#decoder ring podcast

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (31 May - 6 Jun 2026)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 Teeth of ivory, smiles of gold (iffervescent) - 75K, Hollanov modern royalty AU - absolutely delicious!!!

😊👂‍ Secret at Skull House (Secrets and Scrabble #2) (Josh Lanyon, author; Matt Haynes, narrator) - Ellery's ex moves to town, starts looking in to a 20 year old murder case and promptly gets murdered.

😊 Plausible Deniability (josie_ides (josephides)) - 40K Hollanov, AU where Shane keeps tabs on Ilya's niece (but makes the mistake of not telling Ilya about it)

🥰 I'll build a house inside of you (jtimu) - 66K, hollanov AU where ilya/shane get outed in 2014 due to an internet hack & shane marries ilya to save him from having to return to russia. Loooove a marriage of convenience with pining.

💖💖 +128K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

if you're looking for jesus (then get on your knees) (voxofthevoid) - MCU: shrunkyclunks; 18K - - reread of one of my faves; extremely hot shrunkyclunks with an age gap

Lavender (iffervescent) - HR/GC: hollanov; 8K - 🥵🔥🥵🔥🥵🔥 massage therapist pwp

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - s17, e1

Home Town: Inn This Together - s1, e1-4

The Cottage Deserved The Peabody: Heated Rivalry Ep 6

Game Changer - s8, e2

Um, Actually - s11, e10 (Tournament of Champions '26 Part 2)

The Legend of Vox Machina - s4, e1-3

Widow's Bay - s1, e8

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Explain It to Me - Why people cheat

Re: Dracula - May 31: New Scheme of Villainy

Taskmaster The Podcast - Jason Mantzoukas (s 21, e8)

Science Quickly - Why this Ebola outbreak is so different

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Backrooms

The Sporkful - Why Would Someone Run 31 Miles While Eating Taco Bell?

Welcome to Night Vale - The Collection Plate

What Went Wrong - My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Short History Of… - Punk

The Unbelievable Truth - Series 33: 6. Sausages, Fish, Table Tennis and Butterflies

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Spider-Noir

Glamorous Trash - Viral Article Book Club: The Death of the Feed (with Jenny Hagel)

⭐ 99% Invisible - The MAPL Test

Short Wave - This common garden plant summons wasps as bodyguards

Unexplainable - The lost Lyme vaccine

Science Quickly - The math behind your daily annoyances

Ologies - Awe Psychology (WONDER) with Dacher Keltner

Films To Be Buried With - Betty Gilpin (Office Romance / GLOW / The Hunt)

Handsome - Kyle Mooney asks about clothes you miss

⭐ Decoder Ring - Tina Turner and the Dance That Conquered Australia

Throughline - The World Cup was supposed to bring world peace

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Power Ballad

⭐ NPR Music - NPR Music+: “Time Warp” from ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’

Humans - John Green: We’re Not Merely a Catastrophe

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Masters of the Universe and What’s Making Us Happy

Re: Dracula - June 5: Simple Seriousness

Science Quickly - What’s in a name? When it comes to PCOS, a lot

Short Wave - Prepare to be baffled by what we don't know about eels

⭐ 99% Invisible - 100 Objects #3: The Pension Files

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Billboard Top 40 March 28, 1987

Billboard Top 40 March 15, 1980

Billboard Top 40 December 21, 1985

Presenting Paul Simon

Party Pupils

Billboard Top 40 May 17, 1986

[mercurygray]

Because I find myself (for perhaps the first time in my adult life) actually paying attention to media appearances during an awards cycle, I've been getting a lot of exposure recently to celebrities and red carpet appearances and interviews and thoughts, from lots of different people, about the clothes that various people are wearing, and who let them out of the house looking like that.

And because of this, I found this recent episode of Decoder Ring really really interesting. The episode was hosted by Audrey Trufelman of the Articles of Interest podcast, another favorite of mine.

How Stylists Came to Rule the Red Carpet

Melissa Rivers wants some credit for the lucrative job of celebrity stylists.

In it, Trufelman and regular Decoder Ring host Willa Paskin talk about the creation and rise of the celebrity stylist. It's super interesting.

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (10-16 May 2026)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😊👂Service with a Smile (Blandings Castle #9) (PG Wodehouse, author; Nigel Lambert, narrator) - Uncle Fred is back at Blandings, this time under his own name, but still spreading sweetness & light, tormenting Dukes and helping the course of young (& older) love run smooth thru a judicious application of lying and blackmail.

