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And that’s a wrap on season three! From Star Wars to 80s films and now MTV, Heather and Jameson finish up with this delightful season finale.Heather is officially on the Tik Tok, but pissed because someone stole her handle.  Jameson got propane as he is currently running a geratic summer camp at his house.Heather and Jameson reflect on the season, gushing over Guy’s legal pad (which belongs in the Smithonsian), sending a heartfelt thanks to all the special guests (including two people who were actually on MTV, Dan Cortese and Room Raiders Mike), and a special shout out to the podcast’s number one fan and most prepared guest, Eddie Jones, an award winning Jeopardy star who’s not been on Jeopardy (yet). Heather and Jameson discuss future seasons, perhaps conspiracy theories, Saturday morning cartoons, 80s sitcoms, or running an advice column via podcast. Our Gen Experts’ summer plans include cycling, fried dough, reading, disc golf, international travel, boating (well, yachting), and new jobs (maybe). Jameson provides a mini lecture on transgendered frogs during the final Listen to this Shit, check it out here: https://tinyurl.com/z9eefvdn. Final Top Countdown features the one and only Britney Spears and “Baby One More Time”. And Heather and Jameson offer up one last Desert Island Top Five before signing off! Please send cake, thanks.

With only two episodes left in this season, Heather and Jameson are here to fix MTV. They are joined by the final guests of the season, Eddie and Guy, who stop by to add a little intellectual flair into the discussion of “where did MTV go wrong?” Eddie clues us in on the venn diagram of Michael Bolton and O.J., Guy still has not found his legal pads, Heather is curious if Julie is caught up on Ex on the Beach, and Jameson is mad about frogs, which tracks. Both Guy and Eddie talk about their days as college radio jockeys, Jameson reads from the TV Guide and lets everyone know what’s on MTV today (spoiler: reality shows for hours), and everyone gets to celebrate the new queer prom king at Eddie’s high school. Check out the articles about the demise of MTV here: https://tinyurl.com/4fr3va9x and here: https://tinyurl.com/2p86wp5f. Everyone agrees, ditch Teen Mom and bring back Martha Quinn. And happy pride everyone!

This week Heather and Jameson take a break from MTV for this very special bonus episode as Jameson picks a movie, Drop Dead Gorgeous! The Gen Experts are joined by special guest Fin, aka “mybestfriendfin”, who alongside Jameson has this film memorized. If you haven’t seen it, Drop Dead Gorgeous is a 1999 mockumentary featuring a beauty pageant in small town Mt. Rose, Minnesota. This film is available for the low low price of $10 on Amazon, as you can’t stream this film anywhere. Jameson reminds us why Generation X is hands down the coolest generation of them all with this article: https://tinyurl.com/mr4a2kmk. Desert Island Top Five is a class top five, with some beauty pageant superlatives tossed in. We hope by next season, Fin learns her computer password. Remember, folks, Jesus loves winners.

With only a handful of episodes left, Heather and Jameson round out the season exploring one last element of MTV, the reality-based dating game show “Next”. Next is a blind date show that involves a creepy bus that likely smells like farts, some cash and a heavy dose of sexual assault, sexual harassment, racist comments, sexist comments, fatphobia, making fun of virgins, and a heavy emphasis on toxic heteronormativity. Heather and Jameson give Next two thumbs down, if you were wondering. You can explore more about how Next has not aged well in this Buzzfeed article https://tinyurl.com/3thcjrdp and chuckle at the funniest facts from the bus here in this other Buzzfeed article https://tinyurl.com/2p92yfh4. If you’d like to torture yourself, you can watch Next on Paramount using Jameson’s password, just message us. Speaking of torture, Heather and Jameson watch Shakira’s video for La Tortura which is quite possibly the world’s sexiest video and the opposite of torture. Listen to this Shit features an AMA with a Next bus contestant and Heather offers her book review of the 2022 “Boy with a Bird in his Chest” (eh, you can skip it).

