The Girlfriends S6/E2: Losing It

I'm Mungisha, together, and I'm back with a new season of my podcast Skyline Drive.

“This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, commudions, blues-owners, super seniors, and”

go-as, top cryotherapy lab, to try to understand this obsession with living forever. And what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say problems start bone smashing. That doesn't work.

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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”

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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 merely silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

Listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Novel. Hey you, it's now here. Before we get started, I just want to give you a quick heads up about what's in this episode.

You'll hear about the extreme pressures during this phase to stay thin and the consequences of that, including disordered eating. But, it's not all bleak.

You'll also hear how the women found solidarity, humor, and the first sparks of rebellion

against those impossible standards. If these themes feel difficult, you'll find links to support organizations in the episode description, including eating disorder and mental health help lines. I would basically have a checklist in my head when I got up in the morning. It's early on a typical Monday morning for newly qualified students' pet gifts.

It would be eat breakfast, get my uniform, make sure it's clean, put it on. Do I need a coat? No, it's summer. Do I have a girdle on? Have your hat on to fingers above your eyebrow?

Have your white gloves on? Uniform straight. No wrinkles. Everything looks great. When you go to the airport, you want to make sure you're there early.

Play, so you would go over and sign your name. That's called a sign in, and hour before your flight. And then you would be given an assignment. Ladies and gentlemen, we have just been advised that we'll be departing at about five minutes. Once you got on the plane, get to check all the emergency equipment.

We're about ready for takeoff. Would you fasten your seat belt please? Would you take off? You didn't have jump seats back then. You had to sit next to the passengers, so you could visit with them and make them feel comfortable. You may unfasten your seat belt now, and you may smoke if you care too.

“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?" I just checked the weather with the captain, Mr. Smith. She'd be very nice when we ran. As a student in the 60s, Pat's routine was routine. But within this repetitive schedule, there's one thing Pat really doesn't want to do.

When I went to work, I would go into the operations area and do the best job I can to avoid going around this scales. We all know the dread of seeing scales in the airport.

and into paying a fee that's practically a mortgage deposit.

“But for Pat, it's a whole other level of dread.”

Because they're not weighing her bag, they're weighing her. At American Airlines in the 1960s, if you were Pat's height and age, you could not weigh more

than 127 pounds, basically 57 kilograms.

I constantly fought my weight during my entire career with the airlines. I just tried everything to lose weight because I knew the supervisors could come out, put me on the scale, which I'm there one day and they did. It's okay, Pat, get on this scale. Pat steps up.

A bead of sweat crawling down her brow. The supervisor taps the sliding weight till it levels out. It reads 100 and 31 pounds, 4 pounds, 2 kilos over Pat's limit. I started, oh, I think I have my period, or I'm getting my period.

“And that's why I'm over my maximum, give me another two weeks when my period's gone, well,”

they didn't know how long you had a period, but I never had a two week period ever, but

I would make up stuff like that. According to Pat's memory, the supervisor says, okay, I'll give you some time to fix this. Oh, and by the way, you're on mandatory leave, suspended. I'm going to take you off payroll. It was just, okay, we'll give you two weeks.

You come on way in and you'll be back on your flight schedule. Two weeks to lose two kilos. I was thinking, oh my God, just four pounds and a fortnight standing between Pat Gibbs and her career, her dreams and her paycheck. From the teams at Novel and I Heart Podcasts, this is The Girl Friends, season six, flight

or fight. This is your host speaking, Nell McShane Wolfhart. Oh, and by the way, you're on at Novel and I Heart Podcasts, this is your host speaking. I Heart Podcasts, this is your host speaking. Oh, and by the way, you're on at Novel and I Heart Podcasts, this is your host speaking.

Episode two, losing it.

“Pat is on a mission to lose four pounds, Pronto, to help she has a secret weapon, the”

American Airlines Company Doctor. So, you go in and the doctor was sitting on one side of his desk and you're on the other. And you'd say, well, what's your problem, Pat? Are you eating too much? Maybe I should give you something to help you lose a weight.

And I would always say yes.

The Doctor hands over a prescription. Back at home, Pat tips a pill from the bottle into her hand. The tablets are black, gleaming like onix. And in this matrix meets a zempix scenario, Pat has a choice of staying in her unmedicated 131 pound reality or taking the pill and entering a new slimmer utopia.

