This Is Why We're Like This

Julia's name twin, Julia Rios (AKA Dr. Chess Julia) and her cohost JJ from the Chessfeels podcast join us to talk about Spaceballs. Full show notes including transcript at https://www.juliarios.com/spaceballs-the-podcast-with-jj-lang-and-julia-rios-from-chessfeels

Friend of the pod Kelly joins us to talk about commercials for Canadian theme parks and attractions. Full show notes including links to the commercials and a trascript at https://www.juliarios.com/after-these-messages-canadian-commercials-with-kelly

Friend of the pod Kelly joins us to talk about the fever dream that is The Country Bears. Full show notes and transcript at https://www.juliarios.com/the-country-bears-with-kelly/

Chia and Dan talk toys and commercials of their childhoods! Full show notes with links to commercials and a transcript of the episode at https://www.juliarios.com/after-these-messages-thingmaker-with-chia-and-dan

Friends of the pod, Chia and Dan, join us to discuss a movie Chia remembered as VERY ROMANTIC! Child of Glass is an adaptation of the first Blossom Culp novel, The Ghost Belonged to Me. This episode is a wild ride that takes us into explorations of Richard Peck's work, Disney's low point in the late seventies/early eighties, and the way the scariest thing about this movie is its insistence that slaveholders in the south were deeply romantic. We also take a huge detour into past life reincarnation pods, and discuss how sometimes you gotta pretend an ice cream bar is actually pie if you want to eat it while reenacting your friend's murder over and over again…Here's Chia's hazy summary:"So, I watched this is the gymnasium of my elementary school, probably in 4th grade? It might have been 5th. In my memory of it, a boy moved into a haunted house and fell in love with the ghost of a little girl who I think was trapped in a china doll? Also, I got to sit next to a boy I had a terrible crush on and the whole thing was just very romantic."Chia was… not very right at all about the plot of this one. But don't worry, we spend almost as long as the length of the film explaining what she missed!All this, plus Geoffrey does an impression of Vincent Price AND sings a little impromptu Blondie parody.This is Must Listen podcasting, everyone!P.S. If you want to see the short (like 8 minute long) excerpt adaptation of the book this is based on that Vincent Price hosts, that's about seven minutes and thirty seconds into Once Upon a Midnight Scary. P.P.S. If you want, you can also read a full transcript of this podcast at https://thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/p/transcript-for-child-of-glass-with?s=w. Please rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! To celebrate, Gwynne Garfinkle is back with us to talk about obscure children's shows from her youth. Specifically, we talk about Hobo Kelly, the magical hobo clown who has a leprechaun fly her around and drop her off at Hobo Junction. Sure and begorrah, ‘tis she! Full show notes and transcript available at https://www.juliarios.com/after-these-messages-hobo-kelly-with-gwynne-garfinkle/

2022 marks the 50th anniversary of a PBS show beloved by kids in the 1970s: Zoom! No, it is not the video conferencing tool… Our guest this time is Gwynne Garfinkle, who wrote a letter to Zoom that was read on the air in 1974! Gwynne grew up to become a writer of novels, stories, poems, and more, and it all started with Zoom. Check out Gwynne's books, including her novel, Can't Find My Way Home, a political ghost story about a soap opera star in the 1970s who is reunited with the ghost of her best friend who died protesting the Vietnam war. She's also got a poetry collection called People Change.If you would like to listen to one of her stories, you can find "A Wild Patience" in three parts on Escape Pod. And if you want to read a free story, you can check out "Sinking, Singing" in the May 2021 issue of Mermaids Monthly.Here's Gwynne's summary of Zoom:"ZOOM was a 1970s kids show on public television that was produced in Boston. A group of kids sang songs, performed skits, (I think) showed the audience how to make crafts etc., read letters that kids sent in, and (I think) had "rap sessions" about various topics. There were also documentary segments about other kids. (I remember one segment about a girl who broke her arm, had to get a cast, etc.) The cast changed from season to season; I think kids could only stay for a season or two. My favorite cast member was Bernadette, who did a trick with her arms that I can do to this day. The show also featured a language called Ubbi Dubbi, in which you add "ub" before every vowel. If you sent a SASE to the show, they would send you ZOOM cards (each card featured a cast member on one side and some ZOOM-related activity on the other side). I used to own a bunch of these. There was also a ZOOM book and an LP. I'm not sure how many times I wrote to the show before they read my letter on the air. It was definitely a memorable event in my young life, to the point that I remembered which cast member (Shawn) read my letter! Here is the link to my ZOOM episode (queued to the segment with my letter): https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-60cvf203?term=GARFINKLE&proxy_start_time=644.06"We had never seen Zoom before, but we thought it was a really interesting show! Did you ever watch this as a kid? Or, perhaps you watched the 1990s reboot? Let us know!We learned a lot of things from this discussion, including that Gwynne's favorite cast member, Bernadette, is now an energy sound healer! You can read a transcript of this episode here if you like: https://thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/p/transcript-for-zoom-with-gwynne-garfinkle?s=wIf you're having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com.

