Pop Culture Pastor

Dave & Cody close out Ted Lasso Season 4 with the finale and a full season verdict. Cody compares the season to The Hangover Part II , takes a well-earned victory lap for calling the Higgins twist weeks ago, and catches a red-string callback you probably missed. Dave connects Ted’s blind spot with Henry back to what went wrong with Nate, makes the case for Ted as the kind of leader who’s genui...

Dave & Cody waited for the finale to air so they could spoil all eight episodes of HBO’s Lanterns, the Green Lantern murder mystery. They dug the Geek Phone out of the closet for the first time in ages to bring on Geek Scotty, the show’s resident comic book Merlin. He has the receipts for every lore complaint the fans raised. Cody admits a hologram almost made him cry and Dave admits the middl...

The Lady Greyhounds play for promotion in the penultimate episode, and it delivers the feels . Cody, a man famously immune to TV feelings, admits he nearly cried, while Dave was ready to rank it near the bottom until the second half flipped him. Cody makes the case that Boots has been self-sabotaging all season, spots a Beyoncé-and-beehive connection that earns a rare co-Beard's Jam of the Wee...

Cody has been waiting years for this episode. One of them gave it a 9.5. The other one gave it a 7, which for Dave is basically a love letter. Somewhere in between, we realized Patrick Swayze's motivational speaker is just Mama Boucher with frosted tips, and that it's the rare movie that takes a troubled teenager seriously. 25 years later, and we're still arguing about the ending.

Ted finds Alice crying and doesn't say a word. He just sits down and breathes with her. We gave that one to Cody, and he explains why "I'm sorry" is the first thing out of our mouths when we finally break...and what Ted's actually doing by saying nothing. Also: Cody's theory on who's buying up Richmond shares, and it is not who Rebecca thinks. Dave makes the case for...

The song kicks in and the scene becomes permanent. Dave, Cody, & Geek Paul draft the greatest needle drops in movies and TV — with one strict rule: no songs written for the movie. That knocks out more of your favorites than you'd think, and yes, we read the list of casualties on air. Along the way we learn that "needle drop" started life as an accounting term, find out what diege...

Cody cracks the code on this one. He noticed the entire episode is built on three word phrases, and once you see it, you can't unsee it. Dave floats a theory about Alice's hair that may or may not be a very bad sign. The Diamond Dogs investigate whether Zelda is the scorpion in her own story, and Cody has a guess about what job she's really after. Also: why "Believe" hits dif...

Dave and Cody agree this one's the funniest episode of the season — and then spend a chunk of it being mad at two scenes. Cody's therapist take on whether anything Roy says on that much pain medication counts as true. A real argument about whether Alice torching her own good night is bad writing or a character doing what she always does. Dave puts Keeley's hospital behavior on the reco...

This week the Lobby had a theme: settle it. You sent in the arguments you can't win at home, and we ruled on them — including one where the defendant was sitting at the mic. Cody's own wife turned him in over NSYNC, so we held a trial. He was recused, compelled to testify, cross-examined, and sentenced. He also finally admitted what he actually thought of the new Masters of the Universe, w...

Dave and Cody open with the only question that really matters: is a hot dog strictly a social food? (It is not.) From there — Cody's therapist take on whether Ted's rear-view mirror advice is actually good advice or just a great line for a coffee mug, a Zelda Southport conspiracy theory involving a whole lot of unsold seats, and a genuine disagreement about Ted suspending Alice. Dave think...

A Chaplain, a pastor and a guy who does a legitimately excellent Farmer Fran impression walk into an Adam Sandler movie... This week on Be Kind Rewind, we take on The Waterboy (1998) — and yes, we quote it constantly, and yes, Cody is prepared to argue that this is the best comedy Adam Sandler ever made and that Punch Drunk Love belongs in the Sandlerverse. But we also can't help noticing that...

This is vintage Ted Lasso. The big conversation for Dave & Cody this week is Roy's pedestal problem. Cody explains the difference between putting someone on a pedestal and actually loving them, and it's the most useful thing said on this pod in a while. Also up for discussion: what the title of Jane's one-woman show is telling us and what it does to a person when private pain becom...

It started as a discussion that happened after we stopped recording a previous pod. Which Friend (from the show of the same name) had the best go of it outside of the show? We go through all six...every movie, every show, every swing that missed, and hand out awards nobody asked for. Cody has an answer he's been sitting on all week, and it is not one of the six. Plus: a word about Dolly, who s...

