Don't Ruin This For Me

Believe it or not, we know what’s been missing in our lives and it’s flare bartending and straight, white dudes. That’s right, this week we’ve got a perfectly balanced mix of alcohol and testosterone as we travel into the world of bartending with Tom Cruise and the 1988 flick Cocktail. Obviously there was only one man to call for for this episode and that's Chicago cocktail icon Danny Shapiro, fou...

It takes a lot of chutzpah to grab your bestie’s hand and drive your Thunderbird off a cliff rather than succumb to the injustice of being a woman stuck in a man’s world. Honestly, Thelma and Louise might just be our forever heroes. To talk all about this iconic road trippin’ opus to female friendship and feminine rage, we knew just who to call -- our very own Team Tuff Muff pals and iconic bestie...

In 1991 Madonna was at the height of her fame, traveling the world on her Blonde Ambition tour and filming her documentary Truth or Dare. It’s impossible to hear “Madonna” and “Blonde Ambition” and not immediately think cone bras and sex-sex-sex. But rewatching the film, it became clear to us that “sex” for Madonna was much more about performance and provocation than true intimacy. So we brought i...

Of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, our hometown boi Roger Ebert said, “Stacy’s sexual experiences all turn out to have an unnecessary element of realism, so that we have to see her humiliated, disappointed, and embarrassed. Whatever happened to upbeat sex?” Clearly Rog never had sex with a high school boy! It is disappointing! Humiliating! Embarrassing! This week we’re reliving all our high school s...

What’s more hopeful than watching a bunch of teenagers pursue their creative dreams? Maybe middle-aged ladies continuing to pursue creative dreams against mountains of rejection, the demands of motherhood, and literally all odds??? That’s right folks, this week we went all the way back to 1980 and the high school of performing arts with FAME. Our guest, Corrbette Pasko, is not only a writer, actor...

It’s a helluva corporate fantasy: oppressed coworkers join forces to kidnap their terrible boss and take over the company, increasing productivity and worker satisfaction by a zillion percent! So goes the classic film 9 to 5 featuring all-star gems Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda. These tenacious (and hilarious) gals got us thinking about the role of capitalism in our own lives. To help...

It’s summertime in Chicago and our favorite four-letter word is CAMP. Yes, the kids are away so pour yourself a vodka and settle in for MOMMIE DEAREST, a film about an aging Hollywood actress trying to stay relevant while smacking around her adopted kids and screaming iconic lines like: NO WIRE HANGERS! EVER! To help us dig into why CAMP and QUEER go hand in hand, we brought in an expert. David Ce...

YO, ADRIENNE!!! That's right, it's ROCKY IV week on Don't Ruin This for Me! Rocky's got it all — feats of strength, middle-aged athleticism, the particular melancholy of an aging body — and we've got the perfect guest to help us unpack the Apollo-Drago-Rocky of it all. MALICE WITH CHAINS (aka Alice Gleason), is a star soccer player and Windy City Roller OG, here to drop all the tea on body slammin...

No joke, our girl Elizabeth Gomez once thought TRUE ROMANCE was the epitome of, well, romance . But, oops, cringe, Quentin Tarantino’s first screenplay is actually chock full of his worst impulses regarding race, women, and violence. This week we welcome back to the pod the hilarious comedian Maya Haughton to help us figure out why we so often mistake intensity for love and what it really means to...

LEGENDS OF THE FALL has been hailed as “an unforgettable portrait of the twentieth century man,” but let’s be real, we’re not here for all that 1900s toxic masculinity — we’re here to talk about Adrienne’s SEXUAL AWAKENING!!! This week we welcome queer writer and storyteller (and fellow Brad Pitt enthusiast) Jeremy Owens to help us answer this very important question: What if your whole entire vis...

We’re kicking off the season with Elizabeth’s all-American icon: PAMELA ANDERSON. Rockstars and Playboy bunnies, tiny eyebrows and wedding bikinis, a stolen safe and the origin of the celebrity sex tape — Pamela’s story has got it all. But what is it about Pam that Elizabeth loves so much? Is it perhaps all the — ahem — bad boys? Tune in for a serious debate over Tommy Lee’s hotness and stay to fi...

It’s the season finale and we’re talking about the wind beneath our wings: FRIENDSHIP. Possibly some tears were shed, and not just about this week’s film BEACHES, starring Better Midler as, well, basically Bette Midler, and prissy Barbara Hershey as her BFF Hillary who dies in a series of large hats and deep breaths on a beach because otherwise how would we explore the depths of their friendship??...

