WEBVTT

1
00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:09.320
This is Later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast more what you Hear

2
00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:15.480
weekday afternoons on the Drive. We've
had Dana Schwortz on before for her podcasts

3
00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:23.800
Stealing Superman. She also podcasts Hailey
Wood, but her newest project is it's

4
00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:29.800
a project of a podcast that tells
incredible stories, stranger than fiction, tales

5
00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:34.359
about people, normal people doing extraordinary
things. And Dana Schwartz is with us

6
00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:38.799
to talk about Very Special Episodes,
a podcast heard on the iHeartRadio app and

7
00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:44.719
everywhere you get podcasts. Dana,
was this podcast born of your previous projects?

8
00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:50.479
It absolutely was. I've worked with
Jason English, who is sort of

9
00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:55.719
the genius behind this podcast, like
you said, on shows like Haleywood and

10
00:00:55.759 --> 00:01:00.679
Stealing Superman, and I think Jason
and I share a love of just those

11
00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:07.920
strange stories that make you go huh. And so every single episode of Very

12
00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:14.239
Special Episodes is one of those stories, like the exact fodder for a boring

13
00:01:14.280 --> 00:01:18.640
dinner party where you want to just
say I heard the craziest story on this

14
00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:23.640
podcast. Every single one of those
episodes of these episodes is one of those

15
00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:26.840
stories. You're also a writer of
books, and it sounds to me like

16
00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:34.400
your podcasts do what investigative books do. One story leads to another, to

17
00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:38.519
another to another, or there's a
side story to a story you want to

18
00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:45.840
go back and visit. Absolutely,
that's it. I've never felt a dearth

19
00:01:45.879 --> 00:01:51.359
of episodes. I also have this
ongoing podcast that I've written for years called

20
00:01:51.400 --> 00:01:56.760
Noble Blood that tells little known stories
about nobles from history, and people always

21
00:01:56.760 --> 00:01:59.239
ask me, Look, are you
ever scared that you're going to run out

22
00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:02.439
of episodes? And honestly, I
just say no, because every time I

23
00:02:02.519 --> 00:02:08.199
research a new episode, that research
gives me three new podcasts that go on

24
00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:13.759
the list of episodes to be done. There's just so many interesting stories out

25
00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:15.599
there. Where do you get that
research bug? I mean, did you

26
00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:23.240
study law at some point? I
didn't. I actually was pre med in

27
00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:27.960
undergraduate, and so I think I
never shied away from doing hard research and

28
00:02:28.039 --> 00:02:30.000
work. But at the end of
the day, I just love stories.

29
00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:36.360
And that's why I love very special
episodes, because every single episode is an

30
00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:40.319
incredible story. Like our first episode
that just launched today is about how when

31
00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:46.319
they were filming the movie Titanic on
their last day of filming in Nova Scotia.

32
00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:51.000
Someone and we still don't know who
laced the chowder that they had for

33
00:02:51.080 --> 00:03:00.199
lunch that day with PCP. What
yeah, and why. We don't know

34
00:03:00.280 --> 00:03:06.000
why, whether it was just a
prank or a disgruntled caterer. Again,

35
00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:12.280
we don't know who or why,
but the cast and crew was basically poisoned

36
00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:16.240
with hallucinogenic drugs. They did not
know what was happening. It sent the

37
00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:20.919
entire day into chaos. They had
to go to the hospital. Luckily no

38
00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:23.719
one was seriously hurt, so we
can laugh about it now. But it

39
00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:27.960
is a crazy story that you should
go listen to. Cameron, how do

40
00:03:28.039 --> 00:03:31.000
you do that? Do what?
Leo? I know, make your body

41
00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:40.360
like rubber? Leo, You're supposed
to be dying in the water. I'm

42
00:03:40.439 --> 00:03:45.960
dying all right, man. That
does sound like a good story. So

43
00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:50.439
give me an example of maybe one
of your one of the things you were

44
00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:53.840
researching in Haleywood, or maybe Stealing
Superman, or maybe for one of your

45
00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:55.840
books that made you go, oh, I gotta go back and podcast about

46
00:03:55.879 --> 00:04:01.599
this. You know, there's an
episode of Stealing Superman that then reappears in

47
00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:06.759
very special episodes. It's about a
Superman collector in Illinois, and we're talking

48
00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:15.319
a super super Superman collector who had
his entire collection stolen. But as the

49
00:04:15.319 --> 00:04:20.360
police were searching for that, the
comics community came together to sort of well

50
00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:27.120
deliver their type of justice. It's
a story that is it makes you feel

51
00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:31.319
good but also question some people of
why they do what they do. But

52
00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:38.920
it's a fascinating story of this little
known incident in Illinois that we went down

