Introducing First to Arrive
A Last to Leave Podcast Companion Newsletter
Last to Leave is a film & tv podcast hosted by us, Zoey Danielson and Heather Elaine Abbott. Those last to leave set typically aren’t the first to be interviewed about their work and the show seeks to share their stories. Over the past three years, we’ve had the honor and utter delight to interview creatives like Paul Rogers (Editor | Everything Everywhere All At Once), Helen Huang (Costume Designer | Station Eleven, Beef), Ita O’Brien (Intimacy Coordinator | I May Destroy You, Normal People), Katherine Jakeways (Creator/Writer/Executive Producer | The Buccaneers), and Joanna Naugle (Editor | The Bear, Molli and Max in the Future). We’ve also found a lot of joy in creating bonus episodes that center on movies that we love across a variety of genres and topics! This has also allowed us to connect with other creators like Nick Canovas (Youtuber | Mic the Snare) and Peyton Lynch & Deb Duncan (Podcasters | Queer Movie Night). Basically, the Last to Leave backlog is extensive!
As we celebrate three years of our little show, we are excited to launch this substack, First to Arrive, as a companion to the podcast! The newsletter will be on a monthly release schedule and include updates about previous guests, media recommendations, insights into the making of the podcast, and truly anything else that we are eager to share with our fellow film nerds.
Celebrating Three Years of Last to Leave
When Heather Met Zoey - A creative meetcute told in tandem
Zoey: During my senior year of college, I was assigned a project to interview an editor. While most of my classmates focused on connecting with local editors—which was lovely—I couldn’t help but wonder: What if I reached out to the editors behind my favorite films?
To my surprise, they responded. I ended up speaking with Nick Houy (Lady Bird), Paul Tothill (The Shawshank Redemption), & David Trachtenberg (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl)- to name a few. Before I knew it, I had so many interviews that I never even turned in the project. Instead, I kept diving into the conversations with these incredibly talented creatives—people whom most wouldn’t have thought to approach.
Making these connections was incredible, but the real highlight was having the chance to talk about what I love most: movies.
That chapter of my life eventually inspired the Last to Leave Podcast. If I could reach out to all of those talented editors, who else might be willing to share their stories? What other films could I gush about with the very people who helped bring them to life? The idea became a way to spotlight the unsung heroes of cinema—the ones who stay behind the scenes, the true ‘last to leave’ the set.
The final piece? A partner in crime, a co-host, a best friend.
Heather: Wait, let’s back up and set the scene. It’s 2019. Megan & Harry just had their first child. Donald Trump was impeached. Apple announced their new streaming service with their flagship series, The Morning Show. Parasite was released and it changed the whole world forever.
I’d been grinding it out in Chicago for a few years - writing & producing a web series with one of my best friends, Brea (that name might just come up later in the newsletter… spoilers), and also doing the improv thing. Chicago. You get it. Zoey was on her own grind! Producing live events and film shorts and working at a Post-Production company. Somehow our paths never crossed! Classic rom-com trope, tbh.
Then, Brea and I submitted our web series, Apartment 101, to a film festival that Zoey was running. It was graciously chosen to be included in the line up! (Thanks again, Zo!) At the festival, Brea and I vibed with Zoey. There was a shared love for creating and a spirit of scrappiness amongst all of us that ignited a spark. We all made plans to get together and work on a short film. It was exciting and it felt like the whole world was opening up for all of us. Anything was possible! Then, 2020 happened. Remember that year? It was bad! I may or may not have ghosted Zoey hard.
Zoey: Ghosted me so hard, I almost called a medium.
Heather: In 2021, I re-emerged into the world, trying to channel Julia Roberts in Eat Pray Love. Zoey & I reconnected, developing a bond based on our shared love of movies, youtube video essays about movies, and Prosecco. A few months into our official friendship era, Zoey sent me a cryptic text asking to make plans to meet for lunch and stated that she wanted to ask me something. Ominous!
