<description>My favourite book about the internet is by the Canadian author Douglas Coupland. In his 2014 book, Kitten Clone: Inside Alcatel-Lucent, Coupland asks, “Where did the sense of invention go—the sense of futurity—the sense that by working in tech, you were somehow building a better tomorrow, a smarter tomorrow, a more democratic tomorrow?"

Colette Shade begins her book, Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was), in a period in which it was generally felt that by working in tech, you were somehow building a better tomorrow, a smarter tomorrow, and a more democratic tomorrow. (Plus ça change!)

In Y2K, Colette asks, “What was the Y2K Era and why are we still living in its shadow?”

Y2K’s essays—on subjects as varied as blobby furniture and see-through consumer electronics; VOGUE magazine and disordered eating; and McMansions, Hummers and Starbucks—explore this question.

We talk:

3:33 : "I want to write a book. What should I write about?" - Colette
4:04: Why 1998 was the best year of Colette's life
5:18: On being a kid in the '90s (Pokémon, riding your bike, watching TV)
6:00: The Dot-com Bubble in the 1990s
6:35: Netscape mentioned
6:55: "There was no understanding that [the internet] was a place where you could make a lot of money." - Colette
8:00: Colette's uncle got rich when his company was bought by Nokia
10:29: This meant that Colette went to college debt-free, without student loans
10:58: It's hard to write nonfiction about current events because you have to stop when it's time to publish, and current events keep happening. But Y2K feels timely, nonetheless.
13:27: The 90s/2000s purity culture is now repackaged as trad culture/retvrn culture
14:40: Colette wrote about taking a sex-positive sex ed class that contrasts from the typical way Americans learn sex ed; and, as Colette argues, played into the culture war now happening online and in real life
17:38: Colette says that the culture war is a proxy war
19:38: "The Christian right has a great enemy. It's gays! It's all those slutty women!" - Colette
20:25: This contrasts with her parents' worldview as secular liberals
22:12 "The people who want to ban books... that feels accessible to them, whereas gaining control of their economic conditions does not." - Colette
22:48: "Your body. My choice."
24:44: Donald Trump wants to make Canada the 51st state (wtf??)
25:41: 25% tariff
26:35 McMansions and Hummers as symbols of the post-9/11, pre-2008 bubble
27:40 "Americans don't always have the stomach" to think critically about their history - Colette
28:23: Colette on Greg Grandin's Pulitzer Prize-winning book The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America (2019)
29:35: Colette paraphrases Grandin's argument on the cause of the American Revolution, which gave America "a mandate for endless expansion" (sound familiar?)
33:15: Colette compares American expansion to the PlayStation game Katamari Damacy
35:04: America First
36:12: Cyberspace as a frontier
36:34: Early internet users saw themselves as Cyber Cowboys and settlers in "a place where they could be free," says Colette
37:55: Property ownership and the American Dream
39:00: The 2008 subprime mortgage crisis marked "a real break in American history," says Colette
40:45: The information superhighway
40:55: Olivia Rodrigo asks first dates whether they like Elon Musk
41:21: "The years start coming and they don't stop coming." - Smash Mouth
42:17: What advice would Colette give her teenage self?

Buy Y2K: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/y2k-colette-shade
Colette's website: http://www.coletteshade.com/

My website: https://www.annasoper.ca/

Music: 

The Sound of dial-up Internet by wtermini on Pixabay
Spirit Blossom by RomanBelov on Pixabay
Fighter [No Vocals] - punk rock by 22941069 on Pixabay
......

Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.</description>

My favourite book about the internet is by the Ca…

My favourite book about the internet is by the Canadian author Douglas Coupland. In his 2014 book, Kitten Clone: Inside Alcatel-Lucent, Coupland asks, “Where did the sense of invention go—the sense of futurity—the sense that by working in tech, you were somehow building a better tomorrow, a smarter tomorrow, a more democratic tomorrow?"

Colette Shade begins her book, Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was), in a period in which it was generally felt that by working in tech, you were somehow building a better tomorrow, a smarter tomorrow, and a more democratic tomorrow. (Plus ça change!)

