Fish can recognise and distinguish individual humans through visual cues such as colours and patterns, and can learn routines and form bonds with their caregivers.
255: Ludicrous! Ft. Angela Giarratana
A Canadian man spent $18,500 of his house savings on a 140-pound vintage cheese wheel, then blew another $8,500 on equipment to store it — and got evicted, all while his girlfriend had already left him.
Feb 12, 2026
1:53:48
Difficulty: Beginner
Played
Two Hot Takes
255: Ludicrous! Ft. Angela Giarratana
A Canadian man spent $18,500 of his house savings on a 140-pound vintage cheese wheel, then blew another $8,500 on equipment to store it — and got evicted, all while his girlfriend had already left him.
Feb 12, 2026
1:53:48
Difficulty: Beginner
Played
TL;DR
Morgan Absher and guest co-host Angela Giarratana dive into a "ludicrous" batch of Reddit stories that double as a communal rage room. They unpack a man jealous of his boyfriend's fish [1] — Morgan Absher "A man's boyfriend became jealous of the daily 15–20 minute venting session he had with his pet fish. When he tried switching to talking to …" 07:27 , a housewife called "dead weight" and a "whore" by her husband [2] — Morgan Absher "A Canadian man spent nearly all of his house-down-payment savings on a single 140-pound Heritage cheddar wheel, convinced he could flip it …" 52:00 , a man who spent $18,500 of house savings on a 140-pound cheese wheel and got evicted for it [3] — Morgan Absher "As the cheese saga's costs spiralled past $26,000, Morgan and Angela turned to the obvious question: can you insure artisanal cheese the wa…" 1:10:30 , a wife who got surgery after ignoring her husband's warning about a dangerous knife, and a husband who texted his high-school crush after dreaming about her [4] — Angela Giarratana "The husband's response to his wife's worry wasn't reassurance — it was threats, yelling, and the devastating 'you became the woman I was ha…" 1:33:40 . The single biggest takeaway: trust your gut — every OP who sensed something was wrong turned out to be right.
#Reddit relationship advice
#emotional abuse
#financial abuse
#cheese wheel investment
#gaslighting in marriage
#high school crush drama
#self-esteem and relationships
#fish as emotional support
#housewife dynamics
#petty revenge stories
#doomsday prepping
#AI image verification
#Canadian housing market
#bread knife injuries
#rage room culture
#Reddit stories
#relationship advice
#rage room
#jealousy
#abuse
#cheese investment
#housewife
#high school crush
#fish tank
#gaslighting
#doomsday prep
#marriage
#self-esteem
#bread knife
#petty revenge
#TikTok
#Canada
#eviction
Two Hot Takes host Morgan Absher is joined by guest co-host Angela Giarratana for an episode themed 'Ludicrous' — a curated selection of outrageous Reddit stories designed to function as a communal rage room. Stories range from a man's boyfriend being jealous of his pet fish to a husband who spent $18,500 on a vintage cheese wheel.
Chapter list
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The episode's showstopping story comes from r/AmIOverreacting: a man defending his decision to spend nearly all of the $32,000 in house savings on a single wheel of 21-year-old cloth-bound Heritage cheddar, reasoning that he could slice it into 200-gram wedges and sell them at $60 each for a profit of $38,000 [1] — Morgan Absher "A Canadian man spent nearly all of his house-down-payment savings on a single 140-pound Heritage cheddar wheel, convinced he could flip it …" 52:00 . His girlfriend left immediately. The hosts spend considerable time trying to verify whether the post is real — the OP provides a receipt, a photo of the cheese with a date stamp, a photo of his hand with his Reddit username written on it in Sharpie, and an AI-image-detector result showing 1% likelihood of being AI-generated. An update from the OP reveals the full spiral: he tried to return the cheese, damaged the paraffin wax while attempting to open it, voided the non-refundable sale, and then spent $8,500 on a commercial bar cooler, industrial humidifier, vacuum sealer, and ripening mats [2] — Morgan Absher "Unable to return the damaged cheese, the Reddit poster spent another $8,500 on commercial refrigeration equipment — then got evicted when h…" 1:03:20 . He had to remove his apartment door to get the fridge inside, and his landlord walked in to find a commercial cheese operation in the living room — particularly alarming given the same tenant had been plasma-cutting in the kitchen months earlier. An eviction notice followed. Morgan and Angela do the maths: $18,400 + $8,500 = ~$26,900 invested against a theoretical $30,000 value, for a maximum $3,000 gain — minus having lost a girlfriend and his home. Morgan messages the OP directly to buy some cheese.
