Goodbye 2024! New(ish) Year’s Bonus Episode

Nathan Holbert:

Welcome to Pop Off. It is a new segment from pop and play where we take a few minutes as often as we can to chat about education, play, and pop culture as it's happening in the public conversation. I'm your host, Nathan Holbert. And with me as always is Haney Yoon.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Hello, hello, hello. I'm supposed to vamp about the end of the year. I don't know what that means.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Vamp.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Let me just say we're here in January because January is happening in the bubble of public conversation.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Everyone's talking about January.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Everybody's talking about January. And so are we. And we want to recap what's happening in January. Last year we did an end of the year episode where we talked about things we liked, things we'd like to see die, things we want to bring back,

 

Nathan Holbert:

And I feel like I mostly recall you talking about bringing back nineties phrases.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Fo shiz, fo shiz, fo shiz.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Did that come back?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Justin Timberlake will make a comeback on our list today.

 

Nathan Holbert:

But that phrase, did that come back?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Of course not.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I'm sorry.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Fo shiz, maybe it did.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I think you also suggested you wanted raise the roof to come back.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Oh yeah. Always, always. Raise the roof. Has never left the building.

 

Nathan Holbert:

It's still here. It's still here. Still

 

Haeny Yoon:

Still here, yes.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah. We're going to reflect back on 2024. We're going to think a little bit about what's going to happen in 2025. Yeah. Should we just get started then?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah, let's get started.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Let's dive right in.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes.

 

Nathan Holbert:

All right. Let's start with some best of 2024s, and I'm going to start by asking you the best thing to binge.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Okay. I said Squid Games, but now I can't remember if it's actually a 2025 thing.

 

Nathan Holbert:

2024 thing.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah. Or if it's came out of 2025. Okay. You know what? Let's just say Emily in Paris.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Oh.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Best thing to binge. It's so silly and amazing.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Is it?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Okay.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I'm going to take your word for it.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I'm not going to do it.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Don't fight me on it. It's great. It's just nonsensical, those are the best things to binge.

 

Nathan Holbert:

That makes sense.

 

Haeny Yoon:

It has to be nonsense.

 

Nathan Holbert:

But here's my counter to that is I think the best things to binge are the things that you can't wait to see what's going to happen next.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah.

 

Nathan Holbert:

And so my pitch for this is Severance. Now, Severance did not come out in 2024. Don't be at-ing me and telling me that I don't know what I'm talking about.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Don't be at-ing me.

 

Nathan Holbert:

That's a thing, right?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Don't at me.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Don't at me. But Severance, the second season is coming out, and actually as we record later this week, and I think you should have binged season one before watching season two, right?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Agreed. Because there was a three-year gap between Severance season one and two. 2024 should have been the time you binged it again.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah. Yeah. Lots of cliffhangers. Got to see what comes next.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Got to binge.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes, exactly.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Okay. What about best activity you did in your class this year?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Okay. This is lame, but I had a pizza party two weeks before the end of class to preempt everybody who was having a pizza party the last day of class. I was trying to be a trendsetter and be like, let's be happy two weeks before it ends.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I like that.

 

Haeny Yoon:

But don't forget to come to class next week.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Did anyone bail?

 

Haeny Yoon:

No, of course not.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I also like, because all the parties that last week is like, there's just too many parties,

 

Haeny Yoon:

Too many parties.

 

Nathan Holbert:

And if you spread it out a little more.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Exactly.

 

Nathan Holbert:

That's a good idea.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah. I like to be the only party animal for that time period.

 

Nathan Holbert:

For you, it was really about students focusing on your class and your experiences.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I like that.

 

Haeny Yoon:

How about you, best activity for you?

 

Nathan Holbert:

I taught my constructionism course, which is a course where students are making things or playing with all sorts of new technologies. And one of the activities we do every year is they make what we call a paper mechatronics and it's a piece of art that has motion and interactivity, but it's made entirely out of paper and cardboard. And students really went above and beyond this year and they made some pretty insane and pretty incredible things.

 

Haeny Yoon:

That sounds cool.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah. I'll have to put some pictures in the show notes or something 'cause it's very neat interactivity and movement and also a lot of great conversations about the materiality and how paper really changed the way they thought about construction and making. Very cool.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Love that.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I love that for you.