Zoey: Turns out the 'ominous' vibe worked because that lunch is where I asked her to become my co-host and Last to Leave was born... Clearly, I’m not above a dramatic build up for big ideas. Especially if it’s paired with a buffalo chicken wrap from Pick Me Up cafe, a Chicago staple!
Heather: I am pretty sure I said yes right there on the spot.
Zoey: SHE SAID YES!
Heather: For the next few months, we met up countless times (often at Pick Me Up Cafe) to figure out what it actually meant to start a podcast. From figuring out what microphones would be the most bang for our buck to how exactly we would record the show, the amount we had to learn felt overwhelming. But somehow, it all began to fall into place. We picked a name and a tagline. Our first guest wish lists were made. We obsessively fine-tuned our interview request email template. When we got our first yes, we were shocked that anyone wanted to talk to us. There have been so many more yeses since then and we are still just as bowled over by every affirmative response.
A few days before our first interview, Zoey’s roommate got Covid and we had to scramble! We had been planning to record at her apartment, but that was now off the table. Zoey ended up staying at an AirBnb in order to avoid getting sick and we readied ourselves to record for the first time in a strange location! Sarah Shephard was our first ever guest and we couldn’t have asked for a more kind and generous human to get us started. We went on to record two more interviews in that AirBnB, bolstered by the confidence we had gained from Sarah.
Heather: It felt right for her episode to be our first release and we debuted the podcast on January 23, 2022. You can listen to it here.
Zoey: Now, 41 episodes and three years later, here we are, still chasing stories from our favorite movies and sharing our love for cinema.
Heather: And we have just started our next batch of interviews in preparation for season 4.
Zoey: Saying that Last to Leave is my proudest achievement feels like an understatement. This podcast has given me a deep connection to an industry that once felt almost impossible to break into. And yet, here we are—sitting down with Executive Producer Katherine Jakeways of The Buccaneers (a show that always leaves me in tears), Pioneer of Intimacy Coordination Ita O’Brien of I May Destroy You, and the entire assistant editing team behind Barbie. That moment felt almost fated, considering Nick Houy—Barbie's editor—was one of the first creatives I ever spoke with.
Last to Leave has grown and transformed in so many ways over the years, and I know the evolution is far from over. I can’t imagine us stopping anytime soon. And then there’s Heather—without her, none of this would exist.
Heather: While the achievements of the show are exciting, I am by far the most proud of the creative partnership that Zoey and I have forged during this time! Anyone who has jumped into a passion project with a friend will tell you that striking the balance between camaraderie and productivity is a challenge. It is a delicate balance that we have both worked at continuously to ensure that both our friendship and the show flourish.
Zoey: Working with Heather has been nothing short of a creative dream. Together, I feel like we can accomplish anything. We often remind ourselves, “This is our podcast, we make the rules,” and that freedom has shaped everything we’ve built. We dream big, constantly imagining what Last to Leave could become, and there’s no one else I’d rather share that journey with.
Heather: Ultimately, Last to Leave is a love letter to both filmmaking and our friendship. And we all know that friendship rom coms are the best kind.
Zoey: Heather isn’t just my co-host; she’s my best friend. We’ve been through so much together, and this podcast is a testament to the bond we share.
All that’s left to say is:
Zoey: Your birth is my birth.
Heather: Your death is my death.
(If you know, you know.)
Meet Brea!
We are beyond excited to announce that dear friend of the pod, Breanna Benedict, is joining the LTL team as our Social Media Coordinator! Brea is an incredibly talented content creator & we are jazzed to welcome her to the film nerd family.
Brea is a self-proclaimed tv gal and has seen every episode of her favorite show, Bob’s Burgers, more times than there are number with which to count! To quote Brea, ‘Specifically, I’m a big fan of Season 14 and the episodes: S13 E3 What About Job? & S13 E10 The Plight Before Christmas. Both those episodes had me in my feels when I first watched them.’ Two other shows that she’s been loving lately are the Apple TV Originals, Bad Sisters & Silo. She’s got her sights on Severance as her next watch.
