The Girlfriends S6/E1: On Air

I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people

“survived what should have destroyed them.”

I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the survivor files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the eye-hot radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait for hours for the next bus, or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I choose Option B. I'm Julie Biniero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where

I can say yes without asking anyone else first.

I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the eye-hot radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

“If you're a bookshelf and you're for you page, or equally important to your personality,”

welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, booktop creators, and plenty of overthought opinions.

Yeah, I'm obsessed, so I'm obsessed.

Listen to Pro Society on the eye-hot radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Novel. Hey you, before we take off, a quick heads-up, you'll hear some swearing in this series. The main characters this season are flight attendants, and behind the little curtain on a pulley, in the galley, the language could get pretty colorful.

“That's how they talked, so we've kept it that way.”

It's a numbingly familiar routine. You line up, you shuffle forward, you show your passport, and your ticket. You hope the attendant doesn't notice the extra backpack under your trench coat that's making you look like quasi-moto. You make your way through the metal caterpillar, and then you arrive at the plane.

Among all the thrills of travel, this is the most mundane moment. Only in 1970, if you are boarding a newly minted Boeing 747, you might have been feeling different, excited. It towered over the terminal, and it looked like a huge giant whale. In the '70s, they were brand new, the crown jewel of the jet age.

You haven't seen an airplane that looks like a 747 ever. You would look at it and go, "Wow, where did this come from?" As you boarded, a stewardess in an immaculately tailored skirt suit would greet you. I would hang passengers' coats, we had fairly large closets for an airplane. Then you would take your seat.

It was very plush. The seats were wide, they were leather, that was the golden age of lying. You had cocktails on the ground before you took off. You had a pillow, you had a blanket, you had a magazine, a customer service, started from that moment.

You got on that aircraft. When they do get airborne, the passengers would be clapping. Yeah, and then taking tons of pictures, of course, because they hadn't seen anything like that. Then you could wander to the back of the plane and find a piano, surrounded by comfy sofas. Any passenger could either relax back there or tickle the Ivorys if they fancied.

People said, "Wow, that's terrific. You could go up there and they'd play the piano, it's just like a cocktail lounge in the sky." You had prime rib, and it had to be cooked on board, and you had hotfud Sundays.

You had caviar and separate salads or something. It was elaborate. And you fly international today.

What you're having today in first is what we used to serve and coach.

Okay, so you can see why people have really glamorized this time in airline history. It sounds amazing.

“But can you tell us for you, for the stewardess on the plane, did it feel glamorous?”

No. Working during that period of time, it was the most sexiest job I think you could have. Hey, this is your host speaking, now McShane Wolfhardt.

I used to be a travel writer, so no stranger to planes, and I was on a flight not too long ago.

A modern one, the tray table was sticky, I didn't get a blanket. There was no caviar. I did have an overpriced can of pringles, which I enjoyed to some complimentary in flight entertainment. The sound of a fellow passenger watching TikToks without headphones.

“So, we're about to take off, and I'm shoveling down these pringles with the intensity of a vacuum cleaner.”

Until something nudges me out of my processed potato chip frenzy. It was a woman giving the safety demonstration. Now, I've been on so many flights in my life that I could give that safety demonstration, but I noticed that this confident woman had gray hair. She might be in her mid-60s, and she wasn't spelt, rather a healthy-sized medium.

It was a reminder, the kind of thing I have noticed more and more in the last few years. She doesn't look anything like the ultra-slim youthful drawing of a flight attendant on that safety card

that we're all supposed to review, but never do.

“If you join me in looking around the next time you're on a plane, you might notice the same thing.”

