Ruth and Ray dive into their summer so far, starting with their family outing to see Superman—Ray geeking out over the reboot while Ruth shares her fresh take. They debate superhero movies, airport food hacks (yes, Ruth eats chips with chopsticks), and pitch wild documentary ideas (Screech biopic, anyone?). Plus, the shows and podcasts they’re loving this season. It’s a laid-back, fun-filled chat—just like hanging out with them IRL.

TIME STAMP

00:00:00 – Intro: Ruth and Ray’s chaotic recording setup (car + office = audio adventures).
00:02:15 – Superman deep dive: Why this reboot nailed the character (and why Ruth thinks it’s underrated).
00:15:40 – Parenting win/fail: Taking Pablo to his first superhero movie (spoiler: he napped through the climax).
00:22:30 – Ruth’s hot take: Why most superhero movies don’t grab her (except Black Panther).
00:30:50 – Ray’s abandoned doc pitches: "Jay Without Silent Bob" and other deep-cut nostalgia.
00:38:10 – Ruth’s airport food hacks + the genius of chopsticks for chips (no Cheeto dust hands!).
00:45:20 – Summer recs: The Four Seasons, Mo, and podcasts they’re obsessed with (Good Hang fans unite).
00:55:00 – Closing: Why film festivals need to make a comeback in their lives.

Listen on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvPmfiMNPvg&list=PLiRGzHOAN66nm9nCNplA8CjmRvj-fX_dw&index=7

Follow Ruth: @ruthvaca | Vegan-ish Vegetarian: @veganishvegetarian
Follow Ray: @truestories | More at: truestories.us

This podcast episode made us nervous! Activists and protest organizers like Bryce Greene are today facing scary repercussions for exercising their Free Speech and Freedom of Assembly like has rarely been seen before in American history. If you’ve been curious to better understand the people behind the controversial campus events opposing the Gaza War, Bryce’s story is for you. As one of organizers of the 2024 Indiana University encampments, he became a key target of the famous – or infamous – arrests that followed. And if you’re one of the tens of thousands who follow Bryce on X, listen to his regular contributions to the podcast ‘American Exception’, saw his 2023 testimony before the United Nations, or read his articles at FAIR and Substack, this intimate conversation will take you much closer.

Time-stamp

00:00:01 Teaser from the Bryce Greene interview

00:01:00 Ruth+Ray Background on Bryce Greene and how he coincidentally came to know Ruth & Ray separately

00:09:15 R+R Ruth’s own form of activism via working with IU’s La Casa / Latino Cultural Center

00:13:30 R+R Our recommends for Movies about Activists; Gumbo Coalition; Aaron Sorkin’s Trial of the Chicago 7; Selma; Malcolm X; Milk; Occupy; He Named Me Malala; I Am Gretta; Navalny; Brett Morgan’s Chicago 10; A Song For Cesar; Ray’s idea for ‘Dunn’ a documentary about the history of activism at IU’s Dunn Meadow

00:24:14 Bryce Greene (BG) - Why Ray is scared doing this interview, Bryce’s take on whether it's smart to leave or stay and fight in Trump’s America, Contingency Plans

00:34:00 BG Growing up a middle class Black American in Indianapolis with “NPR liberal” parents, heads to Indiana University for Informatics, first radicalized by “Leftist reading list” books by Noam Chomsky (Profit Over People, Hegemony or Survival) and Howard Zinn, listening to Dan Carlin’s podcasts Hardcore History and Common Sense, heads down the “rabbit hole” of history, politics, anarchism, direct action

00:47:10 BG Starts writing for FAIR about Venezuela, then Israel and Palestine, then Ukraine; how in 2023 he got invited by Russian delegation to come to NYC and speak before the United Nations about the Nord Stream 2 pipeline bombing

00:54:00 BG Repercussions of researching “third rail” stories

00:56:30 BG How began appearing on Aaron Good’s American Exception podcast, “deep politics,” “deep state,” Peter Dale Scott, Aaron Good

00:59:20 BG Secret to Bryce’s social media popularity; parallels between the United States’ problematic reaction to 9/11 and Israel’s reaction to October 7th

