Two Brains One Bot
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Dolly Parton: Better Than She Found It
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Dolly Parton was more than a country music legend. She was a songwriter, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a masterclass in using success to give back. In this episode, we look at Dolly’s journey from a one-room cabin in the Tennessee mountains to Nashville stardom, her evolution from country icon to pop superstar, and the extraordinary legacy she built beyond music.
From the Imagination Library and Dollywood to scholarships, disaster relief, children’s healthcare, and even helping save bald eagles, Dolly spent her life giving more than she took. We’re celebrating the woman behind the rhinestones and the lasting impact she leaves behind.
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What's up everybody? This is Ashley.
SPEAKER_00This is Christy.
SPEAKER_01And welcome back to the pod.
SPEAKER_00We're feeling silly.
SPEAKER_01We're feeling silly, silly. Yeah. Should we do an update really quick on our last week? We thank our listeners for dealing with our repost episode.
SPEAKER_00I I thought it was great because I needed a recap on what I was gonna be in jumping into with fantasy football.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and since that time we have had two drafts now, because we are now in two leagues.
SPEAKER_00I apparently signed up for two leagues.
SPEAKER_01You're the commissioner of one and I'm the commissioner of the other.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I don't I apparently bullied somebody, your spouse, into letting me be the commissioner, which I didn't think I did.
SPEAKER_01So it was actually in that repost episode, which is really funny. You say, I'm gonna oust Dayton as commissioner. Oh. And it Yeah, well, it happened. He remembered, he never forgets.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And then I I bet you he was hoping that I would be like, No, I'm just kidding, man, you do it. And I was like, okay. And then one day I looked in our app and I had like a C by my name, and I was like, okay. Okay.
SPEAKER_01I'm now the commish bish.
SPEAKER_00I'm the commission.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, we had two.
SPEAKER_00So I'm accepting and I'm accepting bribes because that's that's how we're gonna play this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I think it's gonna be a um interesting season. I'll tell you that. Yeah, it's gonna be fun. As the commissioner, I know like a little bit what's going on on the backside. That's gonna be an interesting season.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's gonna be fun.
SPEAKER_00More to more to come.
SPEAKER_01I'm I'm really excited about it. One of our coworkers was very concerned that you were commissioner. I don't know if I told you this. He came to me after he was like re-signed. What? And he's like, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I know exactly who it is because there's only one. Wow, no faith. You know what?
SPEAKER_01He just was like, Okay, is Dayton, is Dayton serious, or is are we just like, is he just like pranking us right now? And I was like, no, like he really seriously thinks she can do it. And he's like, no, I think she can do it. She's just really busy. And I'm like, yeah, you know what? She'll find the time.
SPEAKER_00He's gonna, he's gonna get my wrath.
SPEAKER_01But he was also thinking the season started a lot sooner than it did. Oh and we hadn't set a draft time yet, so he was like really antsy about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it's fine.
SPEAKER_01It's fine. The word's fine. This is chill, it's fine, it's not that serious. It's also boys are so serious about this kind of stuff. It's so dumb. It's just fake football.
SPEAKER_00You guys don't get to put it on your resume.
SPEAKER_01You're and you're not actually managing the team. We don't have to train.
SPEAKER_00No, like relax. Relax. Don't do it. Yeah. Um that's funny. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that with me. Yeah, I can't wait to razz him about it.
SPEAKER_01He did. He's like, is everything okay? Like he stopped my work day and was like, he came in and he's like, gosh.
SPEAKER_00Well he talked to me about it, and I he seemed perfectly fine with my capable hands.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I don't think I don't think he was like talking shit or by any means. I think he was just like, are we okay? I think he wanted the he wanted the down low on if Dayton was like sick of it. I'm like, no, he just wants to be funny. He loves like the long game joke because that's just who he is.
SPEAKER_00Well, once again, stay tuned because there's there's things happening behind the scenes that I'm only privy to. I can't wait.
SPEAKER_01You don't even know. I don't even know. I don't know. She's gonna switch my lineup every single week, probably.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I don't know if I have that power, but if I do.
SPEAKER_01You sure do. Oh, I really do.
SPEAKER_00You sure do. Oh, wow. That feels like something I'll learn later on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Okay. But anyways, that's our update for fantasy football. So thanks everyone for being patient with us as we got our lives together. It was a rough start to life.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But it was good. It was good. Yeah.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01Um, so as we all know, uh the legend and icon, Dolly Parton, has passed away after a brief battle of cancer.