Dave opens with a story about growing up watching his mom compete, and why a single mom showing up to tryouts with her kid on her hip hit differently than expected. From there, he and Cody get into the barriers to women's sports that never show up in a spreadsheet, whether a report can account for the people it's measuring, and Roy's two very different attempts at being helpful. Also o...

School's back in session, so Dave, Cody, &Jackson are drafting the best fictional teachers in pop culture. One rule — they've got to actually be on the school's payroll. No swamp mentors, no karate handymen. Plus bonus rounds for best fictional school and best non-teaching school employee, real-life favorite teacher shout-outs, and a look at the highest-grossing movies ever set in...

Dave and Cody are back on the pitch, and this week the conversation gets stuck on one uncomfortable question: what do you do when the person telling you the hard truth about yourself is a jerk about it? Alice Chilton has an attitude and a point, and the guys dig into why it's so much easier to focus on the delivery than the message. Also under discussion — whether Beard's avoidance of Ted...

This week on Be Kind Rewind, Dave, Cody, & Geek Jackson revisit Real Genius (1985): the smartest teen comedy of the 80's(?) and the movie that proves Val Kilmer was one of the great comedic actors we barely got to see. We dig into what holds up (Kilmer at his most magnetic, a movie where being smart is the whole appeal instead of a handicap to overcome, and an anti-military-industrial-comp...

New show, new watch-alongs. Dave & Cody kick off Ted Lasso Season 4 with the premiere, "Home," and they've got some thoughts. Three years after Ted got on that plane, he's the assistant manager at a Kansas City grocery store, teaching life lessons with a bag of Pup-Peroni. Rebecca, Keeley, and Higgins fly in with an offer to coach Richmond's new women's team. Dottie L...

Pop Culture Lately: The Grab Bag Is Open Twice a year or so we empty out the entire bag...everything we've been watching, reading, and playing that never fit anywhere else. Dave, Cody, & Geek Paul dig through it all: a widow who talks to an octopus, eight artists who secretly lived inside a shopping mall for four years, and a Mr. Rogers movie where Mr. Rogers is the antagonist. Along the w...

SPOILERS Dave & Cody welcome back Geek Jason to review Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The movie just posted one of the biggest openings in history, and the table digs into why: - Destin Daniel Cretton was given room to tell a smaller, more intimate story - The Bernthal and Holland chemistry - The Hulk and the Punisher as perfect storytelling guest stars Also: Jason brings a perspective on Peter&#3...

You're killing me, Smalls. This week on a Be Kind Rewind, Dave, Cody, & Paul Walcher head back to the summer of 1962 for The Sandlot (1993), a movie that flopped with critics and became a multigenerational classic anyway. We get into what holds up (the Ray Charles fireworks scene, Ham roasting an entire lineup of batters, the ensemble of kid actors who genuinely became friends), what doesn...

Dave & Cody are joined by film professor Paul to review Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which just posted the biggest live-action opening of 2026 and the best reviews of Nolan's career. The table digs into Ludwig Göransson's score, the IMAX cinematography, the 60-foot Cyclops puppet, Robert Pattinson's genuinely repulsive heel turn, and John Leguizamo's surprise best-in-ca...

We're in a tight spot. This week on Be Kind Rewind, Dave & Cody dig into the Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), the Depression-era chain gang comedy that's (not so) secretly Homer's Odyssey and accidentally revived an entire genre of American music. We break down what holds up (this is George Clooney's coming out party), the murderer's row of character ac...

What makes a great Fourth of July movie? We take Cosmopolitan’s Top 15 , load up the full ListBusters arsenal, and proceed to absolutely wreck it. Movies get nuked, sniped, recast, rocketed, and switched as War Horse falls fast, movies you've never heard of somehow reach #1, National Treasure becomes collateral damage, and Rocky IV fights its way into the final rankings. Plus, bonus chaos: mor...

Dave is back from Maine (a.k.a. real-life Fromville) just in time for the Season 4 finale. Dave and Cody break down "If a Tree Falls in the Forest…" AKA the biggest bloodbath the show has served up in ages. Jade confesses he lied about the bones. The bottle tree comes down and the sky goes dark. Smiley walks into the clinic and takes Marielle. Fatima reveals her secret. Can Henry pull th...