Pop Culture Preservation Society

Author Amy Weinland Daughters is back with us, telling us about that time she went crazy and wrote a HANDWRITTEN letter to all 580 of her Facebook Friends (which is the basis for her book, "Dear Dana, that time I went crazy and wrote a handwritten letter to all 580 of my Facebook friends”). We talk about why (and how!) this project began, the response from the recipients, and why — surprisingl...

Letterwriting is the topic that took the PCPS by storm! When we asked you for your thoughts and stories about the letters you wrote and received growing up, we got more responses than any other topic to date. This certainly validates our assertion that letterwriting was vital to the Gen X experience. Before email and texting there was only one way to keep in touch with our important people that di...

Variety shows were as much a part of 1970s television as reality shows were a part of the early 21st century, and today we’re saving two of the most iconic — The Carol Burnett Show and Sonny & Cher, plus one very short-lived YET STILL ICONIC show for us GenXers, The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (which may or may not have been created in a drug-induced fever dream). Listen for lots of fun facts abo...

Today we’re saving many of the things from our youth that our own kids’ generations will never understand … like what the heck a phone book is (not to mention how to use it). From smoking sections on airplanes (why bother??) to having to WAIT for your favorite song to play (the agony!) to the migraines the microfiche machine triggered (and which the memory still does), we’re breaking down some of...

In today's episode, we’ll be saving the competition show responsible for the rash of broken arms suffered in basements, backyards and TV rooms while trying the latest trick seen on the disco-era dance show … DANCE FEVER. This was the pop culture nugget that gave us Deney Terrio, a name no Gen Xer will ever forget. But it wasn't just the spandex and dance moves that kept us glued to the TV...

Welcome to our second tribute to Dynamite Magazine, the star-studded, joke-filled People Magazine knock-off for kids that we ordered through our Scholastic book orders. Dynamite was the news source most trusted by Gen X children and, in this episode, we'll perform dramatic readings of the important scoop Dynamite fed to us; do you know why Willie Aames spells his name with two A's? We do!...

Join us for the latest installment of our ongoing series called AM Radio Gold, celebrating the songs we heard when AM radio was king. In this episode, we'll be focusing on the radio hits from the year 1979-- which gave us some of the most memorable music in history. But this episode is not a history lesson. It's personal. And the three of us will share the songs WE waited for on the radio....

Hello listeners! Today is Christmas Day and the PCPS is taking the week off to rest and recharge -- and so today's episode is an encore of “The Most Seventiest of 70s Christmas Albums.” But before the episode begins, we're dropping in a little gift to you; in November, Kristin appeared onstage in a production called Listen to Your Mother, an annual event featuring local writers and their e...

Grab a pen and start circling (mentally) as we take you through a stack of old December TV Guides from the 70s and early 80s. Each of us is choosing which shows we’d have been watching … and not watching … which leads to some pretty strong memories and feelings! Which Krofft stars made a surprising appearance with Oral Roberts (and Mrs. Oral Roberts)? Who can make a Christmas song sound sultry? Wh...

We’re kicking off Season 11 by celebrating that motley group of messy-haired kids who wore the coveted striped shirts and ran amuck in a big, open, Boston studio singing silly songs off-key, playing silly games, performing silly skits, and speaking in a silly language that SOME of us (cough… Kristin …) can still speak in today. Zoom taught us more than how to fold a cootie-catcher or blow cheerios...

This week is an encore presentation of our deep dive into the music of the rock and roll era's most celebrated brother/sister duo, The Carpenters, whose music became a staple of the 1970s wedding. This is the launching pad for a brand new intro conversation about the latest wedding dance Kristin attended and what role OUR music now plays on the Gen Z dance floor (hint: it's not our party a...

It’s our “podcastiversary” and we're celebrating by bringing you an encore of our 100th episode retrospective, where we reminisce about where (and how) we started and how far we've come! We're also bringing you an ALL NEW opening conversation where we chat about all that's happened in the past 48 episodes (spoiler-alert: it's a LOT!). Grab a glass of Asti Spumante and join us i...

