Transcript

#65 Meredith: A mother–son standoff sparked by weed gummies | Heavyweight Podcast

From Heavyweight · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 39 min · 6,142 words · 149 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "#65 Meredith: A mother–son standoff sparked by weed gummies | Heavyweight Podcast", an episode of Heavyweight published December 11, 2025 (39 min, about 6,142 words). It mentions 6 people, works and ideas, including Heavyweight, Aidan Quinn, Jonathan Goldstein, Steve Marsh, Dr. Jackie Cohen.

What this episode is about

In this episode, the story revolves around a mother-son conflict triggered by the son's use of weed gummies, highlighting themes of fairness and communication within their relationship. The narrative explores the complexities of their interactions and the generational divide surrounding drug use.

Key takeaways

  • In the realm of fame, a billboard does not make a star; context and connection do.
  • Candy tax? More like an accidental immersion therapy for motherhood's sweet-toothed challenges.
  • Beware the purple peach rings: they might just send you on an unexpected rollercoaster ride.
  • Pods and podcasts both get recorded—it's the content that varies wildly between high and low.
  • In every Ziploc bag lies a story, but not every gummy deserves a fairytale ending.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Heavyweight, Jonathan Goldstein
  2. – 25:00: Dr. Jackie Cohen, Steve Marsh
  3. – 39:11: Heavyweight, Jonathan Goldstein, Steve Marsh

Notable quotes from "#65 Meredith: A mother–son standoff sparked by weed gummies | Heavyweight Podcast"

  • From Pushkin Industries. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight.
    about Heavyweight · at
  • App. The episode is not starting over, but this is indeed my friend, Dr. Jackie Cohen. Dr. Jackie Cohen is a doctor, and I'm phoning her today in her expert capacity. I start…
    about Dr. Jackie Cohen · at
  • Yeah. Sorry. This is my friend Steve Marsh. If his voice sounds familiar, it's because he was the subject of another episode of this podcast and is thus by Jackie's estimation unwell. Steve has done.
    about Steve Marsh · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

Concepts & topics

Full transcript with timestamps

Pushkin. We have quite a story for you today. But before we begin, a warning. This episode contains themes of drug use. Listener discretion is advised.

Yeah. Oh, finally. Mhm. I wanted to tell you about my um billboard in Time Square.

Oh, wow. You're jelly. You want a billboard, too. I I I I would die. I feel like you like it.

What gives you that impression? Your relationship with being, you know, famous, I'm sure, is is something as an artist that you

Wait, hang on a second. Did you just say that I was famous? No, it sounds like you did. And something of an artist.

I said you I said you wanting to be famous and your relationship to wanting to be famous. Do you remember? Do you remember?

Do you remember? Are you recording? Cuz I said, "Do you remember?" I'm asking. I'm recording you in my memory.

Am I going to hear this on the radio? You're definitely not going to hear this on the radio.

Oh, I Oh, yeah. Because it's not a radio because it's a podcast, right? You know that I do a podcast.

Yeah. Am I on speakerphone? No. Because you know when you put someone on speakerphone, you're supposed to tell them.

from Pushkin Industries. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight. Today's episode, Meredith right after the break. I consider myself a fair person. If a plumber enters my home, I offer him or her a cup of coffee. When presented with a bowl of restaurant mints, even when unobserved, I make sure to leave a few for the next guy. And if you have the good fortune of eating tapas with me, you should know right now you'll be eating at least half the plate. So when Meredith, a fellow Minnesotan, asked me to weigh in on a matter of fairness, I was raring to go.

And so it is on a sunny day in late March that I find myself pulling up to Meredith's.

Hi, Jonathan in the flesh. Yes, it is. Hello. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

Hi. Meredith ushers me inside. I thought you'd have like bigger hair. I have no hair.

Really? Has it always been that way? Have I been? I I was born bald. Yeah. As Meredith acclimatizes herself to my unexpected baldness, we settle in.

Okay, I'm going to get some coffee. I got to have I got to have cup. How much coffee have you had today? Can you tell?

Meredith fetches her fourth cup this morning and I have a look around. She just moved in here 3 months ago, but the house is already feeling homey. You have a quote from the Dollaly Lama on the

This was a This was a a gift to me from my Gallentine's party. There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow. So today is the right day to love, believe, do, and mostly live.

