Waiting to X-hale
125 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 months ago - ★★★★★ - 222 ratingsA Gen X-themed show with podcast veterans Wynter Mitchell-Rohrbaugh and Karen Tongson (Pop Rocket). W2X revisits the pop culture & social issues that defined Generation X from a (queer) woman-of-color perspective in a way that sheds new light on the pop culture from both then, and now.
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Episodes
Ep. 70: Gamechangers: Film & TV Edition
June 21, 2021 16:13 - 1 hour - 56 MBWynter asks us all to think about the films and TV shows that changed the game, from those that captured the style and essence of their era (Clueless), to those that transformed the cultural conversation (Boyz N The Hood, and the early-80s trifecta of Victor/Victoria, Tootsie, and Yentl). Karen celebrates Pride month by getting into the FX docuseries, Pride alongside the series finale of Pose, while Wynter dishes about the cast shake-ups on RHOC. The two brace themselves as the state of Ca...
Ep. 69 - The One With the Friends Reunion
June 07, 2021 15:31 - 1 hour - 50.4 MBWynter 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 year, and preps for it by watching Army of the Dead and Hacks. Nuo lingo gets literary, cinemat...
Ep. 69: The One With the Friends Reunion
June 07, 2021 15:31 - 1 hour - 50.4 MBWynter 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 year, and preps for it by watching Army of the Dead and Hacks. Nuo lingo gets literary, cinemati...
Ep. 68: Girls 5 Eva, 3gether with Guy Branum
May 24, 2021 18:07 - 1 hour - 42.4 MBTheir 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 interesting. Wynter gets into the new CNN docuseries about The Story of Late Night, while peering ...
Ep. 67: Our AIM is True - Social Media Through the Ages
May 10, 2021 16:07 - 1 hour - 46 MBDust 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 Mitchells vs. The Machines, Sony Animation’s latest, featuring a queer lead. Plus, nuo-lingo and ...
Ep. 66 At the Movies (Again!)
April 26, 2021 17:22 - 1 hour - 52.7 MBWhat 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 new true crime doc set in Riverside, CA--Netflix’s Why Did You Kill Me?--sends both hosts spin...
Ep. 65 Better Be Good to TINA, with Nick Murphy
April 12, 2021 19:51 - 1 hour - 52.1 MBWynter 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, as she raves about the BBC series, The Serpent, a true crime drama about a French serial killer wh...
Ep. 64 It’s An Honor Just to Be Asian... #StopWhiteSupremacy
March 29, 2021 17:33 - 1 hour - 59.9 MBKaren 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 segment on The Real World: Homecoming and get into what’s the matter with Becky. Plus, WTF is an...
Ep. 63 - Coming Home to The Real World
March 15, 2021 10:00 - 1 hour - 50.6 MBWynter 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 exclusive interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Plus nuo-lingo, and songs of the week both o...
Ep. 62: The World of WandaVision
March 01, 2021 17:11 - 1 hour - 44.8 MBWynter 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 death, and right before our collective paniniversary. Plus, the two process HBO’s Allen vs. Farrow, ...
Ep. 61: #FreeBritney + Bling Empire w/ Jenny Yang
February 15, 2021 11:30 - 1 hour - 50.4 MBWriter, 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 the pandemic, and some Britney songs worth (re)listening to. Find all things Waiting to X-Hal...
Ep. 60: FOREVER 21
February 01, 2021 14:56 - 1 hour - 43.5 MBKaren 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 ever to NYC for Stonewall 25. It was the year that The Real World: San Francisco with Pedro Zamo...
Bonus Trailer: Dance Hubs
December 28, 2020 19:51 - 3 minutes - 2.56 MBWhile 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 the first series to premiere, and we put together a trailer to share on the feeds today. Da...
Ep. 59: Gifts that Keep on Giving from our Family to Yours
December 18, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 78.9 MBIt’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 as we face the long winter ahead of us.
Ep. 58: The Happiest Season...OR IS IT?!
