Hullabaloo Podcast

Brokeback Mountain, Coming Out, & Pride (with Chad & Nikolai) | Ep 26 In this special Pride episode, we bridge the generational gap between Gen X and Gen Z gay culture by revisiting the cultural impact of Brokeback Mountain . We discuss the horrific realities of gay bashing and the Matthew Shepard case, debate whether the concept of "coming out of the closet" places an unfair burden on the...

The Tragic Reality of Nina Simone & Juneteenth (with Rise Cornelius) | Ep 15 In this episode, we bridge the generational gap between Gen X and Gen Z by analyzing the legacy of Nina Simone and the ongoing realities of systemic racism. Joined by our first guest, Rise Cornelius, we break down how Nina Simone was unjustly denied entry into the Curtis Institute despite her classical brilliance. We...

This episode is a deep dive into Kathy Griffin’s comedy legacy, her rise as a D-List icon, her controversial Trump photo scandal, and why her cultural impact has only grown stronger with time. Nikolai and Chad break down Kathy Griffin’s specials, her connection to Joan Rivers, and why she remains one of the most important “filterless truth-tellers” in modern comedy and pop culture. But it doesn’t...

Bad Bosses & Bad Jobs, Story Time | Hullabaloo This one had us crying. In this episode of Hula Baloo , Nikolai and Chad sit down to trade war stories about their absolute worst jobs and most unhinged bosses, and neither of them disappoints. Nikolai gets Shanghai'd into washing dishes at Denny's against his will, survives a summer at Build-A-Bear where he named a T-Rex in a wedding dress T. Ran...

Hullabaloo Reviews The Little Prince | Hullabaloo Podcast | Chad & Nikolai Some books find you at exactly the right moment. That's what happened to Nikolai and Chad this week. In this episode of Hula Baloo , the boys sit down with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince , one of the best-selling books in human history, and neither of them was prepared for how hard it would hit. Chad calle...

She sang in 13 languages, broke streaming records in a single day, and got best new music from Pitchfork for the third time. Rosalía is doing something that shouldn't be possible — and Hullabaloo finally sat down to talk about it. In this episode, Nikolai and Chad review LLLUX , Rosalía's fourth album and arguably her most ambitious yet — a sweeping, ethereal meditation on the divine, surrender, a...

Nikolai is calling in live from Berlin — and she is bewitched. In this episode of Hula Baloo , Nico walks Chad through the full Berlin experience: crashing industry parties at the Berlinale, falling in love with a city that "fucks better than Prague," and finally getting into Berghain — the most exclusive club in the world — after getting turned away the first time in the freezing cold. Then the b...

We watched all of Heated Rivalry — and Nikolai barely dried his eyes before we hit record. In this episode of Hula Baloo , a cross-generational podcast hosted by two gay men from Gen X and Gen Z, Chad and Nikolai break down everything: the hockey, the love, the explicit amounts of sex, and why this show — against all odds — has a genuine healing frequency. We get into the power dynamics from episo...

"The whole damn system is wrong." That line from The Simpsons' "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" (1991) has become a Gen Z meme, a t-shirt, a rallying cry. But what did it mean when it first aired? And what does it mean now? In this episode of Hullabaloo, Chad (Gen X) and Nikolai (Gen Z) compare two pieces of political satire made 35 years apart: 📺 The Simpsons — "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" (Season...

Overcome Space, Overcome Time" Why This Tiny Book Changed Everything | Hullabaloo Podcast If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood. But overcome space and all we have left is here. Overcome time and all we have left is now." Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a 112-page book about a bird who wanted to fly...

"I don't care if you're Jewish. I'm from Israel." This is the moment Nikolai (Gen Z, Jewish) confronted a group of Zionists in a quiet cafe who were loudly dismissing Palestinian solidarity as "not their business." What happened next? He asked if they served in the IDF. Then he asked: "Are you a war criminal?" The silence was deafening. In this raw, unscripted episode of Hullabaloo, Nikolai shares...

Warning: This conversation gets heavy. In this episode of Hullabaloo, Chad (Gen X) and Nikolai (Gen Z) wrestle with Being Charlie—the 2015 Rob Reiner film written by his son Nick Reiner. But what starts as a movie review becomes something much deeper: a raw, honest, and sometimes painful conversation about the Reiner family tragedy, the insidious nature of codependency, and the question every fami...

Welcome to the very first episode of Hullabaloo! 🎙️✨ Hosted by Chad (@beyondborderswithchad) and Nikolai (@its.k0lya), Hullabaloo is a cross-generational media consumption podcast that bridges the gap between Generation X and Generation Z. In this introductory episode, we explain exactly what you can expect from us this season. As writing partners and members of the LGBTQIA+ community from differ...

In our very first episode, Chad (@beyondborderswithchad) and Nikolai (@its.k0lya) kick things off with a scream. We sat down to watch BOTH versions of the horror classic: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. As a Gen X vs. Gen Z duo, we view horror very differently. Does the 1974 original still hold up as a masterpiece of tension, or does the modern version do it better? We discuss the gore, the family dy...