Morgan Absher's Uber rating is 4.96 and Charlie Berens' is 4.91.
252: Not Nice! Ft. Charlie Berens
A man who demanded a traditional wife was splitting bills 50/50 with his girlfriend and getting roasted for it at a dinner party — and he wanted an apology.
Jan 22, 2026
1:41:32
Difficulty: Beginner
Played
Two Hot Takes
252: Not Nice! Ft. Charlie Berens
A man who demanded a traditional wife was splitting bills 50/50 with his girlfriend and getting roasted for it at a dinner party — and he wanted an apology.
Jan 22, 2026
1:41:32
Difficulty: Beginner
Played
TL;DR
Morgan Absher hosts comedian Charlie Berens for a Midwest-flavored romp through Reddit's most dramatic relationship fails. The duo dissects five stories: a boyfriend who fact-checks every story in real time [1] — Morgan Absher "A woman's boyfriend interrupts her stories up to five times to correct minor details like exact mileage and timestamps. It turns out correc…" 13:13 , a woman desperate for a solo Italy art trip whose controlling husband has never watched their three kids alone [2] — Morgan Absher "What starts as an art-world mismatch quickly becomes a portrait of a controlling marriage. He takes football hotel weekends regularly; she'…" 23:13 , a 10-year couple whose rejected proposal leads to a Thanksgiving kiss with the fiancée's sister [3] — Morgan Absher "A 25-year-old who's been with his girlfriend since age 15 gets a rejected proposal and quietly checks out of the relationship, waiting for …" 42:43 , a husband who turns bedroom roleplay into full-blown improv comedy [4] — Charlie Berens "Charlie Berens constructs an elaborate time-travel theory: the sister is actually a 45-year-old future version of herself who traveled back…" 1:02:25 , and a friend who calls out a tradwife-obsessed boyfriend who splits bills 50/50 [5] — Charlie Berens "Charlie Berens was arrested as a college journalism student covering protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minne…" 1:19:59 . Best takeaway: if you want a traditional wife, you'd better be a traditional provider.
#AITA Reddit
#Midwest nice
#tradwife debate
#controlling partners
#proposal rejection
#roleplay gone wrong
#family betrayal
#art history
#storytelling vs fact-checking
#gender equality
#relationship red flags
#engagement drama
#Reddit stories
#relationship advice
#roleplay
#tradwife
#controlling husband
#Italy art trip
#fact-checking boyfriend
#Charlie Berens
#Two Hot Takes
#Morgan Absher
#storytelling
Two Hot Takes host Morgan Absher is joined by comedian Charlie Berens to react to Reddit relationship stories, including a fact-checking boyfriend, a woman wanting a solo Italy art trip, a rejected proposal with a shocking twist, a roleplay-gone-wrong husband, and a tradwife-obsessed boyfriend who splits bills 50/50.
Chapter list
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The third story is a trilogy. Part one: a 25-year-old man who has been with his girlfriend since age 15 (together 10 years, known each other for 17) proposes and gets rejected. He quietly checks out of the relationship, stops initiating dates and intimacy, and plans to break up when the apartment lease expires. Charlie notes neither is fully the villain — they're both 25, brains not fully developed, and have only ever known each other. Part two, 17 months later: at Thanksgiving, the man's fiancée's sister — who once asked him out in middle school and again in high school, and slept in a hospital chair for three days after his accident — kisses him. He describes it as 'white sparks behind his eyes' unlike anything he's felt. Part three, days later: he breaks off the engagement, meets with the sister, and they discuss moving to a different state together. She tells him 'love is love' and she won't let go until she dies. Charlie constructs an elaborate time-travel theory: the sister is a future version of herself who went back in time to prevent a doomed marriage by making out with him. Morgan concludes the original fiancée dodged a bullet — but this guy isn't a prize worth fighting for either.
- AITA
- Acronym for 'Am I the Asshole,' a popular Reddit community where people share personal dilemmas and ask strangers to judge their behavior.
- AITAH
- A variant Reddit community of 'Am I the Asshole,' with slightly relaxed moderation rules, commonly used for more interpersonal or relationship-focused posts.
- Tradwife
- Short for 'traditional wife'; an internet subculture or identity where women embrace homemaking and domestic roles, often promoted as a lifestyle on social media platforms like TikTok.
