PODCAST · tv
But Why Tho?
by But Why Tho?
Looking to catch up on pop culture? We're reviewing the latest movies and television, interviewing industry creatives, and of course - breaking down why all the things we love matter. But Why Tho? is a weekly podcast where we'll dive into the past week in pop culture and get to discoursing on important conversations.
Episodes
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Episode 134: Choosing Choosin' Texas
This week, Alex, Kate, and Kyle talk about Ella Langley's Choosin' Texas, how they feel about the song itself, the state of country music, and how it claimed the record for most weeks at #1 song in the country in today's music climate.
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Episode 133: All Good Vibes Pod
This week, Alex, Charles, and Swara go all recommendations, spanning from music to comics, Gargoyles to TMNT.
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Episode 132: Celebrities Aren't Going to Save You
This week, Alex, Kate, Adrian, and Swara talk about Macklemore and Ed Sheeran, the emptiness of most celebrity activism, the dangers of taking your political leads from millionaires, and why it's beyond time to stop just talking and actually do something about the issues that matter.
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Episode 131: Dolly Parton—Heart of Superman, Wallet of Batman
This week, Alex, Kate, and special guest Andrea Shearon talk about Dolly Parton, the South, country music, and how she represented the true essence of it all through her music, her philanthropy, and her morals.
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Episode 130: It's Up To Us To Make Spaces Better
This week, Alex, Kate, and Joseph talk about getting into hobbies, especially Magic: The Gathering. They talk about startup costs, the importance of making spaces open to new people, and the value of taking and giving feedback.
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Episode 129: We Need Middle-earth, Not Westeros
This week, Alex, Kate, and Joseph Bradford of MMORPG.com and beyond discuss why modern fantasy is quite bad. They talk about the vast difference betwen Tolkein and Martin, why classic fantasy is less "black and white" than it's accused of even though it's actually good that it is, and the...
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Episode 128: Jefferson Dinners Don't Exist Anymore
This week, Alex and Kate discuss the rise in anti-intellectualism and willful ignorance. They discuss how the internet has destroyed people's abilities to argue, the total loss of literacy, and especially how this has shown up in the public response to Emily Wilson's review of Christopher Nolan's...
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Recommended Reading from ButWhyTho.net!
This week Alex highlights a handful of articles from Butwhytho.net, covering everything from Magic the Gathering to marching bands to free-to-play RPG Soulframe. [EXCLUSIVE] The Women Behind Secret Lair’s Latest Philanthropic Drop Talk The Importance Of Mentorship Dear EA Sports, The Next College...
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Episode 127: Defining Mature Genres
This week, Alex, Charles, and Swara talk about what happens when genres reach maturity, what's become of superhero movies, and what they would do to fix the genre's problems if they were in charge.
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INTERVIEW: Rasheed Abu-Eidah Discusses Dreams on a Pillow, Palestine, And History
The Nakba, or "catastrophe" in Arabic, describing the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Palestine by Israel since 1948, is not widely learned. Rasheed Abueideh, a Palestinian game designer based in the West Bank, aims to change that with his new game in development, Dreams on a…
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INTERVIEW: Talking Marvel and Magic with Lead Designer, Mark Rosewater
We sat down with Lead Vision Designer Mark Rosewater to discuss the design behind Magic: The Gathering's latest Universe's Beyond set, Marvel Super Heroes. From color choices to theme to navigating canon, Mark has insight on it all.
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INTERVIEW: Grounded 2 Keeps Evolving - We Talked With Game Director Chris Parker The Game's Growth
As one of Obsidian's most successful titles, Grounded 2's most recent Beat the Heat update keeps pushing the little game that could into a model for multiplayer play in 2026. During Summer Game Fest Play Days, we spoke with Chris Parker, the Game Director on Grounded 2, about introducing new...
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INTERVIEW: It's ESO's Most Substantial Year Since Launch - We Spoke To The Devs About It
Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) introduced a new seasonal model this year, and with seasons, the Bethesda-published MMORPG is rolling out the most substantial sequential updates the game has released since launch.During Summer Game Fest Play Days, we spoke with ZeniMax Online Studios' developers Nick...
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Episode 126: A Big 'Ol Games Dump
This week, Alex is joined by Katherine and Ryan to talk about the massive amount of gaming news that's come out in the past week. They talk about Summer Games Fest, PlayStation's State of Play, and Xbox Games Showcase, and all of what's exciting and worrying them from it. This episode was…
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Episode 125: Some Bad Endings are Actually Good
This week, Alex, Charles, and Swara discuss storytelling, when happy endings can be bad but sad or challenging endings be good, and what happens to stories when they prioritize the wrong things.
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Interview: We Talk Horror and Storytelling with Directive 8020's Creative Director
Directive 8020 gives space horror fans the first real taste of the genre since Dead Space’s homage to Event Horizon. The game wields space horror to great effect, letting the story and characters carry it. We sat down with Directive 8020’s Creative Director, Will Doyle, to discuss the game’s...