Most Recent Release
We took a lengthy hiatus last year to give ourselves a break and work on some of our personal creative pursuits (Heather did a play!) But we came back in December to recap the movies that hit for us in 2024!
Join your hosts, Heather Elaine Abbott & Zoey Danielson, as they reminisce about all of the incredible popcorn buckets that came into their lives this past year... oh and all of the films too! That's right! It's time for an end of the year yap session about the movies that hit for Zoey & Heather in 2024.
Films Discussed: Dune: Part Two, The Watchers, Challengers, Inside Out 2, Woman of the Hour, The Outrun, Trap, Longlegs, Civil War, Anora, Late Night with the Devil, A Real Pain, Wicked, The Substance, Sing Sing, and I Saw The TV Glow
Prefer Apple Podcasts or Spotify? No worries, we got both below babes!
Recommendations
What are we watching?
Heather: I’m doing the Letterboxd 2025 Criterion Challenge this year and so I’ve been trying to watch one Criterion off the list each week. Shout out to the Criterion Channel App! So far that includes The Heroic Trio and Mindgame. If you’re interested in the rules of the challenge, you can find them here.
I’ve also just started my annual rewatch of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. It’s a show that feels tailor made for me and I continue to look up to Rachel Bloom as a creator. If you’ve never seen the show, it is unfortunately not streaming anywhere! I made the impulsive (and correct) decision to buy the show when I found that out. And of course, I am chomping at the bit for next episode of Severance. On the youtube video essay front, I really enjoyed Princess Weekes’ most recent video about Girls. I was one hundred percent swept up by the Girls craze when it aired and the video is both a critique and celebration of what made Girls tick.
Zoey: Just finished the first season of Bad Sisters on Apple TV, and HOLY WOW—it’s a masterpiece. I screamed at the TV more times than I’d like to admit (okay, 10+). Ireland calls to me every single day, and this show just made me miss it even more.
I’ve also been loving Alan Cumming’s next-level style on The Traitors. It’s a stacked group of weirdos, and the drama is off the charts in the best way.
What’s next on my watchlist? XO, Kitty Season 2 (because I devour that adorable chaos), The White Lotus (duh), and The Handmaid’s Tale (whenever they stop teasing us and actually drop it). June had me pacing my room by the end of Season 5 and I need to know what happens! My TV is doing a lot of heavy lifting these days!
What are we reading?
Heather: I just finished reading The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune and I absolutely loved it! It’s tonally reminiscent of the writing of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett, but rounds out that sardonic humor with explorations of found family and queer joy that will leave your heart warm & your soul hopeful.
Zoey: I’m revisiting the Fourth Wing series by Rebecca Yarros in anticipation of the third book, Onyx Storm, dropping on January 21st. This series is set in a dragon-riding war college, and if there's one thing you should know about me, it’s that I’m completely enchanted by dragons. They’re just pure magic.
What are we listening to?
Heather: Solar Power by Lorde has been in constant rotation for me lately. I’ve had a blast to revisiting this album. I didn’t love it when I first heard it, but I think that I just wasn’t ready for it before now. I also just saw a new (to me) band at Sleeping Village this past weekend called Racing Mount Pleasant. They were the opener for Cameron Winter and boy howdy they have stuck with me! Their music feels like the perfect soundtrack for the eventual (and inevitable) indie film I will make one day - contemplative, vibey, brassy (they’ve got two saxophones and a trumpet!).
Zoey: Let me hit you with two words… SUGAR WATER. Maude Latour’s debut album is seriously taking over my world—it's impossible to stop listening. On the audiobook front, I'm listening to Down the Drain by Julia Fox. It’s a wild ride that keeps you hooked, and what makes it even better is that Julia herself narrates it, adding that raw, personal touch that only she can deliver.
First newsletter! I love it!
This was an amazing read! Love your podcast!!