Encarta & Chill | A 90s Podcast

Would you trust someone who took only a single bite out of each meal, wore a woolly hat to the beach, or shared a bed with their grandparents? Didn’t think so. Yet these were exactly the kind of deranged individuals children regularly welcomed into their imaginations in the ’90s. In the latest chapter of Encarta and Chill, Tom and Tomek have their £1 tokens at the ready as they explore the bizarre...

Dr. Kasia Tee is in da house to hold Tomek and Tom's hand through the complex world of politics... but is Encarta and Chill really about to tackle the subjects of the Maastricht Treaty, Black Wednesday, and the rise of New Labour? This was an era when ideology blurred, leadership waned, and quiet revolutions reshaped the political map forever… but who’s got time to dwell on that when Coco Pops hav...

If you ever found yourself cruising down the A303 in the ’90s and looked up to see a portly fellow kitted out in a babygrow and neckerchief, you knew things were about to get wild. Breakfast at 9pm. Pancakes endorsed by the Queen. Windows with a bovine view. What’s not to like? Quite a lot, according to the British public. This week, Tom and Tomek raise a glass of “typical full-flavoured wine” to...

As Arsène Wenger rears his head above the African savanna and dead-eyed zebras whinny themselves into submission before their newborn king, a new episode dawns on Encarta and Chill. This week, movie music is under the spotlight - and it’s a damn bright one, because Val Kilmer is standing by with a pair of impossibly reflective lips. So be sure to don your sunglasses (and if you could put them on i...

A mysterious package has arrived at Encarta and Chill HQ, and Melissa Joan Hart is beckoning the Toms to take a peek inside. In this very special episode, a portal to the 1990s is torn wide open, revealing a Woolworths Pic 'n' Mix's worth of nostalgic goodies just waiting to be misremembered. Hear the shocking tale of how a gooey alien duped emergency services, uncover the hidden subtext of Tots T...

Sadly, most school buses can’t fly or transform into submarines - but they can always be relied upon to take you somewhere that sells a shark on a stick. Join Tom and Tomek as they embark on a field trip to just about anywhere except the advertised subject matter. Will there be mentions of the Natural History Museum, the Caribbean island of St. Lucia and 10 Downing Street? Possibly. Will there be...

Coco Pops have been scientifically proven to help hippos dive off boards and broker peace with aliens - but can they convince you to tune in to the 28th instalment of Encarta and Chill? Tom and Tomek certainly hope so. After two episodes glued to the telly, they’ve saved the best for last… the adverts! So grab yourself a pint o’ gravy, crack open a rice pudding and join them as they attempt to tur...

For many, Saturday nights in the '90s meant surrendering to the euphoric pulse of happy hardcore. For others, the wildest scenes were unfolding on their TV screens.   This week, Tom and Tomek bow at the altar of Virgo, Black, and Wolf - three icons who somehow managed to transform the blandest of formats into must-watch televisual gold. However, only one of them will end up cheating a project mana...

Gooood morning, listeners! Tom and Tomek have awoken from their slumber and are ready for their Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Today’s bowl (or plate, if you’re a Frosties purist) is served with a side of nondescript animals who claim to be zany to the max AND have baloney in their slacks - and, of course, ducks. Lots. Of. Ducks. This episode of Encarta and Chill dives into the giddy pleasures of '90s Sat...

Where do you want to go today? If your answer is “back to a time when an overly fancy screensaver could blow up your computer,” then join Tom and Tomek as they set off in search of rolling hills, seductive Clip Art, and cryptic MSN Messenger screen names. But beware - this journey isn’t without peril. You might end up trapped in an educational CD-ROM, devoured by a Yeti, or, worse still, subjected...

Jamie Theakston has the navy on standby, Philippa Forrester's owl may or may not do something and Patrick Moore is ready to go full Crash Bandicoot if this darn cloud cover doesn't clear. It’s all about to kick off as Tom and Tom revisit the high-octane celestial phenomenon that was the total solar eclipse of 1999. But was it really that impressive - or did the teacher from the Jaffa Cakes advert...

This week, Tom and Tomek are popping down to the humble newsagent's - a place where adults can catch up on global conflicts, stay informed on economic trends and even glimpse into the future by finding out which member of the Di Marco family is set to clash with Grant Mitchell next week (spoiler alert: it’s Beppe!). For the youth, however, it’s so much more: a distributor of glow-in-the-dark T-Rex...

