That's Pretty Dark: An '80s & '90s Nostalgia Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Birthday curses, chem lab terror, and rejection sensitive dysphoria… Oh lawd, it's about to get pretty dark! Join these ‘90s kids for another round of Midnight Society mayhem as they get groovy with ‘60s slang, walk the graffitied hallways of their childhood, and even uncover some reported high school hauntings from this side of the TV screen. This episode will have you spiraling into the 30 year pop culture cycle, seeing not only its stamp on the present and our (increasingly obsolete) place within it, but also its implications for the future…

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Mentioned in this episode:

BetterHelp Online Therapy

Let our sponsor BetterHelp connect you to a therapist who can support you - all from the comfort of your own home. Visit https://betterhelp.com/prettydark and enjoy a special discount on your first month. If you have any questions about the brand relating to how the therapists are licensed, their privacy policy, or therapist compensation model, check out this FAQ: https://www.betterhelp.com/your-questions-answered/

Identity crises, lactose intolerance, and the Hare Krishna… Oh lawd, it's about to get pretty dark! Join these ‘90s kids in the back-to-school spirit for a good old fashioned mingling of history lesson and book report where they’ll investigate a well-meaning, if dark phenomenon that swept the country in the ‘80s – milk carton kids – via a controversial young adult novel born from it by Caroline B. Cooney. They’ll bust some myths, pay homage to the devastating realities, and get to the haunting core of the novel… what if the face staring back at you from the breakfast table was your own?

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Give to our Patreon for extra content: patreon.com/tpdpodcast

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @thatsprettydarkpodcast

Mentioned in this episode:

BetterHelp Online Therapy

Let our sponsor BetterHelp connect you to a therapist who can support you - all from the comfort of your own home. Visit https://betterhelp.com/prettydark and enjoy a special discount on your first month. If you have any questions about the brand relating to how the therapists are licensed, their privacy policy, or therapist compensation model, check out this FAQ: https://www.betterhelp.com/your-questions-answered/

Quiet On Set, flashy circus ads, and the dark side of animation history… Oh lawd, it's about to get pretty dark! Join these ‘90s kids as they confront some harsh realities and trace the origins of one of their most requested Movie Nights back through the late 19th and early 20th centuries via its creator – the dream-obsessed (and problematic) Winsor McKay – and his plight as one of the founding fathers of modern animation. Follow along as they plot the path of Nemo as a character through his print and theatrical lifetime, all the way to the mid ‘70s when the first inkling of this pretty dark title was “awakened.”

Email us at [email protected]

Give to our Patreon for extra content: patreon.com/tpdpodcast

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @thatsprettydarkpodcast

Mentioned in this episode:

BetterHelp Online Therapy

Let our sponsor BetterHelp connect you to a therapist who can support you - all from the comfort of your own home. Visit https://betterhelp.com/prettydark and enjoy a special discount on your first month. If you have any questions about the brand relating to how the therapists are licensed, their privacy policy, or therapist compensation model, check out this FAQ: https://www.betterhelp.com/your-questions-answered/

Mummified curses, the infamous Big Toe bandit, and lessons in Egyptology… Oh lawd, it's about to get pretty dark! Join these ‘90s kids as they seek to “return the slab” by unpacking some of Courage’s most talked-about and seemingly sinister segments. They’ll dive into ancient omens and confounding cases that brought Egyptian history to the Western world, look back at old Hollywood legends that led to the modern heist trope, and probably tell you far more than you ever expected to know about plagues of locusts. Email us at [email protected]

Give to our Patreon for extra content: patreon.com/tpdpodcast

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @thatsprettydarkpodcast

Mentioned in this episode:

BetterHelp Online Therapy

Let our sponsor BetterHelp connect you to a therapist who can support you - all from the comfort of your own home. Visit https://betterhelp.com/prettydark and enjoy a special discount on your first month. If you have any questions about the brand relating to how the therapists are licensed, their privacy policy, or therapist compensation model, check out this FAQ: https://www.betterhelp.com/your-questions-answered/

Grabby shadows, psychic hotline hi-jinx, and emotional alien encounters… Oh lawd, it's about to get pretty dark! Join these ‘90s kids in the land of Nowhere once again as they traipse through extra-terrestrial lore surrounding tractor beams and alien abDUCKtions, enjoy television psychic tropes, and explore the anti-hero elements present in so many Courage the Cowardly Dog antagonists. These episodes showcase the show’s uncanny ability to layer in lessons, from commentary on how isolating greed can be, to the often necessary reminder that it’s okay to ask for help. Email us at [email protected]

Give to our Patreon for extra content: patreon.com/tpdpodcast

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @thatsprettydarkpodcast

Mentioned in this episode:

BetterHelp Online Therapy

Let our sponsor BetterHelp connect you to a therapist who can support you - all from the comfort of your own home. Visit https://betterhelp.com/prettydark and enjoy a special discount on your first month. If you have any questions about the brand relating to how the therapists are licensed, their privacy policy, or therapist compensation model, check out this FAQ: https://www.betterhelp.com/your-questions-answered/

Narcissistic ne’er-do-wells, supposed Southern expressions, and makeshift northern lights… Oh lawd, it's about to get pretty dark! Join these ‘90s kids for the final leg of their Balto-thon where they trek through voice-cast trivia and unpack every ounce of jaw-dropping peril, malignant personality disorders, and innocuous innuendo that made Balto one of the foremost millennial favorites they’ve explored to date.

