Emily to Gremily

New Year, New Gremlins

• Emily Hogan

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Ready to turn page one of 2026 with a little sparkle and a lot of honesty? I’m clinking Martinelli’s and mapping out what a realistic reset looks like: maybe Dry January, maybe a customized 75 Hard, definitely not perfection theater. I share why I started Emily to Gremily, how our three segments, Stories, Guidance, and Gossip, create a safe, funny, and unfiltered space for messy moments, hard questions, and the relief of being seen.

We revisit the meaning behind the name and then jump into New Year rituals that tie intention to action. Grapes, lentils, and the 12 Nights of Yule reveal a twist: after burning twelve wishes to the universe, the thirteenth becomes a promise to yourself. Mine turned out to be the hardest one, big, murky, and a little scary, which is exactly why it matters. I talk through building a plan from zero: breaking goals into learnable skills, setting milestones, and staying accountable without letting discipline become punishment.

Your submissions bring the episode to life. A Gremlin Story from a Caribbean New Year turns the “ick” dial to ten with a hilarious sandals saga and a next-day hangxiety we can all feel. In Gremlin Guidance, we get serious: how to respond when family keeps pressing for a baby while you’re privately navigating fertility. I offer concise, respectful scripts that protect your privacy and reinforce boundaries. Then Gremlin Gossip gets spicy with a partner who only wants public hookups.

Hit play, share with a friend who needs a laugh and a boundary, and if you’re into this vibe, subscribe and leave a five-star review so more gremlins can find us. Here’s to a year of intentional habits, brave wishes, and the kind of community that turns “yuck” into a belly laugh.

