Waiting to X-hale

I've been dreaming of this very journey for a few years. I turned 40 during COVID and was hit with speed bump after speed bump. Situations I have never anticipated experiencing and in some cases it will be my first time sharing it with you.    Once you've lived through a pandemic as I have, you see things differently, your appreciation for life hits differently and your tolerance for BS plummets… I want to navigate those twists and turns with you and stray off the beaten path just for the thrill of it. Through the chaos, expect a touch of wit and snark, the kind that's earned from years of figuring it out.     Just for W2X listeners I'm offering an opportunity for you to get the full breadth of my journey forward. Learn more at tangentisland.com how you can get exclusive access to my companion show, Tangent Island: Staying Afloat and video episodes of the main show.     Tangent Island drops every Monday and launches officially in January 2024.   In the meantime follow the show feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, me on Instagram @wynter and the show @tangentisland   

It's the final episode, and there are tears shed, and personal revelations made as Karen and Wynter contemplate their favorite “second acts” in popular culture. Amidst it all, Wynter also discusses her new project dropping in January, and Karen shares a couple of lines from her new book Normporn. Plus, a glimpse at Apple TV+'s The Supermodel, and Todd Haynes' latest, May/December. What's the last NUO-LINGO ever? And what did each of our hosts choose as their final songs? We're going to miss all of you, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support.

In our penultimate episode, Wynter and Karen prepare for the end by reflecting on their favorite series finales including Mad Men, Six Feet Under, The Good Place and The Americans among others. Before they do, Karen insists on one more discussion about a pop culture controversy: Julianna Marguilles' condescending comments told from her perspective “as someone who plays a lesbian journalist” on TV. Our team LOVES Squid Game: The Challenge, which is their new problematic fave. Plus, NUO-LINGO is unlocked for the last 2 episodes and butch/femme songs of the week.

This week we present our second "best of" episode featuring a collection of the lovely guests we've had over the years. You'll hear Guy Branham & Margaret Wappler make their first appearance since the end of Pop Rocket (3:28), Kathy Valentine talk about the L.A. punk scene and feminism (15:27), Kevin Smith talk about working with his daughter (24:37), June Diane Raphael give her take on Clueless (34:09), Bob Odenkirk talk about Mr. Show and using comedy to expose homophobia (49:21), Renee Bever and Tavia Nyong'o talk about blackness in horror cinema (55:48) and Sandra Bernhard gives her thoughts about fighting on the internet.    To get early access to releases and bonus content weekly, please subscribe to our patreon at patreon.com/waitingtoxhale  

We present our first "best of" episode featuring clips or topics that were ahead of the curve. From the prediction of the Cocaine Bear movie, the ahead of her time Queen Latifah and Wynter's discovery of TUBI to darker predictions of COVID conspiracy theories and political unrest, we look back on what we got right.   Episodes featured:   Ep. 6: What the Wild Things Teach Us: Cocaine Bear vs. Meth Gator Ep. 10: On Becoming Kirstin Dunst: 1990s KD vs. 2000s KD Ep. 13: All Hail the Queen (Latifah, not that other lady): Cleo vs. Khadijah Ep. 22: Hostless with the Mostest - Oscars 2020 Ep. 26: “What Movie Am I In?!?”  Our Brave New World of Outbreaks and De-Extinction Ep. 31: Conspiracy Theories Ep. 53:  Written in the Stars w/ Amanda Yates Garcia, the Oracle of L.A.   To get early access to releases and bonus content weekly, please subscribe to our patreon at patreon.com/waitingtoxhale

Wynter flies solo again as she discusses her favorite natural disaster movies as Hurricane Hilary is set to bring the rain to SoCal. She shares her thoughts on guilty pleasures she's indulging like Baywatch Nights and getting rid of cable. and what she thinks is the unlikely song of the summer which is a throwback to the eurodance era of the 90s.   To get early access to releases and bonus content weekly, please subscribe to our patreon at patreon.com/waitingtoxhale

Wynter flies solo as she discusses Gen X grief in the wake of Sinead O'Connor and Paul “Pee Wee Herman” Reuben's deaths. She shares her thoughts Greta Gerwig's Barbie success,  the Lizzo controversy, and recommends a British show that depicts Hollywood post-#MeToo. Plus her dedication to a popular Seattle radio station that's been turning out her favorite greatest hits all week.   To get early access to releases and bonus content please subscribe to our patreon at patreon.com/waitingtoxhale