- Rage room
- A commercial venue where paying customers smash objects to release stress; used here as a metaphor for the podcast itself as emotional catharsis.
- Luteal phase
- The second half of a woman's menstrual cycle, after ovulation, during which progesterone rises; associated with PMS symptoms including mood changes, bloating, and increased sensitivity.
- Sunken cost fallacy
- The psychological tendency to continue investing in a failing endeavour because of resources already spent, rather than evaluating future prospects objectively; Morgan applied this to the cheese buyer.
- Butterface
- A crude slang term meaning someone considered attractive physically but not facially ('everything but her face'); used here to describe the Reddit husband's naked-versus-clothed rating.
- Stonewalling
- A conflict behaviour where one partner completely withdraws from communication and refuses to engage; cited as the husband's pattern in the 5-out-of-10 Reddit story.
- Mandolin (kitchen)
- A flat slicing tool with an exposed razor-sharp blade used to produce very thin, even cuts of vegetables or cheese; notoriously dangerous and the leading cause of fingertip injuries in professional kitchens.
- Cloth-bound cheddar
- A traditional method of ageing cheddar wrapped in cloth rather than sealed in plastic, producing a richer, more complex flavour; described in the episode as 'practically extinct' in Canada.
- Paraffin wax (cheese)
- A hard wax coating applied to the outside of aged cheese wheels to seal them from air and bacteria; the Reddit cheese buyer cracked his and had to duct tape it.
- Plasma cutter
- An industrial tool that uses a high-velocity jet of ionised gas to cut through electrically conductive materials; using one inside an apartment is a fire hazard and the reason the cheese buyer's landlord was already hostile.
- Gaslighting
- A form of psychological manipulation in which one person causes another to question their own perceptions or sanity; both the housewife and high-school crush stories featured classic gaslighting behaviour.
- Projection
- A psychological defence mechanism in which one attributes one's own feelings or impulses to another person; Morgan and Angela argued the knife-injury wife was projecting her own guilt onto her husband.
- Energy policing
- Angela's term for policing a partner's non-verbal emotional state — accusing someone of being upset based on their vibe rather than anything they have said — which she distinguished from genuine passive-aggression.
- Equity (vs equality)
- Giving people what they specifically need to reach fairness (equity) rather than giving everyone the same thing (equality); used humorously to argue rage rooms should be free for women.
- HOA
- Homeowners Association — an organisation in a residential community that sets and enforces rules, funded by resident fees; Morgan referenced one in relation to a dog-poop incident.
- Ludicrous / Luda
- Morgan's episode theme word (deliberately misspelled as 'Ludacris,' referencing the rapper) meaning absurd or laughably unreasonable; used as a shorthand for the episode's story selection.
- Bamboozled
- Deceived or cheated; used by Morgan to express worry that the cheese story might have been fabricated despite all the evidence presented.
- Ironclad
- Impossible to dispute or contradict; used to describe how photographic evidence used to function before AI-generated images became commonplace.