 

Haeny Yoon:

I love that for you, and for me.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Okay. This one I'm going to have trouble with, but most fun social media trend.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Okay. I thought of a new to me social media trend. I like the wear versus style thing, and this will come again into conversation at the end of the episode, but it's basically somebody wearing the same thing side by side, but one person is just wearing it. The version of them just putting on a sweater and a skirt and some shoes. And then the style part is them wearing that same outfit, but styling it a little bit, maybe I'm going to put a belt here, maybe I'm going to wear a scarf around my neck. Maybe I'm going to wear knee-high socks with my shoes or something. It's inspiring you to think about how you don't just wear clothes, you should style them.

 

Nathan Holbert:

It's wear, style.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah. Whoa. I'm wearing a Taylor Swift sweatshirt.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Wear gesturing to me, style gesturing to Haeny since there's no video, right?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Neither of us are styled. We're just wearing.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Whatever. Whatever we wear is style. I don't think I have a social media. I can't think of one. The only thing I think of is the most fun social media trend was watching everyone get angry at the social media platforms they were on and then-

 

Haeny Yoon:

Leaving.

 

Nathan Holbert:

And then leaving, and then getting angry that the new platform wasn't the same as the old one that they just left.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Oh my God. Yes. Exiting and entering.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Exiting and entering. That's all I got.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Sounds good.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Okay. Here's one that calls back to one of our previous pop-offs.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Mm-hmm.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Best way to deal with the horrors of reality.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah. I mean my thing is always just lean into it.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Lean into the horror?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes. Experience real horror by watching true crime docu-series. Okay. And I say, no, docu-dramas.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Okay.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Not documentaries because I also do do enjoy that.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Sure. But you like the-

 

Haeny Yoon:

I do like the dramatization of it.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Dramatized ones. Yeah.

 

Haeny Yoon:

I love that.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah.

 

Haeny Yoon:

That's a way to do it. Just deal with the [inaudible 00:06:22] head on.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Well, it's like when I was a kid and I would, I don't know, sprain an ankle or something, my grandpa, he rests in peace, would be like, give me your hand. And I'd be like, my ankle hurts. Give me your hand. He's like, I'll break this finger. And I'd be like, don't break my finger. And he'd be like, "Well then if I break your finger, you won't think about your ankle anymore," right?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Exactly.

 

Nathan Holbert:

It's that.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes, grandpa knows what he's talking about.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Grandpa knew what he was talking about. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. For me, I do the opposite. I flee reality. Go straight to video games, live there as long as I can.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Live there as long as you can.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Until someone tells me I have to come out of the video game world and make dinner or something like that. But yeah, escape reality and escape those horrors by going to the video game world.

 

Haeny Yoon:

It's legitimate.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah. What about thing that the kids are into that you are most intrigued by?

 

Haeny Yoon:

I don't know if kids are into this. My thing is that maybe they are, I'm going to just say Timothy Chalamet doing anything that is Timothy Chalamet. Okay. As you know, he came out with a new movie about Bob Dylan and now he's all over every platform and paparazzi'd to death because also he's dating Kylie Jenner.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Oh.

 

Haeny Yoon:

But I'm just obsessed with everything Timothy Chalamet. I saw him on ESPN Sports Center and he knew exactly what he was talking about as he's talking about college football stats and they're all like, oh my god, what the heck? Then there's another one where he's wearing a skinny scarf and that's it. Like a skinny, useless scarf. And I'm like, I like it. I like his style.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Wait, when you say that's it...

 

Haeny Yoon:

That's it. And the comments are always like, what is with that useless skinny scarf? But do I like it? Yes.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah. Kind of into it.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Uh-huh. Another one where he just talks to different actors and they all talk about how they have a crush on him.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah.

 

Haeny Yoon:

It's amazing.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I feel like you took this Invitation to talk about what the kids are into and you interpret that as what you are into 'cause I guess you're a kid.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Exactly.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah. You're one of the youths.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes, yes. Chalamet, Chalamet, Chalamet.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Also everything in triplet for you.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Uh-huh. Yes. And I mean, what a great name to say.

 

Nathan Holbert:

It is good. It just rolls off the tongue.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Just rolls off the time.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Chalamet.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah. Chalamet. What about you?

 

Nathan Holbert:

I'm interested in the slang that kids are using. I find it super fascinating partly because I have two younger kids, as you know, and they are at an age where they both are using a lot of slang for the first time in their lives and it's clear they don't fully know what the words are or what they mean, but they like to use it frequently. They're constantly talking about rizz.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes.

