Millennial: Pretend Adulting, Real Talk

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This week we're pop culture focused, but that doesn't mean we're not gonna side-eye the latest BS from dear leader: POTUS extended an invitation to Iran to level a couple of west coast cities, while blocking another media outlet from access to the press pool. Very American of you, sir!

Then it's on to the main event: our Pop Culture News Roundup. Merriam-Webster just added nearly 1,400 new entries, including looksmaxxing, cuffing season, and trash panda, plus parasocial, superfood, uncanny valley, shapewear, and meme coin. We have thoughts on which of these we're proud of and which make us want to lie down. The Emmys are also leaving broadcast TV for the first time since 1949, landing on Prime Video in a six-year deal. And we have thoughts on method acting to share, based on actor Jeremy Strong's recent sorry-not-sorry statement in the face of being recognized as a huge d-bag. And we've got something for the Hunger Games fans too! A new trailer for 'Sunrise on the Reaping' is here with a closer look at the arena perils, the chariot stampede, and Silka and her axe. We do a quick Haymitch refresher, and give the studio props for its viral marketing placement around our nation's capitol.

For this week's recs, Laura says make your early voting plan, and Pam recommends The Uncool by Cameron Crowe.

And in this week's installment of After Dark:

Pam and Laura have a bone (or several) to pick with some people we're choosing to put on blast behind the paywall. Come be petty with us. You know you want to!!

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Spooky season is officially here, and we're kicking it off the only way we know how: by getting way too nostalgic. Are we horror movie people, or do we just like the vibes? From there we get into our fall and Halloween traditions, including favorite scary movie rewatches, creepy and true crime podcasts on repeat, and one very unspooky but very real love of jogging outdoors in the crisp air. And there's no such thing as Spooky Szn without reminiscing about our favorite costumes over the years! Our PALs over at Patreon.com/millennial round out the discussion by sharing their favorite Halloween nostalgia (and we received a confessional admitting to conception during one particular horror movie classic!).

We wrap with recs. Laura is listening to the Spooked podcast, Pam recommends O'Keefe's Working Hands to keep your hands moisturized this fall, and Eric is watching Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026) and Cold Storage (2026).

Don't miss this week's installment of After Dark, where we get personal about what creeps us out, and if we've ever heard anything go bump in the night!

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This week we're joined by Becky, a youth services librarian to talk about everything from why a library card actually matters (for you and the library itself) to how kids' reading habits and attention spans have shifted in recent years — a nice follow-up to our literacy crisis episode with Shelby. We also get into the real, nuanced stuff: what happens when a parent challenges a book, the tension between a parent's right to guide their own kid's reading and restricting access for everyone else, and the messy debate over publishers revising older books versus preserving the original text. With Banned Books Week kicking off October 4th, Becky breaks down what it's actually for and what she wants parents, educators, and community members to understand about the role libraries play in kids' lives.

As always, we've got the best recs lined up! Laura's deep in Dungeon Crawler Carl, Pam's got a new pair of Anker Soundcore earbuds, and Becky's recommending the Fable app for your next book club meeting.

And in this week's installment of After Dark... Is it a faux pas to bring iced coffee to a job interview? We reflect on our own interviewing experiences and honestly find ourselves realizing we think bringing iced coffee to an interview is a weird move. Are we getting old? That might explain why Gen Z seems to think millennials just need to retire already...

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This week we're doing a little housekeeping and a deep dive into our inbox for your feedback! First, we're in the Dumpster Fire Corner fact-checking whether food recalls are actually getting worse (spoiler: sort of, and it's messier than it looks), the US looking to import previously-rejected beef, a legal loophole being used against wild horses, and why the internet is losing it over Beyoncé sampling Selena.

Then we spend time sharing listener responses to our recent episodes on the literacy crisis, America's 250th birthday, Looksmaxxing, and more. We're also rounding up notes from past episodes, including perfect attendance flashbacks, brutal middle school grading standards, an Andor love letter that might make you start the show immediately, and a "stooping it" porch culture recommendation that sounds like the best kind of third space.

As always, we've got our weekly recs (Laura's got a book pick with Verity by Colleen Hoover, Pam's recommending The Very Definition of Love by Sophia Benoit), and After Dark is waiting for Patrons and Apple Podcast subscribers with a fun continuation of our friendship deep-dive series.

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Hollywood promised us metal shop, mystery lunch ladies who slip you pie on your birthday, and a school-wide obsession with the football team's win-loss record. Real high school delivered... none of that, mostly. This week Pam, Eric, and Laura dig into the gap between movie-and-TV high school and the real thing, from the sports that never mattered outside their own tiny orbit to the theater kids who really were exactly as intense as every teen movie promised. Pam mourns a cafeteria she never had, prom stories get recounted, and we end up plugging how excited we are for the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King's 'Carrie' on Amazon Prime.

Recs this week: Laura says don't skimp on the sunscreen, Pam's got a Native dry shampoo powder recommendation, and Eric points you toward the "10 Things I Hate About You" episode of But Make It Scary.

Stick around for After Dark, where the high school stories get too juicy for the main feed — think teenage confessions and a very memorable European school trip.