Chapter 1 · 00:00
Start
The episode's showstopping story comes from r/AmIOverreacting: a man defending his decision to spend nearly all of the $32,000 in house savings on a single wheel of 21-year-old cloth-bound Heritage cheddar, reasoning that he could slice it into 200-gram wedges and sell them at $60 each for a profit of $38,000 [1] — Morgan Absher "A Canadian man spent nearly all of his house-down-payment savings on a single 140-pound Heritage cheddar wheel, convinced he could flip it …" 52:00 . His girlfriend left immediately. The hosts spend considerable time trying to verify whether the post is real — the OP provides a receipt, a photo of the cheese with a date stamp, a photo of his hand with his Reddit username written on it in Sharpie, and an AI-image-detector result showing 1% likelihood of being AI-generated. An update from the OP reveals the full spiral: he tried to return the cheese, damaged the paraffin wax while attempting to open it, voided the non-refundable sale, and then spent $8,500 on a commercial bar cooler, industrial humidifier, vacuum sealer, and ripening mats [2] — Morgan Absher "Unable to return the damaged cheese, the Reddit poster spent another $8,500 on commercial refrigeration equipment — then got evicted when h…" 1:03:20 . He had to remove his apartment door to get the fridge inside, and his landlord walked in to find a commercial cheese operation in the living room — particularly alarming given the same tenant had been plasma-cutting in the kitchen months earlier. An eviction notice followed. Morgan and Angela do the maths: $18,400 + $8,500 = ~$26,900 invested against a theoretical $30,000 value, for a maximum $3,000 gain — minus having lost a girlfriend and his home. Morgan messages the OP directly to buy some cheese.
Claims made here
During the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, women's brains cause them to feel and appear uglier — a finding emerging from recent scientific research.
21-year-old cheddar typically retails for approximately $120 per pound.
A 140-pound cheese wheel purchased for $18,400 CAD, if cut into 200-gram wedges and sold at $60 each, could theoretically generate approximately $38,000.
Finding 300+ people willing to pay $60 for 200 grams of aged cheese in the current economic climate is an unrealistic business plan.
An AI image detector assessed the Reddit cheese buyer's photo and determined there was only a 1% chance it was AI-generated or a deepfake.
The Reddit cheese buyer spent approximately $8,500 CAD on commercial refrigeration equipment including a 59-inch solid door bar cooler, digital temperature and humidity controller, industrial humidifier, vacuum sealer, and ripening mats.
State Farm has over 19,000 local agents across the United States.
Serrated bread knives are the second leading cause of fingertip injuries in professional kitchens, after mandolin slicers.
Talkiatry accepts major insurers and can schedule a first psychiatry appointment within days rather than months.
The top Reddit comment on the high school crush story received 11,000 upvotes, suggesting the wife was happily married but her husband was not.
The Reddit couple in the high-school crush story had been together for nearly a decade, having met when they were 17 and are now both 30.
Data point
163
Angela Giarratana had only 163 YouTube subscribers at time of recording, prompting Morgan to ask listeners to go subscribe.
The Fish Jealousy Paradox
A man's boyfriend became jealous of the daily 15–20 minute venting session he had with his pet fish. When he tried switching to talking to his boyfriend instead, the boyfriend ignored him and watched TV. Morgan and Angela point out the obvious: wanting all the attention but none of the conversation is pure control.
15–20 min daily fish rant
The Reddit OP described a daily 15–20 minute one-sided venting session to his fish as a decompression ritual after work, which his boyfriend became jealous of.
Fish can recognise caregivers
Morgan Googled and found that fish can distinguish individual humans through visual cues, learn routines, and form bonds with caregivers.
Abuse Doesn't Have to Be Physical
A 24-year-old housewife who learned to cook her husband's cultural cuisine was called a whore, dead weight, and useless — triggered by a joke about dishes. Morgan flags the financial abuse angle: he holds all the money while dismissing her degree. Angela lands the verdict: get out, you haven't even hit your best years yet.
Housewife called 'dead weight' & 'whore'
After jokingly reminding her husband about cleanup duties, a 24-year-old housewife was called a whore, dead weight, and useless — escalating from a dishwashing comment to full verbal abuse.
The '5 Out of 10' Husband
A wife asked her husband to rate her on a scale of 1–10, expecting a playful '10.' He scanned her face and said 5 — then tried to recover by saying she was a 10 when naked. Morgan argues this wasn't a joke: his mask slipped and he showed her exactly what he thinks of her.
Data point
5/10
A husband scanned his wife's face before rating her a 5 out of 10, then added 'when you're naked you're a full 10' — a comment both hosts called degrading.
Morgan's High School Revenge Era
Morgan casually revealed she once put horse manure on a mean classmate's car in high school, then separately put an ice cream cone on a McDonald's employee's car after the employee harassed her — and got banned from McDonald's. The twist: she and the girl eventually became friends when they realised the boy was playing both of them. Morgan is still owed $600.