Flight attendants with wrinkles, flight attendants of color, even male flight attendants. It's normal now, at least on most airlines, but that wasn't always the case. It wasn't that long ago that none of these people would have been allowed on the plane, except as a paying passenger. In front of me, the flight attendant wraps up the safety demonstration with a smile and walks to the back of

the plane. That smile, that seemingly effortless demonstration of cheerfulness and readiness to help. Now that, that hasn't changed. On this season of The Girl Friends, I'm bringing you the story of a group of women working during the golden age of air travel. When the iconic image of this duordist was cemented in history. It can evacuate an aircraft upside down underwater in the dark in 90 seconds in three languages,

and yet they sold us for our smile. Together, they launched a full-scale rebellion. I got tired of what they were doing to us and reshaped the law, their profession, and made a decent dent in the patriarchy too. We had to fight for change. From the teams at Novel and I Heart Podcasts, this is The Girl Friends, season six, flight or fight. I got tired of what they were doing to us and reshaped the law,

I got tired of what they were doing to us and reshaped the law, I got tired of what they were doing to us and reshaped the law, I got tired of what they were doing to us and reshaped the law, Episode one, on air. Hi, Pat. Hello. Can you hear me, okay? I can. This is a good friend of mine, Pet Gips.

G-I-B-V-S, like Double-B, I have a Double-T, in the name, because I didn't want to have a common name.

It was your Dixon screen shots. She's in her 80s now, and has short gray hair in an immaculate

“pompadour. I can see Pat leaning in her chair in a way that simultaneously relaxed, yet poised.”

The kind of person who was the quiet confidence to sit at the back of the seat, not on the edge. These days, you'd be likely to spot Pat either at an anti-Trump rally or driving her air stream RV across the United States. But from the 1960s to the 2000s, it would be most probable that you'd catch Pat on an airplane. She was a stewardess at American Airlines for four decades. We got connected because I did spend a massive chunk of my journalistic career going deep on the history

of stewardesses, writing a book called The Great Stewardess Rebellion. I spoke to dozens of stewardesses,

but I spent the most time with Pat. Now and I will reconnect here. Exactly, yes.

“And it's through Pat that I felt like I opened a portal.”

Yeah, this world of 1960s stewardesses seems kitsch and distant. But the reason why I honed in on this particular subject is because nestled inside this period piece is something universal and timeless. Pat was like a pebble thrown into the pool of history. And if you're a woman or a worker, you're bound to have been bumped by one of her ripples without even knowing it. And to extend the aquatic metaphor even further, through my research into the stewardesses,

I realized we need to continue writing those waves they set into motion. There are plenty of injustices left to fight. You might have a shitty boss. You've probably dealt

“with sexism. And I think, after listening to the history of the stewardesses, you'll agree,”

their actions are like a blueprint. Instructions we can follow, even today, for writing these wrongs. But let's go way back and start Pat's story when she was 19 years old.

She's pulled up at a place that's the first stepping stone in her career.

You drove in through an archway, so it looked like, "Oh, kind of like going to an IV covered college." And so you thought, "Oh, this is so cool." Pat's got blonde hair and adorable cheeks inflated to chipmunk levels by youth and naive of a day. But her mouth is aching. Still messed up from the emergency braces she had to get to close the gap in her front teeth. Why? Because it was a requirement that she closed that gap

to be admitted to this very special school. Why? Because stewardesses don't have gaps in their teeth. It's a summer of 1962, and Pat has just arrived at the American Airlines stewardess college. It's kind of a very welcoming building all stone on the outside and has a big fence around on the outside of the building at the time. That fence was initially electrified, bordering the 22 acre property that also boasts a swimming pool as well as shuffleboard and tennis

courts. I went in, and all these people were sitting around in the lounge area. They were all looking very happy. And there was a big fireplace and they had a big photo up on the wall of somebody in a stewardess uniform. You did feel special. I felt special. If you're imagining the halls of Harvard, all mahogany and chester fields, forget it. The stewardess school is full-blown mid-century splendor, low-navy sofas, circular teak tables,

the stuff of Frank Lloyd Wright's fever dreams. But when another student, Susan French, strolls into this lobby, she has a different reaction than Pat. I actually pretty much hated it from the moment I walked in. Oh, really? It was this very raw, raw corporate environment. You know, I was more used to being on the streets, protesting for civil rights, and then you walk into this atmosphere that is so... we're American Airlines. You know, we're the best.

not work there because I wanted to be on the airplanes and traveling.

