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How a Little Humor Led to a Serious Relationship

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How a Little Humor Led to a Serious Relationship

Peter Nathan Hess had admired Sara Danielle David long before they actually met.

In 2019, Mr. Hess, 37, then a staff reporter at Spectrum, an autism research publication, had liked some tweets by Ms. David, 36, the astrology editor at Vice, about her work with the Writers Guild of America East union. But what really drew his attention, he said, was her sense of humor, including her profile picture of Gollum from “Lord of the Rings” wearing makeup and diamond earrings.

By 2021, the two were following each other on Twitter, now known as X. Mr. Hess happened to check out Ms. David’s Instagram account and sent her a message. They chatted for a couple of weeks, and then Mr. Hess asked Ms. David out.

“At first, I thought he wanted to meet to talk about union stuff,” Ms. David said, “but he made it clear that he was interested in me.”

Mr. Hess, now a writer at IBM Research in New York, invited Ms. David on a picnic in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn for their first date in May 2021.

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“I didn’t realize that it was a thing to hang out at the cemetery,” Ms. David said. “It’s an arboretum and I learned a lot about the trees, plants and bugs from Peter that day.”

The two also talked for hours about writing, films and their families, then decided to have dinner together. They picked up Chinese dumplings and went to Mr. Hess’s apartment in Brooklyn to watch a movie.

“I felt open and comfortable talking to Peter, I really liked him,” Ms. David said. “I’m usually skeptical of people, but the fact that I wanted to see him again said a lot.”

Two weeks later, they returned to Green-Wood Cemetery for a second date. This time at night, for a guided tour that included the catacombs.

Ms. David has a bachelor’s degree in gender studies from Brown and is currently attending City University of New York School of Law. She was born in the Philippines and moved to Jamaica, Queens, with her family when she was 5.

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Mr. Hess has a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a master’s degree in science journalism from N.Y.U. He moved to Brooklyn from Durham, N.C., in 2015.

After a few months of dinner dates and making each other laugh with jokes and made-up, funny songs about things in their lives, the pair declared their love for each other.

Inspired by her fondness for the dating show “Love Island” and the grand gestures made by the contestants, Ms. David wrote a love letter to Mr. Hess to tell him of her feelings. “I told her I loved her, too,” Mr. Hess said. “I still have her letter.”

By September 2022, both of their apartment leases were up, and they decided to move in together in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. “We each had lived with partners before, but I knew if I moved in with him, it would be forever,” said Ms. David, who currently serves as the vice president of online media at the Writers Guild of America East.

[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]

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Marriage had come up a few times during their two years together, Ms. David said. “We kind of knew we were going to get engaged, but it was still exciting to be talking about it, so I made an effort to be chill about it,” she said.

On May 7, 2023, Ms. David and Mr. Hess proposed to each other under the same redbud tree where they had their first picnic. They exchanged engagement rings they picked out for themselves and read love letters to each other.

My letter to Sara told her how much I loved our lives together and wanted to take the next step together,” Mr. Hess said.

On April 19, 2025, Ms. David and Mr. Hess wed at the Prospect Park Boathouse in Brooklyn.

“When we met, Peter lived blocks away from Prospect Park and we fell in love over picnics and walks there,” Ms. David said.

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Ms. David walked down the aisle to “Sara Smile” by Daryl Hall & John Oates, the song she was named after, and exchanged vows they wrote together. Their friend Ben Groh, who was ordained by the Universal Life Church for this event, officiated the ceremony before 120 guests.

To honor Ms. David’s Filipino heritage, the bride and groom wore traditional attire purchased in the Philippines. Ms. David wore a “terno” top with a secondhand dress. Mr. Hess donned a floral-embellished “barong” shirt over a cotton shirt.

At the reception, the couple included the traditional Filipino “money dance,” where the bride and groom danced down the line as loved ones pinned money to their clothes and gave their blessings.

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‘Wait Wait’ for April 18. 2026: With Not My Job guest Phil Pritchard

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‘Wait Wait’ for April 18. 2026: With Not My Job guest Phil Pritchard

Phil Pritchard of the Hockey Hall of Fame works the 2019 NHL Awards at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on June 19, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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This week’s show was recorded in Chicago with host Peter Sagal, judge and guest scorekeeper Alzo Slade, Not My Job guest Phil Pritchard and panelists Alonzo Bodden, Adam Burke, and Dulcé Sloan. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.

