Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy Podcast

Sister podcasters raised by 80s and 90s movies: Tracie Guy-Decker, lover of animation, Muppets, comedy, and feminism & Emily Guy Birken, storytelling nerd, mental health advocate, and pop culture aficionado
  • 4.8 (16)
  • TV & Film
  • Updated Weekly

80s and 90s movies and early 2000s tv may be called stupid shit by some, but you know it matters. So do we. We're Tracie and Emily, sister podcasters who love well-crafted fiction and one another. In this comedy podcast, we look at the classic movies of our Gen X childhood and adolescence, analyzing film tropes to uncover the cultural commentary on romance, money, religion, mental health, and more. From Twilight to Ghostbusters, Harry Potter to the Muppets, comedy to drama to horror, we use feminism, our super smart brains, and each other to uncover the lessons lurking behind the nostalgia of pop culture. Come overthink with us as we delve into our deep thoughts about stupid shit. 

  1. 3d ago

    The Breakfast Club: Deep Thoughts About Toxic Romance, Taking Teens Seriously, and John Hughes’ Insistence on Crotch Shots (Reprise 23)

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. Don’t you…forget about me…Don’t Don’t Don’t Don’t! In this reprise of episode 23, Tracie takes another look at the 1985 John Hughes film The Breakfast Club. This classic Gen X teen movie passes the Bechdel test and explicitly names the prude-or-slut trap of female sexuality. It also treats Claire and Allison like prizes for the boys in the film and assures the audience that we’re not so different from each other–by featuring a cast that is entirely white, cishet, thin, and able-bodied. The romance between John Bender and Claire have the sisters unpacking the difference between being prickly to protect a soft underbelly and just being mean, and our current stage of life has us looking with greater sympathy at (some of) the parents in the film.  Sounds like your earbuds and my earbuds should get together and listen to this podcast. CW: Discussion of on-screen sexual harassment, evidence of physical abuse, and suicidal ideation. Emily’s article about the characters’ retirement: What Retirement Might Look Like for the Characters in ‘The Breakfast Club’ Tags: deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, pop culture, romance, comedy, storytelling, cultural commentary, feminism,, gen x childhood, gen x nostalgia, millennial childhood, millennial nostalgia, john hughes, molly ringwald, anthony michael hall, ally sheedy, judd nelson Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus content, live zooms with Tracie & Emily, discounts on merch, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls. We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find.  We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com  We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!

    The Breakfast Club: Deep Thoughts About Toxic Romance, Taking Teens Seriously, and John Hughes’ Insistence on Crotch Shots (Reprise 23)

  2. Aug 11

    Jurassic Park: Deep Thoughts About Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, Bodily Autonomy, and When the Movie is Better (Reprise Ep 44)

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. Hold on to your butts. On this week’s episode of Deep Thoughts, Emily shares her analysis of the 1993 film Jurassic Park, a pop culture phenomenon that offers a surprising level of feminism. Emily describes the social thrill of being the target audience for a summer blockbuster (she was 14 when it came out) and her discomfort with how Michael Crichton's original book portrayed the only two female characters as an annoying child and a cardboard cutout with breasts. She and Tracie talk about how the film that teaches us that life finds a way makes for an unexpected (and unintended) allegory for the importance of reproductive autonomy. And Emily explains why Muldoon’s final words of “Clever girl” are her favorite movie moment. Throw on some headphones and listen to the adventure 65 million 31 years in the making! Note: We had some technical difficulties during recording and lost a couple minutes of recording but Tracie mentioned some of the missing information in her synthesis. Specifically, in the missing section, Emily talked about Dr. Sattler saying “Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth” and about Spielberg’s desire to cast Joseph Mazzello as Tim, which affected the ages of the children in the film compared to the book.  Mentioned in this episode: Episode 39: Deep Thoughts About Event Horizon with Scott Kenemore Episode 40: Deep Thoughts About Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Episode 41: King Kong with William Patrick Day: Deep Thoughts About Our Pop Culture Obsession with the Giant Ape Tags: deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, pop culture, comedy, storytelling, cultural commentary, feminism, gen x childhood, gen x nostalgia, millennial childhood, millennial nostalgia, steven spielberg, sam neill, jeff goldbloom, feminism, dinosaurs, special effects, cgi Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus content, live zooms with Tracie & Emily, discounts on merch, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls. We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find.  We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com  We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!

