Morgendorks: A Daria Podcast

And lo it descends from on high, like a celestial being, or perhaps maybe just a bird that hit a skyscraper window: It's another episode of Morgendorks! This week, we're looking at the deeply unfortunately titled "Groped by an Angel." When Quinn starts believing hard in guardian angels, it's up to Daria to keep her eyes from rolling out of her head—but a party at Brittney's is about to test Quinn's faith. It's a weird episode that actually led to a lot of fascinating discussions!

We also eschew our normal cultural context for some fan mail this week, which we'd normally feel a little bad about—but this fan mail is *awesome*. We had a blast with it. Thank y'all who take the time to write in, seriously.

Enjoy!

Links:

What is Glitter? | The New York Times

Breaking Glass with Sound | MIT

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It's time for what probably amounts to the first and only Halloween episode of Morgendorks! This week, we're fortunate enough to be looking at "Legends of the Mall." When the Fashion Club gets lost in the wrong part of town and Jake, Trent, Daria, and Jane soon suffer a similar fate, we get a look into some of Lawndale's folklore—in the form of URBAN LEGENDS! WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!

Our cultural context is just us shooting the shit about urban legends for a while, because we both love the topic so much. This thing was a ton of fun to record, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.

Oh, by the by, since this is the last you'll hear from us before Election Day on November 3rd: VOTE. SWEET JESUS, VOTE.

Links:

The Urban Legend of the Hook Man | David Emery | liveabout.com

Clown Statue | dacringeyfangirl | quotev.com

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Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @morgendorks

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It's time for Morgendorks season four episode nine, "Mart of Darkness," or, as it may more widely become known: That Episode Where Rob was on Prednisone. This episode only looks shorter than most of the others we've done lately. Hoo, boy. ANYWAY: When Lawndale's new warehouse store sucks everybody into its vortex, our intrepid heroes must find their way through two hundred aisles of savings and what historians will refer to as The Sample Station War o' 2000.

No cultural context this week because we got some wonderful fan mail we wanted to dig into. Thank you, yet again, to this incredible community. Y'all make hosting this podcast an absolute privilege.

Josie Deane Firecolors

Links:

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Twitter: @morgendorks

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October's here! And so is another episode of Morgendorks! This week, we're looking at "Psych Therapy," wherein Helen's work is offering her the chance at a big promotion—but it comes at the cost of having to get her entire family psychologically evaluated. Meanwhile, Jane starts a webcam that offers a 24/7 glimpse into her life. Huge invasion of privacy vibes coming off of this one, folks ...

... which means it's appropriate that our cultural context this week focuses on Jennicam, a somewhat forgotten piece of internet history that presaged livestreaming, reality television, social media, and so much more. Its founder was, for a time, arguably the biggest thing the internet had to offer. Now, her online presence is virtually nonexistent. It's a fascinating tale that ties into not only this episode of Daria but also the modern internet experience as a whole!

Jennicam: Why the First Lifecaster Disappeared from the Internet | Gizmodo

Jennicam | Reply All

Jennicam: The First Woman to Stream her Life on the Internet | BBC

Links:

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Twitter: @morgendorks

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Fire up the hot air balloon, it's time for a new episode of Morgendorks! This week we're looking at "Of Human Bonding," wherein Daria gets some not-quite-quality time with Jake and Helen gets some equally questionable quality time with ... the Fashion Club? Okay, let's see how that goes.

We don't have a cultural context this week, unfortunately, but as you can see by the length of the episode we still had plenty to say. Although a solid, like, thirty minutes of it is just Rob ranting about Jake. So there's that.

Links:

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Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @morgendorks

Facebook: fb.me/morgendorks.podcast

Time for another Morgendorks! This week: "I Loathe a Parade." It's Homecoming time at Lawndale High, which can only mean one thing: Daria goes on a toilet paper run and stumbles across both a parade and the long-forgotten Tad Gupty, who can't find his parents, so she ends up escorting him around, but she also runs into Tom, who decides to tag along, and then they start getting along way more than usual and it's a weird vibe and also Upchuck's driving a swinger mobile. Such a quaint yearly tradition.