Who’s Alzo This Time

The Don Vs The Poppa; World’s Worst Doctor; Should We Eat That?

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Panel Questions

Big Cheese News!

Bluff The Listener

Our panelists tell three stories about someone missing a huge opportunity in the news, only one of which is true.

Not My Job: Phil Pritchard, the NHL’s Keeper of the Stanley Cup, answers three questions about the other NHL, National Historic Landmarks

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Peter talks to Phil Pritchard, the NHL’s Keeper of the Stanley Cup. Phil plays our game called, “Let’s Go Visit The NHL” Three questions about National Historic Landmarks.

Panel Questions

The Trump Dump and Air Traffic Control Becomes Animal Control

Limericks

Alzo Slade reads three news-related limericks: Spice Up Your Spring Cleaning; A Fizzy Meaty Drink; The Right Way to Eat Peeps.

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Lightning Fill In The Blank

All the news we couldn’t fit anywhere else

Predictions

Our panelists predict the next big AirBnB story in the news

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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Paul W. Downs

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How to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Paul W. Downs

Paul W. Downs can’t help it that even on the weekends, his life intersects with “Hacks,” the HBO comedy he co-created and co-showruns with his wife, Lucia Aniello, and their friend Jen Statsky. (He also appears on the show as Jimmy LuSaque Jr., the besieged manager of its two stars, played by Emmy winners Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder.) The fifth and final season of “Hacks” premiered last week, but on Downs’ days off, he often finds himself at its previous filming locations or hanging out with cast members who have become like family.

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In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.

Downs moved to Los Angeles in 2011, but soon after, he and Aniello were hired to write (and for him to act) on the über-New York show “Broad City,” keeping them away from the West Coast for years. Now the couple live in Los Feliz, which they enjoy with their young son.

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“I love Los Feliz because it’s a real neighborhood with restaurants and bars, but also feels close to nature with Griffith Park,” Downs says. “Also it’s very central to my Eastside friends and Westside agents.”

And if he had to live at a local mall, like the character Ava Daniels did in the third season of “Hacks,” which would he choose?

“It would be the Americana, obviously.”

Here’s how he’d spend a perfect day in L.A.

10 a.m.: A late rise and a li’l barista

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I’m sleeping in if I can, which I can’t because I have a toddler, but let’s say I can sleep ’til 10. That would be insane.

Then I’m making coffee at home. I’m making it with my 4-year-old because he likes to make my coffee now. He always wanted to help, now he really wants to do it on his own. I’m still there to supervise, but he does do a lot of it.

I do batch brew. I’m doing Verve Coffee that I’m grinding there, and then I’m brewing four cups because I need my coffee. I had a Moccamaster for a long time, but I recently got a Simply Good Coffee. There’s no plastic — it’s all glass and metal.

11 a.m.: Chocolate croissants for everyone

We’re driving to Pasadena and we’re going to [Artisanal Goods by] CAR, which is the place to get the best chocolate croissant, I think, in the world. I don’t just think in L.A., I think they’re better than Paris. I’m going there with my wife and my kid and I’m having another coffee and some pastry. We’re ordering three [chocolate croissants]. We’re not doubling up.

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11:45 a.m.: The family business

We’re driving to Fair Oaks in Pasadena. There’s a place called T.L. Gurley. We shot “Hacks” there, actually. Not only in Season 1, but also full circle in Season 5. We’re going to shmay around and look at antiques. My kid is going to want to play a vintage pinball machine. We’re going to find a little piece of art for the house or what have you. It’s not necessarily that I’m on the hunt. It’s to pass the time and to have some fun. If I could do anything and have a leisurely day and take my mind off work, that’s what I’m doing.

People love to interact with my kid when he’s there. We’re really training him to appraise things at a young age. My parents are part-time dealers of antiques. My grandmother bought and sold antiques. It’s kind of a family business.

1:30 pm.: Baguettes and books

We’re driving to Larchmont and we’re getting a sandwich at Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese. I’m doing prosciutto-mozzarella-basil on a baguette.