Well, no offense to the Daly Lama, but I've built a career on the idea that something can be done yesterday, or at least about yesterday. And so I have Meredith tell me about her past misfortune which all began. She says three years ago on a Saturday morning.

You have to understand that a I'm a sweet tooth. Okay. And the second really important piece of information is that my sister-in-law owned a candy store.

This sister-in-law routinely sent boxes of candy to Meredith's three children. And because of the whole sweet tooth thing, Meredith would tell her kids to keep the candy in their room. That way, she'd only have access when she was in their rooms tidying up. The agreement even had a name. I would take what I would call the candy tax as a price of me helping them clean up their room.

And cleaning up is what Meredith was doing on the Saturday morning in question. She was in Aiden's bedroom. Aiden is her son, 17 at the time, and Meredith was hunting for his leftover cereal bowls.

When I saw on the table some peach rings, you know those like little chewy gummy candies.

Yeah, I know them. Well, right. They're really tasty. Yeah. And I shoved them in my mouth like num num num.

Meredith finished Aiden's entire bag of peach rings. Candy Tax. From there, she moved on to her daughter's room to continue cleaning.

And it was about 30 minutes later when I started to feel a little bit, you know, like a little bit, oh, something's not quite right.

At that moment, a thought popped into Meredith's mind. What if the peach rings weren't just peach rings?

Um, maybe a small detail. Most times, peach rings look like orange and white. Yeah,

these were purple and blue. But I didn't think anything of it other than, oh, it must be a different version of peach rings. Maybe they're flavored blueberry.

Sure, those blueberry flavored peach rings. Then there was also where she'd found the blueberry flavored peach rings.

In a Ziploc bag. They don't usually come in a Ziploc. Oh, they don't usually come in a Ziploc.

How big was the Ziploc bag? Like those little Like the kind you would put drugs in.

No, Jonathan. The kind you put a sandwich in. Meredith just thought Aiden had put the gummies in a ziplo to, you know, preserve freshness. But now, as her head began to swim, she thought a new thought. And in the moment of time it took me to think that thought, my knees buckled. I dropped on all fours because whatever was coming for me hit me like a freight train. A freight train freighted with box car after box car of gelatinous marijuana. My son comes running up the stairs and I yell to him, "What was in those gummies?"

All he says is, "What were you doing in my room?" I then say, "What was in those gummies?" He says, "How many did you eat?" And I always remember trembling. I said, "All of them? How much was in those?" He's like, "Mom, 25 milligrams each."

Meredith had eaten four peach gummies. That is 100 mg of weed. I'm the person that takes the gummy that somebody gives you at five and starts shaving it down. So, I knew like two and a half is my limit.

She'd ingested 40 times her limit. And then I start yelling, "Well, you just killed your mother." The next several hours I can only describe as um kind of coming floating in and out of consciousness. I mean, I have moments of sort of dreamlike um I was in a forest running and then the tree roots started coming up and wrapping around my legs. I mean, that's not fun. Trees twist around your legs and are trying to like suck you down to the earth. Like, what is that?

Meredith didn't know if she needed to go to the hospital. She wondered if she would die. She phoned a few friends to ask them to check up on her throughout the day,

you know, by like boy style. because you weren't even capable of of using the regular dialing.

I I Jonathan, I couldn't move my fingers enough to get the right buttons. It's like laying there with a piano on you.

Her friends later told her she kept repeating things like, "Am I going to be okay?" and "God help me."

All in all, 23 hours. Oh my god, that's like longer than labor. It felt It felt in some ways eternal. Sometime around 10:00 a.m. the next morning, Meredith finally began to feel herself coming down. And with that, the anger set in. Anger at her 17-year-old son Aiden.

Well, now we got to deal with the problem. You didn't know that he kept drugs in the house?

No, I did not know. Meredith says she'd always had open conversations with her kids about drugs and alcohol, but for the kids to keep drugs in the house was not allowed. And on top of that, leaving them out in the open when he knew about the candy tax, how could Aiden have been so careless? And what made it all the more upsetting, while Meredith was on all fours? Aiden flees. He's like, I got to go to work and I'm just left here having to somewhat fend for myself.

