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Best and Worst: Pop Culture Witches · Pop Culture Junkie®

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♪ I'm a T-Me, I'm a T-Me right now ♪
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Hello, welcome to the Pop Culture Junkie Podcast.
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I am Shauna here with my bestie...
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Olivia.
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Hi.
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I'm pretty sorry to all of our listeners
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for the way that I sound.
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We tried to push this back twice
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because I sound like Lindsay Lohan after a Vegas club.
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And unfortunately, I was in Vegas.
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I was not in a club.
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I was just talking to accounts.
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And one of them gave me the plague.
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So that was a caring fund.
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Stop lying counts.
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Spit in your mouth, Olivia.
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Jesus Christ.
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I know.
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It's such a kind of mine.
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I can't help it.
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Trade show quote unquote.
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Yeah, that's what they call this.
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Spitting in my mouth show.
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We're trading viruses and saliva.
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We're trade showing.
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Our mutual friend was like, why does this keep happening to you?
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Every time you go to a trade show.
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And I'm like, I don't know because people are going to think sick.
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And you know, if there's something that this
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antivirus thing has popping up all the sudden
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that's taught me is that we really didn't learn from COVID at all.
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And nobody was like, oh, OK, I'm sick.
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Let me not go around thousands of people.
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Literally, if you are sick, stay home.
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And there's no shame in wearing a mask.
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I know a lot of like immunocompromised people still like mask up.
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But like in Japan.
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And I can't speak to other Asian countries.
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But definitely like in Japan, if you feel like you have a cold
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or something, but you have to go in public,
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they just throw a mask on.
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Like they've been doing every years.
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And I think that's brilliant.
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Like I don't want to spread my germs.
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And I don't want anyone else's germis in my mouth.
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Now, yeah.
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Well, I think you sound seductive.
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I like it.
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I know when I was younger, I don't know if this was like a 90s
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kid thing where like you wanted to have a raspy voice.
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Like what was her name?
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Her name was Brooke in the show.
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Oh, gosh.
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This is where the sick brain is coming in.
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You're going to remember like 20 minutes.
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Chad Michael Murray was on the show.
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One tree hill.
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Yeah, it was Brooke in one tree hill.
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Whatever the actress's name is.
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Oh, my God.
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Sophia Bush.
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She had a raspy voice.
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She had such a good like raspy voice.
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And then obviously Lindsay Lohan did too.
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And I was like, if I had that voice, everyone will want me.
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So I didn't know some way in guys voice.
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But I definitely had this running joke with Jessica
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about it was an SNL sketch.
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And I think it was Vanessa Biers or Bayer's.
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And she would go, it's Miley.
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And she do Miley voice.
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And then we would go, it's Lindsay.
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Oh no, it wasn't SNL.
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It was the soup.
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It was the soup like a running gag on there with Joel McKayle.
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Oh, my God.
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So we'd always get Lindsay.
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But I got cheesed in elementary school for my voice.
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I was told I sounded like a boy a lot.
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And now it is something that I get compliments on all the time.
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Oh, your voice is incredible.
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You should have a podcast.
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And I go, actually, I'm actually.
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It's showing.
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It's showing.
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But yeah, so I'm having tea.
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So hopefully the vocal fry isn't too inseparable for you.
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Oh no, it's good.
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I don't think it's like vocal fry.
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There's not like Kardashian fry.
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How are you doing?
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I'm good.
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I bought AFI ticket.
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I was going to say tickets, but I bought just myself a ticket.
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Just one ticket.
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Oh, no, a ticket ticket.
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But I figured it's in October.
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And I just got a pit ticket.
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Between now and then people will come.
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Come to Arizona on October.
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When is it October?
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October 20th.
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So we can do Halloween things too.
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We can go in our punk rock costumes to the AFI show.
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In our punk rock, I feel like we've told this story.
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But yeah, we have to resurrect that.
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We're just old people.
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We love your millennial desperate costume.
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Your desperate millennial costume.
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That's just what I look like.
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Things that's just how I dress.
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Yeah, what have you been up to?
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What have you been doing?
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I felt like I've been taking a lot of depression.
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I just stopped the depression part.
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Love the nap part.
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I didn't realize they were depression naps until I woke up after like a two hour long one
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the other day.
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And I was like, probably isn't good.
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And it's so tired.
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I'm so fucking tired.
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Stephanie said something about like I don't know spending money every time she leaves the house
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and I'm like, that's why I sleep all the time.
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You can't spend money if you don't leave the house.
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All you do is sleep.
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Same with calories.
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You can't consume calories.
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Yeah, you're asleep.
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You're also not burning them.
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So that's true.
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I don't know how I'm under the impression of dreams.
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Seth Meyers pops in every now and then.
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I get a little, it's my heart race going in my dream.
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I also feel like it's older Seth Meyers.
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Like I feel like younger Seth Meyers didn't necessarily do it for me older.
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Yeah.
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100%.
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100%.
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Yeah.
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I didn't know that this was like a hidden thing I had until I had the most sensual sex
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dream of my life.
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I had this sex dream.
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Oh my god.