December 04, 2020 12:00 - 57 minutes - 39.8 MBKaren 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 on Catherine O’Hara’s deep filmography, as well as for the folks at Merriam-Webster who announc...
Ep. 57: Thank You, Thank You: Listener Dedications + An Amazing Race detour w/ Nicole J. Georges
November 26, 2020 17:03 - 1 hour - 56.1 MBWe 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 Brought Me Home, and host of Sagittarian Matters, pops in the Zoom room to share her message of t...
Ep. 56: Crownin’ Around with Diana: The Crown S4
November 20, 2020 12:30 - 1 hour - 82.5 MBKaren & 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. Karen updates us on the pandemic-themed debuts of Grey’s Anatomy and This is Us, and Wynter reminds...
Ep. 55: Lipsync for Your Life: From Milli Vanilli to Sarah Cooper w/ Sarah Kessler
November 13, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 69.4 MBWynter 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 la Sarah Cooper’s Everything’s Fine. Wynter gets into the chart daddies of election coverage, John...
Ep. 54: Reunion for a Fair Fight w/ Guy Branum and Margaret Wappler
November 06, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 182 MBThis 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-long and special episode. Thanks again to everyone who donated! Find all things W2X at w2xpod...
Ep. 53: Written in the Stars w/ Amanda Yates Garcia, the Oracle of L.A.
October 30, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 79.6 MBWynter 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 moviefilm.” Karen also tells us about The Kingmaker, a 2019 doc on Imelda Marcos and her dictatorial f...
Ep. 52: Defend Your Sequel w/ Kill by Kill’s Patrick & Gena
October 23, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 70.3 MBWynter 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? Plus: Karen finally dives into the “Normcore cult” of NXIVM and HBO’s The Vow, Wynter tells u...
Ep. 51: A Mental Health Break w/ Dr. Megan Auster-Rosen
October 16, 2020 11:30 - 1 hour - 56.1 MBKaren 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 documentary, The Social Dilemma, while Karen brings us into the thick of two Twitter disputes, one invo...
Ep. 50: Debating SNL
October 09, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 55.8 MBWynter 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 is in a transatlantic mood and tells us all about Emily in Paris. Karen can’t help but get int...
Ep. 49: Getting Pen15
October 02, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 61.5 MBKaren 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 people practicing their signature bakes? Do contestants go directly home when they’re kicked of...
Ep. 48: Fast Times and the Rise of the All-Star Table Read
September 25, 2020 14:49 - 1 hour - 59.7 MBKaren 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 Bride reunion, and the recently announced all-black Friends table-read w/ Sterling K. Brown as R...
Ep. 47: Remembering Chadwick Boseman with andré carrington
September 18, 2020 11:30 - 1 hour - 66.8 MBWynter 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 the real-life legends Boseman portrayed on screen. Nuo-lingo covers a term that crossed over from a...
Ep. 46: Lovecraft Country with Dr. Jonathan P. Higgins
September 11, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 64.5 MBWe’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 sides in Brandy vs. Monica. Plus, a nuo-lingo term so old it’s new again, and several songs of th...
Ep. 45: Facing the Music with Bill & Ted
September 04, 2020 11:00 - 56 minutes - 51.5 MBKaren and Wynter explore what it means to be excellent to each other in a world as dire and apocalyptic as our own, as they get into the #girldad energy of Bill and Ted Face the Music (spoilers in the discussion!), and the entire Bill & Ted trilogy. Wynter tells us about a Brit comedy called I Hate Suzie that she happens to love. Karen is super bummed out and despairs out loud about the rise of fascism in the U.S., but finds a spot of joy in Niecy Nash’s announcement about her marriage to mu...
Ep. 44: The Go-Go’s with Kathy Valentine
August 28, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 63.7 MBA bonafide rock star turned author, Kathy Valentine (yes, THE Kathy Valentine from The Go-Go’s, and author of the new memoir All I Ever Wanted) joins Karen and Wynter to talk about ALL OF IT--from her time on the scene in Austin and Hollywood in the late-70s and early 80s, to The Go-Go’s imperial years, and her new life as an author. Wynter tells us about the Fast Times at Ridgemont High table reading that never was, and Karen alerts us to a new Sapphic period drama starring Kate Winslet a...
