January Podcast Club Discussion: The 1990s

As a new year begins, it’s a good moment to look back at a decade that quietly set the rules for the one we’re living in now. Let’s talk about the 1990s!

How It Works:

• We often follow the Podcast Brunch Club listening lists covering a different topic each month. Members can also make suggestions for future topics. Be sure to check the monthly Meetup event to see what we're listening to!
• Listening lists are composed of episode selections related to the month's theme and are pulled from a variety of shows. And we love to include some recommendations too!
• Finishing the recommended listening list is not a requirement to attend. Listen to as many or few of the suggested episodes as you would like.
• We will have an unstructured, informal discussion of the selections and the month's theme.

This Month's Topic:
The 1990s reshaped pop culture, media, economics, and personal life in ways that still feel current—often unexamined, sometimes unresolved. This playlist revisits the ’90s not for nostalgia, but to understand how its ideas, habits, and blind spots carried forward into the present

Here's a link to the Spotify playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eVfrEYVv2VoEtnwUfCcQ8?si=dBpQe2b6QuysVOCvO1Rk1A&pi=he2r4-kYRBSvl

The Playlist - Suggested Episodes:

• 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s: “Backstreet Boys—“I Want It That Way”” (December 2020, 31 min)
  A breakdown of how a meticulously engineered boy-band hit became a global pop milestone despite lyrics that make no literal sense
• History of the 90s: “The One About “Friends” | 4″ (August 2019, 39 min)
  Friends wasn’t just a sitcom; it was a cultural reset. This episode examines how the show defined ’90s adulthood, relationships, and urban life—while also unpacking the blind spots and contradictions baked into its version of America.
• Freakonomics Radio: “Abortion and Crime, Revisited (Update)” (October 2024, 54 min)
  A reassessment of a controversial 1990s social science claim using updated data and decades of criticism.
• Decoder Ring: “The Dating Manual Unlike Any Other” (November 2023, 37 min)
  A deep dive into The Rules, the infamous 1990s dating book that reframed heterosexual courtship as strategy and restraint. This episode traces how a slim self-help manual captured anxieties about gender, power, and romance at the end of the decade.

Bonus Episodes:

• Hey Dude… The 90s Called!: “That Guy From Everything – with Seth Green” (10/1/2025, 1 hr 10 min)
  Seth Green reflects on growing up in ’90s pop culture and how being everywhere without being the star shaped his career.
• Crimetown: “S1 E14: Renaissance Man” (4/1/2017, 32 min)
  This episode examines how power, ambition, and corruption intersected in 1990s Providence through the rise of a charismatic political operator.
• Pop Culture Retrospective: “#109 – A Conversation about 1995 with Author Zachary Downing” (5/1/2025, 1 hr 46 min)
  A focused discussion on why 1995 was a cultural inflection point, from music and movies to the broader mood of the decade.