Boundaries, Superstition, And Owning Your Hometown Narrative

A same-day edit, a sparkling water that lied to my eyes, and a studio torn apart, somehow it all adds up to one of our most honest rides yet. I pull back the curtain on my DIY workflow, sprinting from record to release while my gear migrates left and my timer disappears. Then we pivot into Lunar New Year rituals: deep-cleaning, no knives, soup prepped ahead, and the hair rule that put my much-needed chop on pause. I’m sitting on a ponytail ready for donation and choosing patience (and a curling iron) over impulse, hoping for an even bigger gift to Locks of Love and a fresh look for our year-one milestone.

Your stories brought the heat and the blush. One listener’s “movie date” in a borrowed car spiraled into a sibling standoff via a very incriminating wrapper. That set off my own teenage memory: realizing the adults knew all along and chose grace over drama. It’s funny how embarrassment can alchemize into empathy once time does its work.

We get practical in Guidance. If you’re considering a threesome in a great marriage, here’s the roadmap: open the conversation without jokes, decide boundaries together, set veto power, clarify what’s off-limits, and plan the after-talk before the afterglow. Curiosity isn’t a problem; unclear rules are. Then we cheer on a 23-year-old nurse thinking about moving from New Jersey to Chicago. Home stays home; you get to expand your map.

Finally, Gremlin Gossip bridges nostalgia and civic pride when an old classmate writes in and Culver City lands on national TV as a supposed hotbed of crime. I call that out with local knowledge and a simple standard: if you’re going to indict a city, bring real data. The heart of Screenland deserves accuracy.

Come hang out for DIY creativity, superstition with a smile, boundary-setting that actually works, and a hometown clapback grounded in facts. If you laughed, learned, or yelled “same,” tap follow, and share with a friend.

Have your own Gremlin Story you want to share? Need Gremlin Guidance? Have a juicy piece of Gremlin Gossip? Want to submit a scenario to WWGD? Email the podcast at EMILYTOGREMLIYPOD@GMAIL.COM and follow on Instagram and TikTok @emilytogremilypod

Transcript

Cold Open And Drink Of The Week

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Okay, cheers guys. Emily, Emily to Gremly here with another solo episode.

Rapid Turnaround And DIY Production

SPEAKER_00 0:20

The drink of the week kind of disappointed me. Um, it is okay, actually, it's not a disappointment. I don't want to like say the brand is a disappointment. It's a Waterloo, it's the flavor summer berry. I don't know why, but in my mind, I feel like it's gonna come out like colorful and it came out clear. So that's why it was a disappointment, not because the flavor is a disappointment. Waterloo, if you're listening to this, um, I would love for you to be a sponsor. But yeah, I thought it was gonna have some color, so I topped it with a couple. There's like three little frozen blueberries in there. I don't know. Um, I am turning this episode around extremely quickly. So last week I had Jay in town. We didn't film an episode, it was more like a content day slash working on other projects, and so she was over for a couple of days, then I had some meetings going on, and then it was Valentine's Day. So I kind of had my entire week set up. I knew I was gonna film today. Today is Monday the 16th. This episode comes out Tuesday the 17th. So I am flipping this around really quickly. I knew I was gonna do it on Monday. I knew it was gonna be a tight turnaround, but it's a solo episode, so I know that I can turn it around quickly enough. So I'm filming right now. I'm gonna go straight into listening and editing. Then I gotta edit the video, then I gotta make the stills. So everything that you guys see tomorrow or whenever you listen to it, just know I did it the day before. And hopefully it doesn't feel rushed, and hopefully the quality is still primo, but that's where we're

Studio Redesign And Setup Woes

SPEAKER_00 2:05

at. Also, I am rearranging the entire studio, so everything is all out of whack. I don't have my usual setup right here like I normally do, where I can see how long I've been filming for. Everything is over here now. So if you see if you're watching on YouTube and you see me peer over to my left, it is because that's where I can see all of my equipment. My camera is still in front of me, but everything else is to the left. And then I got a bunch of stuffs over here that I gotta put away, and I'm gonna redesign this room and make it a little more aesthetically pleasing and just kind of make the room a little more functional for myself. Well, actually, just for myself. I'm the only one that uses this room. So there we go. Also,