Ep. 43: What’s Cookin’ in the Pandemic w/ Katherine Spiers
August 21, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 71.4 MBOur dear friend and the smartest mouth in town, Katherine Spiers (Smart Mouth podcast, Table Cakes Productions) joins us to mull over some of the new food TV being cooked up during the pandemic, from Selena + Chef, to Amy Schumer Learns to Cook. We also get into the ins and outs of what’s happening more broadly in the food scene, from moldy jam-gate at SQIRL, to the perpetual Bon Appetit fallout. Plus, the Umbrella Academy, Michelle Obama and Rhode Island calamari at the DNC, and the etiquet...
Ep. 42: 90s Domestic Thrillers with Brandy Monk-Payton
August 14, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 69.1 MBMedia scholar & author Dr. Brandy Monk-Payton (Fordham University) joins Karen & Wynter to talk about the preponderance of domestic psychodramas like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and Sleeping with the Enemy in the early 1990s. Together they explore what they say about cardigan femininity, race, and the terror of misaligned hand towels. The three also process Megan and Cardi’s WAP, the Kamala Harris VP announcement, and Perry Mason on HBO (Max). Plus, Nuo-lingo and three SOTWs! Join our P...
Ep. 41: What’s Good is Bad & Bad is Good w/ June Diane Raphael
August 07, 2020 12:00 - 1 hour - 70.4 MBKaren and Wynter kick off a brand new season joined by June Diane Raphael, co-founder of the Jane Club, and star of Grace and Frankie, Long Shot and The High Note. June Diane drops in to BLOW OUR MINDS with her read on Clueless, a movie she used to think was good, but realizes might actually be bad. Meanwhile, Wynter’s crush on Dr. Fauci has led to crafting (?!?), and Karen is moved to tears by the WNBA starting their new season from “the bubble,” while wearing Breonna Taylor’s name on their...
Karen interviews Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls
July 17, 2020 16:15 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBIn this summer bonus episode, Karen shares her spring interview with Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls in preparation for her NPR article on the duo. Special thanks to NPR Music (especially Ann Powers and Marissa Lorusso), as well as the Indigo Girls and their team (especially Carla Parisi and Russell Carter) for making this all happen!
Karen interviews Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls
July 10, 2020 16:19 - 1 hour - 55.8 MBIn this summer bonus episode, Karen shares her spring interview with Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls in preparation for her NPR article on the duo. Special thanks to NPR Music (especially Ann Powers and Marissa Loruss o), as well as the Indigo Girls and their team (especially Carla Parisi and Russell Carter) for making this all happen! Stay tuned for KT's interview with Emily, coming up next.
Ep. 40: You Must Remember Polly Platt with Karina Longworth
June 26, 2020 15:38 - 1 hour - 59.2 MBWynter and Karen welcome guest Karina Longworth of You Must Remember This for their season 2 finale! Karina tells us all about Polly Platt, the subject of this season’s YMRT. Polly was an Oscar-nominated production designer, screenwriter, producer, and executive who put her stamp on some of the greatest and most loved films of the 1970s and 80s – including Paper Moon, Bad News Bears, Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, The Witches of Eastwick and more. We get into how sexism, and the auteu...
Ep. 39: Together Again to Talk Gen Z with Guy Branum & Margaret Wappler
June 19, 2020 15:15 - 1 hour - 102 MBWynter and Karen reunite with their former podmates Guy Branum and Margaret Wappler in this supersized episode fundraising for G.L.I.T.S and SummaEverything! The fierce foursome indulge in a deep catch-up about everything from the demise of the “girl boss,” to 90 Day Fiance and Top Chef All Stars (Margaret even cameos at a boozy brunch in one of the episodes), all while processing the pop culture in the last year that they’ve missed talking to each other about since they wrapped Pop Rocket i...
