The Weirdest Thing

On this week's Pocket Size episode, Scotty and Amelia discuss four of their all-time favorite heist movies: "Point Break" (1991), "Inside Man" (2006), "Reservoir Dogs" (1992), and "Sneakers" (1992). Anyone notice the Gen-X Baby theme going on? WARNING: Massive spoilers for ALL of these films. If you haven't seen them already, what're you doing here?

It may not be spooky season, but it is SWELTERING season...so Amelia's here to tell Scotty and the listeners all about the history of our favorite hot-weather drink: iced coffee. From its origins in the North African desert to its unique place in culture and its current dominance of the worldwide beverage market, there's much more to this unassuming steeped conconction than meets the eye.

Scotty starts off this Pocket Size episode with a quick recap of his experience at 2025's StokerCon in Stamford, Connecticut...and truly the strangest hotel he's ever stayed at. Amelia and Scotty then move into a spirited discussion of their favorite breakfast foods--from the various forms that Eggs Benedict can take, to which kind of bagel serves as the best platform for a bagel and lox, to which...

While Scotty was away exploring the Liminal Space Hotel at StokerCon this week, Amelia invited friend (and returning guest host) Elizabeth Dwyer onto The Weirdest Thing to talk about queering the rom-com canon. They discuss which literary and film classics could handle queer remakes, the importance of telling marginalized stories that de-center trauma, and ponder who the Queer Meg Ryan (Queen of R...

Amelia introduces Scotty to Lin-Manuel Miranda's groundbreaking "Hamilton: An American Musical" (2015). They talk about the show's music and its importance to theatre, to history, and to Broadway in general, and Scotty discusses his struggle with this popular art form. They spend a few moments at the end of the episode going over a few other musicals that have had an impact on them in va...

The son of a Mormon evangelist from Detroit. A reluctant blues balladeer from Cleveland. A pair of "nice Jewish boys" from New York City. Who would've thought these would have been just a few of the pioneers of the rude, rowdy, and often (fake) bloody musical genre known as "SHOCK ROCK?" Scotty is here to tell Amelia--and you--all about it. CONTENT WARNING: This story has a few...

Scotty introduces Amelia to David Bowie's classic "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" (1972). Through the course of their discussion, Scotty gives a bit of history on the importance of the British glam-rock movement of the early 1970s, and Scotty and Amelia explore Amelia's sometimes complicated relationship with certain singing voices.

Amelia and Scotty take a deep dive into the new Prohibition-era vampire movie "Sinners," starring Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, and Wunmi Mosaku, and written/directed by Ryan Coogler. It should be no surprise that they both absolutely LOVED this one. WARNING: Spoilers abound in this episode! You probably don't want to listen until you've seen the film.

From a small-town mayor dealing with a nuclear apocalypse, a high-school librarian in a town overrun by vampires, a young Latina woman accidentally impregnated by her doctor, and a starship captain boldly exploring the galaxy--here are four characters who starkly elevate the TV shows in which they appear.

We've got another WILD art-heist story this week. Amelia tells Scotty the tale of WIllem de Kooning's 1955 masterwork "Woman-Ochre," the...ahem...eccentric couple who (likely) boosted it from the University of Arizona Museum of Art, and the New Mexico antique-store owners who played an integral role in its eventual rediscovery.

Scotty and Amelia dive into two of their favorite respective documentaries this week, specifically dealing with big egos, wild creative visions, and singular artistic ambitions. They start with 1991's "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse," which is about the making (and near unmaking) of 1979's "Apocalypse Now," and how the out-of-control production nearly drove direct...

Scotty's been teasing this one for awhile. This week he delves into another rock-and-roll urban legend--and the history of his all-time favorite band--when he tells Amelia the story of Pink Floyd's 1973 album "The Dark Side of the Moon," and its strange (and disputed) connection to the classic 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz."

Well, it's no surprise Scotty and Amelia have a lot to say about the latest seasons of "The Traitors" (Peacock) and "Yellowjackets" (Showtime), but they're also boiling over with opinions on probably the best new show of 2025--HBO's surprise new medical drama "The Pitt." WARNING: This episode is FULL of spoilers. If you want your ears to remain properly virginal on th...

In this first episode of 2025, Scotty and Amelia speak briefly about the personal losses that kept them away from the podcast for the past few months, before paying tribute to the lives and bodies of work of two fallen icons of both Hollywood and New Mexico--Gene Hackman and Val Kilmer.

From the feminist horror of films like Zoe Kravitz' "Blink Twice" and Anna Kendrick's "Woman of the Hour," to the Brat-era "girl pop" of Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter, Amelia and Scotty talk about some of the prevailing pop-culture trends they observed in 2024. WARNING: Spoilers for "Blink Twice" and "Woman of the Hour."

Flames! Flames on the side of my face! From online drama to grabby doorknobs, Scotty and Amelia go through just a few of the things that set their emotional pots to a boil.

This year was...well, it sure was something, wasn't it? This week, Scotty and Amelia decided to focus on the positive and talk about what they loved from this epic brick-to-the-face of a year. From gigantic, empire-destroying sandworms to massive, genre-busting albums, they take you through some of their very favorite pop-cultural artifacts of 2024.

November was an upsetting month for most of us (for obvious reasons), so Amelia and Scotty decided to offer up a few of their favorite pop-cultural security blankets for your listening pleasure. Do you like watching burly dudes (and more than a few ladies) pound hot metal into swords then smack them into things to see if they'll break? Or maybe you'd rather laugh along with the trials and tribulat...

In this not-so-pocket-sized Pocket Size episode, Scotty and Amelia break down a few of their favorite TV pilots of all time. These shows exposed us all to the terrifying mysteries of a distant island in the South Pacific and the uncanny creepiness of a logging town in the Pacific Northwest, took us into the hallowed hallways of the White House and an advertising firm in 1960s Manhattan, and more....

Scotty takes us back a full hundred years to introduce Amelia and the listeners to a true North American icon. That's right... we're finally meeting the big hairy lunk himself--Bigfoot--with the story of the Ape Canyon Incident of 1924. Don't tell Mothman, lest he get jealous...

A particle accelerator haunted by the ghost of a pioneer woman...train tracks protected by the spirits of dead children...Amelia and Scotty close out spooky season with this Pocket Size episode about just a few of their favorite haunted places.

We're coming up on the end of spooky season (technically, at least; Scotty might argue the point), and so Amelia is taking us out onto the high seas with a few harrowing tales of ghost ships. From a flash-frozen crew drifting through the arctic ice to a spectral South American party boat, this episode has it all...including perhaps the most famous confirmed ghost ship of all time.

Creepy literary houses, terrifying true(ish) crimes, and one infamous Hollywood myth... Scotty and Amelia take you into a few of their favorite urban legends for this latest Pocket Size spooky season entry.

Scotty FAMOUSLY hates Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" (1980). He hates it so much, in fact, that he's never even bothered to ask Amelia what she thinks about it. This week they rewatch and discuss the filmmaker's take on the classic Stephen King novel, talk about how it works as a horror movie and as a film in general, and then tackle Mike Flanagan's divisive 2019 adaptation of King's bi...

Spooky season continues with this Pocket Size breakdown of a few of our more peculiar irrational fears, from submerged manmade objects to artifically dyed cake frosting.