Dancing With Ourselves: A Totally RAD 80's Podcast

D.W.O
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

80s kids Jimmy, Eric, Josh, Kane & Jeremy are celebrating the greatest decade of all time! The party includes: A PLETHORA of guests, storytelling, totally RAD events, and much more. Join us on this epic 80s adventure!

  1. 4d ago

    #144 — What the Hell Are We Gonna Talk About Tonight? | Judge Wapner, Jury Duty & Gen X Chaos

    What happens when four Gen X guys show up to record a podcast with absolutely no idea what the hell they’re going to talk about? Apparently, you just start talking and see where the hole takes you. DWO EP144 begins with Jimmy, Jeremy, Josh, and Kane admitting there is no topic. No prepared macro subject. No carefully constructed plan. Jimmy even puts VYRA to work searching the DWO catalog and the wider Gen X and 80s podcast world for something the guys haven’t already beaten to death. They consider 1986. Malls. First jobs. Playground rumors. Subscriptions. Repairable technology. Then they mostly ignore all of it. Instead, the conversation starts doing what a real DWO conversation does best: mutating. The guys bounce through Canada, old pizza joints, tabletop arcade games, AI-assisted coding, humanoid robots, Weird Science, algorithms, modern media, and the strange evolution of television spectacle. That eventually sends everybody straight into the glorious world of Judge Wapner. From there, the conversation opens up into The People’s Court, Judge Judy, Divorce Court, television judge shows, daytime TV, Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Geraldo Rivera, true-crime entertainment, and the bizarre American tradition of watching complete strangers argue about their problems on television. Then the episode gets personal. Jeremy shares some of his own experiences involving courts, government, disputes, and the legal system, while the guys compare encounters with judges, lawyers, courtrooms, and jury summons. That leads into a much bigger discussion: How much faith should we actually place in a jury of our peers? Is a random citizen hearing a complicated case really the best person to decide another human being’s future? Can jurors truly disregard something after they’ve heard it? How much do emotion, personality, presentation, and prior assumptions affect judgment? And is the alternative—a judge, expert panel, or some other system—actually any better? Nobody fixes the American justice system. Nobody really fixes anything. Because this was never supposed to be an episode about the courts. It was supposed to be an episode about… well, nobody knew. After nearly two hours of judges, robots, television, algorithms, culture, institutions, personal stories, Gen X memories, and whatever else wandered into the room, Jimmy finally realizes what happened: They fell into the conversation hole. And somehow, they made it out the other side. So grab a seat in the jury box and answer the only question that really matters: What the hell are we gonna talk about tonight? Jeremy also discusses material connected to his own experiences with local government and legal conflict. You can find his Etsy listing here: Jeremy’s Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/540681920/buford-city-government-the-bullies-the Featured cover co-host: Kane Recorded: September 1, 2026 Explicit: Yes Episode Outro “The Rabbit Hole” — Auditory Ecstasy There really wasn’t another choice. After nearly two hours of following one tangent into another until Jimmy literally declares that the guys have reached the end of the conversation hole, DWO EP144 closes by dropping straight into Auditory Ecstasy’s “The Rabbit Hole.” Official music video — YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY0Ko8SqYxo&list=RDEY0Ko8SqYxo&start_radio=1 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1Vy4Je48Gn7W5vynW82km9?si=gRbYFQpRTYa9JP62QoYi7w Dancing With Ourselves — A Totally RAD 80’s Podcast Gen X memories. 80s culture. Real conversation. No filter. Support the show Follow us on:  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube Check out our Totally RAD Merch Store!

    #144 — What the Hell Are We Gonna Talk About Tonight? | Judge Wapner, Jury Duty & Gen X Chaos

  2. Aug 28

    #143 - How Did We Get Anywhere Before GPS? | Gen X Maps, Landmarks & Getting Lost

