The Nostalgia Test Podcast

The Nostalgia Test Podcast recorded LIVE from the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference in Albuquerque, NM w/ USC colleagues Jen Sopchockchai Bankard & P.T. McNiff of the Long Take Review podcast. Shoutout to SWPACA, the tech guy who helped make this happen, and everyone that came out to support!

Our presentation, "Between Two Scholastic Worlds: Teaching, Blogging, and Podcasting," looked at how we negotiat...

An interview with the stars of Snack Shack, a new 90s-set coming of age movie. Lead actors Conor Sherry and Mika Abdalla join Dan for a Nostalgia Test Now episode about their nostalgia inspired movie Snack Shack, a 90s teen story centered around four friends at the public pool during the summer in Nebraska City. 

They discuss the 90s prep they did, how their characters impacted them, some of their favorite moments of the movie, and...

Dan & Manny welcome back longtime friend & Nostalgia Test Podcast All-star Steve Herrera to put the 1994 comedy Airheads to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST! 

If you love rock music, hilarious one-liners, the 90s, & a sophisticated reimagining of Die Hard, well, Airheads is none of these things! Steve put it perfectly when he said, “[Airheads] could have been a Mentos commercial.” The guys lose their minds talking a...

Dan & Manny welcome friend of the show Marc Jackson to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Green Day's 1994 classic Dookie and put it to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST!

This episode is a literal lovefest for Dookie (okay, wow). The boys talk about the first time they all heard the album, share memories of watching the “Basket Case” video, the influence of Green Day on music post Nirvana, the Green Day Woodstock performance,...

This was an emergency Nostalgia Test episode! Dan & Manny had to weigh in on the 2024 Road House trailer as soon as it dropped and put it to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST (NOW)! 

The trailer for the 2024 Road House reboot just dropped on Thursday, January 25th, 2024, and calls went out immediately! Dan & Manny watched the trailer together, hit the record butt...

Dan & Manny put the the sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest (1999) to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST!

The boys can't contain themselves in this episode. The jokes were flying, quotes from the movie, the 90s love will just pour out of your earbuds. So, put another load of laundry in, wash another round of dishes, or keep walking on the treadmill, because you're gonna want to hangout for awhile, as Dan & Manny show love to Alan...

Dan & Manny put the OG Toy Story (1995) to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST!

The episode goes DEEP into all things Toy Story. They talk about the A++ list of actors in the movie, why no one seems to see these toys walking around, driving in the street, or are ever suspect of them showing up randomly (like dropping through a sunroof), they reminisce about the day the...

Dan & Manny welcome back longtime friend & Nostalgia Test Podcast All-star Billy D’Elia to put the 1988 (possible) Christmas classic Die Hard to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST! 

We finally put to rest the long-debated question of whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or just a movie that happens on Christmas. This is a Nostalgia Test classic. We get into the novel Die Hard is based on, how this is the first time Dan i...

Dan & Manny welcome back longtime friend Dave Kucich to put the 1992 sports-romantic comedy The Cutting Edge to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! What a great start to the Nostalgia Test holiday season. The boys watched The Cutting Edge together before recording in-person. They talk about everything, like is D.B. Sweeney good looking, is Moira Kelly's skating coach from Rocky IV, is this a Christmas movie, did they eventua...

Dan & Manny invite Lauren Malott back for more Spooky Season fun to put the 1996 horror classic Scream 😱 to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! We talk about the genius of Drew Barrymore's acting in the opening scene, yet how dumb her character is, how *69 would've changed this whole movie, what's up with Henry Winkler touching Neve Campbell's face, Matthew Lillard, how perfect this movie is, all the amazing Easter eggs, La...

Dan & Manny invite their longtime friend Steve Herrera back to celebrate 100 episodes of The Nostalgia Test Podcast by putting Cocktail 🍸 BACK to the the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! The boys go back to where it all began to see if this 80s Tom Cruise classic still holds up after 100 episodes of nostalgia madness. They talk about the importance of Uncle Pat (played by Ron Dean), how the whole movie is based around a $50 ...

Dan & Manny invite Drew from The Last Row podcast to put the 1989 sequel Ghostbusters 2 to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! This is a spooky season classic. Dan, Manny, and Drew go deep into all things pink slime, the real hero of this movie Ernie Hudson, how Vigo the Carpathian is the worse villain of all time, the creepy genius of Peter MacNicol, New York City mayors, the Statue of Liberty, the Ghostbusters death toll, ...

Dan & Manny are joined by Prof. Josh Grant-Young, PhD candidate at the University of Guelph in Canada where he studies our past and contemporary conceptions (medical, political, and popular) of mental differences, using the genre of horror film to point both longstanding cultural anxieties and myths surrounding mental differences and new possibilities for shifting discourse around them. This is one of those episodes that starts...

Dan & Manny are joined by Dr. Douglas C. MacLeod, Associate Professor of Communications at SUNY College at Cobleskill in New York to open up a deep conversation about all things comedy. They get into comedy history, some of the early television sitcoms, how the American art of stand-up comedy is growing in many other parts of the world, how Dr. MacLeod uses comedy in his writing courses, and so much more. This episode is refere...

Dan & Manny invite Jen Sopchockchai Bankard & Greg Cass from The Long Take Review Substack & Podcast to put the 1981 adventure film Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! This is an old school deep-dive, tangent filled, super nerdy episode. They get into their favorite scenes, the Indiana Jones humor, what really is archeology, what didn't age well, their pre-Dial of Dest...

Dan & Manny put the 2023 Super Mario Bros. to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST (NOW!) The guys go Mario crazy. They talk about Mario’ missing butt, why an animated Mario movie works better than a the 1993 live action Mario movie, and where’s the Mega Man movie, the Metroid movie, Zelda movie, the… you get the idea. This is a jam packed, tangent filled nostalgic journey!

Some Episode Notes

Dan & Manny put MxPx’s 1996 album Life in General to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST! The guys have a lot of fun talking about the origins of the name MxPx, trying out their own emo/punk lyrics, comparing this album with Blink 182’s Take You Pants Off and Jacket, and trying to understand why emo/punk cover songs were so popular in the late 90s and early 2000s.

A special congratulations to MxPx for releasing their latest al...

Dan & Manny are joined by Dr. Clarice Greco, professor at the Post-graduation Program in Communication at Paulista University (UNIP, São Paulo, Brazil). Clarice takes Dan & Manny on a deep-dive into what makes a television show or movie cult, she shares her recent research about cult TV, expanding the definition, and so much more. Dan & Manny could talk to Dr. Greco forever!!! This is one of those episodes! 

Dan & Manny hang out in person for the first time in almost three years to put Dan's childhood toys to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! This is a classic Nostalgia Test hang, it's loud, it's filled with sound problems, and Dan & Manny totally forgot they were recording an episode. They talk about Transformers, Micro Machines, GI Joes, Xpanders, Ghostbusters everything, and so much more. 

Watch the FULL EP on YouTube!!...