0:02

So, for the past four

0:04

months, since June, the

0:07

studio that we usually use

0:10

at WUNC in Chapel Hill, where

0:12

we have been recording the show for 10

0:14

years, is being renovated.

0:17

And so, I haven't been at

0:19

WUNC. I've been in a studio that I

0:21

basically made off the

0:23

side of my garage and converted

0:26

this

0:27

room, which

0:30

has worked really well. I think it worked better

0:32

than any of us thought it was going to work until

0:35

about two weeks ago.

0:37

And two weeks ago, I would

0:40

say something biblical started

0:42

happening in this room. And

0:44

it started out, I just said,

0:46

I just thought, what is that? And

0:49

I didn't really know what was happening. But then people

0:51

who were in Zoom meetings

0:53

with me, or I'd be with someone and

0:55

we'd be doing an interview, and they'd kind of chat

0:57

to me, Phoebe, what is it? I'm

1:00

hearing a chirp.

1:01

And I said, oh, I don't know. It's just outside. And

1:04

they said, okay. And

1:07

it really escalated.

1:12

That was a little bit of one of our recent bonus episodes,

1:15

which you get when you subscribe to Criminal Plus.

1:19

We're having a lot of fun making these, and

1:21

we thought you might like to hear what they sound like. Recently,

1:24

we've talked about the only time I've ever stopped an

1:27

interview, unusual gift ideas,

1:29

Lauren's love of sheet cakes, how to fall

1:32

asleep. And as you

1:34

just heard, a recent problem

1:36

in my studio.

1:37

Here's more. You

1:40

could not have helped telling me, Dorian. Oh

1:43

my God. Dorian.

1:50

Oh my God. Oh

1:55

my God.

2:04

5 million crickets. And

2:06

so for the past two weeks, my

2:10

whole life has been just trying

2:14

to not absolutely lose control

2:17

over these crickets. And the thing about

2:19

a microphone, and this microphone, is that it picks

2:21

up everything, right? Like, this

2:23

is a studio. It's supposed to be silent, and it's going to pick up every

2:26

noise, and you really hear a

2:28

cricket. And it's so frequent

2:32

that it's not possible to cut them out individually.

2:36

So what happened, unbeknownst to me, is

2:38

that people on our

2:40

team... The crickets

2:42

made a family. I mean, the miracle

2:45

of what? The crickets have a colony. It's not a family.

2:47

It's a city. But what

2:49

was going on behind the scenes is that

2:52

people

2:53

were making secret cuts,

2:56

you know, pulling clips of how

2:59

I was reacting to the crickets. So

3:03

we have a clip, Susannah Robertson, she just

3:06

pulled this and put

3:08

it up on the Slack channel Criminal General as

3:10

just... I don't

3:13

know why she pulled it, but this is what

3:15

she pulled. Criminal is created by

3:18

Lauren Spore and me. Nady

3:20

Wilson is our senior producer. Katie

3:22

Bishop is our supervising producer.

3:29

That is so loud. Oh

3:34

my gosh, Phoebe. I'm so sorry.

3:38

I don't know what... Like,

3:41

I mean, it doesn't... Oh,

3:44

the hour and 45 minutes it took me to record

3:46

Dorian Gray yesterday. Do

3:50

you see it? It's right here. It's

3:52

so loud.

3:54

I don't understand how it can be that

3:56

loud. So then I do this.

3:59

and try to scare

4:02

it.

4:04

And it's quiet for about four

4:06

seconds.

4:07

Yeah. So we've

4:10

a lot of that and then,

4:13

I've done any research into why,

4:16

what message is a cricket sending? It's

4:18

rubbing its legs together. It's rubbing its legs. But

4:20

what is the message? Hi. No,

4:22

I want to be a podcaster. I don't know what the message is.

4:25

But, oh they chirped, males chirped

4:27

to attract a female. Oh it is, they're making a

4:29

new city. You're

4:30

right.

4:31

The city's here. Why do they chirp? Why do crickets

4:33

chirp constantly?

4:35

Mating call.

4:37

Why do crickets stop chirping when you get close?

4:40

They're aware of a potential threat. Well

4:42

then I hope that I have been posing a

4:45

major threat by the amount of banging I've done.

4:47

Oh, this says they sing out of

4:49

love and anger. Lauren,

4:52

do you know? You might be in a sort of battle with them. My

4:54

least favorite thing is when people

4:55

read off of Google.

4:57

And that's what you're doing right now. Well

4:59

we've been talking about these crickets for weeks that none

5:01

of us have asked. What does the cricket want?

5:05

So the crickets have been an absolute

5:07

major problem for the past two weeks. I cannot,

5:10

you know what? It's the only reason that I'm

5:12

okay fall is here. That's it. Because

5:14

maybe. Do you think that crickets go away in the fall?

5:17

I think

5:17

they have to go away in the fall. Okay.

5:22

So

5:23

everything has been a little more difficult. Things

5:26

have taken a little longer because

5:29

you just have to wait. And you bang, you

5:31

get a couple of seconds of silence, and then they're

5:33

back. Well what I told myself

5:35

in the Beatrix Potter mix was

5:38

that the crickets added something.

5:40

It added a sort of bistro, string

5:43

lights, cafe feel to

5:45

your narration. It

5:49

was also raining the day that the Beatrix

5:52

Potter tracks. And I think that

5:55

also, I think, adds to the romance

5:57

of our visit to the Lake District. That

6:01

was a rainy, all of our tape, we were soaking

6:03

wet. We were poured rain on all day long in

6:05

real life, so. And it was March. It

6:07

was cold. How do you call it sound escaping?