    Before Google Maps, smartphones, live traffic, and that little blue dot always knowing where the hell you are, how did we actually get anywhere? Jimmy, Jeremy, Josh, and Kane go back to the Gen X world of paper road maps, road atlases, handwritten directions, landmarks, gas-station advice, family-road-trip navigation, MapQuest printouts, TomTom, Garmin, and the old tactical nightmare known as “Just follow me.” But this one becomes more than nostalgia. Did growing up before GPS force us to build a stronger internal map of the world? Why can we still mentally drive through neighborhoods we knew decades ago? What happened when getting lost was a normal part of traveling—and recovering meant reading signs, remembering landmarks, asking strangers, improvising a new route, or admitting that maybe Dad had absolutely no idea where he was going? The guys get into Atlanta landmark navigation, the Big Chicken, the legendary Buford Highway Goatman, road-trip stories, wrong turns, asking pizza shops and gas stations for directions, MapQuest disasters, early consumer GPS units, and the strange transition from understanding where you are to simply following the next instruction. Then the bigger question: Did GPS solve navigation—or did it replace navigation? Modern GPS gives us extraordinary advantages: live traffic, rerouting, exact ETAs, location sharing, lane guidance, worldwide address lookup, and the confidence to travel places we have never seen before. But when the machine handles the route, what happens to spatial memory, landmark awareness, cardinal direction, improvisation, and our tolerance for simply being lost? The episode also pauses for a heartfelt goodbye and RIP remembrance of Dolly Parton, reflecting on her music, personality, cultural impact, philanthropy, Dollywood, and the remarkable connection she maintained with generations of fans. And because the episode was recorded on August 25, the boys face another Gen X Time Machine: 15 brutal August 25 stumpers followed by five questions they might actually have a chance of answering. So here's the test: If your phone disappeared right now, could you get home from 100 miles away with nothing but a paper map? Outro Music: “Lantern Without Walls” — Auditory Ecstasy Support the show Follow us on:  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube Check out our Totally RAD Merch Store!

    #143 - How Did We Get Anywhere Before GPS? | Gen X Maps, Landmarks & Getting Lost

  3. Aug 21

    #142 — AI Was Already Here | From Cybernetics to ChatGPT

    Artificial intelligence feels like it exploded into our lives overnight. But did it? In DWO EP142 — AI Was Already Here, Jimmy, Jeremy, Josh and Kane go digging through the history of artificial intelligence and discover that the machines have been creeping into our lives for a hell of a lot longer than ChatGPT would have you believe. The trail runs from 1940s cybernetics and artificial-neuron research, through Alan Turing, the 1956 Dartmouth AI project, early machine learning, ELIZA, DARPA-funded research, expert systems, computer chess, game opponents, search engines, fraud detection, GPS, recommendation algorithms, Siri and Alexa—all the way to modern generative AI. And then there’s 1973. A Super Friends episode called “Professor Goodfellow’s G.E.E.C.” warned kids about a giant computer designed to eliminate human labor, brainwork and responsibility. More than fifty years later, we’re still having essentially the same argument. So what actually changed? Was AI invented recently—or did it finally become powerful, conversational and visible enough that ordinary people could no longer ignore it? The guys get into the AI Effect, the difference between automation and intelligence, whether Pac-Man ghosts count as AI, why computers beating humans at chess stopped impressing us, what Gen X was already living with before anybody called it artificial intelligence, and the bigger human question underneath all of it: If the machine is willing to do our thinking for us, how much thinking are we willing to give away? Plus: August 18th 1980s stumpers, Gen X detours, arguments over what actually counts as intelligence, and the usual DWO rabbit holes. Featured cover co-host: Jeremy Episode outro: “Mark Me Human” — Auditory Ecstasy Because maybe the question isn’t whether machines become human. Maybe it’s what happens when humans decide they’d rather become more like the machine. Support the show Follow us on:  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube Check out our Totally RAD Merch Store!

