PODCAST · society
80's High
by Ben & Chris
A podcast that revisits the memories and pop culture that made the 1980s one of the most radical decades in history.
Episodes
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Episode 72 | Movie Sequel: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
The juice is loose once again, and this time, we're going back to the future for the return of one of the 80's most beloved horror comedies. Lydia, Delia, and the Ghost with the Most are joined by a fresh cast of characters--both alive and undead--as they rampage across the mortal plane and the...
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Episode 71 | Movie: Beetlejuice
Welcome back, classmates! You thought we were trapped in the podcast afterlife, but we survived the sandworms and checkered hallways to bring you another gem from that radical decade. Join us as we dive into the bonkers history of this classic movie, our memories of it hitting the big screen, and...
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S4E8 | Music: We Are the World
In response to a once-in-a-century drought and famine in Ethiopia, Harry Belefonte, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, and Quincy Jones assembled the ultimate cast of legendary musicians to come together one top-secret evening to record the best-selling single in America and pop music...
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S4E7 | Movie: Adventures in Babysitting
In the 80’s, teenagers hustling for money was a tough racket. Robert Romanus was selling second-hand concert tickets and Phoebe Cates was scooping ice cream at the mall, while Judge Reinhold grilled hamburgers and Kevin Bacon got canoes ready at Camp Crystal Lake. But who would have imagined that...
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S4E6 | Transformers
You've got the touch! You've got the power! 1984 was a radical pop culture year in the heart of the 80's, but one toy line demanded the hotness of Cabbage Patch dolls and Pound Puppies take a back seat and clear plenty of Toys 'R' Us shelf space as Transformers hit the US market and forever…
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S4E5 | Television: The Golden Girls
Thank you for being a friend. Travel down the road and back again. Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant. If that theme song just flooded you with warm nostalgia, side-splitting laughter, and tearful moving moments, then you too must've been a fan of one of the most popular sitcoms in...
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S4E4 | Movie: The Thing
Never go alone. Never go with someone else. It could be any one of us. It could be you. It could be me. It could be all of us, or none of us! What do we do?! Why don’t we wait here, see what happens... Paranoia and distrust settle in as co-host Mikey rejoins us to delve deep into the icy thrills…
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S4E3 | Game: HeroQuest
Gather round, dear listeners, as we tell a tale of dungeon crawling through the D&D-inspired 1989 board game revolution, HeroQuest! Taking on the roles of barbarian, dwarf, elf, and wizard, we’ll face off against Zargon's evil forces of orcs, goblins, fimirs, mummies, gargoyles, and more, as we...
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S4E2 | Movie: Labyrinth
You remind us of the podcast! What podcast? The podcast with the power! What power? The power of voodoo. Who do? You do. Do what? Remind us of the podcast! Meandering through this episode, Ben and Chris clumsily navigate the twisting corridors and puzzles of Jim Henson and David Bowie’s 1986...
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S4E1 | Graphic Novel: Watchmen
As caped crusaders begin to disappear, a motley band of heroes must come out of retirement to crack the case and save the world. No, we’re not talking about Ben and Chris returning from summer break to kick 80’s High back into gear - we’re talking about Watchmen, the groundbreaking 1986 comic...
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S3E22 | Movie: Stand By Me
Double surprise! It's a SECOND bonus summer episode of 80's High! And this time, we brought a comb! As summer winds down into fall, we're walking the tracks back to 1986 to revisit the magical film by director Rob Reiner with its amazing cast, including Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman,...
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S3E21 | Movie: Maximum Overdrive
Surprise, it's a bonus summer episode of 80's High! And WE. MADE IT. FOR. YOUUUUU! As the summer heatwave hits, we're downshifting back to 1986 with the first and only film director credit for the man of macabre himself, Mr. Stephen King. It's big trucks, lawnmowers, steamrollers, the Green…
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S3E20 | Movie: Batman
In the summer of 1989, the world came down with a Joker-induced case of Batmania as visionary director Tim Burton and leading man Michael Keaton put the "dark" in our Nocturnal Knight for the first time on the big screen. An iconic score mixed with an incredible set, costume, sound, and lighting...
