Dave opens with a story about growing up watching his mom compete, and why a single mom showing up to tryouts with her kid on her hip hit differently than expected.

From there, he and Cody get into the barriers to women's sports that never show up in a spreadsheet, whether a report can account for the people it's measuring, and Roy's two very different attempts at being helpful.

Also on the table: why Rebecca's boyfriend storyline keeps getting played for laughs when it clearly isn't a joke, what's actually going on between Alice and Gemma, and Cody's theory that this season's real thesis got delivered by a woman who couldn't kick a ball.

Plus Beard's Jam of the Week, Diamond Dogs, and Who Grew.

School's back in session, so Dave, Cody, &Jackson are drafting the best fictional teachers in pop culture. One rule — they've got to actually be on the school's payroll. No swamp mentors, no karate handymen.

Plus bonus rounds for best fictional school and best non-teaching school employee, real-life favorite teacher shout-outs, and a look at the highest-grossing movies ever set in a classroom.

Also: Jerry Bruckheimer says Pirates of the Caribbean 6 is happening, and we have questions.

Dave and Cody are back on the pitch, and this week the conversation gets stuck on one uncomfortable question: what do you do when the person telling you the hard truth about yourself is a jerk about it? Alice Chilton has an attitude and a point, and the guys dig into why it's so much easier to focus on the delivery than the message. Also under discussion — whether Beard's avoidance of Ted is loyalty or self-protection, Cody's pitch for how Rebecca should have handled the hire, what Ted actually understands about people that nobody else at Richmond does, and the ongoing mystery of what's in that gift box. Plus Beard's Jam of the Week, Diamond Dogs, and Who Grew.

This week on Be Kind Rewind, Dave, Cody, & Geek Jackson revisit Real Genius (1985): the smartest teen comedy of the 80's(?) and the movie that proves Val Kilmer was one of the great comedic actors we barely got to see.

We dig into what holds up (Kilmer at his most magnetic, a movie where being smart is the whole appeal instead of a handicap to overcome, and an anti-military-industrial-complex streak that hits harder in 2026 than it did in '85), what doesn't (Mitch is fifteen, the Kent pranks get genuinely mean, and somebody destroyed a man's house with a satellite laser and nobody went to jail), and the behind-the-scenes stuff — Val got the part by being rude to the producer, the popcorn house took three months and 190,000 pounds of kernels, and the drawings on the dorm wall were made by Val's late brother Wesley.

Plus a Pastor's Corner on Chris Knight telling a crying fifteen-year-old that his brain isn't a machine, a fight about whether Kent or Gabriel Jarret is the real story here, and a game guessing Val's five highest-grossing films. Cody sends us out with a Val Kilmer poem.

New show, new watch-alongs.

Dave & Cody kick off Ted Lasso Season 4 with the premiere, "Home," and they've got some thoughts.

Three years after Ted got on that plane, he's the assistant manager at a Kansas City grocery store, teaching life lessons with a bag of Pup-Peroni. Rebecca, Keeley, and Higgins fly in with an offer to coach Richmond's new women's team. Dottie Lasso drops a line about fathers that Cody is NOT letting slide. And Ted finally opens the door he's been avoiding all episode. As two guys who actually live in Kansas, Dave and Cody dig into how the show handled Ted's hometown plus a Song of the Episode with a genuinely wild backstory, and an honest conversation about whether a show that ended perfectly should have come back at all.

Pop Culture Lately: The Grab Bag Is Open

Twice a year or so we empty out the entire bag...everything we've been watching, reading, and playing that never fit anywhere else.

Dave, Cody, & Geek Paul dig through it all: a widow who talks to an octopus, eight artists who secretly lived inside a shopping mall for four years, and a Mr. Rogers movie where Mr. Rogers is the antagonist.

Along the way: Spider-Man is printing money on a Tuesday, the horror genre keeps saving cinema, Woodstock '99 was worse than you remember, and George Clooney made a movie that may or may not be about George Clooney.

