Morgendorks: A Daria Podcast

The 90s are alive and well in Lawndale! Take a dive with us into The Episode that Launched a Thousand Fanfics, “The Road Worrier”! When Daria and Jane decide to tag along with Trent and his bandmate Jesse to Alternapalooza, get get an in-depth look at just how our favorite teenage misanthrope’s psyche holds up to indignity after indignity in front of the Mystik Spiral frontman she’s crushing on hardcore.

Courtesy of Nissa, we also get a thorough schooling on just what the hell the alternative movement even was—and where it came from in the first place.

Links:

Outpost Daria Reborn

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When Quinn and Daria both get nabbed breaking curfew, they’re forced to answer to the authorities: the authorities, in this case, being Helen and Jake, who appear to have binged a little too much courtroom television. The punishment? The girls are grounded for a month. But Helen and Jake are about to find out the hard way that the costs of running such a punitive criminal justice system far outweigh the benefits.

(Brief aside: Breaking curfew isn’t much of a surprise for Quinn, but what was Daria doing out so late? Who was she with? We never find out! It’s just one of the many issues we have with this episode, but we figured we’d put it out there in this space, too, because what the hell.)

In our cultural context, we take a dive into Court TV, and some of its darlings who became household names in the mid-90s.

Links:

A Brief History of Court TV, Where Many a True Crime Obsession was Born | Gizmodo

Outpost Daria Reborn

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It’s time to look hard and disapprovingly at the bizarre and kinda gross world of teenage plastic surgery, as we dive hard into “Too Cute” in this episode of Morgendorks! When a Lawndale High girl with her eyes set on getting into the Fashion Club goes out and gets work done on her nose, it sets off a fad that sucks Quinn in—and fills her with some of that old high school chestnut: horrendous, world-shattering insecurity.

We end up looking into the statistics a bit to get a grasp on just how prevalent this sort of thing actually is. Spoiler alert: way too prevalent. So brace for that, I guess. Enjoy!

Links:

2017 Plastic Surgery Statistics Report

2005 Plastic Surgery Statistics Report

American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 1997 Statistics on Cosmetic Surgery

Our Bodies, Ourselves — Teens and Plastic Surgery

Outpost Daria Reborn

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Quinn's got a babysitting gig, but she's also got her own things going on—including a new obsession with the Deena Decker time management system—so she ropes Daria into doing it instead. Problem: These kids are weeeeird. We're back on track with characterization this week, but how fun is the episode overall?

Also: Nissa dives into the connection this episode seems to be making between the tragedy at Jonestown and folks like Deena Decker.

Links:

Interview with Tim Collins, inventor of the V-Chip

Brief History of the V-Chip Invention

Outpost Daria Reborn

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It's time for a rather slapdash look at operant conditioning, as we dive headlong into the (deeply problematic) episode, The Lab Brat! When Daria gets saddled with Kevin (and Brittany with Upchuck) as her lab partner in a psychiatry experiment, we're treated to a milieu of horrendous misogyny and bizarrely unfamiliar takes on characters we thought we knew.

Also! Join us as we leap into a tangent and explore the somewhat tumultuous history of high school psychology courses! It's fun! We promise!

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains some brief discussion of sexual assault in the media. If you'd like to skip over this part of our discussion, it starts around 15:13 and ends around 17:17.

Links:

High School Psychology: A Coming of Age Story

Outpost Daria Reborn

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Email: [email protected]
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We didn't get enough gross predatory behavior from the last episode, so we're back at it again with This Year's Model! When some modeling talent scouts invade Lawndale High and have a bunch of teenage girls thinking they could be the Next Big Thing in modeling, Quinn's hooked—and Daria's just kind of along for the ride.

Lots of talk about modeling and its impact on vulnerable or impressionable youth in this episode—as well as some super not-cool jokes the writers slipped in.

FTC | Look Out for Modeling Scams

Outpost Daria Reborn

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Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @morgendorks
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For the youth of America in the 1980s and 1990s, all roads led inexorably to the mall. Daria's finding that out the hard way in this week's episode, wherein the opening of the Mall of the Millennium has (nearly) all of Lawndale abuzz—and Daria, despite her best efforts, is dragged into spending the day there on a field trip.

We talk a whole lot about mall culture in the United States! What made the mall such a huge part of the American experience? What were our own experiences? What's the current state of things? (Hint: Not great.)

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains some brief discussion of sexual assault and predatory behavior. If you'd like to skip over this part of our discussion, it begins around 12:50 and ends around 17:05.

Links:

The Atlantic | When Malls Saved the Suburbs from Despair

Dan Bell's "Dead Mall Series" on YouTube

TV Tropes | Flanderization

Public Affairs Council | Public Affairs Pulse Survey

Outpost Daria Reborn

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Email: [email protected]
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Our brand spanking new Facebook: fb.me/morgendorks.podcast

When Lawndale's Internet cafe gets broken into, something new must rise up from the ashes—and some unlucky souls from Lawndale High will be the ones to raise money for it. Join us as we: Get an unpleasant glimpse into Mr. DeMartino's home life! Watch in horror as Daria and Jane maaaybe get ready to leave a woman to die! FINALLY FIGURE OUT WHAT GRADE QUINN IS IN!

Yeah, we're excited. We also take a deep dive into the phenomenon that is the Internet cafe, as well as the demographic complexities of late-90s Internet and computer access.

Links:

U.S. Census | Home Computers and Internet Use in the United States: August 2000

Outpost Daria Reborn

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Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @morgendorks
Our brand spanking new Facebook: fb.me/morgendorks.podcast

When parental peer pressure (of all things) convinces Helen that Daria and Quinn need to start thinking about their college prospects—and yes, we will be going into whether it's way too early for them to be worrying about such things—the family ends up taking a trip to the campus of Helen and Jake's alma mater, Middleton. Naturally, things get out of hand quickly.

Also: How old is Quinn? More importantly, how old is she perceived? Is the show's handling of her a little gross?

We spend a lot of time this episode talking about how financially, socially, and systematically screwed the Millennials are, sooo if you're likely to find that kind of thing depressing, uh ... welcome aboard!

CollegeData - What's the Price Tag for a College Education?

CNBC - Here's How Much More Expensive it is for You to Go to College than it Was for Your Parents

Outpost Daria Reborn

Website: morgendorks.podbean.com
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @morgendorks

Few things are quite as inevitable as The High School Sitcom Party Episode, and Daria knocked hers out nice and early. When Daria helps Britney complete an art assignment, she earns herself an invitation to a huge party at Britney's parents' house. Jane (and Helen's insistence that Daria watch over her sister) convince her to go, despite her reservations—and much to our delight, because otherwise we never would have been introduced to THE AMBUSH OF CERAMIC TIGERS.

That'll make sense, I promise.

We'll also be taking an in-depth look at just why every high school show has at least one of these party episodes, as well as the research into just how much these young folks of today are actually partying.

iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood, on Amazon

"Adolescents misperceive and are influenced by high-status peers’ health risk, deviant, and adaptive behavior." Paper published in Developmental Pscychology by Sarah W. Helms in 2014.

Teens Overestimate the Bad Behavior of Peers, by Sarah W. Helms

Outpost Daria Reborn

Website: morgendorks.podbean.com
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @morgendorks