"Best friend isn't a person, Danny. It's a tier." That phrase (from The Mindy Project) has lived in my head rent-free for over ten years. But...can you actually have more than one best friend? Join us for an exploration of all things besties on this week's episode of Ok Real Quick Pod!

This week's Special Segment is The Chisme Chorner where we discuss this gem from the "Wedding Shaming" subreddit.

Refinery29 NOT Refinery21 article *facepalm*

The social brain hypothesis and its implications for social evolution

Calling Dunbar’s Numbers

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

In 1993, the third season of MTV's The Real World brought into the lives of millions of people the unforgettable Pedro Zamora. This week we celebrate his life and honor his legacy, as we take a look into what made Pedro so special, and the lasting impact he made in the education and advocacy for HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention, and treatment. The fight is not over, and it's up to us to carry his torch.

To watch Matt Baume's incredibly informative and touching video How Pedro Zamora Used TV To Fight AIDS, click here.

This week's Special Feature is "On My To Be Read Pile" in which we talk about the Queer Liberation Library and the book The Viral Underclass. To support the QLL's fundraiser, click here.

Resources for those living with HIV/AIDS are available here.

Additional information sources for this week's episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Zamora

https://www.cdc.gov/hiv-data/nhss/hiv-diagnoses-deaths-and-prevalence-2025.html

https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/fact-sheet

https://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/mohammed-bilal/

https://www.clintonlibrary.gov/research/hivaids-topic-guide

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pedro-zamoras-torch_b_5700865

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7903022/#:~:text=Median%20survival%20time%20following%20AIDS%20onset%20increased,months.%20Trends%20in%20improved%20survival%20were%20diagnosis%2Dspecific.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/medical-journeys/hiv/106053

https://www.radicaldeathstudies.com/blog/2019/12/28/pedro-zamora-from-mtvs-real-world-radical-death-activism-by-justin-cook

https://glaad.org/whereweareontv23/representation-of-characters-living-with-hiv-and-aids/

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-39490507

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_boatlift

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

What progress, if any, has been made in bisexual representation on TV? We talk about Lindsay from Queer As Folk, and touch on characters like Willow (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), David Rose (Schitt's Creek), Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn Nine Nine) and more.

Click here to listen to the Liberty Diner Dish interview with Queer As Folk writer Del Shores, and here to check out It's A Fandom Thing Pod's episodes, where you'll find a ton of Queer As Folk content.

This week's Special Feature is Playing With Lists! Check out the musical companion to this week's episode here!

And here are the posts mentioned in this week's episode:

https://medium.com/@lasarafirefoxallen/bisexual-is-queer-too-727d95937242

https://www.librarywithoutdust.com/television/what-about-the-b-word-bisexual-erasure-from-the-l-word-to-orange-is-the-new-black

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

In our first episode of the Ok Real Quick Pod series "Perfect Pilots" we discuss why the first episode of What We Do In The Shadows worked so well, and what we love about the characters.

This week's special segment is Unhinged Theories, in which we talk about the announcement of the upcoming sequel to Spaceballs, and how we think the story will unfold.

https://nofilmschool.com/make-a-great-tv-pilot

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

Get your bookmarks out: It's time to talk about Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill!

From the author's website:

"It’s weird, it’s queer, and it’s here in bookshops near you! OUR HIDEOUS PROGENY is my debut novel, a spiritual sequel to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and a love letter to women in science and the fascinating history of Victorian paleoart.

Are you a fan of Victorian mad science? Gothic gays? Women who are angry, and ambitious, and covered in blood? Then OHP may be for you!"

We get into the book's themes of women's overlooked contributions of science, parental abandonment, queer pining, my amazing ability to say Benjamin Franklin when I mean Thomas Edison, and more! (Content and trigger warnings below)

Don't forget to check out Nightmare Maven's excellent video review on Our Hideous Progeny, "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Is A Masterpiece"!

This week's special segment is Songs I'm Obsessed With, featuring Keath Osk's Kid and Leveret from their Yaelokre project!

OHP Content/Trigger Warnings: Homophobia, racism, miscarriage, misogyny, ableism, classism

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

It feels like almost every new show is a reboot and, you know what? We're tired of it. Join us this week as we indulge in a rant about the nonstop deluge of regurgitated nostalgia, why it's even a thing, and why it sucks.

This week's special segment is On My "To Be Read" Pile, featuring C.E. McGill's Our Hideous Progeny! Come find out why your host is psyched to stop procrastinating and finally read it.

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

Remember sitting in front of your stereo, ready to pounce on the "record" button the moment your song came on? Remember the feeling when you gave your crush a cassette with your favorite songs (which maybe you did or didn't call Dean's Top 13 Zepp Traxx)? No? Well even if you didn't live through the joy of creating the perfect mixtape and the anguish of having to re-reel it with a pencil (IYKYK), we think you'll enjoy this episode on the beauty of making a playlist, no matter how you do it.

Speaking of music, this week's special segment is "Playing With Lists" so, here, enjoy a playlist made just for you (the plural "you", just to be super clear)!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4WGYHlsIiL90ae50KriVaV?si=4eJOVCaPRlqqbIOG_Y_JLA&pi=JGv63WlyQa6kB

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0

We're in our podcast era, and we're kicking it off with our first episode, "Why Are Cats?" Find out why we find cats so fascinating, why cats tolerate us, and whether they even give a purr.

This week's special segment is the Chisme Chorner, in which we read an AITAH post, give our verdict, and decide whether the story is real or really made up.

Cat study information can be found at https://modkat.com/blogs/modkat-purrr/do-cats-love-their-owners-these-5-studies-say-yes?srsltid=AfmBOopwHsvSEkoL1bRU8EJV7jjAcUc3wE79ssGXAY0sXbRYZ527mz7n.

Music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0