Pop Junction

We’ve titled this episode in the style of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy--because this shit is serious! It’s also a reliable Google search term for one of Mia’s Top Ten Most Iconic Fresh Prince Moments.  It’s damn near impossible to fully honor the super goofy, delightfully savage The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. French Prince? Fresh Prints? French Prints. BUT! We try to capture why FP still remains a go-t...

This incredibly long and at times arduous AF road has finally come to an end, listeners. We’re in the final, shark-hurtling season of The L Word. We discuss our theories on who really killed Jenny Schecter--and rank all the seasons from best to worst.  Shout-out to: Lucy Lawless as the sexy investigator, Elizabeth Berkeley AKA Jessie Spano AKA Bette’s former college roommate AKA tan goddess AKA pr...

We’re in the homestretch, y’all. But before we tackle Season 5 of The L Word, we talk very sincerely about the redemption arc of Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino and debate the basicness of his wife Laurens (SUNY alum friends, take cover). And as promised, we engage in a soulful and at times extremely hippie dippie visioning exercise for the year ahead.  Then it’s on to SEASON 5, AKA the season whe...

On this episode, we’re addressing ALL the existential questions: How long does a midlife crisis last? A year? Fifteen? And more importantly, is it time to take on a sugar baby? When are you too old to BE a sugar baby?  On the bright side, we have reached Season 4 of The L Word. Enter Captain Tasha motherfucking Williams. Enter Papi, AKA the Rico Suave of this sapphic fictional world. And cue Jenny...

If your heart drums to the beat of New York -- aka 103.5 KTU -- this episode is FOR YOU. If you enjoyed the unhinged mania that was Mia and Caitlin going toe-to-toe on their top five Whitney songs? This ep is also for you. Welcome to the 80s/90s/00s Miami freestyle/emo dance music countdown you never knew you needed. You’re welcome. Join us as we unleash our respective top tens on you--and maybe c...

As Delta rages through the global population, we seriously contemplate a 24-hour Truman Show-style version of the pod for the end times. We also thank our son/lover Lil Nas X (and his prison baes) for singlehandedly transforming the culture and solving the problem of misogyny. And then it’s on to the absolute shitshow that is The L Word Season 3. It begins with Big Bonkerstown Bisexual Behavior (t...

If there’s a world in which OUR mother MJ Rodriguez--AKA Blanca Evangelista on POSE--doesn’t win that Emmy, we don’t want to live in it, thanks. We talk other noms, and how Gabriel Byrne saved the plot disappointment of Gillian Armstrong’s Little Women with his eternal hotness (and made us horny at the age of 11). We continue our lookback at The L Word (OG) with Season 2 and ask ourselves the age-...

All aboard the Shane Train! It’s finally happening: after more than a decade of hating on The L Word (without having watched a second of it), Caitlin is watching IT ALL for the very first time. The first installment of our six-part deep-dive in honor of Pride. We talk about it all: from Jenny being the Dawson to Laurel Holloman’s High Camp performance when Tina finds out Bette’s been cheating on h...

To quote the great Cher Horowitz: did you know the wounds of adolescence can take years to heal? We must’ve been on hiatus because we are ALL OVER THE PLACE in this ep -- from high school bullies to mobster ex-boyfriends’ sisters giving us subpar service at Applebee’s, this ep’s GOT IT ALL. But mostly, we’re here to talk about the travesty that is FX’s POSE ending. During our hiatus, Season 3 came...

The trauma of Issa Rae’s Insecure is our trauma. Not a throwback episode, but an ep that honors the show--and its brutal honesty about what it’s like moving from your late twenties into your thirties.  To be fair, we also watch it for the mancandy.  (We can’t wait for the spinoff, Men With Feelings).  Tune in for our hopes and predictions for the fifth and final season.  We’re off next week, but w...

