don't ruin this for me!

meet your favorite new podcast and my bff elizabeth gomez

One topic I’ll never tire of is all the ways pop culture has ruined my life.

Honestly, I felt very isolated as a kid. I coped by consuming a lot of TV, movies, and books. Judy Blume. Sweet Valley High. TGIF. Nancy Drew. ET. John Hughes and The Cosby Show. Do you remember that episode of The Cosby Show where the entire Huxtable family lip syncs down the staircase for the grandparents’ anniversary?Literally this is what I wanted my future marriage / family to look like. Unironically. I never once thought, this is a TV show, this is not an achievable goal because this is not a real situation.

I was like, if I can see it, I can be it.

As an adult I realized that I took pop culture more seriously than other people, but it wasn’t until the start of the pandemic when we were all bored and existential that I thought about investigating what that meant. I thought to myself, I’m going to eBay a set of Sweet Valley High novels and read every single one (including the old-timey Wakefield sagas!!!)…