The JV Club with Janet Varney

Come for the science, stay for the theatre! This week’s guest, author, actor, and game designer Kate Welch blows JV away with news about her BOARDING public high school and all of the delightful mischief those mostly-unsupervised teens got up to. Plus plenty of love for sci-fi, brewskis, and a VERY close look inside one of their mutual buddies.

Okay pals! Grab your megaphone, throw on your camo, and head to the nearest fast food drive-through for nerdy hijinx with the truly wonderful writer, performer and caregiver Beth Lisick (NYT bestselling author of the book Everybody Into the Pool; host of "The Electronic Lover" podcast). This ep brings you laughter and goofiness coupled by heartfelt conversation about JV’s mom and other dear folks grappling with dementia. It’s a very special convo!

What’s happening in this episode of The JV Club? Oh, just a couple of Korras hanging out together, talking about letting go of “the cool kids” and finding your RPG and “Pride and Prejudice” crew! It’s Jacqueline Grace Lopez (Korra in Nick All Star Brawl 2; General Hospital), and she’s kicking ass on and offscreen (with a little time to play in the Pony-verse thrown in for good measure).

It’s the other half of the fabulous Reading Glasses pod! Mallory and JV extol the virtues of hobbitry, sublime Providence, and the evergreen perfection of the werewolf-as-puberty motif. So howl your way with us from Massachusetts to (via Brooklyn & LA) the sleepy sweet town of Idyllwild… which might only be improved upon with a werewolf sighting or two.

Today's movie takes on the guise of a weird '80s teen comedy, then adds in some supernatural phenomena and some axes. So we consult THE JV CLUB's Janet Varney on the peculiarities of Lisa's high school experience, and then make up some Monster Mash-up movies of our own.What’s GoodAlonso - RO-TEL DipJanet - Mochi Muffins from Third Culture BakeryDrea - Chocolate-dipped TwinkiesITIDICThe Oscars Are Adding a New Category: Best Casting2023 Sundance Darling FANCY DANCE Finally Finds a HomeCrunchyroll Merges with Funimation…Now Funimation Digital Downloads Will DisappearStaff PicksAlonso - Perfect DaysJanet - HouseboundDrea - Players

Julian Burrell- producer and editor of the JV Club- has a quick update regarding this weeks' episode.

Max Fun Crossover Alert! It's the amazing Brea Grant from the Reading Glasses podcast! JV and Brea get deep into movies, books, punk and emo, with yes, a healthy helping of Fox Robin Hood to boot. So shave your head and grab your drumsticks... and let's goooooooo!

This week with the always wonderful Paul F. Tompkins: build a snow tunnel, sing a few piano tunes, or recite Edgar Allen Poe in the place where his macabre work truly shines, a brightly lit classroom. Boys of Summer continues!

Kerri Kenney-Silver (Wanderlust, The State) hunkers down on Janet’s floor to charm and delight with the classics: poorly-received cheerleader tryouts, inevitable class clownism, and accidentally forming a band that ended up touring with Neil Young.

Episode 21 of The JV Club finds Janet and guest Alison Brie (Community, Mad Men) spontaneously writing a movie pitch, discussing the bathroom-centric challenges of leotards, and even catching a few cooties with a fan-made cootie catcher. If you don’t know what that is, it’s not what it sounds like.

Finally, a conversation that covers two of the most seminal influences on contemporary culture: playwright George Bernard Shaw and the oft-overlooked screen gem Mannequin Two: On the Move. All this and more with Gillian Jacobs, who turned heads as a child with an impressive array of homemade Halloween costumes long before she graced Community’s collegiate hallways.

Ring in the New Year with a JV Club - Journos Crossover! This week, JV has a funny, informative and mind-boggling conversation with Brandon and Stephen about theories of what it means to be a conscious being. Seriously! We even asked scientists!

When should parents start letting their children pour their own cereal? Could an addiction to My Little Ponies be Kentucky Derby-related? Can anyone really BELONG to thunder? Another hard-hitting episode of The JV Club explores the the mind and memories of this week’s guest, the marvelous Maggie Lawson (Psych).

Seasons Greetings from JV and her Boy of Winter, Josh Hallmark (Studio Both/And)! With some real life-overlap between these two fairly newly-minted friends, get ready for a healthy dose of teen angst, LDS chitchat, secret hideout places, and yes, true crime quandaries.

It’s December, so cast your mind back into the aughts for the glorious era of Brad Pitt & his unbuttoned white shirt on the December cover of Vanity Fair magazine... as your gateway into this entertaining chat with Liza Treyger (the other half of the great That’s Messed Up pod). From the tough love of the high school theater teacher to a fabulous M.A.S.H. future, inspiration runs high!

Join JV and this week’s guest, Adrien Behn (Strangers Abroad pod) for a spirited convo covering glorious travel - both Adrien’s and the historic & competitive 1889 journeys of Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland around the world! Plus! Musicals, tacos, and a Gouda awakening!