    #142 — AI Was Already Here | From Cybernetics to ChatGPT

  4. Aug 7

    #141: Waiting Was an Actual Part of Life

    Before streaming, smartphones, instant messaging, same-day delivery, and live tracking, waiting wasn't a malfunction in life. Waiting was an actual part of life. In DWO EP141, Jimmy, Kane, and Jeremy go back to the Gen X world where you took pictures and waited days to find out whether they were any good, sat beside the family telephone hoping somebody would call, hovered over a cassette recorder waiting for the right song to hit the radio, and sometimes waited months—or years—for a movie to finally make its way from the theater to television. We get into mail-order catalogs, packages that disappeared into the postal void, concert and ticket lines, checks that had to clear, appointment television, video-store scarcity, and those endless stretches when there was genuinely nothing to do. And that leads to the real question of the episode: Did all that waiting actually make Gen X more patient—or did it simply make us better at functioning while frustrated? We talk delayed gratification, anticipation, boredom, uncertainty, and whether modern technology eliminated waiting or just trained us to become furious whenever anything still takes longer than five minutes. Then we finish the conversation DWO-style with our August 4 trivia round: 15 hard stumpers pulled from August 4 events across 1980–1990, followed by five easier shots at redemption. Tonight's Auditory Ecstasy outro: “When The Ship Don’t Come” — Auditory Ecstasy The track couldn't fit this episode much better: a song built around anticipation, holding position, waiting for the promised thing to arrive—and confronting what happens when it doesn't. Listen to When The Ship Don’t Come: SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/auditory-ecstasy/when-the-ship-dont-come Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3HdzeWXWlCbax6xMnHcd9D?si=GC_v1K_oQBmV25rTCH3uAw YouTube: https://youtu.be/-zRoRko63Po?si=MRbfTZyBhi7NoGVu Audience question: What did you routinely have to wait for growing up that people today would absolutely refuse to tolerate? Dancing With Ourselves — A Totally Rad 80's Podcast Gen X memories. 80s culture. Real conversation. No filter. Search / Discovery Keyword Bank: Gen X, Generation X, 1980s nostalgia, 80s podcast, Gen X podcast, waiting, patience, delayed gratification, analog life, life before smartphones, landline telephone, family phone, cassette tapes, recording songs from radio, 80s radio, film photography, Fotomat, photo development, mail order catalogs, Sears catalog, packages before tracking, concert ticket lines, appointment television, video rental stores, boredom, pre-internet life, analog childhood, 1980s childhood, Gen X memories, instant gratification, nostalgia podcast  Support the show Follow us on:  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube Check out our Totally RAD Merch Store!

    #141: Waiting Was an Actual Part of Life

  5. Jul 31

    #140: Struggle Cuisine — Eat What You Got! | Gen X Comfort Food

    #DWO #DancingWithOurselves #StruggleCuisine #EatWhatYouGot #GenX #GenXPodcast #GenXNostalgia  What cheap, weird, improvised, or downright questionable childhood meal do you still eat today—even though everybody else thinks it looks disgusting? DWO EP140 began with Kane and his infamous “depression-era sandwich.” One look at that culinary creation opened the pantry door to a much larger Gen X conversation: When does struggle food become comfort food? Jimmy, Jeremy, Kane, and Josh revisit the inexpensive meals, inherited family recipes, latchkey-kid inventions, canned mysteries, processed delicacies, and pantry experiments that helped feed Gen X through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Some of these meals came from parents and grandparents who learned to stretch every ingredient. Some were products of working-class necessity, regional traditions, military life, tight budgets, or parents who refused to waste food. Others happened because a kid was left alone with white bread, a microwave, a questionable can, and absolutely no adult supervision. The boys dig into:  Kane’s suspicious sandwich and the idea that launched the episode  Depression-era food habits inherited by later generations  Cheap meals that became permanent family traditions  Fried bologna, Spam, canned meat, beans, ramen, and white bread  Boxed macaroni, processed cheese, TV dinners, and pantry improvisation  The foods we thought were normal until a friend witnessed us eating them  Meals associated with payday, scarcity, survival, and stretching ingredients  The difference between struggle food, regional food, comfort food, and a culinary war crime  Gen X independence inside the largely unsupervised latchkey kitchen  The childhood foods we still defend—and those we never want to see again The Co-Hosts at the Table Kane supplies the episode’s Macro Topic and the sandwich that started the entire investigation. Jimmy connects childhood food memories with family history, economic reality, Gen X independence, and the strange meals that continue following us into adulthood. Jeremy brings his own memories and reactions to a table overflowing with meals that may—or may not—legally qualify as food. Josh adds his perspective on which struggle meals deserve to survive and which pantry experiments should be permanently sealed away. The crew also takes on another round of DWO trivia, testing their knowledge of the people, entertainment, events, and cultural artifacts of the 1980s. Ultimately, this episode is not simply about Gen X eating disgusting food. It is about how necessity becomes tradition—and how certain tastes remain permanently attached to childhood, family, survival, safety, and home. The necessity may disappear. The emotional flavor does not. So grab the white bread, open the mystery can, and remember the most important rule of the Gen X kitchen: You don’t have to like it. You just have to eat what you got. This episode closes with “Snack Time Riot” by Auditory Ecstasy—the perfect soundtrack for a table full of childhood snacks, struggle meals, and Gen X culinary chaos. See the Music Video HERE👉 https://youtu.be/Updjk_7JWvc?si=CJuXzcPEKbcmy-mq Dancing With Ourselves is a Gen X podcast exploring the movies, music, television, products, experiences, cultural artifacts, and wonderfully questionable decisions that helped make us who we are. Support DWO: https://www.patreon.com/dwopodcast Follow Dancing With Ourselves:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwopodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwo80spod/ X: https://twitter.com/dwo1980spod YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dancingwithourselves #80sKids #80sNostalgia #ComfortFood #StruggleMeals #ChildhoodFood #LatchkeyKids #FoodMemories #FriedBologna #Spam #GovernmentCheese #AuditoryEcstasy  Support the show Follow us on:  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube Check out our Totally RAD Merch Store!