Plus a wrestling complaint, a Star Trek episode with dinosaurs, and a movie game that goes badly off the rails somewhere around Joanna Cassidy.

Then it's out to The Lobby, where you asked what franchise needs to die and whether any of us actually read books.

Think of it as rummaging through a flea market of pop culture: unexpected finds, strange treasures, and a few conversations we didn't plan on having.

What have you been into lately? Tell us in the comments on the social post.

SPOILERS

Dave & Cody welcome back Geek Jason to review Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The movie just posted one of the biggest openings in history, and the table digs into why:

- Destin Daniel Cretton was given room to tell a smaller, more intimate story

- The Bernthal and Holland chemistry

- The Hulk and the Punisher as perfect storytelling guest stars

Also:

Jason brings a perspective on Peter's isolation that only someone who works with kids in care could.

The Pastor's Corner lands on Aunt May's tombstone against Yelena's "small potatoes"

Plus Emily Wilson's scorching review of The Odyssey, a round of the Movie Game, and a bonus breakdown of that end credits scene.

Movie reviewed: Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) — Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Sadie Sink, Jon Bernthal, and Mark Ruffalo. In theaters now.

You're killing me, Smalls. This week on a Be Kind Rewind, Dave, Cody, & Paul Walcher head back to the summer of 1962 for The Sandlot (1993), a movie that flopped with critics and became a multigenerational classic anyway.

We get into what holds up (the Ray Charles fireworks scene, Ham roasting an entire lineup of batters, the ensemble of kid actors who genuinely became friends), what doesn't (the pool scene, and yes we talk about it honestly), and the behind-the-scenes stuff you might not know.

Plus: a genuine three-way argument about whether Denis Leary is the winner or the loser of this movie, a full Muppetize (Cody casts the entire film), a Pastor's Corner on inclusion for inclusion's sake and the monsters we build in our own heads, and where the cast actually ended up.

Bonus: it's Dave's birthday, we ask what posters you had on your wall as a kid, and a brutal round of the Movie Game.

Dave & Cody are joined by film professor Paul to review Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which just posted the biggest live-action opening of 2026 and the best reviews of Nolan's career.

The table digs into Ludwig Göransson's score, the IMAX cinematography, the 60-foot Cyclops puppet, Robert Pattinson's genuinely repulsive heel turn, and John Leguizamo's surprise best-in-career performance. Dave makes the case that softening Odysseus's hubris costs the third act its humility, and lays out a Pastor's Corner connecting the film's Sea Peoples references to the real Bronze Age collapse and what happens to a civilization that loses its faith. Plus a recast, an Argos tribute, and a spirited defense of Taco Bell.

SPOILER WARNING: Full spoilers for The Odyssey after the news segment.

Movie reviewed: The Odyssey (2026) — Written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal, and John Leguizamo. In theaters now.

We're in a tight spot. This week on Be Kind Rewind, Dave & Cody dig into the Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), the Depression-era chain gang comedy that's (not so) secretly Homer's Odyssey and accidentally revived an entire genre of American music.

We break down what holds up (this is George Clooney's coming out party), the murderer's row of character actors, Roger Deakins making Mississippi look like a sepia dream, and a soundtrack that won Album of the Year at the Grammys as a bluegrass record. We get into what's harder to sit with in 2026, the wild behind-the-scenes stuff (the Coens claim they never read the Odyssey, Clooney said yes without reading the script, the KKK scene is staged like The Wizard of Oz), and a Pastor's Corner on Ulysses Everett McGill as an Ecclesiastes figure who chases every title but bona fide and only finds his knees when the rope comes out.

Plus: Adam Sandler officiated the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce wedding and we have questions, we Muppetize the movie (Dave cheats), and we guess Clooney's top five highest-grossing films, with a number one that made us both genuinely angry.

https://linktr.ee/PopCulturePastorPod