SPEAKER_00What kind of cancer?
SPEAKER_01Nobody knows. It's none of our business.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it is none of our business. You know what? I take that back. Sorry. None of our business. Nobody needs to know. Nobody needs to know. She passed away gracefully.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Um, but as we all grieve this news, we wanted to honor her by sharing some things about her life that we learned and talk about the extraordinary things that she has done during her time here on this planet.
SPEAKER_00And full disclosure, like, I mean, I know her like banger hits, but that's about all I knew about her. And I knew that she was low-key better than everybody. Yeah. Because she's super generous and does a lot of good in the communities. So better than everybody else. So I'm not sure. But that's about all I knew about her until till looking into this episode. So we're not like Dolly heads.
SPEAKER_01No. But we did this too.
SPEAKER_00But I wish I would have been.
SPEAKER_01We did write this together. Yeah. Um, I just wrote this little intro part to kind of give us like a brief introduction to her life. Um, and then Christy found some really cool things. So let's get into her early life and beginnings. So Dolly Parton and her eleven siblings grew up in Locust Ridge, a small mountain city located in Apple in the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee.
SPEAKER_00That's a dozen friends. One dozen children.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I don't think they're cheaper by the dozen, actually.
SPEAKER_00I I actually don't think that's true. I don't think that's true at all.
SPEAKER_01Um I have two, and they are definitely not cheaper. The more you get, the more expensive children are.
SPEAKER_00It just compounds.
SPEAKER_01But she often talked about how where she lived and like it shaped her music and and who she is. Yeah. She talked often about like like lovingly about her beginnings. Um, even though it was hard. I mean, I think in some of the interviews she talked about how they didn't have running water or electricity in their house um and that her mom sewed like their all of their clothes. And her dad was like a farmer. Yeah, yeah. So um so fans hoping to show tribute to her can actually visit a replica of the one bedroom log cabin that she grew up in, and it's at Dolly at Dollywood. So go check that out if you're so really quick.
SPEAKER_00One bedroom.
SPEAKER_01One bedroom.
SPEAKER_00Mom and dad. What does that mean? No, that's everybody. Because where did they sleep? That's everybody.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Everybody in that one. I mean, I don't know. That's a lot. Also none of our business. That's uh on the maybe we don't have money, honey. But I'm still in love with you, or whatever. Yeah. Whatever that song is.
SPEAKER_00But we ain't got money.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, even though we ain't got money. Yeah. That's on love right there. But um, so she grew up in a one-bedroom log cabin um in Tennessee. And after she finished high school, she then eventually moved to Nashville where she found fame on the Porter Wagner show in 1967.
SPEAKER_00What's the Porter Wagner show?
SPEAKER_01So it was kind of like a variety show. Oh, like yeah.
SPEAKER_00Lawrence Welk. Yeah, yeah, kind of. That's what I know of.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I I think of more I mean, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I wasn't there, but it was like a more musical Saturday Night Life.
SPEAKER_01I would think so, kind of. Yeah, because they had like I think they had sketches and comedy, like built in.
SPEAKER_00But it was more music-based.
SPEAKER_01It was more music-based.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so like Saturday Night Live, but more music-based musical-based with the touch of comedy.
SPEAKER_01And it was more country music and gospel music. It was more twist like that. That's fun. Yeah, yeah. So, um, but yeah, she's she started on that show in 1967. Um, she took over for a singer named Norma Jean, and um instantly everybody was obviously in love with her because she's a artist. Yeah. Um, she was on the show until about 1974 when she eventually left to focus on her solo career. But as a parting gift to um Porter Wagner, and basically to all of us, she wrote and performed I Will Always Love You as a farewell.
SPEAKER_00Um which I didn't realize that was her song. That's her song. That's full disclosure, I did not realize that. That's a that is a classic.
SPEAKER_01That's a freaking banger.
SPEAKER_00Oh.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So in 1967, when she started on the Porter Wagner show, she also released her solo debut album, um, and it's called Hello, I'm Dolly. Um that was after she moved to Nashville to start her career. So then from 1967 to 1974, when she eventually left the show, she like shot to stardom. Like she, I mean, I think once you met her, you were instantly like infatuated because she was just not only beautiful, but a genuine person. Yeah. Like she just was funny and and cool. Um, and then after leaving the show about 1977, she switched to pop and released a single Here You Come Again. And it was her official successful transition into mainstream pop charts.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I love I love Jolene. Yeah, I always think I always think about that song.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Um, I love the many renditions that she's done with people for that song. I think she did one with Miley Cyrus that was really good.
