Juvenalia

Carly Monardo of Rude Tales of Magic and Birdgirl returns to talk about a show that had a huge influence on her, 2004's Green Wing . We picked sides in the love triangle at the heart of the show, talked about improv, the scary amount of now-famous people in the show, the physical commitment of the actors, and about the balance of meanness and earnestness in comedy. It was fun! Carly is @whirringbl...

Journalist and author Phil Ellis joins us as we return to the topic of very first episode: Luc Besson’s 1997 day-glo sci-fi epic The Fifth Element . It’s been six years this month since we last talked about it and we’re all different people so we thought why not. We talk about Ruby Rhod, the power of love, very long prologues, and the clothes, the clothes, the clothes. Phil is @Philip_Ellis . He’s...

Author and journalist Edel Coffey joins us to talk about the Joel Schumacher's comedy-horror VHS classic, The Lost Boys and there was a lot to talk about! Things like Alan and Sarah’s preconceptions of the film, the power of Two Coreys, the face of Jason Patric, the confidence of Kiefer Sutherland, the jokes, the gore, the music, the saxophone, and much more. Edel is @edelcoffey . Her novel Breaki...

Author, Podcaster, and our fifth Beatle, Caroline O’Donoghue returns to talk about Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 masterpiece Spirited Away. We talk about Yubaba as magical girlboss, unsettling giant babies, how we feel about Spirited Away merch, games we think have a hint of Spirited Away about them, and just generally ooh and aah over how good this film is. It’s so good. Caroline is @Czaroline . Her late...

Hello! We had a scheduling mix up. It happens, no big deal but it means we don’t have a new episode this week. We thought you might like our most recent Patreon bonus episode though. It’s from our bonus series Started/Finished where we talk about what we’ve started and finished recently. In this episode we talked about Yellowjackets (no spoilers), Get Back, Wytchwood (no spoilers), and Succession...

Artist and writer Aoife Dooley joins us to to talk about beloved naughties dinnertime staple, Malcolm In The Middle . We talked about our favourite episodes, similarities between Malcolm family and our families, Sarah and Aoife have a lengthy digression about where some of The Snapper was filmed. It was a good time! The show wasn’t streaming anywhere legally in Ireland when we recorded this and th...

Happy holidays to one and all! We had planned to do something big and special in the studio but well, y’know, so instead we gathered some of our Juvenalia family remotely to talk about our favourite Christmas music. We accidentally talked about  Baby, It’s Cold Outside  for far too long even though it wasn’t on any of our lists but you’ll be glad to hear that we’ve finally sorted that wh...

Comedian and writer Fiona Frawley joins us to talk about the rite of passage for many Irish schoolchildren, The Nativity Play. Not Alan though, his school was run by lax Catholics who didn’t bother with nativities. We talked about the plot, the theme, the characters of the nativity but also jumped off into a wider talk about growing up in a Catholic school system in a decreasingly Catholic society...

Teenagers! We’ve all been them. And yet, they’re terrifying. And none are more terrifying than the kids from Skins. Andrea Cleary and Amelia Cullen join us to re-examine it through the lens of four people aged 14-22 when the first episode aired. You might notice that this is an extra-long episode and that’s because we had an excellent chat. Hope you enjoy it! Andrea is @AndreaCleary__. You can hea...

Singer-songwriter Maria Kelly joins Alan and guest co-host Cassie Delaney to talk about ever slightly alternative millennial’s favourite film of 2007, Juno . We talk about the soundtrack, JK Simmons and Alison Janney, Elliot Page’s amazing performance, how to avoid becoming Mark as you get older, being obsessed with Michael Cera, Kimya Dawson, we even talk about the colour grading. Honest to blog,...

Happy Halloween! When Julie Hough was on the show for episode 135, she mentioned that it would be cool if we did a Halloween Special about Halloween Specials and she was absolutely right! So we got Julie and our most knowledgeable telly friend Jenn Gannon to come back and have a chat with us about our favourite ever Halloween Specials! We talked about Sabrina, Community, Angry Beavers, Hey Arnold!...

Artist/Producer Elaine Mai joins us on a track by track journey through an album that was huge for her as a child, ABBA Gold! There’s not much more to say than that. It’s an amazing album and we enthuse wildly about pretty much every song. We covered ABBA in a more general sense back in episode 42 with Tara Flynn so if you want more ABBA chat after this then head over there. Elaine is @elainemaimu...

Stand-up comedian and writer-producer-actress multi-hyphenate Allie O’Rourke joins us to talk about a bit of pop culture that was important to her during her second puberty, The Chris Gethard Show. We talk about the show’s public access origins, Chris Gethard’s hosting style, how the show inspired Allie in all the creative stuff she makes, and about how One Man’s Trash is the single greatest episo...