It’s the WHITNEY HOUSTON ep!  WhitHOUS!  This episode can only be described in one word: unhinged. And just to bring you all of its wacky goodness, we edited it with a light hand.  We start with queer representation on The Jetsons, revisit our own iconic looks from high school, and ultimately end up duking it out over our respective top five Whitney songs.  The minute this pandemic is over, we’re...

It’s A Different World! (From where you come from). Ah, remember the days when TV shows had theme songs? Remember the days when they had MULTIPLE VERSIONS of their theme song? And OH, the BTS drama of Lisa Bonet’s departure from this Cosby Show spinoff and piece of UTTERLY formative media. BUT: it gave us the epic love story of Whitley Gilbert & Dwayne Wayne. Excuse us, Dwayne CLEOFIS Wayne. CLEOF...

Mental health struggles abound! Darkness is spreading, to quote Chappelle’s Show. Luckily, Caitlin is able to get a last minute therapy sesh in which she’s finally delivered her Good Will Hunting breakthrough fantasy (“Will, it’s not your fault”). But what we’re actually here for is POSE, the groundbreaking FX series about NYC ballroom culture. That soundtrack is B-A-N-A-N-A-S, Angel and Papi are...

In which Mia & Caitlin revisit the super formative YA horror series and discover that RL Stine’s writing--and the way he saw women--was pure trash. But the books were so beautifully formulaic that we were able to devour three at a time at age ten. Conversation quickly veers into how we miss our adolescent imagination and its ability to conjure drawn-out, detailed crush fantasies. Shout-out to B. D...

Caitlin’s brother is turning 40, and we are feeling our impending midlife crisis something fierce. Also: a look back at beloved romance and bisexual dilemma, Love & Basketball. Quincy McCall was Capital “P” levels of Petty and Monica Wright was hot but only serving doses of Feminism 2.0. Also, was Quincy in good hands with Allstate Dad? Not with all that toxic masculinity he wasn’t.

Christmas is for everyone, especially in the dumpster fire year that was 2020.  But plans can be challenging in The Time of the Rona.  Will Mia’s brain allow her to free-pee into a diaper on the long car ride to her parents’ in Atlanta?  Either way, she’ll have plenty of boy band holiday jams to keep her company.  Oh, and Alvin and the Chipmunks definitely qualify as a boyband.  And Simon is the J...

If you want to know what it looked like growing up in Brooklyn in the early 90s, look no further than Ghostwriter.  (Minus the incredibly slow penmanship).  In what's probably our most punchy ep to date, Mia & Caitlin discuss if this early 90s Blue's Clues for pre-teens holds up, how the Gaby actress swap was a travesty and a crime against Brooklyn, and how Mia is still triggered by the Slime Mons...

A joyful celebration of the work of late actor Jonathan Brandis, the religious experience that was getting the latest teen magazine issue at the deli, and how Tiger Beat, Bop, & Big Bopper provided an intravenous hit of boy heartthrob centerfolds.  And the debut of our new segment, My Dog is an Asshole.

We make a pivot (PIV-AAAT) inspired by an iconic election meme, and we talk Sister Act 2. Join us for an unexpectedly deep conversation about Black motherhood onscreen and why Rita Louise Watson is #gayorigins--and how even at age eleven Caitlin loved a jiggly back on a dude. The meme in question: https://twitter.com/i/status/1325291413517463553

You can tell Mia's going through some shit if she's curled in the fetal position with her #1 comfort watch: Dawson's Creek Season 3. Cue Paula Cole. Cue Dawson being the worst. And cue Caitlin reliving the physical fights--and almost fights--she got into at the ripe old age of 11. We even bleep out names to protect the innocent.

The 1989 Halloween classic Teen Witch may be the cinematic embodiment of the adolescent female gaze. Or maybe just what happened when Lisa Frank threw up on some celluloid.

Have you accepted Janet Jackson into your life as your lord and savior?  We did in 1998. The first installment of Pop Junction, the pod where two Xennial besties BS about the pop culture that shaped us—and give y’all a taste of what it was like growing up in South Brooklyn in the 80s & 90s.