It's the hottest summer on record, so Karen and Wynter take it upon themselves to discuss the pop culture that's bringing all the heat,  from Barbenheimer opening weekend, to Mission Impossible and the FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Before all that, Wynter rants about the erosion of travel etiquette, while Karen prepares for her return to Oz with a look at Deadloch, a lesbionic Aussie murder mystery that its writers originally called “Funny Broadchurch.” Plus, songs of the week from (you guessed it), Australia, and Japan.   To get early access to releases and bonus content weekly, please subscribe to our patreon at patreon.com/waitingtoxhale

Wynter and KT have so much to chew on this week, including the scramble for social media life-rafts after Twitter. Wynter tells us all about the new Meta platform, Threads, while KT documents her various false starts and efforts at making a go of it on Bluesky. The two dish deep on the 2nd season of Hulu's The Bear, and ask the question, “Fishes” or “Forks?,” all while heaping praise on Ayo Edibiri's contributions to heartwarming BLERD representation.They also share their feelings about season two of And Just Like That…. Plus two songs of the week from Le Tigre and Otoboke Beaver.   To get early access to releases and bonus content please subscribe to our patreon at patreon.com/waitingtoxhale

Wynter is back and we have an episode filled with SPOILER ALERTS for both the season finale of Dave and all of Black Mirror, season 6. Which of Streamberry's eps do we love, or…not so much? KT has an action alert for the LGBTQ+ community, as the GenX 1990s activist organization Queer Nation revs back up in Los Angeles to fight the ‘phobes. Plus, Japanese yacht rock and our undisputed song of the summer.   To get early access to releases and bonus content subscribe to our patreon at: patreon.com/waitingtoxhale

Karen assembles an expert panel of queers to dish about this summer's reality phenom, Ultimatum: Queer Love (Netflix). Authors, curators, and queers about town, Greta La Fleur (@GretaLaFleur), Juana María Rodriguez (@RadioRodriguez), Poulomi Saha (@poulomiqsaha) and Jeanne Vaccaro (@whateverjeanne on instagram only) join KT with a rundown of all the things they find delightful and cringey about TV's latest bid for sapphic representation. Who ends up on top in our cast-member power rankings? Who are the most "therapized" and most chaotic of the Queer Love crew? Do we think Xander and Yoly will end up together? And what about the racial and sexual politics that surface in these couplings? Plus, a spirited (and honest) round of "Marry, F*ck, Kill" in this bonus ep--W2X's pride gift to you!

Karen is joined this week by Scott Poulson-Bryant (a co-founding editor of Vibe magazine, author and professor at the University of Michigan), and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, the author of The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to The Hunger Games. Ebony is a Detroit native who is also a professor at the University of Michigan. The trio get together for some wide-ranging cawffee tawk about pop culture habits across the spectrum of GenX (Scott was born in ‘66, KT in ‘73, and Ebony in ‘77). We start with love for the dearly departed Tina Turner, and focus on the year 1984, with detours into the 1970s, as well as our opinions on who wins the zaddystakes between Pacino and DeNiro. Plus, we get into our childhood love of libraries long before the internet, and fantasy realms like The Neverending Story and Dark Crystal. Karen forces everyone to talk about The Ultimatum: Queer Love, while revealing more about her internet induction into gaylorism. Songs of the week range from Tina, to pianos in the dark, to reimaginings of Alicia Keys through the lens of Bridgerton.   To get early access to releases and bonus content subscribe to our patreon at: patreon.com/waitingtoxhale  

Fashion connoisseur and media scholar A.E. Stevenson joins KT this week to get into all things Met Gala, from the controversies around the Lagerfeld theme, to the tiniest details about some of the looks that ATE. Before all that, the two express their support for the WGA strike and explain some of the stakes for the uninitiated. Plus, songs by Kelele and Phoenix. To get access to early releases and bonus content subscribe to our patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/waitingtoxhale. 

Karen and guest-host Andrew Ti take their "Asian conversation meant to be had indoors" outdoors to the soccer pitch. The two share their love of ACFC player Jun Endo, while also discussing a controversy surrounding her hairstyle at the beginning of the season. Plus, "Brown-Eyed Biffs," latchkey kids, and the origins of the NUO LINGO phrase, "touch grass." It's our last FREE BoCo ep--the rest will be Patreon exclusive--so listen up, then subscribe at https://www.patreon.com/waitingtoxhale. 