As Heather and Jameson start to wrap up this season of Gen X Guide to the Universe, they continue their historical analysis of MTV with the reality makeover show “Made”, which empowered teens to reach their lofty goals to be cheerleaders, ideal boyfriend, rappers, circus performers, or other crap. Spoiler: if you haven’t watched Made, you can skip the show. Jameson is intrigued by the promise of a show that allows people to change their narrative and attain their goals, but again, this show does not deliver. Heather and Jameson read each other’s show notes, and learn “hot cross buns” is hard and Ashley is a whiny circus performer who cries a lot. Jameson fills us in on bigfoot facts, since he didn’t do his podcast homework. Fun fact: bigfoot smells like 700 pounds of swampy, drain hair. And the plural of bigfoot is bigfoots, not bigfeet.  And to also avoid talking about Made, Heather and Jameson talk about sandwiches.Jameson introduces 99 Problems to Heather, who never heard the song prior to this podcast. And Heather and Jameson share their dream “Made” list (no Jameson, you can’t be made taller). And podcast dog Nugget sings with the sirens for us all.

Taking a break from the wonderful world of MTV, Heather and Jameson are again joined by special guest and fellow Gen Xer Matt Farley as they talk about the show Yellowstone, which Heather summarizes as “Western show, Kevin Costner”. Yellowstone follows the Dutton family and their huge ass ranch bordering Yellowstone National Park and an Indian Reservation. You can watch all episodes on Peacock, just reach out to Jameson for his login credentials. Heather maintains this is just a soap opera for boys, but Matt and Jameson just don’t care. Everyone agrees: Beth Dutton is the greatest character on the show (and Rip too). Jameson provides us with twenty-seven facts about Yellowstone (you can read them all here: https://tinyurl.com/2p9eyv53). For Listen to this Shit, you can enjoy the best of Beth here: https://tinyurl.com/2vtrvbjd. In other news, Jameson’s dad and Pat are back in Connecticut for six long weeks, Heather still thinks her new microphone makes her sound like the host of Delish Dish (“good times”), Matt and Kevin Costner are frat brothers, and everyone agrees Chuck Page is a legend. And remember, if anyone pisses you off, deliver them to the train station.

Back to music on the podcast, for a hot second! Heather and Jameson talk about Behind the Music, the music biography series that launched in 1997 on MTV’s sister channel, VH1. The show profiled musical artists that aren’t “qualified to be legends” (note: IMDB offered that mean description, not us, we think Ricky Martin is a LEGEND), documenting their personal and professional lives. Jameson refers to this show as “Behind the Dumpster” while Heather gains a new appreciation for Huey Lewis after watching his episode. If you want to watch Behind the Music, reach out for Jameson’s Paramount login, and his social security number too. Heather tries out her new microphone and sounds a bit like Delish Dish, and everyone can hear Nugget jingle jangle in the background. Heather explains “share vs. Cher” and Jameson learns Allen is not short for anything. Jameson talks to us all about starting a new sport in 40s and the Gen Experts talk about the music video “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks.

Yet again, Heather and Jameson explore the dark side of MTV (aka reality television) as they watch both The Osbournes and The Newlyweds. Both shows launched in the early 2000s and featured the real domestic lives of typical famous musical artists. Celebrities, they’re just like us. Other than talking about Ozzy, Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Jessica and Nick and their daily adventures on MTV, the Gen X podcast dogs are living their best lives as Caroline may or may not need ACL surgery and Nugget learned “rollover”. Next week Heather and Jameson will talk about music, we promise. Also, Des Moines is not a tropical location, in case anyone was wondering.

This week, Heather and Jameson take a break from their historical analysis of MTV to watch current programming, The Hills: New Beginnings. The original cast of The Hills, along with their offspring and friends and other random people (hello, Pam Anderson) reunite in Los Angeles for this heavily scripted reality show. Heather and Jameson are joined by The Hills expert and special guest, Lauren Kras, who just got married this past weekend (congrats, Lauren!!). Lauren basically explains the history of this reality franchise and all she knows about the characters from their origins at Laguna Beach. Jameson offers his review of The Hills: “Rich people bitching about stuff I don’t care about” and learns this is not “The Hills Have Eyes”. On Listen to this Shit, Jameson shares a feel good story from our hometown backyard (that’s New Haven, folks). Check out the story here: https://tinyurl.com/4bnkmcjr. Everyone watches “Walk This Way” music video by Run DMC and Aerosmith for top countdown. And again, congrats to Lauren and her lucky husband, Dave!

Once again, Heather and Jameson are back on reality TV. Well, talking about reality TV. This week, Heather and Jameson are joined by Broadway baby and third co-host (alongside Eddie), Julie Mirwis, as they all talk about MTV’s competition show: The Challenge. Originally known as Road Rules: All Stars, The Challenge started in 1998 and features past members of The Real World, Road Rules and a host of other former reality celebs as they “compete to win money and shit”. There are 505 episodes of this show and Julie has seen each and every one. Julie walks Heather and Jameson through the history of The Challenge, including her favorite players, career players, favorite seasons, favorite moments, and how she lowkey stalked one player since he taught a fitness class in Manhattan and she’d take the class and pretend he wasn’t on The Challenge. Jameson tells us the story of a dog who’s not an asshole, Smoky, the warrior dog of World War II (read more about her adventures here: https://www.chonday.com/smoky-dog/). Jameson recounts his love of all things Beyonce, while Julie sings Survivor for everyone during Top Countdown. And for Desert Island Top Five, the trio create their own games for The Challenges. And Jameson finally learns the origins of the Ring Around the Rosie.

This week Heather and Jameson take a break from MTV and return back to the best films of the 1980s with this very special bonus episode as they talk Top Gun! The duo are joined by Top Gun aficionado and actual pilot, Matt, who can recite this film line by line, literally.This film features a lot of shower scenes in addition to world class flying and some confusing sex scenes. Oh, and volleyball. Heather has a new idea for Gen X Only Fans with Matt receding Top Gun whilst standing in a shower wearing tighty-whities (thanks, Matt!). Eddie weighs in on Top Gun via text, why is the movie so white and so straight? Why is everyone so sweaty in this film? This episode is long but distinguished (just like my johnson). Heather has Matt and Jameson watch a Kenny Loggins video from the Top Gun soundtrack, but Jameson refuses on the basis of the lyrics. You can watch the trailer for the new Top Gun, Maverick, here: https://tinyurl.com/mt2k2wjr (films comes out next month!).

Heather and Jameson are again joined by guest star and trivia king Eddie Jones (who’s essentially the third co-host at this point) as they talk about Pop Up Video this week! Pop Up Video is an actual music program that ran on MTV’s sister station, VHI, which focused on the “softer side” of pop music before turning to the dark side of reality television. Heather, Jameson, and Eddie watch a bunch of Pop Up Videos with their delicious “info nuggets”.  Jameson finds a way to connect Spice Girls to that survivalist show he loves. The trio try to figure out which came first, Lisa Loeb or Daria? Eddie offers a Yelp review for various Cameos (we’re looking at you, Lance Bass). Jameson shares his magic podcasting tips to grab music from YouTube, follow him for more pirating hacks. Heather appreciates all the info nuggets about nipples in Madonna’s music video for Vogue. And the trio offer up their own info nuggets that would play for their music videos. By the way, listeners, you’re not losing your mind, March Madness is indeed over.

Grab your spy kit and get out your blacklight, time to talk about Room Raiders!  Jameson and Heather are joined by the unofficial third podcast host Julie and the trio welcome a new special guest, Michael Satow, who was a contestant on the first season of Room Raiders. Michael recounts his awkward adventures as a MTV star as he searched the bedrooms of three potential mates (hello, blacklight!) and his kinda famous moment as everyone recognized him from the show when he hit the mean streets of Boston for college. Heather is still salty over two bad reviews. Jameson fills everyone in on everything we didn’t know about Zac Efron (check the article here: https://tinyurl.com/3ammr89m) and suggests everyone watch Zac run wild with Bear Grylls here: https://tinyurl.com/593paww2. And Jameson and Zac Efron are essentially the same person, so ladies, slide on into those DMs. Julie picked the Top Countdown video this week, and everyone gets caught chasing Waterfalls as Julie raps for us. And if anyone sees Pauly Shore, have him call Heather and Jameson, they have a guest spot waiting for him.

Shocker, more reality shows on MTV! Heather and Jameson are joined by expert elder millennial Eddie Jones this week as they discuss MTV Cribs, which took viewers on exclusive tours through the homes of celebrities. Everyone agrees Cribs is boring now as social media provides a constant intrusion in celebrities’ lives.  The best of Crib’s included Missy Elliot’s race car bed, Solange living in the garage, and all the fools who passed off other people’s homes and possessions as their own (hey there, Robbie Williams!).Heather can recall the interior of Britney’s entire home from memory thanks to Instagram, Eddie asserts social media was founded by children, men and sociopaths (he’s not wrong though), and Jameson was practically neighbors with 50 Cent as he lived in the “Greenwich of the North”. Eddie ushers in the first of the Britney videos with “If You Seek Amy”, which is hella Swedish. In other Eddie news, he uses the word “begat” correctly in a sentence and hosted a version of Cribs for his company during the pandemic.

Grab your tanning oil and toss some Boone’s Farm in the Igloo cooler, Heather and Jameson are on spring break!  Well, not really, but this week they explore MTV’s annual Spring Break coverage beginning in 1986 in Daytona Beach, Florida with a week of live broadcasting for eight hours a day. Eight hours a day, people. Jameson recalls fond memories of riding quads with his grandma on the beach in Florida and Heather is still salty about some podcast reviews. Both Heather and Jameson are disgusted by foam parties and wet t-shirt contests, and rich kids wasting their parents’ money on tropical beaches.  Jameson shares the story of a cool new prehistoric crocodile found with a chicken-sized dinosaur in its stomach, read more about this Listen to this Shit here: https://tinyurl.com/373m6n9z. We finally add more to the Venn Diagram of Heather and Jameson in terms of “foods they will try”.  Jameson has Heather watch a wildly entertaining music video by The Beastie Boys. Until next time, Heather can be found at band practice with Julie, just counting the days until “No Adult Supervision” is called to open for John Mayer.

Heather and Jameson take a break from MTV this week for this very special bonus episode as Gen X Guide to the Universe turns TWO! Celebrate Gen X Guide to the Universe’s anniversary as our favorite Gen Xperts recall their journey from a galaxy far, far away with Star Wars to some basement in New Jersey with MTV. Jameson misses watching movies while Heather describes the podcast’s character as “organized structure rogue”.  The duo reflect fondly on growing up in the 1980s, as Jameson’s dad would record Celtic games over confirmations and other major family events.  Heather and Jameson talk about their favorite guest stars (psst, it’s you, don’t tell the others) and decide who’d they leave the podcast to in their will. Oh, also, stop what you’re doing and check out guest star Dagan’s music here: https://daganmusic.bandcamp.com/. Heather and Jameson end the debate on which generation can claim the recent Super Bowl halftime show (Generation X, there’s no competition), check out the argument here: https://tinyurl.com/3wrkz85w. Spend time listening to Snoop narrate Animal Planet and tune in for some fun Gen X Guide to the Universe facts from Jameson. Thanks for tuning in, here’s to another two years, or more!

Heather and Jameson are again joined by superstar guest Eddie Jones as the trio discusses the teen pop music scene of the late 1990s and early 2000s.  Airplay of rock, electronica, and alternative music took a backseat as boy bands and pop princesses took over MTV (thanks TRL!).   Dropping knowledge, Eddie talks about the distinct sound of this style of music coming out of Sweden with Max Martin, in which the lyrics never need to make any damn sense.  The trio also talk about the elephant in the room, as mentioned during the TRL episode, the lack of attention to and airplay of black artists at this time, leaving us to ask yet again: MTV, why so white? In other podcast news, Jameson got a discount on a new disc golf bag, Heather is not shopping at Kohls, and Eddie challenges Jameson to recall the writer of Crossroads (Shondraland for the win!). Jameson pays homage to Shackleton during Listen to this Shit in honor of the recent discovery of his ship, the Endurance. Check out the article here: https://tinyurl.com/4jhvjkyj. Eddie takes charge of Top Countdown again with U + Me + Us (Calculus) by 2Gether (check out the video here: https://tinyurl.com/2p85d36x).  And of course, Gen X might have jumped the shark with the mention of Nickelback (everyone has to drink now).