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I didn't text you.
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I should have.
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Okay.
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It was a little bit of a problem.
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It was a little bit of a problem.
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So, dear listeners, it was incredible.
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The most gentle, attentive lover.
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And it was Sir Anthony Hopkins.
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Oh.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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Which version?
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Like a cannibal version?
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Yeah, I think.
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I mean, he always kind of looks old.
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He's like, he's got like, one version.
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Okay.
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Is there other versions of him?
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Okay.
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I know.
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I have to say.
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I think that's a unique experience, but I love it for you.
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Yeah.
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I mean, I don't like think he's like hot.
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Like, sometimes like people just pop up.
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My dreams would be like, want me to bang you out?
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And I'm like, sure, Anthony Hopkins.
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How bad could it be?
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And then it's wonderful.
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And then it's wonderful.
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Oh my god.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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We gotta unpack that.
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I do love it.
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It's incredible, but like not sexually.
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No, no, not sexually.
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I did actually.
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This is so funny.
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Maybe he was in my mind after that dream, but I recently rewatched Silence of the Lams
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Hannibal and Red Dragon.
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And the whole time I was trying, I was like, watch, he was like, is there any, any, nothing?
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It doesn't do it for me.
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Yeah.
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Nothing.
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You're like, you can't eat it in multiple ways, you know?
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No, he could not.
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In the novels, I guess, him and Clarice hook up though, which is strange.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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She like, that does well.
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And then he, and then they do it.
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Oh, okay.
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Tuck a turn.
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Tuck a turn.
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Turn.
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Tuck a turn.
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I see why they kept that out of the movies.
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Yeah.
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I don't really want to breastfeed him.
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That was my best, Tony Foster.
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Was that good?
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Do I really have to breastfeed him, I don't know?
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It's terrible, Tony Foster.
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It was, it was, it was the stupidest of all the complities though.
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I really don't want to breastfeed him.
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What do you mean?
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You sound like someone from South Park, but I can't, I sound like Jennifer Foster had a child.
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Oh, she's, you're going to have to breastfeed him.
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Oh, geez, these carnival, they're trying to kill us.
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Just big tree Jennifer Coolidge is Jodie Foster's part.
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As Clarice.
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Oh, hey, animal.
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Oh, good.
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Hey, do you want to know where to put you in that little cage?
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I'm dying.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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Okay, I have no good segue for the topic.
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Do I not know?
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We're talking about witches.
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We're talking about witches this week.
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Oh my god, my abs hurt.
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Okay.
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We are going to get a little witchy for this episode.
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We are breaking down the best and the worst witches in pop culture.
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Movies, television, etc.
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But remember, sometimes bad witches are the best witches.
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Okay, we are going to go through kind of a timeline of witches in pop culture.
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And when I first thought about this, I realized I think the first iteration of witches in pop
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culture was Macbeth, wasn't it?
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Like Shakespeare's stage production of Macbeth.
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Yeah.
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Double, double, toil and trouble.
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So I'm going to count them.
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Yeah, I mean, I guess, yeah, well, I guess there's probably been witches throughout like media
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or media, like books, pop culture.
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I mean, I think there are even witches in like Greek mythology, things like that.
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So it has truly been like a theme throughout time of people taking power outside of their
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own internal means is generally like how I think of a witch, right?
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Like someone who is grabbing external power from wherever it is or power outside of typical
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humans and harvesting that for good or evil.
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I think a lot of what we saw in older, like Greek mythology and things like that was like
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which is often where like a warning of too much power taken and things like that.
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So I think that witches have always been an interesting theme throughout culture and what they're
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trying to say.
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Yeah.
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And I definitely think that there's a lot to be said about like witches being seen as like
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a warning for that men made that women were gaining too much power, right?
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Like even the witch trials, like they didn't, they didn't put witches like to death in the
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witch trials, right?
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They put women to death.
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These women like were, you know, I saw goody proctor dancing with the devil if you were
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seen as anybody who was a strange woman or who was thinking for yourself or doing anything
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outside of the realm of quote unquote, what a normal woman would do than you were considered
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a witch.
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So there's definitely like a lot of crossover between like witches and feminism.
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I read this really great book years ago called Witches Sletz and Feminist.
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It was written by Kristen J. Soley.
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So yeah, which is Sletz and Feminist conjuring the sex positive and explored the intersection
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between reclaimed powerful archetypes highlighting how modern women are reclaiming historically
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misogynistic slurs such as she's a witch, right?
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And I liked this quote, which is have always been women who dared to be groovy, courageous,
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aggressive, intelligent, nonconformist, explorative, curious, independent, sexually liberated and
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revolutionary.
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So go on.
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Yeah, I also think we're going to kind of go into the portrayal of witches in film throughout
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the years.
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But I do think that witches have often been like a queer flagging.
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Yes.
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And I think that's where they make a lot of these like evil characters really queer coded,
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which is, you know, fucked up.
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Yeah, but just to like, subordinate message to children.
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Yeah.
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But, you know, I think a lot of the time like people are like, oh, she's evil, but I love
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her kind of like to all these witches because we could truly like see see ourselves within
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them.