Lunar New Year Prep And Superstitions

SPEAKER_00 2:48

this is gonna be a tight turnaround as far as like home goes, because tomorrow is the beginning of lunar new year, and I had talked about this at the beginning of 2026, and I had mentioned it's the year of the fire horse, and I know it didn't start until February 17th, but I was still taking it into account. But tomorrow is the actual start of it, which means the whole house has to be clean because you can't clean or sweep or use knives or scissors on the day, so I gotta clean the house and do all this stuff. Um, I also decided I'm gonna make a soup tonight that we can eat tomorrow. That way we're not cutting anything like meat-wise. And you know, if I'm cooking, I'm using knives to like chop my ingredients. So I gotta do that tonight as well. Also, I had mentioned last week that my outfit was annoying me, and I had mentioned my hair was annoying me. Um, it still is. But part of the lunar new year is you aren't supposed to cut your hair. I thought, because I should have researched better, that it only applied to you can't cut your hair on the 17th. And that is not the case. You can't cut your hair from February 17th until March 18th. So if I would have known that and researched it like I should have, like to be a knowledgeable person, I would have cut my hair last week. I would have figured out a way to cut my hair, but I can't. So I decided to, if you're watching on YouTube, I decided to curl it, which I haven't done in so long, but I decided to curl it because I've been inspired by Margot Robbie's look in Withering Heights. And her hair isn't curled, it's crimped. But you know, I'm working with what I got and I'm gonna make the best of it. So

Hair Rules, Donation Plans, And Style Fix

SPEAKER_00 4:40

I can't cut my hair until after March 18th, which is a really big bummer because I'm so sick of my hair. Originally, and not originally, I'm still doing it. The reason I waited so long for a haircut is because I was gonna donate it to Locks of Love. It has to be a minimum of 10 inches. So I waited and I waited, and my hair grows fast, but I didn't want it, I didn't want the 10 inches to cut me like to my chin, and I have like a little bob, like maybe too short of a bob, and I didn't want a pixie cut. I just I feel like I don't have the face for that. But I did want shorter hair, I want it to come to like my shoulders. I finally got there and it lined up perfectly with this. So I figure, okay, fine, I'll just wait a month and maybe I'll be donating like 11 inches or 12 inches. I don't know, to be honest. Um, so yeah, one more month of my hair, and I figure it'll be perfect timing for the one-year anniversary of the podcast, and I'll just have a fresh new look entering into year two of this podcast. I don't know. I'm trying to spin it in a good way to like not annoy myself because I'm so bummed I didn't look it up before. And my boyfriend kind of gave me a little bit of shit for it. Not shit, actually. He wasn't being like mean or rude, he was just like, you know, you're not Chinese, right? Like you don't have to adhere to it, which I know, and I'm not saying I'm Chinese and not like doing like some cultural appropriation thing, but I've been really into it on TikTok. I'm a superstitious person, so I feel like if I cut my hair, I'm gonna cut away my good fortune. So, you know, leave me alone. Um, but yeah, and everyone on TikTok, there's all these really cute influencers who are like who are Chinese and they're like, oh, you know, you're a brand new Chinese baddie, blah, blah, blah. And you know, why why not? Why can't I be one? I'm not a very good one, apparently, because I didn't know the friggin' rules, but whatever. Um, so yeah, one more month of my hair. Um I don't know what I'm gonna be doing with it. I was really already looking forward to the bob I was gonna get, the cut I was gonna get. It was gonna be really cute, and I think I kind of look a little bit better with shorter hair, but oh well, I digress. What can we do?