Karen welcomes guest-host Andrew Ti (creator and co-host of Yo, is This Racist?) to discuss a recent Politico article that describes Gen X as “the Trumpiest generation.” Before getting into all that, the two discuss their mutual love of the Angel City Football Club, aka ACFC, L.A.'s National Women's Soccer League team. Feel free to edit this part of the description or /cut it  if this gets moved to BoCo: Andrew also reports back after treating himself to matinees of the Dungeons and Dragons and Mario Bros. movies, while Karen is in the middle of another prestige TV rewatch with The Americans. Plus, two songs of the week featuring collaborations by women artists: Chong The Nomad - Take Two and BOYGENIUS - True Blue. Please follow and review the show wherever you listen to podcasts. You can support the podcast on Patreon.

Outtakes from episode 102 on Andy Cohen and International TV; a nuo-lingo on online displays of relationships.   Please follow and review the show wherever you listen to podcasts. You can support the podcast on Patreon.

Our dear Guy Branum sits in for Wynter, as he and Karen have a wide-ranging conversation about everything from #Gaylor discourse and why KT is a “Swiftie at Fifty,” to his long Talmudic catch-up with the Real Housewives franchise, specifically Beverly Hills. The two also explore the impact of international TV, including shows like Physical 100 (S. Korea) and the Filipino comedy, The Enlightened before discussing what it means for the Top Chef franchise to do a “World All Stars” season. Plus the songs of the week,  Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus and Y'a du Soleil by Christoph Maé. Please follow and review the show wherever you listen to podcasts. You can support the podcast on Patreon.

Wynter and Karen are back with season 6 to ask each other, “what did I miss?” as they cover some of the notable pop culture moments that went down during their holiday hiatus.   Before they get into Spare, The Last of Us and M3GAN, the two debrief about the 2023 Oscars, as Wynter goes against the tide of criticism around The Whale, while Karen considers the significance of Everything, Everywhere All At Once's sweep of the top prizes.   The two also catch up about their recent travels (KT went to Sydney for World Pride, and Wynter went to the backwoods of Washington as well as Philly with Wanda Sykes). Plus, us a nuo-lingo to ICK about and songs of the week!

It's our 100th episode and season 5 finale!!! To help celebrate the occasion, the one and only BOB ODENKIRK was kind enough to join us for a chat about Mr. Show, comedy in the 90s, and the great Janeane Garofalo. Karen is cautiously optimistic about the new season of White Lotus, while she and Wynter process the ramifications of El-n M-sk's purchase of Twitter. Plus, a few other 100th episode surprises, to go with nuo-lingo and our songs of the week.

Head over to w2xpodcast.com and click the blue button on the right side to leave us a voicemail! 

Wynter & Karen dive into the new Shudder documentary series, Queer for Fear: The History for Queer Horror, and are inspired to make some of their own queer horror recommendations for the spooky season.   Wynter considers which streaming services she needs to drop, while Karen claps back at the WaPo piece claiming GenX's shift to the right by considering how “Generation Jones” skews those purported numbers.   Plus, Negroni Sbagliato (with prosecco in it), and two new songs of the week.

Wynter assigns Karen a range of true crime offerings with varying degrees of budget and prestige, from Lifetime's The Gaby Petito Story, to Netflix's limited series, Dahmer and the cinematic offering, Blonde. The two discuss when true crime is too much in both quantity and affect. KT's viewing habits have veered to deep straight dude sportiness, while Wynter walks us through some major GenX anniversaries for 90210 and Janet's The Velvet Rope, plus Hocus Pocus 2 on Disney+. Nuo-lingo has a long reality story attached to it, and our songs of the week are bonafide jams.

The end of the Elizabethan-era (part II) prompted us to reflect on how British pop culture has dominated GenX's imaginaries, from new wave and the new romantics, to Fawlty Towers and Monty Python, to iconoclasts like Bowie and the Sex Pistols up to and including contemporary favorites the Great British Bake Off and The Crown, to the British royal family itself as pop culture. Plus, it's a very Hulu week for us with Welcome to Wrexham and Reboot. We drop a nuo-lingo for new relationships and two songs from beloved icons from the 80s and now.