01:01:20 BG Weird story of how Bryce came to know Ray, and separately Ruth, and how we all found out we’re in Bloomington IN together

01:02:45 BG Founding IU’s Palestine Solidarity Committee in 2018; advising 2024 IU encampment; famous - or infamous - riot police standoff in April ‘24 that turned out to be targeting Bryce specifically, roof snipers, police chatter, Bryce in zip ties

01:14:10 BG History of activism at IU’s Dunn Meadow going back to women’s suffrage, what the recent “turn” at Dunn and across U.S. seems to symbolize re Free Speech today

01:20:10 BG Bryce’s family’s reaction to his activism, where he’s heading with his life, PhD

Listen to Everybody Has a Podcast ON YOUTUBE

https://youtu.be/MvPmfiMNPvg

Follow Bryce Green

On X - https://x.com/TheGreeneBJ

Read latest writings on Substack

https://brycegreene.substack.com/

Listen to Bryce on American Exception podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/nl/podcast/american-exception/id1617469345?l=en-GB

Watch part of Bryce’s 2023 United Nations testimony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icYLdwEB8f0

Watch coverage of IU encampment with Bryce

https://www.pbs.org/video/protests-at-iu-over-israels-war-in-gaza-may-3-2024-xbyyhj/

Watch Bodycam footage before Bryce’s arrest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYNN_yqQYiY

Follow & message Ruth on IG

@RuthVacaIG

@VeganishVegetarian

Email Ray:

RayNowosielski@gmail.com

TrueStories.us

Copyright 2025 True Stories Inc.

Last year we started a tradition on this podcast of having Ruth’s BFF “Bling” on the day after The Oscars to get a fresh take on “Hollywood’s biggest night.” This is something Ruth and Bling have been doing for decades and that Ray started doing with Ruth after they met. One of our favorite topics! Join us for a laugh-filled convo among old friends about this year's movies and moments at the Academy Awards 2025.

Time stamp:

00:00- 02:39: Welcome to our 2nd Annual Academy Awards Recap with "Bling"! Who is Bling?

02:39: Why we didn't watch all of the nominated films, and why we are grateful for HULU airing the Oscars to all members

08:31: Our thoughts on Conan as a host, the production, and set design.

13:17: Let's talk about the winners of the night! Starting with Kieran Culkin ( A Real Pain) and his charming speech. Plus what we thought about A Real Pain, and how it was hard to love.

19:45: Feature Length Animated Film Winner: FLOW. Why Pablo, our 6 year old, was disappointed by its win.

21:43: How the Costume Designer presentation made Ruth laugh more than the Monologue.

Anora's win for Best Film Editing and Sean Baker's funny speech while breaking a Oscar record.

Comparing our notes and personality types.

27:08: Ruth's beef with Emilia Perez, Zoe Zaldana's speech and win, and the controversy around the film. Is okay to make films about other people's culture? What went wrong?

51:20: is Hulu gaslighting us? Why we missed the last two awards of the night. Our thoughts on the good an bad commercials, rivaling Superbowl commercials. Did Hulu just lose their deal with ABC?

56:17: Should Ruth style the Documentary nominees? Adrien Brody's gum spitting, speech and revealing his girlfriend's past and loyalty.

01:02:32: No More Land win and advocating for peace and resolution at the Oscar's podium. Why doesn't No More Land have distribution, even though it has won an Oscar? Is Hollywood blacklisting films about peace in the Middle East?

01:04:28: In Memoriam, where was Shannon Doherty? Bling's 007 thoughts, and how she noticed the commercials matched the commercials, until it got weird...We give our pitches for next year's pharma commercials.

01:08:17: Our last thoughts on Anora, Demi Moore, Best Actress, and highlighting independent films.

01:10:00: Our last reflection on the Oscars.

Listen to Everybody Has a Podcast ON YOUTUBE

https://www.youtube.com/@DoubleAsteriskMedia

Follow & message Ruth:

IG @RuthVaca

IG @VeganishVegetarian

Email Ray:

RayNowosielski@gmail.com

TrueStories.us

Copyright 2025 True Stories Inc.