The podcast that's 40 years in the making, because they're both procrastinators. Comedy writer Tom Saunders and political comedian Scott Blakeman help you navigate The New Normal, which is The Old Normal for them, since their comedy careers already require that they spend huge amounts of time at home. Their show peers back into the past, stares unflinchingly at the present, and imagines a more hopeful future, with flights of fancy and many tangents as well. Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tom-saunders9/support
While therapists flee their profession during the August "dog days", Tom and Scott continue our podcast mission, while exploding our assumptions about the origin of the term "dog days".
Have we created a new digital type of archeology? Tom unearths past episodes of Getting Through This, that reveal the dawn of our podcast. The result is like exploring King Tut's tomb for the second time, which is still very thrilling. The many fascinating and signficant treasures include the true story of a heroic young woman who once upon a time made Scott's Hanukka very special, using only her hands.
Hollywood keeps this part of the process hidden, but in a historic behind the scenes peek at the birth of a new youtube series Tom and Scot discuss the ideas that will turn them and their friend Bill into the Three Non-Stooges! The opposite of the famous Stooges of yore, they would respect each other and never hurt each other, especially not putting their fingers in anyone's eyes. Oh, and they will explore the best ideas culled from the podcast over the years, competently.
Francis Ford Coppola's efforts to make his film Megalopolis profitable by appearing at screenings to answer questions prompts Tom to imagine the next level of movie Q and A sessions in which he and Scott appear on stage in large theaters with no movie, just Q and A sessions in which they discuss with audiences a film that was not yet made, and probably never will be.
Scotty dares to does what on this podcast has been controversial, to put it mildly: He opens the episode with a travel anecdote, in this case about a recent trip to Chicago and the northern suburbs of Northbrook and Evanston, in which everything is wonderful and no accidents occur, no mishaps, no embarrassments... no etc. Everything is wonderful. Instead of chiding Scott about this yet again, this time Tom goes future-positive and imagines Scott's ultra happy anecdotes herald a new kind of story telling, fiction and non fiction, with no villains, no conflicts of any sort, only lovely people being nice!
Time travel in real time as for the first time ever Tom plays audio recordings he made with a friend 50 years ago in Munich West Germany (before the fall of the Berlin Wall!). Now shocking improv efforts reveal the 1970s, an era when adult comedy knew no bounds and "cancellation" was only something people did with an unneeded airplane reservation.
Tom and Scott's plans and hopes for the remaining days of summer are threatened by the seductive siren call of Lady Procrastination.
A Tree Is Chopped Down In The Catskills, angers a neighbor and becomes the hottest bestseller yet to be written and published -- then a movie and finally a Tony winning musical!
Tom and Scott update listeners on the delights and danger of flaneuring during extremely hot weather:
A terrrified call in the middle of the night sends Scott on a mission in Manhattan to see why Tom is not answering his phone.
Tom boldly declares his opposition to a national dress code, which no one has yet proposed but better safe than sorry. Scott proposes he recieve for this a Nobel Prize.
A spur-of-the moment trip to glorious Lake George New York with a shockingly delightful outing to a summer camp for musical prodigies is marred only by loud and unwelcome trivia contests. But fortunately Tom's ordeal is not shared by Scott, whose 4th of July was flawless.
A fantastic dinner at an iconic Italian restaurant in Queens could result in a hostile congressional hearing in which Scott must defend the truth of his claim that he "traveled around the world" but never ate such good chicken parmigiana.
A torrid 'heat dome' that plunged the Northeast into record uncomfortable people, and a new slogan to promote a mass movement to a mountainous region north of New York City..
Scott intro is actually a review of an evening built around friends performance at the Bitter End nightclub in New York City. Tom claims Scott's intro is far more eloquent than the best society column, but sadly history may applaud Scott's podcast intro more than the talented singer he praises.
After much cooking and preparation Sandy and Tom find out the party is on another day, but everyone makes the best of it.