Karen and Wynter are back together again, just in time to drop their Emmy predictions for all the Comedy and Drama acting categories. They tell you who they want to win, as well as who they think will actually win, so listen-up before you fill out your ballots for the awards broadcast on Monday, September 12!  Fresh from her vacay, KT talks about the “couple” shows she and Sarah watch together, like Industry on HBO. Wynter is stoked about the impending return of the Great British Bake Off and tells us about all the nuo-lingo that has officially been incorporated into Merriam-Webster. Plus, two sweet sweet songs of the week for coastal grandmas, grandpas and/or thembas.    Canceling Cable - SNL 370 New Words and Definitions Added to Merriam-Webster

Wynter is in the driver's seat one more time and wants to know if you're watching She-Hulk. It's a refreshing glass of characters and story that you don't even need to have watched all 432 Marvel movies to enjoy.  Ryan Bailey (So Bad it's Good Podcast) stops by for the main segment to talk about all things snark and why we love to hate on the internet.  PLUS: nuo-lingo to help you sift through bad vibes and a SOTW from a Gen X icon's kid! 

While Karen is on vacation, Wynter brought in special guest host Abby Gardner (We Have Notes Podcast/Substack) to talk about ALL THE THINGS: Biopics, Harry Styles, mixtapes, movies, Kate Bush, old Hollywood, new Hollywood, Joan Crawford, Florence Pugh...seriously, it's a dense pop culture discussion from top to bottom.  Grab a snack and settle in! 

Karen and Wynter have been seduced by Irma Vep, Olivier Assayas' “serialized” HBO Max revisitation of his own 1996 indie film of the same name starring screen goddess Maggie Cheung (his ex-wife). The two get into all the series' meta-narratives,, including Alicia Vikander as a modified K-Stew. Light SPOILERS. Karen is obsessed with #PREATH's (Christen Press and Tobin Heath's) sizzle on the ESPYs red carpet, while Wynter loves up on Nathan Fielder in The Rehearsal. (Where's our HBO Max sponsorship already?!) Are we or are we not “BASED”? Plus two songs of the week from the 80s, and info about KT's new food-related BoCo on our Patreon. 

Wynter has returned from her European vacation to tell us about her encounter with Aline–not to be confused with Celine, who the main character of this French-Canadian film very closely resembles. Karen tells us about Chris Belcher hot new memoir Pretty Baby (Simon & Schuster), chronicling her life as a queer teen rebel who escapes small-town Appalachia to become  a renowned Lesbian Dominatrix in L.A.  The two also offer their rundown of TV series that have taken a long hiatus (Stranger Things, Atlanta, Barry, Umbrella Academy, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) only to return after several years, assessing whether or not they were worth the wait.  Plus, nuo-lingo and songs of the week with totally different vibes.

This week Karen is joined by author, curator, and former kitchen-geek Jennifer Doyle, as well as Chef Courtney Storer to talk about the buzzy and bingeable FX series The Bear.  As the culinary producer on the show, Chef Coco gives us the inside scoop on how the actors recreated the tense, fast-paced atmosphere of professional kitchens, while revealing what happens to all the food they make on set.  KT and Jennifer talk about women's soccer and mutual aid, and share their profound love for L.A.'s NWSL team, the Angel City Football Club. (LAFC gets its props too). Plus, they get into Apple TV's Loot and Showtime's I Love That For You. Nuo-lingo explains what it means when someone is “a 10, but…” and we offer up two songs of the week with a dose of hope.

Wynter is out of the country, so Karen invited her longtime gaysian/theysian pals, Summer Kim Lee (a cultural critic and UCLA professor), and JJ Chan (an artist and designer based in Brooklyn) to talk about the highly anticipated gay(sian) rom-com, Hulu's Fire Island. The three talk about some of their own summer gaycations together and apart, while diving deep into the details of Fire Island down to its most resonant moments with Austen's Pride & Prejudice, to what JJ calls the “Cherry Grove aesthetic” of Margaret Cho's house, despite the film's setting in the Pines.    Plus: Karen takes her wife Sarah to Disneyland for her very first visit to the Magic Kingdom, JJ gosses about “eyebrow gate” on Gentleman Jack, and Summer FINALLY gets into Survivor after 42 seasons.    And, nuo-lingo from a real life millennial and three #thatgirl summer jams!