Nobody puts Dirty Dancing in the corner. OR DO THEY? This week we have THE TIME OF OUR LIVES discussing everything Baby and Johnny with transgender actress and activist Delia Kropp, but don’t worry, it’s unanimous, Dirty Dancing totally rules. Our kingdom for a summer gyrating around with Patrick Swayze! Join us as we break down the surprisingly woke depiction of class and privilege, white lady ac...

Take a deep breath and hold it because it’s time for Waiting to Exhale! This movie has the best of everything the 90s had to offer: Whitney Houston! Angela Bassett! Oversized suits! A soundtrack by Babyface! It’s all about Black female friendship and what women talk about when they talk about love. To helps up unpack the fuckbois, this week we’ve got Karen Hawkins ( @chiefrebelle ) , Publisher and...

When did it become cool to hate Forrest Gump?? Because way back in 1994 this film won all the Oscars and had people sobbing into their popcorn over Forrest’s love story with the one and only JENNNNNAAAAYYYY. But is the film actually racist? A flippant take on disability? Emotionally manipulative? It’s maybe all of those things and our girl Adrienne is so scared you’re gonna cancel her because she...

Dead Poets Society, a teen drama about conformity versus creativity and the poems of many, many, many, many, many, many long-dead white guys. For a movie this white and this male, we knew we’d need to bring in an expert mansplainer to make sure we understood it all, so today we welcome James Beard Award winner and Chicago Reader food critic, Mike Sula, to talk about the creative life, inspiration,...

Who doesn’t want to watch a couple of middle-aged guys get high all day and muck up everything they touch? Well, Adrienne Gunn for one. But Elizabeth promises that the stoner classic CHEECH AND CHONG’S UP IN SMOKE is gonna teach us all about the power of friendship and give us a peek into why she’s our fav fun-loving, wild AF, enneagram 7 bae. This week we welcome Chicago comedian Soli Santos to t...

How did the patron saint of the 80s teen flick John Hughes get away with being so, well, rapey? Yes, that’s right folks, it’s time for SIXTEEN CANDLES, a movie about the horrors of high school: stolen underpants, foreign exchange students, sixteenth birthdays, and date rape. This week we welcome Wokefield’s resident lesbian Taylor Maughon to talk compulsory heterosexuality, sexual harrassment, and...

The Joy Luck Club, a movie where four daughters try to understand four immigrant mothers and come to realize that whether you’re in China or America, motherhood, womanhood, it all just fckn sucks. This week we welcome Dennis Lee, a Korean-American food journalist to chat about the fruitless battle that is trying to understand your parents and…dun dun dun…FAMILY SECRETS! CW: suicide, matricide, gen...

What better way to start season two than with the original mean girls, HEATHERS? We’re talking all about toxic friendship, addictive love, 80s fashion, high school power structures, and a simpler time when school shootings were satirical.  CW: suicide, school shooting, fat shaming Listen on Amazon Prime / Audible Listen on Youtube

Get ready for Season 2 of Wokefield! Comedians Elizabeth Gomez and Adrienne Gunn re-watch some of the most influential but also cringiest movies from the 80s and 90s and talk about how they completely fucked up our ideas of what it means to be a woman in America! Listen on Amazon Prime / Audible Listen on Youtube

The Wakefield twins have arrived in London for their summer internships and next thing you know there’s a murder and Jessica’s DATING A WEREWOLF. It made us think about our own relationships and for this very special bonus episode, we’ve got no guests at all, just the two of us talking about what happens when you accidentally marry a monster. It’s our most vulnerable discussion yet--marriage, divo...

It’s ten years into the future and that scheming (but irresistible) trollop Jessica Wakefield has stolen her sister Elizabeth’s fiance (and sentient basketball jersey) Todd Wilkins and is about to marry him herself! Elizabeth’s fled to New York to nurse her broken heart and plot her revenge. Sounds pretty good, right? HAHAHAHAA WRONG. Unfortunately good ol’ Francine Pascal showed up to write the f...

  We’re finally leaving high school behind and joining the Wakefield twins at Sweet Valley University! Join us for a front row seat to Jessica’s deflowering and Elizabeth’s relentless struggle with the freshman fifteen. We’re telling tales of losing our own virginities--key word: WATERBEDS--and welcome the fabulously sex-positive Anita Mechler, archivist, entrepreneur, painter, and retired roller...

Get right on outta here with those All-American good looks and shiny red Fiat, Wakefield twins! It’s time for some good old TEEN ANGST. This week we welcome to the SVH universe the patron saint of teenage depression, songstress Lynne Henry. Girl, we love your bad hair, baggy clothes, and nary a will to live! Join us as we welcome writer Taylor Maughon and revisit our own teenage depression, curren...