How To Destroy Everything Presents: Toughen Up - Episode 10: Assisted So-Called Living, Something's Gotta Get Ya and The Punchline
In the season finale, unable to carry on alone, Eugene finally surrenders and moves into an Assisted Living facility. He’s not there long before he is hospitalized and enters into a steep decline. Before he passes away, Stephen’s father finds his version of peace with “All we’ve been through as a family…”
Danny and Darren then agree that Toughen Up is ultimately a story of forgiveness, with Stephen describing it as a love letter to his family.
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56:26
How To Destroy Everything Presents: Toughen Up - Episode 9: Crushing Blossoms and The Burden
It’s 15 years later and Eugene’s wife Helen dies very suddenly, leaving him very much adrift. At the urging of a priest, Stephen’s father learns to ask for help at the gravesite, then pushes on alone.
In our interview, Danny and Darren learn how Stephen struggled, self-medicated and began to heal his past in the years since his mother’s passing.
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53:41
How To Destroy Everything Presents: Toughen Up - Episode 8: Albertsons, Aspirin and Telling the Truth
With Stephen off to college, his mother strikes out on her own, renting a room in a house and scoring her dream job. Not long after, however, Maureen is diagnosed with terminal cancer and eventually makes peace with Eugene and her past. After her ashes are scattered at sea, she delivers a message to Stephen in a dream.
Then, Darren looks back on Maureen’s life and wonders if she truly found peace.
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56:42
How To Destroy Everything Presents: Toughen Up - Episode 7: Driving School, Dad's Big Surprise and Blowing the Hatch
In this seventh chapter, we find a mid-life Maureen facing her fears and calling upon her brother, Jimmy, to finally teach her how to drive. Then, Eugene shocks the family with a surprise marriage announcement. After Sheila leaves the nest for college, Stephen is left at home with his mother, doing his best to fill the role of "Man of the House."
Then Danny relates to the role reversal that took place between Stephen and his mother and Darren makes an observation about the sheer resiliency of this family.
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1:16:36
How To Destroy Everything Presents: Toughen Up - Episode 6: Mom Hustle and The Girl Upstairs
In this chapter of our story, we find Maureen is officially back on her feet, though struggling to make ends meet for her and the kids. After a variety of jobs, she ends up working in a factory and takes in some of her fellow employees as roommates to pay the rent. Stephen is displaced when a particularly provocative boarder rents his room, upending a family already desperately in need of stability.
We then hear Danny and Darren reflect on how this episode is a true snapshot of 60’s and 70’s America, how Stephen lacked the rock of stability of Danny’s grandparents and how Stephen’s mom’s secrets and schemes eerily mirror those of one Richard Jacobs.
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This is the true story of Richard Jacobs – a narcissist who destroyed a childhood, a marriage, a family, and a community. He sued every sentient being on the face of the earth, got banned from restaurants, and inspired a support group composed solely of people he traumatized. He stole notary stamps, hacked emails, forged signatures… and won a U.S. Supreme Court case. He was also my dad.
Join us each week as hosts Danny Jacobs and Darren Grodsky will shift between past and present to explore the lasting impact of Richard Jacobs.
Subscribe to How to Destroy Everything on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
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