Pop Culture Preservation Society

Today’s episode is an encore of episode 220, “The PCPS Sings Along with Free to Be…You and Me (and Marlo)." We’re re-releasing this special episode at a moment when its message feels more necessary than ever. In the wake of recent events in Minneapolis — a city deeply connected to the heart of PCPS — we’re returning to Free To Be… You and Me, the landmark project created by Marlo Thomas and fr...

Join us as we chat about the 1979 movie, The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (starring Jane Seymour) and how “America’s Sweethearts” grabbed hold of (two of) us long before their reality show and Netflix series. Which one of us was infatuated with them? Who not only despises the DCC but considered them their mortal enemy? And which host do we discover not only tried out but MADE an NHL dance team?!? L...

Your pop preservationists turn into cultural analysts as they discuss new findings about how young people listen to music today -- and what that could mean for their future nostalgia. You all know how much we treasure our music memories (and we know you do, too -- that's why you're here!) and it gives us heart palpitations to think that future generations might miss out on that????? If the...

Inspired by one of our most downloaded episodes of all time called A Day in the Life, today's episode invites you into the childhood homes of Carolyn, Kristin and Michelle as they celebrate Christmas with their families on one specific year. One of us questions the existence of Santa while another shops for her first boyfriend with her babysitting money (which cologne do you think she bought?)...

We’re revisiting our old holiday episodes in case you’ve missed some of them or are new to the podcast and need some fun things to listen to while you nog your egg or wrap presents … or just need something to do while you hide from your family. Col. Sanders and Chewbacca singing carols? We’ve got an episode for that. Deney Terrio, a sexy Santa (a.k.a. Nellie Olesen), and tinsel-fied unitards? We’v...

Grab your Jordan almonds and take your seats on the shag carpet aisle , because today the PCPS is turning on the Zenith and throwing rice at some of our listener’s favorite GenX TV weddings of the ’70s and ’80s! In this episode, we’re reliving the matrimonial moments that glued us to our living room floors. Remember “The Brady Brides” or when Nellie and Percival tied the knot? Find out just how th...

Welcome to our 5th Anniversary party! Today's episode was recorded LIVE in front of a studio audience at Big Hill Books in Minneapolis to celebrate what Kristin thought would be a six-week project -- but instead blew up into FIVE YEARS of weekly podcast episodes celebrating the pop culture nuggets of the classic Gen X childhood. We'll reminisce about that cringeworthy first episode -- when...

Welcome to the inaugural meeting of the PCPS's MTV Book Club -- where we drink wine and analyze plots, characters and literary devices used in our favorite music videos from the MTV era. Music videos were a brand new art form in the early 80s so there were no classics to emulate, no standardized techniques, and definitely no criticism deeper than WICKED or TOTALLY TUBULAR. Though we may not ha...

This weekend, Carolyn, Kristin and Michelle celebrated five years of The Pop Culture Preservation Society with an action-packed weekend that ended with a Shaun Cassidy concert. When it comes to the PCPS, it seems like all things either start or end with Shaun Cassidy. Fresh off of airplanes and exhausted from extroverting for days, we sat down in front of our mics to share the details with you whi...

They were only 30 seconds long, but somehow they’ve lived in our brains for 40 years. In this episode, we dive into the unforgettable (and occasionally regrettable) commercial jingles of our GenX childhood. From “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” to “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz,” we’re unpacking the tunes that made us sing, shop, and sometimes cry. Find out which jingle makes Carolyn very anxious (spoi...

1975 was a HUGE year for pop culture, and today having a BIG 50TH BIRTHDAY PARTY for many of the things we watched, played with, read, listened to, and went to the movies to see in that banner year. Wonder Woman, The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time, Starsky & Hutch, Captain & Tennille, Glen Campbell, JAWS, The Apple Dumpling Gang, Ramona The Brave, Tuck Everlasting, Whack-A-Mole, the Egg McM...

Grab your plastic pumpkin bucket and come along with us as we visit our Halloweens of the past. From our own costume memories (why were we all dressed as hobos and gypsies in the 1970s??) plus some of YOURS (snips of wig hair Elmer’s Glued to the face, and mohair Princess Leia buns FTW) to sticking our hands in bowls of peeled grapes and cold spaghetti, GenX Halloween was just better, wasn’t it? S...