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S3E19 | Television Special: The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vaults
"It may be Chicago’s equivalent of King Tut’s Tomb... Nobody knows what’s in it. Some say money. Some say bodies. Some say it’s booby trapped, and we’re gonna open it.” In the spring of 1986, Geraldo Rivera hyped what was to be the greatest television event of the century: uncovering the mystery…
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S3E18 | He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
When Ben and Chris lift their microphones into the air and shout “By the Power of the 80’s!” they magically transform into the two most radical podcasters on the planet, with the power of nostalgia, sass, and puns! Follow us back in time to when toymaker Mattel made potentially the biggest…
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S3E17 | Movie: Clue
Who would have guessed that in 1985, Hollywood not only created a movie based on a board game, but that it may have been one of the best game-based movies of all time?! That’s right, we're driving through the pouring rain to the eerie mansion on the hill to rewatch the movie Clue! And we're…
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S3E16 | Tabloid: Weekly World News
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Two 80's nostalgia podcasters take deep dive into the world's only reliable news! That's right listeners, we were lucky enough to snag an interview with Greg D'Alessandro, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Weekly World News, to talk all things Elvis, Bat Boy, Manigator,...
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S3E15 | Music Album: Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet
Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi broke onto the rock scene with their debut album, producing a few modest hits, but not quite making a splash. Their second album also made some noise on the airwaves, but didn't bring the success they desired. The third time had to be the charm. And in August 1986…
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S3E14 | Movie: Who Framed Roger Rabbit
We swore we'd never do a movie about Toons again, not after our tragic past with that falling piano. But fate had a way of showing up at our doorstep... and making us laugh our butts off! Because we've strapped a rocket to our backs and Acme-d to the golden age of Hollywood to visit our cartoon...
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S3E13 | Summertime Rides: Bikes, Big Wheels, and Beyond
From Big Wheels to Power Wheels, tricycles to bicycles, getting your own set of wheels was a right of passage in childhood. Your new rims opened up a world of possibilities and autonomous freedom, rolling down the street to meet up with “the gang” in the woods, at a field, or at a friend’s house…
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S3E12 | Video Game: Duck Hunt & the NES Zapper
In the midst of an oil crisis and collapse of the fledgling video game industry, Nintendo was challenged to reinvent an affordable way to keep fans glued to their home television sets. Step 1: Ensure the company’s champion, Mario, hopped right out of the box on Day 1. Step 2: Evolve everything...
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S3E11 | Television & Books: Reading Rainbow
"It’s here at last / a great podcast / on Reading Rainbowwww!" Fly back with Ben and Chris to the summer of 1983 to revisit the groundbreaking television show that brought literature to children beyond the school year and redefined what educational TV programming could achieve. The ever-wonderful...
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S3E10 | Television: Quantum Leap
Theorizing that we could time travel by researching and reminiscing, airwave personalities Ben and Chris entered their recording studio to develop a not-so-top-secret podcast, known as 80’s High. Pressured to achieve maximum edutainment and topical variety or risk losing listeners, Ben and Chris...
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S3E9 | Music Video: Herbie Hancock’s Rockit
Musician Herbie Hancock has made a titanic career out of fusing together disparate sounds, and Rockit was the breakout song that put him on the pop culture map. By crossing jazz with synthesizers, hip hop, drum machines, and DJ scratching, this song became the breakdancer's anthem of 1983 in…
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S3E8 | Movie: Flight of the Navigator
What happens when Pee-Wee Herman, Sarah Jessica Parker, and the director of “Grease” join forces in a NASA laboratory to prod a kid's brain and find the start button on a mercurial space ship? We unlock a movie that is part unsolved mystery, part government thriller, part zany comedy, and totally...
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S3E7 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
It all started with a late night sketch meant to draw a few laughs, but little did Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird realize they had a wildly successful entertainment franchise at their fingertips. From the ink on the comic book page to the cartoon that launched a sprawling toy line, Turtlemania was...
