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Wynter and Karen hit all the angles of the HBO Max Friends reunion, from the true MVPs of the cast, to Irish uncle Joey, to its efforts to compensate for the show's lack of diversity by highlighting its global legacy. The two get into a surprisingly deep conversation about tennis as Wynter tells everyone to leave Naomi Osaka in peace. Karen plots a return to Las Vegas to see Celine Dion early next...

Their former girl group sister, Guy Branum told Karen and Wynter to watch the new Peacock series Girls 5Eva so they could all process it 3gether, which they do on this week's ep. Karen is too busy cavorting in the gay woods with her vaxxed BFFs to absorb any new pop culture, though Guy does bring up one of their favorite old topics--lesbian representation on Top Chef --to keep things sapphically i...

Dust off your dial-up, and join Wynter and Karen for a glimpse at social media through the ages, from the classic AOL Instant Messenger, to all the apps we rushed to download during the pandemmy like Marco Polo, HouseParty, and Clubhouse. Karen is all-in for HBO's Mare of Easttown and all things Kate Winslet, while Wynter tells us about her adventures in cryptocurrency. The two also get into The M...

What upcoming movie releases will inspire Karen and Wynter to leave the comfort and safety of their pandemic bunkers to go to an actual theater?!? This is an especially tall order since news broke of the Arclight & Cineramadome's demise in Hollywood, RIP. Hint: (M)CU at the movies…  Meanwhile, the two continue on a docu-tear as Wynter reveals what Sasquatch on Hulu is really about. KT's talk of a...

Wynter and Karen welcome longtime listener Nick Murphy, a fierce advocate and fan of the great Tina Turner, to chat about the new HBO doc revisiting her legacy. The three focus on what it means to truly pursue your dreams in your 40s. Wynter is deep in a doc dive, and gives us the skinny on Hulu's We Work exposé as well as Q: Into the Storm . Karen eats her words about bad British Netflix shows, a...

Karen and Wynter confront the surge in anti-AAPI hate and violence during Covid, while exploring how its longer histories are intertwined with pop culture. Karen shouts out some writers doing the hard work of responding to the Atlanta shootings in venues like Vanity Fair and GQ , and tells Wynter what she's been watching--both good and bad--to ease her mind.  The two impromptu launch a recurring s...

Wynter and Karen reveal the different reasons each of them cried when they watched The Real World: Homecoming , which reunites the cast of MTV's first season of The Real World: New York (1992). Whose fashion and "smooth concave chest" do they miss most? And what are their impressions of the cast members both then and now? Plus, the two take a deep dive into THE event of the last week, Oprah's excl...

Wynter and Karen immerse themselves into WandaVision, as they explore how we use TV to work through our grief in myriad ways. Ever the completist, Karen re-watched all 23 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in timeline order, and reports back to us after a month living through the Infinity Saga. Wynter gets into the deja vu vibes of Tiger Woods' recent car accident just a year after Kobe's deat...

Writer, comedian, and Asian American cultural icon Jenny Yang joins us to process WTF Bling Empire is all about. Karen and Wynter call an audible, and devote their 'sup segment to Framing Britney Spears, because it truly is the only thing that's on everyone's minds these days, as the pressure intensifies to #FreeBritney from her father's conservatorship. Plus, nuo-lingo from this extended phase of...

Karen and Wynter kick off season 4 and 2021--the year this millennium is finally old enough to drink--with reflections on when they each turned 21. For Wynter, it was 2001, and she recalls her days tearing up the San Francisco scene, while immersing herself in new tech & the internet as her primary form of entertainment. Karen throws us back to 1994, the year she turned 21 and took her first trip...

While the show is on a holiday hiatus, we wanted to share a podcast project Karen has been working on at USC that you might be into!  The Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Popular Culture is a start-up podcast network within the Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies, and working with both faculty and students to produce informative audio stories in multiple genres. Dance Hubs is one of...

It's a family affair for our season 3 finale, as both Wynter and Karen's parents pop into our Zoom room to chat about their favorite pop cultural memories--the gifts that keep on giving--from then and now. Each of our hosts get into what's on their watch lists as "Christmastide" approaches, while Allyson, W2X's own version of Ros from Frasier joins in the fun, and our coven plots for a better 2021...

Karen could barely wait through the holiday weekend to hear what Wynter, her self-described "cis-het" gal pal thought of The Happiest Season , the new holiday romcom with sapphist leads. Find out what a "Madewell femme" is in KT's taxonomy of lesbian types, as well as the provenance for a "min-pin or pocket-sized butch." Wynter has some choice words for the youngsters who need to put some RESPECT...