If you’ve got a story, question, or secret that needs a home, my inbox is open, anonymous is welcome. I’m also collecting true crime and ghost stories for upcoming specials, so send the mysteries that won’t let you sleep. Email to podcast at EMILYTOGREMILYPOD@GMAIL.COM or send a DM to @emilytogremilypod on Instagram or TikTok.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, cheers guys. Emily, Emily to Gremily here with another solo episode, the first solo episode of 2026. Happy New Year, everyone. I hope you guys had an amazing and fantastic New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I want to welcome back all the returning listeners. And if you are a brand new listener, welcome. Thanks for tuning in. The episode drink. I'm I don't know exactly what I'm doing, but it's kind of a repeat of last week's episode. It's another Martinelli's um cider. This one I think is the apple pomegranate, I think. I am debating doing like a dry January. Don't hold me to that because as I say that, I'm like, mm, I'm probably not. But I am kind of flirting with the idea of doing that 75 hard challenge. I might have to tweak it a little bit just to kind of fit my lifestyle a little better. I know the whole purpose of it is to, you know, challenge yourself and create healthy habits, but I might have to tweak it a little bit. Maybe it'll be somewhere in between like 75 hard and 75 medium. I'm researching it, I'm figuring it out. Definitely not gonna be starting it like tomorrow. But I will let you guys know if I decide to do that. Also, I thought it'd be really good for my content creation. I could definitely get a lot of content out of doing it. Um, it might be a lot of me complaining because I don't mind eating healthy, I don't mind cutting out alcohol. It's the working out that really, really is maybe demotivating me. Um I can work out, it's just I don't like to like lift weights and do that kind of stuff, but we shall see. So yeah, episode drink is non-alcoholic again. So because it's the first episode of 2026, and I have noticed I've gotten a real big spike in um episode downloads. So I have some new listeners. I wanted to kind of do like just a mini reintroduction of myself and the podcast. In case this is your first time listening, or if last week was your first time listening, you can always go back to the previous episodes. Um, we started the first episode was April 1st, April Fool's Day, which is a little ironic. But you could always go back. Even then, though, I don't think I really did a proper introduction because I was so nervous. So let's remedy that situation now. I am Emily. I am 32. I'm 32. I was about to say 31, and I'm like, no, you're I'm not 31. I'm 32. Ew. Um, I live in Los Angeles, California, born and raised, grew up here my entire life. Um, my birthday's August 2nd of 93, and I am a Leo, which kind of explains why I put my own name in the title of the podcast. And this, I started this podcast just because I wanted to create a community of people who can just get together, send in their stories of maybe something they did while they were drunk, something stupid. They can gossip, they can ask questions. As of right now, it could totally change in the future. But as of right now, we have three different segments of the podcast. We have the original, which started it all, which is Gremlin Stories. And those are stories that people send in about something they did that was super embarrassing. Maybe they were a little inebriated. Um, it's not a requirement, it's just something that happened. Um, people can send in those stories. They'll be read on the podcast. We also have Gremlin Guidance, where you can send me your questions if you're having a situation in your life that you need advice on, whether it be personal, work-related, um, relationship-related, just pretty much anything under the sun. I always say I am not a licensed psychologist, psychiatrist. I say I need one, but I am not one. So take my advice with a grain of salt. It's just as if you were talking to your friend and asking their advice on something that was happening in your life. So we have a lot of that. And the newest segment, which started a few months ago, is Gremlin Gossip. And that is if you have a really juicy piece of gossip that you want to send into the podcast. It could be about yourself, it could be about somebody you know, um, family member, colleague, friend, anything. And maybe you can't tell anybody else, and you can send it in and have it be read on the podcast, and you can just kind of get it out of your system. It was started because I was sent in a piece of mail. I remember the name. It was Joey. Joey sent in what they thought wasn't really a Gremlin story, it kind of became gossip. And I am a nosy Nelly. I absolutely love pretty much to dig in everyone's business. So when I was sent that, I was like, this is a perfect addition to the podcast. So if you have a juicy piece of gossip, you can send that in. It'll be read on the podcast. It's a lot of fun. And if you have any stories, if you need guidance, or if you have gossip, you can email me at emily to gremilypod at gmail.com or you can message or DM me on Instagram or TikTok, EmilyTogremlypod on both. So yeah, that's pretty much it. The goal of the podcast is just to bring together all of us. The name of the podcast, Emily to Gremlin, really started because I had a friend who said that when I would drink too much, I kind of turned into a gremlin. I mean, I think I'm cute and sweet, but apparently I'm not. And that's off of the movie Gremlins, where they say you can't feed the gremlins after midnight because then they turn all crazy. And that is where I got the name Gremlin, hence why I named the podcast Emily to Gremily. It's just, you know, the transformation that happens when maybe you've had too much of something. It could be anything, honestly. Who knows? So, yeah, the goal of the podcast is just to bring everyone together. We can commiserate over the embarrassing things that we've done, whether it be something that happened last weekend, a few years ago, and I have listeners write in about stuff