$18,500 Cheese Wheel Guy
A Canadian man spent nearly all of his house-down-payment savings on a single 140-pound Heritage cheddar wheel, convinced he could flip it for $38,000. His girlfriend immediately left. Morgan and Angela try to do the math — and it doesn't add up. Finding 300+ people willing to pay $60 for 200 grams of aged cheese is not a business plan.
Data point
$18,500
A Canadian man spent $18,500 CAD on a 140-pound, 21-year-old cheddar wheel from the Oxford County Cheese Trail, using money he and his girlfriend were saving for a house.
Data point
21 years
The cheese in question was aged using a traditional cloth-bound method described as 'practically extinct' in Canada, making it an extremely concentrated and rare product.
Data point
$120/lb
The Reddit poster noted that 21-year-old cheddar typically sells for about $120 per pound, making the entire wheel worth over $30,000 at retail.
The Cheese Spiral: Eviction Edition
Unable to return the damaged cheese, the Reddit poster spent another $8,500 on commercial refrigeration equipment — then got evicted when his landlord discovered a commercial fridge in the living room and cited fire hazards. He had already been on thin ice after using a plasma cutter in his kitchen. The cheese that was supposed to fund a house deposit had now cost him a house entirely.
Pictures Used to Be Evidence
In the cheese saga, the poster had to provide a receipt, a photo of the cheese, a photo with their Reddit username written on their hand, and an AI-image-detector result before Reddit still wasn't convinced. Morgan uses this to make a wider point: photos used to be ironclad evidence. Now nothing is, and we are all cooked.
Data point
$8,500
After being unable to return the cheese due to heat damage he caused, the Reddit OP spent an additional $8,500 CAD on a commercial cooler, humidifier, vacuum sealer, and ripening mats.
Evicted over cheese storage
The cheese buyer's landlord served him an eviction notice after finding a commercial-grade fridge and vacuum sealer in the apartment — months after the same tenant had been plasma-cutting in the kitchen.
Lost girlfriend AND apartment over cheese
The cheese Reddit poster ended up losing both his girlfriend and his apartment as a direct result of the $18,500 cheese purchase and subsequent $8,500 equipment spend.
Can You Insure a Wheel of Cheese?
As the cheese saga's costs spiralled past $26,000, Morgan and Angela turned to the obvious question: can you insure artisanal cheese the way you can insure wine? The absurdity peaks when Morgan shouts 'State Farm, show yourself!' — and then a State Farm ad immediately follows. Peak podcast comedy.
The Bread Knife That Needed Surgery
A man warned his wife that a serrated bread knife from her mother was dangerous, tried it himself and nearly cut himself, and told their kids not to use it. Five days later, his wife cut the tendon between her thumb and forefinger cutting a bagel and needed surgery. He did everything right — drove her to hospital, held her hand throughout — but she said she could 'feel his judgment.' Morgan and Angela call it projection.
Doomsday Prep via TikTok Shop
Morgan revealed she has been quietly becoming a doomsday prepper, starting with a Costco emergency meal kit and escalating to a gas mask purchased on TikTok Shop. She now has non-perishable food, emergency water, solar lanterns, a tent, and horses she can ride away on if there is no gas for cars. She is from Minnesota and has been seeing a lot of protest videos.
Serrated bread knife #2 cause of finger injuries
A professional chef commenter noted that serrated bread knives are the number-2 cause of fingertip injuries in kitchens, after mandolins.
Feeling Your Judgment vs. Feeling Your Guilt
Morgan and Angela dig into the psychology of the bread-knife story: when you are clearly in the wrong and your partner is clearly right but says nothing, you police their energy anyway. Angela distinguishes between genuinely passive-aggressive silence and simply being right. The wife sliced her tendon — she knows she was wrong, and that guilt is reading as judgment.
Data point
15 years
A married man texted his high-school crush for the first time in 15 years after dreaming about her, then asked to meet 'this week' — without telling his wife until hours later.
He Dreamed About Her, Then Texted Her
A man in a nearly decade-long relationship woke up from a dream about his high-school crush — a woman who rejected him 15 years ago and may like women — and immediately found her on social media and asked to meet 'this week.' He told his wife hours later and said 'don't freak out.' Morgan and Angela both clock the red flags before the worst part: his furious reaction when she expressed concern.
