Poppish

To celebrate one full year of absolute nonsense, we’re reflecting on the origins of the pod, taking listener questions, and reacting to some of your hot takes. It’s been such a fun year and we’re so grateful to everyone who’s come along for the ride! Here’s to another year of Poppish to come!

I think you guys might be doing unto others as you would have others do unto yourselves too much… This week we explore two codes by which you live one’s life: The Ten Commandments and Jemima Kirke’s Instagram Q&As. Both texts, handed down by God, give us a path to follow in an otherwise disordered and meaningless life.

This episode contains spoilers for the Old Testament of the Bible. Listener discretion is advised.

Plus: New York City dog discourse, rapture FOMO, and yoga class recognition.

Let’s look at two inventors who would go on to be tormented by their own creations: J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, and Dong Nguyen, creator of Flappy Bird.

Both men achieved great success and recognition in their field, only to regret bringing their ideas into the world. This would lead to Oppenheimer being banned from President Truman’s office and Nguyen pulling Flappy Bird from the app store with 22 hours notice.

What does it mean to achieve a dream? Why is everything computer now? And what’s next for Ciara Miller? We’ll unpack it all.

Put on your spelunking boots: we’re going underground. We’re telling two classic “trapped inside the bowels of the earth” stories: Baby Jessica and the Thai Cave Rescue. How did these children end up under the ground, and how the HELL are we gonna get them out?

Everyone shows up in this one: the guy with no collarbones, the Thai navy seals, even Elon Musk. Did someone say dream blunt rotation??

Plus: a review of Wicked on Broadway (bathroom access is key), checking in on the Mormon wives (info already out of date), and Ellie’s falling out with the IRS.

What does a girl have to do to get sent to an island around here?? We unpack two stories we’re deeply jealous of: prominent individuals who were sent away from society to heal/build and army. We’re learning all about the exiles of Napoleon (both of them!) and Pre-Reputation Taylor Swift.

One moment you’re placing a glorious crown on your head/Grammy in your hand, the next no one even fucks with you at all. Life is full of these ups and downs.

Plus: Falling for False Spring and spreading awareness for overfishing and bycatch.

What do Walt Disney and Tana Mongeau have in common? They both had a dream. One, to open a theme park that wasn’t gross and also had a fully functioning train, and the other, to introduce a competitor to VidCon with just weeks of planning and no frontal lobe.

These projects varied in their success, but both experienced similarly chaotic first days. In the Anaheim heat, ticket holders showed up to massive crowds, food and water shortages, and programming breakdowns. We get into the nitty gritty of these chaotic events and their aftermath.

Plus: Jim Carrey looks the same to us, and a good excuse to deprioritize self-actualization.

This one product can change your whole life and fix everything you don’t like about yourself? Huge if true. This week we talk Patent Medicines (AKA: snake oil) and Peptides, the wellness craze that has teens mixing and injecting miracle elixirs in their bedrooms. What are the claims behind these phenomena, and do any of them actually work?

Plus: Poppish speaks on Punch the Monkey and we reflect upon our outdoor childhoods and all the moss and poison oak that came with them (sorry, iPad babies).

This week, we trace two historic timeline shifts back to their inciting incidents. We unpack how the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand kicked off World War 1, and how the death of Harambe the Gorilla led to… whatever this is.

We discuss the tragic demise of two dudes who were ultimately just doing their thing, and survey the events that played out in their aftermath.

Plus: a New Orleans Mardi Gras recap, what we’ve heard about the Olympics, and a troubling way to enjoy a cupcake

This week we get into a little classic Hollywood drama, exploring the casting processes for both “Gone With the Wind” and “The Greatest Showman.” Learn how Vivien Leigh landed the role of Scarlett O’Hara and how Jeremy Jordan did NOT land the role of Philip Carlisle.

Plus: A report on the TikTok vertical drama scene and how to spend a day drying your sheets. For two girls suffering from wifi issues and Wintertime Illness™️, it’s really not that bad of an episode.

This week on Poppish: two inspiring tales of humanity showing up for one another after disaster. We share the stories of RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued survivors of Titanic, and the town of Gander, Newfoundland, which took in thousands of stranded passengers whose flights were grounded on 9/11.

In times like these, it’s nice to look back on how people have shown up to help strangers in the past, and be reminded of our ability to do so now. Join us for these uplifting tales of compassion after tragedy.

Plus: an orange is NOT a grab and go snack, the parm standard, and strategies for distributing 16 strips of paper for optimal social capital.