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Or really have like an alternate character and a misunderstood character.
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And so yeah, I think that we've seen, I think like in the 90s, we started to see more of
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an introduction to like the good witch and good witches and people who use this external
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power for good.
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Yeah.
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Or like witches, you want to be like, oh, I love her aesthetic.
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She's so cool.
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I mean, obviously there's a lot of crossover in like, golf culture and like the goth aesthetic
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and like witches and stuff.
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And you know, goth kind of started, I guess we don't have to do history of goth, but gothic
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music and like style of things really started kind of popping off in like the 1980s.
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Yeah.
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But yeah, in the 90s was definitely the like whims of goth, like witchy, oh, she's so cool.
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Sabrina, yes.
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And then I mean, we saw kind of like the good witches versus the evil witches.
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You know, we're just, we're going to start at the beginning.
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Oh my god.
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I'm not sure if I'm saying that right.
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Hackson or hackson in 1922 was a Swedish Danish silent documentary drama.
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It was widely considered the first cinematic depiction of witchcraft, dramatized the history
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of witchcraft and the inquisition with striking imagery that is still cited today.
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And so I think that's what I'm going to do.
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It's 1939, traditional family values, women were expected to fit into a box.
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Don't ask too many questions.
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Truly blonde white was the ideal body type look and things like that.
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100%.
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We definitely see this continuing on through the 60s and 70s with domesticated witches.
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So be witched which Samantha Stevens she normalized the witch as a neighbor and housewife.
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Magical powers were played for comedy domesticated into suburban life.
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It ran for eight seasons.
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But yeah she was just you know a happy donnie housewife who also was a witch, but yeah I mean
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she it was the 50's or the 60's you know they still had to fit into that what a woman
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should be she's what if we made her a witch but she was still a good woman.
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Yeah well she's also a little like mischievous but like harmless and like she is like a good
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witch.
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She knows more than people but she like does it to try to like improve her husband and
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like the people around her and she gets in there like silly silly high jinks is probably
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what I would say there also blonde and white.
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Yeah she very much carries the gollinda look into be witched but she is widely known
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as like our parents generation as like the witch right.
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Yes 100% super cute show reminds me of I dream of Jeannie too is kind of like the
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same thing that was also like she is a suburban housewife.
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Oh but she's also a Jeannie.
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Yeah and her mom was a witch a little more evil so she was a red head.
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Oh and be witch yes Indora the evil witch and she was even that evil she was just a little
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more.
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I hate man I don't know sarcastic yeah a little misandrist we love it.
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I will throw in the Adams family in the monsters morticia Adams definitely wasn't like a witch
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right but she fits that kind of witch archetype kind of like the gothic witch aesthetic that
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kind of like got it into Americans households right these weirdo got families who do strange
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things but still are a happy family so we'll throw those in for good measure too.
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And then honestly a very very iconic film we hate the man that made it but very very iconic
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we go into 1968 with rosemary's baby so it's Roman Polanski's horror landmark reframed
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which is as a secretive like urban cult that are real dangerous and conspiratorial rather
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than fantastical.
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This movie is amazing it is like an allegory for abortion all of these things and the
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plight on women it has a lot to say it's a very good movie it still holds up to this day
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I think so too I hate that it's Roman Polanski but I love that movie.
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Yeah it's it's really really good me a Pharaoh and it is just amazing she makes me
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gonna cuddle my hair off.
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Like the fear of witches and Satan for sure.
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Ultimately that's like a very old theme of witchcraft right like we saw that in the witch trials
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is they were worshiping Satan so we had seen like a lot of these like oh fun silly goofy
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witches but Roman Polanski kind of brought it back of like no these are devil worshippers
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here.
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Yeah same like yeah like the exorcist definitely laid groundwork for a satanic panic too I mean
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there's no like witches in that movie from my memory it's just literally the little
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girls possessed by Satan but we definitely see like that crossover with like witches
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and Satanism a lot I I've personally been accused of worshipping Satan being a witch.
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I think that's just anybody who looks a certain way or women who use their voices in a certain
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way throughout history right but I'll allow it.
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I'll allow our sister what you're saying is we then move into a golden age of witchcraft
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in television and movies that you and I probably grew up with a lot of Olivia so empowerment
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or teen witches like the witches we kind of want to be but they're also bad but we also
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like them right.
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We have the witches of Eastwick with share Susan Sarandon and Michelle Fyfer women who
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discover their powers framed as female agency and sexuality tension with patriarchal forces
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in Jack Nicholson's devil.
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Oh my god Jack Nicholson is so gross.
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I think he's probably all the time.
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Well he better not sneak into like a dream tonight now that I just said that if I have a
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sex dream of Jack Nicholson tonight I'm going to be so mad.
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Yeah that absolutely is going to happen now.
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It's going to happen.
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I put it into the ether.
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A hoax focus in 1993 camp comedic witches they're evil but we love them.
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Yeah they just want to harvest some children they're like a real um Hansel and Gruddle story
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there.
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Just like I love Sarah Jessica Parker in the movie so much though she looks so good.
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She looks amazing.
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I know they were trying to make her look like scary and bad but I was like I just want that
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outfit I just want to be her.
23:06
She looks great.
23:07
Yeah I absolutely love that movie.
23:09
In 1996 we had the craft which is one of my favorite which movies ever.
23:16
I think that.
23:18
It is such like a grunge goth like aesthetic iconic to this day and team girls discover
23:26
Wicca as a rebellion and power and we really see these young women dynamics at play as well.
23:36
I think obviously it's about witchcraft but you can kind of see yourself within these different
23:41
characters as well and it's just such a good story within it.
23:45
I mean I watch it every Halloween.
23:49
It's like a craft shirt I think it's like such a cool aesthetic and movie.
23:55
Yeah definitely that like teenage witch kind of rebellion.
24:01
Yeah like witchcraft was really good and could have cool and like Wicca was getting really
24:05
cool in the 90s right.
24:07
Well yeah it was like the god thing to do and you know being a god was cool so like leaning
24:13
into that.
24:14
Yeah.
24:15
Contending your witch with like light as a feather stiff as a board.
24:19
Oh my god do you remember playing that at sleepovers?
24:21
Yeah.
24:22
So funny.
24:23
I remember thinking I was a witch in elementary school and being like one of the weird girls
24:28
in the playground and we were making little like potions out of sand and the sand box
24:32
that Wicca says.
24:34
Such fucking dorks.
24:36
I love it.
24:38
Sabrina the teenage witch in 1996.
24:40
I want to have my favorite.
24:43
I'll go into more detail later about about my girl Sabrina but she was based on Archie
24:48
comics and the series return the witch to the gentle comedy magic as a teenage metaphor
24:54
silly shenanigans.
24:56
Oh I love it so much.
24:59
We had charmed which was the three sisters is the power of three ran for eight seasons.
25:06
They kind of brought the coven of women as a uniting thing and empowering thing and they
25:13
had this message of good versus evil but overall they were they were all good witches who
25:19
explored witchcraft as like identity and I watched it when I was younger kind of like how
25:26
I watched Buffy.
25:28
I wasn't like all the way through but I have been debating restarting charmed just for
25:32
nostalgia.
25:33
So maybe I'll have to have that in there.
25:36
I never watched charmed which is surprising because it seems like something I would really
25:40
like and like I've watched maybe the first like two or three episodes.
25:44
It was like when you were in your Christian girl era.
25:47
I mean honestly yeah but like I was like that I was like weird crossover between like Christian
25:53
girl but like I didn't care about things like oh that's evil no I don't know fuck I would
25:58
watch her listen to anything.
26:00
I don't know I just like the WB like you PN like never really like tickled my fancy for
26:06
some reason but maybe I should give it a whirl I don't know practical magic came out in
26:11
1998 just announced a sequel for this movie they so trailer everybody looks great.
26:19
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are cursed sisters romanticized cozy witchcraft hereditary
26:26
gift in burgundy kind of a warm sit you know female lead fairy tale tone love that movie.
26:33
So then we really move into fantasy in the mainstream so we run into movies like the Harry Potter
26:40
series which is a whole world of witches and wizards.
26:44
We have you know these iconic witches like Hermione Granger, Professor McLeanigal as just these
26:50
memorable characters of course we're biased we grew up in the 90s and 2000s so these characters
26:57
despite its brighter will always have a iconic and melancholic feel for us.
27:06
I agree oh gosh I remember reading the Harry Potter series for the first time I read the
27:11
first book gosh I must have been in like the third grade and I was in like the gifted program
27:17
at school and we were reading Sorcerer's Stone and I didn't I didn't have to pronounce
27:24
Hermione kind of fucking name is that sorry if your name's Hermione.
27:29
So I would read it as hormone in my head.
27:33
That was me.
27:36
Hormone, Ron and Harry to class.
27:41
I knew it hormones were but the name Hermione is like what is that?
27:45
Hormone okay we will also talk more about this which later but but be the vampire.
27:52
Slaher also featured teenage witches in the form of Willow Rose and Berg.
27:59
So next we move on to Horr Renaissance revisionist witches or horrors.
28:08
Some of them are probably horrors.
28:11
I hope so.
28:12
American Horror Story Coven.
28:13
I think you're going to talk about this a little bit later right?
28:17
Yes I actually didn't watch that season.
28:22
And then and then we have to end the podcast right now.
28:27
I watched season one and a half a season two and Sean I don't like American Horror Story.
28:35
It makes me feel good.
28:37
No.
28:38
I'm not squeamish.
28:39
I will watch gross discussing things.
28:43
This show made me feel like I needed a shower after every episode.
28:47
You would like to.
28:48
Is there a lot of graphing people?
28:51
No.
28:52
I feel like every American Horror Story.
28:56
I'm like oh and someone's getting sexually assaulted there we go.
28:59
Cool.
29:00
I feel like season season one is dark but did you watch season two?
29:04
Because season two is disgusting and I don't like season two.
29:07
That's why we stopped watching.
29:08
It's because season two is amazing.
