Forever: Mara Brock Akil on First Love, Judy Blume, and Her Love Letter to her Sons

Heated Rivalry: Creator Jacob Tierney on Romance, Queer Joy, and Why This Series Became a Phenomenon

Join us on this episode as we highlight Crave and HBO Max’s Peabody Award-winning Canadian sensation Heated Rivalry, the steamy queer love story that blew up a million group chats. In a wide-ranging conversation, host Gabe González speaks with Heated Rivalry’s creator, director, and writer Jacob Tierney about trusting the source material, why some of the most original shows come from Canada, the importance of showing consent and a little humor in sex scenes, and the radical impact of happy endings for queer love stories. Jacob and Gabe also get into the enduring phenomenon of the Heated Rivalry fan base, and the real-life impact of the show on hockey and sports culture.

Forever: Mara Brock Akil on First Love, Judy Blume, and Her Love Letter to her Sons

Today, we’re falling in love with the empathetic, bittersweet Peabody Award-winning Netflix series Forever, a refreshing update to the Judy Blume classic, now set in Los Angeles with two Black leads. In our conversation, host Gabe González and showrunner and creator Mara Brock Akil dig into the legacy and revived fandom of her first series Girlfriends, the importance of apprenticeship and craft in TV, and why she wanted to update Forever for today’s Black families, especially young Black men and the parents who want to keep them safe while also letting them flourish. Then Caty Borum, the pod’s Executive Producer and Executive Director for The Center for Media & Social Impact, chats with Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, a research scientist, educator, author, and expert on the science of media and adolescent development, about teens’ hunger for stories where parents and adolescents love and care for each other and work out their issues in a healthy way. Turns out the kids really are alright!

All Her Fault: Megan Gallagher on Motherhood, Patriarchy, and the Solidarity of Working Moms

Today, we’re delving into the complex realities and cultural commentary about the state of motherhood in America as we examine the twisty crime thriller, All Her Fault. Caty Borum, the pod’s Executive Producer and Executive Director for The Center for Media & Social Impact, speaks with series creator Megan Gallagher about giving voice to the nuanced cultural shame often imposed on working mothers in the United States – through the lens of a soapy drama and crime whodunnit. Later, Caty chats with Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, the CEO of MomsRising, an organization that seeks to support moms on a policy level by bringing about change through education and grassroots initiatives.

Dying for Sex: Liz Meriwether, Kim Rosenstock, and Emily Nagoski on Cancer, Caregiving, and Women's Sexuality

Join us as we get hot and bothered for women’s autonomy through the Peabody Award-winning series Dying for Sex. In this episode, We Disrupt This Broadcast’s own resident expert, media scholar, professor, and Executive Director of Center for Media & Social Impact Caty Borum speaks with the creators, producers, and showrunners of the 9x Emmy Award-nominated series, Kim Rosenstock and Liz Meriwether. Together, they unpack the ways Dying for Sex breaks every taboo around sex, death, cancer, caregiving, intimacy and women’s pleasure. After their conversation, Caty breaks down the radical depictions of women’s pleasure in this pathbreaking series with Emily Nagoski, sex researcher, educator, and bestselling author of the groundbreaking book Come as You Are. Content information: The second half of this episode contains discussion of sexual abuse and trauma.  For survivor resources please visit RAINN [https://rainn.org/help-and-healing/hotline/].

Jury Duty: Lee Eisenberg and Nicholas Hatton on Reality TV, Gentle Humanity, and Everyday Heroes

In this episode, we’re playing with reality as we explore what’s going on behind the scenes of the Peabody Award-winning reality TV comedy, Jury Duty. In our interview with creator Lee Eisenberg and executive producer Nicholas Hatton, we discuss this highly staged reality series where only one person, the “hero,” is their authentic self. Everyone else is an actor, and all of the interactions are scripted and planned in service of telling a unique and uplifting story of one person determined to do the right thing. In the first season, the creators and writers took us into a courtroom to explore citizens in the jury system. The second season takes place at a company retreat, and again, a new hero shows us that authentic goodness in humans does actually exist, perhaps more than we think. Later, we examine the world of reality TV with Hunter Hargraves, author of Uncomfortable Television, and get his thoughts on how Jury Duty is shaking up reality TV.