We Never Go Out of Style: Gen X Culture, Class, and the First-Gen Experience feat. Phuc Tran

In Episode Four—aka The English Major Episode—LT and Sam welcome self-proclaimed “Honorary Smart Girl,” Phuc Tran, author of Sigh, Gone and Cranky, for a pop culture deep dive Gen X style. Together, LT and Phuc compare notes on how sneakers, Doc Martens, punk, hip hop, Prince, Star Wars, and more shaped their very different coming-of-age journeys as first-gen kids: Phuc as an immigrant Vietnamese boy in small-town Pennsylvania, LT as a Black girl navigating the Washington, D.C. area. They unpack the icons that shaped them, the music that moved them, and how writing memoirs rewired what it means to “be smart” and first-gen.