Episode 26: The Rules of Attraction/ Flatliners

This week on What's Your Damage?, AJ and AJ revisit some of their greatest hits in the Regret Department.“A” kicks things off with a trip back to college, when she somehow convinced herself that being a theater kid dating a baseball player was a good idea. What followed was a masterclass in accepting less than the bare minimum: being treated like a booty call, getting cheated on, getting financially drained, and eventually getting dumped after paying for the guy to come see her. Naturally, she traces part of the blame back to The Rules of Attraction, a movie that taught an entire generation that toxic relationships were sexy and emotional self-destruction was a personality.Meanwhile, “J” dives into Flatliners, the movie that asks, "What if a bunch of doctors deliberately died for science?" and somehow got made. The film's regret-fueled hallucinations lead her to reflect on her youngest sibling and the reality that she and her other siblings were largely left to raise him when their parents were running on empty. Looking back, she wishes she'd had more tools, more support, and significantly fewer responsibilities for someone who was still figuring out childhood herself.Along the way, AJ and AJ discuss hindsight, guilt, terrible role models, and the uncomfortable realization that sometimes your younger self was doing the best she could with information primarily gathered from questionable movies and untreated emotional baggage.