Launching Segments And Listener Story

SPEAKER_00 7:02

All right, guys, so let's get started with our episode. We have all three segments today. We have Gremlin Stories, Gremlin Guidance, and Gremlin gossip. So let's get started. Let's see, the first one is from Adelaide. Adelaide says, My sister just reminded me of this story and we were laughing so hard, so I thought I should share it. Back in year 12 of school, I developed a wee bit of a wild streak. Sneaking out in the middle of the night to meet my boyfriend, staying out late to go to parties, and so forth. Nothing too out of the ordinary for a teenager, but still, my parents weren't pleased. But because of this, my parents wouldn't buy me a car until my behavior changed. Being a lazy teen, I decided I would just bust it around the city or borrow my sister's car the very few chances she would actually let me. On a Saturday night, she decided to be nice and allow me to use her car on the condition that I did not drink. I said I wasn't and I was just going on a movie date with my boyfriend, which was true. What I didn't tell her was we would also be using her car for a shag. So that night, after the movie, we went to a secluded street, had our fun, and I drove him home. The next morning, my sister wakes me up holding the condom wrapper we forgot to throw away. My heart jumped out of my throat. I began begging her to not tell our parents, and I was able to buy her silence on the condition that I do all of her chores. Incidentally, my parents saw how hard I was working around the house and still passing school. So they rewarded me with a car come graduation. Fun times to look back on. Adelaide. Okay, when I first like read this, like I told you guys, I kind of do like a real quick skim of the story before I like fully read it. And when I saw that you borrowed the car, I thought for sure I was like, oh my god, you're gonna go out drinking and wreck her car. So luckily it wasn't that, like, it ended up not being as bad as I thought it was going to be. But how embarrassing. I would have I would have died. And luckily you were able to buy her silence. I I was debating,

Host’s Embarrassing Teen Memory

SPEAKER_00 9:20

talking about this. I guess I might as well, whatever. Um, I kind of I don't have a similar situation, but I kind of have a similar story where oh my god, I it was so embarrassing. I um oh god, I feel hot like that I'm gonna say it. So I I got nervous in a high school, like obviously my boyfriend and I would like mess around after school, whatever. We would always go back to my nana's house because there was nobody there, and you know, just we were being stupid teenagers. And one time he he went he went and bought a brand new box because he didn't have any, and so he like went to like ride aid, and freaking ride aid keeps coming up in all my stories, I swear. R.I.P. And um anyway, he he went home that night and whatever, and oh god, and that night I you know, whoever I lived with my nana, and whoever was the last to go to bed is the one who locked up the house and made sure everything was good. So that's what I was doing. And I saw on it, wasn't the coffee table, it was like this side table she had like over near like this big like window um that had like a bunch of candles on it, and like I would put like sometimes my book bag there, um, because it was right near the front door. I saw the right-aid bag was sitting right there, and my heart like like sank into my butt, and I was like, oh my god, please let that be an empty bag. And sure enough, it was the right-aid bag that had the box of condoms in it, and it was opened and there was one missing, and I was like, Oh my god. And I was like, crap, did she see it? And so I was like, Okay, she didn't say anything to me, she didn't scold me, she didn't talk to me, I wasn't in trouble, she didn't act a different way towards me. So I'm like, all right, she mustn't have seen it. So I put it in my backpack to go to school the next day, and I went to school, I was livid with him. I would like remember I was yelling at him. Also, I was like a really big bitch to him back in high school. Well, not back in high school, I was just a bitch to him all the time, which you know, super sorry. But I like yelled at him. I was like, what the hell? You left it there. Oh my god, we could have gotten caught, I could have gotten in trouble, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Anyway, so life goes on. And eventually she says to me, This was like after I had graduated high school, I was no longer with that boyfriend. Was I? I don't think I was. I think we had already broken up. I don't know. The timeline of it's now all eskewed, everything's so eskewed now. But she had said to me, She was like, you know, I know that you've been sexually active. And I was like, What are you talking about? No, like that, I would never. And she's like, I found that right-aid bag that had the brand new box and it was opened. And I was like, Oh my god. And I was like, Well, why didn't you ever say anything to me? Like, I'm like, I was shocked. First of all, I was horrified, and I remember, like, you know, that feeling when you're embarrassed and you grow like so hot, but then like your insides are cold. It was like that, and I was just like, oh my god, like I was horrified. And I was like, why didn't you ever say anything to me about it? And she was like, I thought about it. She's like, and then I was like, well, why bother? You know, it's like it's not gonna stop them from doing what they're doing, they're already doing it, and if anything, it's just gonna make them like sneakier than they already are. So, you know, hey, at least they're being safe. And I was like, Great, thanks. It was one of the more embarrassing things that's happened to me. I couldn't believe it, but I was I was shocked she kept it a secret for so long, or like she kept it in and was just like, but then that means like she knew the whole time. I don't know. Oh god, I wish I had like alcohol right now. I feel so embarrassed. I feel like I'm like reliving it. Yeah, so luckily it was just your sister that found it and she was chill, and yeah, good times, Adelaide. Also, you said year 12, and then you said using her car for a shag. I gotta assume you're in the like the UK somewhere. So