🥰👂‍ Mirage City (Evander Mills #4) (Lev AC Rosen, author; Vikas Adam, narrator) - excellent entry in the series (though I did have to have it vetted for me from a friend before I would try it 😆but these are NOIR so I gotta know beforehand if anyone important dies, etc! (they did not, all is well. (well, as well as can be in 1950s San Francisco)))

😍 Platform Decay (The Murderbot Diaries #8) (Martha Wells) - it was just so damn good, I had to reread in ebook form!

😑 The Road to Roswell (Connie Willis, author; Jesse Vilinsky, narrator) - audio increased annoying levels by at least 20%, so switched to text which helped slightly (text also helped because it just goes faster.) Overall, just engaging enough to plow though but I never lost that low level thrum of annoyance (and I'm at least 10% annoyed with myself for bothering to finish.) The bits I did like were just swamped by what I did not. Absolutely the biggest UGH was the whole 'here's a man and a woman of an equivalent age ergo romance!' despite there not really being any chemistry. I've got zero patience for that heteronormative nonsense (esp bc i've been reading virtually no cishet/mainstream stuff so my tolerance level for that bs is in the basement)

😍👂‍ [Podfic] when i die i’ll sacrifice (more than enough for the afterlife) (notcaycepollard, author; quietnight, narrator) - 41K, Natasha/Maria; reread (via podfic) of THEEE BEST post-EG fixit for Natasha.

💖💖 +204K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

shane hollander's guide to bottom prep & ilya rozanov's guide to supportive intimacy (bisexualbuckley) - HR/GC: Hollanov, 13K & 10K respectively - both fics are hot, intimate, tender

I Wanna Be Somebody To Someone (Someone To You) (stabthroughme) - HR/GC: Hollanov, 36K - Ilya gets traded to NY, he becomes Scott's annoying younger cousin basically - good AU, skillful interweaving canon events

None Family With Heart Beef, A Hollanov """Fake""" Marriage (dairaliz, DiabolicalWorldwriter, jennisaisquoi) - HR/GC: Hollanov, 1K - hilariously funny not!fic (would love to see more of this kind of things, where folks just throw their unformatted ramblings from the discord into ao3 to share) with extremely entertaining cold read podfic - love it when a cold reader loses it, another level of shared experience

The Ways We Enter Each Other (Vee (Vera_DragonMuse)) - HR/GC: Hollanov, 16K - win conditions #8 - another stellar fic in this series! Ilya gets his ears pierced on a whim, which leads to shane taking care of him in a myriad of ways

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Party Animals - LIVE: Party Animals Can WIN LAS VEGAS SERIES Against Loco Beach Coconuts In Nevada Rubber Match!

Home Town - s10, e1-4

Maine Cabin Masters - s12, e5-10

Mythical Kitchen | 100 Years of Disneyland Food

Ask Hank Anything - Are Billionaires Dropping Inventors in Volcanoes? (Siobhan Thompson)

Fireside Chat LIVE With Liam O'Brien & Sam Riegel

Parlor Room - s2, e5

Mythical Kitchen | Sam Reich Eats His Last Meal

D20: Adventuring Party - "Zaeth is a Guided Missile" (s24, e6)

D20: City Council of Darkness - "The Sunday Scoop and Spiteful Spirits" (s30, e6)

Taskmaster - s21, e6

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

What Next: TBD - Does Anyone Like A.I.?

Pop Culture Happy Hour - What it’s like to watch movies and TV early as a critic (Pop Culture Happy Hour+)

Explain It to Me - Chems in your cosmetics

Short History Of… - The Golden Age of Railways

Re: Dracula - May 11: Pray for my Happiness

Pop Culture Happy Hour - The Sheep Detectives

No One Saw It Coming - Beware gifts from Soviet spies

What Went Wrong - Cabaret

⭐ 99% Invisible - Ask Your Doctor About

It's Been a Minute - Progressive women are fed up & fighting back (feat. IHIP News)

Throughline - Four voices from the Great Depression

Re: Dracula - May 12: What Manner of Man is This

⭐ The Allusionist - 227. Draculae part 1: Enter the Castle

Shedunnit - The Silent Passenger

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Fun movies we missed

The Unbelievable Truth - Series 33: 3. Words, Bears, The French and Mushrooms

Handsome - Mae Martin's Dad asks us a question… with puppets!