    Jurassic Park: Deep Thoughts About Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, Bodily Autonomy, and When the Movie is Better (Reprise Ep 44)

  3. Aug 4

    Disney’s Beauty & The Beast: Deep Thoughts About Classism, Stockholm Syndrome, and Yoga-Pants Feminism (Reprise Ep 6)

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. Tale as old as time? It’s old, alright. True as it can be? Hmm, about that... Beauty and the Beast is an old and not-so-necessary model for romantic love.  Hiding in the remarkable Howard Ashman score to this 1991 film is a not-like-other-girls feminism and a reified classism that isolates poor Belle and gives her no choice but to fall for her captor. The sisters grapple with the conditioning from this movie (and so many other sources) that invites us to find meaning and satisfaction in providing kindness and accommodation to beasts in order to transform them into husbands.  The Disney version of the story, with its animated inanimate objects, provides a classism that is deeply essentialist. To wit: a clock can never climb the social ladder, and obviously the clock’s owner doesn’t consider its well-being when making major life decisions. Tracie & Emily spend some time lamenting the fact that this curse was rendered, originally on an 11-year-old, but they find some comfort when imagining the beast as an allegory for self-hatred.  Be our guest, and throw on some headphones for some deep thoughts about Disney’s Beauty & the Beast.  Tags: deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, pop culture, romance, comedy, storytelling, cultural commentary, feminism, Disney, animation, gen x childhood, gen x nostalgia, millennial childhood, millennial nostalgia, howard ashman, feminism, classism Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus content, live zooms with Tracie & Emily, discounts on merch, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls. We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find.  We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com  We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!

    Disney’s Beauty & The Beast: Deep Thoughts About Classism, Stockholm Syndrome, and Yoga-Pants Feminism (Reprise Ep 6)

  4. Jul 28

    Michael Jackson’s Thriller: Deep Thoughts about Undead Backup Singers, a Dead Pop Star and the “Death of the Author” (Reprise Ep 29)

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. It smells like the funk of 40,000 years in here! In today’s episode, Tracie shares her deep thoughts about the iconic and groundbreaking 1983 music video for Michael Jackson’s Thriller. From the way the mini film subverts expectations to the meaning behind the horror tropes it relies on to how to contextualize Jackson’s immense talent with the troubled and abusive life he led, the Guy girls explore what it means that a novelty song featuring a zombie flash mob and Vincent Price saying “y’all’s” helped make MJ king of the world. Throw on your headphones and listen…before darkness falls across the land! Content warning: Oblique references to the allegations against Michael Jackson and the childhood abuse he endured. Mentioned in this episode: Our TikTok about Horror Deep Thoughts about Clue Inflation Calculator The full Thriller video Episode 29 was released March 26, 2024. Tags: deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, pop culture, horror, comedy, storytelling, cultural commentary, feminism, pop music, mtv, gen x childhood, gen x nostalgia, music video, thriller, michael jackson, john landis Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus content, live zooms with Tracie & Emily, discounts on merch, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls. We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find.  We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com  We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!

    Michael Jackson’s Thriller: Deep Thoughts about Undead Backup Singers, a Dead Pop Star and the “Death of the Author” (Reprise Ep 29)

  5. Jul 21

    Cheers: Deep Thoughts About Womanizing Men, Ambitious Women, and Pop Culture's Most Famous Bar

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. Sometimes you wanna go Where everybody knows your name This week on Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Tracie revisits the must-see-TV comedy that was always on at the Guy Sisters' house: Cheers. This powerhouse of 80s and 90s pop culture, created by the Charles brothers and the late James Burrows, is genuinely funny: the pilot episode is used by TV writers to teach efficient storytelling to establish a new sitcom. And while the ensemble cast offers great physical and verbal comedy, some of the cultural commentary from the 1980s doesn't pass the sniff test in 2026. While pop culture back then could accept that a womanizing ex-baseball player (as played by Ted Danson) was still a great guy at heart despite how he harassed women, it gives both Tracie and Emily the ICK in the modern era. Similarly, pop culture's insistence on taking strong women down a peg, just for the audacity of having ambition or thinking they are smart, seems like a terrible expectation with hindsight. Our troubles may not all be the same--but throw on your headphones, and you can take a break from all your worries! Tags deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, pop culture, women, comedy, storytelling, cultural commentary, feminism, romance, gen x childhood, gen x nostalgia, sitcom, cheers, james burrows, ted danson, shelley long, kirstie alley Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus content, live zooms with Tracie & Emily, discounts on merch, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls. We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find.  We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com  We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!

    Cheers: Deep Thoughts About Womanizing Men, Ambitious Women, and Pop Culture's Most Famous Bar

  6. Jul 14

    Grease: Deep Thoughts About Summer Nights, Performing Gender, and the Romance of Leather Pants and Letterman Sweaters

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. Grease is the time, is the place, is the motion Grease is the way we are feeling This week on Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Emily revisits one of the classic movies of her Gen X childhood: Grease. This musical comedy was set in high school, but all of the lead actors were in their 20s and 30s, which may help explain why much of the lessons about romance, performing adulthood, and gender expression sailed over her head as a child.  The lyrics in many of the songs were unapologetically ugly--the Greasers actually ask Danny if Sandy put up a fight!--but the actual characterization of the young men and women show that they are adolescents flailing their way through what they think masculinity, femininity, sexuality, adulthood, and romance are supposed to look like. Even the ick factor of Sandy changing into a leather-clad Greaser girl for Danny at the end is a little more nuanced than the Guy sisters remembered, since all she did was change her clothes, while Danny actually ran track for the entire school year. Talk about romance--maybe? We'll be hopelessly devoted to you--if you listen to this episode! Mentioned in this episode: Grease: Performing Gender Yes, Grease was deeply problematic – but it was ahead of its time, too Tags deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, romance, women, feminism, classic movies, film, gen x childhood, film analysis, nostalgia, cultural commentary, analyzing film tropes, comedy, movie reviews, storytelling, comedy podcast, pop culture, musical comedy, grease, john travolta, olivia newton john Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus content, live zooms with Tracie & Emily, discounts on merch, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls. We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find.  We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com  We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!