In Y2K, Colette asks, “What was the Y2K Era and why are we still living in its shadow?”

Y2K’s essays—on subjects as varied as blobby furniture and see-through consumer electronics; VOGUE magazine and disordered eating; and McMansions, Hummers and Starbucks—explore this question.

We talk:

3:33 : "I want to write a book. What should I write about?" - Colette
4:04: Why 1998 was the best year of Colette's life
5:18: On being a kid in the '90s (Pokémon, riding your bike, watching TV)
6:00: The Dot-com Bubble in the 1990s
6:35: Netscape mentioned
6:55: "There was no understanding that [the internet] was a place where you could make a lot of money." - Colette
8:00: Colette's uncle got rich when his company was bought by Nokia
10:29: This meant that Colette went to college debt-free, without student loans
10:58: It's hard to write nonfiction about current events because you have to stop when it's time to publish, and current events keep happening. But Y2K feels timely, nonetheless.
13:27: The 90s/2000s purity culture is now repackaged as trad culture/retvrn culture
14:40: Colette wrote about taking a sex-positive sex ed class that contrasts from the typical way Americans learn sex ed; and, as Colette argues, played into the culture war now happening online and in real life
17:38: Colette says that the culture war is a proxy war
19:38: "The Christian right has a great enemy. It's gays! It's all those slutty women!" - Colette
20:25: This contrasts with her parents' worldview as secular liberals
22:12 "The people who want to ban books... that feels accessible to them, whereas gaining control of their economic conditions does not." - Colette
22:48: "Your body. My choice."
24:44: Donald Trump wants to make Canada the 51st state (wtf??)
25:41: 25% tariff
26:35 McMansions and Hummers as symbols of the post-9/11, pre-2008 bubble
27:40 "Americans don't always have the stomach" to think critically about their history - Colette
28:23: Colette on Greg Grandin's Pulitzer Prize-winning book The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America (2019)
29:35: Colette paraphrases Grandin's argument on the cause of the American Revolution, which gave America "a mandate for endless expansion" (sound familiar?)
33:15: Colette compares American expansion to the PlayStation game Katamari Damacy
35:04: America First
36:12: Cyberspace as a frontier
36:34: Early internet users saw themselves as Cyber Cowboys and settlers in "a place where they could be free," says Colette
37:55: Property ownership and the American Dream
39:00: The 2008 subprime mortgage crisis marked "a real break in American history," says Colette
40:45: The information superhighway
40:55: Olivia Rodrigo asks first dates whether they like Elon Musk
41:21: "The years start coming and they don't stop coming." - Smash Mouth
42:17: What advice would Colette give her teenage self?

Buy Y2K: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/y2k-colette-shade
Colette's website: http://www.coletteshade.com/

My website: https://www.annasoper.ca/

Music: 

The Sound of dial-up Internet by wtermini on Pixabay
Spirit Blossom by RomanBelov on Pixabay
Fighter [No Vocals] - punk rock by 22941069 on Pixabay
......

Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.

This is history: Colette Shade on Y2K

<description>Party like it's 1999... in 2025!

How did TEEN PEOPLE magazine usher in the new millennium? Join me as I leaf through the December 1999/January 2000 issue of TEEN PEOPLE.

................

Find me on Twitter and Instagram at TeenPeoplePod
And online at www.annasoper.ca

Music: Scottish Folk Song -Auld Lang Syne by Trygve Larsen on Pixabay

................

Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.</description>

Party like it's 1999... in 2025!

How did TEEN PE…

Party like it's 1999... in 2025!

How did TEEN PEOPLE magazine usher in the new millennium? Join me as I leaf through the December 1999/January 2000 issue of TEEN PEOPLE.

................

Find me on Twitter and Instagram at TeenPeoplePod
And online at www.annasoper.ca

Music: Scottish Folk Song -Auld Lang Syne by Trygve Larsen on Pixabay

................

Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.

How TEEN PEOPLE magazine celebrated the year 2000

<description>Teen People is inspired by my collection of TEEN PEOPLE magazines. Published between 1998 and 2006, TEEN PEOPLE featured real teens in every magazine. Two decades on, I track down TEEN PEOPLE's real teens, and speak with authors delving into the late '90s and early 2000s. Join us!

