Have you ever been told something you love is “just” a tv show (or movie, or comic, etc)? But you know it matters, even if others dismiss it as “stupid.” You know it’s worth talking and thinking about. So do we. Join us, Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, as we embark on a journey of dissecting “trivial” things that have an uncanny power to influence society. Come overthink with us as we delve into our deep thoughts about stupid shit.
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/
Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t launches August 24, 2023. New episodes will be released on Thursdays for Patrons and the following Tuesday for everyone else,
Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, and secure early access to Deep Thoughts (and other perks!) by visiting us on Patreon.
Have you ever been told something you love is “just” a tv show (or movie, or comic, etc)? But you know it matters, even if others dismiss it as “stupid.” You know it’s worth talking and thinking about. So do we. Join us, Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, as we embark on a journey of dissecting “trivial” things that have an uncanny power to influence society. Come overthink with us as we delve into our deep thoughts about stupid shit.
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/
Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t launches August 24, 2023. New episodes will be released on Thursdays for Patrons and the following Tuesday for everyone else,
Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, and secure early access to Deep Thoughts (and other perks!) by visiting us on Patreon.
Tracie Guy-Decker:
Have you ever had something you love dismissed because it's just pop culture? What others might deem stupid shit, you know matters. You know it's worth talking and thinking about, and so do we. Come over think with us as we delve into our deep thoughts about stupid shit. Hi, i'm Tracie Guy-Decker And I'm Emily Guy Birken, and you're listening to the teaser episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit.
Emily Guy Birken:
Because pop culture is still culture, and shouldn't you know what's in your head?
Tracie Guy-Decker:
Today we're going to share with you why we're thinking deep thoughts about stupid shit, how we got here and why you should come along.
Emily Guy Birken:
Yes, so this all started in April of 2023, when Tracie and I were taking a little DIY writer's retreat in Harper's Ferry, west Virginia, and we were talking about Lucifer because that is probably about 78% of all conversations we have And realizing we have been doing a rewatch together, we're coming close to the end of it and realizing that we were going to miss the chatting about the storytelling, about the metaphors and the beauty of the cast and all the wonderful things. And I made some offhand remark about how I know I always have deep thoughts about stupid shit.
Tracie Guy-Decker:
And that's when you said That is a great title for a podcast.
Emily Guy Birken:
We started with the title and then I opened my notebook and I was writing all over the place my pencil was just flying all the stupid shit we could talk about. I was just so excited thinking about all the pop culture that I would love to do a deep dive into Because, well, for one thing, there are several aspects of pop culture that I have at least an hour long monologue to go into And no one to share it with, but also because I love talking this kind of stuff over with Tracy. For one thing, she's incredibly funny and she has this very smart and incisive way of looking at things that I don't necessarily see, and I think I hope she might say the same about me. There are things that I see that she wouldn't necessarily see.
Tracie Guy-Decker:
Yeah, you always. You often will bring in like another piece of pop culture or high culture and say, oh, it's like this when this happens, and then that sheds new light on it, or sometimes I think both of us struggle sometimes with seeing subtext And so together we can often tease it out, which is pretty fun. And I think the other thing about it about the way that you and I work together when we have deep thoughts about stupid shit is that it ain't stupid.
Tracie Guy-Decker:
I think that broader society encourages us to not think too hard about pop culture, because that's part of the way that the machine helps keep the grease flowing and helps keep us in the places where we're meant to be. They help romanticize gender norms or police or whatever it might be that helps keep the status quo, the status quo. And so scratching a little deeper and thinking about who does this serve and what message is this giving if we internalize it? I mean, it's just fun.
Tracie Guy-Decker:
But, I also see it as an act of resistance against oppressive forces and also an act of giving myself and others the tools to write our own stories.
Emily Guy Birken:
Well it is, does so much to help contextualize what culture is in that we tend to poo poo culture that isn't specifically, you know, dead white dudes, and it's not until years later that we realize no, no, no, this was a cultural touchstone.
Emily Guy Birken:
This affected people, and so one of the things that I really love about examining pop culture is recognizing how influential it is and how subversive it can be. It is often not subversive, it is often upholding the status quo, which is one of the things that can be frustrating about pop culture is, you know, you'll have people saying like Oh well, that's, you know, that's sexist or that's racist, and people like it's just a joke or it's just a cartoon, don't, don't take it so seriously. And it's like no, we must take it seriously. But then there is also the fact that pop culture is where the people who are marginalized can get their culture in front of a lot more people, and that I find very exciting. I find all of it very exciting just to talk about the things that people are talking about, the things that people are consuming, they're thinking about, that are providing a framework for the way that they look at the world, and you can't get that with, you know the like snobby kind of culture that people think of as culture.
Tracie Guy-Decker:
Yeah, it's not just the Canon or the award winners each year.
Emily Guy Birken:
Yeah, yeah.
Tracie Guy-Decker:
It's a really crappy. It's the really stupid shit that everybody saw. No critics liked you know, got zero stars on rotten tomatoes or whatever, but everybody saw it.
Emily Guy Birken:
Everybody saw it, yes, and so, and that's you know, i don't know that there's enough people talking about it. I've always said that, you know, if I had a million years, i'd want to go back to college and get some sort of degree in studying pop culture, because I think that it would be fascinating, particularly if we could look back at like pop culture from previous generations, like like the 19th century. The most bestselling novel of all time was this novel written for women that you know, housemaids were reading for like 50 years, and it's kind of forgotten because men didn't take it seriously, because it was pop culture, because it's pop culture And it's a pop culture that appeals to women, yeah, and therefore, it's deemed stupid shit.
Tracie Guy-Decker:
Mm, hmm, yep, mm, hmm, all right, y'all, if this sounds interesting. If you're like whoa, yeah, okay.
Emily Guy Birken:
Tell me more. That's some deep thoughts about stupid shit.
Tracie Guy-Decker:
We will tell you more, so stay tuned. Subscribe. Deep thoughts about stupid shit. The Tracie Guy- Decker and Emily Guy Birken. I use a hyphen.
Emily Guy Birken:
She does not, i do not, we'll see you on the other side.
Tracie Guy-Decker:
Thanks for listening. Our theme music is Professor Umlaut by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetekcom. Find full music credits in the show notes. Deep Thoughts is a labor of love, but that doesn't make it free to produce. You can help keep us overthinking. Support us through our Patreon, with a link in the show notes. Leave a positive review so others can find us and share the show with your people. Until next time, remember pop culture is still culture, and shouldn't you know what's in your head?