Gremlin Guidance: Considering A Threesome

SPEAKER_00 13:40

super exciting. Okay, and we're gonna go right into Gremlin Guidance, which I don't feel like I have the ability to guide anyone right now because I am so embarrassed. Oh my god, why'd I tell that story? Ugh, I hate myself. Let's see, so Gremlin Guidance. This first one is anonymous. Anonymous asks, should I have a threesome? I guess we're keeping in with the sexual theme here. Please keep me anonymous, but I'm writing in because I've been debating about having a threesome. I've been married to my amazing husband for almost two years, but before meeting, I had hooked up with women in the past. I have been having kind of an itch to bring a woman into the bedroom, and I think my husband would be up for it, but I'm not sure. I also don't know if I would end up becoming jealous of him and her. So I'm at a crossroads on if or what I should say and how I should say it. I would love your guidance on this and your ideas. Anonymous. Okay, so if you think he would be up for it, then I would say you would you should just like kind of bring it up to him. I mean, it is it's your husband. You should be able to talk to him about like everything and anything for the most part. And you know, if you bring it up to him, it's not like it doesn't seem like he has like that jealousy type. It's and you're not asking to bring another man in the bedroom, it's another woman. If it was a man, maybe I would say like approach it a little more delicately, but it's another woman. So I and you think he'll be up for it. You know him better than I know him. So I would say you just casually bring it up to him to like test the waters, figure out if he would be like open to it, make sure you don't say it in a joking manner so he's doesn't think it's like I don't know, a test or something. And as far as the jealousy, I think if you both decide to do it and you both agree on whoever the lucky lady is gonna be, I think you guys, all three of you, then need to discuss like extremely clear boundaries of what is and isn't acceptable because you don't want there to be any gray area and then someone oversteps not realizing they're overstepping, and then you know it becomes a catastrophe. And you want this to be a positive experience and not a negative experience, or create problems where there weren't problems. So I think you need to bring it up to him and have a very well-thought-out conversation with him first, and then you guys can discuss who it would be, and then once that's decided on and everything's all copacetic, then have that conversation with her and say, This is what we've discussed, this is what we're comfortable with. Are you comfortable with it? And then find out, you know, where she stands with it. That's what I would say you should do. And I hope it was decent guidance. I'm not sure. I feel like that's like a like that's what I would tell my friend. Like, if my friend asked me, I would just be like, you know, just make sure there's very clear lines of communication. You know, you don't want there to be any misinterpretations of the quote unquote rules, you know what I mean? So that's what I'm gonna guide you to do. Have the conversation with him first, find out where his head space is at. Because what if he's not down to do it at all? Then the rest of it, I

Gremlin Guidance: Moving To Chicago

SPEAKER_00 17:05

guess, doesn't even matter. But if he's down for it, have you know the clear conversation with him and then find a girl, find a lucky lady to enjoy her company. Is that a proper way to say that? I don't know. So yeah, that's my guidance on that. And hopefully it wasn't jumbled. And yeah, there we go. All right, and the next guidance is from Emily. I did not write this in myself. We just have another Emily hanging out with us. All right, Emily says, I'm wondering your thoughts on moving to a brand new city. My name is also Emily, and I'm 23 years old. Right now I'm living in New Jersey, but I have been wanting to move to Chicago for a while. I've visited several times and have always enjoyed it, and now I'm just looking for a change of scenery. The lease is ending in May for my apartment, and instead of renewing the lease, I think I want to make the move. The only problem is I don't know anyone in Chicago and all my friends and family live here in Jersey. I am a nurse and can transfer for work, and I know I'll be able to meet new people, but leaving everyone behind is scary. Anyway, love the podcast and keep being you, Emily. You know, for me, I I'm such a creature of comfort. I don't like change, I don't like moving, I you know, I just it's everything like that scares me, but that's just because I don't like to push myself out of my comfort zone, which has been a detriment to myself, not every single time, but you know, there are certain things where I haven't had experiences that I wish I would have had, and it's because I limited myself to what I knew. So I think this is a great idea for you. You've visited the city, you know you like it. Um, let's see, you're 23 years old, you're young. Like the world is your oyster. You could go anywhere you want. And you say you're a nurse and you can transfer for work. I think you should just go for it. You know, you know that you like the city, you know there's a job that will be waiting for you there. I say you try it and you give it like a year, a year and a half. And if you by chance you hate it, you can always move home. You know, home is always gonna be there. So, and your friends and family, yeah, of course, leaving them sucks and is scary, and you know, you don't want to leave your people and you know, your community and your your circle, but you have this, you have an opportunity where you you could, and then you can just meet new people and add them into your into your life. I think this would be a really good thing for you. It's and it doesn't seem like there's anyone who's like holding you back from moving. You don't have someone telling you not to go. I think you should just do it. I mean, even if you had someone telling you not to go, I think you should still go. But I think it would be really fun. Yeah, that's pretty much my guidance. I don't really have anything else to say other than just do it, girl. I think it would be fun for you. Leaving, you know, your people, your group, your circle, your friends, your family is a scary thing. But, you know, you'll just you're gonna meet new people and expand your horizons. I think this would be a great thing for you to do. And I think it would be a really positive change for you. And you're from New Jersey, moving to Chicago. If you were like a native Californian moving to Chicago, I'd be like, hey, beware the winters, they're brutal. But you have brutal winters over there too. So, you know, I know Chicago weather is like crazy insane, but you've been in snow, you've been in blizzards and crazy winters. So I say you just go for it. That's my guidance. Do it, girl.

