10 NOV 2022 · Julia's name twin, Julia Rios (AKA Dr. Chess Julia) and her cohost JJ from the Chessfeels podcast join us to talk about Spaceballs. Full show notes including transcript at https://www.juliarios.com/spaceballs-the-podcast-with-jj-lang-and-julia-rios-from-chessfeels

5 AUG 2022 · Friend of the pod Kelly joins us to talk about commercials for Canadian theme parks and attractions. Full show notes including links to the commercials and a trascript at https://www.juliarios.com/after-these-messages-canadian-commercials-with-kelly

29 JUL 2022 · Friend of the pod Kelly joins us to talk about the fever dream that is The Country Bears. Full show notes and transcript at https://www.juliarios.com/the-country-bears-with-kelly/

14 JUL 2022 · Chia and Dan talk toys and commercials of their childhoods! Full show notes with links to commercials and a transcript of the episode at https://www.juliarios.com/after-these-messages-thingmaker-with-chia-and-dan

11 MAY 2022 · Friends of the pod, Chia and Dan, join us to discuss a movie Chia remembered as VERY ROMANTIC! Child of Glass is an adaptation of the first Blossom Culp novel, The Ghost Belonged to Me. This episode is a wild ride that takes us into explorations of Richard Peck's work, Disney's low point in the late seventies/early eighties, and the way the scariest thing about this movie is its insistence that slaveholders in the south were deeply romantic. We also take a huge detour into past life reincarnation pods, and discuss how sometimes you gotta pretend an ice cream bar is actually pie if you want to eat it while reenacting your friend's murder over and over again…Here's Chia's hazy summary: "So, I watched this is the gymnasium of my elementary school, probably in 4th grade? It might have been 5th. In my memory of it, a boy moved into a haunted house and fell in love with the ghost of a little girl who I think was trapped in a china doll? Also, I got to sit next to a boy I had a terrible crush on and the whole thing was just very romantic." Chia was… not very right at all about the plot of this one. But don't worry, we spend almost as long as the length of the film explaining what she missed! All this, plus Geoffrey does an impression of Vincent Price AND sings a little impromptu Blondie parody.This is Must Listen podcasting, everyone!P.S. If you want to see the short (like 8 minute long) excerpt adaptation of the book this is based on that Vincent Price hosts, that's about seven minutes and thirty seconds into Once Upon a Midnight Scary. P.P.S. If you want, you can also read a full transcript of this podcast at https://thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/p/transcript-for-child-of-glass-with?s=w. Please rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com.

17 MAR 2022 · Happy St. Patrick's Day! To celebrate, Gwynne Garfinkle is back with us to talk about obscure children's shows from her youth. Specifically, we talk about Hobo Kelly, the magical hobo clown who has a leprechaun fly her around and drop her off at Hobo Junction. Sure and begorrah, ‘tis she! Full show notes and transcript available at https://www.juliarios.com/after-these-messages-hobo-kelly-with-gwynne-garfinkle/

9 MAR 2022 · 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of a PBS show beloved by kids in the 1970s: Zoom! No, it is not the video conferencing tool… Our guest this time is Gwynne Garfinkle, who wrote a letter to Zoom that was read on the air in 1974! Gwynne grew up to become a writer of novels, stories, poems, and more, and it all started with Zoom. Check out Gwynne's books, including her novel, Can't Find My Way Home, a political ghost story about a soap opera star in the 1970s who is reunited with the ghost of her best friend who died protesting the Vietnam war. She's also got a poetry collection called People Change. If you would like to listen to one of her stories, you can find "A Wild Patience" in three parts on Escape Pod. And if you want to read a free story, you can check out "Sinking, Singing" in the May 2021 issue of Mermaids Monthly. Here's Gwynne's summary of Zoom: "ZOOM was a 1970s kids show on public television that was produced in Boston. A group of kids sang songs, performed skits, (I think) showed the audience how to make crafts etc., read letters that kids sent in, and (I think) had "rap sessions" about various topics. There were also documentary segments about other kids. (I remember one segment about a girl who broke her arm, had to get a cast, etc.) The cast changed from season to season; I think kids could only stay for a season or two. My favorite cast member was Bernadette, who did a trick with her arms that I can do to this day. The show also featured a language called Ubbi Dubbi, in which you add "ub" before every vowel. If you sent a SASE to the show, they would send you ZOOM cards (each card featured a cast member on one side and some ZOOM-related activity on the other side). I used to own a bunch of these. There was also a ZOOM book and an LP. I'm not sure how many times I wrote to the show before they read my letter on the air. It was definitely a memorable event in my young life, to the point that I remembered which cast member (Shawn) read my letter! Here is the link to my ZOOM episode (queued to the segment with my letter): https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-60cvf203?term=GARFINKLE&proxy_start_time=644.06" We had never seen Zoom before, but we thought it was a really interesting show! Did you ever watch this as a kid? Or, perhaps you watched the 1990s reboot? Let us know! We learned a lot of things from this discussion, including that Gwynne's favorite cast member, Bernadette, is now an energy sound healer! You can read a transcript of this episode here if you like: https://thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/p/transcript-for-zoom-with-gwynne-garfinkle?s=w If you're having fun listening to us, please tell your friends about us! Rate and review us! follow us on Twitter where we're @thisiswhy_pod! And, of course, you can always drop us a note at at thisiswhywerelikethis@gmail.com.

30 JAN 2022 · Greetings on this, the first Annual Snowmo Sapiens night! With a potentially historic blizzard in Boston, we present you this very on topic podcast episode about a 1942 Disney short starring Donald Duck. It's Donald's Snow Fight! Geoffrey remembered this one from his childhood, and this is not exactly an After These Messages, but it is sort of in that spirit, recorded to go with The Dog That Stopped the War. We get into a BUNCH of stuff with this, from inventing new holidays to discussing François Truffaut's famous assertion that there's no such thing as an antiwar film, to the Finnish Ducktales theme, to Splash Mountain and The Song of the South. So, cozy up in a blanket, build yourself a snowman (or put three ice cubes in an adult beverage), and join us for some anti-clericalism and fornication (okay, only a little mention of that, not the actual deed), ‘cause it's just six months til Snowmer! Full transcript available at https://www.juliarios.com/donalds-snow-fight/

7 JAN 2022 · Hey! It's a new year! And we are starting it off on a super downer note with a movie about a dog dying… Uh. Sorry? But possibly our suffering is your joy, in which case, you're welcome! Full show notes and transcript available at https://www.juliarios.com/la-guerre/

12 DEC 2021 · Eugenia Triantafyllou joins us again from Greece to talk about Greek television and a very specific episode of Storybook International: The Forbidden Door! Full show notes at https://www.juliarios.com/the-forbidden-door-with-eugenia-triantafyllou/