Millennials and Political Identity: Beyond Red vs. Blue

Support #Millennial!⁠⁠⁠ Visit Patreon.com/millennial to get exclusive bonus episodes, live stream access, and more! Visit our merch store: ⁠⁠https://shop.millennialshow.com⁠⁠ Follow the show in your favorite podcast app and leave us a review! The midterms are here, and we’re asking the big question: how are we all voting, and have we done it yet? We break down what's on our ballots, and have some fun talking about the craziest campaign ads we've seen this season. Then it’s your turn. Listener feedback takes us across the map: We hear from listeners in Wisconsin, Ohio, Colorado, Texas, California, Georgia, and Alabama to name just a few of the states we covered this week. Then Confessionals bring the heat. Europe has a message for America, one listener flew across the world to vote in Israel’s election, a former Republican explains why they now vote blue, and a Venezuelan-born PhD student in Miami reflects on feeling like “the weird one” in their own community. Recs this week: Laura recommends Mio, Pam is into the Finch app, and Eric shares BallotReady for getting prepped before you vote. And in this week's installment of After Dark: Some people heard there was a loneliness epidemic and said, "I could be lonelier!" We talk about why some millennials don't exactly have an open door policy for every friend who's in town for a concert. We also dig into the challenges and dynamics of maintaining friendships between parents and their childfree friends. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support #Millennial!⁠⁠⁠ Visit Patreon.com/millennial to get exclusive bonus episodes, live stream access, and more! Visit our merch store: ⁠⁠https://shop.millennialshow.com⁠⁠ Follow the show in your favorite podcast app and leave us a review! Red or blue? Turns out that’s not the whole story. This week, the three of us took Pew Research’s new political typology quiz, and we're talking about what our results say about us and whether we agree with them. We also get into what it feels like to vote for a party you’re ambivalent about, and whether your side makes room for dissent. Even the most progressive group in the study is only lukewarm on the Democratic Party. The loudest voices in politics are also a small slice of the public. About 38% of adults fall into the four highly ideological, highly partisan groups. So does the internet make us look more divided than we really are? And have we retreated into our own bubbles? We close with recs. Laura’s recommending Naboso activation sensory insoles, Pam’s pick is The Great British Bake Off, and Eric’s is Control and Control Resonant. And in this week's installment of After Dark, come be petty with us! We're getting into our petty grudges that we may or may not have let go of yet. 👀 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support #Millennial!⁠⁠⁠ Visit Patreon.com/millennial to get exclusive bonus episodes, live stream access, and more! Visit our merch store: ⁠⁠https://shop.millennialshow.com⁠⁠ Follow the show in your favorite podcast app and leave us a review! Apple Podcast Paid Subscribers: Claim 1 FREE month of the #Millennial OTP Patreon tier: https://www.patreon.com/millennial/redeem/0EFB4 It’s spooky season, and we’re kicking things off with a WTF Halloween news roundup. From misdemeanors for trick or treating teenagers to some classic Florida man encounters, this is a fun, easy episode to help give you a little break from thinking about this upcoming election cluster. Laura’s rec this week is Carrie on Amazon Prime, and Eric recommends Midnight Mass on Netflix. Plus, don’t forget our upcoming Election Confessionalpalooza! Send your confessions to millennialshow.com/confessional. After Dark is coming up for Patrons and Apple Podcasts subscribers, and the friendship series returns. We’re talking about our earliest childhood memories, how our parents met, and learning previously unknown factoids about each of us! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support #Millennial!⁠⁠⁠ Visit Patreon.com/millennial to get exclusive bonus episodes, live stream access, and more! Visit our merch store: ⁠⁠https://shop.millennialshow.com⁠⁠ Follow the show in your favorite podcast app and leave us a review! ATTENTION APPLE PODCAST SUBSCRIBERS: We're aware of an issue that is preventing y'all from receiving ad free Mega #Millennial episodes. While we are actively troubleshooting this with Apple, they're not exactly moving quickly. You are welcome to request a refund from Apple Podcasts directly We're also inviting you to check out our Patreon instead with your first month on us! This week we're pop culture focused, but that doesn't mean we're not gonna side-eye the latest BS from dear leader: POTUS extended an invitation to Iran to level a couple of west coast cities, while blocking another media outlet from access to the press pool. Very American of you, sir! Then it's on to the main event: our Pop Culture News Roundup. Merriam-Webster just added nearly 1,400 new entries, including