Unexplainable - A better Black Death story

⭐ Code Switch - What the Savannah Bananas have to do with race and baseball

⭐ Sidedoor - The People in the Pictures

Decoder Ring - Decoder Rings Back | Duck, Duck, Jeep

Song Exploder - Key Change: Emma Straub

Ologies - Special Episode: Wall to Wall Secrets, Sorry!

Today, Explained - Is it a bad book or is it AI?

Cannonball - The Devil Wears Prada, Workers Get Nada

The Dogs Were Good (Again) Podcast - The Best Dog Grooming Transformations We’ve Ever Seen!

Endless Thread - Manifesting an online rom-com existence

⭐ Twenty Thousand Hertz - Age of Audio: The Inside Story of Podcasting

Vibe Check - A Fountain of Regret

What Next - SchadenFriday: Ben Shapiro’s Short—as in Abrupt—Decline

Re: Dracula - May 15: Lizard Fashion

Welcome to Night Vale #288 - Doubles Anonymous

Broken Record - Wyclef Jean | Live from On Air Fest (with Sam Sanders)

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #91

Hit Parade - Dancing With Himself Edition

Re: Dracula - May 16: This Man Belongs to Me

ICYMI - Right-Wing Creators Are In Their Flop Era

ICYMI - Bonus: The Influencer Caught Snarking On Herself

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - We make Ken Jennings relive the worst moment of his life

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Obsession and What’s Making Us Happy

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Billboard Top 40 March 19, 1988

Billboard Top 40 April 24, 1982

Billboard Top 40 August 15, 1987

Billboard Top 40 May 18, 1985

Billy Idol

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (12-18 Apr 2026)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😍 After Hours at Dooryard Books (Cat Sebastian, author; Joel Leslie & JJ Hawkins, narrator) - another gorgeous, aching, hopeful book about finding joy and love and family and connection no matter how much the world is fucking falling apart. the perfect book for now.

🥰 death and taxes (and shane hollander) (fingersfallingupwards) - 68K, old man hollanov yaoi #1 - Ilya never goes to the cottage but they reconnect 20 years later - LOVED seeing them as late middle-aged guys, loved Ilya as a father, really nailed characterizations. just SO GOOD!

🥰 A Pelican at Blandings (Blandings Castle #11) (PG Wodehouse, author; Nigel Lambert, narrator) - couldn't settle on what to read next, decided to have this as a bit of a palate cleanser - it's always a joy to visit Blandings Castle, filled to the absolute brim with imposters as always

🥰 A Well-Organized Life (409_conflict) - 47K, Hollanov - fantastic canon divergent AU, mostly tv based so some different characters (no troy, Ilya's therapist is maxim) - Ilya's teletherapy records get hacked & leaked, which outs HIM but not Shane, they plan from there -- just great Ilya POV/voice

💖💖 +305K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

but look at the trees, and look at my face (sargeantwoof) - HR/GC: 6K - Luca Haas settles in with the Centaurs - just delightful, I really, really love this Luca Haas

i guess what's wrong is when we're kissing, we can't talk (sargeantwoof) - HR/GC: Hollanov, 6K - Shane asks post-coital questions (on Cosmo's suggestion) and Ilya is charmed (of course)

i wanna share an apartment, a room, and a bed (sargeantwoof) - HR/GC: Hollanov, 3K - I love when they blow people's minds with how long they've been together

Voulez-Vous and All Eyes On Me (both by affectionatebee33) Hollanov, 6K and 7K respectively - in which each of them gets a chance to be railed every which way by 4 versions of the other - 🥵🔥🥵🔥

A Delicate Touch (the_deep_magic) - The Eagle of the Ninth: Marcus/Esca, 16K - another beautiful (and HOT) Marcus/Esca fic where Esca realizes what Marcus wants but can't really ask for

You've got mail ([anonymous]) - HR/GC: Hollanov, 24K - epistolary non-NHL AU with really, truly impressive formatting & coding, plus a solid story of them becoming pen pals in uni and moving forward from there

stars and moons (ratherunnecessary) - HR/GC: Hollanov, 16K - "Shane can do casual. He fucking loves casual. He’ll be Toronto’s king of casual." - Shane's first Grindr hookup is with the hot Russian guy who's also his neighbor and things don't go according to his casual plan at all

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Ask Hank Anything - Why Do Clocks Go Clockwise? (Atsuko Okatsuka)