Was a part of you proud that you had raised a son who, you know, honored his work responsibilities? He was so committed to his work at PF Changens that his mom took the back burner. Um, you know, I probably did raise a kid with a good work ethic. I'll give him that.

But here's the thing that three years later, Meredith still can't get over. Aiden refused to apologize. Instead, over and over, he uttered the same refrain.

This is not my fault. Aiden felt like this was on you. Aiden 100% felt this was on me and that no other parent would be that clueless.

Meredith admits she is the sort of person who often gets herself into these kinds of noodles.

Oh, I've got a I've got a few. I um rescued a stray dog that was loose from a yard. What happened was Meredith's dog was routinely escaping her yard and people around the area would post about it on Next Door, writing comments like, "Who can't control their dog?" and "Meredith, your dog is out again." She felt publicly shamed. And so when she saw someone else's dog that was lost, it felt like a chance to reclaim the respect of her neighbors.

And I proceeded to pick it up. I mean, it was a 40 lb dog. Yeah. And I and I took it and really felt that I was doing a good deed. As Meredith started walking home, the dog started jolting. Spasms of gratitude perhaps. She got the dog home safely, made a post, and waited. Finally, the owner showed up.

And I was expecting to be met with like, "Oh, I'm so happy that you got my dog. I've been worried sick about it. Well, um it turns out that I had um taken a dog from a home that had an invisible fence.

Oh, that's why it was jolting. Yes, it was jolting. Yes. And instead it was you took my dog from our yard and you shocked it and thanks.

Is this why you had to move? These are probably a consideration. As for the drugging, however, Meredith doesn't think it was all her fault.

This could happen to any of us. I even Googled like looking for validation of like, oh, this happens all the time, right?

Sadly, Meredith didn't find the validation she was looking for. A lot more stories about dogs. But you know what? I think this has probably happened to a lot more people, but there's maybe they're harboring some sense of shame about it.

They're just not talking about it. Talking about it. If it happened to you, you are not alone. If it could happen to you, beware. Okay. Maybe um assess the color of the gummies. Maybe assess

Sorry to interrupt, but who who do you think you're talking to right now? I'm talking parents like me that wouldn't think their kid would have gummy candy in their room. The thing about people like Meredith, people who can laugh at themselves, is that it can be hard to know when they need to be taken seriously. Meredith can joke about the gummies, but it doesn't mean it wasn't scary at the time, or that she doesn't want some acknowledgement from Aiden. I [clears throat] keep waiting for this moment when he comes through the door.

He says, "Mom, I've been reflecting a lot and I thought about that time when this happened and I just want to say I get it. I'm sorry."

Has he never he never apologized? No, he's he's never apologized. Ironically, of my three kids, he is the probably the most sensitive in terms of care and concern. So it was somewhat surprising to me that he could dismiss that experience so flippantly. Meredith has tried to draw the apology out, bringing it up once or twice a year. She tells herself it's an important teachable moment. She tells herself that Aiden's refusal to apologize reflects poorly on her parenting. So she keeps nooging him, most recently in a canoe. just the two of us. There was no escaping and I went so far as like negotiation. Okay. I started at 50/50.

Meaning percent of blame, 50% on her, 50% on Aiden. Aiden is an econ and computer science major and Meredith was trying to speak his language.

I went down to 8020. Okay. 20% on him. 20% on him. He wouldn't accept that. He would not accept that. Um, at this point I was like, "Well, now what what do I have to lose?" I went all the way down to 991. I'm looking for a shrapnel, okay, of accountability.

But she hasn't even gotten that. For 3 years, Meredith and Aiden have been at a stalemate in terms of who should be held accountable. It keeps popping up and nothing gets settled. Meredith has tried recruiting friends to adjudicate, but Aiden has always questioned their impartiality. So, I thought a real independent, objective third party might be the ticket to finding our path here. Someone that could see both sides and talk empathetically with my son about accountability. Do you think it's something you could be able to like broker?