I would take any drug that medical would give me to keep the weight off. Almost immediately, Pat sees a difference. These pills put her metabolism on double speed and completely annihilate her appetite. I would be smoking cigarettes, drinking black coffee, and not eating, and you can keep your weight down that way.

I was quite happy when I was on this medication and it really helped me lose weight.

They just evaporate on this wonder drug. Before she knows it, Pat is back working on the plane. As they say in the biz, she's back on the line. What if did feel like to take the pills?

“What was the effect that it had on you, besides being able to keep weight off?”

Well, you feel wonderful, she feels great. It changes something I guess in your head, and you feel like you can do anything, you talk a lot. I was talking to all the passengers very friendly, and I was happy to see all of them, and to have them on board and hear their tales of "Whoa."

What Pat didn't know at the time was if those miracle pills were in fact a potent cocktail of amphedamine salts, street name, speed. And those drugs do what they say on the tin. All of a sudden Pat feels like someone hit the fast forward button on her life. To the frenetic amphedamine montage.

I could just take the pills. I could stay up all night on the all nighters. We will be serving dinner as soon as we take off. Thank you. I was able to keep my weight down.

“If they enroll with a few extra pounds, they graduate light enough to fly.”

I was much better on the flights by talking my head off to the passengers. It definitely is really all irritating, so there's something I can do to help you. I wasn't too happy if they were starting to wear off, but I could tell when they were, and I would just take another pill. And once it ran out, I'd be back over asking for another prescription.

I wanted to be a hostess since I was 18. I'm five feet four and weigh 115 pounds.

I always talk to a lot, but I talk to a lot more.

May I hang your coat for you, sir? Would you like some coffee, would you like some tea? Would you like a martini or not, Patton? I need to lose weight, just give me diet pills. I was happy talking to people.

We taught her to make your flight comfortable, but we didn't have to teach her to be nice.

“The only way I was able to keep my weight down was by taking this pill.”

I never asked what it was. If you're thinking this bizarre airline weight watchers club is restricted to American Airlines, you can think again. A 2 1/2 hour flight away from where Patton stationed, Casey Grant flies for Delta out of Chicago.

Being a steward is, was the best experience of living. You're meeting interesting people every day because you were a steward as you were invited

into movie stars home because that's the movie stars flew in first class.

I at Smokey Robinson, I had Gladys Knight, I've had Jimmy Carter, I've had Magic Johnson and had personal conversations with him, was invited to a party that night by Magic Johnson. It was a fairy-tale life. My sister used to tell me all the time. She said, "You don't live in the real world.

Where was the only world I knew?" Casey loves her job, but heavy is the head that wears the pill box hat. To be in this exclusive group, to be a stewardess, she knows she has to maintain her appearance to Delta's standards. I am 5'4" and I had to be 120 and no more.

That's 55 kilograms. I've heard all kinds of techniques stewardesses would use to pass weight checks. Don't eat before, duh, make sure you have no jewelry on, not even a bra that could add extra weight.

But Casey had the most incredible approach to outsmart her supervisor.

You sneak into the room ahead of time. I put a piece of gum on the scale. Well, that was I got on there. It would not be a right reading, but it would be the correct one for me to be able to keep my job.

So they would come in and say, "You go, okay, Casey, you take your shoes off, everything. I jumped onto the scale, held my breath." And the dial on the scale went all the way up until it hit the piece of gum that would keep it in place at 120. It was perfect.

I was 120. And so she goes, "Okay, so then when she turns and to write your weight down, that's when you reach behind there. Take the gum off the scale, take the evidence with you, and you leave it then you're good for another three months until you have to do the gum trick again."

So of course your day starts with you jumping on your scale to see am I going to make it?

“In one particular time, I think it might have been a pound overweight.”

It wasn't much, but I had starved myself. If it meant drinking a glass of water would add some more weight, I didn't drink any water. And I was trying to get dressed to go out to the airport and I remember sitting down on the toilet and when I woke up, my head was in the sink.

So yes, I had passed out from being so dehydrated. You looked at food in a different way. You look at a piece of cake and you realize that could be your job or satisfaction for five minutes. I took lactatives, I took water pills. I sat in sauna, it was not healthy, but I knew as I wanted to be a sturdist.