“This college is a sausage factory, the incubator that takes in pretty thin women, only women,”

and spits out perfect stewardesses. In fact, there's another name for the stewardess college. It was a charm farm. The charm farm. Teenage Pat is here for six and a half weeks training in the fine art of stewardessing. If the instructors think she's good enough and she graduates, she'll become a member of this

rarefied group. Looking like a movie star, jetting around the country, maybe around the world.

Even though the building was air-conditioned, you kind of started sweating the minute you went through the door because you knew that you were going to meet people that you were going to be scrutinized by.

“If the instructors flunk her, Pat will be sent back to her hometown, Springfield, Missouri.”

Pat heads to her suite where she'll be bunking with five other women. After Pat stuffs her a few belongings in her tiny bedside locker, she flops onto her single bed and her mind drifts home to the figure that invades many of our subconscious minds. Her mother. Yeah, I did think of her and I thought, stay away. This is all about me. Oh, not about her. She was a very well known television personality in the town.

Pat's mother stars in a kind of 50s housewife version of Oprah. So back in Springfield, Pat isn't Pat. Pat is. Oh, you're Gracie's daughter. I loved her. You know, I loved all my family, but I had to have my own identity and being a stewardess was my ticket to that in my head.

In the morning, we would go down. The first thing is you go to the cafeteria and they had a

scale as you went in. Oh my God, it was to remind you that you're going to be wide. You could be expelled for gaining weight. Pat had worked hard to lose 20 pounds in the weeks leading up to coming to the college. She knew stewardess equaled thin. Can you take me inside a regular day of classes? Like, what are you learning and how are you learning it? Well, you're going to start with grooming. We'll learn how to do

our figure nails properly. Finger nails have to be painted in management mandated colors. Apparently, to hide any food that might get under them while serving. We'll learn how to walk properly in three inch heels. They were high. To me, anything above a cowboy boot heel was high.

“Another essential class? How to get that natural beauty look that men love? They wanted the playing”

next door look. Only possible with five layers of makeup. We were given instructions on taking care of your hair, your skin and smelling good and smiling. Then there's a small issue of emergency training. You did have to start learning where the emergency equipment was on the plane. So you had to learn where the slides were. To be used, if the plane made an emergency landing, say, in the ocean. And the stewardesses

have to swiftly usher people off the plane before they drown. Then they showed you were fire extinguishers were in case the plane caught on fire. And the stewardesses are responsible for preventing it from turning into a mushroom cloud of flames and saving everyone's lives. But then, back to, we learned to interact and speak to the passengers. You had to go through and say, "Could I have your last name, sir?" That way the stewardesses could address the passengers by their

actual name. But memorizing up to 70 names is tough, just like walking in three inch heels all day.

I wanted to be the best I could be once. I was there. I saw the videos. And it's infectious.

“You know, you get there and you go, "Yeah, I was very special. I got picked."”

She's awkward. If you switched on your TV in 1967, you might have seen this advertisement for Eastern Airlines. It's called "Presenting the Losers." They line up pretty white, want to be stewardesses, but reject them for various flaws, such as being awkward, or wearing glasses. Probably good enough to get a job anywhere they want. But at Eastern, we're very

choosey about whom we let serve you on a plane. Pat feels the pride of being one of the 5%

the chosen ones. But Pat has a problem. She has sensitive skin, so we're instructor,

“Kelly Flint, gets his Hypoallergenic foundation for her to use during makeup class.”

But Pat doesn't want to wear that either. I went up to my suite and laid around and I thought, "I'm not putting this stuff on my face. If I do, it's going to break out. I'll have pimples there." So I went up and I just smoked a bunch of cigarettes. Then I walked back down into the classroom and Kelly Flint says, "See, class doesn't she look much better with the makeup on?" And of course, I smile and walk around like, "Yes." But then I made the big mistake of telling my sweet mates that,

"Ah, I didn't really have to make up on. Later, I was in my suite and I heard on the PA."

