Maya Gurantz พอดคาสต์

We think maybe Showtime went to all the trouble of producing the hit series Yellowjackets just so Rebecca and Maya could break it down with Very Special Guest Rebecca Wright. 90s culture and music! Teen girl trauma! Middle-aged reckoning! Survival BY ANY MEANS! Pull up a drink and some steak tartare and LET’S DO THIS.…

The legendary Guy Branum DEMANDED that Rebecca and Maya watch The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical bildungsroman, and he joins us to break down the Jewishness, the queerness, and the goddamn Spielberginess of it all.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

The Sauce has the best listeners in all of Podcastdom, and this week, they HAVE SOME SALTY OPINIONS about our episodes on Copaganda, White Lotus, and Hallmark Movies. Are we done? Oh, WE’RE NOT DONE.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

As we grieve Tyre Nichols’ death at the hands of the Memphis PD, Rebecca and Maya finally dive into a long-time-coming topic: Copaganda, meaning pop culture media starring THE POLICE. We reach back to its radio roots, historical collaborations with law enforcement, track decades of the genre’s greatest popularity–and most troublingly, dive into why…

After a historically long (and nearly violent!) Speaker of the House election, Maya and Rebecca are joined by one of our favorite guests, political maven Kaitlin Byrd, to break down the circus that is Republican dysfunction, examine how we got here, and predict what it might mean for the country going forward.…

The New Year is here! But before we let the last one go, Maya and Rebecca have to get to the bottom of some of the biggest stories we just didn’t get to during 2022.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

The Hallmark Channel Xmas Romance Season has branched out (heh heh) into Hanukkah, and Maya and Rebecca watched Hanukkah on Rye SO YOU WOULDN’T HAVE TO. As newbies to the genre, we ask–what the hell is going on here? And what happens when Jews get integrated into these narratives?โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

So many of you asked us to watch the wildly celebrated HBO show, The White Lotus. So God help us (and all of you), we did. What does writer/director Mike White think he’s doing? What is he actually doing? Maya and Rebecca bring insights into heterosexual marriage, luxury vacations, and being white girls who read critical race theory to this show.…

Can Maya & Rebecca ruin the World Cup? They already did! We revisit that conversation with NY Times journalist Ken Bensinger, author of “Red Card,” which details the investigation into soccer’s massive international scandals. Four years later, with all the corruption and human rights violations in Qatar, the topic remains, ahem, relevant.…

The “Red Wave” hit a Blue Wall and Elon Musk is managing to destroy Twitter in under two weeks. Fasten your seatbelts and pour yourself a drink because boy oh boy IS THIS A BUMPY RIDE.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Anti-Semitism is back! And you better believe Rebecca and Maya have things to say about that. We break down Kanye’s public meltdown, Trump’s threats, conspiracy theories, American Jewish white privilege, and what we really worry about when we worry about this.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

The queen is dead, long live America’s bizarre fascination with British royalty. Didn’t we fight a war about, dunno, throwing off the shackles of monarchy? Rebecca and Maya break down princess fantasies, pageantry, and the particularly American way we fictionalize and normalize nostalgic ideas of inherited power.…

We knew it was only a matter of time before Lauren Boebert came for us! Lesbian dance theory experts Maya and Rebecca do a grand jete right into the right wing temper tantrum over Biden’s student loan forgiveness.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

After 30 years of attempts, Neil Gaiman’s legendary comic series The Sandman finally makes it onto the screen as a new series on Netflix. Longtime fans Maya and Rebecca have a LOT to say about how the adaptation hits, breaking down Gen X ideas of about magic, theories of everything, the male genius, and art.…

Biden. A frail ineffectual elderly centrist? OR A WILY SLAYER OF DRAGONS? A meme born from NASCAR and the dirtbag left’s contempt is turning into the maybe only way we can truly appreciate Biden’s recent political successes. Rebecca and Maya dig into the Dark Brandon meme, and parse this past insane week of The Former … Continue reading "DARK BRAND…

Sometimes an F-14 is just a giant flying dick. Rebecca and Maya return to San Diego, their hometown, to watch TOP GUN: MAVERICK and ponder Tom Cruise, masculinity, mortality, middle-aged sex, military industrial propaganda, and how all those things go together.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

When we put out the call for Problematic Faves, *multiple* listeners asked us to break down John Carpenter’s 1980s cult fave. Can the history of American Chinatowns help us unpack the ongoing appeal of this dated flick? Why does this movie inspire so much DENIAL about how it traffics in the worst Yellow Peril stereotypes?…

