Stuck in Stoneybrook: A Baby-Sitters Club Podcast

Dawn's back in California, surfing, and SOLVING A MURDER?!? (We can only hope that this series has taken a Law & Order turn.) Thrash's board shows up and he's gone! What are they gonna do? Emily talks about surfers' political work in the eighties and nineties, Esme talks about separation anxiety and sports psychology, and Anne schools us on JAMS! Surf's up, tune in!

Did you guys know that Stacey is really gorgeous and has an amazing physique? Well, she does. So both RJ Blaser and Robert Brewster are falling all over themselves for her and she decides to try out for the cheerleading team (and thus, for membership in “The Group”). Esme talks about middle school cliques and their influence and Anne and Emily bring us all kinds of nuggets and analysis about cheerleaders. Rah rah *SIS* boom bah! Get it!?!?

Mal is felled by mono! No kissing for this girl, just disease and a forced break from the BSC. We discuss the increased risk of depression with mono, settler colonialism, and the Quiz Show scandal from the 1950s. Who doesn't love Snoopy? Also, this is book SIXTY-NINE. Just sayin'.

Claudia is truly living her best life in this one! Meet a famous artist she adores? Check. Attend a fancy museum party in one of Mimi's kimonos? Check. Catch a thief in the process of an actual museum heist? Check! It's a fun romp as the New Museum of Stoneybrook takes the town by storm and our girls (led by Claud of course!) catch the culprit! We spend way too long talking about which baby-sitter is which animal, Anne for some reason knows that koalas get chlamydia (or is it syphilis?) and no one wants to take any Pikes to the mall. Join us!

Jessi invites Wendy to replace Dawn and she… acts 11? But also just doesn't want to work so hard. Same girl. Anne tells us about another white man who stole some stuff while Emily explains taxation to us (again!). Also, can Anne name 100 candies?

Dawn is homesick and it's Not. Going. Away. Spoiler: she's leaving for six months. How will the BSC survive? Also, can Stoneybrook beat Lawrenceville in the Run For Your Money? Join us to find out! Emily talks about families again, Esme talks about ambivalence, and Anne FINALLY GETS TO TALK ABOUT TOFU. Another white guys is messing with a culture's food, you guys. ZzzzGrrrZzzz.

Stacey and Charlotte catch a counterfeiter! This is one of the few books Emily remembers from her salad days, leading us to wonder why she did not become a counterfeiter. We go over some familiar BSC content in this one— moving, incompetence of police, the carceral state, you get it. Also, lots of candy and a cute boy! Thank goodness floppy hair is finally returning to culture.

LOW-KEY ALERT! This episode includes a spoiler about “The Good Place!” OK, where we were? Ah, yes. Mary Anne gets deep into sewing and needlework and starts a sewing club for kids. It's hard to believe she has time for this given how much work she's doing for poor Mrs. Towne. It almost seems like Moral OCD to Esme, so we talk about that! Emily talks about sissies for a bit and Anne has a bunch of nuggets, including renaming “California Girls.” Also, a BSC Big 5!

Wow, Logan is… in trouble with a gang of 1950s toughs? In 1993, in Stoneybrook? Follow along as we watch him be an accessory to many crimes. Emily covers typologies of masculinity while Esme tries to learn what we know about shoplifting (in an academic sense). Anne just wants this whole book to be a musical (honestly, it should be). At any rate, we all need nicknames now. Like the Badd Boyz.

It's back to Sea City! For the whole BSC! But… not until 122 pages in. Also, there's a Hurricane. We discuss preparing kids for disaster, whether or not Logan is actually… evolving? And why Ann M. Martin keeps referencing the same 6 texts. Also, the climax of the book comes on page 3: what is superior, Heath or Skor? Listen to find out!!

It's been three years since we took an idle conversational joke and turned it into a podcast! Join us a we play some games (and successfully stump each other), reflect on what the BSC and the podcast have meant to us, and finally answer whether Ted Lasso is really a Kristy or not. Thank you, listeners! We love you!!!

GONE FISHIN'. (Well, not really FISHING, but you know what we mean.)

Kristy goes from mansion to mansion as the Krashers get stranded in a big storm that washes out BOTH THE BRIDGES to the old Sawyer place. We discuss whether the daring Dorothy Sawyer really may have had other options, play some get to know you games to make our team stronger, and sing the praises of Charlie's big brotherness. Two pizzas isn't enough, y'all.

Stacey falls in LUV with one Mr. Wesley Ellenburg, the Tom Cruisiest student teacher to ever grace SMS. Charlotte crushes on Bruce Cominsky and then gives him the brushoff but also? There's a baby goat. And in case you're unclear, she is CUTE. Esme discusses the psych literature on crushes (and says “fondle” too many times for anyone's liking) and Anne and Emily have a surfeit of delicious pop culture and feminist nuggets (but none as delicious as “all-natural crispy rancho-style veggie rice nuggets with nacho substitute cheese-food flavor”).

We are on the road with the Spier-Schafers! Sharon and Richard are not equipped and Esme tells us why. Emily wonders what this book (with clear Boston Tourism spon con) would be like if it was written now with, um, ANY acknowledgement of non-white people. And Anne had a whole pack of nuggets! It's a 20 piece! Listen in and say a prayer for Marshall Gaines, family photographer.

Is this book is about crime? It is not. It's about NYC glamour! It's about dancing! It's about the Palm Court and Zabar's! Emily and Anne have lots of nuggets, and Esme makes them take a Dating Questionnaire for their eleven year old selves. Also, are any actors good? Emily is suspicious. Tune in and find out!

Emily's mom (and Esme's sister) is in town just in time for the publication of this banger by the mysterious Margot Becker R. We discuss Dayna's boomer childhood compared to Ann's boomer childhood, plus what we think was left out of the story when Scholastic pushed this to market in 1993 (and why Dayna's current students that love the BSC wouldn't love this book). Hard work gets you everywhere, people! Plus lots of nuggets including the original Pikes (and Emily MISSED IT).

Have we mentioned lately that we think Claudia has ADHD? In this book we learn that she doesn't have dyslexia, but Shea Rodowsky does. Of course, this is an opportunity for Esme to talk about validation and dialectics, Emily to talk about fictional and proposed “fashion czars/tsars,” and Anne to have a nugget fest, from Whoopee cushions to Jordan Catalano! Join us, won't you?