This is an artist-centric episode though as has been typical lately, I have a song for Jeff to hear for the first time before we get into things, Stories about my Mom and my Dad fit nicely into the narrative. A couple of perennial favorites from past episodes show up in the discussion and we get an idea of 2 artists Jeff is not quite fond of.

In the final discussion of our boy band arc of episodes there is actually a lot to unpack. New music from 5 Seconds of Summer and Harry Styles. How All Time Low found their biggest success 15 years into their career (and a wonderful coincidence that follows it). A boy band that has a connection to Kanye West and finally how the Jonas Brothers tie into a lot of nostalgia about Billboard's Hot 100. There's also a #2 Pop hit from this year that I had never heard and a podcast fav artist sees their first top 40 hit.

After a 2 month hiatus the cliffhanger is finally revealed. We really only focus on 2 bands in this episode but talk about influences, paying homage and sampling.

We try to pinpoint the origin of something Jeff can't get out of his head, talk about college and in the end have to push off the continuation of the discussion to the next episode. This time, however, the follow up episode will come out hours later instead of 2 months from now.

As the boy band discussion continues we talk about a popular pop punk band of the aughts, an obscure band from Southern California and Boys who like Girls from Massachusetts.

The mood shifts towards the end of the episode and we get a little '80s nostalgia thrown in.

In this episode, we explore 2 bands of the second British Invasion, Duran Duran and Wham which leads into a great story about "I'm Too Sexy".

I torture Jeff with a Pop-Gospel-ish song that segues into a discussion about svengali boy band producers (well at least one of them was) and the R&B style of the late '80s and early '90s, New Jack Swing.

The episode ends with a call and an unlikely source of music inspiration.

In this episode we do a slight recap of the previous episode which was so much fun, I present 2 new songs to Jeff cold, and we discuss some shifting of priorities in the Beyond Radio universe; introducing the new playlist series Retro Aesthetic.

My favorite episode so far! Huge laughs, heartfelt emotion, one of my favorite artists, a pivotal moment in my life, and a great Christmas song. I love putting these episodes together. Too Much Fun!!

We pick up our conversation in episode 2 with a little history of the Monkees and have a moment of silence for Mike Nesmith who passed away in December. By the end of the episode we have dropped a house in the best way.

We are back for Season 8! After almost a year since we last recorded we had a little catching up to do. Before we get into the crux of the playlist I have 2 new songs for Jeff to listen to cold, with one of them leading into a discussion that will take up probably the first 5 episodes of this season.

In this 52nd episode we talk about one of the biggest groups ever for the first time plus a group that brings Jeff back to his high school days. Jeff has some memory issues that tie up the episode in a nice way.

Our top 4 are revealed plus a bevy of honorable mentions. Halloween gets brought up again, and false endings may become a rule. We also get to hear about Jeff's 5 least favorite songs from the Pod-Castlist and one of my favorite songs of all-time is in that mix. I'm so dejected.