Have a frightfully nostalgic memory to share or a pretty dark topic you'd like us to cover? Email us at [email protected]

Give to our Patreon for extra content: patreon.com/tpdpodcast

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @thatsprettydarkpodcast

Mentioned in this episode:

BetterHelp Online Therapy

Let our sponsor BetterHelp connect you to a therapist who can support you - all from the comfort of your own home. Visit https://betterhelp.com/prettydark and enjoy a special discount on your first month. If you have any questions about the brand relating to how the therapists are licensed, their privacy policy, or therapist compensation model, check out this FAQ: https://www.betterhelp.com/your-questions-answered/

Spielberg surreality, old-Hollywood caricatures, and blatantly honest lies… Oh lawd, it's about to get pretty dark! Come along as these ‘90s kids get within one degree of Kevin Bacon by hanging with two of the legendary writers behind Balto (and a dozen other mind-blowing millennial favorites). Hear their origin stories, explore their shiniest memories of Balto’s inception, and listen in as they recount their involvement with THAT scene… y’know…only some of the darkest words we’ve ever had to utter: "kiddie coffins."

Have a frightfully nostalgic memory to share or a pretty dark topic you'd like us to cover? Email us at [email protected]

Give to our Patreon for extra content: patreon.com/tpdpodcast

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @thatsprettydarkpodcast

Mentioned in this episode:

BetterHelp Online Therapy

Let our sponsor BetterHelp connect you to a therapist who can support you - all from the comfort of your own home. Visit https://betterhelp.com/prettydark and enjoy a special discount on your first month. If you have any questions about the brand relating to how the therapists are licensed, their privacy policy, or therapist compensation model, check out this FAQ: https://www.betterhelp.com/your-questions-answered/

Questionable motives, an early American media frenzy, and Governor Bone… Oh lawd, it's about to get pretty dark! Returning from an unexpected hiatus, these ‘90s kids are eager to get back in your ears recounting the true-life tale that served as inspiration behind Balto, the heroic 1925 Serum Run of Nome. Prepare your warmest blankets as they begin to sled (ha!) light on how the Hollywood version came to be, and regale you with every bit of outbreak, heartbreak, triumph, and controversy contained in the Great Race of Mercy.

Have a frightfully nostalgic memory to share or a pretty dark topic you'd like us to cover? Email us at [email protected]

Give to our Patreon for extra content: patreon.com/tpdpodcast

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @thatsprettydarkpodcast

Mentioned in this episode:

BetterHelp Online Therapy

Let our sponsor BetterHelp connect you to a therapist who can support you - all from the comfort of your own home. Visit https://betterhelp.com/prettydark and enjoy a special discount on your first month. If you have any questions about the brand relating to how the therapists are licensed, their privacy policy, or therapist compensation model, check out this FAQ: https://www.betterhelp.com/your-questions-answered/

Hiatus explanations, a holiday recap, and some watch recommendations… Oh lawd, it's about to get pretty dark as the sun sets on 2023! As has become tradition, join your 90’s kid Ghost Hosts around the proverbial campfire to unpack where they’ve been this holiday season, discuss plans for 2024, and remind you how not-alone you are.

Have a frightfully nostalgic memory to share or a pretty dark topic you'd like us to cover? Email us at [email protected]

Give to our Patreon for extra content: patreon.com/tpdpodcast

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @thatsprettydarkpodcast

Mentioned in this episode:

BetterHelp Online Therapy

Let our sponsor BetterHelp connect you to a therapist who can support you - all from the comfort of your own home. Visit https://betterhelp.com/prettydark and enjoy a special discount on your first month. If you have any questions about the brand relating to how the therapists are licensed, their privacy policy, or therapist compensation model, check out this FAQ: https://www.betterhelp.com/your-questions-answered/

Haunting core memories, the limitations of primordial kool-aid, and that big Halloween dance in the sky… Oh lawd, it's about to get pretty dark! Reaching the finish line in this Halloween season, these ‘90s kids reminisce on the plot of Casper with all of its perfect '90s charm, lament the need for their own Up-And-At-‘Em machine, and, inevitably, get down and dirty with the heartbreakingly tenuous nature of mortality.

Have a frightfully nostalgic memory to share or a pretty dark topic you'd like us to cover? Email us at [email protected]

Give to our Patreon for extra content: patreon.com/tpdpodcast

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @thatsprettydarkpodcast

Mentioned in this episode:

BetterHelp Online Therapy

Let our sponsor BetterHelp connect you to a therapist who can support you - all from the comfort of your own home. Visit https://betterhelp.com/prettydark and enjoy a special discount on your first month. If you have any questions about the brand relating to how the therapists are licensed, their privacy policy, or therapist compensation model, check out this FAQ: https://www.betterhelp.com/your-questions-answered/