Waiting to X-hale

I've been dreaming of this very journey for a few years. I turned 40 during COVID and was hit with speed bump after speed bump. Situations I have never anticipated experiencing and in some cases it will be my first time sharing it with you.    Once you've lived through a pandemic as I have, you see things differently, your appreciation for life hits differently and your tolerance for BS plummets…...

It's the final episode, and there are tears shed, and personal revelations made as Karen and Wynter contemplate their favorite "second acts" in popular culture. Amidst it all, Wynter also discusses her new project dropping in January, and Karen shares a couple of lines from her new book Normporn. Plus, a glimpse at Apple TV+'s The Supermodel, and Todd Haynes' latest, May/December. What's the last...

In our penultimate episode, Wynter and Karen prepare for the end by reflecting on their favorite series finales including Mad Men, Six Feet Under, The Good Place and The Americans among others. Before they do, Karen insists on one more discussion about a pop culture controversy: Julianna Marguilles' condescending comments told from her perspective "as someone who plays a lesbian journalist" on TV....

This week we present our second "best of" episode featuring a collection of the lovely guests we've had over the years. You'll hear Guy Branham & Margaret Wappler make their first appearance since the end of Pop Rocket (3:28), Kathy Valentine talk about the L.A. punk scene and feminism (15:27), Kevin Smith talk about working with his daughter (24:37), June Diane Raphael give her take on Clueless (...

We present our first "best of" episode featuring clips or topics that were ahead of the curve. From the prediction of the Cocaine Bear movie, the ahead of her time Queen Latifah and Wynter's discovery of TUBI to darker predictions of COVID conspiracy theories and political unrest, we look back on what we got right.   Episodes featured:   Ep. 6: What the Wild Things Teach Us: Cocaine Bear vs. Meth...

Wynter flies solo again as she discusses her favorite natural disaster movies as Hurricane Hilary is set to bring the rain to SoCal. She shares her thoughts on guilty pleasures she's indulging like Baywatch Nights and getting rid of cable. and what she thinks is the unlikely song of the summer which is a throwback to the eurodance era of the 90s.   To get early access to releases and bonus content...

Wynter flies solo as she discusses Gen X grief in the wake of Sinead O'Connor and Paul "Pee Wee Herman" Reuben's deaths. She shares her thoughts Greta Gerwig's Barbie success ,  the Lizzo controversy , and recommends a British show that depicts Hollywood post-#MeToo. Plus her dedication to a popular Seattle radio station that's been turning out her favorite greatest hits all week.   To get early a...

It's the hottest summer on record, so Karen and Wynter take it upon themselves to discuss the pop culture that's bringing all the heat,  from Barbenheimer opening weekend, to Mission Impossible and the FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Before all that, Wynter rants about the erosion of travel etiquette, while Karen prepares for her return to Oz with a look at Deadloch , a lesbio...

Wynter and KT have so much to chew on this week, including the scramble for social media life-rafts after Twitter. Wynter tells us all about the new Meta platform, Threads , while KT documents her various false starts and efforts at making a go of it on Bluesky . The two dish deep on the 2nd season of Hulu's The Bear , and ask the question, "Fishes" or "Forks?," all while heaping praise on Ayo Edi...

Wynter is back and we have an episode filled with SPOILER ALERTS for both the season finale of Dave and all of Black Mirror, season 6 . Which of Streamberry's eps do we love, or…not so much? KT has an action alert for the LGBTQ+ community , as the GenX 1990s activist organization Queer Nation revs back up in Los Angeles to fight the 'phobes. Plus, Japanese yacht rock and our undisputed song of the...

Karen assembles an expert panel of queers to dish about this summer's reality phenom,  Ultimatum: Queer Love   (Netflix). Authors, curators, and queers about town, Greta La Fleur ( @GretaLaFleur ), Juana María Rodriguez ( @RadioRodriguez ), Poulomi Saha ( @poulomiqsaha ) and Jeanne Vaccaro ( @whateverjeanne on instagram only) join KT with a rundown of all the things they find delightful and cringe...

Karen is joined this week by Scott Poulson-Bryant (a co-founding editor of Vibe magazine , author and professor at the University of Michigan), and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, the author of The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to The Hunger Games . Ebony is a Detroit native who is also a professor at the University of Michigan. The trio get together for some wide-ranging cawf...