that happened years ago, like back when they were in high school, and now they're adults now. So if you have anything like that, make sure to send those in. Also, you can sign your name or you can write anonymous if you don't want your name read on the podcast. Definitely don't want to blow up anyone's spot here. And yeah, so that's pretty much it. If you have anything, send it in. Always excited to see my inbox fill up with brand new messages. It's one of my favorite things to do is to just go through my email and pick out ones that are gonna go into the episode. So make sure to send yours in. If you sent something in and it hasn't been read yet, it might have just kind of got lost in the middle. So just resend it in. That's totally fine. It'll just get pushed back up to the top and it'll be easier for me to find it. Last week I was talking about um resolutions I was gonna make. Still planning on sticking to them. I even might add the 75 hard onto it. I'm not entirely sure. I'm still flirting with the idea, so standby. I'll I'll let you guys know. But I was doing a few rituals like on New Year's Eve to supposedly bring luck. I don't know. I'm a pretty superstitious person for the most part. I don't know, it's kind of like that office quote where Michael Scott says he's not superstitious, but he is a little stitched. That's kind of how I feel. Last year I did the eat 12 grapes at midnight, and it's supposed to be for like 12 wishes. But I feel like maybe that one is a little more towards like finding love. And I already have love and a partner, so and I didn't sit under a table to do it. So we did eat the grapes, but I don't know. But I did hear this year, I mean it's been a tradition forever, but I personally heard about it this upcoming New Year's. Was if you throw lentils over your head at midnight, it's supposed to bring wealth and prosperity. So that's what I did. We went out onto our patio because I didn't want to throw lentils in the house. And at midnight, we just showered and reined ourselves with lentils. They were uncooked, dry lentils. And let's see what happens with this year. Hopefully, we have wealth and prosperity and luck. And then I also did make a lentil soup because they said if you eat lentil soup, it's supposed to bring good luck as well, or it's supposed to bring good fortune and wealth because you're eating something that's like shaped like a coin. I don't know. We'll I'll let you know if it works or not um in a year. We'll see. Also, I saw I kind of have fallen onto the side of TikTok where it's very like witchy related. Um, so it's kind of like coven talk and totally love that. I am into like not witchcraft, that makes it sound evil, but just I love witchy stuff. And I found it was called the 12 Nights of Yule ritual, and it's where you write 13 wishes onto a piece of paper. I did it with notebook paper. I just like cut out 13 strips of paper, and you write down 13 manifestations that you want for this upcoming year for 2026. You start the first night on December 21st. So you're supposed to fold them all up. You have to fold it three ways towards you. So fold it inwards, three ways towards you. You put it all in a bowl, and then each night, starting December 21st, you pick one out of the bowl. You don't know which one you picked, and you light a white candle and you burn the paper, and it goes out into the universe. You do this for 12 nights, and on the 12th night, you burn your last wish, and you're left with one piece of paper left. All 12 wishes are supposed to go out into the universe, it's supposed to manifest for you, it's supposed to come to you. But the 13th wish, your last piece of paper, you open it, and that is the one that you personally are required to commit to, basically. That is your job to make it happen. So, my boyfriend and I, we both did this. We didn't tell each other what our wishes were. I wrote my 13 wishes in the notes app of my phone because I didn't want to forget what they were. And I think he did the same. I don't know, I wasn't watching him. And on the 12th night, we each picked out our manifestation, our wish, and read them. I don't know what his was. He doesn't know what mine was. I will say that when I opened my piece of paper, I was, I don't know if I was shocked or what it I was left with the hardest one. It was one of the ones I was really hoping were gonna go out into the universe and you know, happen for me. Um, I really left myself with the hardest wish. So I need to make something happen. Something really big and really amazing. Um, but it's gonna be a hard one to pull off. Maybe not hard. It's just gonna take a lot of work. And it's not that I'm allergic to work, it's just I don't exactly know how to make this specific wish happen as of right now. So I really need to almost like teach myself the ins and outs of said wish. But I'm committed. 2026 has to be an amazing year because 2025, it wasn't technically a personally bad year, it was just the climate of the world and life. It just um it really put a huge damper on the year. So I am committed to making this year positive for myself and in turn positive for others. And that's why I need all you guys to listen to the podcast, watch the podcast, download the podcast. So that is my goal of 2026. Help myself so I can help everybody else. Let's see what happens. So, for the rest of the episode, I wanted to pull submissions for each one of the segments. So we have one Gremlin story, one Gremlin guidance, and one piece of Gremlin gossip. So let's start with Gremlin stories. The first submission is from Alexa. Alexa said, I was listening to the podcast while I was doing my hair and makeup for New Year's Eve, and a comment you made ended up getting stuck in my drunk mind. I was on vacation in the Caribbean. Caribbean or Caribbean. Is it like tomato tomato? I don't know. Okay. I was on vacation in the Caribbean, so we were going to a beach party to ring in the new year. My girlfriends and I were definitely ready to party, so the shots and drinks were flowing, all capital letters. We rang in the new year, complete with sparklers, fireworks, and more