- Ambivert
- A person who exhibits qualities of both introversion and extroversion, falling in the middle of the personality spectrum rather than leaning strongly to either side.
- Omnivert
- A less common personality type describing someone who can swing between extreme extroversion and extreme introversion depending on circumstances, unlike the more stable ambivert.
- Ring clarity
- Informal term for the sudden doubt or panic someone feels about commitment immediately after getting or giving an engagement ring, when the reality of marriage becomes concrete.
- Miranda rights
- Legal rights that U.S. law enforcement must read to a suspect upon arrest, including the right to remain silent; here used comedically in a bedroom roleplay context.
- CFL
- Canadian Football League; the professional American football league in Canada, known for somewhat different rules than the NFL and lower ticket prices.
- Hat on a hat
- Comedy writing term meaning adding a joke on top of a joke, which dilutes both; Charlie Berens used it to describe the roleplay husband over-satirizing his own bit.
- Improv
- Short for improvisational comedy; a performance style where actors create scenes spontaneously without a script, following rules like 'yes-and' to build on each other's ideas.
- Bellied Up
- Charlie Berens' podcast, described as a casual 'Midwest advice from the bar' format where callers share and receive candid advice.
- Dinkytown
- A neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, near the University of Minnesota campus, known for its diners and college-town vibe; mentioned in Charlie Berens' arrest story.
- Butterfly effect
- The idea from chaos theory that a small action (like a butterfly flapping its wings) can trigger large, unpredictable consequences; used by Charlie Berens to describe how the sister's kiss changed multiple futures.
- Catastrophizing
- A cognitive pattern of assuming the worst-case scenario will happen; Morgan Absher used the term to acknowledge her speculation that the art-trip husband was cheating.
- Unreliable narrator
- A storyteller whose account cannot be fully trusted, often because of bias, limited knowledge, or selective omission; Morgan used it to describe Reddit posters who may not share the full picture.
- Udder butter
- A topical moisturizer originally formulated for cow udders, repurposed as a heavy-duty hand cream; mentioned in the context of Midwest practicality and working hands.
- Fleet Farm
- A Midwest retail chain carrying farm supplies, sporting goods, and clothing; Morgan mentioned being previously banned from the store for shoplifting as a teenager.
- RNC
- Republican National Convention; the quadrennial gathering of the U.S. Republican Party to nominate their presidential candidate; Charlie Berens was arrested covering the 2008 RNC protests in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Chapter 1 · 00:00
Start
The third story is a trilogy. Part one: a 25-year-old man who has been with his girlfriend since age 15 (together 10 years, known each other for 17) proposes and gets rejected. He quietly checks out of the relationship, stops initiating dates and intimacy, and plans to break up when the apartment lease expires. Charlie notes neither is fully the villain — they're both 25, brains not fully developed, and have only ever known each other. Part two, 17 months later: at Thanksgiving, the man's fiancée's sister — who once asked him out in middle school and again in high school, and slept in a hospital chair for three days after his accident — kisses him. He describes it as 'white sparks behind his eyes' unlike anything he's felt. Part three, days later: he breaks off the engagement, meets with the sister, and they discuss moving to a different state together. She tells him 'love is love' and she won't let go until she dies. Charlie constructs an elaborate time-travel theory: the sister is a future version of herself who went back in time to prevent a doomed marriage by making out with him. Morgan concludes the original fiancée dodged a bullet — but this guy isn't a prize worth fighting for either.
Claims made here
More than 80% of people are ambiverts, falling between introversion and extroversion.
The art history student's husband had never watched their three children alone for any length of time.
CFL (Canadian Football League) cheap seats average between $25 and $40.
The Reddit poster's girlfriend of 10 years, who he had known for 17 years, rejected his marriage proposal and said she needed more time.
The human brain is not fully developed until around age 26.
The fiancée's sister slept in a hospital chair for three days straight after the poster had a major accident.
Charlie Berens was arrested while covering protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, as a journalism student.
Police issued a dispersal order at the 2008 RNC protests after people were making fake press credentials.
The tradwife-obsessed boyfriend split all bills 50/50 with his girlfriend and worked fewer hours than she did.
Charlie Berens' parents have been married since 1984, making their marriage approximately 31 to 32 years long at the time of recording.