Greetings on this, the first Annual Snowmo Sapiens night! With a potentially historic blizzard in Boston, we present you this very on topic podcast episode about a 1942 Disney short starring Donald Duck.It's Donald's Snow Fight!Geoffrey remembered this one from his childhood, and this is not exactly an After These Messages, but it is sort of in that spirit, recorded to go with The Dog That Stopped the War. We get into a BUNCH of stuff with this, from inventing new holidays to discussing François Truffaut's famous assertion that there's no such thing as an antiwar film, to the Finnish Ducktales theme, to Splash Mountain and The Song of the South. So, cozy up in a blanket, build yourself a snowman (or put three ice cubes in an adult beverage), and join us for some anti-clericalism and fornication (okay, only a little mention of that, not the actual deed), ‘cause it's just six months til Snowmer! Full transcript available at https://www.juliarios.com/donalds-snow-fight/

Hey! It's a new year! And we are starting it off on a super downer note with a movie about a dog dying… Uh. Sorry? But possibly our suffering is your joy, in which case, you're welcome!Full show notes and transcript available at https://www.juliarios.com/la-guerre/

Eugenia Triantafyllou joins us again from Greece to talk about Greek television and a very specific episode of Storybook International: The Forbidden Door!Full show notes at https://www.juliarios.com/the-forbidden-door-with-eugenia-triantafyllou/

Happy Halloween! We have a special spooky treat for you! Eugenia Triantafyllou joins us from Greece to talk about Goosebumps! Eugenia has written a lot of great stories, and you can find them at her website, but if you are wondering where to begin, you might try listening to "My Country Is a Ghost" on Podcastle!Full show notes at https://www.juliarios.com/goosebumps-welcome-to-dead-house-with-eugenia-triantafyllou/

We're back for our second Spooktober episode with another adaptation of Godfather Death, this time with Muppets!Full show notes at https://www.juliarios.com/jim-hens/

It's October, and you know what that means: time to meditate on spookiness, skeletons, and death! To get us going, Geoffrey brought us a Mexican film from 1960, which he once watched in Spanish class.Full show notes at https://www.juliarios.com/macario/

After watching High Spirits, we went all in on the silly and spooky combos. Full show notes including video links at https://www.juliarios.com/after-these-messages-peter-otoole-pan-am-and-g-g-g-ghosts/

Julia brings us something … unexpected. It's a 1988 sex farce with ghosts, both real and fake. Also Peter O'Toole. Yes, really. Full show notes at https://www.juliarios.com/high-spirits/

In honor of the new Masters of the Universe animated series, this week Geoffrey brought some episodes of the 1980s He-Man cartoon to the table. Full show notes at https://www.juliarios.com/he-man-and-the-masters-of-the-universe/

Flash fiction writer Kayleigh Shoen (or as we like to call her: Princess of Soup) joined us again to talk about all things Punky Brewster related after we watched The Perils of Punky!Full show notes with video links at https://www.juliarios.com/after-these-messages-punky-brewster-with-kayleigh/

For the first time in a year and a half we actually met in person to record this one! Flash fiction writer Kayleigh Shoen joined us to talk about an episode of Punky Brewster that scared her as a child: The Perils of Punky!Full show notes at https://www.juliarios.com/the-perils-of-punky-with-kayleigh-shoen/

After Garfield in Paradise we watched a few related vids, and had a pretty far reaching conversation about society and culture… But first, this 1957 Chevy Bel Air Commercial.We agree that this car does look really cool, and the commercial is effective. Geoffrey even cited topspeed.com's claim that there has never been a more iconic American car. Next we watched this Jack Benny clip with Frank Nelson.Frank Nelson was the hotel clerk and the rental car clerk in Garfield in Paradise, and he seems to have been really famous for always performing as this character. We finished with Wolfman Jack signing off.This one opened the floodgates about parasocial relationships. We talked about modern stuff that encourages them, like TikTok and Podcasts, and Geoffrey even brought up the old story about the audience running away from a train on a screen in the 1890s. This also led to us talking about younger people trolling older people, and eventually Obvious Plant and the Italian artist who recently sold an invisible statue for $18,000. Geoffrey also referred to this clip from The Venture Brothers when we mentioned Gen X…Thanks for listening!If you're having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We're also on Patreon if that's your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

After a long break we return just in time for Summer Vacation with a travel themed episode! It's Garfield in Paradise! Paradise World, to be exact. Which is definitely not Hawaii. Here's Julia's summary:"I remember watching this as a TV special, and mostly I remember that there is a volcano and that Garfield and Odie may get sacrificed? It erupts and possibly the lava is yellow? Also I think Garfield and Odie have flower anklets, like leis, but anklets. My biggest memory of this was that later at school a classmate of mine was very know-it-all about this and said that it was clear that the lava was actually just made of butter and was a special effect... because it smelled like butter... and that this was a smell-o-vision special. I still have no idea if she was serious or just completely messing with other kids."Yes, the lava was sort of yellow, and there was a flower anklet, but not on any of the animals. Also, the plot of this was way weirder and full of Wolfman Jack than either of us remembered. Turns out Geoffrey can do a pretty good Wolfman Jack impression, too…If you're having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Subscribe to our newsletter at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com for free, or pay $5/month to get access to two bonus paid episodes each month! We're also on Patreon if that's your jam! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe