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Make Me A Nerd with Mandy Kaplan

Make Me A Nerd with Mandy Kaplan

By: TruStory FM
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About this listen

 Hey folks. Mandy Kaplan here. I’d like to share a bit about my intentions and mission for MMAN if you’ll indulge me. You will? Huzzah!

Look, I am a lot of things. I’m a writer, actress, mother, and lover of musicals and cats, but NOT Cats, The Musical. Give me a little bit of credit, would ya? So...throughout my life, I’ve been surrounded (and intrigued) by all things nerd. A sister who plays D&D, a Star Wars-obsessed husband, friends who love anime, comic books, video games, and...well, you get the picture. Somehow, I have always held it all at arm's length. Not to get too deep, but maybe I never thought I was smart enough to follow it. Or maybe I have control issues and have never been able to embrace fantastical things like dragons and time travel. Until now!

So, with an open mind and heart, I am ready to join this massive (and beautifully inclusive) club and GEEK THE #%$ OUT! It’s time for all my wonderfully strange friends to baptize me into NERD-DOM. Please join me on this journey. Who knows? Maybe you’ll discover or remember a side of yourself along the way. Or at least make fun of me as I try!© TruStory FM Art Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Masters of The Universe with Krissy Lenz and Nathan Blackwell

    Masters of The Universe with Krissy Lenz and Nathan Blackwell
    Oct 20 2025
    What happens when you take the most toyetic franchise of the 1980s, hand it to the kings of schlock at Cannon Films, and tell them to make the next Star Wars? You get Masters of the Universe—a movie so gloriously confused that it can’t decide if it’s fantasy, sci-fi, or just an over-extended toy commercial. Mandy Kaplan is joined by returning guest Krissy Lenz and first-time guest Nathan Blackwell to revisit Dolph Lundgren’s He-Man, Frank Langella’s unexpectedly Shakespearean Skeletor, and Courtney Cox’s denim-skirted grief arc.Krissy admits she was more of a She-Ra kid than a He-Man fan, Nathan reveals how his early nerd DNA was written by toy catalogues and VHS rentals, and Mandy discovers that her new haircut may have made her look more Eternia than she ever bargained for. Together, they marvel at Billy Barty’s sweaty “space gnome” Gwildor, dissect the bizarre mashup of swords and laser guns, and debate whether Dolph Lundgren’s dubbed dialogue or Evil-Lyn’s parenting-by-imitation scam is the bigger cinematic crime.And of course, Frank Langella steals the show as Skeletor—chewing scenery, rewriting dialogue, and turning what should’ve been a paycheck gig into one of the greatest villain performances of the decade. It’s camp, it’s chaos, it’s nostalgia, and it’s a reminder that sometimes the best way to watch a movie is with tacos, two beers, and friends who know how to laugh at laser-pew-pews projected from a rainbow mist.Links & Notes
    • Masters of the Universe (1987) on IMDb
    • Krissy & Nathan’s Most Excellent 80s Movies Podcast
    • Gank That Drank: A Supernatural Drinking Game Podcast
    • Squishy Studios – Nathan Blackwell’s films

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    57 mins
  • Bluey with Kelly Vrooman