    #140: Struggle Cuisine — Eat What You Got! | Gen X Comfort Food

  6. Jul 24

    #139: Guard Your Swatch! — The Odyssey Spoilers & Gen-X Fashion Fads

    ⚠️ SPOILER ALERT: Jimmy reviews Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey from approximately 8:55–20:00. Skip directly to 20:00 if you have not seen the movie. What time is it? Apparently, it’s time to stretch fluorescent rubber across the face of an already colorful plastic watch. This week, Dancing With Ourselves returns to the Gen-X schoolyard to examine the mid-1980s Swatch Guard craze. Swatch watches were already bright, collectible fashion statements—but then we added rubber guards, stacked multiple watches on one wrist, surrounded them with jelly bracelets, and somehow made checking the time almost impossible. Jimmy, Jeremy, Josh, and Kane explore how inexpensive pieces of plastic became powerful symbols of identity, status, belonging, and rebellion before social media told us what to wear. The conversation expands beyond Swatch to the fashion-fad ecosystem surrounding Gen X: • Swatch Guards and multiple-watch madness • Jelly bracelets, friendship pins, and neon accessories • Members Only jackets and parachute pants • Popped collars, acid-washed denim, and leg warmers • Mood rings and other 1970s predecessors • Slap bracelets, Hypercolor, Starter jackets, and the 1990s mutation • Genuine brands versus schoolyard knockoffs • How trends traveled through malls, MTV, movies, siblings, and cool kids • Whether personal style was genuine individuality—or merely choosing a different uniform Before algorithms and influencers, who decided what was cool? How did kids across the country receive the same fashion orders? And what ridiculous trend did we knowingly wear even when we suspected it looked completely absurd? The episode closes with “Tick-Tock Groove” by Auditory Ecstasy—the perfect kinetic soundtrack for an episode about watches, plastic accessories, schoolyard fashion, and the rapidly accelerating machinery of a full-blown fad. Dancing With Ourselves is a Gen-X podcast examining the movies, music, products, experiences, and wonderfully questionable decisions that helped make us who we are. Dancing With Ourselves podcast, DWO EP139, Gen X podcast, Swatch Guard, Swatch watches, 1980s fashion, 80s fashion fads, Gen X nostalgia, 1986 nostalgia, neon fashion, stacked Swatch watches, jelly bracelets, Members Only jacket, parachute pants, schoolyard fashion, 1970s fashion fads, 1990s fashion fads, The Odyssey review, The Odyssey spoilers, Christopher Nolan The Odyssey, Tick-Tock Groove, Auditory Ecstasy Support the show Follow us on:  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube Check out our Totally RAD Merch Store!

    #139: Guard Your Swatch! — The Odyssey Spoilers & Gen-X Fashion Fads

  7. Jul 17

    #138: School Daze — Are We Smarter Than the Schools That Raised Us?