drinks. I don't remember leaving the party and going back to my hotel, but the next morning I wake up feeling like absolute dog shit. And my friends asking me, Do you remember what you were saying last night? I was apparently running up to every man wearing sandals and pointing at their feet saying, Yuck. My friends were confused on why I was suddenly obsessed with men's feet. And my only response was, I'm just a gremlin. I turned them onto your podcast, so expect more downloads from my group of girls. Also, I'm writing this at the airport and still have a hangover. Won't be drinking anytime soon, but I'll be cheering on your cocktail of the week. Signed Alexa. Okay. Um, so was it last episode? No, it was two episodes ago. I was asked what my icks are, whether it be, I guess, in life or men, I don't know. I said men's feet. I don't like to see men's feet. I I know they're there, but I don't need to see them with my own eyes. I was saying that because I live in Los Angeles and it's usually sunny. Actually, this past like week or two, it hasn't been sunny and it's been raining, so you know, everyone's in a tizzy. But because I live in LA, there's a lot of guys who wear sandals or flip-flops or even the worst, the Birkenstocks. And I can see their feet and I can see their toes, and it's just ugh, like I don't want to see it. And I said that was an ick. And I love Alexa that you turned it into a yuck. And I hate, you know what I really hate? When you wake up the next morning and you have that anxiety and you have someone being like, Do you remember what you said last night? Like, no, I don't, and I don't want to be reminded. Like, that wasn't me. That was somebody else. So what she did on her own time is not my business or my problem. I hate that. But I love that you kept saying yuck. And you know what? Maybe they should have just been wearing like boat, like cute boat shoes or something. I know they're in the sand, but like, I don't know. I probably shouldn't shame men for having feet. Whatever. I don't know. But Alexa, love you. Thank you for turning your girlfriends on to the podcast. You guys know I love to look at my analytics and love to see new countries pop up. Um, I can see what cities pop up in each country too. That might sound a little creepy, but it's not. It's not like I can see your location. I just know like I can see Los Angeles, you know, Brooklyn, New York, Dallas, Texas, and all that. And then I can see cities in other countries. So I love getting to see my analytics and see more downloads pop up and more countries and more cities, and it's super diverse, and I absolutely love that. So thank you for turning them on to the podcast. You still have a hangover, yeah, I'm sure. Um, see that I used to be able to drink much more binge-like, I suppose, um, when I was younger, but the hangovers nowadays, they they hit different and it makes you really question whether or not you want to be alive anymore sometimes. I haven't had that bad of a hangover in a while. I think the last time I had a really bad hangover. Actually, okay, it wasn't that long ago. It was when I had Jay on the podcast and we were drinking straight out of the Tito's bottle on camera while we were recording. That was a special time, and I felt horrible for like two days. And you said, won't be drinking again anytime soon, but I'll be cheering on your cocktail of the week. I don't have a cocktail this week, so you can join me in having martinellies. And next week I'll let you guys know if I'm gonna do dry January or 75 Hard or if I'll be back on my same old shit and you'll see me with a martini or something. We'll see. But Alexa, thank you for your submission. Absolutely loved it. Okay, the next one is going to be a gremlin guidance, and it is from Anonymous. Anonymous says, I'm curious on how you would approach this dilemma. I'm a 34-year-old female married to my amazing husband of four years this April. Congratulations. While visiting my in-laws over the holiday, his family kept constantly asking us when we would finally have a baby. His mother in particular kept saying, quote, so when are you two going to give me a grandchild? This is where my issue is. We are trying for kids, but have recently found out that due to fertility issues, it is possible our only chance to conceive a child is through IVF. I am not ready to discuss this with anyone, including his family, but every time they ask, I'm lost on what I can say. How would you navigate this dilemma? Love a hopeful one-day mother. Okay. I I absolutely loathe this question. I hate being asked, when are you gonna have a baby? If I wanted to be kind of mean about it, I could say it's none of your goddamn business. I don't say that, but sometimes I want to. I if you it's so hard because this is exactly why I hate this question. You don't know the ins and outs of someone's everyday life and their personal life and possibly a struggle that they might be going through. So asking this question, you're pretty much assuming that these are two healthy people that want to have a child. Please stop asking this question because there could be a medical issue where they can't have a child or they're struggling to conceive a child, or maybe they don't want kids at all. Please, please, please stop asking this question. So, because you're trying to be nice about it, I would just say, you know what? We'll let you know when it happens. Um, maybe there's a nicer way to say this. I don't know. I'm honestly personally triggered by this question. It's it's one of my least favorite things. It makes me squirm when I'm asked this. And I've been asked this before, and I'm sure I'll be asked this again in the future. But because you are dealing with a very sensitive topic, and I'm sure when you're asked this question, it it hurts. And it hurts your feelings, and it's not, it's definitely not their intention to hurt your feelings in asking the question. I'm sure they're just very excited for a new addition to the family. So I would just say, you know what? We'll let you know what. When it happens, stay tuned. And when you're ready to talk about the struggles