Last year, I interviewed Sarah Ditum, whose book, 'Toxic: Women, Fame and the Tabloid 2000s' explores noughties pop culture through a scathing reexamination of the lives of nine female celebrities; including Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Amy Winehouse.

This summer, I interviewed Lisa Whittington-Hill. Her 2023 book, 'Girls, Interrupted: How Pop Culture is Failing Women' (Véhicule Press) is a frank and personal essay collection that challenges longstanding media portrayals of famous women. A fierce defender of Courtney Love, Lisa also celebrates Winona Ryder and Demi Moore; writing about gender bias in celebrity memoir coverage, problematic portrayals of middle-aged women and the sexist pressure on female pop stars to constantly reinvent themselves.

Podcast notes:

Buy 'Girls, Interrupted' in ebook or paperback formats: vehiculepress.com/shop/girls-inter…hittington-hill/
Find it at your local library: https://search.worldcat.org/title/1385447726

Check out my interview with Sarah Ditum: 
Part I https://soundcloud.com/teenpeoplepod/sarah-ditum-toxic
Part II https://soundcloud.com/teenpeoplepod/sarah-ditum-toxic-teen-people

Find me on Twitter and Instagram at TeenPeoplePod
And online at www.annasoper.ca

Music and sounds:

The Sound of dial-up Internet by wtermini on Pixabay
Spirit Blossom by RomanBelov on Pixabay
Lost Love Letters by @foglake

................

Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.</description>

Teen People is inspired by my collection of TEEN …

Teen People is inspired by my collection of TEEN PEOPLE magazines. Published between 1998 and 2006, TEEN PEOPLE featured real teens in every magazine. Two decades on, I track down TEEN PEOPLE's real teens, and speak with authors delving into the late '90s and early 2000s. Join us!

Last year, I interviewed Sarah Ditum, whose book, 'Toxic: Women, Fame and the Tabloid 2000s' explores noughties pop culture through a scathing reexamination of the lives of nine female celebrities; including Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Amy Winehouse.

This summer, I interviewed Lisa Whittington-Hill. Her 2023 book, 'Girls, Interrupted: How Pop Culture is Failing Women' (Véhicule Press) is a frank and personal essay collection that challenges longstanding media portrayals of famous women. A fierce defender of Courtney Love, Lisa also celebrates Winona Ryder and Demi Moore; writing about gender bias in celebrity memoir coverage, problematic portrayals of middle-aged women and the sexist pressure on female pop stars to constantly reinvent themselves.

Podcast notes:

Buy 'Girls, Interrupted' in ebook or paperback formats: vehiculepress.com/shop/girls-inter…hittington-hill/
Find it at your local library: https://search.worldcat.org/title/1385447726

Check out my interview with Sarah Ditum: 
Part I https://soundcloud.com/teenpeoplepod/sarah-ditum-toxic
Part II https://soundcloud.com/teenpeoplepod/sarah-ditum-toxic-teen-people

Find me on Twitter and Instagram at TeenPeoplePod
And online at www.annasoper.ca

Music and sounds:

The Sound of dial-up Internet by wtermini on Pixabay
Spirit Blossom by RomanBelov on Pixabay
Lost Love Letters by @foglake

................

Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.

Girls, Interrupted: Lisa Whittington-Hill on Winona Ryder, Courtney Love, and Amy Winehouse

<description>Alonso Duralde joins me to talk about his new book, 'Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film'. Published in May 2024, 'Hollywood Pride' presents a history of film from the dawn of cinema to the "pansy craze" of the 1930s and the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s, all the way up to today. 

Illustrated with more than 175 colour and black-and-white images, 'Hollywood Pride' points to the bright future of LGBTQ+ representation in cinema, by revealing the story of the community's inclusion and erasure, its visibility and invisibility, and its triumphs and tragedies.

................

Time stamps:

4:00 I ask Alonso about the formative media that inspired his career in journalism

8:42 "Tell me about how your career has developed..."

