# The Next Generation of Pearsons | "In The Room" with Writer Vera Herbert (508) Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/that-was-us-6898879/the-next-generation-of-pearsons-in-the-room-with-writer-vera-herbert-508 Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/that-was-us-6898879/the-next-generation-of-pearsons-in-the-room-with-writer-vera-herbert-508.md Podcast: [That Was Us](https://stenobird.com/podcast/that-was-us-6898879) Published: 2026-04-07T07:30:00+00:00 Episode link: https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/clrtpod.com/m/mgln.ai/e/1251/arttrk.com/p/OSSA4/arttrk.com/p/ARTS0/s.gum.fm/s-699f3200890cc9cbb23d5993/traffic.megaphone.fm/GBLL6079919012.mp3?updated=1775536657 Audio file: https://pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/clrtpod.com/m/mgln.ai/e/1251/arttrk.com/p/OSSA4/arttrk.com/p/ARTS0/s.gum.fm/s-699f3200890cc9cbb23d5993/traffic.megaphone.fm/GBLL6079919012.mp3?updated=1775536657 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/that-was-us-6898879/episodes/the-next-generation-of-pearsons-in-the-room-with-writer-vera-herbert-508 Duration seconds: 5799 ## Resource On today’s episode of That Was Us, we’re breaking down This Is Us Season 5, Episode 8: “In The Room.” In this episode recap: * Randall and Beth FaceTime Madison while waiting for updates on Kevin * Kevin arrives at the hospital and tells Madison his family is his priority * Kate and Toby navigate the emotional realities of adoption and their relationship with Ellie, the birth mother * Rebecca and Miguel open up about life after Jack’s death * Esther and Nasir’s story reveals the invention of the Discrete Cosine Transform, the technology behind video calls like FaceTime Plus, Mandy Moore, Chris Sullivan, and Sterling K. Brown discuss: * Working with guest stars like Michael O’Neill * The Mandy moment that sent Chris into a laughing fit * Why partner vacations without kids are so important And writer Vera Herbert joins to talk about: * Her unconventional path into Hollywood * Writers’ room culture * Writing personal grief into This Is Us * The importance of thoughtful adoption representation That Was Us is produced by Rabbit Grin Productions. Music by Taylor Goldsmith and Griffin Goldsmith. ------------------------- Support Our Sponsors: - This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit https://Betterhelp.com/twu today to get 10% off your first month. - Post jobs for free at https://www.ziprecruiter.com/twu ------------------------- Executive Producers: Natalie Holysz and Rob Holysz Creative Producer: Sam Skelton Production Coordinator: Andrew Rowley Video Editor: Todd Hughlett Mix & Master: Jason Richards About Headgum: Headgum is an LA & NY-based podcast network creating premium podcasts with the funniest, most engaging voices in comedy to achieve one goal: Making our audience and ourselves laugh. Listen to our shows at https://www.headgum.com. » SUBSCRIBE to Headgum: http… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/that-was-us-6898879/episodes/the-next-generation-of-pearsons-in-the-room-with-writer-vera-herbert-508/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/that-was-us-6898879/the-next-generation-of-pearsons-in-the-room-with-writer-vera-herbert-508.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.