Introducing: In Retrospect with Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett

Episode Summary

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In Retrospect is a new podcast hosted by Jessica Bennett, a writer for The New York Times, and Susie Banikaram, an award-winning TV producer and filmmaker. The hosts explain that the podcast will revisit pop culture moments from the 80s and 90s that shaped them and their generation. Topics will include tabloid headlines, illicit student-teacher relationships, and Pamela Anderson's iconic red swimsuit. Banikaram says she wants listeners to vividly recall the sights, sounds, and culture of the era. The hosts believe that the pop culture they consumed as young people had a significant influence on who they are today. By taking a retrospective look at these moments, they hope to better understand what they were taught about the world. New episodes will be available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, and other major platforms.

Episode Show Notes

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Is there a cultural moment from your past that looks different in retrospect? Maybe it’s a scandalous tabloid story seared into your teenage brain or a political punchline that just feels wrong now. It might be a very specific red swimsuit that inspired a decade of plastic surgery (see: “Baywatch”) or the inescapable smell of an entire generation of prepubescent boys (Axe body spray, anyone?).

Each week on IN RETROSPECT, Emmy-winning journalist Susie Banikarim and New York Times editor Jessica Bennett revisit a pop culture moment from the 80s and 90s that shaped them — to try to understand what it taught us about the world, and a woman’s place in it. Listen to IN RETROSPECT with Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-in-retrospect-with-susie-122206786/

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Episode Transcript

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SPEAKER_00: This is In Retrospect, a podcast about pop culture from the 80s and 90s that shaped us. I'm very much a product of the pop culture I consumed. SPEAKER_01: And I don't think that's a bad thing. SPEAKER_00: I'm Jessica Bennett, a New York Times writer and bestselling author. I'm Susie Banakaram, an award-winning TV producer and filmmaker. SPEAKER_00: Every week, we'll revisit a moment in cultural history that we just can't stop thinking about. SPEAKER_01: From tabloid headlines to illicit student-teacher relationships and one very memorable red swim I found myself in Pamela Anderson's attic, as you do. SPEAKER_00: I put that red swimsuit in a safe because it seemed everybody wanted it. SPEAKER_01: We're digging deep to better understand what these moments taught us about the world and our place in it. SPEAKER_00: I want you to really smell the Axe body spray that emanated during this time. SPEAKER_01: It was presented more as kind of like a crime topic. Okay, not a love story. It had been branded on the uteruses of every single woman from sea to shining sea. SPEAKER_01: Listen to In Retrospect on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.