Episode 185: “Eighth Grade” and Awkward Adolescence with NPR’s Linda Holmes

Episode notes

***Warning – this episode contains spoilers***

This week, Karen Tongson and Margaret Wappler chat it up with pop culture maven and Pop Rocket’s own podcast godmother Linda Holmes, the host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour. The ladies revisit that wonderfully awkward time of their lives of Clearasil and body self-consciousness also known as 8th Grade while doing an in-depth exploration of Bo Burnham’s debut film Eighth Grade. The movie centers around this socially awkward teen girl who tries really hard to fit it and be popular at school, but can’t quite get there. Karen, Margaret, and Linda harken back to the drama of that time in their own lives, and also flesh out whether one of the scenes in the movie should–or not–be labeled a #MeToo moment.

All Abouts

Margaret is all about journalist Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s latest article in the NYTimes Magazine about Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand company Goop and how it went from Paltrow’s Martha Stewart-like project to a 250 million dollar company. Linda is all about a new (and disappointing) study on inequality in film out of USC Annenberg that highlights the lack of progress in inclusion in film. Karen is all about Episode 7 of The Affair, specifically the scene that features “sapphic dabbling in a yurt” between Helen (Maura Tierney) and Sierra (Emily Browning).

With Karen Tongson, Margaret Wappler, and Linda Holmes.

That’s My Jam:

Linda- Kelly Clarkson – Since U Been Gone.

Margaret – Nine Inch Nails – Down In It.

Karen – Debbie Gibson- Only In My Dreams.

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Produced by Laura Swisher for MaximumFun.org. Edited by Shana Daloria.