29:10
It's going anywhere and it's gross.
29:12
Season three is amazing.
29:13
Yeah.
29:14
No.
29:15
Season two is disgusting.
29:16
Season three is coven and it's so fucking good.
29:18
Oh my god.
29:19
Maybe I'll get that one.
29:20
I'll get that one.
29:21
You have to watch it.
29:22
It's so good.
29:23
It's so good.
29:24
It's amazing.
29:25
Yeah.
29:26
It's the minute somebody gets assaulted though I'm texting you.
29:31
It's one of my favorite.
29:32
Which series of all time?
29:33
Oh shit.
29:34
Well then I do have to watch it.
29:37
Yeah.
29:38
I love the movie.
29:39
The movie.
29:40
The movie.
29:41
The movie.
29:42
The movie.
29:43
The movie.
29:44
The movie.
29:45
The movie.
29:46
Oh.
29:47
That one's fucked up too.
29:48
But I love that movie.
29:49
Do you remember when I sent you that video of me naked outside getting buffy?
29:56
The movie.
29:57
Yeah.
29:58
It was very last.
30:00
Like okay.
30:01
Like a month before buffy died.
30:05
She was like, "Oh my god.
30:07
She."
30:08
I was letting her out to go to the bathroom and it was nighttime and she was blind in her
30:14
final days and I was like, "I was naked and getting ready for bed."
30:18
And I was like, "This will be fast, whatever."
30:21
Open up the screen door and she goes out and you know, she's doing her business and I'm
30:26
watching from inside and I see it make just a fast beeline to the pool.
30:31
And I'm like, "God damn it."
30:34
And I'm just butt fucking naked.
30:38
I'm like, "I'll hunched over for some reason."
30:41
And it's all captured on the ring camera and I'm like, "Hunching over to the dog."
30:44
And I whisk her up and run inside and it's that like grainy kind of green camera footage.
30:51
I showed it to Andrew and he said to you, "Look like you're in a Robert Egris movie."
30:58
But really, you're about to cook her in a stew.
31:02
Yeah.
31:03
All right, Peeb, I'm pretty.
31:05
My precious.
31:07
Yeah.
31:08
And then really kind of in 2018, we started to see a callback or a return to some of our
31:17
iconic characters, but with like a twist.
31:20
I absolutely love the show.
31:23
I think I like it more than the '90s one.
31:25
Maybe the chilling adventures of Sabrina.
31:28
I'm itbie on the show.
31:29
Yeah.
31:30
And it looks dark reimagining of Sabrina.
31:33
It talks about the satanic panic that we mentioned, feminist rebellion, gothic horror.
31:39
And it's a more serious shake.
31:41
I will not forgive them for not giving me a talking cat in it.
31:45
Oh, 100%.
31:46
But yeah, I think that I really, really liked the first two seasons of chilling adventures
31:54
of Sabrina.
31:55
They let the creator of it go a little river deal at the end.
31:59
But the first two were so good.
32:01
I totally agree.
32:02
I loved the first season.
32:04
I think it went off the rails once and it was so river deal.
32:07
Once people start singing and there's like musical, I love a musical episode.
32:12
But if everybody's singing here in every episode, it feels very Disney like we're trying
32:17
to launch these actors singing careers and especially if no one's like that good.
32:23
Yeah.
32:24
And I also didn't like the way it ended with.
32:27
Gosh, her boyfriend.
32:28
Oh, yeah.
32:30
I mean, it came out eight years ago.
32:33
A little podcast.
32:34
You don't have to spoil everything.
32:36
I hated the ending.
32:38
Okay.
32:39
Thank you.
32:40
I hated what they did with her and Harvey.
32:41
Nicholas Scratch.
32:42
I hated what they did with Nicholas Scratch.
32:44
So yeah, I don't know.
32:46
I guess that's all I'll say.
32:48
But we move into Olivia.
32:51
I love spoiling things.
32:52
I'm just going to spoil everything.
32:55
2020's witchcraft examples.
33:00
We have two marvel examples of witchcrafts in the last witchcrafts, which is in the last
33:06
year.
33:07
Witchcrafts.
33:08
Witchcrafts in the past five years or so.
33:10
Wanda Maxima of slash the Scarlet Witch became Marvel's breakout witch figure tragedy,
33:16
grief, power, all portrayed with genuine emotional weight in the MCU.
33:22
I love Wanda Maxima.
33:25
I think she is so complicated.
33:28
She starts out as she's in the X-Men in the comics and she has her brother, quick silver.
33:36
I'm going to spoil this because this movie came out fucking years ago and I feel like everyone's
33:40
seen it at this point.
33:41
Age of Ultron, he dies, but she, you know, starts out as evil in the MCU and then kind of
33:47
comes to the good side and joins the Avengers.
33:50
But then as we see in WandaVision and Dr. Strange and the multiverse of madness, she becomes
33:58
a very complicated, morally gray character who's willing to do anything to get her family
34:04
back even if it's killing anybody who gets in her way.
34:08
And I just love her.
34:10
I love all of her arc and I hope she comes back into the MCU soon.
34:14
Love it.
