Pop Culture Yearbook

We caught you a delicious bass this week. And if you listen to this episode we'll send you a model sailboat. We're talking about Napoleon Dynamite! Join us as we try to understand the weirdness and relive all the classic lines.

In addition we have a fun draft to close things out as we pick the best movies about nerds. From The Geek in Sixteen Candles to The 40 Year Old Virgin, nerds have made a huge impact on our culture through the years. Listen to hear what we think qualifies and to hear if your favorite made...

20 years ago, Green Day had a resurgence that took the country by storm with the release of American Idiot. Not many bands have two absolute classic albums in their catalog, but ten years after Dookie, Billie Joe and the boys added another. In this episode we share our journey with the band as fans and our love for this album.

Spanning over thirty years, Green Day has an extensive and amazing catalog of songs. We draft our top five apiece to end this episode and somehow narrow it down to fifteen. Will your favorite song make the...

We are celebrating 20 years ago this month. Go back to 2004 with us as we reminisce on the good and the bad and draft our favorites.

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Everyone has their comfort TV shows. For us, Newhart fits the description of comfort TV perfectly. Bob Newhart made audiences laugh in the 70s and the 80s and at our age we grew up watching the 80s Newhart with our families. We cover the pilot and finale in this episode.

Maybe best known for that finale (specifically the final scene), Newhart always makes the list of best series finishes. So in honor of that distinction, we draft the best series finales we've seen. Does M*A*S*H make it as the most-watched episode ever? What about...

Well, isn't that special? We've got an episode on Saturday Night Live for you. 1990 was a great year for the show and we cover episodes hosted by Tom Hanks, Fred Savage, Alec Baldwin, and Patrick Swayze. Sketches include Wayne's World, Church Chat, Five-Timers Club, White Trash Bed and Breakfast, Mousetrap Seminar, Chippendales, and more!

We've also got a hotly contested draft: Best SNL cast members.  Who makes the cut? Listen and find out. Party on!

If you enjoy the show, please rate and review us on the iTunes/Apple Podcasts app or wherever you listen. O...

What would you do if our show was out of tune? Would you stand up and turn us off? We're talking about The Wonder Years this week, a show that was extremely important to us. We were the exact same age and at the same point in life as the main characters, Kevin, Winnie, and Paul. It was our original water cooler show in middle school, especially as we discussed the relationship between Fred Savage's Kevin and Danica McKellar's Winnie. But how does it hold up and how do we view it now as adults?

Our drafts...

1990 was a seminal year for your hosts at PCY. The memories run deep. Go back in time as we discuss moving, the transition from middle to high school, and carefree summers.

As far as pop culture content, the options felt endless. In TV, Seinfeld began, Cheers was riding high, ABC sitcoms were hanging in there, and Saturday Night Live had maybe its best cast ever.

In music, we were transitioning from cassettes to CDs, still loving pop, but also finding more "mature" styles. MC Hammer and C+C Music Factory were huge, but we also...

It's time to wrap up Milestone Month, and we have a doozy of a movie for the occasion. Dave is still with us, and this film had a big impact on him and Brad. The movie is the 1996 thriller Fear starring a young Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon. Cringy, campy, and a little crazy, this movie was a wild time ripe for discussion.

We close things out with another draft. This time anything the cast members have been in is up the picking. So it is heavy on Wahlberg and Witherspoon, but don't forget about Alyssa Milano...

Giff’s choice, Road House, is our topic for part 3 of 1989. Coming in just before the decade ended, this was one of the most ‘80’s of all ‘80’s movies. Learn about great kill scenes, professional coolers, and monster trucks for everyday use. Road House is ludicrous and it never slows down.  It is a time capsule of ‘80’s excess and toxic masculinity. And we break it all down for you. 

We finish with our favorite movies of the year. Like the music choices, we couldn’t stick to five. 1989 was a monster year for movies, especially for impressionable you...

We got a live one here! Our second installment of 1989 focuses on one of the biggest movies of the ‘80’s: Batman. This movie and the anticipation for it took the nation by storm and captured the imagination of young Brad. The hosts remember when they first saw Batman and talk about how it holds up today in a sea of new superhero movie options. 

A movie this big deserves a big soundtrack too. Not many artists in the ‘80’s were bigger than Prince, and since we’re from Minnesota we are contractually obligated to discuss him whenever it’s releva...