Hello and welcome to Friends Through a Lens, the podcast where I talk to my real-life friends about the show Friends through a lens of their choosing.

My name is Karen Van Huy and I got hepatitis from the time a pimp spit in my mouth.

And joining me is someone who knows that you never run on a barge.

It's Ryan Farrell. Never. Never. Never, mother. Hi. Hi. So today we're talking about friends

through the lens of sort of Phoebe, Phoebe's upsetting childhood, Phoebe's upsetting backstory.

And I'm really, like, I don't know if we'll be

doing in this series an episode per friend. I'm really leaving it up to the discretion of whoever

comes on. But I'm really glad that we're doing a whole episode on Phoebe because she's a

character who I love and I think has gotten the short shrift over the last, you know, over

many years of discussion of this. And I'm really

glad that you're talking to me about her today. Yeah, thank you. I'm so excited to come on and be

able to speak about a character that I've loved for so long and connected with so instantly. So,

yeah, I'm stoked. Tell me why you pick Phoebe? Um, well, I, like most millennials, I'm stoked. Tell me why you pick Phoebe?

Well, I, like most millennials, I got into friends in the 90s.

I remember the first ever episode I saw was the one with the Princess Leia Fantasy.

And there was a kitchen scene at the top of the episode where Monica was basically in a pretty bad place because her and Richard had just split up.

And she was taking the whole thing really hard.

And Phoebe was commenting on how she got a phone call during the night and she heard a loud squeaking sound and she thought it was from a mouse or a possum.

And then she realised it was Monica.

But then she made a gag about,

I wondered how would her mouse or a possum

get the money to make the phone call?

...