This one goes out to all you Mr. Darcy lovers out there! But all, of course, are welcome to this delightful chat with comedian Jessica Sele (whose Weird Vibes album you should totally check out now) who also talks lighthouses, musical enthusiasm, and JV’s new favorite “Disneyland ride turns real” answers!

This episode was originally published in 2016It’s a classic JV Club train of thought that leaves the station at about 60 miles per hour, thanks to the bright light that is the mind and heart of one Kristen Bell (The Good Place), otherwise known as one of the world’s preeminent dog petting scientists. KB and JV cheerily talk failure, murder, and the incredible power of a good Sondheim refrain.

Settle in this week for gem of a human being, comedian, actor and writer Leah Rudick (check out her special Spiraling!), who brings stories of growing up in Cincinnati, where— and we can’t be any more clear on this— there is a perfectly average insect population. Plus! beheadings, tone deafness, and beaaaautiful beaded gowns.

This one goes out to all the really tall gals with big, beautiful feet! Get ready for a lively chat with comedy legend Judy Gold this week on The JV Club, where parents muddle their way through their kids’ sexuality, coffee ice cream reigns supreme (with augmentation!), and we can’t get enough of Barbara Eden in a certain iconic tv costume.

Grab your ballpark hot dog and gather up all your unnecessarily detailed historical baseball stats for this delightful chat with Sarah D. Bunting (Best Evidence), in which we head to New Jersey, jam to Top 40, dig into Mom’s meatloaf, and heaps more. In fact, JV and SDB gabbed so much, they didn’t even talk about this book Sarah co-wrote to guide you through every episode of “Beverly Hills, 90210!"

From a shared mutual love of the “Miss Chevious” detective novels to the perennial -- if scary -- appeal of an old diving suit, JV and this week’s Boy of Summer Jordan Morris (Jordan Jesse, Go!) cover a lot of ground in both the real and thoroughly made-up worlds of Earth, Earth 2, veiny comic book characters, and maybe the best name ever for a turn-of-the-century baseball team.(This episode was published in 2018)

This week we bring you the delightful Olivia Flood-Wylie (check out her comedy special Half & Half here!) and tales of Amsterdam, Los Angeles, the mean girls high school experience, and maybe the most some of us have ever talked or heard about the Tinkerbell movies!

It’s almost time to start assembling your facial tissue Christmas tree! Not sure what that means or where to begin? You’re in luck! This week’s amazing guest, Vicki Peterson of the LEGENDARY band The Bangles, is a seasoned expert. Plus! Find out what it takes to put together great music and great people from the tender teenage years all the way into adulthood-- with this brilliant artist!

Get ready to balance your high school budget with this week’s guest, Treasurer extraordinaire Kara Klenk, who also now happens to co-host the Law & Order: SVU podcast That’s Messed Up. This is the kind of rad project you could only hope for from someone whose entire family gets on board for a good crime docu-binge!

We’re elated to welcome the dynamic actor Alisha Wainwright, who tells of her Jamaican & Haitian roots, her teen years in the Sunshine State, wrapping our heads around dark matter, and her new podcast, the very cool When Science Finds a Way!

Quick! Get yourself to the best bathroom graffiti you can find and celebrate it with Caitlin Cook, who takes us from the streets of mid-city LA and some classically catty high school girls (not Caitlin!) to an off-Broadway theatre for her amazing one-woman musical. Plus! A healthy M.A.S.H. scoop of lion love!

Celebrate living in the moment– which in this case includes “moments” devoted to excessive cheek blush, dead teeth, and the raw sexual power of Night Court and Three’s Company– from one of the creators and stars of NBC’s Best Friends Forever, Jessica St. Clair. This episode also requires audience participation, via several non-rhetorical questions for the listener!

Heads-up! This is a very special episode of The JV Club! In which we welcome Max Fun’s own Tom Lum (Let’s Learn Everything!), who may or may not have listened to The JV Club as a teen himself and is now a guest on it talking about his teen years. Which may or may not move JV to tears. We bet you can guess on that one. So dig into your Eggs Benedict and let’s go!

It’s been a rough summer for the planet, friends! So take this opportunity to smile at delightful Boy of Summer Matt Apodaca (Get Played pod) and his SoCal class clownery. So get those double jumps and hot wings queued up for a summery good time!This show was edited with help from Daniel Schroeder

Hop into your time machine to hit the message boards in small-town Maine with this week’s divine Boy of Summer, Alex Steed (You Are Good podcast)! Journey with Alex for rides to the mall… and stay with him for the ecosystem of friendships therein!

This week brings you terrific Boy of Summer Eric Silver of Multitude, who brings tales of teen life in Jersey, including a couple of years of not-so-great football (and the coaches who really do seem hatched right out of an 80’s comedy), a couple of years of much-better Drama, and what it means when your mom dresses you and your twin alike... to prove how UN-identical you are!