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This week we're joined by Shelby, a middle school teacher who's here to tell us exactly how worried we should be about America's literacy crisis — spoiler, it's bad, but also more complicated than "kids these days." We get into what's actually happening in classrooms right now: sixth graders who need to be taught basic sentence structure, reading stamina that's been eroded by screens, and the widening gap between students who are thriving and students who are falling behind. Shelby gets real about what's driving all this — curriculum shifts, tech in the classroom, socioeconomic factors — and shares why she made the call to limit device use in her own classroom this year. If you're a millennial parent who grew up on Hooked on Phonics and whole language, this one's for you, but honestly it matters whether you have kids or not.

This week's recommendations: Donate to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (Pam), 826 National (Shelby), and Overtone (Laura).

And in this week's installment of After Dark: Who remembers the olds fear mongering about how we'd never get jobs with our tattoos, piercings, and funny colored hair? Jokes on them! We did find careers (but now we realize how draining they are). Join us for a discussion on the things we thought would impact us more when we were younger. We also have some predictions for which current trends we think will bite us in the ass later!

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This week, we're hitting close to home by exploring the similarities and differences in cell phone usage across generations. Have the Boomers forgotten they used to yell at us for being on our phones too much? Because they are in their phones. We compare the commonality of falling for the algorithm across generations, and explore the ways in which over reliance on mobile devices hinders us. We're also looking at cell phone usage amongst Gen Alpha: at least half of U.S. states have now passed media literacy laws aimed at helping kids spot AI-generated fakes, and several of those states are pairing the requirement with new limits on phone use in schools.

This week's recommendations: Laura's got you covered with the FDA's safety alerts tracker so you can keep an eye on the next recall before it hits your kitchen, Eric's deep in a Two Dots addiction, and Pam is recommending 'The Emotion Thesaurus' for anyone who wants to write feelings better than "sad" and "happy."

And in this week's installment of After Dark:

We love it when state laws change for the better (and tbh, more with the times). We're recounting some of our youthful indiscretions behind the paywall this week...

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It's Confessionpalooza time, and honestly, you all outdid yourselves this round! We're diving into a mailbag of listener confessions ranging from "haha relatable" to "wait, we need to sit with this one for a second," and we're doing our best to hold space for all of it. From AI boyfriends and 4th grade cringe moments to conspiracy theories and health anxieties, #Millennial is here for you! Please note this is not therapeutic or legal advice, and you shouldn't make life decisions based on it. We're strangers on the internet. Have we taught you nothing about the dangers of parasocial relationships?

Are you interested in your confession being featured on a future installment? Submit to the #Millennial Confessional: https://millennialshow.com/confessional/

This week's recs are Laura's pick of Maptap and Pam's pick of the Caffeine app for staying focused at your computer.

And if you're a Patron or Apple Podcasts subscriber, stick around for After Dark, where we're getting into fandom drama, soft-blocking, and what to do when an online friendship implodes without warning. A little bit of tea from our fandom days brings this conversation to life!

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We're kicking things off in the Dumpster Fire Corner, where the GOP has apparently decided the best way to distract from a failed Iran war, a military running low on weapons, the Epstein files, and an affordability crisis nobody in Congress seems to be fixing is to dust off Anthony Fauci and blame him for the pandemic. Again.

But for our main discussion, we're bidding adieu to summer with a nostalgic chat about summer travel, childhood vacations, and affordability. New data says a majority of Americans are scaling back this summer, with cost — gas, groceries, hotels, all of it — driving people toward day trips or just staying home altogether. But weirdly, road trips themselves are booming, with Hertz reporting a huge chunk of Americans planning to hit the road this year, many of them chasing America's 250th anniversary with Route 66, Boston, and Freedom Trail itineraries.

Recs this week include a case for solo travel, the Travle.earth app and Raddle Quest for your next trip planning obsession, and a gentle nudge to protect your mental health by muting triggering keywords on social media.

And in this week's installment of After Dark... Pam digs into some serious lore that has us on the edge of our seats. The tea is piping hot!

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This week we're doing our annual SDCC download, and there is a lot to unpack. We start with Avengers: Doomsday, because obviously, and get into the very Dr. Doom-heavy footage from Hall H. From there we hop to Disney+'s Percy Jackson, which just dropped a season 3 teaser and a release date (November 20!) that has book readers buzzing about how accurate this season might actually be.

Then we talking about Mike Flanagan's Carrie reboot — yes, with cell phones, yes, we have thoughts — landing on Prime October 7, plus Matthew Lillard's casting as the principal, which, honestly, correct choice. And because no Comic-Con recap is complete without a little discourse, we get into Kevin Feige comparing the Doctor Doom buildup to Thanos and why fans are very much not here for it.

Rounding things out, we've got Spaceballs news (Rick Moranis showed UP, people), a surprisingly moving story about how fan campaigning got Coyote vs. Acme un-shelved and into actual theaters, and just an overall reminder that this fandom stuff still means something to people.

We close things out with recs: Laura's hydrating her face with the Elf Holy Hydration moisturizer, Eric's deep in Star Trek mode with the Improvised Star Trek podcast (start on episode 85, "The Search for Sock"), and Pam wants you to buy local produce when you can to avoid the current explosive diarrhea outbreak sweeping the nation.

And in this week's installment of After Dark... the girls haven't had a chance to catch up on life things in a while! So listen in as we fill each other in on all the updates, family drama, and life happenings of recent weeks.

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