Read it and Weep

It's easily the movie I've watched the most in my childhood, and the one that's had the biggest effect on my life. And yet it's been over 10 years since I've watched it. Will it hold up? To help me answer the question I brought on poker writer Zachery Elwood for some insight into the pokeriest parts. This is one of our longest episodes ever, but it'll breeze right by, hopefully!

It's the most special, most magical episode of Season 2! Alex visited a theme park he hasn't been at since he was 16, Walt Disney's California Adventure, to see if it holds up. It's got new rides, new branding on old rides, and old rides that are still weird. And it's not quite Disneyland.

In another very special episode of Read it and Weep Season 2, we ate a bunch of candy from our youths and tried to decide if it held up. Some of it definitely didn't. And by the end of the episode, we weren't holding up well either. Oh and one candy made my guests make this face:

It's our easiest quest of season 2: does the 1993 Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day hold up? (Yeah of course but let us have this, we have six more weeks of winter to get through.)

Alex mentioned the short film 1 Minute Time Machine

Special guest Candice Thompson makes her debut on the show with a movie she laughed at a lot as a kid, the light-hearted black-face comedy Soul Man. Is she still laughing or did we all just cringe our faces off? Find out!

Candice has a podcast called The Struggle where she talks to people about things they struggle with, whether heavy or petty.

And this is a first. Comedian Phoebe Bottoms choose her #DoesItHoldUp topic from a genre we've never discussed before on our TWO seasons of the show. An album. Specifically the breakout album from often-a-punchline Canadians Nickelback. Does it hold up? Or is it sad because of the way it reminds me of high school?

Season 2 continues with our focus on movies as biography. We explain the game "What is this song about?" that's shaping season two.

Guest of honor Hunter Donaldson picked Fight Club to find out if it holds up. Alex and Anthony had similar history's with it. So does it? Uh...

Big announcement! This is the first episode of Season 2 of Read it and Weep. We're going to be experimenting a bit more with the format of the show to try to create something better and more exciting. As always, we'd love to hear what you think!

To start out the new season, we're doing a series of episodes on the theme, Does It Hold Up? We're inviting really cool, funny people on, asking them to pick a topic that meant a lot to them as a youth, and trying to decide if they still feel the same way about it. We started things off with comedian Simon Gibson (catch him on the Amazon original series Inside Jokes) and he made us watch Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Alex had never seen it before. Will he like it? Find out!

Jimmy The Raven -- the crow actor from It's a Wonderful Life.

It's the most often played Christmas movie in America and it's undoubtedly a classic. But is it good? Or is it just a 2+ hour GoFundMe for a banker who doesn't communicate with his wife? We've got an esteemed panel to discuss it including a first time guest who's never seen it before!