Dan & Manny put the 1988 Tim Burton classic 🪲🧃Beetlejuice to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! “[Beetlejuice] is a movie about a man who doesn't want to read and a woman who I believe is functionally illiterate.” -Dan Dissinger Buckle up Nostalgia Testers because this episode has it all! You'll hear tangents about Dan & Manny's childhood memor…

Dan & Manny go deep into the August Nostalgic News to see if it passes the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! August was insanely busy! The boys talk about the upcoming Broadway debut of Keanu Reeves & Alex Winter in Waiting For Godot, Gina Gershon's stories from the set of Cocktail, should we care about Quentin Tarantino's Toy Story opinions, who'…

Dan & Manny discuss whether the 1990s swing dance revival deserves the full Nostalgia Test Podcast treatment. They talk about various aspects of the swing era, its origins, the movies Swing Kids and Swingers, listening to swing dance revival bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Brian Setzer Orchestra, the cultural impact this …

Manny & Dan welcome Jordan Yaklin, head coach at Phoenix Performance Coaching teaches them about the relationship of health, fitness, and the gaming community. They talk about how gamers can reclaim their health and become the main characters of their own lives. Jordan shares his journey from aspiring high school strength coach to becoming an onlin…

Dan & Manny go deep into the July Nostalgic News to see if it passes the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! July was a very eventful month in the Nostalgia community. Dan & Manny start with sad news, the recent passing of beloved pop-culture icons Shannon Doherty, Richard Simmons, Bob Newhart, and Dr. Ruth. The guys panic about the hydrothermal exp…

Dan & Manny welcome back the director of The Orange Years & This is GWAR, Scott Barber, to talk about the Kickstarter for his new project Game Changers, a docu series about the videogames that changed everything! Scott talks about what he's been up to since the last time we had him on to discuss his documentary The Orange Years, he tells us about h…

Dan & Manny welcome back their longtime friend & Nostalgia Test Podcast Allstar Steve Herrera to put the 1996 Sublime self-titled album to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! This is an old fashion basement hangout. There's a ton of inside hometown jokes, references, & tangents, the guys reminisce about listening to Sublime, their favorite songs…

Dan & Manny recast the 1996 sci-fi action classic Independence Day for the Buzzn The Tower Podcast! This is the wildest ten minutes of podcasting, EVER! Recorded while Dan was eating lunch at Veggie Grill in Santa Monica and Manny was just getting off of work, this is an old school earbuds-for-microphones Nostalgia Test Podcast. Manny expresses som…

Dan & Manny are joined by Dr. J.L. Adolph , Ph.D. in English/African Diaspora Studies, to put the 1995 John Singleton classic Higher Learning to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! Content Warning This episode deals with discussions of sexual violence & rape, gun violence, & racial violence. On our 4-year podiversary, we're dropping a hybrid Nos…

Dan & Manny welcome artist Mike Reuter to put the 1999 sci-fi action classic 😎 The Matrix to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! Come take The Red Pill w/ The Nostalgia Test Podcast on this amazing episode. Dan & Manny start w/ a short interview of their guest, visual artist Mike Reuter. They ask him about his use of old VHS tapes to create his …

Dan & Manny put some recent Nostalgic News to the ultimates test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! So much is going on in the Nostalgia world. The boys talk about the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris and all the newly added sports, they give their immediate reactions to the trailers for Deadpool & Wolverine, Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Venom: The Last Dance, and Be…

Dan & Manny welcome Rose & Courtney from the Fiction Fixation podcast to put the 1993 action thriller classic 🦖Jurassic Park to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! OMG! This is one of those episodes that has twists & turns, tangents & hot takes, and a ton of Jeff Goldblum love! Courtney rips apart John Hammond aka Paleo Peepaw, Rose thinks that …

Dan & Manny are joined by toy designer & President of Design Edge Inc Matt Nuccio to discuss the inner workings of creating some of the most nostalgic toys from our childhood. Matt discusses taking Tickle Me Elmo from idea to reality, talks about his family's history in the toy business, how his company Design Edge Inc collaborates with first-time …