    Grease: Deep Thoughts About Summer Nights, Performing Gender, and the Romance of Leather Pants and Letterman Sweaters

  7. Jul 7

    Short Circuit: Deep Thoughts About Robots, Romance, and "Acceptable" Racism in 80s Movies

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. I am standing here beside myself. For this week's episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, Tracie returns to one of the beloved movies from her and Emily's shared Gen X childhood: Short Circuit. The sisters remembered the charming robot Number 5 who gained sentience, the romance between Newton (Steve Guttenberg) and Stephanie (Ally Sheedy), and the funny malapropisms from Ben, the Indian character played by Fisher Stevens--a white actor in brown face. Even though brown face in pop culture was never "okay," for some reason it was "acceptable" in 1980s-era movies. In Short Circuit, the racism puts a pall over this otherwise life-affirming comedy. While the comedy of Stevens' Ben is mostly based on his humorous misuse of the English language, Tracie discovered that Ben was originally written as an Eastern European character. Which means making the white actor into an Indian caricature for both Short Circuit movies--Ben returned as the hero of the sequel--was entirely superfluous. You need input. Throw on your headphones to input this episode! Tags deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, movies, pop culture, romance, 80s and 90s movies, sci fi, storytelling, comedy, women, feminism, psychology, mental health, film, cultural commentary, analyzing film tropes, steve guttenberg, ally sheedy, fisher stevens, aziz ansari, gen x nostalgia Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus content, live zooms with Tracie & Emily, discounts on merch, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls. We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find.  We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com  We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!

    Short Circuit: Deep Thoughts About Robots, Romance, and "Acceptable" Racism in 80s Movies

  8. Jun 30

    You’ve Got Mail: Deep Thoughts About Tom Hanks’ Charm, New York City’s Coziness, and the Merits of a Two-Hour RomCom / Commercial for AOL

    Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. “…all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings.” This week, Emily revisited everyone and their aunt’s favorite late-90s advertisement, er, romcom, You’ve Got Mail. The film was a feature-length commercial for America Online starring two of the biggest names in romcom, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. With the biting interactions that lead to romance between Kathleen Kelly (Ryan) and Joe Fox (Hanks), this Nora Ephron-written and -directed film showed us something so true about what life was like for women in the late 20th century, it took decades before we realized just how infuriating it was. In the sisters’ conversation they unpack the sins Hanks’ charm manages to cover, the irony-not-irony in a romcom about the destruction of a small business being bankrolled by brands like AOL and Starbucks, and what ingredients made this film so beloved (comedy, pacing, chemistry, and dramatic irony). And in what may be a first, the sisters note how this movie makes New York City feel cozy.  Emily and Tracie may not be Hanks and Ryan, but we have our charms. Throw on your headphones and be charmed! Tags: deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, romcom, comedy, film, storytelling, cultural commentary, 80s and 90s movies, movies, psychology, movie reviews, women, classic movies, romance, analyzing film tropes, millennial nostalgia, nostalgia, film analysis, tom hanks, meg ryan, nora ephron Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus content, live zooms with Tracie & Emily, discounts on merch, and early access to Deep Thou​​ghts by visiting us on Patreon or find us on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/guygirls We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls. We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find.  We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com  We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!

    You’ve Got Mail: Deep Thoughts About Tom Hanks’ Charm, New York City’s Coziness, and the Merits of a Two-Hour RomCom / Commercial for AOL
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4.8
out of 5
16 Ratings

About

80s and 90s movies and early 2000s tv may be called stupid shit by some, but you know it matters. So do we. We're Tracie and Emily, sister podcasters who love well-crafted fiction and one another. In this comedy podcast, we look at the classic movies of our Gen X childhood and adolescence, analyzing film tropes to uncover the cultural commentary on romance, money, religion, mental health, and more. From Twilight to Ghostbusters, Harry Potter to the Muppets, comedy to drama to horror, we use feminism, our super smart brains, and each other to uncover the lessons lurking behind the nostalgia of pop culture. Come overthink with us as we delve into our deep thoughts about stupid shit. 

Information

  • Creator
    Sister podcasters raised by 80s and 90s movies: Tracie Guy-Decker, lover of animation, Muppets, comedy, and feminism & Emily Guy Birken, storytelling nerd, mental health advocate, and pop culture aficionado
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    158
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy Podcast
  • Show Website
    Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t: A Pop-Culture Comedy Podcast

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