Poptarts

Latest Episodes:

Poptarts Episode 100: Call Me Kat's Mayim Bialik! Jan 15, 2021

Show notes

Mayim Bialik is a multi talented actor, producer, director, educator, neuroscientist, and author who got her start in classic 80s TV series including “Beauty and the Beast” and “Facts of Life” before landing her breakout role at age 12 as a young Bette Middler in the 1988 film “Beaches.” Two years later, she nabbed the lead role in the super popular teen sit-com “Blossom” which ran from 1990 through 1995 and once that series ended, she went to UCLA for 12 years where she earned a PhD in Neuroscience and completed her doctorate in 2007. Bialik returned to TV in a big way in 2010 when she joined the cast of “The Big Bang Theory” where she was a fan favorite and was nominated for four Emmys before the series ended in 2019. And now, together with her “Big Bang Theory” co-star Jim Parsons, she’s executive producing the new Fox show “Call Me Kat,” which she also stars in as a single woman in her late 30s who runs a cat cafe. In this very special 100th episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she rejects Spanx, embraces feminism, and reflects on a past that includes Woody Allen.

Poptarts Episode 99: Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina's Michelle Gomez! Jan 02, 2021

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Michelle Gomez is a riveting Scottish actor who first started turning heads for her comedy roles in series including “The Book Group,” “Green Wing,” and “Bad Education,” before her international breakout moment in 2014 when she started playing Missy on the landmark British sci-fi series “Doctor Who.” Many Americans discovered her when she started playing Madame Satan on the Netflix series “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” which premiered in 2018 and which just kicked off its fourth and final season. She also plays a pivotal role on the new HBO Max series “The Flight Attendant,” and in this epic episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she parses her evolving relationship with feminism, she reveals the new sides of herself she discovered during quarantine, and she cheekily declares “I’m not a Satan worshipper...I AM Satan!”

Poptarts Episode 98: Madame Gandhi! Dec 18, 2020

Show notes

Electronica musician, artist and activist Kiran Gandhi, better known by her stage name Madame Gandhi, got her start in music performing as the drummer for M.I.A and Thievery Corporation and got her Bachelor’s in Mathematics and Gender Studies from Georgetown and an MBA from Harvard before deciding to become a full-time rock star in 2016 with her breakout EP “Voices.” Since then, she’s also released the 2019 album Visions and during quarantine, she took on a special new project. Gandhi launched a contest to see who could create the best remix of her 2019 song “Young Indian,” and she personally listened to over 500 submissions from producers around the world before choosing her fave five for a remix album called Young Indian Reimagined, which just came out in October. In this awesome episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she reflects on bad habits, recalls free bleeding while running the London Marathon, and explains why “The Future Is Female” really means “The Future Is Feminine.”

Poptarts Episode 97: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend's Rachel Bloom! Dec 04, 2020

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Rachel Bloom is a comedian, actor, writer, singer, dancer, and all-around incredible performer who created, produced, and starred in the hit musical comedy series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on the CW for which she earned a Golden Globe a Critics’ Choice Award and an Emmy. She’s currently working on the music and lyrics for "The Nanny" which will open on Broadway once COVID lets up and her hilarious new book of essays “I Want To Be Where The Normal People Are,” just came out November 17. In this awesome episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she reflects on losing her songwriting partner to COVD, describes giving birth during a pandemic, and we read some erotic poetry from her pre-teen diary.

Poptarts Episode 96: iO Tillett Wright! Nov 20, 2020

Show notes

iO Tillett Wright is a multitalented artist, author, activist, and storyteller. He created the hit true crime podcast The Ballad of Billy Balls last year and is also the author of the 2017 memoir Darling Days that documented Wright’s wild upbringing in downtown New York in the 1980s and the seeds that eventually blossomed into his awakening as a trans man. His TED Talk 50 Shades of Gay about sexuality and gender has been viewed over three million times and his new photography book, Self Evident Truths, just came out in September. It’s a collection of 10,000 portraits of Americans who identify as anything other than 100 percent straight, and in this awesome episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, he describes his inspiration for using photography as a form of activism, opens up about coming out as trans while in the public eye, and explains why he decided to testify against Johnny Depp at the actor’s recent defamation trial.