    Bluey with Kelly Vrooman
    Oct 13 2025
    Look, I need to tell you something about a children's television program featuring animated dogs, and I need you to stay with me here because this is going to sound absolutely bananas. There exists—right now, in this timeline, on this increasingly nightmare-inducing planet—a show called Bluey that has achieved what can only be described as "weaponized wholesomeness," and somehow, somehow, it's making grown adults weep into their throw pillows while their children ask them why they're crying about a cartoon dog going camping.This week, Mandy sits down with actress, writer, and content creator Kelly Vrooman—a woman whose professional credentials include talking to a chicken puppet on morning television, which is either the most or least qualified you can be to discuss children's media, I genuinely cannot tell—to explore why this Australian import has become a global phenomenon. Kelly, who has actual human children (her own, she specifies, which is a concerning clarification but we'll let it slide), walks Mandy through three episodes of this seven-minute existential comfort food. They watch "Magic Xylophone" (teaching sharing through possibly-real magic and parental commitment to the bit), "Camping" (featuring Jean-Luc, a French dog who GHOSTS Bluey without saying goodbye and makes you feel feelings you didn't consent to about animated dogs), and an episode about dad desperately trying to watch sports while his daughter stress-cleans her pretend house using beer koozies as babies.And here's where it gets weird. Because Bluey isn't just good—it's disturbingly, almost suspiciously good. Created by one man, Joe Brum, who writes every single episode himself (which should be a red flag for quality but somehow isn't), the show manages to be both an accurate documentary of parenting's soul-crushing exhaustion AND a joyful celebration of childhood imagination. It's animated "on the ones"—meaning twice as many frames as normal animation, which costs twice as much money—and the child voice actors are kept completely anonymous to protect them from fame, which, AMERICA, ARE YOU LISTENING? Kelly reveals the show has actually made her a better parent, not because it sets impossible standards, but because it reminds adults that play doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be present. Even Joe Brum responded to complaints about unrealistic parenting by essentially saying, "They're dogs. Dogs love to play. Calm down."But what makes Bluey genuinely fascinating is how it operates on multiple levels without condescending to anyone. Kids get silly games and talking dogs. Parents get jokes about hangovers and wanting to watch the game. Everyone gets emotional moments that hit like a truck carrying feelings. The show depicts single parents, same-sex parents, and families of all configurations without ever stopping to collect applause for being inclusive—it just is inclusive while telling stories about magic xylophones and camping trips. Mandy describes it as "being coated in caramel that is sugar-free and cannot make you gain weight," which is either perfect or evidence that Bluey has broken her brain. In a world that feels increasingly designed to make us miserable, Bluey offers consistent, high-quality comfort—not escapism, but a reminder that goodness and creativity and family connection still exist, even when everything else is on fire.The conversation takes delightful detours (Kelly admits to crushing on the animated dog dad, they debate whether Jean-Luc is a dick for leaving, they're briefly joined by Kelly's three-year-old who wants to talk about monster trucks), but ultimately lands on something important: this is a show where the main characters are all female and nobody cares because they're just kids having adventures. It's medicinal. It's necessary. And if you don't feel moved by it, well, Kelly insists you might not have a soul—which Mandy clarifies is just her being a dick and not the official position of TruStory FM, though they both stand by the sentiment. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go question why a podcast about cartoon dogs has made me feel more hopeful about humanity than any news broadcast in the last five years.Links & NotesMandy Kaplan on Instagram (@mandy_kaplan_klavins)Join Make Me A Nerd for Bonus ContentKelly Vrooman on social media: @KellyVrooms (Instagram/TikTok)Kelly Vrooman's YouTube: Kelly VroomanBluey on YouTube---Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website to learn more.
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    45 mins
  • Twilight with Ben Raffle

    Twilight with Ben Raffle
    Oct 6 2025
    This week on Make Me a Nerd, Mandy Kaplan asks the big, baffling question: how does a grown man in his forties, with a child, a career, and a functioning brain, become obsessed with Twilight? Enter Ben Raffle—software executive by day, nerd savant by night, and unapologetic devotee of sparkly vampires. What follows is a gloriously chaotic conversation about Stephanie Meyer’s cultural juggernaut, the film that launched a thousand “Team Edward vs. Team Jacob” T-shirts, and the angsty blue-filtered fever dream that made Forks, Washington, a tourist destination.Mandy and Ben cover it all: Robert Pattinson’s “did he just poop his pants?” acting choices, Kristen Stewart’s mayonnaise-adjacent performance as Bella, and why Jasper—yes, Jasper!—is the true hero of the saga. They dissect why teenage girls everywhere believed they could “fix” the bad boy who wants to murder them, how Catherine Hardwicke’s low-budget direction gave the film its signature mood, and why vampire baseball is somehow the franchise’s high point. Along the way, they veer into bison make-outs in Port Angeles, Grease 2 supremacy, and the existential question of whether anyone, anywhere, would actually choose Forks as a vacation spot.It’s silly, it’s biting, it’s surprisingly affectionate—and by the end, you may find yourself agreeing with Ben that Twilight is the Sour Patch Kids of cinema: nutritionally worthless, wildly addictive, and impossible not to binge.
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    57 mins
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