Dan & Manny welcome longtime friend & Nostalgia Test Podcast Allstar Steve Herrera to put the Worst Songs of the 90s 2011 Rolling Stone Readers Poll to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! Listen to the guys go on a nostalgia journey that breaks them done physically, mentally, & emotionally. Dan & Steve try to convince Manny that "What's Up" by 4…

Dan & Manny welcome longtime friend, and secret Nostalgia Test Podcast fan, Lee Kaplan to put the 1990 Tom Cruise classic Days of Thunder to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! Grab a drink and settle in for vintage Nostalgia Test Podcast tangents, breakdowns, and mayhem. The guys discuss how Days of Thunder is Top Gun on wheels, how this is in …

Dan & Manny welcome Emmy award winner, writer, & USC Alum, Eric Althoff to put the Jean-Claude Van Damme classic Street Fighter (1994) to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! This is an hour and a half of classic Nostalgia Test Podcast comedy, hot takes, & tangents. We try to figure out who Street Fighter is for, how no one sets out to make a bad…

Dan, Manny, & their longtime friend and Nostalgia Test Royalty, Billy D'Elia put the Road House 2024 Reboot to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST (NOW)! Strap in everyone, because this episode is doesn't pull any punches. Dan, Manny, & Billy are the FINAL TEST on the Road House reboot, and watch out because there are SPOILERS! They dive right in…

The Nostalgia Test Podcast recorded LIVE from the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference in Albuquerque, NM w/ USC colleagues Jen Sopchockchai Bankard & P.T. McNiff of the Long Take Review podcast. Shoutout to SWPACA, the tech guy who helped make this happen, and everyone that came out to support! Our presentation, "Between Two S…

An interview with the stars of Snack Shack, a new 90s-set coming of age movie. Lead actors Conor Sherry and Mika Abdalla join Dan for a Nostalgia Test Now episode about their nostalgia inspired movie Snack Shack, a 90s teen story centered around four friends at the public pool during the summer in Nebraska City. They discuss the 90s prep they did, …

Dan & Manny welcome back longtime friend & Nostalgia Test Podcast All-star Steve Herrera to put the 1994 comedy Airheads to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST! If you love rock music, hilarious one-liners, the 90s, & a sophisticated reimagining of Die Hard, well, Airheads is none of these things! Steve put it perfectly when he said, “[Airheads] c…

Dan & Manny welcome friend of the show Marc Jackson to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Green Day's 1994 classic Dookie and put it to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST! This episode is a literal lovefest for Dookie (okay, wow). The boys talk about the first time they all heard the album, share memories of watching the “Basket Case” video, the i…

This was an emergency Nostalgia Test episode! Dan & Manny had to weigh in on the 2024 Road House trailer as soon as it dropped and put it to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST (NOW)! The trailer for the 2024 Road House reboot just dropped on Thursday, January 25th, 2024, and calls went out immediately! Dan & Manny watched the trailer together, h…

Dan & Manny put the the sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest (1999) to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! The boys can't contain themselves in this episode. The jokes were flying, quotes from the movie, the 90s love will just pour out of your earbuds. So, put another load of laundry in, wash another round of dishes, or keep walking on the treadmill, beca…

Dan & Manny put the OG Toy Story (1995) to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! The episode goes DEEP into all things Toy Story. They talk about the A++ list of actors in the movie, why no one seems to see these toys walking around, driving in the street, or are ever suspect of them showing up randomly (like dropping through a sunroof), they remi…

Dan & Manny welcome back longtime friend & Nostalgia Test Podcast All-star Billy D’Elia to put the 1988 (possible) Christmas classic Die Hard to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST! We finally put to rest the long-debated question of whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or just a movie that happens on Christmas. This is a Nostalgia Test classic. …