Charlie Berens' mother comes from a family of 11 children, which influenced her desire for a large family of her own.
Midwest Nice Introductions: Words, Pop vs. Soda, and Uber Ratings
Morgan and Charlie bond over Midwestern pronunciation quirks, the pop-vs-soda debate, and their Uber ratings — Morgan's 4.96 quietly embarrasses Charlie's 4.91 before they pivot to why you shouldn't ask your Uber driver too many questions.
The Boyfriend Who Fact-Checks Every Story in Real Time
A woman's boyfriend interrupts her stories up to five times to correct minor details like exact mileage and timestamps. It turns out correcting inaccuracies mid-story isn't precision — it's social sabotage.
Data point
5
A woman's partner interrupted her travel story five separate times to correct minor inaccuracies like exact mileage and timestamps, killing the vibe for everyone.
Data point
80%+
During a tangent about personality types, Morgan noted that more than 80% of people fall into the ambivert category, making it the most common personality type.
Charlie's Hack: Mirror Their Behavior Until They Change
Charlie Berens drops a genuinely sharp relationship insight: if your partner constantly corrects you, start correcting them back with the same precision. People don't change until they see themselves.
The Italy Art Trip: A Controlling Husband Exposed Layer by Layer
What starts as an art-world mismatch quickly becomes a portrait of a controlling marriage. He takes football hotel weekends regularly; she's never had two days alone in over a decade of raising three kids.
Art-trip husband never watched kids alone
The controlling Canadian husband had never watched their three children alone for any length of time, yet refused to let his wife take a solo art trip to Italy.
Data point
10+ yrs
The woman wanting a solo Italy art trip had been married for over a decade, had three children, and had never taken even two days alone for herself.
Data point
$25-$40
Average CFL (Canadian Football League) tickets cost only $25 to $40 for cheap seats, undercutting the controlling husband's claim that his wife's Italy trip was too expensive.
The Projection Theory: Why He Won't Let Her Go to Italy
Morgan's take: the husband who forbids his wife's Italy trip is probably projecting his own football-weekend infidelity. Controlling partners often manufacture the jealousy they secretly deserve.
Rejected Proposal, 10-Year Couple, and the Lease That Changed Everything
A 25-year-old who's been with his girlfriend since age 15 gets a rejected proposal and quietly checks out of the relationship, waiting for the lease to expire before pulling the plug. Both 25 and dating since 15: neither has ever known another partner.
Data point
10 yrs
The Reddit poster and his girlfriend had been together for 10 years since age 15, and known each other for 17 years, making the rejected proposal especially shocking.
The Trilogy: Thanksgiving Kiss with the Fiancée's Sister
In a jaw-dropping three-part Reddit update, a man ends his engagement after a drunken Thanksgiving kiss with his fiancée's sister produces feelings he's never had before. She says she'll wait however long it takes — and suggests moving states together.
Data point
17 mo
The update to the rejected-proposal story came 17 months later, revealing a Thanksgiving kiss between the poster and his fiancée's sister, leading to a broken engagement.
Data point
3 days
The fiancée's sister had slept in a hospital chair for three days straight after the poster had a major accident, showing her long-standing loyalty to him.
Charlie's Time Machine Theory: The Sister Did the Right Thing
Charlie Berens constructs an elaborate time-travel theory: the sister is actually a 45-year-old future version of herself who traveled back to intercept a doomed marriage before the kids, the Vegas trips, and the insider trading started.
Officer Down! The Husband Who Takes Roleplay Way Too Far
A wife wanted sexy cop roleplay. Her husband kicked open the door, read her Miranda rights, rummaged through drawers looking for weed, and shouted 'Officer down!' during sex. The actual sex was good. The improv was gold.
Husband reads Miranda rights during roleplay
The husband in the roleplay story committed so fully to his cop character that he literally read his wife her Miranda rights and called for backup on a fake radio during sex.
Charlie Berens Got Arrested Covering the 2008 RNC
Charlie Berens was arrested as a college journalism student covering protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. He split a PB&J with a taxi driver from Dinkytown and got breakfast at 6 a.m.
Charlie Berens arrested covering 2008 RNC protests
Charlie Berens was arrested as a journalism student while covering protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.
