Emily to Gremily
A podcast about the stories that start out normal and spiral into something unforgettable. Hosted by Emily Hogan, Emily to Gremily blends humor, honesty, and a touch of chaos through solo episodes and guest features. Expect cocktails, unfiltered “gremlin" stories, pop culture hot takes, and internet obsessions.
Subscribe for new episodes every Tuesday, and follow along on Instagram and TikTok @EmilytoGremilyPod for episode updates, cocktail recipes, and behind-the-scenes extras.
Make sure to email us your insane gremlin stories to EMILYTOGREMILYPOD@GMAIL.COM and they will be featured on future episodes.
Emily to Gremily
Dirty Bathrooms, Family Secrets, and Uncomfortable Truths
Welcome to a jam-packed solo episode where I dive into all three signature segments, and trust me, you'll want to stay for the Gremlin Gossip!
My listeners have been delivering exceptional content lately, and this episode showcases some of the most jaw-dropping submissions yet. We kick things off with two compelling Gremlin Stories: one about a moral dilemma when discovering a brother's infidelity, and another about a potential hookup derailed by a horrifying bathroom situation (which sends me on a passionate hygiene rant that might just save someone's love life).
The Gremlin Guidance segment tackles a relationship at a crossroads, what do you do when your partner wants to advance the relationship but you feel you'd be settling? I share my own breakup experiences (the good, the bad, and the ugly) while offering advice on handling these difficult conversations with honesty and compassion.
But the real showstoppers come during Gremlin Gossip, where listeners share secrets they can't tell anyone else. From someone who earns $500 per visit to "baby" a client to a disturbing story about a widowed coworker whose grief manifested in predatory behavior, these submissions range from eyebrow-raising to genuinely unsettling. The episode concludes with perhaps the most explosive family secret where a DNA test revealed a decades-old affair.
These stories create a unique community where we can share our most private experiences in a judgment-free zone. Whether you're here for the shocking revelations or the heartfelt advice, this episode delivers on all fronts. Email your own submissions to emilytogremilypod@gmail.com and follow on Instagram and TikTok @emilytogremilypod.
all right, cheers guys. Emily, emily to gremily, here with another solo episode. I'm actually really excited about this episode because I mean I should be excited about all of the episodes, but I'm very excited for this episode because I have all three segments in this episode. It's gremlin stories, gremlin guidance and gremlin gossip. You guys have been delivering. Delivering on the gossip. I am. I swear it's my new favorite thing.
Speaker 1:We're going to cheers with this drink. It honestly kind of looks like I might be drinking straight vodka, but I'm not. It is Tito's vodka, of course, because you know that's what my blood is made out of. And Waterloo, it's hold on, I have it over there. Tropical Fruit Waterloo. It's like. My new favorite non-alcoholic drink is the tropical fruit water loo. I went to target and specifically bought the and I think it was like an eight pack or something. It's delicious and water loo. If you want to sponsor me, come at your girl. Oh, that's actually really good, okay, so I didn't do a taste test. Surprisingly, all.
Speaker 1:Um, also, hopefully this is not the episode that may like becomes viral because I am looking ragged today. Um, I know I said before like if I don't have my nails done, it means I'm not feeling. Well, I don't have my nails done, but it's just because they need to like breathe for like a moment, honestly like a moment. I'm probably going to redo my nails tomorrow, but I just needed to give them a break to just kind of, you know, firm back up. They've been a little flimsy lately and I don't have any tan on. I am just looking pale and sad and your girl needs some nails and a tan. But tomorrow will be the day Today. It was just I needed to get ready, do this episode, and I got stuff to do later. So I it's now or never. I got to do it, I got to do it. Plus I, like I said, I am very excited for this episode. So, um, with that, actually I do have a circle back, but it's part of the gossip section and my OCD is peaking right now, so I can't go out of order, so I will mention the circle back when I get to it. Yeah, normally I like to start off the episode with a circle back, but I can't go out of order. It's just, it's not in, not in my soul to do it.