Dan & Manny welcome back longtime friend Dave Kucich to put the 1992 sports-romantic comedy The Cutting Edge to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! What a great start to the Nostalgia Test holiday season. The boys watched The Cutting Edge together before recording in-person. They talk about everything, like is D.B. Sweeney good looking, is Moira…

Dan & Manny invite Lauren Malott back for more Spooky Season fun to put the 1996 horror classic Scream 😱 to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! We talk about the genius of Drew Barrymore's acting in the opening scene, yet how dumb her character is, how *69 would've changed this whole movie, what's up with Henry Winkler touching Neve Campbell's f…

Dan & Manny invite their longtime friend Steve Herrera back to celebrate 100 episodes of The Nostalgia Test Podcast by putting Cocktail 🍸 BACK to the the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! The boys go back to where it all began to see if this 80s Tom Cruise classic still holds up after 100 episodes of nostalgia madness. They talk about the importan…

Dan & Manny invite Drew from The Last Row podcast to put the 1989 sequel Ghostbusters 2 to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! This is a spooky season classic. Dan, Manny, and Drew go deep into all things pink slime, the real hero of this movie Ernie Hudson, how Vigo the Carpathian is the worse villain of all time, the creepy genius of Peter Mac…

Dan & Manny are joined by Prof. Josh Grant-Young, PhD candidate at the University of Guelph in Canada where he studies our past and contemporary conceptions (medical, political, and popular) of mental differences, using the genre of horror film to point both longstanding cultural anxieties and myths surrounding mental differences and new possibilit…

Dan & Manny are joined by Dr. Douglas C. MacLeod, Associate Professor of Communications at SUNY College at Cobleskill in New York to open up a deep conversation about all things comedy. They get into comedy history, some of the early television sitcoms, how the American art of stand-up comedy is growing in many other parts of the world, how Dr. Mac…

Dan & Manny invite Jen Sopchockchai Bankard & Greg Cass from The Long Take Review Substack & Podcast to put the 1981 adventure film Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! This is an old school deep-dive, tangent filled, super nerdy episode. They get into their favorite scenes, the Indiana Jones humor…

Dan & Manny put the 2023 Super Mario Bros. to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST (NOW!) The guys go Mario crazy. They talk about Mario’ missing butt, why an animated Mario movie works better than a the 1993 live action Mario movie, and where’s the Mega Man movie, the Metroid movie, Zelda movie, the… you get the idea. This is a jam packed, tangent…

Dan & Manny put MxPx’s 1996 album Life in General to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST! The guys have a lot of fun talking about the origins of the name MxPx, trying out their own emo/punk lyrics, comparing this album with Blink 182’s Take You Pants Off and Jacket, and trying to understand why emo/punk cover songs were so popular in the late 90s…

Dan & Manny are joined by Dr. Clarice Greco, professor at the Post-graduation Program in Communication at Paulista University (UNIP, São Paulo, Brazil). Clarice takes Dan & Manny on a deep-dive into what makes a television show or movie cult, she shares her recent research about cult TV, expanding the definition, and so much more. Dan & Manny could…

Dan & Manny hang out in person for the first time in almost three years to put Dan's childhood toys to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! This is a classic Nostalgia Test hang, it's loud, it's filled with sound problems, and Dan & Manny totally forgot they were recording an episode. They talk about Transformers, Micro Machines, GI Joes, Xpander…

Dan & Manny continue their Robert Palmer journey by putting an entire day of Robert Palmer to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! After listening to Robert Palmer's music for an entire day, Dan & Manny attempt to reassemble their sanity. They try to figure out what sort of music Robert Palmer plays, why anyone would listen to his music, what sor…

Dan & Manny are joined by Dr. Jen Sopchockchai Bankard, Associate Professor at USC & creator of the blog The Long Take. Jen takes Dan & Manny on a very nerdy journey in and out of the many Marvel franchises, and the ever-expanding Star Wars universe, she talks about her growing blog, fandom, her nerd coming-of-age, and so so much more. In fact, Man…

