Zen Pop Parenting

Cathy and Todd discuss Trading Places for “Christmas movies that might not be Christmas movies” month. John Landis’ 1983 comedy-satire dropped the same year as Return of the Jedi, Flashdance, WarGames, and Risky...

Cathy and Todd discuss Die Hard, the 1988 action classic that redefined the genre, covering everything from its Christmas Eve plot and iconic Nakatomi Plaza setting to the film’s surprisingly heartfelt themes of family...

Cathy and Todd discuss the making of Toy Story, the 1995 film that changed animation forever. They explore the film’s massive cultural impact and the introduction of emotionally complex heroes like Woody and Buzz, who...

Cathy and Todd discuss Forrest Gump, a movie they’ve loved for years, one they even saw together when it first came out. They explore how this emotional epic serves as both parable and modern American myth, following...

Cathy and Todd continue Tom Hanks Month with Cast Away, the 2000 classic that came out just as the world was speeding up with email, cell phones, and the dot-com boom. They talk about how this quiet, lonely movie made...

To kick off Tom Hanks month, Cathy and Todd revisit Big, the 1988 classic that made him a star and reminded us what it means to grow up too fast. The movie blends humor, heart, and magic (and a somewhat inappropriate...

Cathy and Todd discuss Se7en, David Fincher’s dark and unforgettable thriller. They talk about how the movie came together from the casting of Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman to the decision to keep Kevin Spacey’s role a...

Cathy and Todd discuss The Haunting of Hill House and how Mike Flanagan turned a classic ghost story into an emotional story of family trauma, grief, and repair. From the houses we grew up in to the ghosts we still...

Released in 2008, Twilight dropped into a perfect cultural storm with Obama’s election, iPhones taking off, emo Tumblr in full swing, and the YA craze exploding after Harry Potter. Catherine Hardwicke’s film felt raw...

When Scream hit theaters in 1996, horror was stuck in a loop of sequels and fading scares. What made Scream different was its sharp, self-aware, and deeply Gen X voice. It mocked the rules of slashers while playing by...

Cathy and Todd revisit John Carpenter’s Halloween, the 1978 film that cost just over $300,000 to make and went on to shape the slasher genre. For Gen X kids, it was more than a scary movie, it was a cultural milestone...

Airplane! hit theaters in 1980 and reshaped comedy for Gen X. It was a clear break from the more earnest films of the ’70s and set the tone for how parody and absurdist humor would play out for decades. By casting...

Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty is rooted in Gen X pop culture, taking inspiration from 80s movies to the soundtrack choices that set the mood. In this episode, we connect Belly’s summer at Cousins Beach to the...

Cathy and Todd discuss Netflix’s documentary Unknown Number: The High School Catfish and how texts and constant accessibility blur the line between connection and chaos. What started as “stranger danger” in Gen X...

Cathy and Todd talk about two 90s political favorites, Dave and The American President, and how they captured Gen X’s wishful politics. From an ordinary guy running the White House with kindness to a widowed president...

Cathy and Todd look at how groups like Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Boyz II Men, and One Direction shaped pop culture and redefined what young men were allowed to sing about. They created space for emotion, love, and...

Cathy and Todd explore how 1980s glam metal, later dubbed “hairbands” in the ’90s, fused hypersexual, alpha-male posturing with makeup, teased hair, and flamboyant style, creating a theatrical masculinity that rose with...

Cathy and Todd discuss 9 to 5 and Working Girl, two movies Gen X women grew up on that shaped how we think about work, power, and what it means to succeed. We watched women push through, keep their heads down, and prove...

Our daughters Jacey, Camryn, and Skylar join us as we explore the themes behind The Hunger Games books and movies and what they say about power, survival, and the cost of being human in an inhumane system. We talk about...

Cathy and Todd discuss Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Big Lebowski, two films that ask the same question in totally different ways: what if we just stopped playing the game? They set the scene with the cultural vibes...

Cathy and Todd discuss Stranger Things Season 1 through a cultural, emotional, and psychological lens. They explore how the show’s 80s nostalgia, supernatural mystery, and strong character dynamics reflect deeper themes...

Cathy & Todd revisit the rise and fall of Milli Vanilli, one of pop music’s most infamous scandals, and discuss how their story became a powerful metaphor for imposter syndrome. In the late ’80s, image was...

Cathy and Todd discuss what 80’s nerd movies like Weird Science and Revenge of the Nerds taught Gen X and what those messages look like in hindsight. They break down how these films centered male fantasies, ignored...

Cathy and Todd discuss how two iconic shows— The Brady Bunch and Modern Family —reflect changing ideas about family across generations. They look at what made The Brady Bunch groundbreaking in the late ’60s and how...

Cathy and Todd explore the rise of 90s grunge and the tragic stories of its most iconic frontmen — Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Layne Staley, Scott Weiland, and others — whose music reshaped rock while exposing the...