that you're having, then you maybe you can go into a more um in-depth discussion about what exactly you're struggling with, the process that you are now having to go through, whatever it may be. Or if you decide you don't want to tell anyone about this, that's fine. Like your family isn't owed an explanation. You know, this is a private matter between yourself and your husband. So it can stay that way. And if other people keep pressing about it, just be like, you know what? I'm kind of uncomfortable with the question. When we're pregnant, we'll let you know. Plain and simple. You could just kind of nip it in the bud right there. It's really, it's it's a hard question to navigate. It's one of my least favorite. But please, please, please stop asking women when they are going to finally quote unquote unquote finally have a baby. Please stop asking it. It is not your business. And if they wanted to tell you, they would tell you and include you in the conversation. So let's in 2026, let's stop asking this question. So, yes, that's my advice on that. It's a little triggering for me, I guess. I don't know. But anonymous, I'm sending you all the good vibes. And everyone, please stop bothering her. Please and thank you. Let's move on. All right, and now we have a piece of Gremlin gossip. I feel like I haven't read a gossip in a while, actually. So yeah, let's get this started. This is from Talia. Talia says, this is a gossip and a question. I was once dating a guy who would only want to hook up outdoors or in public. At first, I was into it. I thought it was kind of freeing and definitely not something I had done before. But then, while taking a late night walk from a bar to his house, we passed by a park with a child's jungle gym. He pulled me over and wanted to have sex on top of the slide entrance. That was just a little too extreme for me. Then another night I offered for him to come over to my apartment and cook for him. And after, when I started suggesting the classic Netflix and Chill, he asked where we could go. Like duh, the bedroom. When I told him I wanted to stay in, he was immediately turned off. We both lived in our own apartments, so there was no excuse for lack of privacy. Anyway, I ended things with him, but haven't looked at a jungle gym the same since. My question for you is where's the most adventurous place you've ever hooked up with someone? Signed Tolia. Okay, let's die let's dissect this real quick. Obviously, lack of privacy is not an issue for him if he's willing to possibly get caught by uh strangers in a park. Yeah, he's I wonder what his deal is. Like he's just an exhibitionist, I guess, right? The most adventurous place I've hooked up, I was trying to think about this, and the only thing I can the only thing I could think of was, and it it kind of bummed me out to think about it. It was a movie theater. And uh I was like younger on the younger side, not like young, young, but younger than I am right now. And I don't know, it's not like we went to like, you know, a blockbuster hit the first week it came out. It was like, I don't know, we went to like a really weird time showing and it the movie had been out for three weeks already, so nobody was really there. But I I did end up finding out years later that apparently I don't know if this is true. See, this is why I'm like uh about it. Apparently, there are cameras that are like next to the bit the screen, so they're facing towards the audience, and if that's true, that really bums me out. Like I'm bumming hard over that. I hope that was just a rumor that I heard and then like maybe it was said at one point to like discourage people from doing that. I don't know. Definitely haven't done it since, that's for sure. So yeah, guys, let me know if that's an actual thing. Actually, don't I'm I don't know. That sucks if that's true. Because, like, does that mean that there's like a recording of it somewhere? I don't know. Um, yeah, I guess movie theater would maybe be my most adventurous place, I think. I don't know. That was just the first one that came to my head, so that's the one I'm going with. But Talia, thank you for that. So yeah, okay. That's pretty much our episode, the very first episode of 2026. If you want to follow myself and the podcast, you can do so on Instagram and TikTok, Emily to Gremlin Pod on both. You can also watch this episode and almost all the past episodes of 2025 on YouTube, Emily to Gremlied Pod on YouTube. If you have any Gremlin stories, you need Gremlin guidance, or you have a juicy piece of Gremlin gossip, you can email myself and the podcast, Emily to Gremlépod at gmail.com, or if you'd like, you can message or DM me on socials. If you have any suggestions for future guests, I now have a list of possible people. It's just a matter of, you know, getting all my ducks in a row and making it happen. But if you have any other suggestions that you would like to send in, you can send those in, emlay to gremlinapod at gmail.com or message me on social media. We do already have a call to action. There was a listener, Sarah, who really loved the true crime episode that we did. So if you have any true crime episodes andor ghost or spooky stories, send those in, emlay to gremlatepod at gmail.com, and we are gonna do another true crime episode. I might split the episodes up into one is true crime and another is ghost and spooky stories. I am thumbing through all the emails I've received and deciding exactly how I'm gonna format it, but please send those in. Maybe we can make it like a series. So keep emailing those in. I'm very excited to go through all of them and organize a brand new episode. And make sure to like, follow, share, subscribe, rate five stars, do all the things, and we're gonna cheers out with my non-alcoholic drink for the second week in a row. Very weird, but we'll see what happens. Cheers to you, cheers to me, and cheers to all my submissions. I hope you guys had a wonderful new year, and I'll see you guys next week.

unknown:

Bye.

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Emily Hogan

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