But why do these strict weight limits even exist? Well, one reason, customer service. That was according to management. People like Robert Crandell who took over a senior vice president of marketing at American Airlines in 1974.

Until the late 70s, he was working in Manhattan.

American's headquarters in New York City were in a gargantuan building on third avenue.

The office tower is dark, cubic, and seems to point up at one side, like a man puffing out his chest. American occupies more than a quarter of the 41-story edifice. Robert works on the inside, coming up with marketing strategies to distinguish American airlines from its competitors.

This is because, back then, ticket prices were regulated by the government. Say you flew United, Brandef or American, going New York to LA. It wouldn't matter, they all had to charge the same amount for the tickets. So, they use other methods to stand out, like the hostesses.

Yes, having attractive women in attractive uniforms and good food on the airplanes was

“all part of marketing, and it was all important.”

Of course, being in shape is important for sturdises because you do need to be physically fit to do the job, but also it's about having an attractive appearance. According to Life Magazine, American Airlines' sturdises were, quote, "reasonably pretty in slender, especially around the hips, which will be at the eye level of passengers, I.E., male passengers."

Well, this is my effect as a great story about that. At one point a bunch of flight attendants from different airlines posed for a playboy, and so the press started calling here on executives, and they called them to go, "It was running east at the time." They said, "What are you going to do?"

And he said, "I'm going to just charge him, fire him right away," and they called me, and I said, "I'm going to have to touch the face of him." It thought that was a much better plan. So during your tenure, a female flight attendant who was maybe five feet, five and just all, had to weigh 129 pounds or less, and I know a lot of them ended up being prescribed

and fedemines and other pills to keep their weight down.

“Did you ever think about removing or changing those limitations while you were at American?”

No, I think we're going to follow the crowd in that respect. There's no point trying to be an outlier in areas where the public isn't ready for that attitude to prevent. Do you think it was difficult for the women to maintain those weight standards? I don't have any idea.

For Pat Gibbs, maintaining a low weight wasn't difficult with her little black pills. Once she's on them, she doesn't even feel like eating, but she has a new problem. I would try to sleep in the daytime. I really couldn't sleep because I kept waking up thinking somebody was breaking in to my bedroom. Was it a stalker, a rapist, a murderer?

There were weirdos who had harassed uruses, masturbating outside the compounds where they lived, or was it none of the above? In reality, Pat was experiencing some of the all-time classic side effects of amphedomines, restlessness, mood swings, paranoid delusions, hallucinations, and psychosis.

kill me or something.

I was completely convinced that they were.

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These texts are trained to help spot issues early and give you a run, easy. I'm Mungaisha, and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones, and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about. And what it really means to live forever for all of us.

I learned about some rad-science. I can make a brain for you, and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain as opposed to his brain. Here's some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five

year acceleration and get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make it look more defined. They say it works.

I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, how to live forever on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Aes 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. Someone 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 ahead? How about we flip this around?

What if 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 to show.

I would never let go of that.

I would never set expectations for something like that. It's like if the universe allows for something like that to happen, I'm 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 was like, is that what you need? No, it's fragile masculinity. Yeah. Ben's still or no.

“I think there's a lot of times out of context, people don't get it or even know what a circle”

is. You know what I mean? I go watch the show. Everyone's soaked up. And fake.

Frank and also not interested, or just like, oh, I've got my pipe, 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 how he would 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 chose Option B. I'm Julie Bigneto 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 smile that that's 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There were plenty of things that bug Pet about the flight attendants Labor Union when she attended one of their meetings.

“You might remember she didn't like the smoking, the swearing, the beer, but the greatest”

in of all, not being practical.

How do they make it change?

“You should have a plan if you need to make a change.”

I want to nothing to do with the Union. They were just beer drinkers and just bitching and moaning, and to me it was like that's not constructive. That's true, but as a beer drinking complainer myself, I have a lot of sympathy with them.

Well I do now too. Despite having no interest in joining their ranks, in the summer of 1962, Pat found herself in the unlikely position of being a Union leader. The others had voted her in against her will, because they were so desperate for support in their fight against management.

Soon after her involuntary election, the head of the Union, Nancy Collins called Pat,

and said, you've got your first Union job, a grievance case representing a fellow stewardess.

Pat said, "I don't want to do it." Nancy Collins said, "You have to." Well, after a long conversation with me, she convinced me to just go and meet the grievance

“that Pat sued Jackie, who I will never forget.”

We met at the airport, I said, "Well, what did you do? Why are we here?" She said, "I got suspended three days, because I spilled coffee on my summer uniform going into Chicago, because it was Saturday night, and it was late. I couldn't get a clean before leaving Sunday morning.

I said, "Well, what do you want me to do?"

And she said to me, "Well, I don't know.

You're the Union person." I said, "Well, no, I'm just here because Nancy Collins asked me a beer with you. She sent me this little ten-page book to read." If Pat had opened that book, she might have learned all kinds of things about unions. Like how, on the surface, unions can seem like a confusing soup of acronyms, but these

organizations can be formidable. For big companies like American Airlines, it's easy for them to ignore or get rid of any individual flight attendant that has a problem, but you can't run an airline without flight attendance. So when they stick together, they have a lot of power.

That power is even greater when the flight attendants join with other airline workers, like mechanics, baggage handlers, and ground crew. Unions use this collective power to negotiate agreements with companies for better pay, safer working conditions, etc. At the time Pat started that American Airlines in the 1960s, the stewardesses are part

of Elsa, and that union is affiliated to the much larger transport workers union, also known as the TWU. Most of the other members are subway workers and bus drivers. If a member of their union is mistreated by their employer, they help them to file agreements. And let me just explain grievances because there are going to be a lot of them in this

series. Here's an example, you're an employee of a company and you have an issue. Let's say you got suspended for turning up late just once. You think it's unfair. Well, you'd lodge agreements.

You might do a meeting with a union rep that's a person on your side, and someone from the company. Their job is to defend the company's actions. An investigation might be lodged, and if you don't like the outcome, you can appeal it. It's like a mini court case within a company.

And with the stewardesses part of a giant union like the TWU, they have a fighting chance to stand up for themselves, and all the workers who are members of the TWU, including the stewardesses, pay monthly membership dues so that the union has the financial resources to back up their strength in numbers. Some stewardesses even put their hands up to be union rep, which means they help their

fellow members at work. This is the kind of information Pet would have learned.

“Had she read the ten-page book ahead of the grievance?”

Instead, she did not. As a result, Pet was like a newborn giraffe in terms of union knowledge. Stumbling around, thinking, "What do we do about overturning this suspension?" I mean, it's just a coffee stain. Literally the bosses are being too harsh on Pet's sake, "Well, let's start with this meeting

When we went to the airport and went into the operations area, the base manager came out. What was his name? Ed Trapp. Ed Trapp, Ed Trapp. He came with a reputation.

What was thinking back to what those union women had said about him in the meeting? So they said, "You know, that Trapp, man. He's like totally overboard. He just treats the female supervisors like shit." More complaining, Pet had thought.

Pet had seen Ed Trapp around and didn't think he was a bad guy. Surely Ed could sort out this issue.

“Then he came out and he said, "Oh, you must be Pat Gibbs."”

I said, "Yes, Mr. Trapp, I am." And he said, "Well, Pat, you just sit down here and Pat suit checking and I are going to go ahead and have the grievance here." So I said, "Yes, sir." And I sat down outside where the hearing was.

While Pet was waiting, she finally decided to take a look at the unions for dummies booklet

from Nancy Collins. And I get to, maybe, page 5 or 6. And it says, "You should not let the grievance go in by themselves." And I started thinking, "I think I was supposed to be in the meeting from this little book."

“And then it says, "If they call you by your first name, you called them by their first name."”

And I thought, "Oh, man, I've been at." Pat called Ed Trapp, Mr. Trapp, and Mr. Trapp, he called her Pat. And she's sitting outside. Surely Ed knows she's meant to be inside. Pat feels a red wave, wash across her face.

All of us in door opens and out comes Ed and Pat sued Jackie. And he said, "She lost." And I looked at him and I said, "Of course she did, Ed. She lost because I was supposed to be in there."

And I said, "This will never happen again to me.

And you will not make me look like a fool." And so I said, "To Pat, let's go." And then I turned him and I said, "Ed, I'm going to win this grievance. You'll be sorry. I stormed out of operations and slammed the door."

Valveline, instant oil change presents wisdom from the road. Last place you want your engine to give out is halfway to nowhere. Out here, vote oil or a weak battery is just an ambush way to happen.