“Pat gives, "Come to the front office." So I thought, "Uh-oh. Uh-oh." Because this lip-up could get”

Pat expelled. That happened all the time at the school. At the end of the day, the women would return to their sweets, but one bed would be unoccupied that night. When you came back, your sweet mate may be gone along with all their belongings. You didn't say goodbye. Oh my gosh! Pat worried this goof with the makeup might have ruined everything. She might be the next one evicted from the school. So I was called and to Millie Offords office who was the director of

the Sturdist College. And she said, "We had a report that you did not put the makeup on and I thought, "Well, shall I lie and say I did put it on? Or should I just tell the truth?" My little brain was spinning. So I said, "No, I didn't put it on." And they said, "You made your grooming instructor look like a fool." True? Uh-huh. Yeah, and I said, "I am so sorry. Please give me another chance." And so I wasn't told to go pack up my stuff. Phew. Pat nearly blew it. This close call

solidifies her resolve. Never again would she be so dumb as to break the rules. Never would she be so

dumb as to confide in her roomies. She just keeps her head down for the next few weeks. Until can you describe to me your graduation day? It was really an exciting time. Everybody has their uniform on him because it was the summer we had our light blue uniforms on. You line up and then you march down these stairs. It's a right of passage that the women prepare a graduation song that they chant in unison. Adorable? Like a freaky vontrap line up of

Stewart's clones? Hmm. You go and get your wings pinned on. Standing there with her wings badge glinting on her lapel, Pat is overcome with happiness. She's passed. She's going to be an American Airlines Stewartist. But then her eyes drift to the imposing fence encircling the grounds.

Had that chain length fence taken on another quality? Morphing to look a little like bars.

Golden ones shimmering in the Texan sun? Huh. Well, Pat pushes that crumb of doubt under the rug in her mind. She has a plane to catch. A lot of extra miles. Last place you want your engine to give out is halfway to nowhere.

“Out here, low oil or a weak battery is just an ambush way to happen. That's why”

every oil change at Ballveline is the oil change that glutes at 18 point maintenance check. These Texan train to help spot issues early and give you a run and easy. Change wisely. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and health captive for nine months.

I survived and I spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

I'm Elizabeth Smart and these are the survivor files. You just remember this low taunting voice next to my ear saying shut up, don't say anything. Every week I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up without a doubt he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that they're just someone at the end of my bed and I just started screaming. They are abducted,

stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. Their stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the survivor files with the Elizabeth Smart on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

“If you're a bookshelf and you're for you page or equally important to your personality,”

welcome home. This is Pro's Society, the weekly podcast that's part foot club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallow and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm a son of a son. From best-selling authors

and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. So if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters and that is of Trojan Horse, whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro's Society on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

See you between the pages. Hey, this is Ace Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook on the Big Money Players Network. Our show is extremely accessible to first-time listeners. Each week we talk to someone in show business, aka The Biz, and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicists for letting them do our show. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman,

not that great. Can you help me shape this? How about we flip it on his head? How about we flip this around? What does the surprise woman who actually you think is the straight man is actually the one who's acting weird? Adam Scott, this entire time you've been expecting Adam Sandler

to come to visit the show. I would never be going back. I would never set expectations for something like that.

Perhaps like if the universe allows for something like that to happen, I am open to it. I'm always going to accept. You know, Danny McBride. Fine. Yeah, it's all this fragile masculinity, exesuding. I could smell it walking on the hallway to be honest with you. I was like, "I don't know. I was

“heavy as I would need. No, it's fragile masculinity." Ben Stiller, no. I think there's a lot of times”

in out of context, people don't get it or even know what a circle is. You know what I mean? Like I go work the show. It's a statement around everyone's self-domics and fake fake fake and also not interested or just like, "Oh, I've got my wife. I don't care about your life." And a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Oh, and by the way, Will Ferrell told us personally he loves the show and he wants to be a guest on every episode,

but he's just so busy. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

area. Love Field. The pistachio colored facility is state of the art. It had one of the world's first

moving walkways, the rich, famous, and powerful Grace the Halls. It's actually the last place

President Kennedy stopped the day he was assassinated. It's sleek, space-age. Apart from a towering bronze sculpture of a cowboy hat wearing ranger, his twin pistols visible in his holster, celebrating being heavily armed while in an airport? God bless Texas. On her first day flying is a stewardess, pet Gibbs arrives at the terminal and heads to the American Airlines Operations Office. I remember standing in front of the mirror in operations and standing

“there looking at myself, I thought, wow, I did it. This is great. So you have to go through the”

check of making sure you look perfectly fit in your uniform. Have your hat on two fingers above

your eyebrow. Have your white gloves on. Uniform straight. No wrinkles. You had to always wear a girdle.

