Poptarts

When "Russian Doll" appeared on Netflix in early February, the series immediately became a national obsession. Here at BUST, we've got LOTS of theories about what the cryptic dark comedy is all about. And on this episode, we hash it all out with one of the show's most memorable supporting actors: Rebecca Henderson!

E. G. Daily is an actor, voice artist, and singer, best known for voicing Tommy Pickles on Rugrats, Buttercup on The Powerpuff Girls, and Babe the Pig in Babe: Pig in the City. And many have been utterly charmed by her since 1985 when she starred as Dottie, the female lead in one the greatest films ever made—Pee-wee’s Big Adventure! In this intimate interview, she shares what it’s like to use her iconic voice to connect to the kid in all of us.

Folklore: from Cinderella to The Little Mermaid, these stories are the basis of much of the pop culture we consume today. But are the outdated attitudes about women at the core of these stories doing more harm than good? Or would ditching these morality lessons be throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Helping us sort this all out are the hosts of the Feminist Folklore podcast Rachael Marr and Carlea Holl-Jensen. Carlea has a Masters degree from Indiana University in Folklore and Rachael loves old stories...especially scary ones. Dig in with us!

A master of fierce, feminist wit, Janeane Garofalo has been a comedy mainstay since the 1990s and is still making waves today. You may know her from her 25 years doing politically savvy stand-up comedy. You may recognize her from her roles on iconic TV shows including The Ben Stiller Show, The Larry Sanders Show, and Saturday Night Live. Or you may be a fan of her performances in such films as The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Wet Hot American Summer, The Matchmaker, Reality Bites, and Sweethearts. Through every role Garofalo chooses, she telegraphs some truth about women’s lives, and in this interview, our discussion got surprisingly heated.

2018 was a great year for Poptarts! In this very special episode, we look back at some of our fave interviews of the year with Amanda Palmer, Ricki Lake, Justine Bateman, Lizz Winstead, Sam Jay, Amber Tamblyn, Karreuche Tran, and more!

Amanda Palmer is a singer/songwriter whose dark cabaret stylings have been showcased in the bands Dresden Dolls, Evelyn Evelyn, and Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra. This creative polymath became a music industry sensation when she used Kickstarter to raise 1.2 million dollars to fund her solo project Theatre is Evil. And now her fans have funded her latest solo project, The Will Be No Intermission, on Patreon for even more. When it comes to inspiring fan engagement and artistic community, she’s in a class all by herself and here she opens up about her life, her marriage, and her art with her characteristic candor.

Romantic comedies are often polarizing because even though they are ostensibly made for a female audience, it’s rare to find one that actually tells the truth about women’s lives. But in real life, women are also out on these streets lying all the time when it comes to sex. Is this propensity to lie about our sex lives a social construct bolstered by rom-coms? Is life imitating art or is art imitating life? On this episode of the “Poptarts” podcast helping us figure it all out is Lux Alptraum, author of the new book Faking It: The Lies Women Tell About Sex And The Truths They Reveal.

Ricki Lake is a woman who has lived a million pop cultural lives. She first found fame in John Waters’ most commercially successful films, Hairspray, Cry Baby, and Serial Mom. She then took over the small screen with her own daytime talk show from 1992 to 2004. And today, she’s known for making documentaries alongside her filmmaking partner Abby Epstein—first with The Business of Being Born, and now with their new film, Weed the People. In this episode, both Ricki and Abby reveal what its like to change the world by capturing life’s most intimate moments.

In the ’80s, Justine Bateman was one of the most famous young women in America. She starred as Mallory on the hugely popular sit-com Family Ties on NBC from 1982 to 1989, she starred in a movie about an all-girl rock band called Satisfaction in 1989, and then she went on to write, direct, produce and study computer science behind the scenes while the internet completely changed our culture’s relationship to stardom. In her new book, Fame: The Hijacking of Reality, she writes about the phenomenon of being famous in a fresh and fascinating way. And in this episode, she reveals the real deal about living in a celebrity bubble and then moving on after it pops.

Strange Women. Pop culturally speaking, they truly are the spice of life. But what qualifies a performer or character as strange? And what is it about these women that provoke such strong responses in us? Joining us to discuss all this and more are two experts in the field. Twin sisters Tonya Hurley and Tracy Hurley Martin are the hosts of the Stories of Strange Women Podcast, where they’ve interviewed everyone from Elvira to Kate Pierson of the B-52s to Lydia Lunch to Parker Posey. And they are also quite accomplished Strange Women in their own rights. Tonya is the New York Times bestselling author of the Ghostgirl young adult book series and the Blessed trilogy. And Tracy was the co-founder of Brooklyn’s incredible Morbid Anatomy Museum. On this episode, we talk about the all the strange women who inspired us to become the weirdoes we are today!