CW: discussions of violence, self-harm, domestic abuse, mass shooting–in other words, of our everyday lives in the U.S.A. Wynter and Karen welcome special guest Raquel Gutierrez, author of the new book Brown Neon (out June 7). The three revive a conversation they started over drinks during the Gen X festival about vengeance movies centering women, and fantasies of fighting back in a bleak timeline moving increasingly from the genre of horror to realism.  Karen talks about why she undertook a double-feature of the new Downton Abbey film with Alex Garland's latest, Men starring Jessie Buckley. Wynter anoints The Kids in the Hall honorary Gen X-ers, while telling us why she comfort-binged their latest revival three times.  Plus, nuo-lingo is back from retrolingo, and two VERY different songs of the week for your enjoyment. 

This is an edited version of the live show - Patreon members get the full unedited video! The Gen X festival's Humanities co-curators (Wynter & Karen!!!!) take the stage for a live podcast recording along with special guests Sandra Bernhard and Kevin Smith!   

Wynter and Karen reflect back on the music of 1992 and 2002, from Pitchfork favorites to the Billboard Hot 100. In addition to selecting their MVP songs and albums from each year, they each get into what they were wearing and gift an NFT idea to Ja Rule in the process.  Wynter continues delving into the saga of millennial overreachers by entering the world of WeCrashed, while Karen sobs to the epic, multigenerational saga that is Apple TV+'s  Pachinko, while revisiting the thrills and jiggles of the Lakers' showtime era of the 80s reimagined in Adam McKay's Winning Time.  Plus, nuo-lingo and songs of the week from 1992 and 2012 (in an extension of our episode's timeline).

This week Karina Longworth, the creator, producer and host of You Must Remember This joins us for a preview of the pod's  latest season on the “Erotic 80s.” Before the three regale you with tales of peering at their parents' Playboy magazines (and whatever played late at night on cable), Wynter and Karen tell us what's up this week by diving into the first Adrian Lyne offering in 20 years, Deep Water starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. Plus, The Gilded Age finale, Life After Beth, a nuo-lingo phrase about phones, a Selena classic, and a sexy queer song about “Pisces Eyes.”

Wynter and Karen look back on their favorite Oscars years and winners in recent, i.e. prime GenX decades, as we round the corner to the 94th Annual Academy Awards.  Before they take a 1985 and 1992-heavy trip down memory lane, the two get into the latest TV exegesis on millennial hustlers, The Dropout and Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber, before launching into an unexpected Guy Fieri lovefest, especially for his Food Network Tournament of Champions.  Plus, more retrolingo as nuo-lingo and two songs that will move your feet in some pretty different ways.

We're thrilled to welcome back Ann Powers of NPR Music, and author of Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music to talk to us about the future of music. We explore other critics' predictions about the future, including Ted Gioia's speculation that we may have more dead musicians performing for us in the form of holograms, deep fake vocals, and more. From A.I. K-Pop artists, to Kanye's STEM player, and what Karen calls “micro-dosing mega mixes,” all three peer into the future together, while also listening to our past.  Wynter tells us what's up on Love is Blind season 2, while Karen gives us the final word on her wife Sarah's viral tweet about “cat butter.” Plus, the two get into Netflix's Inventing Anna, which they each binged in a single sitting. Nuo-lingo explores the “vibe shift” and a resurrected SOTW accompanies a brand new one to close out the show. Kurt Cobain and Nirvana learning how much money they make per show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdb271UMb50&feature=youtu.be

Karen returns from her bout w/ the Omarion variant to catch up with Wynter about Super Bowl Sunday, including all the ads, and the “GenX has arrived” halftime show featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop, Mary J. Blige, Eminem and 50 Cent.  Their main segment focuses on how uncannily films and TV from the past have predicted elements of our present (or their future), from 1973's Soylent Green set in 2022, to Robocop, Her, Idiocracy, and many more, including detours into present day “pandemic” shows like Station Eleven and Y: The Last Man.  Nuo-lingo continues as retro-lingo with an education in denim cuts, and our songs of the week anticipate next week's episode about the future of music.

Hot on the heels of our last episode on Yellowjackets, Wynter and Karen are inspired to revisit the year 1996 and what it gave to us in fashion, fragrances, music, TV, movies and more. Before they get into all that, and what they were each up to at the time, they finally sit down for a much needed & extended processing session about And Just Like That… the SATC reboot on HBO which has made the non-binary character, Che Diaz (played by Sara Ramirez) into a cultural lightning rod. Is the show irredeemable? Or does ALJT teach us something else about GenX white women, privilege and a changing world? Plus more retrolingo as nuo-lingo (it's new to you!), and two songs of the week that spoke to us from 1996.

