In Retrospect Podcast: A Look Back At Our Cultural History

 Here's the deus ex machina when it comes to a retrospective look at a cultural event that happened during your life. You will most certainly think differently about it today than you did when it happened.

For example, disco music in the 1970s. I still love the music, but the platform shoes, and the patterned shirt featuring geometric shapes tucked into high-waisted pants with a wide belt. 

What was I thinking?

So a retrospective look at recent cultural events is a superb idea for a podcast. There is already a terrific podcast with a similar concept called One Year.  The podcast is about the people and struggles that changed America—one year at a time. In each episode, host Josh Levin explores a story you may have forgotten, or one you’ve never heard of before. What were the moments that transformed politics, culture, science, religion, and more? And how does the nation’s past shape our present? Right now, the podcast is covering the year 1955.

So I was excited when I heard that a new podcast called In Retrospect was coming out. 

 Each week on In Retrospect, hosts Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett revisit a pop culture moment from the 80s and 90s that shaped them, to try to understand what it taught them about the world and a woman’s place in it. 

Here's the podcast's marketing pitch, and it's a good one, full of humor and snark instead of bloviation.

 "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?)"

 The guest lineup on the podcast includes actor Pamela Anderson, Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic Salamishah Tillet, journalist and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll (gee, I wonder what she'll talk about), media studies professor at the University of Michigan Susan J. Douglas, and New York Times culture editor Maya Salam.

 Co-host Susie Banikarim has run newsrooms at Vice, Gizmodo Media Group and The Daily Beast. She directed the 2020 documentary, “Enemies of the People: Trump and the Political Press.” She began her journalism career at ABC News, where she was a producer for Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos, and went on to help launch Katie Couric’s talk show. Prior to that, she was a producer on “Wife Swap.”

Jessica Bennett is known for her work focusing on gender issues and culture. She was the first-ever gender editor of The New York Times, where she is now a contributing editor, and is the author of two bestselling books, “Feminist Fight Club: A Survival Manual for a Sexist Workplace” and “This Is 18: Girls’ Lives Through Girls’ Eyes.” 

The podcast has a strong strategy for success because its first episode created a windstorm of controversy, repressed memories, moral relativism, gaslighting, and Hollywood at its sleaziest.

In a nutshell, the first episode was about the marriage of Luke and Laura on the soap opera General Hospital in 1981. The co-hosts explain that the wedding episodes actually had more viewers than the real wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana later that year. 

I was there, and although I wasn't a soap opera fan, I knew about what was happening on General Hospital. You could not go to a party or family outing and not overhear discussions of Luke and Laura. 

Now, here's the gut punch. Bankirum and Bennett then explain that when Luke was first brought onto the show as a minor, temporary character, he raped Laura at his nightclub.

What in the serious F***k? I didn't remember that. 

I don't want to give away what happened from there, but the episode just bristles with plot twists, secretive cabals by GH producers, and a head-scratching sense that people in the 1980s were way too accepting of sexual assault. The co-hosts go on to explore the awakening of the American psyche about the issue of sexual assault, explaining that date rape was a recently uncovered issue that had been neglected.

You can listen to that episode here.

After that first episode, I was hooked. I waited for the second episode and when it came out it was...about the two co-hosts.

My first thought was: "This is like leading in the Indy 500 race and then pulling over to pick up a snack." This was a mistake. Big time.

The sad part is I had nobody to mansplain this to.

So I listened to the episode. My apologies to Bankirum and Bennett. The episode was funny, informative, and charming. First, these two women are wildly talented. For men, I'd equate them to Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. Second, the co-hosts have a strong Womance. They get each other, and that connection translates into the frictionless feel of the podcast and the excellence of their narrative. 

On the podcasting mechanics side of the ledger, the show has a nice, bouncy, 80s-vibe intro music and the show uses music clips as a smooth segue. The sound production values are solid, the archival clips they play sound crisp, and the show's logo shows cleverness.

Their next episode just coming out now is about Pamela Anderson and her iconic, one-piece red swimsuit on TV's Baywatch.

Check out In Retrospect. New episodes are released on Friday. I guarantee that if you were around when the cultural event they cover is autopsied, you'll say two things. First, "I never knew that," and second, "what was I thinking?"