Heather and Jameson welcome back pop culture and lifestyle icon guest star Fawziah to talk about Total Request Live, or as the kids call it, TRL. Originally hosted by Carson Daly,  TRL featured the most requested videos of the day during a live (well, not so live) countdown while musicians, actors and other celebs stopped by to promote their work.  Everyone complains about the bubblegum whiteness that was TRL and how no one seems to get through to TRL or radio contests in general. Though, Fawziah once got through to Hot 97 and Jameson won Shakira tickets (well, a friend did, but same same), so there’s hope for us all.  Everyone offers up appreciation for the hotness that is Dua Lipa’s dad (stop what you are doing and Google that man).  We give way too much airtime to Tom Green and Heather wants everyone to watch Ali Wong’s new Netflix special (Don Wong). Jameson offers up some awesome internet hacks (go to https://www.dialupsound.com/ right now), follow @GenXGuide for more life hacks.  Fawziah has everyone watch the timeless and classic music video for “The Boy is Mine” by Brandy and Monica, which gives us some major early 2000’s vibe. Catch up with Fawziah on her blog, Foozy Does (https://www.foozydoes.com/). And for future reference, there are 5280 feet in a mile.

In honor of misery girls everywhere,  Heather and Jameson take on Daria,  an animated series on MTV from 1997 to 2002 about an unpopular, intelligent, cynical, and sarcastic teen tolerating the morons at Lawndale High School.Jameson self identifies as a combo of Daria and Kevin the jock, while Heather identifies most with young sister Quinn.  Both love the theme song, “You’re Standing on my Neck”, not to be confused with Heather’s Only Fans theme song, “You’re Standing on my Dick”. Read more about Daria’s legacy for weird kids everywhere in this Bust magazine article: https://tinyurl.com/yc7ze2vz Jameson is still very excited about disc golf while Heather may or may not be experiencing baby strokes sprinkled throughout the podcast (she’s tasting nickels or licking pennies, maybe both). Jameson explains the difference between old Helens and new Helens (hint: avoid the young ones and avoid horse girls while you’re at it).  Jameson gets super pissed off about Jewel and dazzles us with a story about the world’s smartest 9 year old (https://tinyurl.com/y8wweb38). In other podcast news, Jameson’s brother and his partner Marty got engaged.  And happy birthday to Heather’s brother and belated birthday to her mom. Catch you all in self esteem class, bring the square crackers to share around!

This week Heather and Jameson are joined by the one and only Dan Cortese as they talk about MTV Sports.  Dan recounts his adventures from his time as host (and incidentally, own production assistant at times) of MTV Sports, which aired on MTV in the 1990s and featured extreme sports all over the world.Dan talks about the origins of MTV Sports and shares his stories in which he nearly BASE jumped off a bridge in West Virginia, went ice driving in Sweden, and ran with the bulls in Spain.  Dan acts as the unofficial ambassador of Pittsburgh and Heather and Jameson convince Dan he needs to watch the groundbreaking film, Rad. For more fun with Dan, check out his recent and hilarious memoir, Step Off: My Journey from Mimbo to Manhood on Amazon (or wherever you buy books): https://tinyurl.com/5n8zxtak. Aside from basking in the glory of having a special guest who is not only a bonafide celebrity but has actually been on MTV, Jameson has Heather watch Eye of the Tiger (hello, mullets) and the Gen Experts decide what “extreme sports” should be featured on a 2022 MTV Sports reboot.  You know, lawn darts and horse dancing, all the extreme sports.