It’s Casually Obsessed’s first minisode, and it’s made up of messages from listeners like you!
Originally I asked listeners to call in and talk about a few pieces of pop culture that have been helping them cope with the stress and isolation of COVID-19. A lot has changed since that initial call, but one things that remains the same is the way that a good book, a favorite movie, or a great album can help us cope.
I hope these listener messages will give you ideas for pop culture to make part of your own rest and recovery.
Transcript
Chelsee: [00:00:00] Welcome to Casually Obsessed, a podcast about pop cultural obsessions. I’m your host, Chelsee Bergen, and this is Casually Obsessed’s first mini-episode.
I’m recording this message in the second week of June, but most of what you’ll hear in this episode was recorded many weeks ago. I asked listeners to call in and talk about a few pieces of pop culture that have been helping them cope with the stress and isolation of COVID-19.
In light of the very necessary uprising happening in the United States and across the world, I wasn’t sure that I should still release this episode. Black lives matter, and I believe that white people, like myself and many of the listeners of this show, should be prioritizing our time, energy and resources toward supporting Black folks doing this work.
What ultimately made me decide to put this episode out is that I’ve been privileged enough to have people in my life remind me that this is longterm work and, to be a good accomplice, I need to take care of myself.
Burnout accomplishes nothing.
Maybe you need a similar reminder to rest and recover so that you can keep doing important work.
Call your city council person and demand they defend the police; reorganize your budget so that you can give more money to black-led organizations; have tough conversations with your family and friends. And then watch a show you love; read a book; lay on the floor and listened to a good album. I hope these messages will give you ideas for content to be part of your own rest and recovery.
Without further ado, here are some recommendations from the listeners of Casually Obsessed.
[Theme Music]
Allison: [00:01:50] Hi, this is Allison from Nashville, Tennessee, and the two pieces of pop culture content that have definitely saved me during quarantine are the TV shows Schitt’s Creek and Atypical. Uh, you can find them, both of them on Netflix. Um, and they both make me laugh, which I think is really important. Schitt’s Creek is like, the most ridiculous television show I’ve ever watched, which felt like the perfect antidote to the most ridiculous thing I think we’ve collectively lived through. And atypical is heartwarming which is necessary, I think, in this climate.
Dean: [00:02:47] Hi there, Dean here from Navan county Meath, Ireland and the things that have been getting me through quarantine have been playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons on my Nintendo Switch and Supernatural, the TV show.
I recently started watching it and I’m halfway through season two and I absolutely love it.
Alex: [00:03:08] My name is Alex. I am quarantined at my mom’s house in Long Beach. And what I am obsessed with is this play called Hadestown. It’s a musical. I don’t know anything about musicals. That’s not my world at all, but I was on Instagram and I saw this video of the cast doing a song from that play. The song is called Wait for Me The Reprise and it has been stuck in my head for weeks and now I’m like making it my life’s mission to go see this play. Like I have to see it. And, um, yeah, I never thought it would be a musical that would make me feel this way, but I am all in, it’s my whole world! I can’t get enough.
Flo: [00:03:53] I’m Flo from Vancouver, Canada. And at first, I didn’t know what I was going to tell you because I’ve mostly been rereading old fanfiction favorites and mainlining Sideshow episodes on YouTube, but in the past two weeks, um, I’ve watched Booksmart and Never Have I Ever, and they were both really surprisingly cute and awesome.
Christina: [00:04:22] Hi, it’s Christina. Um, so I’ve been getting through quarantine listening to a couple of albums, specifically Solutions by K Flay and the Birds of Prey soundtrack. That’s been some good kind of like ‘end of the world, but kind of positive’ vibes. And I’m also listening to some like short news podcasts in the morning, um, like The Daily and What Next just to kind of feel like I know what’s going on, but not be overwhelmed.
Um, and I’ve also been watching a lot of. Instagram live sales for crystal sellers. Cause it’s just like nice background music and like a person with a soothing voice and a nice manicure showing you pretty crystals. Um, and it’s quite soothing and that’s what I’ve been up to.
Jenny: [00:05:03] Hi, this is Jenny from Carbondale, Illinois, and something that I’ve really enjoyed during quarantine is Mrs. America on Hulu. I’ve really enjoyed it because it’s very thought provoking and about a time in history that I’ve heard about, but didn’t know much about for women’s liberation movement and the equal rights amendment. And I’ve really enjoyed learning more about it. And not only just watching it and seeing how it was put together for the show, but then going and reading more about it through different news articles and online forums and things like that. So that is what has really kept me going during this quarantine.
Olivia: [00:05:48] This is Olivia from Massachusetts. Um, lately I’ve been finding even more comfort than usual in books, particularly in fantasy novels that I’ve already read and enjoyed before. There’s just something about the familiarity of the plot and the escape into another world that has been very soothing to me these days.
Belen: [00:06:04] Hi, my name is Belen Figueroa, and I’m located in Reno, Nevada. Two things that are helping me get through this time are podcasts and music.
Podcast wise, I’m very invested in the new Office Ladies podcast, which is the first rewatch series I’ve ever been a part of, um, and I’ve really been enjoying that.
Music wise, I’ve been obsessing over anything that Travis Barker and Machine Gun Kelly have put out. Travis Barker’s a previous drummer for Blink 182, but he’s done a lot of side projects, um, and him and machine gun Kelly are putting out, umm a lot of great covers and pop punk covers that I really been enjoying.
And so those things have been crucial to my surviving, this quarantine isolation period.
Bill: [00:06:49] Hello, Casually Obsessed podcast. My name is Bill Friday and I am leaving you this note from Long Beach, California. What couple of things have gotten me through this time? Movies, movies, and more movies. The movies that I never allowed myself the time to watch in the eighties, the nineties and the aughts. That, and listening to the Casually Obsessed podcast have been some of the things that have held my shit together… and I’m grateful for.
Chelsee: [00:07:32] Chelsee here again, I wanted to share with you something that I have been watching. I recently finished a show called Black Sails, and it was originally on Starz and it should probably have every trigger warning possible attached to it so keep that in mind. Um, it is a very intense show about pirates, but if you’re looking for something that is really engrossing, has a really compelling plot and in my opinion is better than Game of Thrones, I would direct you to check out Black Sails.
My favorite part is a trio of characters that I lovingly refer to as The Power Throuple. I won’t spoil for you who that is, but I hope that you enjoy them too.
[Music under outro]
Thank you to everyone who sent in voice messages, I was so grateful to receive them.
I will be back in your feed with a full length episode of Casually Obsessed on July 6th. In the meantime, you can find transcripts for this and other episodes as well as shownotes at casuallyobsessedpodcast.com. You can find the show on Instagram @casuallyobsessedpodcast.
If you like the show, please consider sharing it with your casually obsessed friends.
The music featured in this episode is ‘i dunno’ by grapes and the episode was produced by me, Chelsee Bergen.