A girdle, by the way, is a kind of undergarment skirt that keeps your tummy flat, somewhere between spanks and a torture device. I had to wear a bra, I had to wear a slip, I had to wear high heels. I'll just sit here thinking about how glad I am not to be wearing a girdle. Okay. Yeah. That first day it worked. Pat checks her flight schedule. I was really excited because my first assignment was going to be on an airplane that went to Chicago.

“As she approaches, Pat sees the plane glinting in the sunlight. She walks across the tarmac.”

She smells the waft of jet fuel, then she crosses the threshold onto the plane and into a new life. After you get on the flight, you go through. You do all the emergency checks, check the fire extinguishers, then the passengers would board. You would be going through and getting their coats if they had coats and hanging those up, talking to people. It's so nice to have you on trying to then get your names down after you would take off. Then you go back and you go through again and say,

"What would you like to drink? Would you like some coffee? Would you like some tea?" The passengers eat their food, then they have to try to keep it down. In the 1960s, many of the types of planes being flown are piston engine propeller driven aircraft. They fly low, where most of the turbulence is. Over the mountains, but you have little bags to throw up and they were used yet. But on this momentous day, even a plane load of puking businessmen can't

dampen path's elation. I was really excited when I got to Chicago when we would get to the layover you were picked up in a like a Cadillac limousine or I mean you were treated like royalty. After a night in Chicago, it's back to Dallas. But this time, Pat is the only stewardess on the plane.

I got on the plane, looked around like, "Well, I've never been on this plane. What do I do?"

“I actually asked a passenger, "Can you close this door?" I don't remember, I had to close the door.”

If I got on to a plane and the only flight attendant on the plane asked me to close the door, I mean, I would just walk right out that door and back into the airport. Well, they didn't know. So, with definitely nothing to worry about, Pat flies back to Dallas, and then back to Chicago, and then back to Dallas. And Pat begins to understand what it takes to be an ideal stewardess. You learned to be a good listener, opening statement be, "Well, how's your day going, sir?"

And then I would go, "Oh, God, I just came from a meeting, it was raining." And then you would just come up with, "Oh, well, that sounds really difficult or challenging, or how was your business meeting?" So, you were like the wife in the kitchen with a martini in hand. That was a part you were expected to deliver. Let me take care of you.

They were all flying on business. They were all in suits of the 60s era.

I'm picturing them all wearing hats.

“Well, yeah, they wore hats, and they had the hats up, and the overhead bins.”

It's a grind, but Pat is enjoying cutting her teeth as a stewardess. Charm Farm graduate Susan French, on the other hand, is thinking, "This job really sucks." When I had flown, the flight attendant seemed to me to be like, just very well put together, and like, hostesses kind of blinding through. But when you're in there and you're down on your hands and knees in the galley and digging out dirty trays and throwing away

trash, it can be pretty nasty. Plus, there were plenty of times when Susan would come back to her base in Chicago, thinking she was going to go home, only to be sent out on another flight. Then I would come out with something that I know I can't say on a punk.

“You can say it, you can say it, go for it.”

Oh, it would be like, "Oh fuck!" Every time we be going like in to Chicago, you'd be so excited thinking you were actually going to get to go home, but no. Compared to Susan, Pat is thriving as a stewardess. Perhaps because of the militaristic qualities of the job, the order, the rules, rules about your hair, rules about your weight,

your uniform. I have always been a very good rule follower. I wanted to be

management, and I did everything I could. I wanted to show them I was great. But rules are like eggs. They're going to get broken eventually. And a few months into the job, Pat spots an omelet. She's in Los Angeles for work at LAX. I got off the plane and there was the restaurant was in the middle of the terminal and I looked into the restaurant and I saw several stewardesses sitting at the counter and I did notice right