Join the PCPS as they celebrate their favorite thing about Thanksgiving -- TV! Today's encore of episode 92, “Turkeys on TV,” takes a deep dive into three of our favorite Thanksgiving TV episodes as well as a peek into our 1970s classroom festivities. (Which one of us puked up Thanksgiving dinner lunch in the library?) We’re also giving you a brand new intro conversation where we all agree on...

Have you ever stopped to acknowledge the profound impact of your childhood friendships, even the most casual and fleeting ones, on your adult identity? This week's episode is a re-share of Kristin's interview with Dear Nina: Conversations About Friendship ; a discussion that shows how nostalgia for our childhoods is helpful when discovering who we are today. Carolyn and Michelle help intro...

Once again the PCPS is holding a college-level course on an iconic movie from our youth: this time it’s the 1987 feel-good, forbidden-love, hip-swivelin’ classic Dirty Dancing. But as you’ll hear in this episode, Dirty Dancing was so much more than a “dance movie.” In true PCPS fashion we’re dissecting everything from the ironic chemistry of the co-stars to the very serious, critical issues the mo...

In today's episode we'll be saving an obscure episode of The Waltons called the Changeling in which the littlest sister, Elizabeth, is haunted by a Poltergeist --YEARS before the movie Poltergeist hit theaters. No one in the entire world seems to remember this oh-so-70s episode except Kristin who hasn't stopped thinking about it since 1978 -- and that includes not just Carolyn and Mich...

In today's episode, we'll be celebrating the discovery that our childhood memories might be just what the doctor ordered, in a discussion of how nostalgia has helped so many of our listeners through difficult times. When we started this podcast several years ago, our goal was not a serious one. First and foremost, we wanted to entertain. And we wanted to do that by bringing funny, unexpect...

In today's episode, we’ll be turning the record over and saving the rest of the album that everyone got for Christmas in 1978; known officially as Grease: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture. In the second installment of this two-part episode, we'll discuss every song from sides 2, 3 and 4; from the hot rod anthem full of dirty words and the legendary mocking of Sandy for her p...

In today's episode, we’ll be saving the album everyone got for Christmas in 1978; one of the best-selling soundtrack albums of all time: known officially as Grease: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture. Grease was everywhere in 1978 -- not just in theaters but also on the radio and in our homes, most notably in our bedrooms and rec rooms where we acted out each song like seasoned Ju...

The controversial 1973 commercial for the memory game Hüsker Dü inspired this episode in which we pepper each other with questions that all start with the phrase "Do you remember ....?" It's a rapid-fire round-up of random things that intrigue us but don't warrant an entire episode. We're talking about Rerun and doobies (or Doobies) and Mouseketeers and Gnip Gnop and our deep-s...

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, our generation’s TV shows had THE BEST THEME SONGS. And they’ve all been living in our heads — rent free — for the past 30-odd decades! Join us as we count down the Top 10 (or 16) TV theme songs from the 80s shows we loved as determined by YOUR votes (and ours, obviously). Will your favorite take the top spot? Will it even make the list? Listen (and sin...

There is very little in life that elicits the same ecstasy we felt at our grade school book fairs. Even our Christmas morning memories pale in comparison to the day our schools became bookstores. Whether you walked down the hall to the makeshift store with your teacher OR ordered your books by circling pictures on a newsprint order form, shockingly few of us are ambivalent about that experience. I...

Today we'll be saving the book with the lime green cover that said all the things we couldn't say out loud: Judy Blume's 1971 coming-of-age classic for the boys, “Then Again, Maybe I Won't.” Even after 52 years in print, this book still ranks the highest in its utter forthrightness, daring to acknowledge that boys struggled with their unruly body parts and unsettling thoughts. Join...

We all have songs that we attribute to memorable moments in our lives — some memorable for good reasons … and some for not-so-good reasons. Regardless, the song and the memory have stuck with us on a cellular level for decades. Join us today as we each share three songs that “made us” from that time in our lives when pretty much everything made an impact on our lives ... Junior High. Which songs d...

We’re kicking of SEASON 10 by catching you up on all we’ve been up to since you last heard from us AND playing a heated game of 80s music trivia, where Kristin and Michelle go head-to-toe (#LisaLisaAndTheCultJam). Which movie soundtrack produced the most radio hits? Who did Duran Duran open for in 1982? And can you sing the second line to “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go?” Listen NOW to play along, to...