Dan, Manny, & their longtime friend and Nostalgia Test Royalty, Billy D'Elia, conclude the WWE ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! In the final part of this epic three-part series, the guys put an electrifying list of matches to the ultimate test, they compare matches from the Golden Era and Attitude Era, is the classic Ultimate Warrior vs Hulk Hoga…

Dan, Manny, & their longtime friend and Nostalgia Test Royalty, Billy D'Elia, continue the WWE ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! In the second part of this epic three-part series, the guys talk best hype people, ridiculous characters, call out a lot of the issues with the Golden Era, best pay-per-view events, greatest moves, DX, Repoman, justice f…

Dan & Manny welcome back Nostalgia Test Podcast Allstar & longtime friend Billy D'Elia to put their WWE memories to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! This is the first of an epic three-part series, so get ready, because they try to cover it all. In this first ep, they argue what the best wrestling era is, talk about wrestling superstars, and a…

WHAT'S UP 2023!!! Dan & Manny welcome the new year by answering your questions. This episode is so random, so tangent-filled, and so classic Nostalgia Test Podcast that you'll be begging for more. They talk WWE wrestling music and superstars, living in a movie or TV show, comparing the Back to the Future DeLorean to Bill and Ted's phonebooth, who t…

🎃HAPPY HALLOWEEN NOSTALGIA FAM!!! On this special Nostalgia Test Now episode, Dan & Manny welcome self-described Hocus Pocus expert Lauren Malott to put 🧹Hocus Pocus 2 to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST (NOW)! This is a classic Nostalgia Test Podcast episode filled with tangents, hot takes, everyone yelling over each other, and SPOILERS (BE W…

Dan & Manny put the 1993 cult classic 🧹Hocus Pocus to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! Manny has a really hard time trying to figure out if the movie is fun, if it's scary, why people love this movie, and creates a brand new drop, "He Casper-kissed her." Dan is confused by Sarah Jessica Parker's entire performance, is extremely tired from fig…

Dan & Manny see which of Robert Palmer's biggest hits, "Addicted to Love" or "Simply Irresistible," reign supreme in this totally 80s episode. Find out which one will pass the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! This episode has been a long time coming, but it was worth the wait because Manny FINALLY agreed to put Over the Top to the ULTIMATE TEST, …

Dan & Manny are joined by Ms. Tracy Jose, an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Stella Maris College, Chennai, India, to learn all about the impact that American culture had on the experiences of a post-liberalization India. This was such an unbelievable learning experience. Ms. Jose brought not just academic points to the pod, she…

In the first 📚Nostalgia 101 episode, Dan & Manny invite Georg Csarmann to do a deep dive into the complexities of nostalgia, how it works to create community, the ways we experience nostalgia through different pieces of media, and how the term was coined. It's time to go to school! Georg Csarmann Bio: Narratives and the contextualization of informa…

Dan & Manny get into it with The Adult Babies Podcast to put the 1991 classic 🏴‍☠️Hook to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! This episode is a beautiful collage of chaos, yelling, and insane laughter, meaning it's a classic Nostalgia Test Podcast experience. The guys dig deeply into 🏴‍☠️Hook and try to figure out if Neverland causes amnesia, al…

Dan & Manny put 🧑‍✈️Top Gun: Maverick to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST (NOW!) This episode is just a Tom Cruise lovefest from top to bottom. They talk about every minute of 🧑‍✈️Maverick so be warned, THERE ARE SPOILERS! But get with the program and see this movie, NOW! They talk about the 80s of it all, the homages to 🧑‍✈️Top Gun 1, how Tom…

Dan surprises Manny with a random assortment of useless 90s toys/knick-knacks/things-we-did-as-kids/etc., to put to the ultimate test--THE NOSTALGIA TEST! The random 90s list is: 📣The Yak Bak 😂Troll Dolls 🌊Water Talkies 📒Trapper Keeper 🚴Putting a Soda Can on the Back Wheel of Your Bike 🐇Lucky Rabbit Foot 🐾Furby 🐣Tamagotchi 💣Minesweeper They talk ab…