🎄 We took a perfectly respectable “Best Christmas Movies” list… and absolutely wrecked it.

In this festive edition of ListBusters, the Pop Culture Pastor crew goes after Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Best Christmas Movies of All Time — armed with nukes, switcheroos, rockets, and zero restraint. Classics get shuffled, sacred cows get tipped, Elf gets obliterated, and somehow Baby Jesus nearly gets sniped.

Expect hot takes, nostalgia, generational divides, surprise guest chaos, and a final list that absolutely no one will agree with — including us.

👉 Love Christmas movies? Hate Christmas movies? Already furious?
Good. This episode is for you.

https://linktr.ee/PopCulturePastorPod

This week, Pop Culture Pastor hits Be Kind Rewind on Ernest Saves Christmas (1988). Dave, Cody, and Jackson revisit the holiday oddity that was a childhood staple for many, unpacking what still works (Jim Varney’s undeniable talent, a genuinely great Santa) and what hasn’t aged as well.

Along the way, they talk Ernest’s place in late-80s pop culture, Jim Varney’s legacy, deeper themes of identity and calling, Muppet-ize the movie, pick which character they’d be, and wrap it all up with a Vern-based rating.

Is Ernest Saves Christmas a true holiday classic or just a nostalgic time capsule?

Wicked For Good Review and a Wicked Super-Fan Joins the Show

In this week’s Pop Culture Pastor, Dave and Cody start with the kind of real-life discovery every nerd dreams about: three brothers in California stumble upon an original Superman #1 buried under old newspapers—and it sells for over $9 million. That leads to comic-grading nightmares, childhood nostalgia, and some very strong feelings about mailing valuables.

From there, the guys shift to a more sobering headline as Donald Glover reveals a congenital heart defect that nearly ended his life mid-tour. Dave and Cody unpack the moment he learned he’d had a stroke, the wise words he shared with fans, and why the world absolutely cannot lose Childish Gambino before the Community movie gets made.

Then it’s time for the main event: a full, spoiler-filled review of Wicked: For Good.
Dave and Cody dive into:

• How Part Two differs tonally from Part One

• The big changes from the stage musical

• What works (Erivo, Grande, “No Good Deed,” Jeff Goldblum’s surprising emotional turn)

• What really doesn’t (the pacing, new songs, the ending, and… Morrible)

• Their recasts, deeper themes, winners, losers, and ratings

And for the first time in a long time, the Geek Phone rings!
Listener Lauren, a bona fide Wicked super-fan, jumps in to share:

• What hooked her on the story

• How she threw a pink-and-green watch party

• Her thoughts on the film’s emotional beats

• Her Winner, Loser, and Rating of the Movie

• What she’d say directly to Jon M. Chu if she had the chance

It’s a big episode packed with musical joy, nerd heartbreak, philosophical detours, and the kind of pop culture rabbit trails only this show can deliver.

Grab a seat on the Yellow Brick Road and jump in.

In this episode of Pop Culture Pastor, Dave and Cody sprint headfirst into Edgar Wright’s new adaptation of The Running Man, asking the big question: is this the movie that officially crowns Glen Powell as the next great everyman action star?

The guys start with a wild but oddly wholesome news item: Timothée Chalamet calling Adam Sandler “one of the best actors of all time” during their “Sandler x Chalamet” event. That launches a fun conversation about Sandler’s career arc — from “guy who just makes vacation movies with his buddies” to secretly one of the most versatile actors working, thanks to turns in Punch-Drunk Love and Uncut Gems. There’s also a quick detour into DC’s Lanterns delay, James Gunn’s DCU, and why everything around Warner Bros. feels just a little… wobbly.

Then it’s full-on Running Man review mode:

• how this version leans back into Stephen King’s original dystopian nightmare

• why Glen Powell feels like the spiritual heir to Bruce Willis

• how Colman Domingo and Josh Brolin absolutely cook in limited screen time

• why the Hunters are a huge missed opportunity, and how Alan Ritchson could’ve fixed the whole problem with one menacing glare

• plus a Deeper Themes segment on media, virtue signaling, and why the real villain might be the human heart, not just “rich bad guys in offices.”

In The Lobby, listeners ask about the many faces of Cody (Contrarian Cody, Capitalist Cody, Chaotic Cody, and more), dream podcast guests (Scorsese, Paul Walter Hauser, Weird Al, Harrison Ford), and whether a live-action Legend of Zelda movie can truly be the Lord of the Rings of video game adaptations.

Oh, and yes—there’s talk of Christmas playlists, Die Hard–inspired Christmas shirts, and why Michael Cera is somehow the loser of the movie simply because there wasn’t enough of him.

This week on Pop Culture Pastor, Dave, Cody, and Jackson jump straight into the chaos as they tackle a brand-new ListBusters challenge — this time taking aim at JoBlo.com’s list of the 25 Greatest Action Movies of All Time, curated by writer Chris Bumbray.

What starts as a simple countdown quickly unravels into total cinematic anarchy: nuked classics, rogue recasts, strategic sabotage, and one very passionate defense of Commando that nobody saw coming.
By the end, the list looks… different. Very different. Like “you won't believe what ends up at #1" different.

