Dueling Decades: The 80s and 90s Gone Competitive

Did you grow up in the 80s? 90s? Are you entirely convinced that the decade you grew up in is better than any other decade? That you had the best movies, music, and clothes of any period of time? If so, there’s someone out that might just agree with you. I recently got to talk to Marc and Nick from the Poop Culture podcast about their special recurring episodes called Dueling Decades where two teams battle it out to prove that their decade lives to rule them all.

Dueling Decades spawned from Nick and Marc’s work on Poop Culture, a play on pop culture that Mark described as “a raw and raunchy irreverent improv content that’s geared toward adult humor.” While making the show, the pair realized that “that demographic also happens to like retro content from the 80s and 90s.” That revelation came from a bit called “80s Utopia Island” where the hosts would imagine returning to a specific month in the 80s and living only with what was available at the time. When Nick and Marc realized their listeners were really into the idea, they “turned it competitive” and Dueling Decades was born.

When I asked, Nick immediately described the show as “a gameshow podcast where we pit the 80s versus the 90s. It’s a mix between game show and retro content for 30 and 40 year-olds that want to look back and it’s fun instead of a history lesson.” Marc added that “it’s a bit like mock debate in high school.” The show features two teams with the same people each month, almost always defending the same decade. The game has each team debate out why their decade is better in five categories: news item, hot product, movie, music, and TV. at the end of each round, a judge decides which team won and awards them a point. The team with the most points wins that month’s game but will have to defend their title the next month.

With a show that was born from trying to give listeners more of what they want, I was curious to hear how often Nick and Marc heard from their fans. “The communication back and forth with people is awesome,” Nick said, citing the amount of traffic the show’s Facebook page gets and the way listeners comment on statuses. Marc added that “now that we have the Facebook page and that community has grown, we’ve gotten to use that to figure out what to put on the show based on what’s trending and what listeners like.” Paying attention to listeners has been hugely beneficial and has allowed the pair to lean into content they really enjoy making.

Among his favorite parts of making the show, Marc was quick to list finding other people who share memories from when he was young: “When I can think of an obscure 80s song or a movie that I saw and someone knows what I’m talking about, it kind of relives that memory, and that’s what’s special.” Nick also said he really enjoys the process of researching for the show, which usually takes about a week of searching through news articles. “You come across something you have seen or thought of in twenty years,” he said. “Helping people remember this stuff, it’s pretty rewarding.” And getting to do more of that is what has Nick and Marc really excited.

“Creating more content, digging deeper into stuff we haven’t done before,” Nick told me was what he was really looking forward to. Marc added that the online community was also cool, because they’re “meeting other like-minded people that like the same thing, like arguing about who’s better: Marty McFly or the Karate Kid.” So, if you love the 80s, the 90s, debate, or just a really good time amongst friends, listen to Dueling Decades and be sure to leave a rating and review to let Nick and Marc know what you think!

Chasing Pods is a Podchaser blog series dedicated to letting our readers know about podcasts they may not have heard of or provide a sneak peek into the making of their favorite podcast. We talk to podcast creators about their journey into podcasting, the creation of their shows, the ups and downs of the work, and what they’re looking forward to for their podcast

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