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Episode 124: The Feed Is Fake
This week, Alex, Kate, and Matt talk about how basically everything on the internet now is either paid advertising that's inflating how much people care about a thing, or exploitative free advertising at the expense of actual marketing professionals and campaigns. It's all bad and makes products...
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Episode 123: Let's Get Physical
This week, Alex and Kyle discuss the recent trend of physical media's seeming rising popularity. They discuss why they think people are moving towards a more analog, inconvenient age, the terrors of tech companies owning your digital content, and where community is and isn't being built around...
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Episode 122: The Long-Promised Dropout Episode
This week, Alex and Kyle finally talk about Dropout, the College Humor streaming platform known for great comedy, passionate (parasocial) fans, and generally good-natured and kindhearted wholesomenss.
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MagicCon Las Vegas: We spoke with the team bringing The Hobbit to Magic: The Gathering
During MagicCon Las Vegas, we spoke with the team behind bringing The Hobbit to Magic: The Gathering's Universes Beyond. We discuss the importance of honoring Tolkien's legacy and how The Hobbit differs from the Tales from Middle-earth Lord of the Rings set. Wizards of the Coast: Mike Turian-...
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Everything We Learned at Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest in Anaheim
This week, we have a very special episode covering everything announced at Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest in Anaheim. We discuss what we know about the new Evercold expansion and the massive amounts of updates coming to the game in Patch 8.0
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Episode 121: Is the Mario Galaxy Movie Bad For Kids? NOPE!
This week, Alex and Jason talk about The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, whether it's "bad for kids," if characters need to grow or develop for stories to be good, and why we mix up nostalgia for quality.
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Episode 120: Rock Music is Dead, Did the CIA Kill It?
This week, Alex, Kate, and Matt talk about the conspiracy theory that the CIA intentionally killed rock music to supress it's anti-governmnet, anti-war, protest nature. They get into the dearth of new political music, why it's hard to find it when it does come out, and why the long history of...
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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Black Tabby Publishing & Sunset Visitor Discuss 'Prove You're Human
Prove You’re Human is a sci-fi narrative adventure game from Sunset Visitor 斜陽過客, the visionary studio behind the Peabody award-winning 1000xRESIST. What's even more exciting is that Prove You're Human is the debut title for new developer-turned-publisher, Black Tabby Publishing. Yup, the...
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Episode 119: Oops, All Recommendations, Again
This week, Alex, Charles, and Neysha take a break from the tougher convos and share their biggest recommendations at the moment, including Trigun Stargaze, live-action One Piece Season 2, and Thundersong by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe.
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Episode 118: 10 Ft Tall Randy Quaid
This week, Alex, Matt, and Jason work through a sci-fi bracket in honor of the Artemis II launch and Project Hail Mary being a 10/10 movie. They debate how cool E.T. can be if he never curses like R2D2 does, whether a Star Trek replicator would shoot an avatar out like a compressed mattress, and...
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Episode 117: The Great Photorealism Debate
This week, Alex, Kyle, and Charles discuss photorealism in video games, whether and when it has its place, and whatever is going on with Nvidia's DLSS 5 as AI slop takes over all of our art.
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Episode 116: Stop Pricing Us Out of Joy
This week, Alex, Kate, and Matt discuss conventions, how their locations have made them more and more inaccessible, unaffordable, and worse, and why more conventions need to be held in more geographically diverse locations (especially the South).
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Episode 115: The Wizards of the Coast Team Talks TMNT Universes Beyond Set
This week, Alex talks to the team at Wizards of the Coast behind Magic: The Gathering's new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universes Beyond Set: Eric Engelhard – Senior Game Designer and Set Design Lead, Stephanie Chung – Art Director, and Crystal Frazier – Senior Narrative Game Designer and...
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Episode 114: Being a Good Neighbor Can't Be Political
This week, Alex and Kate talk about how to be good people and neighbors in an age of constant horrors, war, and disappearings. They draw from the examples of Mr. Rogers, Ms. Rachel, the people of Minneapolis, and our own staff to try and find hope and action in dark times.
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Episode 113: And Yet, The Edit Could Have Been Worse
This week, Alex, Kate, Sarah, and Allyson talk about the Netflix documentary series, Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model. They discuss the docuseries, the toxicity inherent in America's Next Top Model, and how watching it impacted them, including eating disorders, on-screen...
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Episode 112: Performative Consumption vs Bad Buddy's Performance
This week, Alex and Kate talk about the rise of performative consumerism as a form of moralization and how it manifests from Tumblr to Bad Bunny's halftime show. Plus a reminder about some of the politics of some of the most misunderstood musicians. We aren't just the things we consume; go be a...
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Episode 111: The Technicality of Muppetry
This week, Alex, Jason, and Kyle discuss the Muppets, their legacy and impact, what iterations of the Muppets have worked and why, and of course, how they'd like to see the Muppets used in the future.
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Episode 110: Moral Nitpicking
This week, Alex and Jason talk about the classic depiction≠endorsement argument. They talk about how a lack of media literacy leads to the misconception and when depicting unsavory things is meant to make you think versus when it's unintentionally depicting.
