Dancing With Ourselves: A Totally RAD 80's Podcast

D.W.O

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. Aug 7

    #EP141: 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!

    #EP141: Waiting Was an Actual Part of Life

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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?

  5. 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

  6. Jul 3

    #136: Uncle Buck Black Boxed Us — John Candy, 80s Chaos & DWO Adaptation

    We had a plan. The DWO crew was going to do a Zoom-recorded Uncle Buck watch party. Movie on silent. Crew talking over it. Sound bites ready. Big pancakes. Big 80s energy. Big John Candy love. Then Paramount+, Zoom, the internet, and the black-box goblin said: Nope. So we did what DWO does best. We adapted and overcame. What started as a watch party for the 1989 John Hughes classic Uncle Buck turned into a full DWO conversation and breakdown of the movie, the late great John Candy, Buck Russell’s chaotic uncle energy, Gen-X family dysfunction, latchkey kid memories, weird 80s parenting, John Hughes suburbia, and every gloriously unrelated tangent the crew managed to drag into the room. At the heart of the episode is John Candy, whose performance as Buck still works because he made chaos feel safe. Buck is crude, messy, inappropriate, hilarious, and somehow exactly the adult those kids needed. He is not polished. He is not modern. He is not qualified on paper. But he shows up. And sometimes that is the whole mission. This episode was supposed to be a watch party. It became a Buck Russell rescue mission. And honestly? That might be more DWO anyway. The episode closes with Auditory Ecstasy’s “Here To Stay,” a high-energy AE track that fits the episode’s accidental thesis perfectly: the screen went black, the plan changed, but DWO is still here, still adapting, and still totally rad. Explicit — because this episode has peak DWO “f****n black boxed us” energy.  Support the show Follow us on:  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube Check out our Totally RAD Merch Store!

    #136: Uncle Buck Black Boxed Us — John Candy, 80s Chaos & DWO Adaptation

  7. Jun 26

    #135 The Man of 10,000 Sound Effects | Michael Winslow & the 80s Human Soundboard

    This week on Dancing With Ourselves: A Totally RAD 80s Podcast, the crew dives into one of the most unforgettable “wait, what’s that guy’s name again?” icons of the decade: Michael Winslow, the man best remembered by Gen X as Larvell Jones from Police Academy and the human sound-effects machine who could turn his mouth into a siren, robot, helicopter, modem, machine gun, arcade cabinet, or entire movie soundtrack. But this episode is not just about one performer. It is about the sound of the 1980s itself. Before apps, samples, reaction clips, TikTok audio, and instant soundboards, Michael Winslow was the soundboard. He was a walking Foley studio, a beatboxer, a comedian, a voice actor, a prankster, and one of the most uniquely 80s entertainers ever put on screen. Jimmy, Kane, Josh, and Jeremy use Winslow as the launch point for a bigger Gen X conversation about Police Academy, Spaceballs, weird comedy, analog memory, creature voices, movie sound effects, arcade noise, VCR/cassette culture, and why certain sounds from childhood still hit harder than pictures. Kane is featured on the cover this week, and the episode energy is pure neon chaos: police lights, microphones, comic-book sound bubbles, CRT monitors, boomboxes, waveforms, and one central question: Why does Gen X remember the sound before we remember the name? Also in this episode: June 23rd-centered 1980s Hard/Stumper trivia, forgotten “that guy” actors, 80s blockbuster collisions, Cold War weirdness, MTV-era music moments, and the usual DWO tangent warfare. The episode closes with “The Shape Thought Takes” by Auditory Ecstasy, a pulsing AE outro that fits the episode’s bigger idea: sound is not just noise — sometimes it is memory, identity, and thought taking form. #MichaelWinslow  #PoliceAcademy  #Spaceballs  #GenX  #80sPodcast  #80sMovies  #80sComedy  #DancingWithOurselves  #DWOPodcast  #TotallyRad80s  #LarvellJones  #ManOf10000SoundEffects  #GenXNostalgia  #1980sTrivia Support the show Follow us on:  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube Check out our Totally RAD Merch Store!

    #135 The Man of 10,000 Sound Effects | Michael Winslow & the 80s Human Soundboard

  8. Jun 19

    #134 - Gen X Checks the Stats: 1980s Numbers That Raised Us

    This week on Dancing With Ourselves: A Totally RAD 80s Podcast, we’re checking the stats. Gen X grew up surrounded by numbers we could not verify: TV ratings, Billboard charts, arcade high scores, baseball card stats, report cards, inflation, mortgage rates, toy crazes, AIDS PSAs, crime scares, nuclear anxiety, and the mysterious permanent record. Before Google, we had TV Guide, Casey Kasem, school assemblies, cereal boxes, baseball cards, MTV countdowns, newspaper box scores, arcade scoreboards, and whatever scary number the evening news dropped into the living room. In Ep134: Gen X Checks the Stats — 1980s Numbers That Raised Us, Jimmy, Kane, and Jeremy dig into the numbers that shaped the decade and ask the real Gen-X questions: Were the stats true? Were they misunderstood? Were they marketing hype? Were they fear campaigns? Or did they simply become part of how we remember growing up in the 80s? The crew talks inflation, unemployment, latchkey life, TV monoculture, MTV, music charts, Thriller-level pop dominance, arcade quarters, Cabbage Patch chaos, report cards, D&D stats, high scores, sports numbers, fear-based PSAs, and the generational shift from analog stats to today’s digital dashboards. Because Gen X may not have grown up with analytics, follower counts, or algorithmic feeds — but we absolutely grew up being measured. So grab your calculator watch, check your permanent record, save your arcade initials, and join us as DWO checks the numbers that raised us. Outro track: “Whole Not Severed” by Auditory Ecstasy — a fitting close for an episode about the numbers that raised Gen X, reminding us that we were never just grades, scores, ratings, or stats. Support the show Follow us on:  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Instagram  |  YouTube Check out our Totally RAD Merch Store!

    #134 - Gen X Checks the Stats: 1980s Numbers That Raised Us
See All (142)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

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!

Information