Gremlin Gossip: High School Throwback

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Do it, Emily, and love your name. Okay, and let's see, we are gonna move into Gremlin gossip, and I only have one of these today, and I wasn't sure where to put it. I wasn't sure if it was it wasn't a story, it wasn't guidance. It's kind of got it's not really gossipy either, but I'm throwing it in here because it's my podcast and I can do it at one. But again, another one that I scanned and I was like, I got like kind of nervous, and then I read the whole thing and I was like, all right. So here we go. Gremlin gossip reads Hi, I don't want this to sound creepy in any way, but I remember you from many, many years ago. When I found your podcast a few months ago, I thought you looked familiar, but couldn't exactly place where I knew you. Then in your Halloween episode, you called out the preschool teacher who traumatized you about escalators, super funny story by the way, and then it clicked. We went to high school together. You for sure don't remember me. I was a freshman. Class of 2014, while you were a senior, but I remember you because you were an editor on the school newspaper, and I really wanted to write for the paper to follow my journalistic dreams. And in looking at my yearbook, I saw not only were you on the paper, you were a club president and one cutest couple. Girl, you were busy. So the reason I'm emailing is because I wanted to know if you heard that Culver City made the national news when Pam Bondi called out Culver's representative on how the city is crime-filled and crime rampant. I almost spit out my coffee when I watched the news. I moved to Texas for college and now live on the East Coast. But I know the last thing Culver City is filled with is crime. If you read this on the podcast, please keep me anonymous. I have a very corporate job. But I would love to hear your thoughts on this. And it's so amazing to see a hometown girl out there making a name for herself. Love you, Culver City Queen, go centaurs. Anonymous. Okay, when I scanned this, I was like, oh my God, who the hell is this? I got scared. I don't know why. I like, you know, when you overthink something and you're like, oh my God. That's what I did. Okay, so this made me really want to go find my yearbook. I know where they are, they're in my storage unit, and I was just there putting away all my Christmas decorations. I know, I know, super late, but they were just sitting here hanging out basically in their boxes all packed away. But I was just there to put everything away. And I know they're in there. I know what box they're in. So I do want to go and find my senior yearbook because even though you're anonymous here, you obviously know that I saw your name in the email. So I do want to go and find you in the yearbook now that I know you were a freshman. Um, also, it's it's pretty funny. I forgot I was a president of a club, and when you wrote that, I was like, was I? And I I was. And I completely forgot about it. It's weird the things you forget. I obviously remember being an