looksmaxxing, cuffing season, and trash panda, plus parasocial, superfood, uncanny valley, shapewear, and meme coin. We have thoughts on which of these we're proud of and which make us want to lie down. The Emmys are also leaving broadcast TV for the first time since 1949, landing on Prime Video in a six-year deal. And we have thoughts on method acting to share, based on actor Jeremy Strong's recent sorry-not-sorry statement in the face of being recognized as a huge d-bag. And we've got something for the Hunger Games fans too! A new trailer for 'Sunrise on the Reaping' is here with a closer look at the arena perils, the chariot stampede, and Silka and her axe. We do a quick Haymitch refresher, and give the studio props for its viral marketing placement around our nation's capitol. For this week's recs, Laura says make your early voting plan, and Pam recommends The Uncool by Cameron Crowe. And in this week's installment of After Dark: Pam and Laura have a bone (or several) to pick with some people we're choosing to put on blast behind the paywall. Come be petty with us. You know you want to!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support #Millennial!⁠⁠⁠ Visit Patreon.com/millennial to get exclusive bonus episodes, live stream access, and more! Visit our merch store: ⁠⁠https://shop.millennialshow.com⁠⁠ Follow the show in your favorite podcast app and leave us a review! Spooky season is officially here, and we're kicking it off the only way we know how: by getting way too nostalgic. Are we horror movie people, or do we just like the vibes? From there we get into our fall and Halloween traditions, including favorite scary movie rewatches, creepy and true crime podcasts on repeat, and one very unspooky but very real love of jogging outdoors in the crisp air. And there's no such thing as Spooky Szn without reminiscing about our favorite costumes over the years! Our PALs over at Patreon.com/millennial round out the discussion by sharing their favorite Halloween nostalgia (and we received a confessional admitting to conception during one particular horror movie classic!). We wrap with recs. Laura is listening to the Spooked podcast, Pam recommends O'Keefe's Working Hands to keep your hands moisturized this fall, and Eric is watching Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026) and Cold Storage (2026). Don't miss this week's installment of After Dark, where we get personal about what creeps us out, and if we've ever heard anything go bump in the night! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support #Millennial!⁠⁠⁠ Visit Patreon.com/millennial to get exclusive bonus episodes, live stream access, and more! Visit our merch store: ⁠⁠https://shop.millennialshow.com⁠⁠ Follow the show in your favorite podcast app and leave us a review! This week we're joined by Becky, a youth services librarian to talk about everything from why a library card actually matters (for you and the library itself) to how kids' reading habits and attention spans have shifted in recent years — a nice follow-up to our literacy crisis episode with Shelby. We also get into the real, nuanced stuff: what happens when a parent challenges a book, the tension between a parent's right to guide their own kid's reading and restricting access for everyone else, and the messy debate over publishers revising older books versus preserving the original text. With Banned Books Week kicking off October 4th, Becky breaks down what it's actually for and what she wants parents, educators, and community members to understand about the role libraries play in kids' lives. As always, we've got the best recs lined up! Laura's deep in Dungeon Crawler Carl, Pam's got a new pair of Anker Soundcore earbuds, and Becky's recommending the Fable app for your next book club meeting. And in this week's installment of After Dark... Is it a faux pas to bring iced coffee to a job interview? We reflect on our own interviewing experiences and honestly find ourselves realizing we think bringing iced coffee to an interview is a weird move. Are we getting old? That might explain why Gen Z seems to think millennials just need to retire already... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support #Millennial!⁠⁠⁠ Visit Patreon.com/millennial to get exclusive bonus episodes, live stream access, and more! Visit our merch store: ⁠⁠https://shop.millennialshow.com⁠⁠ Follow the show in your favorite podcast app and leave us a review! This week we're doing a little housekeeping and a deep dive into our inbox for your feedback! First, we're in the Dumpster Fire Corner fact-checking whether food recalls are actually getting worse (spoiler: sort of, and it's messier than it looks), the US looking to import previously-rejected beef, a legal loophole being used against wild horses, and why the internet is losing it over Beyoncé sampling Selena. Then we spend time sharing listener responses to our recent episodes on the literacy crisis, America's 250th birthday, Looksmaxxing, and more. We're also rounding up notes from past episodes, including perfect attendance flashbacks, brutal middle school grading standards, an Andor love letter that might make you start the show immediately, and a "stooping it" porch culture recommendation that sounds like the best kind of third space. As always, we've got our weekly recs (Laura's got a book pick with Verity by Colleen Hoover, Pam's recommending The Very Definition of Love by Sophia Benoit), and After Dark is waiting for Patrons and Apple Podcast subscribers with a fun continuation of our friendship deep-dive series. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support #Millennial!⁠⁠⁠ Visit Patreon.com/millennial to get exclusive bonus episodes, live stream access, and more! Visit our merch store: ⁠⁠https://shop.millennialshow.com⁠⁠ Follow the show in your favorite podcast app and leave us a review! Hollywood promised us metal shop, mystery lunch ladies who slip you pie on your birthday, and a school-wide obsession with the football team's win-loss record. Real high school delivered... none of that, mostly. This week Pam, Eric, and Laura dig into the gap between movie-and-TV high school and the real thing, from the sports that never mattered outside their own tiny orbit to the theater kids who really were exactly as intense as every teen movie promised. Pam mourns a cafeteria she never had, prom stories get recounted, and we end up plugging how excited we are for the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King's 'Carrie' on Amazon Prime. Recs this week: Laura says don't skimp on the sunscreen, Pam's got a Native dry shampoo powder recommendation, and Eric points you toward the "10 Things I Hate About You" episode of But Make It Scary. Stick around for After Dark, where the high school stories get too juicy for the main feed — think teenage confessions and a very memorable European school trip. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support #Millennial!⁠⁠⁠ Visit Patreon.com/millennial to get exclusive bonus episodes, live stream access, and more! Visit our merch store: ⁠⁠https://shop.millennialshow.com⁠⁠ Follow the show in your favorite podcast app and leave us a review! This week we're joined by Shelby, a middle school teacher who's here to tell us exactly how worried we should be about America's literacy crisis — spoiler, it's bad, but also more complicated than "kids these days." We get into what's actually happening in classrooms right now: sixth graders who need to be taught basic sentence structure, reading stamina that's been eroded by screens, and the widening gap between students who are thriving and students who are falling behind. Shelby gets real about what's driving all this — curriculum shifts, tech in the classroom, socioeconomic factors — and shares why she made the call to limit device use in her own classroom this year. If you're a millennial parent who grew up on Hooked on Phonics and whole language, this one's for you, but honestly it matters whether you have kids or not. This week's recommendations: Donate to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (Pam), 826 National (Shelby), and Overtone (Laura). And in this week's installment of After Dark: Who remembers the olds fear mongering about how we'd never get jobs with our tattoos, piercings, and funny colored hair? Jokes on them! We did find careers (but now we realize how draining they are). Join us for a discussion on the things we thought would impact us more when we were younger. We also have some predictions for which current trends we think will bite us in the ass later! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support #Millennial!⁠⁠⁠ Visit Patreon.com/millennial to get exclusive bonus episodes, live stream access, and more! Visit our merch store: ⁠⁠https://shop.millennialshow.com⁠⁠ Follow the show in your favorite podcast app and leave us a review! This week, we're hitting close to home by exploring the similarities and differences in cell phone usage across generations. Have the Boomers forgotten they used to yell at us for being on our phones too much? Because they are in their phones. We compare the commonality of falling for the algorithm across generations, and explore the ways in which over reliance on mobile devices hinders us. We're also looking at cell phone usage amongst Gen Alpha: at least half of U.S. states have now passed media literacy laws aimed at helping kids spot AI-generated fakes, and several of those states are pairing the requirement with new limits on phone use in schools. This week's recommendations: Laura's got you covered with the FDA's safety alerts tracker so you can keep an eye on the next recall before it hits your kitchen, Eric's deep in a Two Dots addiction, and Pam is recommending 'The Emotion Thesaurus' for anyone who wants to write feelings better than "sad" and "happy." And in this week's installment of After Dark: We love it when state laws change for the better (and tbh, more with the times). We're recounting some of our youthful indiscretions behind the paywall this week... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices