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. Of the Law and Order franchises, SVU is considered especially watchable. We are the amateur detectives who kind of investigate the vicious felonies these episodes are based on. These are our stories. D-da-da. All right. Happy holidays, everyone. It's That's Messed Up. We're back. It's Christmas Eve Eve. I'm one of your hosts, Kara Klank. And I'm Lisa Trager. And yeah, thrilled you are here. We talk SV. Actually, not at all. Today is a special episode different. We are not

talking SVU. We are talking true crime. And we do have an incredible guess. But we decided to do

something different. Yeah. Well, famously, when Lisa mentioned being at a party with an alleged

murderer, obviously, and I said, oh my God, I haven't seen that yet.

And many of you wrote in and were like, I can't believe you haven't watched death in apartment 603 yet.

So that is what we did.

We watched it, and we got Nancy Schwartzman, the director, to come talk to us.

So that's coming up after we do a little bit of gabbing.

Okay, so it's Christmas Eve Eve, and I've seen some movies lately.

I mean, but at this point, they're old as hell, but this is, because we're a little

bit in the time machine because of the holidays, everybody.

I realize we never wait in on Wicked Part 2, and I know it's like, at this point, it's been

out for like a month.

We didn't actually talk about Thanksgiving at all and I do have things to say. Oh, you do? Okay,

great. Let's talk about Thanksgiving. Well, so, sorry to bring it up again. I was coming home from the food bank and I totally forgot that I'd made these drunk plans. So I fully forgot, but I'm on the train. And this woman says glittered cheese. So I look at her. And she goes, hey, I ran into you when you were doing this other thing. I go, oh my God, I remember that. And she goes, I keep seeing you. I work for local NBC5 affiliate. I'm going to the floats and balloons right now for the parade to do a piece. I go, I was supposed to look

at those. You're allowed to look at them before they come out the next day. So I should have stuck with her

and gone with her. Not that she invited me, but I got off. I got to see all the floats.

It was panda. That was incredible. I timed it wrong. I had to walk this many blocks backwards, go across town, go forward. I finally got to the official entrance. They're like it's 11 more blocks down and it's a two hour wait. You should have come earlier. It was like wild. So I only saw a few of the balloons from the side. But next year I'll know to come early to be able to see them all laying there.

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