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The Other Man

April 5, 2026·1 hr 3 min·5 clips
Sarah sabotages Robert Redford's dinner to reclaim her role as the star of the house.
The house had one movie star in it. Robert Redford came because Sarah's stepfather would only let him read a manuscript about Leonard Peltier there, at home. What Sarah remembers most is not the manuscript. It is her mother, suddenly lit up: charming, laughing, asking questions, moving through the house in a way that feels too vivid to file under normal childhood memory. Redford could make even small stories land. Her parents leaned in, pulled by the gravity a famous guest brings into a room. Davey's family scene is weirder and, somehow, sweeter. He finds his father at the sink in a bright green bathrobe, glasses on, shaving cream still across his face. His father is speaking with Munga, a channeled presence whose voice feels shakier to Davey than his mother's channeling. Still, he loves the moment. The silly details make the affection stick. Davey had assumed Aaron, the meditation classes, and the students around the house were mostly things his father put up with. His mother traveled for retreats and workshops, known through Aaron's teachings, dictated books, and readings of ancient Buddhist writings. His father stayed home inside that world. In the bathrobe and uncertain voice, Davey hears generosity.

As heard by us

A sharp, tender episode about families rearranging themselves around charisma, belief, and attention.

The Other Man circles the awkward charge that enters a family when someone else becomes the center of gravity. Sarah remembers Robert Redford coming to her childhood home to read her stepfather's Leonard Peltier manuscript, and what stays with her is not the politics or the…

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Why you'd press play

When the most revealing thing about your parents turns out to be how they act around someone else.

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