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A 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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Ep. 61: #FreeBritney + Bling Empire w/ Jenny Yang
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Writer, 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 conservato…
Karen 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 199…
While 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…
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Ep. 59: Gifts that Keep on Giving from our Family to Yours
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It’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…
Karen 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…
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Ep. 57: Thank You, Thank You: Listener Dedications + An Amazing Race detour w/ Nicole J. Georges
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We 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, auth…
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Ep. 56: Crownin’ Around with Diana: The Crown S4
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Karen & 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 themselv…
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Ep. 55: Lipsync for Your Life: From Milli Vanilli to Sarah Cooper w/ Sarah Kessler
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Wynter 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…
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Ep. 54: Reunion for a Fair Fight w/ Guy Branum and Margaret Wappler
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This 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…
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Ep. 53: Written in the Stars w/ Amanda Yates Garcia, the Oracle of L.A.
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Wynter 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,…
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Ep. 52: Defend Your Sequel w/ Kill by Kill’s Patrick & Gena
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Wynter 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 …
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Ep. 51: A Mental Health Break w/ Dr. Megan Auster-Rosen
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Karen 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 realit…
Wynter 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 COVI…
Karen 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 ab…
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Ep. 48: Fast Times and the Rise of the All-Star Table Read
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Karen 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…
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Ep. 47: Remembering Chadwick Boseman with andré carrington
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Wynter 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 be…
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Ep. 46: Lovecraft Country with Dr. Jonathan P. Higgins
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We’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…
