Episode 33: Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?

Details, credits, errata: First, a quick explanation—last week Sam had some unexpected childcare stuff and had to bail out on an episode that he and Alissa still plan to do. This week we’ll have two for you: This one, and, to sweeten the deal for potential subscribers, an unlocked episode from our archives, going up on Friday. Thanks for your patience and apologies for the schedule interruption.

This week we have a very fun treat for you in the form of award-winning documentarian Penny Lane, who joins us to discuss venerable cable TV trashfest The Real Housewives, which recently embarked on a new franchise in Salt Lake City. Penny is erudite and witty and we had a lot of fun with her; there’s a little more crosstalk than usual because of some mild internet lag but most of it was taken out in editing. If Sam seems interruptier than he normally does, that’s (hopefully) why. Sam said YPK when he meant YPG, the Kurdish militia group, in mentioning a good and very weird episode of controversial leftist podcast Chapo Trap House that might be a little hard to track down, so we’re linking it here.

Our header image is entitled Tetra Pak® - Lady with shopping net and Tetra Classic® packages, 1960s and is made available via Wikimedia Commons by the Tetra Pak corporation under a CC-BY-SA license and used herein with our thanks. I don’t usually do this but our title is borrowed from Richard Hamilton’s witty 1956 collage, one of Sam’s favorite pieces of pop art, which can be viewed here.

Our theme song is Louis Armstrong and His Hot 5’s Muskrat Ramble, made freely available by the Boston Public Library and audio engineering shop George Blood, LP through the Internet Archive. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City is copyright 2020 NBCUniversal. Brief audio excerpts are used herein for purposes of review and no other copyright is intended or implied. All other material is copyright 2021 Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yammpod.substack.com