Popcycle

Back with another episode of PopCycle! This month we're talking about comedian extraordinaire, Jan Hooks. From her time with LA's Groundlings all the way through SNL and beyond, she was a special performer whose memorable characters and comedic delivery paved the way for women in comedy.

In this episode we have some guest hosts. Zyp was busy so we enlisted the help from Breanne and Emily of our favourite podcast, Emily Missed Out. In this episode we talk about Hooks, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Happy Days.

Milkshakes huh? Alllllllright. Welp, one of the cool things about our show is you can basically base a show on whatever you want. Never before have we based a show on something edible, well unless you're a cannibal, but here we are.

In this episode we connect milkshakes to milkshakes by a lactose tolerant thread including Phillip Seymour Hoffman, R.E.M. and Brent Hodge whose recent documentary film is all about everyone's favourite TV show, the Paul Feig/Judd Apatow classic, Freaks and Geeks.

We get a little freaky, and a whole bunch of geeky in this one. Hope you enjoy this, our newest episode - the Milkshake Episode.

The holidays can be a busy time, and as such we're doing something a little different this time on PopCycle. Since PopCycle rose from the ashes of NewbsRadio, we decided to re-release one of our favourite (read magical) past episodes of all-time.

In December 2012, we originally released this episode based on the life and times of the astronomer and mathematician, Copernicus, then we sort of got off track a bit and started talking about Bruce Springsteen. We honestly had no idea how to get back on track but then were miraculously saved by Alan Cross, James Burke and of course, Santa.

Next month we'll be back on track with new episodes of PopCycle, we'll be discussing Milkshakes with our pal Brent Hodge, the director of the documentaries a Brony Tale and the more recent Freaks and Geeks doc that came out in summer 2018. Until then!

We're back with another squishy episode that won't hurt babies or old people. This month we're talking about the Nerf toy line with inventor Reyn Guyer! Reyn fills us in on how Nerf was born out of a happy accident and then by going as far away as possible we end up talking about Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford, and filmmaker Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal. How do we get from A to B to C and back again? You'll have to listen to find out!

Zyp and I are pretty well split down the middle as far as episodes following a particular theme coinciding with an event like Christmas, Easter, President's Day, or Hallowe'en. Well it's Hallowe'en currently as I am writing this and I am sitting on my couch in the dark with all the lights out because we have a zillion dogs and each time someone sets foot on our porch my house echoes like an SPCA. No offense to any of the trick or treaters out there, you do your thing, I've got podcasts to post.

So this month Zyp wanted to feature one of his favourite albums, Michael Jackson's Thriller to start and end our journey. I also love that album and it fits the October 31st delivery date so here we are. If you aren't familiar, Thriller is the best-selling album of ALL TIME. It yields about a number of dogs I own amount of connections so it's perfect for our PopCycle focus.

While we are out collecting connections door-to-door on this we end up chatting with Karen Unland, the president and founder of the Alberta Podcast Network (powered by ATB) and co-host of That's a Thing?! with her daughter, Elizabeth, a fantbulous podcast also on the network. She schools us in the most "ground-breaking" of ominous topics that really ties the spooky subject together.

In this episode we also talk about Chip Tunes! Those are the wonderful 8-bit ditties, as Zyp puts it, the bleeps, blops, and blorps that compliment some of our favourite video games from the 70s and 80s and into the 90s.

We hope you enjoy this scary offering this month. Next month we'll be talking about the Nerf toy line with it's inventor, Reyn Guyer!

We're back with another episode of PopCycle for y'all! Special thanks for CJSR for letting us record in their space for this one. The most fun thing about doing a podcast is you can basically do it from anywhere, we prefer studios but that's mostly because we yell a lot. Podcasting also makes us feel like we're young again for some reason. Maybe because it's hip and cool and we're both hip and also cool. Maybe not.

When it comes to be on the pulse of what the kids are all about, you can usually count us out - but in the case of Donald Glover AKA Childish Gambino, we're all in. Though we weren't ground floor supporters - not being big fans of Community, we fell hard for his rap skillz after his huge success with "Because the Internet" and "This is America". Now we can't get enough of him and base entire podcasts on his life. So sue us.

This episode we talk about Glover's work in TV and Film, music and more and we end up talking about some pretty cool stuff including the British/Italian sci-fi show, Space 1999 and Nina Simone! My mom always said, PopCycle is like life and I think it's because Forrest Gump's momma said, "Life is like a box o' chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." Unless you're eating Pot o' Gold because that stuff comes with a legend.

We hope you enjoy this second episode of PopCycle, if you missed it, our last episode was based on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood and so if you like what you're hearing, take a listen to that too! Next month we're talking Michael Jackson's Thriller and our episode will drop on Hallowe'en coincidentally. We're also welcoming our first PopCycle guest as we have That's a Thing's Karen Unland on the program. Very much looking forward to all this and more episodes down the pipe.

It's often nice taking breaks, recharge ones batteries, focus on something else for a while. Then sometimes breaks can just become normalcy, and it's hard to crack normalcy. That's kind of what happened to a podcast called NewbsRadio, this shows' predecessor. Christian Zyp and I decided that enough was enough, breaks over, it was time for another take over and so we dreamed up a new vision for what is now PopCycle the Pop-Culture Connections Podcast.

This is our first show back after about a 4 year hiatus and we decided to re-brand the old show mainly because the old show was named after ex-co-host David Newberry and my (Eric Newby) nicknames growing up (Newbs). But rest assured, if you were a fan of the old show, the concept has not changed, we still connect things and try to go as far away as possible via six-degrees of separation only to end up back where we started.

The show is going to be monthly now, episodes should drop the last Wednesday of the month. What you can expect is an hour-long program with a lot of useless knowledge and great interviews with people who have been game changers in trends and the way our culture has changed over the past half century or so.

One major difference between NewbsRadio and PopCycle is our focus moving away from only music related subjects. We'll be open to talking about books, film, art, history and even politics.

With that out of the way, we hope you enjoy our first foray into podcast again as we talk about Fred Rogers and his very wonderful program, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In this episode we talk about Fred's tireless work to provide wholesome children's programming for over 30 years on PBS. From there we're going to end up talking about Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything for Love" and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. II. How do they all connect? You'll have to listen to find out!

PopCycle was born out of NewbsRadio, so we thought we should kick off this new endeavour, rather, a reboot of NewbsRadio with one of our favourite episodes.

In this episode, Christian Zyp and Eric Newby map out a circular conversation of pop-culture connections where they connect the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations to a bunch of stuff including the 1981 Popeye Feature Film directed by Robert Altman, and Welsh rockers Manic Street Preachers.

Find out how these random pop-culture artifacts all fit together neatly by listening to this, one of our favourites from the NewbsRadio archives. EN