High Low Brow

Send a text June is Pride Month – a chance for the LGBTQ+ community to celebrate the progress that's been made, and this season on High Low Brow, we are dedicating the month of June to all Pride-related content! 🌈✨🌈 For our very first Pride-related episode, we're exploring how corporations prioritize profit over the LGBTQ+ community in our exploring Rainbow Capitalism with Toronto-bas...

Send a text The summer is here and things are starting to get hot 💦 For our seventh episode of the season, we were so happy to chat with Toronto-based writer, performer, and sex worker advocate Andrea Werhun about the art of thirst traps. These sexually suggestive selfies are posted on social media by celebs and everyday folks to attract attention. We use this episode to unpack the following with...

Send a text Not only has another two weeks gone by (so quick!) but we're happy to be celebrating our 1 year anniversary of podcasting! 🥳 For our sixth episode of the season (and our mid-way point of season two), we're happy to bring on two guests we've been looking forward to all season: Natalie Franklin of everyone's favourite Instagram parody account, Nori's Black Book...

Send a text Oh hi, we're so happy to see you're back! We are dropping episode 5 of S2 today, and it's a fun one! For this week's episode, we are exploring the gay history of wrestling and how it's really a form of athletic storytelling or heck, performance art akin to drag. To take us through the history and make a case for why this matters, Nova-Scotia-based winner of Mas...

Send a text We're back for our fourth full-length episode of S2! For this week's episode, we get into one of the hottest trends of 2021: parasocial relationships . No matter where you go on the Internet, it's all everyone is talking about. From the social and entertainment-kind, intense-personal, and borderline-pathological.  Between us and our special guest for the week,  Toronto-b...

Send a text We're back for our third full-length episode of S2! For our very first Low Brow Takes on High Brow Culture takedown episode, Ama and Ameema have invited on former co-host and fellow podcaster from the show We Really Like Her , Danita Steinberg to discuss all things Oscars 2022. Between the three of us, we analyze everything that has to do with the Oscars 2022 show that we hope has...

Send a text In the second full-length episode of season two, Ama & Ameema invite the iconic writer/director of LGBTQ+ reality shows such as Hot Haus and Slag Wars , our favourite sex-positive daddy (and soon to be yours!) Topher Cusumano.   The three of us chat with Topher about why queer reality TV sucks so much and why mainstream media struggles with queer representation. We also dive deep i...

Send a text In the first full-length episode of season two, Ama & Ameema invite educator and YA author Tanya Boteju on to the show to chat with them about a topic that has been bothering the two of them for a while: why society seems to enjoy mocking teen girls and young women for their interests.  Has this been bothering you as well? Oh buds, then get your earbuds ready because this is the ep...

Send a text After a nearly four-month hiatus, we're back and so excited for season two! And trust us: it's going to be bigger, and better than ever! Plus, we have a brand new co-host!!! Say hello to the wonderful and talented Ameema Saeed .  In this short mini-episode, Ama and Ameema reminisce about life during the pandemic, how their own friendship blossomed, how TikTok sounds are takin...

Send a text Happy Halloween to our ghouls & gals! To end the first season, Ama & Danita chat all things spooky, from Kyle Richards in Halloween Kills to their very own childhood ghost stories. Plus, horror movie recos and a tangent about television psychic & expert grifter Sylvia Browne. If you enjoyed listening over the past several months, maybe think about rating us ! You can also f...

Send a text Off the top, Ama & Danita live-react to an interview with Lourdes Leon before pivoting to a completely unplanned tangent about which child of a Real Housewife is likeliest to write a tell-all memoir. Then, writer & resident spooky bitch Mary Beth McAndrews joins Danita to chat about the merits of found footage films, their parallels to reality television, scary internet rabbit...

Send a text Off the top, Ama and Danita chat about the chaotic casting of the Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip & the significance of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith finally confirming they have an open marriage. Then, writer Keah Brown joins Ama to discuss finding solidarity in online communities, harnessing the power of social media for good, the joy of liking things, and the importance of see...

Send a text Off the top, Ama & Danita cover the latest in cursed internet content, from James Corden's flash mobs and Kanye's latest album launch. BTW, if our opening isn't as ~timely~ as usual, it's because LIFE HAPPENS. But hello, it's us from a few weeks ago! Then, two Amandas are better than one as Ama welcomes Amanda Montell , author of Cultish: The Language of Fa...

Send a text Off the top, Ama & Danita chat about the upcoming Canadian election, the internet's reaction to Lorde's new album, and Taylor Swift TikTok (a.k.a SwiftTok). Then, Ama is joined by Ann Pornel, comedian and co-host of The Great Canadian Baking Show, to talk about diet culture, plus-size fashion, fat representation on television, and the most superior form of potato. If you...

Send a text Off the top, Ama & Danita share another hopeful #FreeBritney update before taste testing Paris Hilton's new Netflix show, Cooking With Paris. Then, Ama is joined by Stacy Lee Kong , writer, editor, cultural critic, and founder of Friday Things to examine our complicity in the media's victimization and villainization of young female celebrities in the 90s and early 00s. If...

Send a text Off the top, Ama & Danita get real about how their respective post-vaccine re-entries are going, the CBD scandal & racism at the Olympics, and the Anthony Bourdain documentary. Then, Ama is joined by Natalie Zina Walschots , Extremely Online Person) and author of one of our favorite books ( Hench - READ IT OR ELSE!) to dive into everything fan fiction. What draws people to the...

Send a text Off the top, Ama & Danita share a hopeful #FreeBritney update, discuss the soapy life of Erika Jayne, and the Emmy nominations. Then, to celebrate the Spice Girls' iconic 'Wannabe' turning 25 this month, we get personal about our formative years, rank our favourite songs, reminisce about 2008's reunion tour, and explore their queerness (and queerbaiting). It&apo...

Send a text Off the top, Ama & Danita dish about which music icons are giving off okay boomer energy this week, preferred ice types, and breaking news about The View. Then, after the steady rise and swift downfall of the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen, what's next for Food Media? Ama is joined by Bettina Makalintal , food + culture writer for Vice , to explore the nuances of cultural appropriat...

Send a text Off the top, Ama & Danita are both double vaxxed, not waxed, and hoping to win big on Lotto Max. We talk about Heather Dubrow's RHOC return, Weird Twitter (RIP), The Cringe Show starring Chrissy Teigen, and Bo Burnham's Inside. Then, amidst controversy, backlash, fracking, and problematic moments, how much can we still enjoy RuPaul's Drag Race? Ama is joined by fierc...

Send a text Off the top, Ama & Danita share their psychoanalysis of the Richards sisters and the possible dark side of Kathy Hilton. They also dive into a certain New York Times piece that had Twitter (rightfully) in a tizzy this week. Then, from RHONY's Wedding March for Equality to RHOC cast reactions to Braunwyn coming out, the Real Housewives have a long history of ugly homophobia. So...

Send a text Welcome to our first mini-episode! We wanted to say hi, introduce ourselves a little more, tell y'all our origin story, and gab about S2 of Netflix's The Circle. Is Bryant destined to be a cult leader?  Does Lee have a real friendship with the real River ? We also have questions for set decorator Catherine Land. Join us back here on June 6 for our first full-length episode, a...

Send a text This is High Low Brow, the podcast with high brow takes about low brow culture, a power hour of dissociation for the Extremely Online. Join us - Ama Scriver and Danita Steinberg, your trusty co-hosts - and some of our friends for thoughtful analysis of all things pop culture and the Internet, from social and political moments to memes and the best notes app apologies.  Subscribe now so...