In the wake of the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman, our cultural context this week focuses on the importance of representation in media. How well are we doing? Spoiler: Not well at all. But it underscores the potential of a show like Jodie's upcoming series, and that's worth talking about.

Inequality in 900 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBT, and Disability from 2007-2016 | USC Annenberg 

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By failing to get this episode out on time, did we succeed? We'd like to think so. It's time to talk about "The F Word," this week on Morgendorks! When Mr. O'Neill assigns his class to purposefully fail at something, it throws everything into disarray. Brittany's unpopular! Kevin sucks at sports! Jane's a ... cheerleader? This one waits two acts before going off the rails entirely.

And for cultural context, we talk about the risk-averse (or is it risk-aware?) behavior of the Millennial generation. Is it that they don't want to embrace failure, or is it that they have so little margin for error they can't fathom taking that kind of chance?

Links:

YouTube | 1960's Royal Shake-a-Puddin' Commercial

Forbes | Millennials Don't Want to 'Embrace Failure'

Investopedia | Millennials are Risk Averse and Hoarding Cash

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Twitter: @morgendorks

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Pull out your magnifying glass and dig deep into that reservoir of televised crime dramas, it's time for "Murder, She Snored," this week on Morgendorks! When Daria falls asleep to a knockoff "Charlie's Angels" episode, the dream sequence that unfurls runs the gamut of crime drama references from the past forty years—all in the service of solving the mystery of THE MURDER OF KEVIN THOMPSON.

It's a weird one, folks, and one of us loved it a whole hell of a lot. Won't say which one, but, hint: It's the one who's maybe now a big damn hypocrite for having slammed "The Daria Hunter."

This episode of Morgendorks is a bit different, too, because the cultural context is weaved throughout instead of dropped in at the end. Please enjoy!

American Psychological Association | The Truth About Lie Detectors (aka Polygraph Tests)

YouTube | Charade (2/10) Movie CLIP - Mr. Lampert's Funeral (1963) HD

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Let us leave behind these earthly confines and take to the air majestically, like Kevin off the back of a motorcycle into the Tommy Sherman memorial sapling. It's time to look at "A Tree Grows in Lawndale," this week on Morgendorks! When Kevin gets into a motorcycle accident and is left unable to play football, he sinks into a deep depression—taking the entire town of Lawndale with him.

And for our cultural context, we look at how the success of your local high school football team may actually, in fact, have an impact on your property values. The world is weird.

Speaking of weird, we derail almost immediately when one of us hits up Google on a totally relevant search for Daria BDSM fanfiction. So ... yay. 

Links:

"Winning Pays: High School Football Championships and Property Values" | Journal of Housing Economics

"The High School Football Stadium Effect in Houston Real Estate" | Houston Agent Magazine

"Cost of High School Football Stadium Rises to $70 Million" | American School & University

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Twitter: @morgendorks

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Time for the cast of Daria to answer the call of the wild—and time for us to cover "Antisocial Climbers," this week on Morgendorks! When a class trip up a mountain gets stranded in a blizzard, the whole gang finds themselves stressing over what might become of them. Quinn, particularly, because there's a good chance the group draws and quarters her. Why? Find out with us!

Also, we dive into the tragic and harrowing story of the Donner Party—a real-life example of westward expansion gone wrong that has inspired a huge amount of our media over the past century-and-a-half, including (in small part) this episode!

Links:

"Snowed-In" | TV Tropes

"Braving the Blizzard" | TV Tropes

Lansford W. Hastings: A Man Who Would be King | Tahoe Weekly

"The Best Land Under Heaven," by Michael Wallis (Amazon)

"The Indifferent Stars Above," by Daniel James Brown (Amazon)

"Transformations," by Anne Sexton (Amazon)

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Patreon: patreon.com/morgendorks

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @morgendorks

Facebook: fb.me/morgendorks.podcast