While we're all familiar with the idea of a claim adjuster, what Meredith needs is a blame adjuster. Someone who can adjust some blame onto her son and make him apologize. I accept the job, beg forgiveness once more for my baldness, and ready myself to leave. When

You want to take it? Yeah. Meredith's phone rings. Hey. Hey. Hey. On the phone is Meredith's eldest daughter Quinn.

I'm here with Jonathan. Hi. Hello. Though Quinn was out of town during the weed dosing catastrophe, she remembers it well.

Oh, right. As long as we have her on the line, I ask Quinn if there's anything more I should know about. Quinn pauses, then asks her mother a question.

Was this before or after your airplane incident? Oh my god, Quinn. The airplane incident.

What? What's the airplane incident? Enter exhibit B, the airplane incident. I need to have my side of the story on this cuz there's some definite biases from my mom.

This is Meredith's son, Aiden. And when I phone him up at college, he tells me that the gummy incident is only one of two accidental druggings in this family. My mom was on a business trip out to the UK and Scotland and then it's a birthday present I just like gotten to go with.

3 months after the Weed gummies, Aiden went on a trip with his mom. They were in the Amsterdam airport about to board the 9-hour flight back home to Minneapolis.

I knew she had like some sort of like sleeping aid. And I was like, "Oh, maybe I could like have some for the flight." Aiden's about twice Meredith's size, so when he asked, she figured it couldn't hurt to give him half of what she normally took.

And then I just remember like being in the Amsterdam airport and I was like, "Man, I feel really gross right now." Like I felt like pretty nauseous.

When boarding started, Aiden was having a hard time standing straight. Like right as I hand them my passport and ticket, I just completely pass out. He's behind me and then I hear a crash as Aiden has collapsed into the stansions.

Basically, what I remember was kind of just like half consciousness. She had just like kind of grabbed me by the shoulders and she was like, "We need to get it together. You need to get on this flight."

They look at me, they're like, "There's no way you are going on this flight and you need to go to medical emergency or whatever." And I I remember they like ran tests and like had to contact like poison control. Just like Meredith, Aiden was fine eventually, but also like Meredith, Aiden was disappointed by his mom's reaction.

Does she accept blame for the incident? Um, has she ever apologized to you for that?

I don't I don't I don't know. I I don't want to flat out say no, but I'm like leaning more more likely not.

Aiden says when he first collapsed, Meredith was mostly focused on getting him onto the plane, even [clears throat] if it meant dragging his still limp body down the jetway weekend at Bernie style.

I would have expected that the priority is that I'm okay, not like, oh, but we need to get on the plane,

right? Meredith wanted to keep things on track, which not so different from Aiden, who hurried off to PF Chens. And to top it all off, when they eventually were rebooked on a new flight, Meredith's ticket got upgraded. And guess who didn't offer that upgraded ticket to a certain somebody?

I remember asking her, "Oh, did you ever consider like maybe if I got the seat for that flight?"

Except that you had been the one who was drugged. So, yeah. And then she said, "I was supposed to be home 10 hours ago." Which like that behavior in that scenario was uncharacteristic. They're very good pals.

This is Meredith's daughter again, Quinn. But I think they have a harder time like being soft around each other.

H when they get in disagreements, both of them just like harden up really quick. Quinn says Aiden and Meredith are both similar in their stubbornness. To which regarding the gummy incident, Aiden holds a hard line. He says Meredith is wrong about basic facts. Like for one thing, the drugs weren't out in the open, but rather stashed in an old iPhone box on a shelf. Andy says he would never have left the house while Meredith was still panicking on the floor. It was only once she was panicking safely in bed that he went off to his job of which

I never worked at PF Chens. Aiden briefly worked at a Panda Express, but that was months earlier. The job he was rushing off to was his caddying job at a golf course. My son had to head off to go serve Chinese food. Does that sound like more egregious than so my son had to leave to hit the golf course? [snorts] Um, I mean both of those. When you say it like that, that just sounds like selfish.

When I first got into this, I was certain that Aiden and Aiden alone was to blame. But now that I've spoken with Aiden, I'm not so sure. I'm still willing to adjudicate, but I'm starting to feel a bit out of my depth. Which drugging was worse? I don't know much about drugs. I couldn't tell you the difference between happy dust and happy powder. Lucky for me though, I know a medical expert. After the break, a very special guest, a very special doctor guest. It's Jackie.

Hello, Jackie. No, this isn't a glitch in your podcast app. The episode is not starting over, but this is indeed my friend, Dr. Jackie Cohen. Dr. Jackie Cohen is a doctor, and I'm phoning her today in her expert capacity. I start with the airplane incident. So, what do you think? Like, you know what I mean? Like, is that a reasonable like would you do that? Would you

share my pills with my son? Of course not. Of course not. Listen, I Okay, it's not the worst. It's not the worst thing she ever did. It's not the worst parenting moment, but it's certainly not up there. And and the reason it's not up there is that I mean the only red flags for me in this is she's coming to you with her problems. So that's the first problem.

That's that's your that's the biggest litmus for you. Yeah. So basically you you then I mean by your logic you think that every single person who has come to me in all these years is not well

by virtue of the fact that they have come to me for help. Look at our our dear friend Mary Clo. Mary Clo came to me for help.

She did? Yes, she did. There's an episode. Did I not help her to get her real estate license? Did I not?

Okay, I'm not going to lie to you. Okay. Yes. And it was a good story. Okay, fine. You're right. You're absolutely right.

Although Jackie concedes the point that not everyone who comes to me for help is certifiably deranged, she does think Meredith is certifiably undeserving of an apology. From Jackie's perspective, it's Aiden who deserves one.

I'm totally with the son on this one. I think his response has been so appropriate. Like, you know what? It was on her to be like fishing around his room and consuming candies.

Though, when I tell Jackie about the seed upgrade, she gave it to him, right? No, she didn't. She took it herself. She does seem to enjoy Meredith's hutba. The least she could do is let him sleep it off comfortably, right?

That's what the kid felt. Yeah, I'm totally with kids. Tim Kid's great, by the way. Kid is on the ball.

Hey, how are you? I'm good. As with any medical question, I need a second opinion. So, after my call with Jackie, I consult with a second drug expert. Not a doctor, per se, but a doctor of the streets. Are are you in your underwear?

Yeah. Sorry. This is my friend Steve Marsh. If his voice sounds familiar, it's because he was the subject of another episode of this podcast and is thus by Jackie's estimation unwell. Steve has done Iawaska in Peru, Ibogga in Gabon, and participated in the unofficial Champions League of Ecstasy at Berghine in Berlin. Even though I pretty much don't know what any of these words mean, I do know that Steve has been breaking on through to the other side since his teens and hiding weed from his mother since he was in diapers. So, I tell him the gummy story and ask for his take. I don't think he's really understanding what his mom went through. Maybe like I've I've done the heroic dose of almost any drug you can name. And yeah, that's a serious dosage.

So serious, Steve says that 25 mg gummies aren't even legal in the state of Minnesota. Steve himself has never taken 100 milligrams of edibles at one time, but he's sympathetic to Meredith's plight because of the time he quote dabbed weed, which he explains is inhaling a super high concentrate of THC.

I had to sit on like the side of a hill and like, you know, our friend Marica. Yeah.

Marica had to come out back and like gently rub my back as if I was like having a panic attack, which I I pretty much was, you know. So, like I've been there before, Meredith. I get it, you know, like it is um helpless and catatonic and scary.

For Steve, it's pretty cut and dry. Unlike Jackie, he believes it's Aiden who owes Meredith an apology. But to make sure he has all the information, I tell him the plain story, too.

I would I would argue that's nearly irrelevant. You know, on top of it, one of the tickets gets bumped up to first class and she takes it

as is her maternal right. I have to say, I just think that your mom ate your drugs, man. Like, why can't you get your head around that? You have to be responsible for your [ __ ] man. After weighing Jackie's expert testimony and Steve's sort of expert testimony, I can only come to one conclusion. King Solomon like in its tit fortatness. Meredith and Aiden need to apologize to one another. And because two apologies require two apology shamans. Do you want to go there with me?

Sure. After the break. Apologies all around. Yeah, I want to know where this kid is getting his high powered weed gummies, too. Emily said there's a really good restaurant near here called Broers or something.

Broers possibly Broers. Aiden is home from college for the week. And so on a warm afternoon, Steve and I, in our capacity as independent objective third and fourth parties, make our way to Meredith's.