SPEAKER_00Fun fact that's her goddaughter.
SPEAKER_01Really? Oh wow, that's beautiful. I didn't know that. Yeah. Um, so you know, even people who don't like pop or country music know who Dolly Parton is. Yeah. So it's inescapable. Like you just you know who she is. And while she did have many bangers like Jolene, Code of Many Colors, and Here You Come Again, as well as her movie and song Nine to Five, her legacy is far more than just music.
SPEAKER_00I've been singing Nine to Five all morning.
SPEAKER_01Me too. I want to watch the movie, I've never watched it. I've never watched it. We should watch it.
SPEAKER_00I also am just learning right now that there's a movie.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It's she in it? Yeah. Oh hell yeah. Her and three women take over like the business world, and it's of course it's amazing. Like, I'm here for it. We should watch it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So Dolly never forgot her roots. She spent a good portion of her life and money giving back to the communities that she grew up in and frankly shaping the world into a better place. So if you want to tell us a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_00So what you're telling me is she had fame and wealth.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00And she was able to still live a beautiful life and just be generous and kind to people. So she didn't hoard her wealth. No. Weird. Okay. I'm gonna really stew on that for a bit.
SPEAKER_01And that's on being a woman.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Geez. Anyways, okay. So a lot of people know Dolly from Imagination Library, which is a service that you can sign your kids up to, I think it's ages zero to five, right? I think so. But they will send you a free book every single month. Yeah. And it's noted that one in six kids in the US receives a book, the service from Imagination Library, which is amazing. It's beautiful. And the books are well curated, they're beautiful. I've I've read that like around school time they'll send, and I think they're like age, like they obviously send age appropriate, obviously. So it's not just like some generic like we we choose the book list one time, like they're constantly curating it, but it's like the kids that are going back to kindergarten, they get a book about like going back to school and doing all that stuff. And I think that's really sweet. Yeah. But it is in the US as well as um a few other countries, which I think is nice. Yeah. She is the founder of Dollywood, which I've never been, obviously. Well, I've never been not obviously. Maybe some listeners think I've been to Dollywood. I have not.
SPEAKER_01We but we live on the West Coast, so it's not really a thing.
SPEAKER_00We haven't been there. Um, but it's an amusement park in her hometown of Savereville, Tennessee. And it was something before then, but it's helped build up her like hometown from this extremely poor town to a large tourism like place, right? Which is amazing. Um, Dollywood pays a living wage to employees to cover full tuition books and fees for employees who want to attend college. And she is one of the largest and best paying employers in the area, and the overall economy has grown immensely due to her efforts.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So she never forgot where she came from. Never and is helping all those people. And I even I think I read that like after 30 years of service at Dollywood, like you get your own personal like placard somewhere, like with your name on it, somewhere to put in the park. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That would be really cool. Um, I have freaking chills. I know.
SPEAKER_00So some other fun facts about Dollywood, and I really resonate with this one. Dolly famously refused to ride any of the roller coasters at her own park because she suffers from motion sickness. Oh. And has a fear coasters. And I'm like, yeah, Queen, like at our age, we don't need to be riding roller coasters. Um after roller coasters. I'm gonna venture to say after 30, like.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01I will say I haven't been to an amusement park since I had my children, so there I don't think I would be able to.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's almost like they need to be like have a thing at each, like the entrance to each ride, and say you gotta be this tall to ride or this young.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I could see that. So you gotta like either stand up against a board or you have to show your ID.
SPEAKER_01They've just gang you in. Oh no, you wouldn't have an ID.
SPEAKER_00Oh shoot, you are too old. Sorry, sorry, man.
SPEAKER_01We'll sit in the lobby with everybody else.
SPEAKER_00No, you just sit on you sit at the outside and wait for others to come off and be happy while you're maintaining stomach wellness. Yeah. Oh, no. Dolly recorded a secret song that's stored on a CD in a special box at the park that is not scheduled to be unlocked and played until 2046. So when she turns 100, there is a song. So folks, like in 20 years, wow, we will get to have a little piece of Dolly again.