Today we'll be saving the book that just won't quit, the 1970's classic that keeps coming back in every new generation, with new covers, new editions, and multiple movie adaptations. Lois Duncan's I Know What You Did Last Summer is one of the first books written for teens about teens and it ruled The Scholastic Bookfair all through the 70s, 80s and 90s. It hooked readers (and futur...

After last week's discussion of our twentysomething obsession with Thirtysomething, we sit down with one of the show's most memorable stars. Mel Harris played the inimitable Hope Steadman from 1987 to 1991 and created a character who stirred up feelings of domestic bliss and feminist angst in equal measure; for Gen X women, Hope Steadman was a lovely blueprint mixed with a cautionary tale...

Many of us GenXers may have only been twentysomething, but we couldn’t get enough of thirtysomething! Join us as we share our BIG feelings about the show that made us all want to be part of that group of friends who were like big brothers and sisters to us, teaching us how to navigate an adult life we might not have been ready for, but sure had our eyes on. What was it about this show that wasn’t...

Saturday Night Fever is an emblem of the 1970s. The white suit, the finger in the air, the lighted dance floor, and the sound of The Bee Gees swallowed every corner of our culture and will forever define that moment in time. The book FEVER: The Complete History of Saturday Night Fever by Margo Donahue examines every aspect of the making of this cultural juggernaut and gives us SO much to talk abou...

In our final can of PCPS Light before S17 starts next week (!!) we're giving you our latest recs by letting you know what we've been reading, watching, and listening to. Come for the recs, stay for Carolyn's song. Shop our link at  bookshop.org  to support independent bookstores and the PCPS. Subscribe to our YouTube channel  here Follow the Pop Culture Preservation Society on  Instagr...

Do you know who wrote the theme song to “The Waltons?” Or where Ann Romano was moving her family in “One Day at a Time?” Find out if Carolyn and Kristin do as Michelle tests their pop-culture knowledge with quizzes from our favorite throwback magazine and website, REMIND . (Shouting the correct answers at your listening device encouraged. Shouting at Carolyn and Kristin not.) Shop our link at  boo...

EPISODE 241 A full- calorie PCPS Light where we ditch the timer to talk real life: the tragedy at Annunciation (in Kristin’s backyard), Carolyn’s HUGE life news and exciting new chapter, and a magician Michelle met in Aspen who was friends with John Denver. (Magician + friends with John Denver = Michelle's head exploding.) Join us as we go from tears to laughter … because isn’t that what real...

Join us for a light and refreshing shakedown of everything on our minds this week. Kristin found not just Darth Vader but also Amish ladies in the Wisconsin Dells. But she couldn't remember how to get off the pommel horse (pro tip: ask Kurt Thomas). And somehow that led to a personal and enthusiastic conversation about the new no-make-up Pamela Anderson on the red carpet. Perhaps she was a rol...

Join us for another refreshingly light episode celebrating (quickly) the new documentary about the shark movie that created the word ‘blockbuster.’ Jaws@50 gave us all the behind-the-scenes info we love; Steven Spielberg’s lasting trauma post-filming, the Martha’s Vineyard locals who got to star in one of the biggest movies of all time, and that damn mechanical shark (tears out hair)! There are so...

Welcome to the first can … er, episode … of our six-pack of PCPS Light episodes: all NEW light and refreshing conversations we’re bringing you while we work on Season 17 (can you taste the hint of lemon?)! Today’s short & sweet episode covers some of our recent viral-ish social media posts (with some impassioned reader’s theatre readings of some of our favorite comments from YOU), plus Monica...

Today’s episode is like a dream come true. The CHiPs Roller Disco episodes (yes, episodeS — it was so glorious it needed TWO parts!) serves as a hedonistic time capsule of what we wanted our lives to look like in the late 70s … and if you lived in southern California, it probably did. From Leif Garrett as an exhausted pop star (so, so tired) to former pro-football stars on wheels to the cornucopia...

Join us for the CONCLUSION of last week's episode. Today’s episode is a little bit different; normally we’re talking about all the things we had as children. Our records, our books, the TV shows we loved to watch (possibly while our parents were still at work or making dinner or smoking Virginia Slims while they watered the lawn). But the things our parents liked were also a big part of our gr...

Today’s episode is a little bit different; normally we’re talking about all the things we had as children. Our records, our books, the TV shows we loved to watch (possibly while our parents were still at work or making dinner or smoking Virginia Slims while they watered the lawn). But the things our parents liked were also a big part of our growing up – and that includes all the Broadway shows fro...