Speaker 1:So we're going to start with gremlin stories, the OG gremlin stories. We have two gremlin stories. We have one yeah one gremlin guidance, and then one, two, three, four gremlin gossips. If I haven't picked your story, guidance or gossip yet, it's coming, I promise. I promise it's just you know, I'm just kind of picking at it as I can. It's just me by myself doing this. So, yeah, if you want to resubmit it like, just email me again, you could just like forward it back to me, just so it pops up to the top. I'm doing my best to go from bottom up, just so those who have emailed me first can get a response or their story read. So with that, let's start with Gremlin Stories, again, the OG. So the first one comes to us from Sarah. Sarah says this story is around 10 years old and while some people may not think I did the right thing, I think it was necessary.
Speaker 1:I have never been extremely close to my brother, but when he started dating and became engaged to his girlfriend, her and I got really close. I was excited to have a sister and we started hanging out together. I was single and she was always free on Friday nights while my brother was at work, so we started making Friday nights girls nights. So on this particular Friday I was out running errands on the other side of town when, from the post office window, I see my brother with his ex-girlfriend at a cafe across the street. I called him to see what he would say and he said he was headed to the gym. A full-on lie. So I go right up to his table and confront him. That's when I see it His ex-girlfriend is pregnant. I go ballistic and ask if it's his and he says yes. He begs me not to tell his fiance, and I agree, but I'm dreading seeing her later that night.
Speaker 1:I even tried to get out of it, but I couldn't. So we go out and I'm chugging my drinks out of nervousness. Eventually I just let it slip out. I had to. It was eating me alive. She freaks out and I'm left spinning over what I just spilled. Of course she breaks up with him and I end up being the bad guy in my brother's eyes for tattling. It took a couple of years, but we finally have come to an understanding that while he should have been the one to tell her, he also shouldn't have been cheating.
Speaker 1:So my gremlin story worked out in the end, but the beginning aftermath was pure hell, sarah. Girl. The end, but the beginning aftermath was pure hell. Sarah, girl, um, I, I don't know what I would have done either. Look, I'm an only child. I don't have brothers or sisters. I mean, I probably do out there, but, um, me personally I don't know any of them. So I don't know how I would react in this situation. But at the same time, I'm a loyal girly and I'm going to be loyal to who I'm close to. So, like, if I found out my best friend's boyfriend was cheating on her, I would, of course, tell her. But at the same time, your best friend is your brother's fiance and, you know, is blood thicker than water. I don't know. I mean, I personally feel like your family is the family that you choose, not necessarily like your blood family. So, yeah, he should have been the one to tell her, but, like you said, he shouldn't have been cheating. He shouldn't have been, you know, trifling around with his ex. So I don't know what I would have done in this situation. Um, I mean, like you said, it all worked out, and this is 10 years old, so everything seems to have worked out since then. But, yeah, I don't know what I would have done, but you know, I also don't have siblings. So what can I do?
Speaker 1:All right, the next gremlin story is from Kayla. Kayla says while at a bar I met this hot guy and immediately knew I wanted to sleep with him. You go, kayla. He looked like a Greek god, hmm. So after dancing together and slamming back many drinks, he says let's go to my place and I'm all ready to go. I was ready to get my gremlin on, by the way, I was ready to get my gremlin on that phrase that's being added in to vocal stims. All right, we were making out in the Uber and it's all going good.
Speaker 1:We get to his place and he leads me to his room. It's dimly lit, making it so romantic. I ask where the bathroom is so I can freshen up and head that way. When I turn on the light, I am horrified. It was disgusting. I don't think he had ever cleaned it. My happy drunken stupor faded and I snapped back to reality. I was afraid to touch anything. I made an excuse and left immediately. I'm extremely glad I went to the bathroom before anything happened. Thank you for letting this podcast be a safe place to tell all our gritty gremlin tales.