Poptarts Episode 95: The Handmaid's Tale's Ann Dowd! Nov 06, 2020

Show notes

You probably know Ann Dowd from her terrifying portrayal of Aunt Lydia on Hulu’s feminist masterpiece The Handmaid’s Tale. But she’s been popping up in multiple roles on all the Law & Order shows for years and she also starred in the incredible 2012 suspense film Compliance. She finally became a household name in 2017 for her riveting performance as Aunt Lydia for which she won a well-deserved Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. And her latest film, a new adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s classic novel Rebecca, just premiered on Netflix October 2. In this awesome episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she describes what it has been like becoming a fictional symbol for a real-life resistance movement and we explore how pop culture can be a powerful instrument for social change.

Poptarts Episode 94: The Daily Show's Dulcé Sloan! Oct 24, 2020

Show notes

Dulcé Sloan has been a correspondent on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah since 2017 and her segments frequently go viral and get millions of views. In 2019, she got her own Comedy Central Presents stand-up special, and in 2020, she launched her podcast, That Black Ass Show on Starburns Audio. Coming up on November 13, she’s co-starring in a new comedy called Chick Fight that’s basically a girl version of Fight Club. She literally steals every scene she’s in and I predict many more films will be in her future. In this awesome episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she delivers real talk about America’s racism problem, we dish about boys (...boys all types of boys), and we learn about the passing of judicial icon The Notorious R.B.G. in real time.

Poptarts Episode 93: Historian Bettany Hughes! Oct 09, 2020

Show notes

Professor Bettany Hughes is a historian, author, and broadcaster who was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for her services to history, which makes her the first Dame to ever appear on our BUST’s Poptarts podcast. She is currently professor of history at the New College of the Humanities and a research fellow at King’s College. Her first book, Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore has been translated into ten languages. Her second book, The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life was a New York Times bestseller, and her third book, Istanbul –A Tale of Three Cities has been translated into 12 languages. Most fans know her from the over 50 historical radio and tv documentaries she has written and starred in for the past 20 years that have aired on the BBC, Channel 4, Netflix, Discovery, PBS, The History Channel, National Geographic, BBC World, ITV and more, covering everything from the mysteries of the ancient world to the philosophers whose ideas shaped modern culture. Her new book, Venus and Aphrodite: A Biography of Desire, liberates the goddess of love from all the tired romantic cliches that she’s been saddled with over the centuries and reveals how her radical feminine energy continues to influence us today. In this fascinating podcast episode, Hughes talks about inhaling the intoxicating fragrance of the storied blue lotus flower, challenging the male whitewashing of history, and how historically speaking, global pandemics have been surprisingly advantageous for women.

Poptarts Episode 92: Miranda July! Sep 25, 2020

Show notes

Miranda July is a filmmaker, artist, and writer whose feminist, DIY, punk style evolved out of the same riot grrrl era that birthed BUST. She appeared on our cover in the Fall of 2007 and her books include "No One Belongs Here More Than You" "The First Bad Man," and a new, huge, career-spanning retrospective of her work called “Miranda July” that just came out in April. She also wrote and directed the incredibly weird and wonderful movies “Me and You and Everyone We Know” and “The Future,” and in this episode of BUST’s “Poptarts” podcast, she gives us behind-the-scenes insight into her latest film, “Kajillionaire” (out September 25). The film centers on a con-artist couple (Debra Winger and Richard Jenkins) who have raised their 26 -year-old daughter (Evan Rachel Wood), to join them in their desperate life of pathetically petty crimes and scams. It’s the only life she’s ever known, until one day, on a flight to their next scheme, the family meets a gorgeous young woman (Gina Rodriguez) and all of their lives change forever. Listen in as July opens up about going mainstream, division of labor in a household with two famous directors, and pooping back and forth...forever.

Poptarts Episode 91: Author Caitlin Moran! Sep 11, 2020

Show notes

Caitlin Moran is a London-based columnist, author, and broadcaster, who is one of the funniest feminist writers working today. Her first book, the 2011 memoir, How to Be a Woman, was an instant New York Times bestseller. And her 2014 autobiographical coming-of-age novel, How to Build a Girl, was adapted into a film starring Beanie Feldstein that premiered in 2019. When Caitlin finished How to Be a Woman in her mid-30s, she thought she had everything figured out. But now, 10 years later, she’s debuting a whole new memoir, More Than a Woman, that asks probing mid-life questions including, Can feminists have Botox? And, Who’s looking after the children? In this LOL episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, we talk a LOT about vaginas and vulvas (and the difference between the two), and we get real about the unpaid labor shitshow so many women find themselves in once their 30s are in the rear-view.

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