“That's why every oil change at Valveline is the oil change of glutes at 18 point maintenance check.”

These text are trained to help spot issues early and give you a run easy. Valveline, instant oil change wisely. I'm Mungisha, together, and I'm back with a new season of the podcast Skyline Drive. This time I'm diving into a rabbit hole of peptides, organoids, blood boys, blue zones and brain replacement to try to understand what this longevity obsession is all about.

And what it really means to live forever for all of us. I learned about some rad science. I can make a brain for you and then we can test what draw is the best for your brain as opposed to his brain. Here are some hard truths. I would expect Indians to age faster, but I did not expect it to be almost a four to five year acceleration.

And get myself into a world of trouble. I'd say probably start bones smashing, I don't know what to make you look more defined, they say it works, I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, how to live forever on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. 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 Bignetto, 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.

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.

“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 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 gonna say so, 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. Tell us what happened next. Well, I felt like I was made of full of.

Pat is not over the situation with Ed Trapp. She knows he'd taken advantage of her ignorance. She should have been in that grievance hearing with Pat to check he. Ed had triggered Pat's pet peeve, rule breaking. She didn't like it when stewardesses didn't adhere to things like the uniform codes. Pat served realizing that people in management, they aren't following the rules either. And maybe, were the rules just in place to control the stewardesses while the higher-ups did whatever they liked?

These thoughts swirled.

“Pat decides to double down. The only way she'll make sure the company follows the rules is to learn the ropes of what it takes to be a heavyweight union rep.”

I started reading as much as I could about what a union rep was supposed to do. There weren't any course books on how to be a union rep. You know, I watched a few union movies. Oh, really?

The auto-workers are jubilant. They won the first union contract in the history of the industry.

Pat was slowly getting a handle on this whole union thing from documentaries like this one. I actually produced by the CIA. There's a story of how labor won the right in America to organize and to bargain collectively with management. A wave of organizing sweeps the country. Pat realized you could have real power in a union, especially if you're allied with one as big as the TW

U. The power to stand up to management, the power to stand up to Ed Trapp.

“Can we talk about the appeal for Pat Tsucheki? How the appeal went and what happened?”

It was with the VP for Flight Service. I sat down and just had written out all the points that I was going to make. In I kept saying, what should she have done differently here? You know, she had to go to the hotel. Should she have delayed to pick up for the crew? Or should she have gone to the hotel and then midnight go around looking for a dry clean? Right, common sense questions. Uh-huh. Yeah, they were. And once you started pointing out the common sense part of that,

you know, the guy just finally said, well, I see her point why it happened and why she should be

reinstated. So I did end up winning the grievance. The union response with the backing of the TWU worked. Pat Tsucheki was forgiven for her outrageous wearing of a coffee-stained uniform. She was back on the line and her manager handed over a check,

I wanted to run back and throw it on Ed Trapp's desk. But, uh, Nancy said, that's not a smart move.

“Don't glow. Right. Just take the win. It's so much fun to glow, though. I would glow with”

other people, right? What do you think that that moment taught you, winning that appeal? Like,

what was the lesson that you took away from that? Don't give up, fight back. The bottom line was,

I wanted it because I started using basic common sense that I had, but what I didn't have was confidence. I was starting to really stand up for what I viewed as an injustice. After this experience, Pat noticed a change. Her dream to be part of American Airlines Management was fading away. As a very different aspiration emerged, being an active and maybe one day senior member of the union. And so I thought, well, there's an election coming up soon.

I could run for the terror position.

After she won the appeal, Pat headed back home and, like every day, she popped a pill. But there's still a few things she can't shake that someone is trying to break into her house. I did go into my bedroom thinking. I'm going to lay down and try to take an app. I had been, of course, taking pills. So I was still hyper somewhat, but I thought I need to lay down here. So I did and I was looking up at the window and I started seeing, like, shadows

across the window. And I thought, who is that? I started seeing, like, body shapes. I was really a little bit on the panic side then, so I got up, walked around. And every time I would lay down, I would start glancing at the window and seeing things go past the window. I started thinking, no, there's something else going on. I've got a really regroup here. Pat went to see the American Airlines company doctor about these weird visions.

She finally wanted to know what medication she's been taking.

