This week we discuss the Netflix show, Another Life. Every youtuber seems to think it's trash, but as trash tv experts we disagree! This is good ACKTSHULY! We discuss the human truths it tries to explore like: the horror of connecting with others, the terror of parenthood, and how we process past traumas. Then we connect it to the larger trauma tha…

This week we're joined by our fellow Texans from Psychic Dolphin Garage to break down the premier episode of the Real Housewives of Dallas. We discuss how the wealthy use money to control others, their bizarre aesthetics and just how very Dallas this show is. If there's one conclusion we come to, it's that this show should be used to convert people…

We discuss the DSA clapping controversy, and why it matters. Then we examine Bravo's Southern Charm and it's struggle to deal with it's racism, sexism, and classism. Also, who raised these people?Links:Antifa Resolution Thread: https://twitter.com/leonardpierce/status/1157845386616344576We ride out to Laki Pingvini-Šizika: https://www.youtube.com/w…

In this ep Ljubica shares her thoughts about the neon color trend sure to dominate our wardrobes, as well as some ways to update the look so you don't give people laser tag flash backs. After that Adam leads us through a discussion of the recent controversy about whether Bernie is paying his staff enough. We point out why your faves were wrong to p…

First we discuss the Netflix teen, melodrama, The Society. It claims to depict socialism--but spoiler, it's not the good kind. The show also makes us wonder whether this is a sign that we are moving past the apocalypse fertilization of shows like the Walking Dead, and towards re-thinking how to organize. Next we discuss the Vanderpump Rules reunion…

Why is it islamophobic to think that Ilhan Omar is anti-semitic? Because Roland Barthes was wrong in "Death of the Author." We bring Walter Benn Michaels' "Against Theory" to bear on the faux-outrage against Omar and critique AOC's weak support. Then, we talk about our very different public high school experiences - different in terms of class - an…

This week we say goodbye to 2018 with an ep full of recommendations! Here's a bunch of stuff we like in no particular order.Helpful Links-------------------Against Theory https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bc01/f683dd50ec4f99f0358f2d7cef8a9701b6ce.pdf-Cunk on Britain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUM89s4N2BQ&list=PLtn0bqSPV-EDUlKldlC5j2YhAI1LF8pTG-…

Matthew of Liquid Flannel joins us again to talk The Spirit of Christmas, a Netflix (but more like Hallmark) Original Christmas movie about a hard-working lady lawyer that falls in love with the burly ghost haunting a Vermont inn at Christmastime. We recap its dumb plot and weird world - where ghosts are fully embodied people who hide in the armoir…

On this ep we get meta and discuss why we do what we do: watch bad tv and connect it to politics. Then we get into some the witchy TV that's been flickering across our screens lately. First we discuss Charmed and how it's failed to charm us into continuing with the series. Next we discuss The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. We talk about why the sh…

We share our first impressions of the CW reboot of Charmed and ride out to B*Witched "C'est la Vie"Links:------------------------------Charmed ep we mentioned in the ep: The Ethics of "Charmed" and Lady Detectives-->https://soundcloud.com/coldpizzaparty/the-ethics-of-charmed-and-lady-detectivesAf Adam & Ljubica

This week, we invite you to sit on our Texas porch, pop a bottle and discuss the recent-ish (recent when we recorded it) controversy surrounding the YouTube "beauty community" and their use of the n-word. This leads us to a deeper discussion about racism, identity politics, and our personal experiences growing up in two very different parts of Ohio…

Matthew from Liquid Flannel joins us to talk Heathers and its preemptively-cancelled TV reboot. We talk first about the movie, with its critique of the shiny, happy, John Hughes-style movies of the Reagan era, and how its politics translated across multiple Republican administrations, resonating with disaffected suburban kids like Ljubica in each o…

This week we basically make the point that no one is free under capitalism. Consent doesn't mean anything when money is inherently coercive, and your choices aren't your own when access to resources is limited by capital. We also talk about our discomfort with parasocial relationships, and how the anime Mob Psycho 100 helped Adam think about how in…

This week we invite you into our kitchen to talk politics. We make breakfast while explaining some big ideas like why leftists shouldn't discount electoral politics, why we still like Bernie, and why we're leftists in the first place. We also discuss poli sci concepts like the social contract, negative & positive freedom, what is the state, and uto…

Why is House Hunters International so appealing to literally everyone? This week, we think out loud about the fantasy of the show, its rigid format, its character types and why the opportunity it presents for loathing can be so fun. Ljubica also shares some behind the scenes House Hunters secrets she learned from a realtor! But first, she explains …

This week we bring you a conversation with our friend Djordje (who's living in Macedonia) about the current state of MK politics. We start out discussing the previous government's efforts to remake Macedonian history through architecture (out with the brutalism in with the kitsch). Then we discuss the "Colorful Revolution," the recent(ish) election…

