This week, some random stuff we’ve been wanting to talk about. Maya contemplates the strange appeal of the reality show “The Voice,” and Rebecca finds some problems in Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas.” Also: Goths at Disneyland. Because conversations on The Sauce can take some odd turns.

Maya and Rebecca recap the 2018 midterm election results and look at some of the narratives and interesting cultural observations that emerged.

We’re all feeling it, but what it is it? Trump trauma? Fox News fatigue? Fascism distress disorder? With less than a week until the midterms, Maya and Rebecca contemplate the heightened tensions we’re all experiencing. How is this political moment affecting our mental and emotional health, and what can we do to get some relief?

Special guest Elizabeth Nelson Bracy joins Maya and Rebecca to ruin Lady Gaga’s new movie “A Star is Born” — as well as all three previous versions of the same movie. Elizabeth brings her expertise as a musician (check out her band, The Paranoid Style) and music writer to analyze what these films get right and, let’s face it, mostly wrong about stardom and rock ‘n roll.

With the midterms only a month away, Maya and Rebecca survey the campaign ads of 2018, analyzing the trends, the familiar tropes and the outstanding efforts (both good and bad).

Maya and Rebecca examine how Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony (and Brett Kavanaugh’s testy response) were haunted by the ghosts of hearings past — namely, the Anita Hill / Clarence Thomas and Clinton / Lewinsky scandals. How did those prior incidents change the cultural conversation, for better or worse? And in what ways do we see their legacy affecting the events going on right now?

In response to another intriguing request from a listener, Rebecca and Maya break down Barbra Streisand’s Yentl (if there’s a reason this podcast exists, it might be this). And while they’re on the topic of Jewish ethnic nostalgia, they take a look at the other shtetl musical, Fiddler on the Roof, and the new Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

Once upon a time, saucy independent women roamed freely on network television. That was before the dark time, before #MeToo perpetrator Les Moonves took over CBS. Maya and Rebecca look back at TV’s feminist icons of the 80s and 90s – Murphy Brown, Julia Sugarbaker, the Golden Girls – and examine how they shaped & reflected the culture’s perception of feminism. And also how that white-centric version of feminism is riddled with problems.

We’re being asked to forgive and forget Louis CK’s transgressions, and it seems inevitable that more harassers and abusers outed by #metoo will soon seek a return to public life. Maya and Rebecca examine whether forgiveness and redemption are possible for men who do shitty things, and if so, what does it look like?

Maya and Rebecca delve into the cultural and socio-political implications of five gay guys doing makeovers.