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S3E6 | Cartoon: Snorks
Come along with the Snorks! Swim along with the Snorks! That's right, we're heading down to the ocean floor to revive the hidden animated gem that followed our plucky gang of thumb-sized creatures as they go on snorktastic adventures dodging oil drills, outwitting Dr. Strangesnork, and hiding…
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S3E5 | Filmmaker: Steven Spielberg
Once upon a time, there was a boy who saw the world in stories, portrait, and sound. From his humble home movies of toy train wrecks and classmates at war, Steven Spielberg grew into the most commercially successful filmmaker of all time and a beloved creator of cherished movies from breakouts…
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S3E4 | Culture: Halloween
Nothing says Halloween in the 80's quite like trick-or-treating late a night, running through a Jacycees haunted house, reading Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and bobbing for apples at school. But where did these traditions comes from? And why do we love them so much? In this episode, we…
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S3E3 | Music: Talking Heads’ Once in a Lifetime
“Hey, snap out of it! Look around, or else you’re going to miss something incredible!” If Talking Heads frontman David Byrne could condense the wit, complexity, and ironic sensibility of their hit single off of 1980’s Remain in the Light into a 2022 Tweet, this would be it. Blending rock, synth,...
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S3E2 | Classic 80’s Board Games
Whether during indoor recess or a weekend with friends, we couldn't get enough of those fun, silly, amazing, frustrating board games of the 80's. Whether commanding troops or sliding chutes, using our brains or leaving it to chance, we tear through the games of yore like hungry hippos, exploring...
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S3E1 | Movie: Batteries Not Included
When the bulldozers arrive and the goons start harassing, it seems all is lost for our group of tenants in their historic, lone apartment building in the Lower East Side. What they need is a miracle. And who should answer the call but two little sentient spaceships hungry for metal, dying for...
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S2E18 | Music Icon: Weird Al Yankovic
After taking his first accordion lesson at the age of six, "Weird Al" Yankovic catapulted from Lynnwood, CA to become one of the greatest parody (and accordion) artists of all time! Michael Jackson to Madonna, George Harrison to Nirvana, Weird Al flipped our perspective of cool on its head and…
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S2E17 | Culture: Fast Food Toys
In the 1980's, we would do anything to convince our parents to roll through the drive-thru just for the chance to snag the latest toy from our favorite cartoon or movie. Whether you longed for Barbie or Hot Wheels, McRobots or Boo Buckets, cruise on back with us to discover the hotly debated…
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S2E16 | Television: ALF
When Gordon Shumway smashed through the roof of the Tanner's home 36 years ago, his blunt, sarcastic, comedic quips made him our favorite Alien Life Form. Whether you saw yourself as an ALF mocking humanity’s strange behaviors and beliefs or as a Willie trying to kick out that annoying family...
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S2E15 | Books: Where’s Waldo?
Join us as we set off on a globetrotting adventure, following a trail of discarded kettles, walking sticks, snorkels, and more in search of the most elusive champion of hide-and-seek to ever grace the pages of our childhoods. Whether you knew him as Wally or Waldo, Martin Handford’s incredibly...
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S2E14 | Video Game: Maniac Mansion
Only the cleverest SCUMM could solve these puzzles! Grab two of your iconic friends - Bernard, Jeff, Michael, Razor, Syd, or Wendy - and boldly enter the kooky Edison Mansion to save your ensnared girlfriend, Sandy Pantz! We’re headed back to 1987 to explore the cult classic video game from...
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S2E13 | Cartoon and Toys: The Real Ghostbusters
When something strange goes bump in the night, who ya gonna call? The REAL Ghostbusters! That's right, we're dusting off the Ecto-1 and traveling back to the cartoon spinoff that expanded the franchise in a bid to sell us awesome toys... and it worked! And we get into all the ghoulish details…
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S2E12 | Collectibles: Garbage Pail Kids
Every kid in the 80s remembers the craze that hit the schoolyards and drugstores overnight... the arrival of those colorful wax packs of Garbage Pail Kids. Adam Bomb, Nasty Nick, New Wave Dave, Phony Lisa... with misfits and mayhem on every card, the characters we came to love were reviled by...