34:15
We also meet another iconic MCU which in WandaVision in the form of Agatha Harkness.
34:22
So she became so popular from WandaVision that they gave her her own show Agatha all along.
34:32
She's got that catchy theme song.
34:33
It was Agatha all along.
34:37
She is a fan favorite villain but also a broader cultural moment around the word which identity
34:43
reclamation, feminism, queer identities.
34:46
True, okay.
34:47
Yeah.
34:48
There is a lot of crossover with, you know, gay and witches which we will talk more about.
34:57
Goat.
34:58
And then of course, Hocus Pocus too.
35:01
We talked a little bit about the first Hocus Pocus but you know where that money is.
35:05
Got to make a see-ha.
35:07
And true me fashion.
35:08
I didn't watch that.
35:10
What?
35:11
No.
35:12
That's okay.
35:13
Yeah, it was like cash grab.
35:15
Not really.
35:16
It's cute.
35:17
Watch it.
35:18
Watch it to giggle.
35:19
It's fine.
35:20
It's fine.
35:21
We are going to take a quick break and then we are going to talk about who our favorite
35:25
witches are and what kind of witch powers we wish we could have.
35:34
While Olivia and I can be very witchy in the best possible way, we don't really have magical
35:40
powers.
35:41
Unfortunately.
35:42
We have to work for a living just like you do.
35:46
But you can make a little magic happen for us if you check out our Patreon.
35:51
Join the pop culture junkie, Cavan and help us keep the podcast going.
35:55
We are not asking for much even the smallest amount will make a big difference.
36:00
And of course, we have something special for anyone who joins.
36:04
Find out how easy it is to get uncut early access to each episode or a super special
36:10
shout out when you go to patreon.com/popculturejunkiepodcast and subscribe.
36:20
Olivia, tell me about your favorite witches or just some honorable mentions that we haven't
36:27
talked about yet.
36:28
As I mentioned, I love me, some American horror story, Cavan.
36:34
So honestly, all of them, I freaking love them.
36:39
I think that if I had to pick one of my favorites, it's going to be a real witch in our world.
36:50
It's going to be very level.
36:53
And she is the real voodoo queen of New Orleans.
36:57
And she was born a free woman of color in 1801.
37:02
She became a religious leader, healer, community activist and entrepreneur.
37:07
She's been working her own beauty parlor while working as an herbalist and midwife.
37:12
As the city's third voodoo priestess, she both together traditions from conjure to Catholicism
37:19
that is still very present in New Orleans.
37:23
And she is portrayed by Angela Bassett in American Horror Story, Cavan.
37:30
So good.
37:31
I think that in the story, because I want you to watch it, she is very much like a villain.
37:39
I mean voodoo is quite dark in practice a lot of the time.
37:43
They're sacrificing animals, things like that.
37:46
And you let Ryan Murphy in there.
37:49
So there are some crazy videos within that.
37:52
No, I don't think there's a dog that does.
37:55
Given the fact that it's not stuck in my head, but I'll go to does the dog die.com.
37:59
It's okay.
38:00
There you go.
38:01
I think it's a really, she's just an iconic, like real person.
38:06
And also just Angela Bassett's portrayal of her is great.
38:10
And that's what I mean when I say I love an evil witch portrayal.
38:13
Yes.
38:14
I agree.
38:15
I'm going to have to give it a whirl.
38:16
I didn't realize that there was like real life witches in there, the big, you know, historical
38:20
witches in New Orleans.
38:21
And the second New Orleans.
38:22
Yeah.
38:23
I love New Orleans.
38:24
I'm going to.
38:25
I can't.
38:26
As I teased a little earlier, one of my favorite pop culture witches is Sabrina Spell.
38:30
Melman, but specifically from the 1990s show.
38:34
And I know that it's cheesy and corny.
38:38
And you know, her and her aunts are not the most powerful of witches.
38:44
I don't know.
38:45
Like they're powerful, but they are just going to do it for high jinks, right?
38:48
But this show held such like ups place in my heart.
38:51
Like my mom and I watched it all the time on a TGIF every Friday night.
38:57
We would go and like sit in the couch and watch Sabrina.
39:00
It made me want a black cat so bad.
39:03
I got it.
39:04
I know.
39:05
Yes, I have my my obsidian now.
39:09
But the show stars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina on her 16th birthday.
39:13
She learns that she has magical powers.
39:16
She lives with her 600 year old aunts Hilda and Zelda and their magical talking cat Salem
39:22
who is actually a warlock who tried to take over the world and had to be turned into a cat
39:27
as his punishment.
39:31
It definitely ran for a little too long, you know, they stretched it out.
39:35
And all those shows kind of suffer from the same like when they're in high school, it's
39:39
really great.
39:40
And then they try to get in the college years and the adult years and it starts to peter
39:44
off a little bit.
39:45
But it went from 1996 to 2003 over seven seasons and I loved that show.
39:53
Yeah.
39:54
I speaking of like iconic 90s, which is a very hard to pick between the Owen sisters, but
40:03
one, I think Gillian Owens really is like my one of my favorite, which is first of all
40:08
so iconic Nicole Kidman in that whole movie is like all of my.
