Sometimes your favorite show will break your heart, and not in a good way. The X-Files' 11th season began with an episode that left me disgusted. So much so that I have never revisited what had been my favorite show for over 20 years. Immediately after the episode aired in 2018 I wrote a blog post detailing what had turned me off the show. Does the blog post hold up? Will revisiting it lead me to feel more comfortable dipping my toe back into the X-Phile life? Join me on this week's episode to find the answers. The truth is out there but also here. As in...in this episode.

TW/CW: Mentions of rape, lack of consent, forced impregnation.

Special Segment: Coming Soon. The 2022 book The Trees by Percival Everett is being adapted into a series and I'm very excited about the casting news!

Link to Deadline article

The Entertainment Weekly article mentioned in the reading of the blog post has been taken down (iiiinteresting) but is referenced here.

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

Yeah, whatever, Zack and Kelly. MY heart ships Lisa and Zack --and I'm not alone! This week we talk about the mysteriously disappearing relation between Zack Morris and Lisa Turtle on Saved By The Bell, how racism came between them and viewers, and why Screech is as much trash as Zack.

Link to Clarissa C's video "It Sucks Being The Token Black Girl"

Link to Funny Or Die's video The Time Zack Morris Stabbed Screech In The Back To Hook Up With Lisa

Link to Diversity in Education article.

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com

Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

If you love karaoke, you have your go-to songs. This week on Ok Real Quick your host talks about her karaoke favs and the ones she'd love to have the confidence to take on in public. What are your "must sings" at karaoke? And what songs do you only sing in the privacy of your shower but would love to have the confidence to take on in front of people?

This week's Special Segment is the Chisme Chorner where we talk about the YouTube Channel MARKIE, run by Callum Markie. You can find the videos referenced here and here, and this is the link to the Encephalitis International fundraiser that he and his friends are running.

This week's episode was edited by Jacqueline J Basse.

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

As the 1998 movie The Truman Show becomes ever more pertinent to our reality TV and social media obsessed minds, your host has fallen deep into a rabbit hole about the movie, and sees some parallels to modern times' family vlogger channels. Join us this week for an exploration of the theory of Christof as Truman's controlling father figure. Yes, there is ranting involved.

Here's the link to the Wikipedia entry for The Truman Show.

Link to Jessica Maddox's article about the financial protections recently put into place for FamTube kids can be found here.

Tiffany Ferguson's excellent video discussing Shari Franke's book is linked here, and you can support both her work and Shari Franke's book by clicking here to purchase it using Tiffany's affiliate link.

Link to Cinema Therapy's "Therapist Reacts To The Truman Show".

The article from The Guardian can be found here.

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

A lesbian character in a 19th century novel? Mon dieu! If, like me, you've only ever read the abridged version of Alexandre Dumas's classic French historical fiction epic, you'll be surprised by what awaits in the unabridged version. Join Ok Real Quick as we dive into the textual evidence of Eugenie Danglar's romantic love for Louise d'Armilly.

This week's Special Segment is "From My To Be Read Pile", where we talk about the book "The Black Count" by Tom Reiss.

Heather Rose Jones's The Rise of Gay Paris can be found through this link.

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

"Best friend isn't a person, Danny. It's a tier." That phrase (from The Mindy Project) has lived in my head rent-free for over ten years. But...can you actually have more than one best friend? Join us for an exploration of all things besties on this week's episode of Ok Real Quick Pod!

This week's Special Segment is The Chisme Chorner where we discuss this gem from the "Wedding Shaming" subreddit.

Refinery29 NOT Refinery21 article *facepalm*

The social brain hypothesis and its implications for social evolution

Calling Dunbar’s Numbers

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

In 1993, the third season of MTV's The Real World brought into the lives of millions of people the unforgettable Pedro Zamora. This week we celebrate his life and honor his legacy, as we take a look into what made Pedro so special, and the lasting impact he made in the education and advocacy for HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention, and treatment. The fight is not over, and it's up to us to carry his torch.

To watch Matt Baume's incredibly informative and touching video How Pedro Zamora Used TV To Fight AIDS, click here.

This week's Special Feature is "On My To Be Read Pile" in which we talk about the Queer Liberation Library and the book The Viral Underclass. To support the QLL's fundraiser, click here.

Resources for those living with HIV/AIDS are available here.

Additional information sources for this week's episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Zamora

https://www.cdc.gov/hiv-data/nhss/hiv-diagnoses-deaths-and-prevalence-2025.html

https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/fact-sheet

https://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/mohammed-bilal/

https://www.clintonlibrary.gov/research/hivaids-topic-guide

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pedro-zamoras-torch_b_5700865

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7903022/#:~:text=Median%20survival%20time%20following%20AIDS%20onset%20increased,months.%20Trends%20in%20improved%20survival%20were%20diagnosis%2Dspecific.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/medical-journeys/hiv/106053

https://www.radicaldeathstudies.com/blog/2019/12/28/pedro-zamora-from-mtvs-real-world-radical-death-activism-by-justin-cook

https://glaad.org/whereweareontv23/representation-of-characters-living-with-hiv-and-aids/

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-39490507

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_boatlift

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

What progress, if any, has been made in bisexual representation on TV? We talk about Lindsay from Queer As Folk, and touch on characters like Willow (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), David Rose (Schitt's Creek), Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn Nine Nine) and more.

Click here to listen to the Liberty Diner Dish interview with Queer As Folk writer Del Shores, and here to check out It's A Fandom Thing Pod's episodes, where you'll find a ton of Queer As Folk content.

This week's Special Feature is Playing With Lists! Check out the musical companion to this week's episode here!

And here are the posts mentioned in this week's episode:

https://medium.com/@lasarafirefoxallen/bisexual-is-queer-too-727d95937242

https://www.librarywithoutdust.com/television/what-about-the-b-word-bisexual-erasure-from-the-l-word-to-orange-is-the-new-black

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0