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Then we’re going to Chevalier’s Books. What’s sad is that I’m often not looking for leisure material. I’m looking for something that I’m interested in learning more about or writing about, or that they’re turning into a show I want to audition for. But we’re also doing Little Golden Books for my son. He’s obsessed. We’re not huge on screen time, so we really encourage the book-buying.

2:30 p.m.: Cast pool party

We’re having some family fun in the pool and we’re doing that until evening. We invite people over all the time. My sister-in-law is a New Yorker, but she actually wrote last season on “The Rooster” and she’s often writing on shows in L.A., so she’s often here and she’ll have a couple friends come over. I know this sounds like a piece of PR or something, but we’ll really literally have Hannah [Einbinder] and maybe Mark Indelicato from “Hacks” come over to swim. Jen, our co-creator of “Hacks,” will come over.

6:00 p.m.: Family dinner

Sometimes we’ll order Grá to the house, which is a pizza place in Echo Park — excellent sourdough crust pizza. But if we don’t do that, an ideal evening is an early dinner at All Time on Hillhurst in Los Feliz. We’re ordering the ceviche and my son is having all of it and not sharing with anybody at the table.

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8:45 p.m.: A thrilling ending to the day

After putting my kid to bed, my wife and I, in an ideal world (full disclosure: we haven’t done this in two years), we’ll watch something together that we’ve been meaning to watch. We have a long list of movies and we either want to revisit or that we haven’t seen that we need to watch.

We don’t watch a lot of comedies. It’s a dream to watch a “Black Bag” or a little espionage thriller. We really like that because it’s so different than the stuff that we’re working on in the day.

Often the things we watch are things that we admire. We like deconstructing it as fans of film and television. We do like talking about the making of it, but it’s less of a critique and more of a listing of the things we appreciated about it.

10:30 p.m.: No work tomorrow

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And then it’s lovemaking ’til morning on a perfect Sunday. If it’s a perfect Sunday, there’s also a Monday that’s off.

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Sitting in a jail cell, alone and hopeless, a man’s life is suddenly changed

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Sitting in a jail cell, alone and hopeless, a man’s life is suddenly changed

Jay (not pictured) found himself alone and hopeless in a jail cell when a fellow inmate’s unexpected words of comfort changed his life.

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When Jay was 22 years old, he was a self-described loner. In this story, he is being identified by his nickname to allow himself to speak candidly about the following experience and his mental health. He says the few people he did hang out with at the time had questionable morals.

 ”I chose my friends poorly, and your friends have a tendency to rub off on you. And so I started making poor decisions,” Jay said.

One evening, when he and his friends were out drinking, someone suggested they should try to break into the chemistry building on his college campus. Most of the group shrugged the suggestion off, deeming it impossible, but Jay was convinced he could pull it off.

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“The next night I made a plan of how to do it, and I did it,” Jay remembered. “And I didn’t get caught doing it, [but] I got caught afterwards.”

At around 1 that morning, Jay was placed in the county detention center. Sitting alone in his cell, reality began to sink in.

“I pretty much thought that my life as I knew it was going to be over, and I had decided that the world would be better off without me in it.”

Jay made a plan to end his life. As he prepared himself, he began to cry.

“But just in that moment when I was ready to do it, I heard a voice coming from the top left corner of my cell, from a little vent. And someone called out to me and said, ‘Hey, is this your first time?’”

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The man who called out was an inmate in the cell next door.

“I collected myself a little bit, and I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Can I pray for you?’”

Jay had grown up religious, but had stopped going to church years before. In that moment, though, he knew he needed support. He said yes, and listened as the man began to pray.

“I wish I could tell you that I remember the [exact] words that he said to me, but what I remember is that his words landed with me, and instead of wanting my life to be over, suddenly I saw hope,” Jay said.

The interaction happened nearly ten years ago, but it was a pivotal moment in Jay’s life, and one he thinks about all the time.

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“[Now], I have a good job. I have a girlfriend who loves me. I have a life. But I have a life because somebody who was in the same situation I was in had the courage to talk to a fellow inmate and be kind.”

Jay says that he wishes he could meet that man again and express his appreciation.

“[I would] shake that guy’s hand, give him a hug, and tell him what his small gesture meant for me, how he changed the course of my life.”

My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.

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