Speaker 1:Kayla, I feel like I know what she's talking about there. It's OK, I can't speak. There's nothing worse than going to a bachelor pad where the bathroom is disgusting and I feel like I know exactly what his room and bathroom look like. I'm sure he had those quintessential Navy sheets that are all crusty and disgusting and, like his pillows, have like no shape to them and you know he probably has like a hole in the sheets at some point. And then you enter the bathroom and he has like a shower curtain with the plastic that's all moldy at the bottom and there's soap scum on the tub and there's hairs everywhere and you know his soap his bar soap is like whittled down to a nub and his toothbrush looks like he's been chewing on it for five years and the two bristles that are left are like going every which way.
Speaker 1:I know this bathroom, I have been in this bathroom and if you don't have a nice bathroom, if you don't keep your bathroom clean, you are not touching me. It is disgusting. Men out there, men that are listening. Girls, if you want to send this to a man, you need to clean your fucking bathroom. If you have a gross bathroom, it shows a gross character and a lack of hygiene and I feel very strongly about this. I'm getting on my soapbox and saying if you have a gross bathroom, you do not get the privilege of touching me or being with me. Ew, ew, and I have been in that bathroom before and I've done the same thing Kayla did and I was like I need to skedaddle it is, it is. It's sobering. Like she said, it's sobering. Her drunken stupor faded. Yeah, it's, that's, that's a hell. So, men, clean your bathroom, let's, let's get together. Hygiene is very important. You know, if you can't keep your house clean, how do I know that you're keeping yourself clean? Ugh, ugh, hate it, disgusting. I feel very strongly about that. Yeah, keep your fucking bathroom and your house clean. Ugh, men, get it together. Not even men, boys, boys, get it together. Okay, that's it for gremlin stories, and I'm done ranting and r raving.
Speaker 1:So the next is we just have one gremlin guidance, and I almost didn't even do a gremlin guidance section because I really like to do it when I have a guest on the show. I just, you know, like my advice is not sometimes the most sane and sound. So it's nice to have someone to banter back and forth with and get their perspective, and maybe they're going to say something that I didn't know or think of or you know whatever. You know, I think I'm smart, but doesn't mean I'm going to tell you something that's good and correct. But I picked anonymous. She's anonymous because she had. I looked at her email. She had submitted it three times and I can't leave you hanging. So I am going to answer this to the best of my ability. I can't tell you. It's going to be great advice, but I'm going to try. And again, gremlin, guidance is always so much better when I have someone else here with me, but today I'm just by myself, but I just I can't, I can't not answer it. She seems like she. She really needs some advice, some guidance, so I am going to do my absolute best to give it to her. Actually, let me take a drink first, because I don't know how this is going to go, okay.
Speaker 1:So Anonymous says or asks I'm wondering if you have any advice on how to break up with my boyfriend. For context, we have been together for a year and a half and everything has been okay Not great, not bad, but just okay. I just don't really feel that compatible with him anymore. I have the travel bug and he's just not interested among a plethora of other differences. But now he's talking about the next steps of our relationship. He wants us to move in together and he has mentioned marriage. But I feel like I would be settling if I stayed with him. How should I go about pretty much breaking his heart, anonymous? How should I go about pretty much breaking his heart, anonymous? Okay, let's see. This is why I need someone else here.
Speaker 1:I suck at breaking up with people. I don't think I've ever had a healthy breakup. The first breakup I had it was like of serious boyfriends I mean. So I've had like what? Three serious relationships. I've broken up with two of them. Um, the first one I was young and stupid and I didn't really have a grasp on how to go about it. So I did it horribly and he was upset with me and mad at me because I gave him no reason as to why I was doing it. I just said, oh, I'm done with this and call it a day, and was very cold to him and I do feel guilty about that. I mean, I'm sure he's fine and he's moved on and whatnot, but you know that's still it's not OK. If someone did that to me I would be upset, but you know that's still. It's not OK. If someone did that to me I would be upset.
Speaker 1:The second breakup was with my ex-fiancee and I at the end of it I just hated him. He was abusive in many ways and manipulative and he was a narcissist and this, and that I feel like I can make that a different episode and again, I should have someone here who saw me through that breakup. But that breakup wasn't smooth either, because when I did finally get the courage to break up with him, he wouldn't accept that as being the reality and then he just wouldn't leave. He wouldn't leave the apartment, he wouldn't move out. It became very toxic and very hostile and, oh god, like, yeah, that needs to be a completely separate conversation.