    Class is back in session—and this time, the Gen X kids are grading the system that graded us. In DWO EP138: School Daze, Jimmy, Jeremy, and Kane (Josh was at a Soccer festival for World Cup26) examine the American education system from its earliest foundations through the classrooms of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. What was public education originally created to accomplish? Was it designed to produce informed citizens, capable workers, obedient rule-followers—or some strange combination of all three? The guys revisit the unforgettable Gen X school experience: chalkboards, filmstrips, overhead projectors, Scantron sheets, Trapper Keepers, Apple II computer labs, The Oregon Trail, D.A.R.E., the Presidential Physical Fitness Test, cafeteria pizza, shop class, home economics, card catalogs, paddling, principal’s offices, cliques, bullies, bells, permission slips, and teachers who either changed our lives or made every school day feel six hours longer than it already was. Beyond the nostalgia, DWO explores what schools actually taught us—and what they somehow forgot. Reading, writing, arithmetic, history, civics, typing, research, teamwork, rule-following, boredom tolerance, and social survival all entered the curriculum in one form or another. Meanwhile, financial literacy, taxes, credit, emotional regulation, media literacy, entrepreneurship, conflict resolution, and basic adult administration were often left for us to figure out after graduation. The conversation expands into the history and purpose of private schools, religious and independent education, college as both an educational experience and credentialing machine, the explosion of student debt, and the evolution of homeschooling from an unusual alternative into a major American education lane. Then the co-hosts face a dangerous academic challenge: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? — DWO Edition. Ten supposedly elementary-level questions. Four grown men. No phones, no Google, and no credit for saying, “I used to know this.” Finally, the class ends with the perfect Auditory Ecstasy outro: “What If It’s Flat.” The high-energy, three-minute blast of musical skepticism asks the kind of question that captures the finest lesson Jimmy carried away from school: Never stop questioning what somebody confidently writes on the board. Question everything—but be prepared to explain your answer. So sharpen your No. 2 pencil, clear your desk, keep your eyes on your own paper, and join us as DWO asks: Are we smarter than the schools that raised us—or did we simply survive them? #DWO #DancingWithOurselves #GenX #GenXPodcast #SchoolDaze #80sNostalgia #PublicSchool #Homeschool #Education #AreYouSmarterThanA5thGrader #AuditoryEcstasy #WhatIfItsFlat Support the show Follow us on:  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube Check out our Totally RAD Merch Store!

    #138: School Daze — Are We Smarter Than the Schools That Raised Us?

  8. Jul 10

    #137: Guest Tom Hippler — Boxed In, Fanacek & 80s TV Madness

    DWO Ep137 welcomes guest Tom Hippler, creator and host of Fanacek and author of Boxed In - Trapped in 80s Television! This week, the DWO crew climb straight into the glowing CRT and get trapped in the beautiful madness of 70s and 80s television. Tom brings the Fanacek energy with deep TV knowledge, comedy, acting-world perspective, Navy life experience, and a massive love for the shows, actors, forgotten gems, bizarre spin-offs, rerun comfort food, and network decisions that helped shape Gen X memory. We talk 80s TV as a cultural time machine: ALF, Magnum P.I., Dallas, Three’s Company, The Ropers, TV Guide, latchkey afternoons, strange pilots, shows that should have lasted longer, shows that somehow lasted too long, and the comfort of sitting in front of the television when the television was basically raising half the neighborhood. Tom’s book, Boxed In - Trapped in 80s Television!, is built for anyone who remembers aluminum foil antennas, Sunday TV Guides, primetime lineups, forgotten actors, weird plot holes, and the unexplainable joy of watching whatever happened to be on. Find Tom Hippler / Fanacek: Podcast: https://fanacekpodcast.podbean.com/ Facebook: Real Fanacek X: @fanacekpodcast Email: fanacekpodcast@gmail.com Book: Boxed In - Trapped in 80s Television! Amazon: https://a.co/d/024MkB8q This episode closes with an unreleased Auditory Ecstasy track, Cookie Dough, as of 10 July 2026. Cookie Dough is a Glitch Hop x NeuroWave fusion. Follow Dancing With Ourselves: A Totally RAD 80s Podcast for more Gen X nostalgia, 80s movies, 80s music, vintage TV, comedy, pop culture, and gloriously unhinged memory-lane conversations. Support the show Follow us on:  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube Check out our Totally RAD Merch Store!

    #137: Guest Tom Hippler — Boxed In, Fanacek & 80s TV Madness
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

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80s kids Jimmy, Eric, Josh, Kane & Jeremy are celebrating the greatest decade of all time! The party includes: A PLETHORA of guests, storytelling, totally RAD events, and much more. Join us on this epic 80s adventure!

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