Ep. 38: Just Can’t [The] Help It
June 12, 2020 15:11 - 1 hour - 99.5 MBWynter returns this week, as we welcome special guests Renee Bever (artist, co-host of Attack of the Queerwolf), and Tavia Nyong’o (author, Professor of American Studies at Yale). The panel catches up about how they’ve been participating in the national uprisings, while reflecting on some of the media moments, both head-scratching, and inspiring over the last week, from the Dems draped in kente cloth, to “You About to Lose This Job,” the unofficial anthem of the movement. Wynter also digs d...
Ep. 37: American Uprising
June 08, 2020 15:56 - 1 hour - 82.5 MBWe stand with the Black Lives Matter movement in advocating for racial justice, and against police violence. Wynter and her family have also suffered a personal tragedy, so this episode is in somber observance of this, as well as our current national events. Queer scholars & activists, Homay King and Jeanne Vaccaro join Karen to offer reports and resources for social justice actions, including ways of contributing for those who cannot participate in street actions. They discuss the media cov...
Ep. 36: Butches for Billions with Raquel Gutierrez
May 29, 2020 16:22 - 1 hour - 76.5 MBWynter is off for the week, so one of Karen’s oldest BFF’s, the poet, writer and performer Raquel Gutierrez joins her from Tucson, AZ to talk about everything from making pizzas with coral mushrooms to Netflix’s Lovebirds. Raquel, aka “Raquefella” also reveals Karen’s AIM name from back in the day, while bringing us her thoughts on why we are so obsessed with pop culture about billionaires, a la Succession, Wolf of Wall Street, and of course Billions. Nuo-Lingo gives us a word befitting the ...
Talking Hollywood with Guy Branum
May 22, 2020 15:49 - 29 minutes - 33.7 MBGuy Branum joins us for an impromptu reunion to talk more about Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood on Netflix. Last week, guy texted Karen about the show, which we covered in our supersized Ep. 35. 6 hours later, we got together with Guy to dish even more on all the golden age of cinema hawniness! Want to see the video and get all the other BoCo? Join our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/waitingtoxhale
Ep. 35: Hollywood, Babylon
May 15, 2020 15:07 - 1 hour - 58.9 MBWynter and Karen are not alone! Special sexxy guests, Guinevere Turner and Alonso Duralde join them in the W2X Zoom Room for a deep hang, and some scandalous conversation about Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood, a new limited series rife with queer pool parties and other gratuitous forms of wish-fulfillment. Find out how Alonso and Guinevere are both being annoyingly productive during their quar, while you get not one, but two SOTWs. The full kiki was captured on video for our Patreon subscribers, plu...
Ep. 34: Never Have I Ever…avoided a controversial teen sitcom
May 08, 2020 15:10 - 59 minutes - 40.9 MBKaren & Wynter dive into the fray to discuss Mindy Kaling’s latest sitcom, Never Have I Ever on Netflix. They engage multiple perspectives on the show, from controversies around its caste bias, to its role in diversifying contemporary teen representation. This has also been a busy week for our two hosts. Which one is going in for a free drive-thru Covid-19 test? And who survived a harrowing trip to Tarzhay? Who got sucked into Netflix’s Hollywood? And who fell in love with Alice Wu’s The Hal...
Ep. 33: WTF, LFE? (On Little Fires Everywhere)
May 01, 2020 15:22 - 1 hour - 41.9 MBWynter & Karen talk through the twists and turns of the 90s-set racial melodrama, Little Fires Everywhere. Both continued to explore online extravaganzas this week, including Sondheim’s 90th Birthday Concert, and the Melrose Place cast reunion. Karen also accidentally watched, and enjoyed, the HBO original film Bad Education starring Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney. Wynter shares a Nuo-Lingo you should all stop doing, and they leave you with a cover of a 90s classic as the song of the week. ...
