When They Popped - A Y2K Pop Culture Podcast

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! This week Kelsey & Mary are joined by Joel Helgesen, O-Town's tour manager. Joel originally auditioned for Making the Band and eventually started working alongside his best friend, O-Town's Trevor Penick, managing all of O-Town's tour logistics and cultivating interesting industry learnings along the way. Joel is incredibly humble, beloved amongst...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey bring back When They Popped Book Club to share the biggest revelations and standout stories from Hayden Panettiere's new memoir which details her life as a child star, tabloid scrutiny and her journey with postpartum depression and addiction.  Support the show Instagram: @whentheypoppedpod TikTok: @whentheypoppedpod Email: whent...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey celebrate 30 years of millennial bops with their own top ten list of 1996 hits. If you screamed the lyrics to Ironic, Lovefool, No Diggity, Wonderwall, this episode is for you. Support the show Instagram: @whentheypoppedpod TikTok: @whentheypoppedpod Email: whentheypoppedy2k@gmail.com Website: linktree.com/whentheypopped Subscribe to...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey discuss the final two episodes of Boy Band Confidential: A Hollywood Demons Event documentary covering untold stories from Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, 98 Degrees, O-Town and more iconic boy bands of the 90s and 2000s. Plus, Mary gives a rundown of a recent Pop2000s show featuring O-Town, LFO, Ryan Cabrera and Chris Kirkpatrick.  Support...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey are joined by singer-songwriter and y2k pop culture enthusiast Matt Bloyd to revisit TRL’s all-time top 10 countdown. They talk Britney, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Christina Aguilera, Blink-182, Outkast, Beyonce, and so much more. Matt also shares a sneak peek of his upcoming EP “A Part of Me" which debuts May 8 and features a Bri...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey are joined by Soulidified - Shade, Malik, Bradley, and Landon - the four-part harmony boy band bringing nostalgia back to pop music. Formed on Netflix's Building the Band , where they could only hear each other's voices before meeting face-to-face, the guys share their journey from their viral "U Remind Me" perfor...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey are joined by reality television star Jason Wahler of The Hills and Laguna Beach. Jason shares what was going on behind the scenes of these iconic reality shows as he struggled publicly with addiction and mental health struggles, and how he found his way to recovery. Now, as an addiction and mental health advocate, Jason is dedicated...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, legendary choreographer Brian Friedman joins Mary & Kelsey to discuss creating some of the most iconic routines of the 2000s - from Britney Spears' "Slave 4 U" (yes, THAT performance with the snake) to "Toxic" and beyond. Brian shares stories about dancing alongside Britney,  Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul,...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey are joined by pop icon Willa Ford to discuss Amanda, Willa's highly anticipated return to the music scene (her first new album in 25 years!!). Willa shares behind-the-scenes stories from her 2001 breakout hit, I Wanna Be Bad, her hiatus from the music scene, and her journey to reclaiming a dream nearly destroyed - a powerful sto...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey catch up with musician Cheyenne Kimball, who rocketed onto the TRL charts at just 16 years old with her debut album The Day Has Come. Cheyenne opens up about growing up in the spotlight while her MTV reality show documented her every step, navigating teen fame, and evolving from pop-rock solo star to member of country group Gloriana....