It's like right here. Is this the house? Uh, yeah, that looks like it. Um, the plan is to get in, get some apologies, and get out in time for an early lunch at Broyers or Broers or whatever it's called.

Hi. Hi. How are you? Thank you. Um, so it's Steve, right? Yeah. You've been briefed.

I've been briefed. I've been briefed. Okay. Meredith welcomes us in. Aiden is seated on the far end of the living room couch. Meredith sits down beside him. Steve and I begin by trying to secure an apology from Aiden about the gummies. It's not like I served them who were on a silver platter.

Yeah, but hiding them sufficiently means your mom didn't overdose on weed. The thing is I think I did hide them.

But unsurprisingly, Aiden is defensive. I just think there's so many signs that like would have just should be red flags.

But even if she missed them all, you're still responsible for the drugs. And if you can just admit that, then you can do drugs for the rest of your life. What prevented you from just saying like, "I'm sorry."

At that point, I don't know. I don't I think you I think you probably worried. Were you worried? You worried.

Yeah. I think that just kind of ties back to the whole thing of like how much of the blame is that?

Well, I don't know. I get I think we're caught up in like pie charts and ratios and responsibility.

Yeah, we totally are. I mean, I I feel like it's just, you know, my mother got hurt because of something that I was a part of. Do you feel like you were hurt? That's it.

Do you feel like you were hurt? I don't like I mean you saw me basically melt and freak out

and then you checked out. Which is of course how Aiden feels about how Meredith responded to him in the Amsterdam airport. A point he raises.

It wasn't like, "Oh my god, Aiden, are you okay? I hear we need to get on the flight." You're just like, "You're fine. You're fine."

I know. I know. I know. Because I honestly I thought, you know, I love you, but like sometimes you like you're a little dramatic. You're a little dramatic. Sometimes you're a little dramatic

and I thought, okay, how bad can it be? Which is kind of what Aiden's thinking about the beach rings, right? Like how bad can this be, Mom?

Do you guys realize that there's some stuff that's happening on both sides? A lot of stuff on both sides. But just when I'm starting to think there will be no SARS, Meredith starts inching towards the light.

I just I I just felt so bad. I think I did feel like shame about it, right? And then making the apology more grand would just be somewhat underscoring my shame about it.

Sure. That I just would like just can we just move on, you know? But the I think your point is I missed your suffering

and um I you know I will apologize for not being there in the right way at the time.

Mhm. I'm sorry. Yeah. Like I I should have had more empathy for you in that situation.

Aiden nods, but he still doesn't offer an apology back. So Steve offers a helpful push. So, so maybe what's going on here is just like you're getting better at modeling apologies

and now Aiden will go back and think about what a real remorseful apology sounds like.

Maybe that's maybe the first time he's heard one from him. Like the the gesture of apology is bigger.

Yeah. Maybe just like is under rehearsed in the family, you know? When I spoke with Quinn, she told me that it's true. As kids, they didn't have many examples of what it looks like to say sorry and mean it, which might be why Aiden is struggling. So, right now,

you could acknowledge, Aiden, that maybe you're not good at that. Do you think you're good at apologizing from the heart?

Probably not. I think and maybe it doesn't have to happen today, but like it's a good thing to acknowledge that, hey, I'm a kind person.

I'm a good person, but I might suck at apologizing, you know? Yeah, that's fair. Yeah.

Uhhuh. Yeah. I mean like I because it's like I mean I could just like say it and then like see how that feels.

Okay. I'm sorry that my actions caused you harm and and I my [gasps] and that my irresponsibility was inflicted upon you. [snorts]

Thank you. Yeah, you know, maybe originally my motive or my sort of questioning of this was someday you're going to be in some kind of a relationship, right, with some other person

in which you're going to have to see things from their perspective and you're going to have to back down a little bit, no matter how convinced you are that you are in the right.

It feels like Meredith is speaking from experience. I ask her about it later on and she tells me that she was she was thinking about her most recent relationship. It had just ended and she says the situation could have used an apology. She wants her son to learn from her experience. That is after all what good parents want most.