6:10

It was very kind of Jane Eyre-esque,

6:13

I thought. Kind of Withering Heights,

6:16

Sense and Sensibility, the best Jane Austen book ever.

6:19

And movie. Anyway, so we

6:22

came, Winslet,

6:25

soaking wet on that hill in

6:27

the movie of Sense and Sensibility. It's

6:30

burned into my mind. Oh, how about the soundtrack

6:33

that I had? I also owned

6:35

the soundtrack. I also owned a printed

6:37

book of the screenplay.

6:40

I own the movie poster. On

6:42

the wall? Yes. Oh my

6:44

God, what was on the poster? I

6:47

can't remember if it was Emma Thompson. It must

6:50

have been all of them. It must have been all of them. But

6:52

I do believe... Did

6:54

Alan Rickman make it onto the poster? I don't think Alan Rickman.

6:56

I hope. For his sake that he did. I

7:00

do believe, I don't

7:03

have any reason to know this or feel this,

7:05

but that Emma Thompson is probably

7:07

a fantastic human being.

7:11

I think she's very cool. Anyway,

7:14

so this week, that Beatrix

7:16

Potter episode did come out where Lauren and

7:19

I went to the Lake District. And

7:22

we, in that episode, it's an

7:24

episode of Love. In that episode, we played

7:27

some tape of

7:29

what the driving conditions were like. And

7:33

I just have to tell you that that is the

7:35

smallest glimpse of

7:37

what actually was occurring for

7:40

the week in that car. Lauren,

7:43

how many times were you scared

7:46

that we were on the brink of a head-on collision?

7:50

Three or four, really? I think I was

7:52

most afraid of you. I

7:55

felt like you were always

7:57

about to run my side of the car into

7:59

a brick. wall. Like

8:02

you were so far over all the time.

8:04

So it was a lot of me just saying

8:06

like you're too far over. Also,

8:09

I was trying to there were a lot of roundabouts, as

8:11

I recall, and that we you and I had a lot of trouble

8:14

communicating like, if there are five

8:16

ways to get out of the roundabout, I would be like,

8:18

take your take the second one. And, and

8:21

then you would miss it, or maybe I

8:23

communicated wrong, we really couldn't communicate

8:26

about these roundabouts. And it ended in just like cussing,

8:29

like silence, like it was so,

8:31

it was so tense for

8:33

so many days

8:34

of driving.

8:44

So

8:50

when it turns green, you're gonna go around

8:52

and left? No.

8:53

What do you mean? What? Which

8:55

way are we going? That's what it says. You're

8:57

going up and around. No, we're not up and around. Look at

9:00

these cars right here. But you have a green light. I'm not going

9:02

up and around more. I'm going left right here.

9:04

Why did you tell

9:09

me to go up and around? You're doing

9:11

great.

9:21

And the way we get out of the car, I just feel like silent and

9:24

exhausted and like eating Vietnamese

9:26

food in silence, like slightly

9:28

shaking. Like, it

9:31

was really, it was really hard. And

9:33

you I'm not, I'm never, I'm

9:35

not a fearful driver.

9:37

I mean, when we went to do the

9:41

season of Love in Italy, which

9:43

also has some pretty precarious roads, I drove

9:46

the whole entire time, of course. And I remember you

9:48

drove fast. Oh, yeah. And I didn't love that. Oh,

9:50

you, you have to drive fast on

9:52

an Italian highway. I was driving slower

9:54

than anyone else on the highway. And still, I was going

9:57

80. But anyway, so I'm not a fearful driver.

9:59

And I'm not I'm not worrisome. I'm

10:02

a bold driver, which you have to

10:04

be. You don't want to be an aggressive driver, but you want to be a bold,

10:07

confident driver. And these

10:09

Lake District roads, I

10:13

mean, I had me on my knees. I mean,

10:15

I was really, that was a tough, that was a tough

10:18

trip, but it's really

10:20

beautiful. And I would love to

10:22

see it in June because

10:24

it was pretty beautiful when it was pouring rain in March.

10:29

Anyway, so that, but Beatrix

10:32

Potter, if you listen closely, very

10:34

closely, we have tried as hard as we can, but you may

10:37

hear. Crickets. A

10:39

little rain and a little crickets. And Lauren just says, close

10:42

your eyes and pretend you're at a spa. Just

10:44

let, let, let the crickets do that for you. So

10:47

you think a relaxing spa experience involves

10:49

crickets?

10:51

I think when people have those nighttime

10:53

apps, nature sounds.

10:56

Oh yes, I see. You know, nighttime

10:58

summer soundscape. I mean, I am in a

11:00

summer soundscape right now. My whole life is a summer

11:02

soundscape. Do

11:04

you know what I said this morning? We should call this the

11:07

title of this episode.

11:09

Jiminy Cricket.

11:11

Jiminy Cricket. I don't know if it's going to make it past

11:13

the cutting room floor, My vote

11:16

is to call this episode Jiminy Cricket.

11:21

That's just part of what you'll get when you sign

11:23

up for Criminal Plus. Learn

11:25

more at thisiscriminal.com slash

11:28

plus. That's thisiscriminal.com

11:31

slash plus. And

11:33

thanks very much for your support.