 

Nathan Holbert:

And I'm like-

 

Haeny Yoon:

Which Timothy Chalamet has a lot of.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Chalamet has a rizz. And things that are sigma.

 

Haeny Yoon:

What does sigma mean? I've seen that on TikTok.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I think it's something like alpha.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Really great?

 

Nathan Holbert:

But do you need another word if you've already got... I don't know.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Can a person be sigma?

 

Nathan Holbert:

Oh yeah.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Oh, I see. Okay.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah. But I'm interested in what the kids are saying these days. Okay. That was our reflection on things we thought were great in 2024 or things we were intrigued by in 2024. But listen, a year ends and endings can be sad.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes. We're going to end with an in memoriam segment of Pop Off-

 

Nathan Holbert:

Pop Off.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Where we talk about things that metaphorically died in 2024.

 

Nathan Holbert:

This is where one of us sings a really high-pitched Sarah McLachlan song. All right, start us out.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Okay. I mean, obviously I wore my Taylor Swift Era's tour shirt because as we know, sadly, the Era's tour ended in 2024, which is going to be a very sad moment because I was really looking forward to seeing the Era's tour on TikTok a million different times and seeing Taylor get off the stage at 12 different angles.

 

Nathan Holbert:

In memoriam-

 

Haeny Yoon:

That was really sad.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Taylor Swift's tour

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah. And now we're not going to talk about her as much.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Oh, I'm sure we will talk about Taylor Swift plenty.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Well, we'll see. Jerry, you'll be out on that.

 

Nathan Holbert:

She still got the rizz.

 

Haeny Yoon:

That's true. Yes. There's one. What about you? What do you got?

 

Nathan Holbert:

I want to give a shout-out, RIP to the Conservative Party in the UK government.

 

Haeny Yoon:

You're going to give a shout-out to that?

 

Nathan Holbert:

I'm going to give a shout of boo and bye-bye-

 

Haeny Yoon:

Bye-bye.

 

Nathan Holbert:

To the Conservative Party. I was like, they were in power a really long time. They're no longer in power for now.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Mm-hmm.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Knock on wood.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes.

 

Nathan Holbert:

And when our own government is making me extremely sad, it's nice to know that there are occasionally bright spots out there in the world. In memoriam Conservative Party UK.

 

Haeny Yoon:

So serious, because my next one was Justin Timberlake's career.

 

Nathan Holbert:

You got to mix it up. Justin Timberlake's career.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes. For those of you who don't know, JT got a DUI, had his license suspended in Long Island, I feel like, and there's a lot of controversy over that. And he's also in concert. I don't know how that's doing, but my guess is his career has also been slowly dying since fo shiz happened. Shout out to Brittany.

 

Nathan Holbert:

No shiz, no shiz, no shiz.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah, no shiz. No rizz.

 

Nathan Holbert:

No rizz, no shiz.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I can't think of the last time I intentionally tried to seek out a Justin Timberlake song. I mean, I have liked many of Justin Timberlake song.

 

Haeny Yoon:

You didn't want to Bring Sexy Back,

 

Nathan Holbert:

But his career is gone. I'm just saying, I don't even feel the urge to be like, oh, I want to go listen to some JT. No.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Sorry, JT.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Bye.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Bye.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Also saying goodbye, a TV show that I like a lot, Girls5Eva.

 

Haeny Yoon:

That's a good show.

 

Nathan Holbert:

It's a good show. I think we talked about it on What's Poppin'?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Another frivolous silliness.

 

Nathan Holbert:

So silly, so funny. They had an extra season, I think, was it on Netflix? And now it's no more. Goodbye.

 

Haeny Yoon:

What other shows did we have to say goodbye to?

 

Nathan Holbert:

Did you ever watch What We Do In The Shadows?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Oh yeah. So good.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Goodbye, What We Do. And that show was so good.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah. You know what? I just finished What We Do In the Shadows.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Spoiler alert, sorry.

 

Nathan Holbert:

No, I haven't seen the last season. I still have-

 

Haeny Yoon:

Okay. I didn't know that it was ending.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Oh no?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Okay. I got to the last episode and I was like, what the heck is happening right now? I was very unpleasantly surprised.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I'm going to miss the crew.

 

Haeny Yoon:

I'm going to miss the crew too. They were so great. Anyway.

 

Nathan Holbert:

One last.

