This is exactly right.

The courtroom isn't just about justice. It's about power and money and some truly bizarre loopholes.

I'm Michael Foote. And I'm Melissa Malbranche, and we've got a brand new show called Brief Recess, Illegal Podcast.

Every week, we talk about wild tales from court, trials gone wrong, and cases and rulings that shape our world.

Today we're going to be talking about stolen antiquities, all the weird things Melissa found at in a state sale, the crazy conversations I had with the bouncer and J.K. Rowling. We make the complicated clear and the serious, surprisingly fun. From the exactly right network, new episodes of Brief Recess drop every Thursday. Watch Brief Recess on YouTube. Listen to Brief Recess on the IHeartRadio app.

Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Well, well, Casey O'Brien, here we sit by the hearth of the fire at the end of the year.

Warming our toes, drinking our mold wine.

Ew.

You like mold wine?

I like mold wine.

I think it's good.

Okay.

But yes, we're sitting here next to the crackle of the fire.

Just thinking back on 2025 and what a year it was this is uh the first year of our podcast by the way dear movies i love it really is and it's crazy that we've gotten through

our first year um i think we could confidently say when we started, it was a little bit bumpy.

For several reasons, by the way, not just because we were a new podcast.

We were coming from an older podcast that we had done together,

but that we were in a new era politically,

which was very much like an old era, but just got worse.

Yeah.

And I think we were all bracing ourselves for that.

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