Along the way, the guys also break down the bizarre and delightful news of Pope Leo’s big Hollywood meet-up at the Vatican, talk through the pontiff’s four favorite films, and wonder what guilty-pleasure movies the Pope didn’t admit to.

It’s unhinged, hilarious, surprisingly thoughtful, and absolutely peak ListBusters chaos.

Action movies will never be the same.

Dave and Cody dive deep into House of Dynamite, Kathryn Bigelow’s nail-biting new nuclear thriller that’s equal parts technical masterpiece and moral Rorschach test. Is it brilliant minimalism—or a cinematic blue screen of death?
They also break down the possible sale of Warner Bros. Discovery, what it could mean for movie theaters, and whether James Gunn’s fledgling DCU survives a Netflix takeover.

It’s the perfect PCP blend of wit, wonder, and way-too-much coffee.

• Cold Open: Dave overshares at the coffee drive-thru ☕

• Pop Culture News:

  • Why Warner Bros. might be up for sale

  • The Netflix wildcard and the ripple effect on theaters

  • The DCU’s uncertain future under Gunn & Safran

• Main Review: House of Dynamite

  • Multiple perspectives, one moral bomb

  • The power of restraint vs. reaction

  • Idris Elba’s presidential gravitas

  • What works, what fizzles, and why the ending divides everyone

• Winner & Loser of the Movie

• The Lobby Q&A

🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts
☕ Support the show + grab merch at https://linktr.ee/PopCulturePastorPod

Pop Culture Pastor dives headfirst into the fog. Dave and Cody rewind Frank Darabont’s soul-crusher The Mist (2007): why the human breakdown still hits, why Marcia Gay Harden steals the whole movie, and how that ending becomes a parable about quitting one step too soon. They riff on what holds up and what doesn’t, then play the show’s greatest hits: Muppet-ize the Movie, Which Character Would You Be? and the Winner & Loser of the movie (sorry, Stephen King… Darabont’s ending wins).

Plus: a spicy news bit on the “least attractive hobbies for men” list (video games, figurines, crypto, trolling, gambling) and why maybe the problem isn’t hobbies—it’s imbalance.

Come for the monsters, stay for the meaning.

Agree? Hate it with a white-hot passion? Sound off and tag the show.

Subscribe, rate, and check the PCP swag in the Linktree— https://linktr.ee/PopCulturePastorPod

Two hundred episodes. A legendary voice. And a look toward the future.

In this milestone episode, Pop Culture Pastor celebrates its 200th journey around the fandom sun with a little help from the incomparable Malcolm McDowell, who kicks things off with a cinematic introduction worthy of the occasion.

Dave and Cody dig into what’s next for pop culture itself — from the rise of AI actors and streaming burnout to reboot fatigue and the evolution of fandom. Then the guys turn the conversation inward, opening up about the future of the podcast, their hopes for the community, and how listeners can shape the next 200 episodes.

Finally, a supersized edition of The Lobby answers listener questions that range from thoughtful to downright hilarious — with plenty of surprises, callbacks, and a few emotional moments in between.

Featuring:
🎤 The voice of Malcolm McDowell(!)
💬 A hopeful look at the future of storytelling
🙌 A celebration of fans, friendship, and 200 episodes of shared geekery

“Stories brought us here. Stories will take us further.”

https://linktr.ee/PopCulturePastorPod

ROAD MOVIES: Stories that move us (literally).
What makes a road movie work? Dave, Cody, and guest Andy Acker break down the secret sauce — the motion that transforms the characters, the odd couples who can’t escape each other, the maps that never lead where they think, and the soundtracks that make it all feel alive.

They swap their own road-trip stories (buses, bison, and breakdowns included), revisit classics like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Little Miss Sunshine, Tommy Boy, and The Muppet Movie, and explore why these journeys still hit so hard — because sometimes, getting lost is the only way to find your people.

Bonus detour: A quick look at the bizarre rise of “stay-at-home sons.”

https://linktr.ee/PopCulturePastorPod

Pop Culture Junk Drawer (One Take Edition)
We emptied the drawer and hit record: one continuous, gloriously unedited (well...mostly unedited, lol) rummage through pop culture. Lionel Richie spills on Michael Jackson’s… laundry. Bad Bunny nabs the Super Bowl halftime show and the internet predictably loses its mind (or pretends to). Reading Rainbow returns to raise a new generation of book nerds. An AI “actress” named Tilly shows up to take jobs and haunt our dreams. Plus quick hits on Peacemaker S2, neon-soaked TRON: Ares, It: Welcome to Derry, and a rom-com that actually argues back. Cody promises a “golden thread.” Dave promises to keep the Taco Bell packets. Somehow… both come true.

Why hit play:

• Real talk on outrage algorithms vs. real life (Bad Bunny discourse decoded)

• Cozy nostalgia with actual stakes (Reading Rainbow’s modern pivot)

• A smart, funny sanity check on AI hype (Tilly Norwood, explained)

• Rapid-fire watchlist you can use tonight

If your brain craves news, nostalgia, and nonsense in equal measure, this is your episode. Open the drawer. We dare you.

https://linktr.ee/PopCulturePastorPod