Mythical Kitchen - Colman Domingo Eats His Last Meal

Um, Actually - s11, e7

Beyond Paradise - s3, e1-3

The Pitt - s2, e15

Taskmaster - s21, e2

D20: City Council of Darkness - "Blood, Business, and Beth's Husband" (s30, e2) & D20: Adventuring Party - "Two Hours in the Tesla Diner" (s24, e2)

Critical Role - "The Point of No Return" (c4, e22) & CR Cooldown - c4, e22

Critical Role - "Buried Truths" (c4, e23) & CR Cooldown - c4, e23

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Our favorite local cinemas (Pop Culture Happy Hour+)

⭐ One Song - Parliament's "Mothership Connection"

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Big Mistakes

No One Saw It Coming - Ancient Greek built a steam engine for dinner parties

Rebel Ever After - TJ Alexander Returns! Queer love means breaking the rules

What Went Wrong - Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Version History - Western Electric 500: Monopoly phone

99% Invisible - RoboUmp Hits the Big Leagues

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Great TV We Missed

Throughline - How the US became America

The Allusionist - 225. Hues

Shedunnit - Decline of the English Murder

Switched on Pop - Learning to Love Train: "Drops of Jupiter" is back in the atmosphere

Handsome - Hayley Kiyoko asks about Victorian love stories

Dinner's On Me - Darren Criss

A Hot Dog Is A Sandwich - Reflecting on 100 Episodes of Last Meals

Weird Kids - Episode 7: Punk is a Four Letter Word

Unexplainable - The Hitchhiking Microbe’s Guide to the Galaxy

Science Quickly - When science meets Pokémon

Vibe Check - You Can Go to the Moon and Back, but Your Salary Won't

⭐ Sidedoor - Broad Stripes, Bright Stars, and White Lies

Ologies - Cannabinology (MARIJUANA) Part 2 with Ziva Cooper and Caroline Melly

Welcome to Night Vale #286 - Our Ice Cream Truck of Infinite Sorrows

⭐ Decoder Ring - Decoder Rings Back | Generation Participation Trophy

NPR's Book of the Day - For her new novel about boy bands, Emma Straub took a page from New Kids on the Block

What Next - You Come at the Pope, You Best Not Miss

Throughline - The original clickbait king

Sherlock Holmes Short Stories - The Final Problem

A Hot Dog Is A Sandwich - Our Most Challenging Last Meal Yet

Short Wave - The psychology behind why you dread small talk

Science Quickly - Why birds outlived T. rex

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Normal and What’s Making Us Happy

Vibe Check - If It’s Not A Hell Yes, It’s A No

Glamorous Trash - Chappell Roan Controversy, The False Prophet Documentary, and Rhode Island Housewives!

Endless Thread - A Beige New World

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #87

⭐ What Went Wrong - Jodie Foster & John Hinckley Jr. (with RedHanded)

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - We beef with the pontiff and admire the Stanley Cup

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Gordon Lightfoot

My Mix #6 - Dance Floor Classics

My Mix #7 - Alternative Rock Edge

'70s Lite Hits

Fleetwood Mac 1975 to 1987 [Fleetwood Mac] {2019}

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (19-25 Jul 2026)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰👂‍ Amongst Our Weapons (Rivers of London #9) (Ben Aaronovitch, author; Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, narrator) - Been a hot minute (5 years) since I last checked in on Peter & Nightingale & the rest of the SAU gang and associates! Just as much fun as I remembered.

😊 used to be young (sparkagrace) - 81K shrunkyclunks WinterDad fic

🥰 this year's wine ([anonymous]) - 73K Hollanov canon-divergent AU where Boston, in a final 'fuck you', trades Ilya to LA and they have to navigate a REALLY long-distance relationship for two years

🥰👂‍ Stone and Sky (Rivers of London #10) (Ben Aaronovitch, author; Kobna Holdbrook-Smith & Shvorne Marks, narrators) - EVERYONE goes for a 'holiday' in Scotland that involves summoned eldritch beasts, evil oil company execs, selkies and mermaids

💖💖 +214K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Influence series (409_conflict) - HR/GC: Yuna & Ilya, background Hollanov; 28K - canon-divergent AU where Ilya reaches out to Yuna & convinces her to be his brand manager & they develop a delightful friendship - very fun, 2 complete stories but with room for more if the author chooses

Outstanding (CoffeeDragon87) - HR/GC: Hollanov; 3K - "There are questions you simply don't ask Ilya Rozanov on live television." 🤣🤣

I did think, let's go about this slowly (emjee (MerryHeart)) - The Old Guard: Kaysanova; 10K - library AU that is super fluffy and indulgent and delicious

Decisions, Decisions (jewelledfoxes) - HR/GC: Hollanov; 22K - "Shane doesn't love making decisions. Ilya does. Isn't that convenient?"