Murray Hill is a New York City nightclub pioneer who emerged out of the underground drag scene of the 1990s. A comedian and variety show host in the shticky tradition of ’60s borscht belt and Vegas comics of yore like Don Rickles and Dean Martin, he is a performer New York Magazine named “One of the 50 Most Iconic Gender Benders of All Time,” PAPER declared “One of the Top 10 ‘It’ Boys in NYC Nightlife History,” and BUST celebrated as one of our special “Boys du Jour.” These days, Murray is setting aside his usual hosting duties and taking center stage in his own autobiographical comedy show, “About To Break,” running at Joe’s Pub in NY September 20 to 29. And on this episode of the “Poptarts” podcast, he fills us in on how he collaborated with Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman!!!!) to make this show a reality.

Sam Jay has been doing stand-up for the last seven years, but 2018 is the year her career absolutely exploded. She got a job writing for Saturday Night Live, she released a half-hour special on Comedy Central, she was on Netflix’s The Comedy Lineup, and she just put out a standup album called Donna’s Daughter! She recently took a break from the writer’s room of the Emmy Awards to stop by the Poptarts podcast and Callie and Emily were psyched to pick her brain about life on the road.

Winona Ryder is a peerless pop cultural icon. Here in NYC, the Quad cinema will be showing 16 Winona films this month as part of their “Utterly Winona” retrospective. And The Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn is having an all-day Winona movie marathon on August 25. Both special events coincide with her new film "Destination Wedding" opposite Keanu Reeves opening at the end of this month. But her upswing in popularity seems to go much deeper than that. Here to discuss why Winona’s appeal is more potent now than ever is Cristina Cacioppo, programmer at Brooklyn's Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

Sisters Tish and Snooky Bellomo opened their Manic Panic boutique in 1977, at 33 St. Marks Place, in New York City’s East Village. Credited as the first punk rock store in America, Manic Panic sold cool vintage fashions, rock star gear Tish made herself, and wildly colored hair dye and cosmetics that the sisters started manufacturing and have been distributing all over the world for the last 41 years. Because of Manic Panic products, weirdos like Callie and Emily and millions of others are able to find their tribe wherever they go. Legendary!

Debbie Stoller and Laurie Henzel are the co-founders and co-publishers of our beloved BUST Magazine, where they have been the Poptarts hosts’ bosses for a million years. In this episode, we are celebrating the magazine’s 25th Anniversary by asking our boss ladies everything we ever wanted to know about BUST but were afraid to ask.

Amber Tamblyn is famous for her roles in General Hospital, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Joan of Arcadia. But at BUST, we know her as our beloved poetry editor and as a true pal who helps us out whenever we need some star power to further our feminist agenda. In this episode, we discuss her debut novel, Any Man, a book about a female serial rapist, told from the perspectives of her male victims.

From Michelle Wolf to Samantha Bee, female comedians have been grabbing headlines lately for their pointed commentary on our current administration. But do they ever go too far? And what about the one notable exception—Roseanne Barr? To help us sort out our complicated feelings on this episode of the Poptarts podcast is veteran standup and Daily Show co-founder Lizz Winstead, whose personal experiences and insider intel should not be missed!

Girl gangs are endlessly entertaining. So when Poptarts co-host Callie Watts suggested we do a show about our favorite girl gangs in pop culture, obviously the answer was yes. But very quickly, as Callie and Emily started to discuss their picks, it became abundantly clear that they had very different interpretations of what constitutes a girl gang. So instead, this episode is going to be a celebration of girl gangs (Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill!), girl crews (Hidden Figures), and girl squads (Sex and the City). And to help them figure it all out is returning guest Erika W. Smith, BUST’s Digital Editorial Director and a member of Callie and Emily’s own fearsome feminist crew.

Karrueche Tran's path to stardom has been a wild ride. The model and actress first gained notoriety when her 2015 breakup with R&B singer Chris Brown dominated the tabloid press. But in the years since, she's silenced detractors and gained a fanbase all her own through her stellar work on "Claws" and on the new film "The Honor List" (now available on DVD, Digital, and On Demand). In this candid chat with Emily and Callie on BUST's Poptarts podcast, Tran opens up about finding her voice, being embraced by female ensemble casts, and leaving that abusive relationship in the dust.

Mother's Day is upon us! And whether you'll be spending the day living it up with the woman who gave you life, rolling around with your own kidlets, or otherwise reflecting on matriarchy, you'll want to listen to the latest Poptarts podcast. In this episode, we're dishing out some unexpected recommendations for mom-centric shows and movies worth watching, and they run the gamut from sweet (Sound of Music anyone?) to salty (Gypsy FTW!). Joining hosts Emily Rems and Callie Watts on this spirited trip through on-screen motherhood is Emily's mom, veteran culture reporter Janet Rems!