Wynter & Karen welcome you to Season 5 with a bushel full of SPOILER ALERTS for both Search Party and the topic of their main segment, everybody's latest obsession Yellowjackets (not that other “Yellow” TV show). Which Yellowjacket do each of them identify with vs. who they ended up with on their Buzzfeed quiz? In their eagerness to catch up at the start of the new year, Karen & Wynter get into a deep convo about the state of TV narratives as they've worked their way in, around or through Covid in its endemic phase. KT thinks Station Eleven is the most gorgeous show on TV, and Wynter tells us a little bit about why Search Party's surprising turn in season 5 makes perfect sense given the state of the world. Plus Nuo-lingo goes retrolingo, and two songs-of-the-week from the Yellowjackets soundtrack that are already making our year.

The whole gang gets frisky with a very special feline-themed holiday episode. Our favorite holigays Alonso Duralde and Dave White join Wynter and Karen to discuss Hallmark's The Nine Lives of Christmas (2014) and its brand new sequel, The Nine Kittens of Christmas (2021)--all in celebration of Alonso's new co-authored book, I'll Be Home for Christmas Movies: The Deck the Hallmark Podcast's Guide to Your Holiday TV Obsession.   Karen & Wynter also break down the latest Live in Front of a Studio Audience featuring a star-studded cast re-enacting classic episodes of The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes. Plus, nuo-lingo about holiday adjacent relationships, and songs from Kelly Clarkson's new Christmas special, as well as Peter Jackson's Beatles epic, Get Back.

Our hosts close out season four with a Halloween-themed episode that covers a spate of new horror-related releases from Halloween Kills to SyFy's Chucky series. Speaking of horror, Karen took her first cross-country flight since the pandemic started and has tales to tell, while Wynter takes another kind of Trip with a Swedish suspense film of the same name.  The two tease new GBBO related BoCo that will be available to Patreon subscribers during the season break, and our songs of the week bring you two different autumnal vibes. Find all things W2X at w2xpodcast.com

SPOILER ALERT: Details from the several episodes of Squid Game are discussed in the main segment.  Wynter and Karen join the rest of the world in obsessing over Squid Game, the S. Korean Netflix series about contestants playing children's games to try to win billions of won without getting eliminated...literally. The two also talk about this week's big reveal that W2X is curating the humanities program for the LA Phil's GenX festival in spring 2022. In the spirit of the moment, Karen re-watches the film Waiting to Exhale for the first time since 1995, while Wynter tells us what L.A. Plays Itself has to do with the angle the two are taking for the festival. Nuo-lingo tells us about a new turn to granny aesthetics and old money cosplay, plus two classic songs of the week. Find all things W2X at w2xpodcast.com

Who is the “mother SCOBY” of all Karens? Find out on this week's episode, which dives deep into Impeachment, the latest installment of Ryan Murphy's American Crime Story anthology. How does the series ratchet up its scenes of bureaucratic drama as Sarah Paulson and Beanie Feldstein disappear into the roles of Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky? How has the series already shifted our hosts' perspective on their original reactions to the scandal back in the 90s?  Wynter gets bourgie (aka boujee) and hires a private chef after her adventures in Portugal, and Karen introduces us to the Australian dramedy, The Unusual Suspects, featuring Filipina leads in a show that she describes as a cross between The Flight Attendant and Devious Maids, with a touch of Oceans 8. Plus, nuo-lingo and a new song of the week, followed by an indisputable classic. Find all things W2X at w2xpodcast.com

Inspired by Kathryn VanArendonk's Vulture article about white men in crisis on TV, Wynter and Karen explore the many layers of white male aggrievement in TV, pop culture, and real-life (fr. Rutherford Falls, to White Lotus and Ted Lasso w/ a special shoutout to the new movie Vacation Friends).  Wynter discusses the spoils she acquired in the Tom Girardi auction (Erica Jayne, on the RHOBH's ex-husband), as our hosts comb through the other items on offer for both deals and insights into the rich and hoardy. Karen offers a super-cut of her thoughts about Netflix's The Chair after her week-long junket on other outlets. Nuo-lingo serves up another nickname for a controversial “social justice” figure, and we close with two very fun SOTWs from CANADIANS! Find all things W2X at w2xpodcast.com