Culver City In The News And Response

SPEAKER_00 24:15

editor on the school newspaper. I was super into the school paper. I started in junior year as a writer, and then my senior year, I was promoted to an editor, but I got to pick which section I could be in charge of. So I picked the news section, which kind of, you know, warmed my narcissistic little heart because it was the front page and then the second page and then like another page, like somewhere like buried within. But yeah, front page, it was all mine. So, you know, I got a real big head over that. And I loved the school newspaper. So I do hope you didn't tell me if you made it onto the paper, but I gotta assume you did. And I do remember winning cutest couple. I I do remember taking those pictures too. It was really insane because they asked myself and my boyfriend to like kiss for the picture, and I remember I said no because I was like, I can't be kissing a boy in my yearbook, and I was such a little prude in high school. Like, it's just it's funny to look like when I read it, I was thinking back on like how I like my mannerisms and the what I was like in high school, and it's just completely different than who I am now. You know, a 17-year-old me was like such a little prude and like uptight and like just this little bitch, and now I'm not a prude. Um, I am uptight and I am a bigger bitch, but it's just, you know, the transformation is pretty, pretty big. Um, okay, so to talk about Culver City making the news, I did see that, and I found it pretty laughable. Um I don't want to say mean things, even though that kind of is my nature anyway. But Pam Bondy was there to discuss the Epstein files and to be technically a witness and to answer the questions that she was being asked. She apparently doesn't know what it means to be a witness, even though she's a lawyer and an attorney general. Whatever. But she doesn't realize that witnesses are supposed to answer questions and not ask them themselves, and they're also not allowed to scream at the representatives that are asking said questions. Um, so instead of answering the questions about the Epstein files, she decided to use her time to call out the representative of this district and say that the district she represents is crime-filled, and specifically said Culver City, because you know, that's what Culver City's super known for. Not because, you know, we're considered the heart of Screenland, because we have Sony Studios, Culver Studios, it's like the birthplace of Hollywood and the pictures, the talkies. Um, but you know, other than calling out Culver City's representative, she decided to go on a tirade about how Trump is the greatest president to have ever existed. And it was just amazing, you know, how much she was able to say with her head so far up his asshole. Um, the fact she was able to speak at all is admirable. I appreciated it. So I thought it was a joke. The local news, you know, ABC 7, KTLA, CBS, NBC, blah, blah, blah. They all did um features on it. Going to downtown Culver City to show the area that she's speaking of, and they were interviewing people who are walking through the neighborhood and

Calls To Action And Sign Off

SPEAKER_00 28:00

everyone was laughing about it. It was, it was just a joke. And I think that really speaks to what's going on, is she took a very serious moment, something that they were discussing and trying to get the bottom of, get to the bottom of. The Epstein files are atrocious, and I don't think any of us are ready for the true gravity of what's in the what's in those files. So she took what was meant to be a very serious moment and turned it into a joke. I feel like that's really indicative of this entire administration. She took a very serious question and flipped it around and deflected and tried to say that Culver City is full of crime and it's not. Um, I don't know where she's getting her statistics from, but um this isn't 1980 anymore. The city isn't filled with crime or gangs or whatever the fuck she thinks is going on over here. So maybe she should do um better research. But like I said, it's hard to do that when you have your head up another person's asshole. And I guess that's how we're gonna end this podcast. Um, Culver City's amazing. Go Centaurs, hell yeah. All right, guys. So if you would like to follow myself and the podcast on social media, you may do so at Emily to Gremlinly Pod on Instagram and TikTok. You can also watch this episode and almost all past episodes on YouTube at Emily to GremlyPod. If you want to write in your own Gremlin story, you need Gremlin guidance, or you have a juicy piece of Gremlin gossip, make sure to email that in at Emily to Gremlympod at gmail.com, or you can DM or message me on Instagram or TikTok, whichever you prefer. And remember to let me know if you want to remain anonymous. Also, we do have our new call to action given to us by Leah. She wanted me to do a episode WWGD, What Would Gremily do? So send in those. We might be doing that sooner than I thought. I do have several emails already that are specifically for WWGD. So make sure to email those in. And remember the difference between guidance and WWGD is guidance is advice where I'm gonna give you solutions and wwgd is not advice. It's just gonna be me saying what I would do in that scenario. So make sure to email those in. A S A P. Um, I don't want to give an air date for that episode yet, but it will be coming up shortly. And make sure to like, follow, share, subscribe, rate five stars, do all the things. We're gonna cheers out with my Waterloo summerberry drink, which now kind of has a purple tinge from the blueberries that I threw in there. So cheers to you, cheers to me, cheers to Culver City staying in the news for positivity, and cheers to Pam Bondi getting her shit together. Cheers. Bye.