9:00 Alonso has worked as a film festival programmer

11:00 Alonso tells me about his other books, including books on Christmas movies

11:19 I ask Alonso about his work with Turner Classic Movies (TCM)

14:52 Queer representation in film, especially in the 1990s (as in 'Mrs. Doubtfire'; 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', etc.)

17:41 "What's valuable about a book like this is that it's a reminder that [inclusion] didn't all just happen... they could take it all away real quick..."

18:47 Rock Hudson, Anthony Perkins and Tab Hunter's happy ending

20:38 Alonso on closeted famous Hollywood stars

21:27 Claudette Colbert and Marlene Dietrich ride an amusement park slide at a birthday party for Carole Lombard, as you do

22:00 The end of Pre-Code American cinema

24:08 Home media as a "Godsend" for access to LBGTQ+ films

27:14 'Brokeback Mountain' and the mid-2000s

32:42 Same-sex marriage in the US and Canada

37:00 Metrosexual culture in the 2000s: "guyliner", guys kissing, etc.

39:20 Reality TV and LGBTQ+ representation

41:06 Alonso tells me about interviewing Heath Ledger for The Advocate on a junket at the Toronto International Film Festival

45:14 "'Brokeback Mountain' is hardly Jane Austen, but it is [about] people living in a society that's being rather proscriptive about who you are allowed to love and not allowed..."

46:30 I put Alonso on the spot and ask him about his favourite film in 'Hollywood Pride'

48:50 "What advice would you give your teenage self today?"

................

Podcast notes:

Thanks to Running Press for sending me a copy of Alonso's book! Buy it here: https://www.runningpress.com/titles/alonso-duralde/hollywood-pride/9780762485895/

Check out my interview with TCM host Dave Karger: https://soundcloud.com/teenpeoplepod/davekarger

Find me on Twitter and Instagram at TeenPeoplePod
And online at www.annasoper.ca

Music and sounds:

The Sound of dial-up Internet by wtermini on Pixabay
Spirit Blossom by RomanBelov on Pixabay

................

Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.</description>

Alonso Duralde joins me to talk about his new boo…

Alonso Duralde joins me to talk about his new book, 'Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film'. Published in May 2024, 'Hollywood Pride' presents a history of film from the dawn of cinema to the "pansy craze" of the 1930s and the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s, all the way up to today. 

Illustrated with more than 175 colour and black-and-white images, 'Hollywood Pride' points to the bright future of LGBTQ+ representation in cinema, by revealing the story of the community's inclusion and erasure, its visibility and invisibility, and its triumphs and tragedies.

................

Time stamps:

4:00 I ask Alonso about the formative media that inspired his career in journalism

8:42 "Tell me about how your career has developed..."

9:00 Alonso has worked as a film festival programmer

11:00 Alonso tells me about his other books, including books on Christmas movies

11:19 I ask Alonso about his work with Turner Classic Movies (TCM)

14:52 Queer representation in film, especially in the 1990s (as in 'Mrs. Doubtfire'; 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', etc.)

17:41 "What's valuable about a book like this is that it's a reminder that [inclusion] didn't all just happen... they could take it all away real quick..."

18:47 Rock Hudson, Anthony Perkins and Tab Hunter's happy ending

20:38 Alonso on closeted famous Hollywood stars

21:27 Claudette Colbert and Marlene Dietrich ride an amusement park slide at a birthday party for Carole Lombard, as you do

22:00 The end of Pre-Code American cinema

24:08 Home media as a "Godsend" for access to LBGTQ+ films

27:14 'Brokeback Mountain' and the mid-2000s

32:42 Same-sex marriage in the US and Canada

37:00 Metrosexual culture in the 2000s: "guyliner", guys kissing, etc.

39:20 Reality TV and LGBTQ+ representation

41:06 Alonso tells me about interviewing Heath Ledger for The Advocate on a junket at the Toronto International Film Festival

45:14 "'Brokeback Mountain' is hardly Jane Austen, but it is [about] people living in a society that's being rather proscriptive about who you are allowed to love and not allowed..."

46:30 I put Alonso on the spot and ask him about his favourite film in 'Hollywood Pride'

48:50 "What advice would you give your teenage self today?"