Democracy is under threat from centrists according to recent polls, but Democrats continue to prefer moderates anyway. Also they're racist. What does the hell does this mean for us regular, old leftists and the change we'd like to create in this country? Then we discuss the BAFTA award winning BS reality show, Made in Chelsea and we touch on Southe…

Watching Netflix's World's Most Extraordinary Homes, we were both awed and disgusted. Today, we talk about the show and its obscene mix of beautiful, well-considered art with gut-wrenching wealth, and then we compare it to the small rash of British reality shows about the Lords and Ladies who can't afford to maintain their families' massive manors …

This it's a true podcast hangout sesh. We have a free-wheeling discussion about Russia-gate, and why it's pathological for the liberals who love it. We also realize the deep-seeded psychological fear that undergirds both the Russia-gate narrative, and white supremacists' white genocide fantasies (hint: it's not fear of the other, it's fear of the s…

Ljubica gives us kind of an intro to fashion, and we talk about why it's interesting and worth watching and what the class politics of fashion are. Also, Adam talks about the Standard Oil heiress who became the NYC Planning Commissioner and tried to fight gentrification by re-zoning New York City in her image. She failed, but it was interesting!…

The meritocratic and winner-takes-all world order is gonna make us all self-optimize to death. In her Jacobin article, "You Can Be Your Own Tyrannical Boss," Meagan Day writes that the hyper-competitive neoliberal world is leading millennials (like us!) to experience debilitating perfectionism, including an ambient societal version that causes us t…

Today, we say everything right about the Aziz Ansari sex abuse scandal. As always, don't form any opinions until you've listened to the whole episode. We discuss "bad sex," women's agency, how material conditions form us as sexual beings, and why some women don't want to admit this was abusive."I Went on a Date With Aziz Ansari", https://babe.net/2…

Back from a (long) holiday break, we're talking about female perspectives on justice as portrayed by the sisters of Charmed and women-centered cop shows. We also recommend our two favorite Netflix shows!Shows discussed in depth -- Charmed (Netflix), Marcella (Netflix), Bancroft (ITV), Acceptable Risk (RTE, also British)Cool book Ljubica uses, acade…

This week, we talk Alt-Right with the pleasant sounds of sautéing lunch in the background. Buzzfeed put out an exposé on Breitbart’s literal ties to the Alt-Right, mostly focused on Milo Yiannopoulos’ role, and we talk about the most interesting parts of the article, like: how it confirms Ljubica’s fear of a Silicon Valley feudalist future; how Ban…

TV shows parenting as a hellscape, and in our class-stratified society, it increasingly is. Even well-to-do parents are so consumed with anxiety about developing the human capital of their young assets, they invest in strollers that perfect baby posture. We talk about TV’s Catastrophe, David Graeber’s Utopia of Rules, and the YouTubers who think th…

On this ep, a continuation of “Conversation w/ a DACA Recipient,” our discussion moves to cover immigration more widely. Andrea talks about the misconception that “illegal immigrants” commit crime, Adam mentions the lying criminal immigrants he descended from, and we talk about what it means to be an immigrant or an American when you were born some…

This week we have a cold pizza party first, an interview! Better yet, an interview with our friend and DACA recipient Andrea De La Vega. She tells us what it’s like to live with precarious status in this country for most of your life. She explains how she ended up in such awful circumstances despite following the law and conscientiously navigating …

This week, we talk Harvey and Houston. We also explain Houston to people who’ve never been. Listen for some interesting facts that might counter misconceptions of Houston and Texas, for a discussion of the alienating nature of hierarchy as seen through Harvey, and for us gushing about the aesthetics of local TV. At the end, we talk more broadly abo…

We start out with a long ranting sesh as we decompress and try to digest the horrifying events of the weekend in Charlottesville. Then we switch over to some lighter faire and discuss fashion in the Trump years. We talk about how the Trump women manage to balance without fear in their Louboutins. We also discuss stilettos more broadly and possible …

This week we get back to talking about TV, with a new "feminist" tv show. We take a critical look at The Bold Type, it's lack of commitment to an actual feminism, and its fervent commitment to only good feelings. Adam manages to connect the show to Mark Fisher's, Capitalist Realism, while Ljubica bullshits as always. Also our dogs--our dogs are all…

This week we talk about Amber A'lee Frost's recent piece for Current Affairs, "Against Domesticity." In the piece Amber argues that, “Attempts to elevate and fetishize household labor are deeply insidious…” because such efforts hide the real work and value behind traditionally feminine labor. We unpack the piece further by asking whether being a co…

How many Transformers movies is Warren Buffet worth? How many Transformers movies could all the OxyContin overdoses pay for? And what ever happened to "Soviet Yugoslavia"? This week, Ljubica gives us a crash course in Yugoslavian history and socialism, as well as OPEC's disastrous impact on the third world, because Joy Ann Reid was being dumb. But …