Head of research and projects at Tall Tales and host of All Things Considered Amelia Cullen joins us to talk about the forbidden book, V.C. Andrews’ Flowers In The Attic . We talk about reading things you’re not supposed to read, try to grapple with why the book has had such a grip on generations of teenage girls, and try to figure out how we should feel about Flowers In The Attic in 2021. Amelia...

HAVVK singer and bassist Julie Hough joins us to talk about the short-lived suburban-weirdness comedy Eerie, Indiana. We traced its influences and descendants, marvelled at its ability to compress huge ideas into self-contained, 22 minute, kid-friendly episodes, and generally bonded over how good this show is. Julie is @julie_hawk_ on Instagram and HAVVK is @havvkmusic . Their fantastic new album...

We usually like to cover the big obsessions here at Juvenalia. The thing that was YOUR thing. But what about the little things that had an outsized effect on you? You were never obsessed with it but it’s never quite left your mind. Alan messed up and didn’t book a guest in time for this week’s episode so he and Sarah talked about some of the smaller bits of pop culture that have been lodged in the...

Comedian Ian Lynam joins us to talk about the long-running BBC sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf. We talk about our favourite episodes, the ease with which the show navigates high-concept ideas, the ways the show largely sidestepped the kinds of jokes that have aged badly in its contemporaries, and a lot more. It was very fun. Ian is @quixoticclown . His Dublin Fringe show Autistic Licence is currently sold...

Writer and host of Boars, Gore, and Swords Ivan Hernandez joins us to talk about one of the most influential SNES games of all time, Earthbound/ Mother 2. It's truly the Velvet Underground of 16-bit RPGs, you can see traces of it in all the indie games that we enthuse about here all the time. Ivan was a mod on the Earthbound fan forum starmen.net so he was able to go deep on this game. Sarah has p...

Writer/Director Conor O'Toole dropped by to talk about a film he watched "a million" times as a child, Fly Away Home. Fly Away Home is a classic 'girl and her father fly light aircraft across international borders to teach orphaned geese how to migrate' story. Jeff Daniels and Anna Paquin are in it. It looks gorgeous and deserves to be part of our nostalgia canon. The talk leads us onto other thin...

Michelle Hennessy of thejournal.ie joins us to talk about beloved Alan Rickman showcase Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves starring Alan Rickman and also Kevin Costner. We talked all about RH:POT as a surprising entry into the canon of female gaze movies, the director’s cut vs the original, the accents, and Alan Rickman, Alan Rickman’s energy, and Alan Rickman’s shirts. Michelle is @michellehtweet on t...

RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta newsreader Póilín Nic Géidigh joins us to talk about the queen of late 00s Disney Channel Originals, Hannah Montana. We learn what it was like to be a Hannah Montana fan but we also talk about how TikTok is dead, about the power of teenage girls’ obsessions, about Miley Cyrus’s post-Hannah career, about how good Emily Osment was as Hannah’s best friend Lily, and lots more....

Carly Monardo of Rude Tales Of Magic joins us for the only Final Fantasy VII podcast you’ll ever need. We talked about the game obviously but also about fandoms, and keeping your obsessions to yourself, and fanart, and really it went everywhere. Just listen to it and have fun. Carly Monardo is @whirringblender everywhere. She plays Albee on Rude Tales Of Magic which you absolutely need to listen t...

Alex Lolies is a video producer for board game site Dicebreaker and a Twitch streamer. She joined us to, naturally, talk all about board games and her journey from childhood games of Monopoly to board game cafe guru to Dicebreaker. We talked about playing to win, modern single player board games, collaborative play, and finished up with some solid recommendations for anybody who wants to step up f...

Singer-songwriter Carsie Blanton joins us for a deep chat about Sheryl Crow’s 1993 album Tuesday Night Music Club . We talked about why 90s music sounds the way it does, our respective journeys from pop to rebellion and back again, being a lyrics person, the Lilith Fair tour, and the general easy-going polish of Sheryl Crow. Carsie is  @carsieblanton on Twitter. Her new album Love & Rage...

YA author Maggie Tokuda-Hall joins us to talk about everybody's favourite mid-90s greek mythology-inspired adventure series, Xena: Warrior Princess . Maggie is a Xena super-fan with loads of great insights so it was an extremely fun and enlightening hour. We talked about how 20+ episode seasons allow shows the space to get weird, Xena and the male gaze, how we're over the need for consistent canon...