Material Girls

Well, well, well, if it isn’t our annual All Team Holiday Episode. The real ones know that these episodes are typically out of control. This year is no different (except we were all sober at the time of recording). Tune in for a timed check-in, followed by end-of-year trivia, 2025 Oops All Oops and some light chatter about Heated Rivalry. If you’d rather not jump right into the deep end, might we recommend a mini playlist of a...

To make sense of the recent resurgence in point-and-shoot cameras, we’re returning to French philosopher and cultural theorist Roland Barthes! We begin with a conversation about the major technological shifts that have occurred in photography between 1980 (when Barthes published Camera Lucida) and today. Hannah then leads us in a theory section all about "the Punctum." Together, she and Marcelle parse Barthes' understanding of what...

We begin this week's Material Concerns with stressing out Marcelle through vulgarity — and then swiftly turn the conversation over to a nice and long check in. of course, it wouldn't be a Material Concerns episode if we didn't do at least one other segment! We wrap up Part I with a Fixation Station that is maybe more of a Ok, Hear Me Out. Happy listening and join us for Part II on Patreon!

Part II features Consumer Retorts, Crea...

We always nerd out, but in this episode we're joined in our geek sesh by the incredibly charming, brilliant and funny Lindy West (she/her) and Meagan Hatcher-Mays (she/her) to discuss (drumroll!) The Lord of the Rings trilogy. As you may already know, Hannah and Marcelle share a love of JRR Tolkien's world and in this episode they finally get to discuss Peter Jackson's adaptation from the early aughts.

The episode begins with an...

Tune in for our off-week casual conversation! As always, Coach joins Hannah and Marcelle for this Material Concerns episode featuring a very long check-in (shocking!) and an Oops All Oops segment that also goes kind of long (oops!). Plus, if you like tangents, you'll love our chat about Zac Efron's performance of Bet On It in High School Musical 2. Part II of our episode includes Left on the Table (all about Lord of the Rings)...

In today's episode, we jumped right back on the Emerald City Express with third-time guest, Leena Norms (she/her). Leena joined us for our episode Wonka x Antisemitism and Censorship in January 2024 and then again in December 2024 for our episode Wicked x Paratexts. Now she's back to help us make sense of Wicked: For Good. Marcelle leads the episode beginning with a quick conversation about femslash, a subgenre of fan fiction which...

In this Material Concerns episode, we debrief Halloween and an Okay, Hear Me Out segment quickly gets into a conversation abut boundaries and control. If you want more, head to Patreon.com/ohwitchplease for Part II! It begins with a quick convo about Harry Potter (if you believe it!) before moving into Consumer Retorts and Make It Make Sense! Tune in to hear Coach get scolded for not voting before taking a nap.

And don't forget,...

Happy SWEET NOVEMBER! In this episode, we're talking about LOAD-BEARING MAN Keanu Reeves. What do we mean when we say load-bearing? You'll have to listen to the episode to find out! Tune in for a conversation about Reeves' extensive and varied catalogue of (at least) 76 films! You'll learn all about Marcelle's admiration for this celebrity whose star image is colored by the public's sense of his "goodness." We talk feminism, mascul...

We recorded this Material Concerns on Halloween and BOY DOES IT SHOW! Enjoy a chaotic convo about costumes, dragons and Game of Thrones. Let us know what you think about the new segment in the comments!!

Head to Patreon.com/ohwitchplease to listen to Part II! For as little as $54/year, you'll get ad-free episodes, bloopers, a backlog of content and part two of all Material Concerns episodes! Go to patreon.com/ohwitchpl...

We're throwing it back to the 1996 cult classic film The Craft just in time for Halloween! We begin with a conversation about Hannah and Marcelle's teenage witch phases (of course they both had them), before digging into the filmic landscape of the 90s. Hannah argues that The Craft's interest in girlhood and power was a catalyst that paved the way for pop culture to come, like Buffy and Charmed and Practical Magic. Hannah then draw...

Another Material Concerns, another long check in! Followed by Creature Report and Mailbag Sampler (Spreadsheet Sampler??).

~ This episode contains some spoilers about The X Files ~

Another Material Concerns episode — this time with a cold open! Because why not? In this episode, we begin with a check in, jump into Oops All Oops and end with a new segment — Patreon Party! It's a ball!

Sometimes an episode is such a longtime coming that the enthusiasm from our hosts is palpable! Such is the case with this episode about The Simpsons, a TV show that pervaded Marcelle's childhood due in part to...you guessed it... syndication! In this episode, Marcelle reminds the audience how television worked before streaming and the nature of syndication. Together, she and Hannah think through the influence of The Simpsons' first...

We check in for 20 minutes and for that, we're sorry! We follow our check-in with a quick Apocalypse Toolkit and then leave the rest of the segments (Creature Report, How the Sausage is Getting Made, and Voice Memo Dispatch) to Part II over on Patreon!

In this episode, we're talking about beloved computer game, The Sims, with special guest Ruth Ormiston. Ruth (they/them) is a book designer and cultural worker with an MA in English Literature from the University of Victoria (where they specialized in late-nineteenth-century children’s publishing) and a Master of Publishing from Simon Fraser University. And they're a fan of The Sims.

Another Material Concerns featuring Consumer Retorts and Oops All Oops! And some light panic from the team. We're fineeeeee!

Jordan Peele's Get Out is a masterpiece both firmly planted in the rich tradition of horror and at the forefront of the growing genre of new Black horror. As auditors of the zeitgeist, we simply had to talk about the splash it made in 2017 and the conversation around its legacy since. In this episode we consider what made the narrative so impactful and we take a closer look at its reception by white audiences and critics who were p...

This week on Material Concerns Hannah, Marcelle and Coach start with a sweet little check in, including Hannah's ideal way to start the day, a Pitt update from Marcelle, and some very exciting creative news from Coach. Then Coach leads a "Left on the Table" segment that turns into an impromptu Coach's Corner. And to finish off part one, the trio each gets a minute for their "Okay, Hear Me Out" segment, in which cases are made for: ...