Fashion connoisseur and media scholar A.E. Stevenson joins KT this week to get into all things Met Gala , from the controversies around the Lagerfeld theme, to the tiniest details about some of the looks that ATE. Before all that, the two express their support for the WGA strike and explain some of the stakes for the uninitiated. Plus, songs by Kelele and Phoenix . To get access to early releases...

Karen and guest-host Andrew Ti take their "Asian conversation meant to be had indoors" outdoors to the soccer pitch. The two share their love of ACFC player Jun Endo , while also discussing a controversy surrounding her hairstyle at the beginning of the season. Plus, "Brown-Eyed Biffs," latchkey kids, and the origins of the NUO LINGO phrase, " touch grass ." It's our last FREE BoCo ep--the rest wi...

Karen welcomes guest-host Andrew Ti (creator and co-host of Yo, is This Racist? ) to discuss a recent Politico article that describes Gen X as "the Trumpiest generation." Before getting into all that, the two discuss their mutual love of the Angel City Football Club , aka ACFC, L.A.'s National Women's Soccer League team. Andrew also reports back after treating himself to matinees of  the Dungeons...

Outtakes from episode 102 on Andy Cohen and International TV ; a nuo-lingo on online displays of relationships.   Please follow and review the show wherever you listen to podcasts. You can support the podcast on  Patreon .

Our dear Guy Branum sits in for Wynter, as he and Karen have a wide-ranging conversation about everything from #Gaylor discourse and why KT is a "Swiftie at Fifty," to his long Talmudic catch-up with the Real Housewives franchise, specifically Beverly Hills . The two also explore the impact of international TV, including shows like Physical 100 (S. Korea) and the Filipino comedy, The Enlightened b...

Wynter and Karen are back with season 6 to ask each other, "what did I miss?" as they cover some of the notable pop culture moments that went down during their holiday hiatus.   Before they get into Spare, The Last of Us and M3GAN , the two debrief about the 2023 Oscars, as Wynter goes against the tide of criticism around The Whale , while Karen considers the significance of Everything, Everywhere...

It's our 100th episode and season 5 finale!!! To help celebrate the occasion, the one and only BOB ODENKIRK was kind enough to join us for a chat about Mr. Show , comedy in the 90s, and the great Janeane Garofalo. Karen is cautiously optimistic about the new season of White Lotus , while she and Wynter process the ramifications of El-n M-sk's purchase of Twitter. Plus, a few other 100th episode su...

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Wynter & Karen dive into the new Shudder documentary series, Q u e e r f o r F e a r : T h e H i s t o r y f o r Q u e e r H o r r o r , and are inspired to make some of their own queer horror recommendations for the spooky season.   Wynter considers which streaming services she needs to drop, while Karen claps back at the WaPo piece claiming GenX's shift to the right by considering how "Generatio...

Wynter assigns Karen a range of true crime offerings with varying degrees of budget and prestige, from Lifetime's T h e G a b y P e t i t o S t o r y , to Netflix's limited series, D a h m e r and the cinematic offering, B l o n d e . The two discuss when true crime is too much in both quantity and affect. KT's viewing habits have veered to deep straight dude sportiness, while Wynter walks us thro...

The end of the Elizabethan-era (part II) prompted us to reflect on how British pop culture has dominated GenX's imaginaries, from new wave and the new romantics, to Fawlty Towers and Monty Python, to iconoclasts like Bowie and the Sex Pistols up to and including contemporary favorites the Great British Bake Off and The Crown, to the British royal family itself as pop culture. Plus, it's a very Hul...

Karen and Wynter are back together again, just in time to drop their Emmy predictions for all the Comedy and Drama acting categories. They tell you who they want to win, as well as who they think will actually win, so listen-up before you fill out your ballots for the awards broadcast on Monday, September 12!  Fresh from her vacay, KT talks about the "couple" shows she and Sarah watch together, li...

Wynter is in the driver's seat one more time and wants to know if you're watching She-Hulk. It's a refreshing glass of characters and story that you don't even need to have watched all 432 Marvel movies to enjoy.  Ryan Bailey ( So Bad it's Good Podcast ) stops by for the main segment to talk about all things snark and why we love to hate on the internet.  PLUS: nuo-lingo to help you sift through b...