Picture the face, spiteful old eyes, squinting, disapproval, thin blue lips and permanent skull, dry, hollow cheeks, around a cold, dripping, disappointed peak of a nose. He sits on his miserable stool, barking his orders, counting his money. He glares at the joy bursting all around him. Joy, because it's Christmas Eve. And he grows even meaner and harder and colder still. What happened to make him this way? Hadn't he been happy once? Oh, yes. And in love? Engaged to a beauty named Belle, employed by the best boss in the world who threw parties for his staff as they danced the night away. So where did it all go so wrong? There's an answer, of course, but you have to go back, way back, more than 200 years back, and across an ocean and through the foggy streets of Victorian England to a time infected by greed and weighed down by stark poverty. Maybe not so different from our own time. And here you will meet the original, The OG of Mene, the origin story of Ebenezer-Scrooge. You may think you know his tale of woe or the humbug of it, but most of it just had a taste.

Now you'll live in the very words themselves. Join me for Charles Dickens, a Christmas carol. You can hear the whole story starting Monday, December 11th. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, guys.

Willy Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sitdown Podcast. On this week's episode, I get together with one of the biggest stars on the planet, Scarlet Johansson, to talk about stepping into the world of Wes Anderson, the secret behind the success of her new skincare line, and much, much more. You can get our conversation now for free wherever you download your podcasts.