The Cens Beat Reporter series (notlayingroses) - HR/GC: Hollanov; 33K - reread of one of my fave outsider POV/socmed series!

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Mythical Kitchen | Surprising Jake Johnson With Nick Miller’s Favorite Food In New Girl

The Great Pottery Throw Down - s1, e2

Hot Ones - Jon Bernthal & Tom Holland

A Nice Indian Boy (2025)

Ride or Die - s1, e5-8

Midsomer Murders - s25, e1-4

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Re: Dracula - July 19: Present Craving

⭐ This Week In Fandom History - July 1982: "July" Delights Harry/Johnny Fans (And Us)

Pop Culture Happy Hour - The Hawk

Re: Dracula - July 20: Most Difficult and Vital Aspect

Explain It to Me - What's in a name?

No One Saw It Coming - Escaped the Nazis and lost by Australia

The Sporkful - 2 Chefs And A Lie 2026 With NPR’s Rachel Martin

Short History Of… - Ned Kelly

Unexplainable - Dinosaur mysteries with Riley Black

What Went Wrong - The Dark Knight

Throughline - The Chinafication of Walmart

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Our rules for music festivals

99% Invisible - The Original 100 Objects

Switched on Pop - II. Justice for the verse (ft. Audrey Hobert)

Handsome - Michael Bublé hid from his kids to ask us a question

Re: Dracula - July 22: Rough Weather

It's Been a Minute - Are we fueling violence against women?

Vibe Check - Pete Hegseth Isn’t A Real Man

Vibe Check - Donald Trump Loves A Closet Queen

Unexplainable - What the Odyssey is hiding

Sidedoor - The Gunboat Philadelphia

Mind the Tags - "There's milk in this cookie!" with fic author and AI detective T

Decoder Ring - Decoder Rings Back | I Was a Fake Victim in a Mock Car Crash

Shedunnit - The Underrated Christies

Sherlock Holmes Short Stories - The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez

Wild Card - Hrishikesh Hirway

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Hadestown and What’s Making Us Happy

Vibe Check - Who Are You When It Actually Matters?

Ologies - Emmenology (MENOPAUSE & PERIMENOPAUSE) Part 2 with Monica Christmas, Mary Claire Haver and Sarah Witkowski

Re: Dracula - July 24: There Will be Some Trouble

Code Switch - How the potato became an insult

Endless Thread - The Lost Loophole

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #101

⭐ 99% Invisible - 100 Objects #10: Nunchaku

You're Dead to Me - The Iliad and Odyssey: heroic epics from ancient Greece

⭐ The Sam Sanders Show - Harvey Guillén Is Not An Overnight Success

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - A tick-filled odyssey

What Went Wrong - Spaghetti Westerns! A Primer

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

my 'Liked Music' playlist

Forest Dwellers

Alabama 3 (aka A3)

Wig Wam

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (25-31 Jan 2026)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 when our stars collide (tattooedsiren) - 52K, suits, mike/harvey, Notting Hill-inspired AU

🥰 The Centaurs Have a PR Problem (and It’s Married) (Justaromanticfool) - 45K, hollanov but mostly a centaurs social media fic that also splits into Luca Haas/OMC - WIP but no real cliffhangers - "Shane and Ilya are finally on the same team! The Centaurs’ communications and PR department hasn’t known peace since. Featuring: email threads, the unhinged internet, chaotic group chats, Ilya being a menace, Shane being very tired, Harris trying (and failing) to contain the chaos, and Luca accidentally starring in his own little rom-com."

😍 Home Ice Advantage (taywrites11) - 51K, hollanov - FANTASTIC AU where Shane gets traded to Boston halfway thru rookie season, works with/reworks canon so well

🥰 Bad Idea (PorcupineGirl) - 49K, zimbits AU - "While in Atlanta for a sports memorabilia convention, Jack meets a cute blonde guy in a bar and goes home with him. He knows it's a bad idea, but he so rarely has such an immediate connection with somebody. Seven months later, he walks into his first meeting with the PR consultant he'll be working with on coming out, Eric Bittle. They're gonna have a lot more bad ideas together."