And so you know part of my like yearning here was like how do I help you get there? My hope going into this was that Aiden would accept blame for the gummies and Meredith would own up for what happened in Amsterdam. A little quit proquo and everyone goes home happy. And that did kind of happen. Sort of. In the weeks after the conversation, I find myself thinking about this business of modeling behavior that Steve had brought up. If Meredith hadn't modeled apologies for her kids, it begs the question, who had modeled not modeling apologies for her?

So, I reached back out to Meredith to ask whether her parents ever said sorry to her.

I don't think so, but at times it would have been nice. She says, "By way of explanation, Meredith tells me about all the times she'd be left waiting after ballet class or school for her mom to pick her up. I just remember feeling like the last kid standing waiting for like an hour outside.

Yeah. And I think she I don't know what she was doing, but I kind of the message was like, well, I kind of see I'm I'm a lower priority. It's funny now I think about me picking up my kids. The horror that I would feel if I'm late by like five minutes. Is it because like you remember that feeling of just

waiting and feeling like does anybody care and it and it it wouldn't come with an apology.

No, I wasn't allowed to be angry about it, right? You know, it was like, well, that's the situation and you just got to like

suck it up. Suck it up. Anything other than that would be dramatic. you know, did that somehow sort of translate down in the way I raised my kids? I mean, Aiden's reaction to me overdosing on his gummies was suck it up, right? Which is exactly what I did to him.

Like family heirlooms or the gene for colorblindness, the value of apologizing is handed down. But if you didn't come from a family where there was space for all that, it's hard to create that space when you become a parent yourself. How can you give the thing you never received? I don't know the solution to that, but I do know that it can't hurt to keep trying. Do you think it's still possible to change? Like, you know, where you can have a relationship with the kids where you can apologize to them in the moment and they hear that, feel it?

Can people change? Yeah, we can't change. yesterday and we can't know who we will be tomorrow. No Jesus, maybe the Dollaly Lama is right. Today is the right day to love, believe, do, and mostly live. And hey, if you choose to smoke a little of the good stuff along the way, just be sure to consult your pulmonary cardiologist first. Heavyweight takes no responsibility for bad trips, only the good ones.

Now that the furnitureures returning to its Goodwill home. Now that the last month's rent is scheming with the damaged deposit, take this moment to decide if we meant it. If we tried or felt around for far too much from things that accidentally this episode of Heavyweight was produced by supervising producer Stevie Lane and me, Jonathan Goldstein, along with Phoebe Flanigan. Our senior producer is Kala Holt. Editorial guidance from Emily Condan. Special thanks to Ben Natafhaffrey, Daphne Chen, Alexandra Garitin, and Sam Riceman. For more Steve Marsh, you can enjoy his written work in Minneapolis St. Paul magazine. Emma Munger mixed the episode with original music by Christine Fellows, John K. Samson, Blue Dot Sessions, and Bobby Lord.

Additional scoring by Bobble, Michael Charles Smith, Chris Zabriski, and Virginia Violet and the Rays. Our theme song is by The Weaker Thans, courtesy of Epitap Records. Follow us on Instagram at heavyweightodcast or email us at heavyweightpushkin.fm. We'll be back next week with the final episode of the season.

Son in an empty room. Sun in an empty room.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "#65 Meredith: A mother–son standoff sparked by weed gummies | Heavyweight Podcast"?

Jonathan Goldstein (Host), Meredith (Guest), Aiden (Guest), Quinn (Guest), Dr. Jackie Cohen (Guest), Steve Marsh (Guest).

What is "#65 Meredith: A mother–son standoff sparked by weed gummies | Heavyweight Podcast" about?

In this episode, the story revolves around a mother-son conflict triggered by the son's use of weed gummies, highlighting themes of fairness and communication within their relationship. The narrative explores the complexities of their interactions and the generational divide surrounding drug use.

What is mentioned in this Heavyweight episode?

6 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Heavyweight, Aidan Quinn, Jonathan Goldstein, Steve Marsh, Dr. Jackie Cohen, Dali Lama. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "#65 Meredith: A mother–son standoff sparked by weed gummies | Heavyweight Podcast"?

The episode runs 39 min; the transcript is about 6,142 words in 149 timestamped sections.

More from Heavyweight

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.