Episodes

Dave & Cody recap Shrinking Season 3, Episode 3 (“D-Day”), an episode built around uncertainty, vulnerability, and people realizing they’re not as ready as they thought. They talk through Jimmy’s complicated relationship with his dad, Brian and Charlie’s early delivery and adoption paperwork scare. They also dig into Sean’s awkward reunion with Marisol, Gabby working to rebuild trust with a former client, and why Liz continues to be both overwhelming and strangely essential. The emotional cent...

This week’s Be Kind Rewind is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind—a movie that somehow gets more devastating (and more beautiful) the older you get. Dave finally watches it start-to-finish and immediately regrets waiting 22 years… because this isn’t just a breakup movie. It’s a story about memory, identity, and the terrifying question underneath it all: if you could erase the pain, would you also erase the person who shaped you? We dig into: Why Jim Carrey’s restrained performance is the rea...

Pop Culture Pastor Watch-Alongs is back with Shrinking Season 3, Episode 2: “Happiness Mission” Dave & Cody dig into Paul’s health scare (and the surprisingly real-world UTI connection), Liz as the hilariously overqualified schedule-master, and Derek’s slow-motion struggle to stop coddling his grown son. But the emotional center lands on Gaby’s breaking point—and the tense, beautifully acted moment where her grief finally collides with Louis face-to-face. Along the way: awkward Jimmy/Sofi chemi...

It’s time for a Pop Culture Draft: Movie Soundtracks...and things get personal fast. Dave, Cody, & Jackson draft their Top 3 all-time favorites, then battle it out in two chaos rounds: 🎵 One Song Carry (one track doing all the work) 🎬 Better Than the Movie (when the soundtrack outlives the film) From Purple Rain dominance and Eddie Vedder roadtrip therapy to Muppet existentialism and Space Jam nostalgia, this draft turns into a full on memory lane set to music. Plus: bonus The Lobby questions...

Dave & Cody fire back up Watch-Alongs with Shrinking Season 3, Episode 1 — going scene-by-scene through an episode that’s equal parts hilarious banter and quiet dread. The guys zoom in on Dr. Paul’s rapidly progressing Parkinson’s (and why that opening needle drop hits so hard), geek out over Harrison Ford doing some of his best work in decades, and celebrate the arrival of Michael J. Fox as “Gerry”… right before the episode rips your heart out with that final reveal. Along the way: crow trauma,...

The Pop Culture Pastor Pop Culture Awards (PCPPCAs) are back — and Dave & Cody are handing out completely imaginary trophies for the very real highs, lows, and “why did this become a thing?” moments of 2025. From the Blockbuster Award for worst investment, to the Grandpa Award for the streaming service Dave still refuses to pay for, to Cody’s For the Love of Ray J chaos category, this special episode is basically a year-end pop culture recap disguised as an awards show. Plus: the Fred Rogers Awa...

This week, Pop Culture Pastor rewinds one of the most influential adventure films ever made. From face-melting finales to rolling boulders, fedora grabs, and John Williams’ iconic score, Dave and Cody break down why Raiders of the Lost Ark still works more than 40 years later. They explore peak Spielberg, peak Harrison Ford, and why Indiana Jones is the hero of the movie, even though the movie isn’t really about him. Along the way: legendary behind-the-scenes stories, a surprisingly perfect Mup...

In this What’s Up, Doc? episode, Dave, Cody, and DJ Dangerfield dig into Netflix’s Evil Influencer: The Jodi Hildebrandt Story...a disturbing look at how therapy-speak, religious power structures, and influencer culture can combine into something downright predatory. The conversation quickly moves past “true crime details” and into the bigger questions: why we’re drawn to charismatic leaders, how “truth” gets rebranded, and why our culture is addicted to certainty even when reality is messy and ...

This week on Pop Culture Pastor, we Be Kind Rewind the late ’90s teen classic She’s All That...a movie that believed prom was destiny, popularity was currency, and glasses were a curse. Dave and Cody are joined by Dave’s 18-year-old daughter, Aila, to juxtapose late ’90s teen movie logic with today’s realities. Together, they dig into what surprisingly holds up (the cast, the romance, the vibes), what absolutely doesn’t (the makeover myth, the power dynamics, the cheap feel), and why exaggerate...

It’s a brand-new year, and we’re kicking things off by looking ahead and why we’re excited about it. In this episode, Dave & Cody talk about the movies, shows, and stories they’re most looking forward to in 2026. From massive blockbusters like The Odyssey, Supergirl, and Avengers: Doomsday, to TV standouts like Shrinking, Lanterns, and House of the Dragon, we dig into what has us hopeful, curious, and cautiously optimistic. Along the way, we talk about: Why Project Hail Mary could be a modern...

Dave and Cody drop a Christmas-week bonus review of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, digging into the franchise’s killer consistency, Josh O’Connor’s breakout lead turn, and a surprisingly thoughtful exploration of faith, church hurt, confession, and grace—then they wrap with recast picks, winners/losers, and ratings (plus a mini rant about Netflix keeping this gorgeous movie out of wide theaters). https://linktr.ee/PopCulturePastorPod

🎄 We took a perfectly respectable “Best Christmas Movies” list… and absolutely wrecked it. In this festive edition of ListBusters, the Pop Culture Pastor crew goes after Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Best Christmas Movies of All Time — armed with nukes, switcheroos, rockets, and zero restraint. Classics get shuffled, sacred cows get tipped, Elf gets obliterated, and somehow Baby Jesus nearly gets sniped. Expect hot takes, nostalgia, generational divides, surprise guest chaos, and a final list that ...

