Aack Cast by Jamie Loftus

4.9 (467)
SOCIETY & CULTURE
WEEKLY SERIES

Aack! Cathy, the iconic and much-maligned comic strip by Cathy Guisewite, chronicled the day-to-day tribulations of its titular working woman for 35 years, met with equal praise and derision. In this podcast, Jamie Loftus (Lolita Podcast, My Year in Mensa) weaves between reporting and fiction, putting a cruelly treated cartoon everywoman in context.

06/21/2021

Introducing Aack Cast by Jamie Loftus

Aack! Cathy, the iconic and much-maligned comic strip by Cathy Guisewite, chronicled the day-to-day tribulations of its titular working woman for 35 years, met with equal praise and derision. In this podcast, Jamie Loftus (Lolita Podcast, My Year in Mensa) weaves between reporting and fiction, putting a cruelly treated cartoon everywoman in context. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

3 min
06/28/2021

Aackt 1: Cathy Comics, Revisited

Allow me to be the first to advise you: Cathy comics are good as hell — but it’s complicated. Today, Jamie takes a look at what exactly happens in the 34 years of Cathy lore, and it’s way more than you think. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1h 4m
07/05/2021

Aackt 2: Who is Cathy Guisewite?

For an author constantly conflated with her most famous creation, would the real Cathy Guisewite please stand up? In this two-part interview, Jamie and Cathy talk about what the journey from unknown diarist to world-famous aack connoisseur was like, and all the misjudgments and road blocks that came up along the way. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

47 min
07/07/2021

Aackt 2 Part 2: Who is Cathy Guisewite?

Today, we hear what happened to Cathy at the height of the comic’s popularity in the late 1980s until now. Cathy Guisewite tells Jamie all! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

37 min
07/12/2021

Aackt 3: Cathy and American Feminist Backlash

This week, Jamie takes a look at it where Cathy falls in the history of American feminism — and take a look at how the feminist movement has progressed, regressed, and gatekept. Why are feminists frustrated with Cathy? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1h 6m
07/19/2021

Aackt 4: The Pages Around Cathy, Part 1

Cathy Guisewite is often hailed as one of the only women in comic strips, but that's far from the truth -- this week, we uncover her frequently overlooked predecessors going back to the flapper age, and the underground scene that developed when the funny pages wouldn't address the issues feminists wanted to hear about, Wimmen's Commix. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

43 min
07/21/2021

Aackt 4: The Pages Around Cathy, Part 2

In part two of Jamie's exploration into who shared the American funny pages with Cathy Guisewite, we take a look at the artists chronicling the experiences of the boomer and Gen X crowd day to day along with her -- Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury, Aaron McGruder of The Boondocks, Alison Bechdel of Dykes to Watch Out For, and Lynn Johnston of For Better or For Worse. Tell your moms! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

39 min
07/26/2021

Minisode: Take the "Show Your Mom What a Podcast Is" Challenge

In this minisode, Grammy award-winning electronic music producer Jamie Loftus shares a Pulitzer Prize-winning song teaching your mom how to access a podcast. Aack Cast will be back next week to kick off the second half of our series! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

5 min

See All (13)

TRAILER

Introducing Aack Cast by Jamie Loftus

Aack! Cathy, the iconic and much-maligned comic strip by Cathy Guisewite, chronicled the day-to-day tribulations of its titular working woman for 35 years, met with equal praise and derision. In this podcast, Jamie Loftus (Lolita Podcast, My Year in Mensa) weaves between reporting and fiction, putting a cruelly treated cartoon everywoman in context. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

06/21/2021

•

3 min

Jamie Loftus

Host
Cathy Guisewite

Guest
Anna Salinas

Guest
Gina Wynbrandt

Guest
Humyara Mahbub

Guest
Joey Alison Sayers

Guest
Katie Rice

Guest
Katy Fishell

Guest
Liz Montague

Guest
Malaka Gharib

Guest

4.9

out of 5

467 Ratings

It's Just Fun

03/18/2025

Doms Noms

You wanna have a lot of fun listening to a podcast while learning some stuff? Jamie Does it again!
Meh

10/03/2025

Jules4thewin

I don’t care for Jamie Loftus as an interviewer and also find her “feminism” inauthentic (she seems to have drunk the gender ideology koolaid) but I listened anyway because I loved Cathy the comic strip growing up and wanted to learn more about the author. I wish a better host had done this podcast. Also didn’t care about all the irrelevant people she profiled for “diversity”.
A delight

07/30/2023

Mdesharn

The name of the final episode is a perfect joke.
Fun listen

03/08/2023

Rootroof

What a fun rediscovery of this “maligned woman.” My younger adult self both related to Cathy and didn’t like her. I stopped reading comics when I moved out of my parent’s house because they were the ones with the newspaper subscription, so I lost the thread of her story in the 80’s and never even knew she became a wife & mother. I really enjoyed the deep dive on this (actually groundbreaking) comic strip. (Also, MCP = male chauvinist pig and now I feel old. Aack.)

Aack! Cathy, the iconic and much-maligned comic strip by Cathy Guisewite, chronicled the day-to-day tribulations of its titular working woman for 35 years, met with equal praise and derision. In this podcast, Jamie Loftus (Lolita Podcast, My Year in Mensa) weaves between reporting and fiction, putting a cruelly treated cartoon everywoman in context.

Channel

iHeartPodcasts
Creator

iHeartPodcasts
Years Active

2K
Episodes

13
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

2026 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia
Show Website

Aack Cast by Jamie Loftus
Provider

iHeartMedia + Entertainment, Inc