This category contains posts about the Pop Culture Junkie Podcast.

Consensual Sweaty Touching with John Pyka

The Junkies met in real life for Friends trivia night at the Alamo Drafthouse (thanks, Alamo Drafthouse!) How did they do? Find out by listening! Speaking of friends, the Junkies welcome their new friend, John Pyka, The Prophet of Pop Culture and host of the Back of the Cereal Box podcast, who does a mean Kermit impression. (Links below!) This week, the Junkies (who may or may not be naked from the waist down) and John have a LOT of pop culture hot takes this week. After marveling at the days of future past, when you could get an actual record on the back of cereal boxes, Alex learns about how AOL Instant Messenger gives Marvel superheroes their powers. Hayley discusses the godlike perfection of Chris Hemsworth’s forearms, and Nicole gives a blow by blow recap of Logan Paul’s total dud of a fight. Shauna sticks the landing to tell us about the godlike perfection of gymnast Simone Biles. Find out which Junkie looks like a sexy David Spade, what exactly a skin salesman is, how bad the Powerpuff Girls pilot script is, and who gets to claim Scarlett Johansson as their girlfriend: it’s a hotly contended three-way race. This episode is hotter than a flaming crock-pot!

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Listen-to-able: A Summer Music Extravaganza

Which Junkie has the moves? They all do, unless you count tap dancing. It’s metaphorically hot as Hell here in Phoenix, so we are all about the summer music playlist this week. Each Junkie discloses their summer soundtracks, 2021-style, and we’re posting them below so you can rock out at your poolside barbecue or on your vacay road trip. Nicole’s has a country flair, Hayley’s is a little bit rock and roll, Shauna’s has those Vegas vibes and Alex’s brings the finesse and the funk. Whether you’re a Parrot-Head, one of the Cool Kids, or a Little Monster, we’ve got the summer jam for you.

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The One with the ‘Friends’ Trivia

Another Junkie is MIA! This time it is Hayley, who was somehow misplaced by the other Junkies. They pledge to find her by next week. This week, however, is all about Friends. Could we BE any more excited? No. The Junkies discuss the landmark sitcom, which will be celebrated with a reunion show on HBO Max on the same day this episode drops. Nicole and Shauna talk about their favorite characters and cast members while also looking at the ways the show was flawed. Then Alex is the game show host with the most when he tests Shauna and Nicole on their knowledge of the show. The winner gets to captain the Pop Culture Junkie team when they take all comers at the Alamo Drafthouse’s Friends Trivia Night on June 2nd in Tempe. Who will prevail? Find out!

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Model Behavior

Nicole is back! The Junkies welcome her return with a big discussion of Law and Order: SVU, and whether she really was auditioning to play a cadaver. Hayley describes her solo snowboarding honeymoon in Purgatory and the junky (not Junkie!) beaches in California, but everyone still wants to vacation there anyway. Shauna delves into Jupiter’s Legacy and how it ranks next to The Boys and Invincible. Alex reviews Those Who Wish Me Dead and Together Together, and rates them by how much action the main characters get, and Alex explores the viral story of WingStop getting naughty on Twitter, while Shauna learns of the spicy texts between Olivia Munn and Chris Pine. This may be our horniest episode ever (excluding Benson and Stabler, who took 22 years to get to first base.) Then Hayley and Nicole discuss the Queens of Mean, salty Ellen DeGeneres and bully Chrissy Teigen, whose name we are not going to pronounce correctly anymore.

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A Slightly Geekier Direction

We are one Junkie short this week, so as Alex, Hayley and Shauna soldier on without Nicole, they decide to do a deep dive into Marvel content past and yet to come in the year 2021. After speculating on Nicole’s whereabouts, we learn Shauna finally got into Invincible, Alex is digging superhero comedy The Neighbor (El Vecino), and Hayley is all over the Lost spoof Wrecked this week. Speaking of shipwrecks, the Junkies salute the 22 year-long sexless voyage of Benson and Stabler before settling in to talk all things Marvel. the Junkies look back at the emotional journeys of WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Solder, and ahead to Loki (and everyone’s guilty pleasure Owen Wilson,) the Venom sequel, and getting drunk on the energy of seeing the next Marvel Phase 4 movies in the theater. Never fear, Nicole is back with the Junkies next week!

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Spoiling The Matrix

This episode was recorded on 4.20. Just saying. Shauna does a bollocks Posh Spice impersonation, but Nicole rocks her Chicago accent. Hayley and Alex dish on everything good from Falcon and the Winter Soldier (and that special guest – spoilers!) and speaking of spoilers, Shauna brings you the mind-blowing truth about The Matrix (1999.) Nicole can’t place Mark McGrath from The Masked Singer but she does bring you the best in baseball from this week. Speaking of sports, Jake Paul had another fight and the best part of it was Pete Davidson mocking everyone. Hayley is all about the feel-good comedy of Tom Papa, and Alex brings you a pop culture antidote for all of the bad news we’ve been dealing with this week (and every week). Link to Hype Man in show notes.

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Steve Would Never

Which Junkie sat at the emo kids’ table in high school? Which one ate with the teachers? And which one got to skip class to go to Red Sox games? This episode reveals all. The Junkies give a shout out to the fans who are making us Big in Egypt (hey!), and propose their own musical version of The Breakfast Club. And an OnlyFans swimsuit edition. Nicole (and her dad) are digging Law and Order: Organized Crime and pretty much everyone is a fan of Stabler’s perfect peach. Alex drops the first (and maybe last) of his Haiku Movie Reviews. Sorry, Thunder Force; you’re getting dissed in 5-7-5. Shauna and Hayley take a spoilery look at Falcon and the Winter Soldier and agree that Sam needs to be the next Captain America, Bucky needs to get laid, and that Steve Rogers would never, ever do that.

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I Love Lucifer

The Junkies are back on their regular beat this week, bringing you not one but two pop culture stories involving the Prince of Darkness. But first, they break down the emotional Benson-Stabler reunion in the long-running Law and Order SVU, a show that’s almost as old as Nicole. Then it’s on to the ethical questions about Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the questionable dance moves of Baron Zemo. You heard it here first: Nicole declares that Sharon Carter is the Power Broker. But she doesn’t watch the show, so take that with a grain of salt. Shauna and Hayley talk about shows that are overstaying their welcome (Flash!) vs the ones that ended just at the right time (Breaking Bad.) Alex wonders what’s up with the Clockwork Orange Droogs in the new Space Jam trailer (but Pepe Le Pew is too much?) Then the gang debates what constitutes Dad Rock and proposes branching off to launch the “Now That’s What I Call a Dad Podcast” complete with griping about what really grinds our gears.

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