This week has been a bit hectic so instead of a new topic we bring you a bonus ep on last week's topic, conspiracies. Adam and I kept talking long after we turned the mic off, so we decided to pour ourselves a drink and chat a little more on the record. This conversation is more meandering and far reaching, but we still touch on some interesting to…

This week we talk Ancient Aliens, the tv show. We discuss why we love it as well as the many things about it that worry us. Then we talk about conspiracy theories at large: how do they function, why do they exist, and which ones are our favorites. Ljubica argues that all conspiracy theories may be reactionary and counter-revolutionary. Adam lends s…

Adam shares with Ljubica some stuff Hillary Clinton said at a tech conference, and along the way, we discuss a bunch of stuff like conspiracy theories, existentialism, Russian brides, and why we podcast. It’s long so maybe we should’ve released it as a two-parter, but instead just decide for yourself where to pause, we’re not going to tell you how …

This week we do a close read of Megan McArdle's Bloomberg piece, "Beware of Blaming Government for London Tower Fire." It is the angriest episode we've ever recorded, but it also probably has the most laughs. Although Ljubica reads the entire piece aloud, you may want to follow along here: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-16/beware-o…

This week we talk about the Vermont Governor's recent decision to veto a recreational pot bill, followed by a longer discussion about free speech and activism on campus. Are we all triggered snowflakes, or is there more to think about? Should students just sit down and shut up for the sake of their intellectual development, or is there value in thi…

Today, we read Matt Yglesias’ tweets for young Bernie fans from an old Democrat, which are bad and wrong.Af Adam & Ljubica

This week, we have a very free-ranging discussion over wine -- we touch on whiteness, reading politics as art, the great "The New Victorians" article from Jacobin a while back, other stuff, our dogs make a lot of noise, and we conclude with a recipe for a traditional Macedonian dish that sometimes we eat seriously every day.…

This week Ljubica is excited to share some thoughts on true crime TV shows with Adam. We discuss new versus old and argue that "the real America" is murder shows. What are we exploring through these shows, and what do they do for us? What aspects of broader culture do they reproduce, like why are they all about women? How do murder shows from abroa…

This week, we compare the paranoia over "fake news" to the pseudo-smart grandstanding of Vox dot com. We cover a few recent articles (linked below) that help us detail the shortcomings of Vox's "explaining the news" approach and unearth the ideology beneath its neutral surface. We talk the politics of belief, Ezra Klein's straight-A aesthetic, and …

On this episode, we decide to take a step back and reflect rather than get caught up in the political rat race of the moment. We chose Stephen Marche's recent article in the LARB, "The Obama Years," as a way to look at the recent past and figure out how we ended up like this. The article's recurring themes -- like images, eating & shitting, jumping…

Bonus episode! The first segment was recorded the day of the election. We discuss the campaign and make predictions, which... weren't exactly right. Kind of close, though! We talk about the political terrain of Ohio and Texas in particular. Then, a week afterwards, we cover some of the awful attempts to explain what happened, and suggest what's imp…

cold pizza party returns! with a look at why Search Party is so perfect, but the Gilmore Girls reunion is just whatever. We discuss the way Search Party induces paranoia, balances tonal shifts without throwing us off-kilter, and fits form to content in surprising ways. Also, we half-attack and half-heartedly-defend the Gilmore Girls reunion, includ…

This week, we talk Trump, a discussion we had hoped would never be necessary. Adam outlines a hypothesis for his rise, including Trump's secret strategy you probably haven't heard of. Then, Ljubica talks about his supporters and "the white working class": who are they, who hates them, and why? We discuss "white" as a politically & socially construc…

This time on cold pizza party, we're re-running our first ever recording you probably missed, where we dig into UnReal, Lifetime's fake-reality TV drama. Brought to us by a former producer of The Bachelor, it's smart, well-written, and reveals some of the secrets of how that terrible sausage gets made. If you're doubting how good Lifetime Original …

This week, Ljubica & Adam discuss exclusively Vanderpump Rules with an eye towards class and labor politics. There will be spoilers, which means you don't have to be familiar with the show to listen, as we ask and answer questions like, When is reality tv more compelling than scripted? How much money does Lisa Vanderpump extract from these struggli…

Ljubica & Adam dispel Super Tuesday myths, berate Hillary Clinton's nonsense college plan, and finally hammer out what, exactly, neoliberalization means.Af Adam & Ljubica

On this episode of the cold pizza party podcast, we discuss the death & legacy of Antonin Scalia and whether originalism is or isn't a total crock of shit. We'll talk about originalism in relation to musicology (why?), political pragmatism, and Henry Kissinger. After that, we compare Colony to The Shannara Chronicles, and we'll let you in on the se…

This week, Adam and Ljubica discuss depictions of abortion on TV and their implications. Then we breakdown the Bernie data breach non-scandal by interviewing a real NGP VAN user, Ljubica! Finally, we talk about our big (and small) takeaways from the Democratic debate.Af Adam & Ljubica