After 49 episodes of telling personal stories related to pop culture, Joe and Jason decide to give up like a couple of quitters. How has recording so many hours of themselves talking about themselves affected their very selves? All shall be revealed!

Zombies, natural disasters, comic book supervillians, climate change, asteroids, nuclear holocaust, the robot uprising, the rapture, a world of water, and Y2K have all threatened the survival of humanity time and time again in our stories. Joe and Jason discuss whether the apocalypse and whatever happens post that should be serious or fun and goofy. Then a stunning secret about the future survival of this very podcast is revealed!

Twin Peaks returned, and Joe and Jason pretty much couldn’t stop talking about it, so here is more of that. Puzzle boxes! Numbers! Mysteries! A fandom in denial! And although it should go without saying, spoilers!

How does one benefit from spending time in foreign lands? Should nature be protected? Is it wrong to take comfort in the familiarity of chain restaurants and convenience stores? Perhaps all we want is community and comfort food. Joe recounts exciting adventures in foreign lands and also Atlantic City while Jason mostly just asks clarifying questions.

Raised by Pop Culture examine the dream that we all live inside of, a vision of nuclear families with a single income that is higher than that of the other 99% of the population. Pop culture’s portrayal of families and success is put under the microscope that is Jason and Joe’s slightly focused rambling, and we discover there is blood on many hands: Disney’s bloodlust for parents, Todd MacFarlane’s short-lived comic celebrity, and depiction of organized crime in the best-regarded films and television shows.

Which came first, the feeling of alienation or the tendency to gravitate towards pop culture that increases feelings of alienation? The question is asked by our Raised by Pop Culture team, and then asked probably a couple more times. Then another question is asked at some point. That one being: would Joe and Jason’s lives be easier if they followed professional sports rather than niche cult pop culture consumed in isolation? And the answer to that question is yes.

Having spent most of their formative years forming incorrect perceptions of society based on broadcast television’s representation of it, our heroes reflect on how a medium once considered dangerous has transformed into being heralded as high art as it disappears before our eyes. Was there value in watching commercial breaks? Was Perfect Strangers culturally insensitive? Does anyone remember Life Goes On?

In a stunning epiphany, our heroes determine that politics are a topic of discussion that can incite an emotional response in these modern times. Jason and Joe determine that they dislike discussing politics and then spend a significant amount of time doing so. In the process, Jimmy Stewart filibusters, Michael Moore tells the part of the story that best argues his point, and it proves to be difficult to remember who was running for president at any given time. Some offensive things are likely to be said by our heroes, but we still love them, so we’ll let it slide.

Nice guys have been said to finish last, but Hollywood is pretty sure that they’re what every woman actually wants. And they’re also pretty sure that women don’t actually know what is good for them anyway. Jason and Joe blame the media for all of their problems once again as they discuss the many embarrassing and creepy ways they attempted to express romantic feelings, or at least how they attempted to keep them hidden until a climactic grand gesture in act three.

Roger Ebert may have questioned whether video games can be art, but Raised by Pop Culture raise the stakes by questioning whether any mass produced entertainment media can be considered art. And then they suggest that artists are just dangerous narcissists and the concept of self-expression as a human right may be flawed. So what do you say to that, Ebert? The ball is in your court.