SPEAKER_01And what could it even be? I don't know, but that's gonna be amazing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's gonna be good. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Hopefully, it's just her being, gotcha bitch.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Song with her and pit bull. Yeah, I love it. Um, the park operates a coal-fired steam engine known as the Dollywood Express, and it was previously used to transport troops and lumber in Alaska during World War II. So it's got some historical um roots.
SPEAKER_01And then it just ended up in Tennessee?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because before it was called like Rebel, Rebel Rails or something. So I think it had like a railway theme for like this little like community center, shopping center, whatever it was. Gotcha. This is my favorite fact. The parks spotlight bakery makes a massive 25-pound apple pie completely from scratch inside a giant cast iron skillet. Oh I love apple pie. It said it has like 35 apples in it. Whoa. And all the sugar. Oh, so say less.
SPEAKER_01I think we have to go to Dollywood.
SPEAKER_00And it said each piece is three pounds, and I'm like, the best three pounds of my life. Yeah, for real.
SPEAKER_01Does it come with ice cream? I don't know.
SPEAKER_00I bet it does. I probably.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, visitors can also board their pets for their day at Dollywood, and it's called Doggywood, and it's a dedicated on-site kennel feature facility featuring standard runs, so like dog kennels or whatever. Or you can get like a private private cottage for your puppers. So I thought that was kind of sweet.
SPEAKER_01That is sweet.
SPEAKER_00Um how inclusive. I know. Well, and I read that there was even, I want to say maybe in 2017, in Dollywood, they created calm rooms for people that came to Dollywood and just got like sensory overload, and so they could go into these calm rooms.
SPEAKER_01Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I would like a calm room.
SPEAKER_00She's ahead of her ahead of her times.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, she is.
SPEAKER_00Moving on, she founded the Dollywood Foundation and other scholarship efforts to improve high school graduation rates and to help kids from Severville attend college. So kind of like imagine like Scott's Tots, but they actually get tuition, not just a lithium battery. Gotcha. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I forgot about Scott's Tots. They didn't forget about Scott's Tots. I think that's one of my favorite episodes. That's a great episode.
SPEAKER_00What you gonna do? What you gonna do, make your dreams come true? Isn't that what it was?
SPEAKER_01Hey, Mr. Scott, what you gonna do? What you gonna do? Make our dreams come true. And then they're driving back, and Aaron's singing it, and he's like, Stop.
SPEAKER_00Here's a battery.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna write you four checks, all dated a year apart. Call me before you catch them.
SPEAKER_00That was so funny. Um, so Dolly ran a bunch of other large charities, including an animal sanctuary. She's donated a huge amount of money to disaster relief and children's hospitals. East Tennessee Children's Hospital is now renamed as the Dolly Parton Children's Hospital in her honor, which is amazing.
SPEAKER_01That is amazing. Oh, I keep getting chills. I know.
SPEAKER_00She also made large donations to Vanderbilt for children's medical research, children's medical care, and COVID research. And she's made um large donations to the Salvation Army as well. So just again, she came from small roots, she came from a poor family, and she never forgot that and just knew that she could always help people, and that's just says a lot about her, says everything about her. Yeah. Um, she also has a reputation for being kind, easy to work with, and cool under pressure and fair. She was married to one man her entire career and had no personal or political scandals.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_00Wow. What would that be like?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I don't even know how you how you do that in day and age.
SPEAKER_00Because she stayed rooted. She didn't get like she didn't let money get to her head. She always remained rooted. That's all you can say. Like she kept her feet on the ground. Her charity work is focused on universally beloved causes. She doesn't like subscribe to political campaigns.
SPEAKER_01Right. I will say, towards the end of her life though, she did start speaking out against the current.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, she was an inclusive person.
SPEAKER_01And she made some pretty banger hits about telling certain orange people where to go.
SPEAKER_00Good. Good, good. Um, she got a lot of heat for her image and background early in her career because she was just a beautiful woman. Yep. Like, oh, god forbid, you're beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Talented, kind, beautiful. We gotta we gotta bring her down a notch if she's gonna go too far.
SPEAKER_00And she handled it with poison grace. Yeah. So she was just the icon for like, yep, I'm I'm pretty and I'm successful. But guess what? I've earned it. Yep. Like, so fight me, but don't, because I'm not gonna bother.
SPEAKER_01Fight me.