 

Haeny Yoon:

One last one, one that we have to shout out in memoriam, long lived, the Trashy Awards.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Trashy Awards.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Posted by [inaudible 00:13:26].

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah.

 

Haeny Yoon:

I actually went back and watched her Catching Kelsey Trashy and it was so good. She's so clever. She has good jokes, she has great timing. She talks about things that I'm interested in and it's very sad that that has died.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah. And it's all your all's fault for not watching it enough.

 

Haeny Yoon:

No, that's not why.

 

Nathan Holbert:

If you haven't seen them though, and if TikTok is still around whenever this episode comes out, go check them out, they're really delightful.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Watch all the Trashy Awards before they get off.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah. What was our TikTok account?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Popandplaypod.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Popandplaypod.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah. Go check them before they pass away.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah.

 

Nathan Holbert:

That was our memoriam section. Things that we'll be sorry or sometimes happy to see go.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Mm-hmm.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Bye-bye.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Bye-bye.

 

Nathan Holbert:

And lastly, before we wrap this episode, 2025, that is a year that feels like a freaking sci-fi number, right? It doesn't seem possible that we could be living in 2025.

 

Haeny Yoon:

It's already been very dystopian.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah. Oh, it's bad.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah.

 

Nathan Holbert:

It's bad. And we wanted to try to not be too dark where we were like, let's predict things that are going to happen in 2025 because then we would just be reading from Revelations.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Revelations. Turn to Revelations chapter five.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Just too bad, too dark. We want to end with things that we want to try in 2025, specifically new forms of play we want to attempt to explore in the [inaudible 00:14:59].

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah. And we want to talk about that because that's the whole point of our podcast, right? Well, you think there's possibility in play. There's always an opportunity to play. You don't have to wait until 2025 to decide that you're going to play more. That we can always think about what we can do to engage our creativity and our senses.

 

Nathan Holbert:

That's beautifully said, beautifully said. I know for you it's probably going to be immersive theater. You're going to really get into it.

 

Haeny Yoon:

No comment.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Last year I predicted you were going to get really involved in Baldur's Gate fan fiction.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah, no, that didn't happen either.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Didn't happen. Okay.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Well, what are you hoping to get into this year?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Okay. I thought of one silly thing that I'm going to be trying. I decided that I was going to make good outfits out of existing outfits and then see if people notice.

 

Nathan Holbert:

See if they notice.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Uh-huh. I'm going to change my style so much that people are going to be like, who are you?

 

Nathan Holbert:

Double takes.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah. That's my goal is I'm going to take all my existing clothes, figure out a new configuration of those existing clothes, and then see if people notice my style evolution.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I like it.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Mm-hmm.

 

Nathan Holbert:

I like the idea of us passing you in the hall and taking our glasses off and looking back.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Exactly.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Is that Haeny?

 

Haeny Yoon:

For all you listeners who might be seeing me, get ready to be delighted.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Get ready to see style rather than wear, right?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yes. What are you going to try?

 

Nathan Holbert:

I don't know. I was thinking I've always wanted to surf.

 

Haeny Yoon:

What?

 

Nathan Holbert:

Maybe I'll try to surf this year.

 

Haeny Yoon:

On the Hudson.?

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah. Hudson surfing behind a boat.

 

Haeny Yoon:

You're going to try to surf this year?

 

Nathan Holbert:

I'm going to try to surf this summer.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Very good. That

 

Nathan Holbert:

That seems fun, right?

 

Haeny Yoon:

Very good. Where are you going to do this surfing?

 

Nathan Holbert:

Probably in the ocean.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Okay. In the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean?

 

Nathan Holbert:

Probably the one that's right down the street from us as opposed to the one across the country.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Okay. I'm looking forward to this.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Yeah, I'll post pictures of me crashing.

 

Haeny Yoon:

I'll post pictures of my outfits.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Perfect. All right. Well I'm excited to survive 2025 with you. We're excited to start a new season of Pop and Play. We've been hard at work on the recording and the editing of the upcoming season and that should be coming out soon.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Look forward to that. Anything else we need to...

 

Haeny Yoon:

In the meantime, go back and revisit some old episodes that we have. Share with your friends.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Leave us some reviews. Leave us some comments. Yeah, check it out. There's some good stuff there. We've really worked hard. I hope you guys can enjoy what we're doing.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Yeah. Happy New Year.

 

Nathan Holbert:

Happy New Year. Bye.

 

Haeny Yoon:

Bye.