Film critics and husbands Dave White and Alonso Duralde of the Linoleum Knife Podcast are GUEST HOSTING W2X this week!  While Wynter and Karen are running around taking care of business (at a safe distance and masked, of course) Dave and Alonso have stepped in to discuss "geriatric" millennials, Xers, and whether these terms are even useful. And with the end of summer upon us, they share their Top 10 films, tv shows, and printed words of the last few months. We also get their take on NUO-LINGO and always, some choice SOTW selections for your playlists.    Find all things W2X at w2xpodcast.com

Karen and Wynter explore two high-profile and controversial documentaries about beloved figures Anthony Bourdain (Roadrunner), and Val Kilmer (Val). What do we get from conjuring their lost voices? And what do we miss in the process? Wynter performs our semi-annual Ryan Murphy check-in, and gets pumped up about ACS: Impeachment on the Lewinsky/Clinton scandal, while looking askance at this season of American Horror Story. Karen spends some quality time with the Peacock platform to tell us all about Dr. Death and Rutherford Falls. Nuo-lingo comes from an old familiar place, and songs of the week both new and old are available for your listening pleasure.   Find all things W2X at w2xpodcast.com

One of our generation's greatest pop music critics, Ann Powers (NPR Music), sits down with Karen and Wynter to process the new Woodstock 99 doc, and music festivals in general, while exploring the cultural conditions that stoked this calamity.  This week, both hosts are up to going deep on Mike White's latest HBO limited series, The White Lotus, and as promised, wrap up their take on the Fear Street trilogy by processing the 1666 edition. Plus, a homonymic nuo-lingo and songs of the week by powerful female artists working in *very* different styles. Find all things W2X at www.w2xpodcast.com

Wynter tells Karen to suck it up for a ride down R.L. Stine's Fear Street, especially with the release of the trilogy on Netflix and its deep GenX flex (from 1994 to 1978). SPOILERS ABOUND! Before we get to the scary parts, Karen insists we process this year's Emmy nominations. Which categories does she deem a veritable “Sophie's Choice”?  Meanwhile, Wynter makes some special requests of the team working on the new, Samantha-less SATC reboot. Plus, an update on all the nuo-lingo recently added to Dictionary.com, some of which our regular listeners already know, and a couple of 90s hits in keeping with our Fear Street moods. Find all things W2X at w2xpodcast.com

We go long this week to pore over all the shout horns, crotchy synth chords and late-80s affluence of what Mike Pace famously describes as Spago rock. Molly Lambert explains the Spago-adjacent music she and her brother have dubbed “Glass Bricks rock,” and the whole panel gets into what Wolfgang Puck and Spago as fantasy and reality meant to pop culture from the 1980s onward. Wynter and Karen kick off the show by processing the homosocial episode of Dave, and explain why Apple TV's Physical is more than a glossy journey through 1980s aerobics culture.  Nuo-lingo reminds us we're in a pandemic, and we leave you with a song in honor of the recently departed cultural critic, Lauren Berlant.  

Wynter asks us all to think about the films and TV shows that changed the game, from those that captured the style and essence of their era (Clueless), to those that transformed the cultural conversation (Boyz N The Hood, and the early-80s trifecta of Victor/Victoria, Tootsie, and Yentl). Karen celebrates Pride month by getting into the FX docuseries, Pride alongside the series finale of Pose, while Wynter dishes about the cast shake-ups on RHOC. The two brace themselves as the state of California lifts all Coronavirus restrictions, and coin their own nuo-lingo, #unvaxxinista in the process, even as they explain another one. Plus there is a super soft rock vibe to this week that foreshadows what's in store in the future. Find all things W2X at w2xpodcast.com

Wynter and Karen hit all the angles of the HBO Max Friends reunion, from the true MVPs of the cast, to Irish uncle Joey, to its efforts to compensate for the show's lack of diversity by highlighting its global legacy. The two get into a surprisingly deep conversation about tennis as Wynter tells everyone to leave Naomi Osaka in peace. Karen plots a return to Las Vegas to see Celine Dion early next year, and preps for it by watching Army of the Dead and Hacks. Nuo lingo gets literary, cinematic, and political, while our songs of the week are here to mellow you out. Find all things W2X at w2xpodcast.com