We are so grateful to our extended W2X family, and some very special guests, who sent us their dedications and messages of gratitude for the Thanksgiving holiday, while also reminding us about this vexed occasion's origins. Karen gets to play out her "Mr. DJ" (a la Sharon Cuneta) fantasies, while artist, writer and podcaster Nicole J. Georges, author of the illustrated book, Fetch: How a Bad Dog B...

Karen & Wynter binged all of Netflix's The Crown in a single day, as season 4 of the prestige series swerves into the GenX sweet spot of 1977-1990. The two get into the Charles & Diana of it all, and the cognitive dissonance of seeing Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher, while taking a stab at answering why two California-raised WOC like themselves are so fascinated by anemic British royals. Kar...

Wynter and Karen visit USC--this time virtually--in Sarah Kessler's class on Audio(visuality). Sarah is a media studies scholar, TV editor of Public Books , and KT's spouse aka quarantine hostage. The three get into a discussion of the role lip-syncing has played in U.S. pop culture as entertainment, the source of scandal, and as a means of building a following all the way to a Netflix special a l...

This week, we teamed up with our old pals Guy Branum and Margaret Wappler and raised $750 for Stacey Abrams' FAIR FIGHT! During our taping the day before election day, we covered everything from Who's the Boss, The Queen's Gambit, the fall of Quibi, and what everyone's election day drink of choice would be.  As we continue to wait anxiously for this year's election to end, please enjoy an extra-lo...

Wynter and Karen welcome a witch, healer and the Oracle of Los Angeles, Amanda Yates Garcia (author of Initiated: Memoir of a Witch ), to offer some perspective and guidance about the astrological plane and what we might be facing in the weeks ahead. Before Amanda arrives, our hosts catch up on some recent movies, including Justin Simien's Bad Hair, and the return of Borat in his "subsequent movie...

Wynter brings an all-horror loving posse over to our Zoom room to get hyped for Halloween. Patrick Hamilton and Gena Radcliffe of the Kill by Kill podcast come to defend their favorite horror sequels.  Wynter advocates for her own favorite, and Karen judges the soundness of all three pitches. Who will take the prize: Psycho II, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II, or Halloween III: Season of the Witch ?...

Karen and Wynter are joined by Dr. Megan Auster-Rosen, the co-director of the mental health program at Cedars Sinai, to talk about how to ride out the next several weeks. How do we break free from doomscrolling? What binges feel good to us, and what series have successfully undertaken the difficult task of depicting trauma? (SPOILERS for the reality series Alone ). Wynter tells us about the docume...

Wynter and Karen take a look back at SNL's political coverage, especially its parodies of presidential debates past and present, as the show resumes production with a live studio audience. Is satire even possible in the political world we're living in today? Trying with all her might not to get too caught up in the onslaught of news, from 45's COVID cluster to the death of Eddie Van Halen, Wynter...

Karen and Wynter do their best to catch you up with season 2 of Hulu's cringe comedy Pen15, while reminiscing about their own deeply awkward middle school years. ***Warning: Pen15 Spoilers and Middle-School Callouts in this Ep!*** Plus, Wynter tells us about the Peloton pandemic lyfe, while Karen is soliciting any additional info anyone may have about the Great British Bake-Off bubble. Where are p...

Karen has fled Los Angeles for the rest of September, as both she and Wynter mourn the loss of the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg by girding their loins for the fight ahead. The two give a full rundown of the pandemic Emmys, and get into why so many of us are seeking refuge in nostalgic all-star table reads, from Fast Times at Ridgemont High , to the all-Black Golden Girls reenactment, the Princess...

Wynter has made some upgrades to her club, The Palace, on Grand Theft Auto , while Karen calls Away , the new mission to Mars drama on Netflix, "normporn in space." Dr. andré carrington, a renowned scholar of race and science fiction--and a birder!--joins us for a retrospective of Chadwick Boseman's tragically short, but illustrious career. We get beyond the superhero legacy and consider some of t...

We're a full month into Lovecraft Country , so Dr. Jon Paul Higgins from the Learnt podcast joins us for a spirited discussion about the show's horrors, both everyday and paranormal, as well as what it's done for Blerds (Black nerds) everywhere. Karen seeks refuge from "Dumbkirk" and the week's other stupid and tragic occurrences by mainlining Cobra Kai, while Wynter and Dr. Jon take definitive si...