Maya and Rebecca are detoxing from insane travel, weddings, COVID, and the past two weeks of political nightmarishness, and we had to go LIVE to do it! Here’s our convo from Tuesday, as we sort through the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe, gun laws, EPA regulations–and the January 6th hearings. Can Dems even DO spectacle? … Continue reading "Everyth…

As the January 6 Committee continues to unpeel the collusions and braided illegalities of TrumpWorld in the face of insurrection, we want to share this episode from 2018, in which we discuss not only the ways that TrumpWorld behaves like the mob, but how mafia narratives actually lay the groundwork for a widespread American acceptance … Continue re…

Could the “N-word”—not the actual epithet, but the euphemism itself—be problematic? A longtime listener brought up this question on the Sauce Speakeasy, our Discord channel (for Patrons only!), posing the question; what does the use of the euphemism achieve when used in a culture built on structural racism? So we went to an expert to … Continue rea…

In the wake of mass shootings in Buffalo, Laguna Woods, and Uvalde—and the imminent demise of abortion rights in this country—we repost this episode on Terrorism, how it exists in the our cultural imaginary, and how violence intended to terrorize actually performs itself in America.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Yeah, Elon Musk will wreck Twitter—but what if it’s already a mess? Rebecca and Maya ruin our favorite social media addiction and offer our predictions for what a post-Musk Twitter will look like.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

We were in a great mood! Mixing cocktails! About to start recording! When the bombshell Politico piece dropped leaking Alito’s draft opinion overturning Roe v Wade. So we switched course. Here we are reacting in the moment to the defining role abortion rights has had in our political lives; and the shifting tactics, racist roots … Continue reading …

Maya went to England where she was—ahem—exposed to the hit TV dating show Naked Attraction. She forces Rebecca to watch it and they try to understand: can this godawful trainwreck help explain what’s behind British TERFs and their purportedly “feminist” fear of trans bodies? Drinks recommended!โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Last year we asked for all your problematic faves to ruin. Rebecca and Maya finally kick off the series by taking on our own problematic fave: Gone With The Wind. Is it a) a sweeping romantic epic starring some of the greatest actors of its day which set the standards for historical drama? b) racist … Continue reading "Problematic Faves: GONE WITH …

We have nothing to say about the Slap. We had a LOT to say about King Richard as a hack sports movie that avoids real stakes in favor of cheap sentimentality. Join us as we drink our way through the Will Smithness of it all!โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Oscar weekend! The great Guy Branum returns to talk about the twisted history of straight actors playing gay to try and win Academy Awards–the length of the list may shock you! Does Jane Campion’s Oscar-bait Power of the Dog herald the return of the ’60s-style Gay Monster? Is it even a gay movie? More importantly, … Continue reading "Gay Oscar Bait…

Rebecca and Maya won’t pretend to be in any way qualified to parse the geopolitics of Russian’s horrifying invasion of Ukraine. Instead we break out the booze and break down how the propaganda around this war reveals unresolved Trump trauma, racism, historical amnesia and stupid fantasies of European exceptionalism.…

Maya and Rebecca manage to break free from their Wordle obsession long enough to ruin the strangely popular game and, while they’re at it, finally delve into Whoopi Goldberg’s remarks about Jews and whiteness from like a month ago.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

A year after Biden took office, we’re finally crashing from the traumatic impact of Trump on our burnt-out adrenaline receptors. How do we tell jokes? Or do podcasts? Or, like, get out of bed at all? Rebecca and Maya get personal in this episode, with help from Very Special Guest and genius, comedian Guy Branum.…

Ah, the Holiday SeasonTM. A time for peace on earth, good will towards men — OR IS IT? Listeners sent Maya and Rebecca on a quest to ruin the very notion of “the Season”, but will they end up discovering the true magic of Christmas instead? Not without uncovering connections between Joe Manchin, Kat Von D, Saturnalia, the … Continue reading "‘Tis T…

While we manage some technical difficulties, Rebecca and Maya do a quick speed round on recent events in news and culture!โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

In light of the Supreme Court signaling the imminent collapse of abortion rights across the country, we wanted to share an early episode about abortion in popular culture. We interview two brilliant experts, Dr. Gretchen Sisson, who researches abortion portrayals in media at UCSF, and Jessica Mason Pieklo, journalist, lawyer, and Senior Vice Presid…

Welcome to Anti-Woke University! Rebecca and Maya break down The University of Austin Texas, a new school founded by a cadre of the Self-Identified Cancelled, & their attendant bullshit rhetorical moves around ideas of academic freedom and open discourse.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Rebecca and Maya get into Succession, HBO’s dramedy about rich people being horrible. We break down the tension between its prestige glossiness and cringey dark comedy, discuss American fascination with TV shows about the aristocracy, and disagree over whether it’s possible to be a fan of this show without ultimately sympathizing for these monsters…