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S2E11 | Music: Mix Tapes
Dust off your stereo and dig out those old cassette tapes, because in this episode we're going back to the lost art of making mix tapes (mixtapes). Whether crafting a message for your crush, mixing a sweet road trip playlist, or looking back on hip hop culture's influence on getting your DJ sets...
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S2E10 | Stand-up Comedian: Elayne Boosler
If laughter is the best medicine, get ready for a triple dose of humor revisiting the stand-up comedy of Elayne Boosler. She broke through the industry to become the first female comedian to have a one-hour cable special, then went on to create two more in the 80's alone. With charisma and…
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S2E9 | Fitness: Jazzercise
It was the dance fitness sensation that swept the nation--and the world! And we asked Jazzercise instructor Whitney to stop by and show us the moves that made Jazzercise a household name and a flourishing business, all thanks to the tireless energy of its founder Judi Sheppard Missett. And if you...
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Welcome to 80’s High in 2022
Ben & Chris share a sneak peek of a typical day at 80's High, along with a handful of episode highlights from 2021. Support the show by tossing us some lunch money at ko-fi.com/80shighpodcast. Write an 80's inspired note when you do, and we'll share it on the show! -- Teacher's Pets -- Join the...
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S2E8 | Movie: A Christmas Story
When it comes to quintessential Christmas movies, who can deny the nostalgic tale of Ralphie and his memories of that one particular Christmas when all he wanted was a Red Ryder carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time. So let's...
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S2E7 | Toy: Teddy Ruxpin
Come dream with us tonight, as we pop in our cassettes and tune into the magical world of Teddy Ruxpin, his pals Grubby and Newton Gimmick, and the world of Grundo. We learn all about Teddy's Disney origins, Nintendo connections, and spin-offs that include a cartoon, live-action show, Teddy 'n...
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S2E6 | Movie: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Buckle up traveling listeners, we're taking to sky, rail, and road to relive the three-day misadventures of Neal Page and Del Griffith in this delightful John Hughes film. Is it a buddy comedy, road trip movie, or a Thanksgiving classic? The answer is yes! We laugh through the litany of F-bombs,...
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S2E5 | Television: Fraggle Rock
Enter the magical world of Fraggles, Doozers, Gorgs, and Silly Creatures as we revisit one of the most beloved, charming kids series ever created that not only entertained your socks off but strove to achieve world peace and end war in the process. No, really! So grab your radish sticks, find a...
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S2E4 | Music Video: Michael Jackson‘s Thriller
The foulest stench is in the air, so we're dusting off the funk of 40,000 years with the iconic 14-minute short film/music video that changed every game in entertainment. Classmate Reagen joins us for a howling discussion of MJ's legendary Thriller album, track, and video, as well as musings on...
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S2E3 | 80‘s Slasher Films
It was a genre that defined a generation of horror, from every hidden stalker trope to the teens who just wanted to have fun. Movie aficionado and classmate Mikey joins us as we talk through how slasher films came into existence, hit a fever pitch in the mid-80s, and gave way to 90's horror and...
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S2E2 | Stephen King‘s IT
Join us for a sprawling conversation of a sewer clown, the Losers Club, Lovecraftian horror, the giant space turtle, and the "miasma of events" that brings this haunting tale to life! Author Allison Dickson, our resident Kingophile, sits with us to talk through the 1986 novel, as well as the 1990...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does 80's High have?
80's High currently has 76 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is 80's High about?
A podcast that revisits the memories and pop culture that made the 1980s one of the most radical decades in history.
How often does 80's High release new episodes?
80's High has 76 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to 80's High?
You can listen to 80's High on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts 80's High?
80's High is created and hosted by Ben & Chris.
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