Nostalgia gets a couch-side stress test.
Not-Stalgia pairs nostalgic screening-room curiosity with a skeptical second look at movies, TV, comics, and odd cultural artifacts. The conversation moves fast, mixing plot reactions, childhood DVD-library lore, family viewing habits, and jokes about what aged badly.
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Not-Stalgia is about the awkward afterlife of beloved pop culture. Its episodes return to movies, shows, comics, and fandom staples with the central question left hanging over the couch: was this actually good, or did childhood do too much of the work? The answers are rarely tidy. Tyler and Katie can admire a costume, laugh at a dumb bit, wince at an old joke, and still end the episode in a better mood than when it started. The show works because the two voices do not arrive with the same baggage. One often has the deeper file folder of memories, trivia, DVDs, comics, or family viewing habits. The other supplies the pressure test, asking why a rule does not make sense, why a bit landed, or why everyone apparently agreed to quote this movie forever. That dynamic turns rewatching into a conversation instead of a verdict. Episodes move through titles such as Zoolander, Jack@$$: The Movie, Return of the Jedi, The Fellowship of the Ring, Miss Congeniality, Spice World, X-Men: The Last Stand, and King of the Hill. The range is broad, but the lens is consistent. Not-Stalgia is interested in the stuff people absorbed through cable, sleepovers, family living rooms, rented discs, comic runs, and cultural osmosis. The show has recurring mini-seasons and inside categories, including Girlhood Month, boyhood month, and Cool Sheet Classics. Those labels are funny, but they also give the archive a real shape. A Spice Girls movie can become a conversation about forbidden childhood knowledge, girl power, surreal celebrity vehicles, and why five singers can still feel like the right number. A Lord of the Rings episode can drift from ring rules to Gandalf jokes to the question of who the commentary is even for. A King of the Hill episode can become a portrait of a family where the television is always on. The tone is casual and sharp-edged without becoming mean. It respects affection, but it does not confuse affection with evidence. The best episodes sound like two people sorting through a shared media shelf and discovering which titles still have weight, which ones are just noise, and which ones are somehow both.
Made for: For listeners who like long, funny rewatch conversations about movies, TV, comics, and pop-cultural objects that once seemed bigger than they were. It especially suits people who enjoy memory, trivia, and skepticism in the same room.
What sets it apart: Not-Stalgia is less about ranking old favorites than watching two familiar voices negotiate what memory left out. The theme months, family anecdotes, and quick pivots make each rewatch feel personal without losing the thread.
Feeling nostalgic? Tyler watched too much TV as a kid. Katie didn't watch any. Each week, Katie and Tyler watch or play something from the 90s and decide if it's actually any good (spoiler alert: it usually isn't).
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Not-Stalgia tests familiar screen favorites through comic disagreement, close observation, and a welcome refusal to let nostalgia settle the verdict.
Tyler and Katie turn shared viewing into a running argument between deep familiarity and fresh-eyed confusion. Their conversations move from X-Men comic continuity and Star Wars mythology to Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, Spice World, and Jack@$$: The Movie, with each title…
A magic ring gets pawn-shop logic, and your fond memories start facing questions.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A boyhood DVD, a skeptical rewatch, and Zoolander's early-2000s afterlife shape a funny, modest study of movie memory.
Nostalgia's Zoolander episode treats a sleepover favorite as more than a quote machine, using it to look at how certain comedies get folded into childhood identity.
A fond, loose rewatch balances stunt nostalgia with a sharper sense of which jokes have aged poorly.
Tyler and Kate return to Jack the Movie with clear affection for the cast and a visible wince at some of the comedy around them. Their rewatch moves easily from the joke of treating it like Criterion material to gross-out stunts, a Preston Lacey fat joke, and the surprisingly…
A Return of the Jedi chat built on Ewok chaos and Yoda's quiet exit.
Tyler and Katie keep Return of the Jedi moving at a breezy clip, touching the screen title, Episode 6, the May 25th, 1983 premiere date, the Ewoks, and Yoda's exit without losing the comic charge.
A loose Fellowship rewatch that treats ring logic and Gandalf as the real plot.
Tyler and Katie's regular-edition take on The Fellowship of the Ring keeps circling back to the show's own joke that the movie is already too long.
A Spice Girls rewatch where rainy offices, strange costumes, and postmodern chaos all count as evidence.
Spice World gets treated as a rewatch with the right kind of disbelief. Katie and Tyler keep circling back to its fresh absurdities: the surreal pregnancy dream, the newspaper editor plotting a breakup while rain falls in his office, and a world where Princess Diana is still…
A loose, affectionate X-Men detour turns comic lore and franchise melodrama into sharp podcast comedy.
Nostalgia treats its X-Men discussion like a chair-side comic shop detour, letting the conversation drift from reading habits and side quests into Jean Grey's cycle of deaths, rebirth, and Dark Phoenix spectacle.
A first look at Star Trek finds comedy in its grand mission and one memorable whale detour.
Katie's uncertain first full pass at the original Star Trek series gives the episode an easy shape: part rediscovery, part amused screen-culture conversation.
NPR critics Linda Holmes, Glenn Weldon, Stephen Thompson and Aisha Harris argue about this week's release.
Tyler and Katie discuss two different Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons that aired simultaneously in 1993, clarifying the confusion around their existence.
Tyler and Katie discuss the origins of Luigi's Mansion, a launch title for the Nintendo GameCube that started as a technology demo.
Hosts Tyler and Katie explore the original Star Trek series, starting with creator Gene Roddenberry's unusual background as a crash-prone pilot turned TV writer.
Tyler assigns Katie homework to read key X-Men comics—Giant Size X-Men #1, the Phoenix Saga, and the Dark Phoenix Saga—to contextualize the film X-Men: The Last Stand.
Tyler and Katie discuss Katie's limited exposure to Star Wars and her childhood lack of sci-fi movies.
Tyler and Katie revisit Zoolander as part of a boys'-movies theme, then note that the film opened on September 28, 2001, two weeks after 9/11.
Tyler and Katie review Jackass: The Movie, released on October 25, 2002 and directed by Jeff Tremaine, after revisiting the MTV show that ran three seasons between 2000 and 2001.
Tyler and Katie start by placing the movie in the Star Wars run.
Tyler and Katie keep the regular edition promise.
The hosts introduce a nostalgic discussion of the 2000 film Miss Congeniality as part of a girlhood-themed month.
Katie and Tyler start with a quick download check before turning to Spice World.
A couple discusses their experiences with reading X-Men comics and the challenges of reading in bed.
Tyler and Katie discuss their personal experiences with the TV show King of the Hill, particularly how it relates to family and nostalgia.