Introducing Sauce Classics! Secret tapes were just released of how the NRA were strategizing their future after the Columbine shooting. So we’re returning to our episode about gun culture: exploring how the gun industry created a culture of fascination and romance around their products, and how the gun lobby in turn used that to inform … Continue r…

The tile! The woodwork! The acreage! Sure, you’ll move to upper Michigan! You can like, farm, right? Rebecca and Maya look the wildly popular Instagram account (and new HGTV show) Cheap Old Houses and break apart the economic and historical factors underneath this specific fantasy of home ownership in small rural towns.…

Graphic novelist (& long-time listener!) Nick Anderson comes on to get real about autism. We break down popular misconceptions of autism, assess pop cultural characters who are “on the spectrum” in ways both coded and explicit, what the metaphor of “the spectrum” misses about neurodiversity anyway, and what media does “click” with autists and why.…

We all feel some kind of way about Bennifer & John Mulaney & Steve from Blues Clues & Michael K Williams & and there’s a word for that: the Parasocial, a concept that is suddenly EVERYWHERE. What is it about our intimate emotional connections to famous people who will never know our names? Is it … Continue reading "Parasocial Relationships"…

What else is missing in the public conversation about #GabbyPetito? @GynoStar and @mayagurantz reveal a strange confluence between histories of imperiled white women, the recent rise of true crime media, and vigilante ambitions of online amateur sleuths.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Britney Spears! How did this multi-million dollar generating superstar quietly lose her legal rights as an adult? Why did it take the public so long to recognize this was a problem? Maya and Rebecca dive into Britney’s past and present to shed light on her bizarre legal situation, the #freebritney movement, and what happens when … Continue reading …

Rebecca has decided Maya needs to watch all the Marvel movies–in a specific order of her choosing! This will be an ongoing series of mini-sodes for our $5 and up patrons, but we thought we’d share the first one–about Iron Man–with everyone. We also catch up on COVID and Ivermectin, and recent developments in anti-CRT … Continue reading "Maya Watche…

Julia Sweeney ruins the Catholic Church for Maya and Rebecca! The legendary comedian, writer and longtime Sauce patron talks some inside baseball about Pope Francis, Opus Dei, the Knights of Malta, why there are so many damn Catholics on the Supreme Court, and the specifically Catholic reasons Ross Douthat is an idiot.…

From Proud Boys staging violent rallies to alternative medicine peddlers spreading disinformation to neocons undermining faith in public health and terrified parents “protecting” their children, anti-vaxxers are everywhere–and they’re driving the current COVID surge. Where have we seen this before? What do we do with these people? Grab a drink, you…

Can you name an elite professional athlete that seems…happy? Does toxic masculinity actually improve sports performance–or is it a costly inefficiency? In this episode, we share more fascinating stuff from our conversation with sports writer and former soccer pro Bobby Warshaw–and uncover the connections between Ted Lasso, the Olympics, Andrew Cuom…

We continue our deep dive into Critical Race Theory by speaking with an ACTUAL high school ethnic studies teacher! She takes us thru the political minefields (and undeniable benefits) of teaching teens how power works; and the pedagogical nitty gritty of centering marginalized voices while emphasizing critical hope and collective action.…

This week, @mayagurantz and @gynostar achieve the impossible: we ruin the almost excruciatingly likable soccer/mental health fairy tale Ted Lasso with help from writer, sports commentator, and ACTUAL FORMER SOCCER PRO Bobby Warshaw. We ask: is it possible to even imagine professional sports without toxic masculinity and sociopathic athletes?…

The Queen’s Gambit is the most-watched Netflix series OF ALL TIME, and received almost uniformly, wildly positive reviews. Rebecca and Maya watched it and think it totally sucks, and once we explain why, you’ll never be able to enjoy it ever again. You’re welcome!โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Critical Race Theory is the right wing’s new bogeyman and we feel personally attacked! As certified members of the Jewish Intellectual Cabal, Rebecca and Maya explain it all for you, dropping into the conservative temper tantrum over the 1619 Project along the way.โดย Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

You know about last year’s smash movie, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, based on August Wilson’s classic play. But what about the real Ma Rainey, the actual mother of the Blues, of whom there are only 7 remaining photos? For this Very Special Episode, we are joined by guitar wizard and jazz historian Charlie Apicella, Grammy … Continue reading "Ma Rainey…