Ep. 32: Valley Girlz
April 24, 2020 16:08 - 58 minutes - 40.2 MBWith the 1983 classic, Valley Girls back on streaming services, Wynter and Karen revisit the film alongside other San Fernando Valley gems like Karate Kid, Earth Girls are Easy, La Bamba and of course, Boogie Nights. Wynter chimes in on Babyface vs. Teddy Riley, while Karen plunges into the catacombs with the Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary production that streamed for free on YouTube for 48 hours. Plus, Nuo-Lingo and a song fit for a fast dance at prom. Join our Patreon for early ac...
Ep. 31: Conspiracy Theories
April 17, 2020 15:01 - 1 hour - 47.3 MBKaren and Wynter greet you from the new nation of Cascadia, or OrCaWash, or whatever you prefer to call the western pact states. Wynter gives us the “state of Twitter” in these times, including her own viral tweet about Sarah Sanders. This week the two also get into all sorts of pop culture they’ve been consuming, from Karen’s first true “binge” of the quarantine (Netflix’s Unorthdox), to the new season of Killing Eve, Wynter’s obsession with 90 Day Fiancee, as well as her disappointment in ...
Ep. 30: Nochella: Music for the Cruelest Month
April 10, 2020 13:49 - 1 hour - 43.9 MBIt’s their third week of quarantine, so Karen is talking to Steak-umm on Twitter, and Wynter thinks Ellen sux. In lieu of music festival season launching this April, the two offer their own virtual W2X music festival for you this week. Sure there’s no Coachella and Stagecoach, but what really strikes at Karen’s heart is the postponement of PopCon 2020, the annual gathering of musicians, music writers, scholars, and fans at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, which she’d been organizing for the ...
Ep. 29: Wild Times with Tiger King
April 03, 2020 13:08 - 58 minutes - 40.2 MBW2X Movie Night - Tuesday, April 7 at 6pm PST Pacific - check our social media accounts for details! Wynter and Karen each enter week 3 of their respective quarantines, so their habits (pop cultural and otherwise) have taken some unpredictable turns. Find out what they’ve been watching, listening to and doing that indicates they’ve gone over the edge. Speaking of which, the culture at large has reached the “watching Tiger King” phase of our isolation. Find out why neither Wynter or Kare...
Ep. 28: Sheltering in Place with our 70s/80s/90s Faves
March 27, 2020 14:55 - 59 minutes - 41.1 MBKaren & Wynter are in week two of their quarantines in Echo Park & Encino, following “shelter in place” directives from Gov. Newsom in California. This prompted them to wonder which fictional characters from the 70s, 80s or 90s would they actually want to shelter in place with for various practical, and sometimes other reasons. They catch up on what their days have been like, to what entertainment has kept them afloat in these troubled times. Plus, a very of the moment Nuo-Lingo, and a song ...
Ep. 27: GenX Lives! Generational Divides in the Global Pandemic
March 20, 2020 14:22 - 58 minutes - 40.3 MBWynter and Karen record remotely from their separate quarantine pods in Encino and Echo Park and give you an update on what they’ve been doing during their respective quarantines. Spoiler alert: they sure as hell ain’t writing King Lear. Mostly they’re just wrangling their Boomer parents--and their own deep anxieties. Amidst all of it, GenX has also managed to wedge its way into the Covid-19 conversation on Twitter with several bold claims about our ultimate preparedness for a crisis of this...
Ep. 26: “What Movie Am I In?!?” Our Brave New World of Outbreaks and De-Extinction
March 13, 2020 13:49 - 50 minutes - 34.7 MBLike everyone else in the world, Wynter and Karen are preparing for a possible Coronavirus quarantine. What social distancing and stockpiling techniques have they been practicing to avoid “the ‘roni?” With the world as eerie and uncanny as it is in the age of late capitalism, both are feeling a little like they’re actually living in disaster films like Contagion, Outbreak, Cloverfield, Idiocracy and even...Jurassic Park (!) Plus, a longer than usual nuo-lingo chat about “Periodt” and when sl...