Since it's the 20th anniversary of the start of the American War in Iraq this month, we're covering the media produced in response to the start of the war and its immediate aftermath. We're kicking things off by discussing one of the first mainstream documentaries to come out as critical of the war: Michael Moore's 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11. We discuss the content of the film, the strange criticisms of it, and we get into the role of journalists and critics when it comes to addressing horrifying events in our world. We laugh about a few things, particularly what a loser George W. Bush is, too.

In the mid-aughts, a new craze took over American audiences: they wanted to watch mean British people on their TVs talk down to other Americans (and essentially, them, too). This little infatuation, starting with Simon Cowell on American Idol, grew into a full on obsession by the time the late aughts came around. In this episode, we discuss this strange kink and its effect on our culture, specifically as it pertained to American food TV. We'll get into the separate rises of two of the meanest, nastiest British chefs around and discuss why and how each man's legacy still endures.

The cabs aren't here, but this episode on MTV's Jersey Shore is. Take a little trip with us to Seaside Heights, New Jersey where we'll reminisce on some of the most ridiculous characters that have ever graced our television sets. We'll discuss the concept of the show, Italian-American cultural stereotypes and subcultural performance, and we'll get into just what sets Jersey Shore apart from other reality shows. If you've never seen the show before, don't worry...we got all the details for you.

The early aughts were filled with steroid and performance enhancing drug usage scandals. Athletes from Barry Bonds to Lance Armstrong were being brought in for questioning related to their uses of these sweet, sweet anabolic elixirs. In 2008, Chris Bell set out to examine the anabolic steroid panic in his documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster. In this episode, we discuss the doc, Bell's actual messages about American culture, and why BSF is still important right now.

There was a rarely discussed phenomenon going on a little before and all the way through the decade 2003-2013, and this episode is an attempt to set the historical record straight on it. That's right, we're talking about what Brendan has dubbed "The Quoting Years." Remember all that time you spent with your friends repeating lines from your favorite films and television shows? Well, get ready to stroll down memory lane with us.

20 years later, and it seems like the kisses between Madonna, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards have never been more relevant than they are right now. This week, we're examining the legendary kisses, their aftermath, and how they impacted and continue to impact queer culture and the broader culture at large. We get into some reporting from the period, and we discuss the discourse around "queerbaiting."

The title is pretty self-explanatory BUT this week, we're revisiting one of the albums of the decade that dominated the charts even if it ultimately had very little artistic merit: 50 Cent's "The Massacre." We talk about 50 Cent's persona, each track on the album, white listeners' racial imaginations and their impact on commercial hip hop, Brendan's mom's connection to G-Unit, and the album's cultural relevance in 2005 and now.

All right folks, WE'RE BACK. As you (hopefully) heard in our trailer for Season 2, we're using this new season to do a deep dive into the cultural and political phenomenon that dominated the decade between 2003 and 2013. You might be wondering why we chose this particular time period, and we promise that question is answered very thoroughly in this introductory episode to the new season. We're happy to be back, and we hope you'll join us for all we have in store!

Here's a little trailer for our new season coming to your ear holes and brain matter on January 10th! Get ready!

It's our last episode of the year, y'all! We know that many of you are going to be watching Christmas movies over the next week, so we wanted to weigh in on some of our favorite Christmas movies that urge us to challenge the capitalist hell and system of consumerism we're all forced to live in. We give you the run down on some Christmas holiday history and then get into our critiques of these very fascinating and important films.