40:12
What was the movie again?
40:13
The movie is a very practical film.
40:17
Practical magic.
40:18
And so yeah, I think as she looks good, she is good.
40:21
She's kind of a mess.
40:22
I feel like I really do resonate with like messy, but a hard-of-goal the characters.
40:28
Feel that.
40:29
Feel it.
40:30
Yeah.
40:31
Where it's like, you don't make the best decisions, but you have good intentions.
40:35
Yeah, that's kind of subredated too.
40:38
Yeah.
40:39
Nicole Kidman in it, like, oh my gosh, most of my Pinterest outfits are hers.
40:44
And that looks so good.
40:47
So hard.
40:48
And their magic is pretty like wide-spanning if I had to say like, okay, what is that that
40:55
look like?
40:56
And you know, Sandy was close, but she's a little altruistic for me.
41:00
I agree.
41:01
Nicole Kidman's definitely the more interesting character I think in the movie.
41:07
And I'm excited to see what they do with the second one.
41:09
I'm glad that they're getting most of the original cast back.
41:12
This is no surprise to anybody who's ever met me.
41:15
But one of my favorite, which is, as I mentioned earlier too, is Willow Rosenberg from Bubby
41:21
the Vampire Slayer.
41:23
She was portrayed by Alice in Hanigan.
41:26
She started off as Bubby's shy, nerdy computer loving best friend who really like uses her
41:33
intelligence, her hacking skills, her book smarts to help Bubby slay demons and vampires.
41:39
Comes into her own, comes out as gay, gets a girlfriend, girlfriend dies.
41:45
She becomes evil, tries to destroy the world and then becomes good again.
41:49
I mean, who amongst us?
41:52
Homest among us.
41:53
Homest.
41:54
Her, which craft is definitely an allegory for like her sexuality as well.
41:59
And they make that running joke a lot throughout the series of like, oh, Willow is exploring
42:05
a lot in college.
42:06
And it's like that snudge, wink, wink, you know, which craft and other things.
42:12
Her girlfriend, Tara, is also a witch and is just that full OE skirt 90s whims of
42:18
Goth, which you know.
42:20
So I love Willow.
42:23
You know, the series is definitely my favorite show of all time.
42:27
The Dark Willow is just iconic.
42:29
It's interesting how they compare magic to like her being a drug addict, which you know,
42:34
is more successful in some episodes than others.
42:37
It's addicted to magic and goes to like a magic crack, Dan gets her fix and like gets
42:45
into a magical car accident.
42:46
Yeah, it's, it's a little silly, but it's definitely kind of like an, you know, overarching
42:51
theme there to addiction and recovery.
42:54
And yeah.
42:55
So I love it.
42:57
I want to know who do you think is some of the examples of the most evil witches in pop
43:02
culture or the like dumbest most like really that's her power or that's their power.
43:10
Yeah, I think I mean, you have to say like Melisandre, right?
43:17
Evil or lame?
43:18
Evil, evil.
43:19
I got also lame to sacrifice and burn children.
43:23
Yes.
43:24
I would say that another one that like when I was really young in stuck in my head as like
43:31
the evil witch was Ursula, right?
43:34
Oh, yeah.
43:35
What do you mean you're going to take my voice just because I want like legs?
43:40
Why not?
43:42
So what can no less than us?
43:46
I do think Ursula is an interesting example because she kind of fits into that like if
43:51
you're quote unquote ugly than your evil like in, you know, she fed that like queer like
43:59
she's, you know, she's overweight.
44:02
She's, you know, definitely a little like gay coded and she must be evil if she's not
44:07
real thin and gorgeous.
44:10
Lusting for a man.
44:12
Yeah.
44:13
Exactly.
44:14
She doesn't want a man in her life.
44:15
I kind of like Ursula.
44:16
She's like bitch, really?
44:17
You're like her now.
44:19
For a man you're 16.
44:22
Yeah.
44:23
I know I feel like you're watching her as a kid and you're like, I think that the witch from
44:31
Snow White is super done like like she hates so much like the evil witch.
44:38
Yeah.
44:39
Her and Maleficent.
44:41
Like I like Maleficent now like kind of the character that they've made her into and
44:45
like I love Angelina Jolie's portrayal in the aesthetic of Maleficent.
44:49
She can turn into a dragon that's sick as hell.
44:51
But like both of those witches are definitely like no one could be pretty or younger than me
44:57
killing for many, which is what an evil woman must do, right?
45:01
Yeah, but she can't age.
45:03
No, we can't.
45:04
We're not allowed to.
45:06
Go too far.
45:07
Yeah.
45:08
So if you're aging, then you're evil.
45:11
If you, if there's someone prettier than you, then you must be jealous of them and therefore
45:15
evil.
45:16
So kind of stupid there.
45:17
But that's Disney movies, right?
45:19
We're a little rooted in the Saagini, but I do like how they kind of, you know, what they've
45:23
done with Maleficent now and kind of like fleshing out her character.
45:27
I think some evil witch shout outs could be Bellatrix Lestrange.