💖💖 +539K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

itty <3 ilya (bomberqueen17, sassaffrassa) - HR/GC: hollanov, 8K - hilarious and technical tour de force where not-gritty and ilya have 'a public multi-year situationship largely conducted via Twitter'

Ilya Rozanov's 2017 Dating Wrapped (forjodssake) - HR/GC: hollanov, 1K - 😂😂 ilya's ppt to the Cens for his 2017 dating

Shane Hollander Spitting Compilation, 2010 to 2014 (Erisenyo) - HR/GC: hollanov, 7K - shane spitting on the ice really does something for ilya. shane takes notice. 🔥

Learn to swim (dharmashark) - MCU: pre-war stucky, 37K - exquisite pre-war stucky

i don't need to know where we begin and end (sargeantwoof) - HR/GC: hollanov, 4K - 🔥🥵🔥 (and so tender!)

New Family Values (newtntommy) - HR/GC: hollanov, 7K - love to see terrifying, lethal omegas!

and i spit out the seeds (linearity) - HR/GC: hollanov, 24K - "A video of Shane sucking Ilya’s dick is leaked. Over the next twenty-four hours, Ilya goes on an odyssey." (literally)

the secret society of stick handlers (gurlsrool) - HR/GC: all the GC couples + Luca Haas/OMC, 41K - this series is absolutely fucking killer, cannot recommend it strongly enough - post-TLG shenanigans told (mainly) thru a variety of group chats and social media posts. latest installment focuses on sweet boy Luca Haas' and his 3some celebration after the cup win. I JUST REALLY LOVE THIS SERIES A WHOLE LOT!

Until the bright logic is won (norgbelulah) - Justified: boyd/raylan, 19K - 'put boyd crowder in a coffee shop AU' doesn't seem like it should work, but it really, really does

here we are and what the hell are we going to do with it (walkingthroughwindows) - HR/GC: hollanov, 24K - incredible fic about our fave guys reaching retirement. really nailed the character voices imo

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

PHILM CLUB: HEATED RIVALRY EP 2 & EP 3 (NSFW🍑)

The Mighty Nein - s1, e8

Bookish - s1, e1-2

D20: Gladlands - "Poppy Persona Non Grata" (s27, e4)

D20: Adventuring Party - "Table Pizza" (s22, e4)

The Pitt - s2, e4

Heated Rivalry - s1, e3, e5-6

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

It's Been a Minute - You're not broken. The job market is.

Pop Culture Happy Hour - A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

No One Saw It Coming - The colony that broke Scotland (and made Great Britain)

The Sporkful - Tom Papa Quit Vegetarianism After One Visit To An Italian Deli

Vibe Check - Is Cheating Ever Justified?

Vibe Check - RFK Jr vs. Reality: America’s Doctor on the Health Chaos

Strong Songs - "Rosanna" by Toto

Tonsil Hockey - Holy Puck

Pop Culture Happy Hour - The Beauty

Tonsil Hockey - Rookies: Smoking Hot

ICYMI - Thank God For Petty Drama

⭐ Decoder Ring - Is Culture Stuck?

99% Invisible - What’s in a Name

⭐ Shut Up Evan - Hudson Williams

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Vibe Check - 2016 Was Not That Great

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #76

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Send Help and What’s Making Us Happy

Vibe Check - I Can't Afford a House, So I'm Becoming Hot Instead

Endless Thread - Hot (and not) fruit takes

You're Dead to Me - Emperor Nero: ancient Rome’s most infamous ruler

Hit Parade - The Bridge: Fame Makes a Man Take Things Over

Smart Podcast, Trashy Books - 703. Oscars and Gossip with Kayleigh Donaldson

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Billboard Top 40 October 18, 1980

Billboard Top 40 February 23, 1985

Billboard Top 40 January 30, 1982

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (14-20 Dec 2025)

when your entire life changes before your eyes

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🙂 Holiday Meetings and Gay Happy Greetings (teicakes) - Sheith hallmark christmas AU

😍 A Case of Life and Limb (The Trials of Gabriel Ward #2) (Sally Smith, author; Jeremy Clyde, narrator) - I LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH!!! My neurodivergent king, Gabriel Ward, KC, is back at it again!

🥰 It's the Best Time of the Year (chicklette) - 40K, shrunkyclunks - advent calendar holiday fic with Cap!Steve and veteran!baker!Bucky and lots of fluffy goodness!

