Tim Barnes chats writer Nathan Rabin about his early interest in politics and trivia, and how they influenced his career as a dissector of pop culture’s past, present, and future.

Nathan Rabin coined the phrase Manic Pixie Dream Girl, co-wrote the coffee table book of his childhood hero “Weird Al” Yankovic and has written for the A.V Club longer than anyone else, with a career stretching back two decades. He’s also written five books: The Big Rewind, My Year Of Flops, Weird Al: The Book, You Don’t Know Me But You Don’t Like Me (which was named a “Best Book of the Year” by both Slate and Rolling Stone, which gave the book a four star review), and, most recently, 7 Days In Ohio: Trump, the Gathering of the Juggalos and the Summer Everything Went Insane, which was just released in a hugely expanded version. Rabin was also a panelist on Movie Club With John Ridley, a show hosted by Oscar-winning 12 Years A Slave screenwriter. He’s sung onstage with They Might Be Giants, attended five Gathering of the Juggalos and thirty-something Phish shows in addition to appearing on podcasts with the likes of Marc Maron, Scott Aukerman, Harris Wittels and the Sklar Brothers. He is currently a columnist at The A.V Club, Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Backlot and Splitsider and is working on a book about the video game and movie Postal and Donald Trump. He lives in Decatur with his dog and baby and wife and is trying his damnedest to learn how to drive. He’s trying, man. He really is.

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CREDITS:

Host: Tim Barnes

Guest: Nathan Rabin

Theme Song: “You Are The Genre” by Freddie Nunez

Music Engineer: Adam Smith

Podcast Art: Madhuri Shukla