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Episode 109: The But Why Tho 2025 Culture Draft
This week, Alex, Kate, and Jason draft their favorite things from different corners of pop culture from 2025. The categories are TV/Film, Books/Comics, Music, Video Games, and Favorite Moments. The picks range from well-known hits to a trifecta of country/folk musicians.
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Episode 108: Rest Easy 2025, We Have The Watch
To close out 2025, Alex leads Kate, Matt, and Jason in some trivia about the year in pop culture, diving into conversations about manners at the movie theater, sub-contracting in video games, the number of teeth on a Labubu, and more.
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Episode 107: The Wrappeds Are Not You Friends
This week, Alex, Swara, and Charles discuss the Wrapped phenomenon, its intended and unintended consequences, and where they draw lines on engaging with them, personally.
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Episode 106: Please, Who Will Think of the Continuity?!
This week, Alex, Adrian, and Charles talk about worldbuilding, continuity, when it's a fun expansion of our understanding of a universe, and when it becomes a source of gatekeeping or overwhelm in a story. Plus, is there a fine line to draw between scrutinizing a timeline and over-analyzing it?…
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Episode 105: Thank you, Wicked!
This week, Alex, Kate, and Neysha talk about adaptations, why we're constantly going back to the same wells for stories, the impact of a good reinterpretation, and how they appreciate when an adaptation has a unique take or perspective on a story.
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Episode 140 (Redux) Predator Matters... But Why Tho?
This week we're talking all about the Predator matters. From comics to films and the lore that its steeped in - yes, even AVP - we dig into why this film that began with Jean-Claude Van Damme in a read monster suit jumping over logs became one of the cornerstones of action and science fiction in...
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Episode 104: Don't Forget That the Real World Exists
This week, Alex and Kate discuss brain rot, what it is, how it's destroying literacy and culture, and ultimately how it helps the rise of fascism, even if some of it is innocuous too. Plus, they have no idea what 6-7 means.
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Episode 103: This Is(n't) a True Crime Pod
This week, Alex, Kate, and guest Byron McKoy from Frightday.com discuss true crime and how Shelby Oaks was completely recut between its original festival release and its theatrical release before diving into a slasher killers vs survivors bracket.
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Episoe 102: Why Did Jason X Have to Go to Space?
This week, Alex and Kate talk about horror franchises, when they do and don't work, why they've been around since the beginning of cinema, and which ones they've enjoyed the most.
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Episode 101: Don't Dream It, Be It
This week, Alex, Kate, and guest Paul Klein discuss The Rocky Horror Picture Show in honor of its 50th anniversary. They discuss the legacy of the movie and its countless shadow cast productions, its impact on representation for queer and non-queer viewers alike, and why we shouldn't expect...
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Episode 100: But Why Tho? Matters... But Why Tho?
100 episodes into the "new era" of But Why Tho? The Podcast, Alex, Kate, and Matt talk about why But Why Tho matters, the topics and themes we harp on most often, and what we hope people will continue getting out of the show.
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Episode 99: Maybe Slow the Hype Train Down?
This week, Alex and Adrian talk about the hype cycle in media, how it can backfire on companies, create toxic fandoms, and still keep people excited for releases long after they're initially announced.
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Episode 98: People Just Want a Freaky Lil' Guy to Be Their Sidekick
This week, Alex and Kate discuss Labubus, the appeal of collectibles that others dismiss, and how women have to perform gender more with expensive products than men do.
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Episode 97: Annual Sport Games Are Essential, Actually
This week, Alex, Kate, and guest Jason Fannelli discuss sports video games, the communities that build around them, the benefits of having more than just one company making them at a time, and why an annual cycle is actually important for keeping the games relevant and immersive.
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Episode 96: Genre Isn't A Cookie Recipe
This week, Alex, Swara, and Kyle discuss genre, its utility in determining what to consume, its shortcomings as an aspect of marketing, and the malleability that genre needs to remain fresh and relevant. Plus, why AI art can never express emotion.
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Episode 95: Kids Certainly Aren't Buying Sauron Helmets
This week, Alex, Kate, and Matt discuss whether liking nerdy things is childish, why it's important to understand what age demographic media is made and marketed for, and how it all gets harder when stories refuse to ever end.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Looking to catch up on pop culture? We're reviewing the latest movies and television, interviewing industry creatives, and of course - breaking down why all the things we love matter. But Why Tho? is a weekly podcast where we'll dive into the past week in pop culture and get to discoursing on important conversations.
HOSTED BY
But Why Tho?
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does But Why Tho? have?
But Why Tho? currently has 484 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is But Why Tho? about?
Looking to catch up on pop culture? We're reviewing the latest movies and television, interviewing industry creatives, and of course - breaking down why all the things we love matter. But Why Tho? is a weekly podcast where we'll dive into the past week in pop culture and get to discoursing on...
How often does But Why Tho? release new episodes?
But Why Tho? publishes regularly with 484 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to But Why Tho??
You can listen to But Why Tho? 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 But Why Tho??
But Why Tho? is created and hosted by But Why Tho?.
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