You Can't Demand a Tradwife When You Split Bills 50/50
A man rants about women not wanting to be traditional wives — while splitting all bills equally with a girlfriend who works more hours than him. His friend's sharp retort: you can't have a traditional wife if you're not a traditional provider.
Data point
50/50
A man who ranted about wanting a traditional wife was actually splitting all bills equally with his girlfriend and working fewer hours than she did.
Data point
12
Charlie Berens grew up second-oldest in a family of 12 children, which he credits for his no-nonsense, bootstraps mentality.
Charlie's Hot Take: Nobody Is Special, So Stop Complaining
Growing up second-oldest in a family of 12 taught Charlie Berens that no one is special or important. His philosophy: contribute or leave the situation you're complaining about. It's not cynicism — it's Midwest clarity.
No indexed bits in this chapter.
Show stoppers
The Trilogy: Thanksgiving Kiss with the Fiancée's Sister
In a jaw-dropping three-part Reddit update, a man ends his engagement after a drunken Thanksgiving kiss with his fiancée's sister produces feelings he's never had before. She says she'll wait however long it takes — and suggests moving states together.
Officer Down! The Husband Who Takes Roleplay Way Too Far
A wife wanted sexy cop roleplay. Her husband kicked open the door, read her Miranda rights, rummaged through drawers looking for weed, and shouted 'Officer down!' during sex. The actual sex was good. The improv was gold.
Snapshots ()
Key Quotes ()
This episode
Cast
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Guest co-host, Midwest comedian known for the 'Manitowoc Minute,' whose special 'Neighborly' was filmed in Appleton, Wisconsin.
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Charlie Berens was arrested while covering protests at this event in St. Paul, Minnesota, as a college journalism student.
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The source platform for all five relationship stories discussed and judged throughout the episode.
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Track
Discussed as the controlling husband's favorite vacation destination, which the family visits annually at the expense of the wife's Italy trip.
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Midwest retail chain where Morgan Absher was previously banned for shoplifting as a teenager, and where Charlie Berens had merchandise sold.
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Episode sponsor promoting their Personal Price Plan and local agent network for insurance coverage.
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Charlie Berens mentioned being alongside a professional reporter from the Boston Globe when he was arrested at the 2008 RNC protests.
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Episode sponsor offering online psychiatry services including diagnosis and medication management for anxiety, ADHD, and depression.
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Charlie Berens' podcast, described as a casual Midwest advice show with a bar-setting format where callers receive candid feedback.
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Episode sponsor offering financial monitoring and personalized recommendations; Morgan mentioned using it to catch a missed payment.
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Destination at the center of the second story, where an art history student wants to take a solo trip to view Renaissance artwork.
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Morgan Absher's home state, used as the basis for 'Minnesota nice' comparisons and personal anecdotes throughout the episode.
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Charlie Berens' home state, referenced repeatedly in Midwest cultural comparisons and as the location of his comedy special.
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The controlling Canadian husband's preferred annual family vacation destination, discussed in contrast to his wife's desired Italy art trip.
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Charlie Berens described being in the 'greater Milwaukee area' during an awkward massage parlor story he shared in the opening.
Stats
This episode
Claims & Sources
4 / 12 cited (33%)
Factual claims made this episode, and whether a source was named.
More than 80% of people are ambiverts, falling between introversion and extroversion.
The human brain is not fully developed until around age 26.
CFL (Canadian Football League) cheap seats average between $25 and $40.
Charlie Berens was arrested while covering protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, as a journalism student.
Police issued a dispersal order at the 2008 RNC protests after people were making fake press credentials.
The art history student's husband had never watched their three children alone for any length of time.
The Reddit poster's girlfriend of 10 years, who he had known for 17 years, rejected his marriage proposal and said she needed more time.
The tradwife-obsessed boyfriend split all bills 50/50 with his girlfriend and worked fewer hours than she did.
The fiancée's sister slept in a hospital chair for three days straight after the poster had a major accident.
Charlie Berens' parents have been married since 1984, making their marriage approximately 31 to 32 years long at the time of recording.
Charlie Berens' mother comes from a family of 11 children, which influenced her desire for a large family of her own.
Morgan Absher's Uber rating is 4.96 and Charlie Berens' is 4.91.