Speaker 1:Um, and I do feel like I am like the queen of staying in a relationship longer because it feels comfortable and you get. You don't want to lose that comfortability. You don't want to. You know I don't like change. Nobody I mean some people like change. I don't like change and it scares me and doing something new and is it's daunting and it's challenging and it's frightening. So so with that, it does seem like you are pretty set on what you want. So I would say learn from me and just.
Speaker 1:I think you need to have a very honest conversation with him and don't leave him wondering or guessing why you broke up. You need to tell him these are the reasons I don't think we should be together anymore. Like you said, he's not bad. It just seems like you're like bored with him and that's OK. You know, some people just aren't matches, some people aren't compatible. So I would just tell him that I feel like you need to explain it to him that way he's not left wondering. You know, did he do something wrong? It seems like he didn't do anything wrong. He's just not your match. He's not your, he's not your person and we're all searching for our person.
Speaker 1:You know the someone who complements our personalities and our lifestyle and who can challenge us in good ways. And you know, like you said, you think you'd be settling if you stayed with him. Why would you want to settle in your life and why would he want you to settle if he really loves you? You know, sometimes you have to put your own happiness aside for the person you love and it might not be easy for him to accept that. But you know he like. Why would he want you to stay, knowing that you would be so unhappy? I don't think he would, because it seems like he's a nice guy. He's not.
Speaker 1:You know, he's not any of you know my ex-boyfriends, but, um, yeah, I would just tell him, like you know, I just feel like I need more out of my partner, someone who's more compatible with me and I just more compatible with me and I just at this point in my life I don't feel like you are that and tell him that you think he deserves that. He deserves to be with someone who loves him and wants to be with him. If you don't want to be with him, why are you going to stay with him and why would he want to stay with you, knowing that you're unhappy? So I think having just a very point blank conversation about why you're unhappy, why it's not working and why you need to break up, I think is the best policy. Honesty is, at this moment in time, the best policy. So, yes, I, that's my guidance.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's good. I don't know if I did well. Again, I really wish I had someone here beside me to talk about it with, but I don't. So I hope that answers your question somewhat. Okay, I don't know, you can email me anonymous and let me know if, if it was sound advice. I don't know if it is all right.
Speaker 1:And with that we are going to go into my absolute favorite segment of my entire life gremlin gossip. You guys have been great with the gossip. I picked four today. Um, again, if I haven't picked yours, it's coming. Don't worry, believe me, I'm reading them all. I'm like I like to work on the podcast while I'm like in bed, like sitting in bed, and I have like the covers pulled up and I have my laptop on my lap and I read your gossip and I'm like clicking my feet together and like rubbing them together like a little cricket and I'm like giggling. Oh, I love it, it's my favorite thing.
Speaker 1:Okay, so for gossips today, we have the first one. Actually, all of these are anonymous. The first one, anonymous, says I have been sleeping with my boyfriend's best mate for a few months now. He treats me better than my actual boyfriend does and, to be honest, he's better in bed. Anonymous, okay, I don't think cheating is okay. So I would just say, even though this is not Gremlin Guidance I don't know why I'm giving advice for this, I should just be reading it, but I'm going to put my two cents in. I think you should just break reading it, but I'm gonna put my two cents in. Um, I think you should just break up with your boyfriend and I don't know. Just keep sleeping with the mate. I'm assuming you're from Europe if you say, or like the UK if you say, mate, best mate, or Australia I do have listeners in Australia cause I love to look at my analytics. So, yeah, I would just say let's dump crappy boyfriend and start dating or I don't know. Just keep sleeping with best mate, why not? Also, that guy, he kind of sucks to his best friend because, like, why would you sleep with your best friend's girl? Kind of mean, but you know, get yours girl, all right.