................

Podcast notes:

Thanks to Running Press for sending me a copy of Alonso's book! Buy it here: https://www.runningpress.com/titles/alonso-duralde/hollywood-pride/9780762485895/

Check out my interview with TCM host Dave Karger: https://soundcloud.com/teenpeoplepod/davekarger

Find me on Twitter and Instagram at TeenPeoplePod
And online at www.annasoper.ca

Music and sounds:

The Sound of dial-up Internet by wtermini on Pixabay
Spirit Blossom by RomanBelov on Pixabay

................

Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.

Film critic, author and podcaster Alonso Duralde on his book, HOLLYWOOD PRIDE

<description>The Columbine massacre of April 20, 1999, was the deadliest mass shooting at a K-12 school in US history, until it was surpassed by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012, and, later, the Uvalde school shooting in May 2022. It was the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in US history, until the Parkland high school shooting in February 2018. 

Ten of the twelve students killed at Columbine were in the school library, where the two perpetrators also ended their own lives. Twenty-one additional people were injured by gunshots, and gunfire was also exchanged with the police. Another three people were injured trying to escape. 

In their coverage of Columbine, TEEN PEOPLE magazine described earlier examples of mass shootings in the US. (Columbine was the fifth deadly school shooting in the previous two years.) They wrote, “This kind of thing seems to be happening more and more—and in the quiet little places where you’d least expect it: Pearl, Mississippi; Springfield, Oregon; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Paducah, Kentucky; and Conyers, Georgia."

TEEN PEOPLE quoted a psychologist who had worked with mass shooting survivors. He said this incident would “put to rest the notion of being immune to this... Maybe that’s a good thing,” he said, “because now we can get down to answers.”

In this episode of Teen People, I read excerpts of survivors' stories from the August 1999 issue of TEEN PEOPLE.

Podcast notes:

Find my interview with TEEN PEOPLE Trendspotter Padraic Maroney, who spoke with me about Columbine's after-effects: https://soundcloud.com/teenpeoplepod/padraic

Credits:

"A school under siege" by Tod Olson and John DiConsiglio, TEEN PEOPLE, August 1999.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre.

President Clinton's Remarks Regarding Columbine HS Shooting (1999) courtesy; William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.</description>

The Columbine massacre of April 20, 1999, was the…

The Columbine massacre of April 20, 1999, was the deadliest mass shooting at a K-12 school in US history, until it was surpassed by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012, and, later, the Uvalde school shooting in May 2022. It was the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in US history, until the Parkland high school shooting in February 2018. 

Ten of the twelve students killed at Columbine were in the school library, where the two perpetrators also ended their own lives. Twenty-one additional people were injured by gunshots, and gunfire was also exchanged with the police. Another three people were injured trying to escape. 

In their coverage of Columbine, TEEN PEOPLE magazine described earlier examples of mass shootings in the US. (Columbine was the fifth deadly school shooting in the previous two years.) They wrote, “This kind of thing seems to be happening more and more—and in the quiet little places where you’d least expect it: Pearl, Mississippi; Springfield, Oregon; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Paducah, Kentucky; and Conyers, Georgia."

TEEN PEOPLE quoted a psychologist who had worked with mass shooting survivors. He said this incident would “put to rest the notion of being immune to this... Maybe that’s a good thing,” he said, “because now we can get down to answers.”

In this episode of Teen People, I read excerpts of survivors' stories from the August 1999 issue of TEEN PEOPLE.

Podcast notes:

Find my interview with TEEN PEOPLE Trendspotter Padraic Maroney, who spoke with me about Columbine's after-effects: https://soundcloud.com/teenpeoplepod/padraic

Credits:

"A school under siege" by Tod Olson and John DiConsiglio, TEEN PEOPLE, August 1999.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbine_High_School_massacre.

President Clinton's Remarks Regarding Columbine HS Shooting (1999) courtesy; William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

Teen People is recorded in Kingston/Katarokwi, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat.

How TEEN PEOPLE magazine covered Columbine in 1999

Meeting people from Teen People magazine. Where are they now?

Teen People

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