💖💖 +252K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

I got that good thing for you (canistakahari) - MCU: stucky, 5K - post WS, funny & very sweet - Bucky has a very exact vision for a holiday experience [seasonal fave, reread]

Kiss Him Once For Me (odderstuff) - Stranger Things: steddie, 10K - steddie hallmark holiday fic, basically

Blind Date (AggressiveWhenStartled, quietnight) - MCU: shrinkyclinks, 8K - hilarious holiday shrinkyclinks shenanigans [seasonal fave, reread]

Not to me, not if it's you (AidaRonan) - Stranger Things: steddie, 11K - steddie hot santa/krampus monsterfucking [seasonal fave, reread]

[Podfic] Backhoe - Chapter 12 (E_Greer (narrator), ZenaidaMacroura (author)) - MCU: shrinkyclinks AU, 3K - another great podfic chapter!

A Winter Spirit, A Winter's Tale (die_traumerei) - MCU: stucky, 23K - artist steve spends the winter in a cabin in Sweden and gets to know (in every sense) the protector of the land [seasonal fave, reread]

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (belovedmuerto) - MCU: stucky, 14K - gentle & warm post-WS/recovery stucky holidays [seasonal fave, reread]

Pryaniki (sevenfists) - Men's Hockey RPF: sid/geno, 4K - delightful holiday fic

Let your heart be light (relenafanel) - MCU: stucky, 21K - no-powers Stucky AU featuring fake dating during the holidays! [seasonal fave, reread]

please leave a message (Ravenesta) - Heated Rivalry: hollanov, 2K - 😍😍😍😍😍 INCREDIBLE AU fic where the Montreal WAG group chat adds "Lily"

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

The Legend of Vox Machina - s2, e10-12; s3, e1-4

Dirty Laundry - s5, e12

Heated Rivalry - s1, e3-5 [watched ep 5 3x]

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

NPR's Book of the Day - Revisiting ‘Kitchen Confidential’

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Mailbag: The Movies We Walked Out Of

Hit Parade - Hooked to the Silver Screen Edition

The Sporkful - How Do You Steal A Truckload Of Tequila? (Salad Spinner Year In Review)

It's Been a Minute - The Winners & Losers of 2025

Short History Of… - The Crown Jewels

Welcome to Night Vale #280 - The Story of Hanukkah

No One Saw It Coming - An 1843 Lifehack Became a Christmas Tradition

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Great Movies We Missed

Switched on Pop - The year that killed music

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - We ask Peter about the guest who's most surprised him, plus other listener questions

⭐ What Chaos! - Reacting to Episode 4 of 'Heated Rivalry'

Handsome - Sarah Gadon charms Handsome… and a cat!

Decoder Ring - Mailbag: Yo-Yos, Sandboxes, and Encores

Vibe Check - Is Gen X The Greatest Generation?

99% Invisible - Sax Appeal

Normal Gossip - Monster-in-Law with Chelsea Devantez

Twenty Thousand Hertz - Guess That Sound 2025: Youtube Channel Champs

⭐ Pop Culture Happy Hour - Heated Rivalry

⭐ All Songs Considered - All Songs+: “The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole

Ologies - Ornithorhynchology (PLATYPUSES) with Tahneal Hawke

It's Been a Minute - The embarrassing truth of dating men

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Avatar: Fire And Ash and What’s Making Us Happy

Curious Cases - Phantom Pain

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #70

Cannonball - Rob Reiner Made Your Favorite Movie

⭐ Endless Thread - Lost Without You

⭐ NPR's Book of the Day - Revisiting ‘Waiting to Exhale’

Off Menu - Kate Winslet (Christmas Special)

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

KPop Demon Hunters (Soundtrack from the Netflix film) {2025

Saturday Night Fever (The Original Movie Soundtrack) {1977}

Grease (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) {1978}

Xanadu (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) {1980}

Flashdance (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) {1983}

Footloose (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) {1984}

Top Gun (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) {1986}

Purple Rain {1984}

Dirty Dancing: Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture {1987}

Waiting to Exhale: Original Soundtrack Album {1995}

"All The Things She Said" (both versions) {honestly listened to these two on a repeating loop for like 4 straight hrs}

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (27 Jul-2 Aug 2025)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😊🎧 What the Vicar Saw (Lord Edgington Investigates #9) (Benedict Brown, author; George Blagden, narrator) - Chrissy & fam go to stay with his maternal grandma, to check out the church for his brother's upcoming wedding. Cue the murder.

😊🎧 Blood on the Banisters (Lord Edgington Investigates #10) (Benedict Brown, author; George Blagden, narrator) - time for Chrissy's brother to get married but the bride's family sucks the 'fun' out of dysfunctional and then the mother of the bride gets stabbed.

😊 Hell or High Water (novacorpsrecruit) - 50K, enjoyable steddie 'accidental baby acquisition' fic

💖💖 +192K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Slide To Answer series (relenafanel) - MCU: stucky modern AU, 15K - on the 10th anniversary of this wonderful, iconic 'wrong number' fic series, the author comes out of retirement (in this fandom) to gift us with a 10-yr epilogue. I FUCKING LOVE FANDOM

Snow Patrol (Gloromeien) - MCU: shrunkyclunks, 36K - really warm & funny shrunkyclunks with Steve finding purpose, healing & Bucky Barnes in a group of vets who do community snow removal

[Podfic] Whole Lotta Love (greedy_dancer (narrator); stereobone (author)) - Stranger Things: steddie, 1hr 4min - fantastic podfic of a fantastic 'didn't know they were dating' fic

Send to All (cairosene) - Batman: gen, 3K - short but fucking hilarious fic (told thru email) where Batfam members have to fill out their 'fuck or die' forms. Never fails to make me laugh.

Alvin Draper of Crime Alley (potofsoup) - Batman: tim & jason, 27K - lovely & funny fic about Tim (pseudonymously) bonding with Jason & ultimately finding family

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

The Hidden Engineering of Floating Bridges

The Golden Girls - s1, e21

Hot Ones Versus - Bowen Yang vs. Matt Rogers

Game Changer - s7, e9

Ask Hank Anything - Are baths dirty? (with Jarvis Johnson)

Dirty Laundry - s5, e2

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - s3, e4

D20: Cloudward, Ho! - "A Clockwork Crew Rendezvous" (s26, e9)

D20: Adventuring Party - "Robot Equal Sexy or No?" (s21, e9)

SurrealEstate - s1, e9-10; s2, e1-3

Sinners

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

The Indicator from Planet Money - When is cosplay a crime?

Today, Explained - Is tipping fair?

What Next - Why The Shelves Aren't Empty (Yet)

Unexplainable - How good was Michael Jordan, really?

The Sporkful - Are Carbs In Europe Better For You?

Short Wave - Sea Camp: The Largest Daily Migration On Earth

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Song Of The Summer

No One Saw It Coming - Creepy Guy Meets Recording Device: The True Origins of Reality TV

Short Wave - Nature Quest: Are Summers Getting Hotter?

Hit Parade - The Bridge: How Ya Like Me Now?

What Next - Why Are So Many Institutions Caving to Trump?

⭐ Ologies - Literary Olfactology (THE POLITICS OF SMELL) with Ally Louks

Unexplainable - 12 tiny worlds

⭐ 99% Invisible - Air-Borne

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week - Bette Midler and the Salamander, How Marathon Swimmers Pee, D+D is Good for Your Brain

⭐ Decoder Ring - The Bad-Mouthing of British Teeth

Science Quickly - Why Dungeons and Dragons is good for your brain

Decoder Ring - Decoder Ring Plus | Why Are Graduation Photos So Expensive?

Pop Culture Happy Hour - The Hunting Wives

If Books Could Kill - He's Just Not That Into You

Pop Culture Happy Hour - The Naked Gun And What's Making Us Happy

What Next - The Death of an Online Whisper Network

Endless Thread - Kisscams, ratcams, Barbara Streisand

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #50

Ologies - Bonus Episode: Optical Technology (HISTORY OF EYEGLASSES + MODERN DAY VISION)

Glamorous Trash - Viral Article Hall of Fame: Bad Vegan, Sarma Melngailis, and The Boyfriend Scam

Screenshot - Police Procedurals

Smart Podcast, Trashy Books - 678. The Osmanification of Fiction Covers with Kayleigh Donaldson

Welcome to Night Vale #271 - The Festival

Strong Songs - A Song For My Father

⭐ What Next - Bonus: When the French Bombed Greenpeace

⭐ The Sam Sanders Show - Is Beyonce Changing Country Music Forever? (with Tressie McMillan Cottom)

One Song - Lil Jon’s Get Low w/Lil Jon

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

MY Mix #6 - Dark Wave Dance Party

Journey

KPop Demon Hunters (Soundtrack from the Netflix film)

Carly Rae Jepsen

P!nk

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)