Speaker 1:Second one, again anonymous. She says I met a guy on a spicy site who pays me $500 per visit to baby him. No sex. He wants me to swaddle him, cradle his head, give him milk in a bottle and talk to him in baby talk. I just bought a new car thanks to him. Anonymous, girl, get your bag, fuck it, why not? Also, I'm curious what spicy site were you on Asking for a friend who would be very interested in that, yeah, babying someone no sex just wants you to treat him like a baby.
Speaker 1:I always wonder about, like, the psychology of people like that. Like I've seen like someone like that, not in person, but like there was that show, what was it called? I think it was called my Strange Addiction and yeah, people, people are interesting, that's, you know me putting it nicely. Yeah, I would love to know the psychology behind that and why he likes that and what happened to him in his life. Like how did he realize that he liked that? That's what I wonder, like the psychology behind someone who has a particular fetish. Like how did you find out you had that fetish? Like how did he realize he liked being treated like a baby? I don't know, I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but I would love to learn what that's about. But good for you, great for your car girl. Yeah, keep doing that, and if you want to let me know what spicy site you were on, email me back. Okie, dokie, the next one. Okay, this was my circle back.
Speaker 1:This was a response to the gossip that I read in the last episode about the co-worker named quote unquote Susan, possibly where I was. Like did Susan murder her husband, because it seemed a little fishy. Someone responded due to that piece of gossip, so this is kind of a circle back. Also, I want to add a trigger warning before this, before I read this, it mentions suicide. So in case that's a sensitive subject, I just want to be sensitive to everyone's needs. So, yeah, trigger warning. This mentions suicide. So if that's a topic that you'd like to stay away from, just skip ahead a few minutes. So with that, anonymous says. I heard the gossip about the coworker who moved on quickly after her husband died, and I have kind of a similar story.
Speaker 1:Around May of last year a male coworker's wife died from suicide. Everyone in the office chipped in to purchase a standing tribute bouquet for the funeral and some of us myself included cooked meals to leave with him and his two sons. He took some time off of work and I know he went to spend some time up north visiting his in-laws. After a couple of months he came back to work and we all greeted him with hugs and everything seemed to go back to normal with him as much as it could. One day we were in the lunchroom together with a few other coworkers when someone asked how his children were. He said they had been living with his in-laws since it happened and then shrugged it off. We all found it strange, but I didn't really jump to any conclusions because I figured everyone grieves differently.
Speaker 1:So at the company Christmas party, everyone is there having drinks, mingling, dancing around, and it's fun. He comes up to me and grabs my waist and whispers in my ear that he wants me. I assume he's drunk and laugh it off. When I'm ready to call it a night, I head to the elevator and he meets me there and asks if I want to come home with him. I say no and he says quote my wife is dead and my kids are gone, so we have the house to ourselves. When I say I had chills, I mean that a full electrical current ran through my body and I was petrified. The next morning I call my friend who also works at the office and she says he was hitting on almost every woman that night. Something just didn't sit right with me. When we came back from the holiday break I ended up going to my bosses to say something and three other women had reported that he had been inappropriate with them that night as well. Going as far as to grab a woman's breast. He was fired on the spot.
Speaker 1:Do I think he had something to do with her death? I don't think so, but something changed in him. I don't know if it was grief, but he became dark and almost predator, like. I have zero contact with him and I'm keeping it that way. Anonymous, okay, this, when I read that, like, like I said, I like to you know click my feet together and I love to you know giddy at the gossip. This gossip, this was, this was dark. Whether he killed his wife or not, I mean I would like to think he he didn't. I mean I'd like to think people aren't murderers. But that's, that's dark.
Speaker 1:And yeah, people deal with grief in many different ways. I mean, I've had terrible grief in my life and I can tell you I did not deal with it properly and I probably would still need to go to therapy for it, but I definitely didn't start hitting on coworkers and then that like for him to say my wife is dead and the kids are gone, that's so callous. You know it's um, it it's concerning. That would concern me and I I can, I know what you mean when you say like you had, like your chills were just like it made you want to like run, like physically run away, cause that's, that's a scary thing to say. And for for him to just like full on start assaulting his female co-workers is different. That's especially someone who didn't seem to like. Obviously, everyone at the office cared about him. You know, you guys sent flowers, you specifically cooked meals for him and his two kids, and it seems like something switched in him. And who knows if that person that came out had been lingering there the entire time, or if it came out due to the grief, who knows? Um, that's, yeah, that was concerning to me.