His Reaction Is the Real Red Flag
The husband's response to his wife's worry wasn't reassurance — it was threats, yelling, and the devastating 'you became the woman I was happy you weren't.' Morgan and Angela argue this reaction alone confirms he has feelings: an innocent person with nothing to hide doesn't blow up like that. His ego needed the crush to want him back.
No indexed bits in this chapter.
Show stoppers
$18,500 Cheese Wheel Guy
A Canadian man spent nearly all of his house-down-payment savings on a single 140-pound Heritage cheddar wheel, convinced he could flip it for $38,000. His girlfriend immediately left. Morgan and Angela try to do the math — and it doesn't add up. Finding 300+ people willing to pay $60 for 200 grams of aged cheese is not a business plan.
His Reaction Is the Real Red Flag
The husband's response to his wife's worry wasn't reassurance — it was threats, yelling, and the devastating 'you became the woman I was happy you weren't.' Morgan and Angela argue this reaction alone confirms he has feelings: an innocent person with nothing to hide doesn't blow up like that. His ego needed the crush to want him back.
Snapshots ()
Key Quotes ()
This episode
Cast
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Guest co-host with 163 YouTube subscribers at time of recording; also has a podcast called Artist on Artist and appeared in a Dropout production.
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The platform where all five of the episode's main stories originate; Morgan and Angela read and react to posts from various subreddits.
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Track
Morgan was banned from a McDonald's in high school after placing an ice cream cone on an employee's car, then later unbanned after befriending the employee.
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Episode sponsor, mentioned twice in ad reads and once organically when Morgan shouts for them during the cheese insurance discussion.
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Track
Morgan mentions Justin bought compression leg boots at Costco; she also bought doomsday prep meal kits there.
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Comedy production company for which Angela Giarratana recorded a show called Very Important People, which appeared at Sundance.
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Two Hot Takes has bonus content available on Patreon, referenced in the episode description and briefly mentioned.
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Episode sponsor; Morgan reads two separate Skims ad segments promoting bralettes and cotton basics.
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Episode sponsor offering online psychiatry services for anxiety, ADHD, and depression, accessible at talkiatry.com/hottakes.
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Morgan bought a gas mask on TikTok Shop as part of her doomsday prepping; she and Angela also discuss whether cheese could be sold there.
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Morgan and Angela reference Facebook Marketplace as a potential but difficult venue for the Reddit cheese buyer to sell his cheddar.
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The Ontario, Canada location where the Reddit cheese buyer purchased his 140-pound Heritage cheddar wheel for $18,500 CAD.
Stats
This episode
Claims & Sources
1 / 12 cited (8%)
Factual claims made this episode, and whether a source was named.
Fish can recognise and distinguish individual humans through visual cues such as colours and patterns, and can learn routines and form bonds with their caregivers.
21-year-old cheddar typically retails for approximately $120 per pound.
A 140-pound cheese wheel purchased for $18,400 CAD, if cut into 200-gram wedges and sold at $60 each, could theoretically generate approximately $38,000.
Finding 300+ people willing to pay $60 for 200 grams of aged cheese in the current economic climate is an unrealistic business plan.
Serrated bread knives are the second leading cause of fingertip injuries in professional kitchens, after mandolin slicers.
During the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, women's brains cause them to feel and appear uglier — a finding emerging from recent scientific research.
An AI image detector assessed the Reddit cheese buyer's photo and determined there was only a 1% chance it was AI-generated or a deepfake.
State Farm has over 19,000 local agents across the United States.
The Reddit cheese buyer spent approximately $8,500 CAD on commercial refrigeration equipment including a 59-inch solid door bar cooler, digital temperature and humidity controller, industrial humidifier, vacuum sealer, and ripening mats.
The Reddit couple in the high-school crush story had been together for nearly a decade, having met when they were 17 and are now both 30.
The top Reddit comment on the high school crush story received 11,000 upvotes, suggesting the wife was happily married but her husband was not.
Talkiatry accepts major insurers and can schedule a first psychiatry appointment within days rather than months.