45:31
She's pretty evil.
45:32
Oh, that's a good one.
45:34
She's pretty evil.
45:36
All of the defaters.
45:38
All of the dev eaters are pretty, pretty evil.
45:41
I don't know.
45:42
I love pop culture witches and I will, I definitely think that you should read the book that I mentioned
45:47
at the beginning.
45:48
It's fascinating and just kind of that cross over the tree.
45:50
Oh, yeah.
45:51
I'm about to start.
45:52
Yeah.
45:53
Saagini again.
45:54
It is called Witch's Sluts and Feminist, Contrary the Sex Positive by Kristen J. Soley.
46:02
Before we jump off to, I have one more question for you.
46:04
Where are you and where are you and which what powers which you want?
46:09
I feel like this might be cheating, but I would want like elemental powers.
46:14
No, that's so weird.
46:15
I can control like earth magic.
46:20
I think that's what I would want.
46:22
She's an earth bender.
46:23
Yeah, like I think that's probably what I would want.
46:27
I love it.
46:28
I could grow things.
46:29
I could control stone, like dirt, things like that.
46:33
Or green, which I love it.
46:36
I definitely, yeah, control the weather, make it rain and Phoenix, like make it not 150 degrees
46:42
of weather.
46:43
Do it for me, please.
46:46
I think I would like Wanda Maximoff's powers, but I promise not to use them to create a fake
46:53
town to trap everybody in.
46:57
Just like the reality manipulation, telekinesis.
46:59
Okay.
47:00
She's like demoddy powers.
47:02
Yeah.
47:03
She can fly.
47:05
She can like warp things around her, create barriers, fight people.
47:09
I love it.
47:10
She's sick as hell.
47:12
Okay.
47:13
I think I would want that.
47:14
Would you ride on a broomstick?
47:16
Fuck yeah.
47:18
You told me about riding on broomsticks.
47:21
Yeah.
47:22
Say it real fast before we go because that was a long time ago.
47:24
Oh my goodness.
47:25
Yeah.
47:26
Okay.
47:27
Which is on broomsticks was there was like a hallucigen drug that people were doing and
47:35
they were putting it on to wooden broomsticks and sticking it up their hoo ha's.
47:40
Yeah.
47:41
Whenever they would do that, they would see like a they would hallucinate.
47:45
Illucidate.
47:46
Illucidate.
47:47
So they would act.
47:48
Yeah.
47:49
They would act a little crazy.
47:50
And so the witches on the broom came from, you know, people just doing drugs up their
47:55
hoo ha.
47:56
They were having a good time.
47:57
They were boofing.
47:58
They were, well, boofing is three or but so they're, I guess they were boofing.
48:03
They were boofing.
48:04
You know, better help nose flinter is in there because that would really hurt.
48:11
But, you know, I feel like you could work now with like plastic broom and bolts.
48:17
Yeah.
48:18
What was the name of what they were doing?
48:20
Write that down real fast.
48:22
Boofing.
48:23
Can I move with my spoon?
48:24
It's with a wet mop.
48:26
Okay.
48:27
It's got it.
48:28
It's picking stuff up later, you know.
48:31
You're gonna be visited by Jack Nicholson and he's gonna move you.
48:36
He's gonna want to move me on a swiffer wet.
48:40
Or maybe he'll ask if we can do it and I'll be like, I don't need you, Jack.
48:47
I have my swiffer dipped in hallucinogenic drugs.
48:52
And then Anthony Hopkins will show up and show me foster.
48:55
She doesn't want to fall for you.
49:01
She doesn't want to do it.
49:05
Oh my God.
49:08
Okay.
49:09
I think we're gonna wrap this up.
49:12
Thank you for falling under our spell on this episode of Pop Culture Junkie Podcast.
49:17
Olivia, where can the listeners find you on social media?
49:21
You can find me on Instagram @livimariez
49:25
L-I-V-I-M-A-R-I-E-Z.
49:29
You can find me, Shauna Trinidad, on Instagram and Threads @shaunatrinidad, SH-A-U-N-A-T-R-I-N-I-D-A-D.
49:39
And you can look us up online at our website, popculturejunkie.com.
49:43
That's where you can find our podcast on all platforms, our social media links, blog posts,
49:48
and you can shop at the Pop Culture Junkie store.
49:51
You can contact us, join our Pop Culture Junkie Online Support Group on Facebook, all of
49:57
that and more.
49:59
Please take a second to follow, subscribe, rate and review the show because that does truly
50:05
help us out.
50:06
And of course, we would be honored if you accept our invitation to join our Patreon.
50:13
Sign up for Uncensored sneak peek at our next episode or get a personalized, super special
50:19
shout out from Olivia and myself.
50:23
You can sign up at patreon.com/popculturejunkiepodcast.
50:29
And come back next week for another hit of Pop Culture!
50:35
[laughs]
50:36
[music]
50:40
The Pop Culture Junkie podcast is produced by Jeff Markin and Cheryl Lightfoot for the
50:44
Pop Culture Entertainment Network.
50:46
[music]
50:58
[music]