This week, Pop Culture Pastor hits Be Kind Rewind on Ernest Saves Christmas (1988). Dave, Cody, and Jackson revisit the holiday oddity that was a childhood staple for many, unpacking what still works (Jim Varney’s undeniable talent, a genuinely great Santa) and what hasn’t aged as well. Along the way, they talk Ernest’s place in late-80s pop culture, Jim Varney’s legacy, deeper themes of identity and calling, Muppet-ize the movie, pick which character they’d be, and wrap it all up with a Vern-b...

Wicked For Good Review and a Wicked Super-Fan Joins the Show In this week’s Pop Culture Pastor, Dave and Cody start with the kind of real-life discovery every nerd dreams about: three brothers in California stumble upon an original Superman #1 buried under old newspapers—and it sells for over $9 million. That leads to comic-grading nightmares, childhood nostalgia, and some very strong feelings about mailing valuables. From there, the guys shift to a more sobering headline as Donald Glover revea...

In this episode of Pop Culture Pastor, Dave and Cody sprint headfirst into Edgar Wright’s new adaptation of The Running Man, asking the big question: is this the movie that officially crowns Glen Powell as the next great everyman action star? The guys start with a wild but oddly wholesome news item: Timothée Chalamet calling Adam Sandler “one of the best actors of all time” during their “Sandler x Chalamet” event. That launches a fun conversation about Sandler’s career arc — from “guy who just m...

This week on Pop Culture Pastor, Dave, Cody, and Jackson jump straight into the chaos as they tackle a brand-new ListBusters challenge — this time taking aim at JoBlo.com’s list of the 25 Greatest Action Movies of All Time, curated by writer Chris Bumbray. What starts as a simple countdown quickly unravels into total cinematic anarchy: nuked classics, rogue recasts, strategic sabotage, and one very passionate defense of Commando that nobody saw coming. By the end, the list looks… different. Ver...

Dave and Cody dive deep into House of Dynamite, Kathryn Bigelow’s nail-biting new nuclear thriller that’s equal parts technical masterpiece and moral Rorschach test. Is it brilliant minimalism—or a cinematic blue screen of death? They also break down the possible sale of Warner Bros. Discovery, what it could mean for movie theaters, and whether James Gunn’s fledgling DCU survives a Netflix takeover. It’s the perfect PCP blend of wit, wonder, and way-too-much coffee. Cold Open: Dave overshares ...

Pop Culture Pastor dives headfirst into the fog. Dave and Cody rewind Frank Darabont’s soul-crusher The Mist (2007): why the human breakdown still hits, why Marcia Gay Harden steals the whole movie, and how that ending becomes a parable about quitting one step too soon. They riff on what holds up and what doesn’t, then play the show’s greatest hits: Muppet-ize the Movie, Which Character Would You Be? and the Winner & Loser of the movie (sorry, Stephen King… Darabont’s ending wins). Plus: a spic...

Two hundred episodes. A legendary voice. And a look toward the future. In this milestone episode, Pop Culture Pastor celebrates its 200th journey around the fandom sun with a little help from the incomparable Malcolm McDowell, who kicks things off with a cinematic introduction worthy of the occasion. Dave and Cody dig into what’s next for pop culture itself — from the rise of AI actors and streaming burnout to reboot fatigue and the evolution of fandom. Then the guys turn the conversation inwa...

ROAD MOVIES: Stories that move us (literally). What makes a road movie work? Dave, Cody, and guest Andy Acker break down the secret sauce — the motion that transforms the characters, the odd couples who can’t escape each other, the maps that never lead where they think, and the soundtracks that make it all feel alive. They swap their own road-trip stories (buses, bison, and breakdowns included), revisit classics like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Pee-wee’s Big Adv...

Pop Culture Junk Drawer (One Take Edition) We emptied the drawer and hit record: one continuous, gloriously unedited (well...mostly unedited, lol) rummage through pop culture. Lionel Richie spills on Michael Jackson’s… laundry. Bad Bunny nabs the Super Bowl halftime show and the internet predictably loses its mind (or pretends to). Reading Rainbow returns to raise a new generation of book nerds. An AI “actress” named Tilly shows up to take jobs and haunt our dreams. Plus quick hits on Peacemaker...

Peak Denzel. A friendship that still wrecks us (Gerry & Julius). And the real Titans getting a 25th-anniversary roar from their hometown. We break down why this movie keeps winning—leadership, unity, THAT soundtrack—and yes, we Muppet-ize it and roast Gosling’s defense. Press play and fall back in love with Remember the Titans. https://linktr.ee/PopCulturePastorPod

The Hollywood Reporter dropped a “definitive” Top 25 sports-movie list… so we grabbed our gadgets (Nuke, Recast, Rocket, Sniper, Switcheroo, and the brand-new Double Tap) and blew it up. Chaos ensues. Friendships wobble. Space Jam soars. OJ: Made in America gets the boot. And yes, we argue about Hoosiers like our playoff lives depend on it. What you’ll hear: Defining what actually counts as a sports movie (docs vs. dramas vs. “there’s a ball in one scene”) Nukes dropped on sacred cows, Recasts...

What happens when fandom crosses the line into worship? This week on Pop Culture Pastor, Dave and Cody welcome special guest DJ Dangerfield to dive into the new documentary Stans, a raw look at Eminem’s most devoted fans. From rumors of an on-set Avengers brawl to the chaos of the Movie Game, the crew warms up with laughs before getting serious about the complicated legacy of Marshall Mathers. They explore how Eminem’s music gave voice to pain, how fans mirror his personas, and why so many are ...