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In a full-circle Y2K moment they truly manifested, Mary and Kelsey are joined by Marie, Sara, Dhani, and Amit of A*Teens for a candid and hilarious deep dive into life as global teen pop royalty. From selling millions of records as the world’s favorite ABBA-loving supergroup to creating their own original music and identities, A*Teens takes us behind the scenes of t...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey make their case for why 2026 is *not* the new 2016 - it's the new 2006! The hosts throw it back to their favorite pop culture moments of 2006 including the debuts of 30 Rock, Hannah Montana, chart-topping bops from Rihanna, Nelly Furtado, Shakira, and Panic! At The Disco. This episode will have you wishing you still had your Bla...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message!  In this episode, Mary and Kelsey welcome nostalgia creator Raissa, the creative powerhouse behind @nostalgiachick, to revisit pop culture highlights from 2004 including A Cinderella Story, the finales of Sex and the City and Friends, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 13 Going on 30, MySpace’s peak, and the debut of the Motorola Razr (you just had to be ther...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey go back to New Year’s Eve celebrations on the y2k era, discussing the history of the y2k bug hysteria, the history of Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve special, and MTV’s iconic New Year’s Eve countdowns. They also gab about their favorite live performances from O-Town, Jessica Simspon, 98 Degrees, BBMak, Hilary Duff, Christina Agu...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey look back at their favorite moments of 2025 - from their personal experiences seeing Backstreet Boys at Sphere in Vegas (4x times!!), to Hilary Duff and Ashlee Simspson’s much-anticipated comebacks plus their favorite moments and milestones thanks to their incredible listeners! Episode with Joseph Kahn ( Apple & Spotify )  Episod...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey discuss their Mount Rushmore of Christmas movies from th 90s and 2000s: The Muppet Christmas Carol, Elf, and The Holiday. They discuss behind-the-scenes stories - like which lines in Elf were improv and how Nancy Meyers convinced Jack Black to sign on to film (spoiler alert: it has everything to do with Kate Winslet) and more!  Past...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! EMERGENCY EPISODE! Mary and Kelsey spiral over the cryptic clues flooding the Backstreet Boys' social media. What do the Millennium references mean? Why the Homecoming: Live in Orlando throwbacks? What's with the countdown? And most importantly—why Düsseldorf, Germany?! Join us as we dissect each post, analyze every Easter egg, and theorize wildly about wh...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! Remember when we as a nation all collectively believed that Beanie Babies would fund high education and down payments on our future homes? In this episode, Mary and Kelsey go back to their Christmas wish lists of the 90s and 2000s and revisit the most-wanted toys. All of their picks included a hint of drama and they break it all down including how the Beanie Baby bu...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey rewind to 2003 for a nostalgic deep dive into Britney Spears’ In the Zone, the album that defined an era of frosted lip gloss, chrome eyeshadow, iconic hits and performances. In a track-by-[criminally underrated]-track listening party, this episode unpacks why In the Zone - with hits like Toxic, Me Against the Music, Everytime, Breat...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey sit down with Carmit Bachar, one of the powerhouses behind The Pussycat Dolls, to talk about her wild ride through pop culture history. From dancing beside Beyoncé and Michael Jackson to shaking up the world at Janet Jackson’s legendary Super Bowl halftime show, Carmit spills the tea on the choreography, chaos, and charm of the early...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! Before Waiting on the World to Change, Gravity, and Say, , there was Room for Squares - John Mayer’s smooth, suburban soundtrack to every early-2000s crush and quarter-life crisis. In this episode, Mary and Kelsey dive track by track into the album that made acoustic pop cool, unpacking its Y2K charm, lyrical angst, and why “No Such Thing” still hits as your go-to A...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message!  In this episode, Mary and Kelsey celebrate the anniversary of Backstreet Boys’ 2007 album Unbreakable. This track-by-track listening party celebrates one of the Boys’ most underrated eras: post–boy band frenzy, pre–Sphere/Millennium 2.0 TikTok dominance. From the soaring harmonies of “Inconsolable” to the criminally underrated pop banger “Something That I Already K...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! Bring It On. New York Minute. Freaks and Geeks. Motocrossed. True Detective. Not Another Teen Movie. 24. These are just a few iconic films and tv shows that Riley Smith has starred in. In this episode, Mary and Kelsey catch up with *the* Dean Talon himself to discuss Riley’s decades-long career, behind-the-scenes stories from these cultural heavyweights, and his cur...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey are joined by Rochelle McLean, the mastermind behind the Backstreet Boys Millennium 2.0 album. Rochelle talks about the genesis of this genius concept from back in 2014, to watching it take shape 10+ years later alongside BSB’s Sphere Vegas residency, and how the iconic pop group is finally getting their well-deserved flowers. They a...

Send Mary and Kelsey a Message! It’s football season, so WTP is holding a fantasy draft - a boy band draft, that is! In this episode, Mary and Kelsey are joined by the OG boyband influencer, Boyband Stacy, and Kelli Williams of Beyond the Blinds podcast and @laguna_biotch to draft their dream boy bands. The judge? Real life boy bander, Trevor Penick of O-Town! Plus, another boy bander makes a surp...