53
00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:43.040
the rabbit hole when we were doing
Stealing Superman and then had to revisit for

54
00:04:43.319 --> 00:04:47.040
very special episodes. Very Special Episodes
is the podcast and Dana Schwartz is the

55
00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:50.319
author and producer of it. You
can hear it on the iHeartRadio app and

56
00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:57.959
everywhere you get podcasts. And any
good researcher does love rabbit holes. They're

57
00:04:57.959 --> 00:05:00.959
not scared of rabbit holes. I'm
constant trying to avoid them because they take

58
00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:05.759
up a lot of time. Yeah, but that's the good thing about a

59
00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:10.240
podcast. We do all the research
for you and then you get to listen

60
00:05:10.279 --> 00:05:14.839
to just the very best stuff,
and then when you go and talk to

61
00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:17.240
your friends, you get to sound
very smart. Is it more of a

62
00:05:17.319 --> 00:05:24.879
challenge to produce a podcast or to
compose a book. Definitely takes longer to

63
00:05:24.879 --> 00:05:30.360
write a book, I imagine it
does. Are there more disappointments writing a

64
00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:35.360
book than with a podcast? Yeah, I would say writing a book is

65
00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:41.240
a marathon. My last two novels
were Anatomy, a love story, and

66
00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:45.680
It's Equel Immortality, a love story. And even though they're fiction, they're

67
00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:50.040
about the sort of world of the
dawn of surgery in nineteenth century Edinburgh,

68
00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:56.079
sort of that gruesome body snatching surgical
world, so there was still plenty of

69
00:05:56.120 --> 00:06:03.319
research to be had there there was
Have you ever stumbled across a story that

70
00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:10.160
you absolutely positively refuse to go any
further on? Oh gosh, you know,

71
00:06:10.279 --> 00:06:15.360
I don't love true crime. I
think that that's a area that other

72
00:06:15.399 --> 00:06:17.480
people can handle. It just makes
me scared. To be honest, I

73
00:06:17.600 --> 00:06:24.240
like history and I like stories that
make you say, oh my god,

74
00:06:24.759 --> 00:06:29.199
that's fascinating instead of oh my god, I'm terrified. Yeah. I don't

75
00:06:29.240 --> 00:06:30.800
get the true crime I mean,
we talk to a lot of people who

76
00:06:30.839 --> 00:06:33.639
are fans of true crime, and
I'm not dissing the true crime genre,

77
00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:40.160
but I don't get it. I'd
much rather, I'd much rather a really

78
00:06:40.240 --> 00:06:47.000
well told story than a checklist of
deductions. Yeah, that's sort of where

79
00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:53.279
I'm at. I want the unexpected, the interesting people who tried to achieve

80
00:06:53.800 --> 00:06:59.759
great things and failed, like the
story of the Spider Man, Broadway musicals

81
00:06:59.800 --> 00:07:04.279
by Man Turn Off the Dark,
or about the deadliest botany rivalry in history

82
00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:10.519
in Soviet Russia. Those are the
stories that fascinate me. And also they

83
00:07:10.759 --> 00:07:14.600
don't make me up at night because
I can't sleep. And I don't know

84
00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:16.639
if this is a reflection on my
love of musical theater, but every time

85
00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:20.199
I hear some of these new musical
theaters coming out, like Spider Man the

86
00:07:20.279 --> 00:07:25.399
Musical, I keep making up songs
in my head. Oh my god,

87
00:07:25.399 --> 00:07:30.000
what is that gonna sound like?
You know? Yeah, well that was

88
00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:33.199
the question that they asked Bono and
the Edge when they came came up with

89
00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:38.600
the Spider Man Musical. Mean Girls
has a musical out now, and I'm

90
00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:43.759
like, oh, I can only
imagine, Well that's all about Oh gosh,

91
00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:45.959
Yeah, I want to see that
one, but I have to wait

92
00:07:46.040 --> 00:07:49.399
until my husband's out of town.
Yeah, how do you how do you

93
00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:53.759
rhyme with all of the with all
of the slang in that movie? I

94
00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:57.720
don't know how you're gonna come up
with a rhyme scheme. Danis Schwartz is

95
00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:03.399
the author and producer very special episodes
the podcast heard on our iHeartRadio app and

96
00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:07.639
everywhere you get podcasts. Thank you
for the great stories, Dana, and

97
00:08:07.639 --> 00:08:11.720
for joining us. Thank you so
much for having me. Thanks for listening

98
00:08:11.720 --> 00:08:16.120
to Later with Lee Matthews, the
Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen

99
00:08:16.120 --> 00:08:22.560
to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from
five to seven. And iHeartMedia presentation