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A heads up to our listeners. This episode includes references to sexual harassment, abuse, and grooming. Please listen with care.

Sarah, do you remember the first time you found out that boy bands were actually all created by some white guy doing open casting calls in Florida?

Yeah, it's actually something I've known for a really long time because one of my older sisters was obsessed with boy bands. So

it's just kind of knowledge I've had to sit with for too long. Yeah.

Well, I remember feeling personally

affronted by that information and it was for some reason really important that I know that these boys were organic

friends and that they loved each other very much and that they were also maybe kissing after their shows.

I mean, I still believe all that. Oh, good. Okay. Well, that's nice. I think it was like a manufactured chemistry, you know.

That ruins it a little bit, but I've got a really good one this week. It's all about one of the swingollies that made the pop stars that I used to want to sexlessly grind up on.

So Sarah, let's go back to the 90s.

It's Thanksgiving weekend, 1998.

Lance Bass and his in sync bandmates are sitting with their manager Lou Pearlman in a private room at Lowry's stake house.

Lowry's is in Las Vegas and it's capital F fancy with darkwood paneling and velvet covered chairs.

Lance is a sweet looking kid. He has big blue eyes and bleach blonde hair. He and the rest of the guys are pretty young.

They're all still in their late teens and early 20s. And right now their group in sync is one of the biggest bands on the planet.

They've sold 15 million albums and they play sold out stadiums all over the world. Tonight, they're here to eat, celebrate and to receive their first ever paychecks.

I knew it was bad. I didn't realize they were just getting the first paychecks three years in. Yeah, I know it sounds ludicrous.

But for the past three years, the members of in sync have not been paid their hotels, transportation and even their meals have all been covered by their manager Lou.

The only money they've seen is the $35 they're given as spending money each day. The band is incredibly busy. So until recently, this setup hasn't actually seemed like a problem.

Here's how Lance remembers it in an interview with Access Hollywood.

I was 16 years old and we started. So I didn't really know how the business worked. So we just kind of assumed that, oh, you have to work really hard for a couple of years before that money starts accumulating and then they just give it to you in one big check.

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