SPEAKER_00She didn't care.
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_00Um her early interviews are pretty much a masterclass in how to address backhanded compliments and rude comments with dignity. So take a page from Dolly's book about that. And then she also helped save bald eagles from extinction by funding a captive breeding program and Eagle Sanctuary.
SPEAKER_01Wow. I did not know that. That's cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So she really is like the true example of leaving a place better than how you found it. Yeah. In every way. So it's now our job to carry on her legacy by giving more than you take in. And apparently, in lieu of flowers, her family has requested that fans and friends honor her legacy by making a donation to her literacy programs. Because man, if you can't read, yeah, go bye.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It's amazing. That's that's I mean, that's changing people's lives. Giving them the power of reading.
SPEAKER_00She's just an icon.
SPEAKER_01She is an icon. So she will be deeply missed.
SPEAKER_00Love her. I mean, again, I told you we were not dolly heads to begin with. I feel bad that I wasn't because she truly is just an amazing individual. I always knew she was an amazing individual. I knew about all these things, but because she's just not flashy and in your face and involved in all the scandals and doing all the things, like, hmm, maybe it goes to show like you don't need to be that way.
SPEAKER_01No, you can quietly make improvements in the world. Yeah. And be a good person.
SPEAKER_00Without all of the like the have you heard that people want to make um September 25th Dolly Parton Day? Oh. Because it's 925.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_00925.
SPEAKER_01Again, we gotta watch that movie.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Yeah, it's we'll try and watch that.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00In all of our free time.
SPEAKER_01In all of our free time.
SPEAKER_00In honor of Dolly Parton, I'm gonna learn how to play the guitar.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. Me too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um Christy actually bullied me into this. I have always wanted to learn, always, and I took lessons when I was a kid and it didn't stick. And then I I've tried and stopped and started a bunch of times, and I told her once, hey, she was talking about taking classes somewhere, and I was like, I've always wanted to take a guitar class, and she's like, Well, let's do it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I was like And I said it kind of jokingly, and then you latched on, and then I was like, Oh no. No, I think it was like one of those things where it was like we're we were playing chicken and neither of us have stopped, and so now we just have hit.
SPEAKER_01So now we're in a guitar class.
SPEAKER_00Now we're in a guitar class.
SPEAKER_01And then I accidentally mentioned our podcast. I didn't accidentally, I definitely mentioned our podcast in our guitar class. And now our teacher put it in.
SPEAKER_00Hello, hello to our new our our guitar friends.
SPEAKER_01Hi friends.
SPEAKER_00Guys, we are gonna become great friends because we are a good time.
SPEAKER_01We're a really good time.
SPEAKER_00We are gonna try our best in that class. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Maybe we'll learn a maybe we'll learn a dolly song.
SPEAKER_00Maybe.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I am just worried about trying to do two different things with two different hands. I don't that doesn't even make sense to me.
SPEAKER_01But our teacher did say that if you're left-handed like you are, you actually have the advantage because your dominant hand is doing a lot of the work.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but my dominant hand, I have um fun fact fun fact about me. My pinky is like permanently jammed, I guess. So it doesn't straighten out. So this finger, that pinky is gonna serve no purpose on the guitar.
SPEAKER_01No, it definitely will.
SPEAKER_00No, it's like it like is not uh functional enough to get onto the channel push the string? I don't think so.
SPEAKER_01Have you tried?
SPEAKER_00I've tried, but it like it doesn't have enough it doesn't have enough uh power Oh pressure, strength. Pressure. It doesn't have enough strength, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You need to do those like hand things. Get your pinky strength.
SPEAKER_00You know, it's too far gone. So I'm basically gonna be left hand with three fingers. Yeah, you'll be fine. Yeah, I think I'll I'll adjust I'll adjust. Yeah, you'll be fine. Or I'll just pass this class and not know.
SPEAKER_01And then take the advanced class next semester.
SPEAKER_00Sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, let's do it.
SPEAKER_00Okay. All right, well, that's the end of this episode. Um again, just leave things better than where you f when you find them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER_00In all things that you do, in every single thing that you do. And if everybody adopted that philosophy, how much better would this world be?
SPEAKER_01It would be so great. Channel your inner dolly and and do better.
SPEAKER_00And fight terrible people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And remember, stay human, stay curious, and don't let the robots win.
SPEAKER_01Bye.
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