away that one did not have her hat on. And I was like, "Oh my God, they should not be sitting in public without their hat on." That was against the rules? Yes, it was. And so I went into the restaurant

and then I finally said, "You know, you're supposed to have your hat on." She turned to me

basically, you know, set a few choice words about what I could do. And so I was pretty offended by that and I thought, "Well, I'll teach you. You can't do that." When I got back to my base, back to Dallas, I reported her were not having her hat on. I wanted to follow the rules and I really did not like it when other people didn't follow the rules. Hopefully her supervisor has a word with her, Pat thinks. Maybe this profanity-spitting,

hatless stewardess will even be suspended. Then, one day, Pat is in Dallas and spots a notice. It's advertising a labor union meeting. The airline stewards and stewardesses association. So a trade union is an organization formed by workers, so they can collectively negotiate with their employer for things like better wages, working conditions, and employment rights. They're also known to defy management.

Hmm, Pat thinks. More people who might be trying to break the rules. I did go to a union meeting, which was unusual. And the reason I went was because I was just curious. I wanted to know what did they know that I didn't know. Coming up, what they knew that Pat didn't. From the road. Summer means wide open spaces in a whole lot of extra miles.

The last place you want your engine to give out is halfway to nowhere. Out here, low oil or a weak battery is just an ambush way to happen.

“That's why every oil change at Bavillene is the oil change that glutes at 18 point”

maintenance check. These texter trained to help spot issues early and give you a run,

I survived and I spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

“I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the survivor files. You just remember,”

this low taunting voice next to my ear saying shut up, comes anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up. Without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. There's stories about what it takes to

make it out alive. Listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're a bookshelf and you're for you page, or equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Pro's Society. The weekly podcast

“that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks”

pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Ely Rallow, and every week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations, everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. So it's us. From best-selling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. So if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters,

and that is of Trojan Horse, whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro's Society on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait for hours for the next

bus, or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Beniero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking

anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility.

Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meaning people, and they were like, "You smiled at us, not a lot of people smile around here." It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is, and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran, or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita. On the iHeart Radio app,

Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I would love for you to paint this picture of going into this meeting of then what you thought of like when you walked out of the union meeting. We're trying to see the whole thing through your eyes, you can know that sounds so creepy. Well back then I had a motorcycle, so I wrote my motorcycle to the union meeting. The union meeting was at the mechanics hall. So I went and walked up the steps,

went into the room, and there were five other sturdises in there, and it was to me like a dingy room with two flags, one of the union flag, one of the US flag kind of flagpoles were crooked and it looked like a dive. The reason paths at the union meeting is because she wants to be in management one day. Pat thinks I need to know what's going on among the rebels and the airline stewards and steward as his association. Not spying, but maybe a little spying.

As I set there, everybody was drinking beer and casting like sailors and smoking and really badmouthing the company, this fucking company, they just take advantage of us. They treat us like shit and then expect us to clean up their shit. They don't put on an

“house food. They were just complaining about everything from scheduling. Did you get that schedule?”

Yeah, they reported me late. I was only two minutes late getting on the plane. Well, there was an ice storm. I couldn't make it. Then they start talking about a manager, Ed Trap.

Like there is herum and all that. Pat is a guest talking about a manager like that.

“And I thought, man, I'm out of here. These people are just complainers. They should be lucky.”

They have a job. Glamrs job, right? These people are really bad. I don't want to have anything to do with them. They're just so ungrateful. So I left and I went, thank God, I'm not a union member. Pat stomps out. Helmet tucked in her arm. Scoots back home and dives into the swimming pool to cool off. About a week went by and I got this letter. Thank you for joining the union. And I went, what? I'm not a member. I tore up the letter and

threw it away. I thought, man, I don't want to have anything to do with the complainers,

“winers and losers over there. I basically ignored it. And then a week went by and I got another letter.”