Speaker 1:When I read that, I was like, like it gave me like like a pit in my stomach, like I felt uneasy about it. I wonder what has happened since. Like, I mean, I don't want you to contact him or anything, but yeah, I just I wonder, did he just kind of like lost this or is, I don't know, is something going on? But, um, yeah, very, very weird, not comforting at all. Yeah, that gave me a pit for sure.
Speaker 1:Um, also, I never intended for this podcast to turn into like a true crime podcast, but if it does, I'm definitely not going to be mad about it. I love true crime like that's. Like what my boyfriend and I watch like on a consistent basis is like the id channel or like we watch. Actually I lie, we watch the id channel on hbo max because we love like binge watching a show. Right now we're watching what's it called? Oh, your worst nightmare. It's scary shit.
Speaker 1:Um, I love to read about it, hear about it. Definitely don't want to be a part of it, you know personally. But, um, yeah, so I guess if you have some more stories like this that involve I don't know crime crime, send that in. I'm afraid of what I'm inviting in when I say that. But yeah, if you have some crime gossip, send that in. I'm down to read it. Like I said, love watching it on TV shows. So you know, let's weave it into my work.
Speaker 1:And with that we have the very last piece of gossip for this episode. And it's a doozy. I saved it for last because I was like damn, that packs a punch. So, anonymous says my half sister and I did an Ancestrycom DNA test and found out we are in fact full siblings and not half siblings like we were told our entire lives. So that means my mom cheated on her second husband with her first husband. We haven't mentioned it to anyone else in the family and I'm not sure if we ever will. Anonymous, girl, damn, that is some hefty, hefty family gossip right there.
Speaker 1:I've never done one of those DNA tests. I've wanted to, but also I don't know what I'm going to learn in doing it, and that's that scares me. So I don't know if I'm ever going to do it. Like I said, I'm an only child. Um, I'm sure in doing this test, in doing a DNA test, I would find out that my family is much bigger than I know it to be. Um, so I think I I don't want to do it just because I want to keep it that way. And I'm sure you guys did not expect to find out your full siblings, that's. I kind of want you to tell your mom like hey, we found this out, like what's the story? I mean, I wouldn't say anything to the dads, but maybe to your mom I'd be like, hey, you know, this is what we found out, what's up? But yeah, I've never been in the situation to do that and I'm going to keep it that way. And that is the end of our episode.
Speaker 1:Again, great gremlin stories. I really hope I did well on gremlin Guidance and Gremlin Gossip, of course, my new favorite thing in life absolutely love it. So with that I'm going to end the episode and let you guys know to email the podcast if you have a Gremlin story that you want shared on the podcast. If you need Gremlin Guidance I know I might not have done well by myself today, but I'm going to have guests coming on and I will pepper them with the Gremlin Guidance. I know I might not have done well by myself today, but I'm going to have guests coming on and I will pepper them with the Gremlin Guidance questions. Send those in. Also, if you have a piece of Gremlin Gossip that you are dying to share and you can't share with anyone else, or even if you can share it with other people and you just want it read on the podcast, send that in. I live for it. I love it. I absolutely love gossip. So again, gremlin stories, gremlin guidance, gremlin gossip send that in.
Speaker 1:You can email the podcast, emily to gremlin pod, at gmailcom. If you want to follow myself and the podcast, you can follow me, emily to gremlin pod, on instagram and and TikTok. And if you want to watch this episode on YouTube, emilytogramilypod on YouTube. Hopefully no one's really watching today, with the exception of Jay. Hi, jay, because I have no nails on and I am very pale and you know today's been a day. So with that, I am going to say cheersies, cheers to you, cheers to me, cheers to our amazing submissions. Again, if you want to turn this into a crime podcast, let's go, all right, cheersies. Bye, guys, bye.