Your continued correspondence has been so good, it's had us scrambling to open emails like children receiving postcards from their French pen pals. But instead of puzzling over how best to tell Pierre - in very limited French - that we enjoy swimming at the weekend or whether we prefer cats or dogs, we’ve been invited to relive a One-2-One advert with Mike. Sophie has a shocking digital pet confes...

Hiya, listeners. Wanna go for a ride? Jump in! In this episode of Encarta and Chill, the Tommy boys from a '90s world, board the Vengabus back to a time that was both plastic and fantastic - a little blue (Da Ba Dee), and, in the case of Shanks & Bigfoot, entirely made out of chocolate. The subject is music and Gary Barlow is advised not to listen, as all the fictional characters who topped th...

Blobby. Blobby. Blobby. Yes, the time has come for Tom and Tomek to come face-to-face with a certain creature - unconventional in hue - that The New York Times once described as "proof of Britain's deep-seated attraction to trash." But a far worse fate awaits our hosts, as the 90s' equivalent of Doctor Frankenstein also lurks in the shadows - coiffured mane gleaming, bag of tricks at the ready, pr...

Today is the day Encarta and Chill changes forever. It's still the 90s... but not as you know it. Join Thomas and Tommy as they fire up the penny farthing, pour themselves a tot of gin and embark on a journey of rediscovery across the most spiffing decade of all time... the 1890s. The phonograph's maiden voyage sees a well-intentioned study on the concept of nostalgia quickly descend into a prattl...

It's the final years of the 20th century, and the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one… apparently. So why is young Tomek going to such extremes to prevent himself from being abducted? Meanwhile, Tom is being chased up the stairs by a sinister presence. With a bit of luck, Neil Buchanan will show up any minute to dismiss it as nothing more than a swarm of midges. Keep the ligh...

Before they became stars of memes and viral videos, there was a time when cats and dogs did nothing more than eat from bowls, chase balls, and curl up for long naps. Yes, the ‘90s were a pretty sweet time for our furry friends… until they were all suddenly replaced by keyrings boasting 16-pixel LCD screens in 1997. This episode pays tribute to late 20th-century Animalia - from Sabrina's zesty feli...

Yeah, buoy! This week, the Toms are spreading their water wings and diving headfirst into what Tomek's dad once called "The Golden Age of Council Swimming Pools." From the thrill of the wave machine to the terror of the deep end, it's time to revisit those chlorine-scented childhoods spent cheating death at Croydon's Water Palace and basking in the glory of sewing a Pool Frog 3 badge onto a manky...

You might be wondering why a podcast about the '90s has taken 15 episodes to land on the subject of film. It’s the kind of inconsistency that filmmakers of the time certainly wouldn’t have worried about. After all, when in doubt, just add a talking dog. This week, chatty animals, friendly ghosts, and spectacled ugmos are dominating Tom and Tomek’s thoughts, set against the backdrop of what may not...

Picture the scene… The sun is setting on another '90s summer holiday. For weeks, TV ads have taunted you with images of irritatingly happy children, twirling in crisp school uniforms and flaunting their brand-new lunchboxes as if they were Louis Vuitton. And then, reality dawns - this endless summer was finite after all. Yes, it’s time to head back to school! This time, however, there are a couple...

Get ready to travel back to a decade when breakfast time meant diving elbow-deep into the communal family cereal box - grubby little hands and all - in search of a prize. A time when we didn’t think of McDonald’s as a taker of rainforests but simply as our go-to supplier of Barbies and Hot Wheels. Was it a better time? No… but it was certainly one that boasted larger quantities of landfill shaped...

War. What is it good for? Absolutely not as an episode topic of a podcast in which two millennials sit around lamenting the loss of Blockbuster Video...   That’s why Tom and Tomek have chosen to sift through the rubble of the 90's most trivial battles instead... Coca-Cola vs Pepsi, Nintendo vs SEGA and Oasis vs Blur. So let battle commence as two 37-year-olds accidentally lock horns with some unne...

Encarta and Chill is back! Following their brief break, Tom and Tomek go in search of the perfect blend in the land down under one dodgy accent (and spinning appendage) at a time.   If you thought The Simpsons skewed Britain's understanding of life in the Southern Hemisphere in the 90s, Round The Twist had us believing it was even stranger.   However, there was one show in particular that made our...

You wrote in so we're reading out! It's time for a trip down memory lane of this trip down memory lane podcast as we revisit previous episodes on the back of your electronic mail.   In this special correspondence episode we'll be digging deeper into the origins of the Windows 95 start-up jingle, learning that Poliwhirl really was a big deal in the 90s (but apparently not as a big as butlers) and n...