Saying, congratulations, you were elected Vice Chair at the last union meeting. And I went, this is a big mistake. So I just tore the letter up through it away. Pat later finds out that through her visit to the union meeting, she had demonstrated enough interest to have the others sign her up for a membership and pay her $10 union fee. They were so desperate for members that they had even voted her in as base vice chair, which was a leadership

position in the organization. This was ignoring the fact that she knew nothing about union work

and had no interest in even attending a second meeting. And then I got this phone call from Nancy Collins,

and she called and said, I am the union master executive chair person, head of the union. I said, yes, she said, and you're the vice chair and doubts. I said, no, I'm not. I did not join the union. She said, well, yes, you did. I have your name here. I said, no, you've got the wrong Pat. I am not interested. As Pat recalls, Nancy goes on to say, there's a woman who needs your help. She's been disciplined by American Airlines for spilling coffee on her uniform.

Pat tries to resist, but Nancy can be very persuasive. Just go Pat. She says, help her fight her suspension through agreements. After a long conversation with me,

“she convinced me to just go and meet Pat Sue Checki who I will never forget.”

This strange series of events with the union, it's at Pat on a course hurdling towards a transformation. It was life changing for me. Hi, so nice to meet you. This is really a thrill for me. I'm very excited to talk to the Robert Crandall. Good. Well, we'll fire away and we'll talk. In August of 2025, I spoke to someone who I had wanted to talk to for years. My name is Robert Crandall, and I was a president, chairman, and chief executive officer of the American Airlines,

when I retired, had been with the company for 25 years. Robert Crandall is an airline industry legend.

And he was in senior management during some of Pat's career at AA. The first hour of our

interview was basically a listicle of all of his greatest accomplishments. Like, he was one of the first people to pioneer using computers to book flights. This was in the late 60s, and a lot of people in the industry said you are nuts. And you know frequent flyer miles? Yep, Robert Crandall was the guy who oversaw the first real points program in the industry. Plus, many more technical innovations and cost-cutting measures that turned American Airlines into the biggest airline in the world.

Given Robert Crandall's reputation, this is definitely the most anxious I've been in an interview

giving you credit for all the things that you accomplished over the years. I think your name

lose pretty large. Yes. So, the interview is going well. But then the conversation turns to stuartuses. I can tell that Robert Crandall is not that interested in talking about the stuartuses. These days, known as flight attendants. But one question throws the whole interview totally off course. How would you describe Pat Gibbs? Pat Gibbs was a laborer. Was what? Pat Gibbs was a labor leader. Yes. Let's stop for that. Oh, sure. You want to talk about flight attendants?

“If you want to make this into a social engineering discussion of flight attendants in all the ways”

we mistreated for other standards. Oh, no, not. I'm not going there. All right. So enough with

right attempts. Why the name Pat Gibbs could cause this much fury? That's coming up on this season of the Girl Friends. The Girl Friends flight or fight is produced by novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from novel, visit novel.audio. This podcast is hosted by me, now McShane Wolfhardt. The senior producer and writer is Sasquia Collette. Our editor is Joe Meek. The assistant producer is Bella Seltiel. Production management from Cherie Houston and Joe Savage, fact checking

by Fendell Fulton. Sound design mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson, original music by Schulto.

“The Girl Friends theme was composed by Nicholas Alexander with vocals by Gina Walters. Music”

supervision from Nicholas Alexander and Sasquia Collette. The series our work was designed by Christina Leane Cool. novel's director of development is Selena Mehta. Willard Foxton is our creative director of development. Max O'Brien and Craig Stracken are executive producers for novel. Katrina Norvell and Nikki E. Torre are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts and the marketing lead is Allison Cantor. Special thanks to Carrie Lieberman and Will Pearson.

We asked American Airlines for their perspective on this period in their history. They didn't respond to our request for comment. I survived nine months in captivity and I've spent my life exploring how other people survived what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart and these are the survivor files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stocked, controlled,

and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeart Radio App Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Hayes Davenport and Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Each week, we talk to someone in show business and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their

publicists for letting them do our show. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, Adam Scott, Danny McBride, Ben Stiller and a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait for hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle.

I choose Option B. I'm Julie Pignero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can

say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita,

trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're a bookshelf and you're for you page or equally

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park group chat for anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet and pop culture,

Yeah, I'm obsessed, so I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human.