When I finally asked, what is this? He said, well, it's in fatamines, like,

“and fatamines. No good deal. I mean, have you ever done speed? That's what it is.”

How did you react? What did you think when he told you that? I just thought, no big deal. It is what I thought. Like, I had to take them to keep the white off. I mean, it must sound so scary to be having those solutions. It is, but, you know, it's either your job or delusions, which one? [Music]

Pat goes back home. She looks down at what she now knows is in amphetamine.

“What's more frightening? Are hallucinating a burglar or losing your livelihood?”

Pat has made a permind. She puts a pill in her mouth and swallows it. How long were you taking the pills? For a long time, I think I was on them for like, at least five years. Cut to one day in July 1965. Pat is summoned unexpectedly to the airport. My supervisor had me sit down and she said, I'm going to have to sever you or something. I was thinking, what she's talking about? She's going to kill me or something. No.

This isn't a delusion. Pat is being fired. I need your ID card. I need all your manuals. She said, do not come back in this office again.

What reason did she give for firing you?

“That I wrote a check to the hotel to get cash and it was returned to the hotel for insufficient funds.”

Pat had written a bad check. Accidentally, mind you, a friend was meant to deposit her paycheck, but forgot. But the supervisor says stewardess's checks bouncing made American Airlines look bad. So Pat hands in her ID and goes home for me. It was really a difficult time because I was convinced that once I was fired, my hands and feet were going to fall off. I was just going to fall apart as a person. After a few days of wallowing, Pat turned to corner.

I started realizing that just because I got fired, didn't mean that my life was over. Her metamorphosis from street-laced Hattletale into militant unionist was underway.

She decided to challenge her firing. To file a grievance. The first two

“hearings I lost. You lose, you lose. But hey, third time's a charm, right?”

I got a letter saying I've been reinstated that no back pay. I was just glad when I was told I had won the case. How did that change things for you? This whole process of being terminated and then having to go through this extensive grievance process, what was the upside of all this for you in the way that you thought about your job? Well, a course I started thinking more about a lot of injustices in the job. If you didn't hold the position in the union or if you

didn't know somebody that could help you in the union, you would have been toast.

“As time goes on, Pat's starting to suspect that maybe it wasn't really the bad check that”

got her fired. Firing me was better for them because I was starting to have union meetings and starting to file grievances for other people. So I was becoming a problem for management. Yes. Because I was starting to show others, this is how you fight back. That was done to say, see, if we can fire your union rap, there's nothing to stop us from disciplining you, firing you. And so you better stay in line. This is just Pat's hunch. There's no evidence that that was

American Airlines's motivation. But that gut feeling turns into a fire in her belly. That's just got me more invested in being a union rap. Yeah, I might have worked on some people, but yeah, it didn't work on me too well. Coming up on flight or fight, Pat goes on to become a fishbone in the throat of American Airlines management. I evolved into understanding we had to fight for change, joining a

course of women weaponizing unions and the law to revolutionize the profession of stewardess. I got tired of what they were doing to us. I didn't feel like sitting back and allowing it to take

place was a good idea. Fighting back feels good because it feels powerful. Even if you know you're

not going to win, you want your opponent to know they've been in a fight. The girlfriend's 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 will part. The senior producer and writer is Sasuke Kale. 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 Shulto.

Music supervision from Nicholas Alexander and Sasuke Kale. The series our work was designed

“by Christina Leem 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 Norvel and Nikki E. Torre are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts

and the marketing lead is Alison Cantor. Special thanks to Carrie Lieberman and Will Pearson.

You heard archive from Panam, United Airlines, RKO Pethay, and American Airlines that was

“re-voiced by actors Matthew Rutledge, Cam Cornelius, Andrea Patrilli, and Amelia Burella.”

I'm Mungisha, together, and I'm back with a new season on my podcast Skyline Drive. This time I talked to scientists, biopunks, cramudions, blues owners, super seniors,

and Goa's top cryotherapy lab to try to understand this obsession with living forever

and what it means for all of us. And I get into a bit of trouble along the way. I'd say probably start bone smashing. That doesn't work. Make it look more defined. They say it works. I don't know. Listen to Skyline Drive, how to live forever on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. 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 iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're a bookshelf and you are

“for a you page or equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast”

that's part book club, 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 with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Listen to Pro Society 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

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