We’re taking a week off of Boys of Summer to bring you producer, musician and creative maven Carolyn Kendrick! So grab your fiddle and a bowl o’ noodles for this chat about podcasting (You’re Wrong About and more!), how to sweet-talk yourself into any band, and more!

Can’t say enough good things about this week’s Boy of Summer, Carl Tart (Gossip Kings)! Sit in on this conversation about becoming a 12 year-old Caddy driver, the discovery of where “home” is and how that evolves, and for gods’ sake don’t forget your Bluebell Banana Pudding ice cream!!

Hope everybody’s having a fun-- if sizzling— summer! We’re delighted to have our pal Doug Benson (Doug Loves Movies) regale us with teen stories coming out of sunny San Diego. Plus! riding in elevators at The Oscars... in both real and M.A.S.H. life!

It’s JV’s delightful Truth & Justice co-host, Zaq Weaver! Bundle up and head to the edge of the lake for this chat about doodling, shooting hoops, tattooing, and any other words with two o’s that we’re not thinking of at the moment. Plus! Could Zaq’s M.A.S.H. be predicting a real-life resolution to a decades-old true crime case?

It’s the simply fantastic Max Mittleman as our latest Boy of Summer! If you’re an anime fan or a gamer, you will know his delightful tones as he and JV mosey through his teen years in the Los Angeles Valley, dodging bullies (heavy sigh) and crushing on a certain fantastic actress… whom he may or may not end up with in his M.A.S.H. future!

Get your art on, friends! Whatever form it takes! And while you’re at it, feast your ears on this episode with Boy of Summer Video Dave who talks crafting, family histories, music and way more, of course! So grab that mac and cheese and puppet up!

Grab your overnight bag, because we’re all sleeping at Shai’s! Join this week’s guest Shai Korman (Friday Night Movie) takes us from the streets of Montreal to a family house by the lake, along with some summer camp joy for good measure. Plus: a trip into the… Couplesretreataverse?

We’re gleaming the cube with comedian and delight Kyle Kinane, who talks Chicago teenagerness featuring wry remarks and maybe not-so-great punk band experiences (experiences great = band itself, maybe not so great?). Grab a gyro, and surf’s up!

It’s Julia Schifini from the Spirits podcast, upon which JV made a recent appearance! Find out about Julia’s high school passions, including some more JV Club Ellen Ripley and Wolverine love, musicals and dream roles, and a certain shark-adjacent island. Extra points for Julia’s teen pic actually BEING in a classroom!a

Spend this episode of The JV Club with the terrific graphic novelist and illustrator Melissa Capriglione (Basil and Oregano), whose journey from self-publishing to finding a wonderful partner in Dark Horse also parallels finding… other right kinds of partners, both in real life and in the M.A.S.H.verse (wink)!

What better way to celebrate a MaxFun Crossover than with one of the Maxiest, Funniest, Crossoveriest(?) people around, Mr. John Hodgman? It’s a smorgasbord of topics and delight in this special episode. This episode was originally published in 2021.

This week we’re elated to welcome the brilliant author and producer Kendra James (Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School) for a venture into the elite world of a world-famous college prep high school and all of the speed bumps and landmines that come along with it. So throw on your ice skates and get ready to ice-dance with an icon!

Time to leave that military base for the new digs of Prattville, Alabama! Hang out with the teen version of the marvelous Gennifer Hutchison (“Better Call Saul,” “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”) and follow her to the hills of San Francisco. Fall in love with writing! Mangez des crêpes! Sing in the rain!

Break that old cd in half and make yourself some killer homespun earrings with the fantastic Jeffrey Elizabeth Copeland (Quarandream!), who talks Georgia, The Big Apple, treasuring-but-maybe-also-questioning that daring teenage style phase some of us had, and much more! Including giant steampunk spiders!

Get up early, throw on your crew visor and hit the water with comedian, writer, and awesome human Alison Leiby (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), who talks fashion, cat rooms and much more, including what it’s been like to tour a one-person show about abortion in our zany world of today!

This week’s ep brings you longtime listener and friend of the show, teaching artist and activist Cait Mullan (they/them)! A San Francisco native, Cait shares their empathy, humor, and first-hand experiences of growing up in a famously liberal city… but nestled in a surprisingly non-liberal enclave... and all the hijinx which inevitably ensue! We love, love, love this ep and know you will, too!

It’s the other half of the fantastic Coming Out pod, Nicole Pacent! Nicole brings tales of Gomez and Mortitia’s love affair, Queen Ani DeFranco, and stretching wings in more narrow-minded places until you find your communities. Note this ep does include specifics about mental health and losing people we love (and hope it’s helpful for some of you processing your own losses).This episode was edited with help from Daniel Zafran.

Spend a little time with creator and CEO of Multitude, podcaster and writer Amanda McLoughlin, who talks artistic community, world-building, and great pottery throw-downs with JV in this delightful romp that might even take you all the way back to Cleopatra’s parade!