Scott's appreciation of church mosaics in Italy confirm that he may be a saint, and his powers would be tested on fixing a historic 45 year old snippet of audio of a younger Tom Saunders.but which is much too short
After an unprecidented hiatus Tom and Scott reveal fascinating details of historic recent trips to Scotland and Italy.
Scott is packing for a trip to Italy and worries about which clothes to bring and also how will the clothes he leaves behind handle their feelings of abandonment. Tom prepares for a trip to Scotland wondering if he should wear a kilt, and recalls how he similarly imagined the secret lives of his dirty dishes, in the process inventing an exciting new word: anthropomorphinanima
Tom and Scott's recent walkabout in Manhattan heralds the opening of the flaneur season and leads to a deep preshistoric mystery: will archeologists ever discover who was the first person who figured out how to walk, and how was that ancient person regarded by his still-crawling peers?
Scott explains to Tom that the days will be getting longer until the summer solstice, and in so doing saves Tom from anxietym depression and the expense of years of psychotherapy.
A dinner at Scott and Ginger's apartment ends with ems workers attaching wires to Tom after he overdosed on edibles and champagne.
A T-bone steak sends Tom five hundred thousand years back in time, giving him an amazing "taste" of prehistoric life.
Scott reveals he recently attended a demonstration in New York against Trump, which made Tom excited as it could be the demonstration that ends Trump's reign of terror once and for all, which also means planning the big party to celebrate it all must begin immediately.
Tom's fesses up about his unintentional abuse of his cousin's bicycle in 1963.
Scott's struggle with procrastination finds him with seven days to vacate a storage unit in Brooklyn filled with decades of his families memorabilia, or continue to continue storing it at ruinous expense. Will he do it? The only certainty is that this thrilling story will some day become a major motion picture.
Being the podcast of record Getting Through This deals with massive tariffs, but in the process develop a new expression: "on the pod".
Celebrating 5 years of "Getting Through This", with a focus on the huge number of laughs, our time machine and what if we put Abe Lincoln on the Tonight show in 1970
Scott's 70th birthday celebration is one for the ages, which is precisely the definition of any birthday. It's for the ages. Tom and Sandy join Scott and Ginger for dinner at an Auatrian restaurant on Fifth Avenue, which felt like traveling to Vienna for the price of a Reduced Fare Senior Metrocard. But Tom and Sandy took an Uber, which was almost what a flight would cost.
Tom and Scott dish the non dirt on vacuuming. With Tom's against the clock method of a very fast vacuuming on selected areas, followed by an old school pick dust up with his fingers, and Scott's love of the Swifter(pet care and regular models), homc cleaning is a breeze.
Scott opens every episode saying that he's podcasting from "Murray's Hill" in Manhattan, but for the first time he reveals his true feelings about this little known neighborhood, and uncovers some of its hidden gems.
First, Tom revolutionized dentistry by prescribing his high leg walk method to avoid falls that could lead to missing teeth. Now, he adds to that with the first cure for winter falls. Yes, calcium chloride pellets melt ice without discoloring your lawn and floors. While Scott concedes that a salesman with missing front teeth doesn't in any way deter him or Ginger from patronizing a high end confectionary store.
Tom and Scott are non skiers, who can still talk about skiing from a perspective most skiers don't have. Tom's also an expert on Trudging, which we hope will soon be an Olympic sport. And Scott's an expert on keeping his head still while his barber shaves his sideburns with a straight edge razor.
Scott has seen the fiuture in San Francisco, and also got to sit in it. Despite vowing, on this podcast, to never get in a self driving car, Scott found the experience surprisingly worry free. Tom wonders if some day, driverless cars will yell at each other on city streets, or on a positive note, be ideal conversation partners with passengers since they can be programmed to know about everything.
There's something to be said about rooting for both teams in the Super Bowl. There's a lot more happiness, and virtually no anxiety. Along those same lines, we propose Universal Hair and Makeup for all Americans, with no co-pay!
When Tom and Scott both misidentify an episode number, Scott refuses to bury the lede and speaks the truth, unlike our lying leaders in the White House. The incident will be included in their yet to be written 800 page tome, Crisis of Confidence: 12 Seconds That Changed Podcasts Forever.
Tom upends the art world by eschewing the traditional gallery route,, by viewing and purchasing Ginger's paintings over a BBQ dinner with chocolate mousse cake for dessert. Plus, we debut Hallmark sketches, a 3 to 5 minute version of a happy ending Hallmark movie.
The best way to see the light during these sometimes dark times, is to celebrate the fact that even though it's cold and wintry, the days are actually getting longer By the time the summer solstice arrives in June, we'll enjoy almost six hours more of daylight than during the December solstice!
Tom is the first person ever to thank Mother Earth for his birthday celebration, for continuimg to rotate on its axis. But while his birthday was an earthly creation, his post birthday bash was otherwordly.
From the inception of this podcast in April 2020 to June 2021, Tom opened each episode with, " I'm Tom Saunders Getting Through This in Pacific Palisades", from the home he lived in for 20 years. We relive some of the Palisades stories that we discussed in those early days of the pandemic, as well as our shared remembrance about the happy times we experienced in that bucolic small town.
The people who do nothing deserve statues in their honor. So Tom should be rewarded for not calling for Coffee Prohibition simply because he tends to drink too much caffeine.
After two failed attempts to have Tom and Sandy over to dinner at Ginger and Scott's apartment, the third time is the charm. And it's a New Year's Eve to remember or as Sandy put it, "Best dinner and most favorite New Year of my life."
Tom's drive from New York to his family Christmas outside of Chicago includes a wondrous drive along the mansion filled Sheridan Road. As well as a blown tire on the Ohio Pennsylvania border, which turns out to be the best place to find a rare tire for his Volvo, which is yet another Christmas miracle. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tom-saunders9/support
Tom takes the wrong bus to start his journey to Chicago, but Scott sees the silver lining, and imagines a Hallmark film where Tom is dressed as Santa carrying a bag of gifts because he thinks he's on the express bus to see his relatives. But by taking a local bus, he discovers the true meaning of Christmas and distributes his gifts to the more needy passengers. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tom-saunders9/support
When a pipe bursts and floods the kitchen floor at Tom's fiancee Sandy's inn, he displays calm during the storm, and thanks to his heroic efforts, the living quarters and common areas emerge unscathed. And Tom also avoids frostbite, by not fleeing into the frigid forest without a coat. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tom-saunders9/support
Tom and Scott became players for one night, when they enter the private sanctum of The Players Club to enjoy a fascinating book presentation by Joe Radding about The Mee-Ow Show at 50, about the Northwestern University, Scott's alma mater, show that changed the cultural landscape. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tom-saunders9/support
Tom laments the end of the Saks Fifth Avenue light and sound Christmas display, but Scott sees a silver lining. And Tom and Sandy deliver a Christmas miracle to the lobby of Scott and Ginger's building. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tom-saunders9/support
The new Johnny Carson biography puts Scott in a literary predicament. Should he put aside his quest to finish the remaining 962 pages of The Power Broker by his birthday in March, to revisit the first Carson biography Tom gave him ten years ago, so he can procrastinate reading the new one? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tom-saunders9/support
Pardon us, but why should a President have the power to pardon someone, an act more fit for a king? And we speculate what might happen if Scott used the French term for "excuse me", "Pardon", to someone while walking down a Paris street, and that person happened to have a criminal record. Would French law automatically pardon that person, and would that lead to Scott and Tom being named co-Prime Ministers of France? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tom-saunders9/support
We give thanks for what didn't happen at our Thanksgiving dinner, like Tom falling on top of the delicious side dishes. And that's something he's very proud of. In an historic breakthrough, those very side dishes at the dinner were no longer mere opening acts, and stole the spotlight from the tasty but non headlining turkey. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tom-saunders9/support
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