes?

00:16:35
Speaker 2: Do I know you? You give me any hook up or so?

00:16:39
Speaker 5: But yeah, yeah, I'll sorr.

00:16:41
Speaker 2: Okay, how does it say?

00:16:42
Speaker 3: Do we do we get at all?

00:16:43
Speaker 5: From friends with being friends with you?

00:16:46
Speaker 2: I want these episodes.

00:16:48
Speaker 6: I do too.

00:16:48
Speaker 4: And by the way, everything we say on this podcast is the express view of everyone at iHeart.

00:16:54
Speaker 2: I'm like writers, I write this one. This one is entirely responsibility.

00:17:06
Speaker 1: Podmeats World is an iHeart podcast producer hosted by Danielle Fischel, Wilfridell and Ryder Strong. Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman. Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, Taras Sudbach, producer, Maddy Moore, engineer and Boy Meets World Superman Easton Outen.

00:17:22
Speaker 5: Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon.

00:17:25
Speaker 1: Follow us on Instagram at Podmeats World Show or email us at Podmeats World Show at gmail dot com.