We welcomed Maria Sherman back to the pod, this time not to talk about Calvin Johnson and his merry band of yogurt-drum twee dreamers, but to talk about THE HISTORY OF BOY BANDS — as detailed in Maria's book Larger Than Life: A History of Boy Bands from NKOTB to BTS. From shady '80s managers screwing New Edition out of their hard-earned dough, to the secret hidden original member of *NYSYNC that Molly didn't know existed, to the fruitful fanfiction culture of One Direction, we got into a bunch of things that happened when you put a bunch of cute boys in a room together and had them sing and dance.

Buy Maria's book here: https://www.blackdogandleventhal.com/titles/maria-sherman/larger-than-life/9780762468904/

Songs played:

"What Makes You Beautiful (8-Bit Remix) - 8BitUzz

"I Want To Hold Your Hand" - the Beatles

"Candy Girl" - New Edition

"You Got It (The Right Stuff)" - New Kids On The Block

"Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" - Backstreet Boys

"Bye Bye Bye" - *NSYNC

"Back Here" - BBMak

"Burnin' Up" - Jonas Brothers

"Little Black Dress" - One Direction

"Mic Drop" - BTS (Steve Aoki Remix)