Every night, every car ride, every long walk, every study session, every bike ride and every relaxation-filled moment has been spent listening to How Did This Get Made?
How Did This Get Made? is a podcast that’s been out for 10 years where the hosts, Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael and Jason Mantzoukas watch terrible movies and discuss them live on the podcast. I discovered it when I was 15-years-old and going through the classic Mystery Science Theater 3000 show phase we all went through as 15-year-olds. I’m kidding, of course, I know we did not all go through this phase, but what can I say? While I was watching the comedians on Mystery Science Theater 3000 make hilarious commentary over some of the worst movies I had ever seen, I thought to myself, “Hm, this show could easily be a podcast too!” How exciting! I had finally thought of a way to fill every moment of my day with bad movie commentary. I picked up my phone and headed to Apple Podcasts to see if this idea I had was a reality, and that’s where I stumbled upon How Did This Get Made?
To know me is to know that there is nothing I love more than talking about movies. Which I’m sure you guessed from my 15-year-old desire to listen to other people talk about movies 24/7. I could, and have, talk about anything from the costumes in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, to the creation of the puppet in Jack Frost for hours. Nothing to me is more interesting than learning about how a movie got made. So, when I found a podcast that quite literally did just that, I also found my people.
Growing up, I never had anyone I could talk about my love of movies and media with. I wasn’t a part of any film communities online or a group of friends that enjoyed chatting about the history of the film industry. But I didn’t realize I was even missing that in my life until I started listening to How Did This Get Made?
How Did This Get Made? helped me find my voice. I’ve expanded my film knowledge and found something I’m passionate about and found people who were passionate about those things too. Not only has it given me a good laugh when I needed it most, but it has also given me a deeper appreciation of film that I have translated into a film minor, and further expansion of my film horizons. The media we engage with becomes part of who we are. It gives us community, passions, opportunities, creative outlets and a host of other possibilities we may not have ever considered for ourselves.
I couldn’t be more glad that How Did This Get Made? got made. When the podcast episode comes out about the movie I made about how I became one of the biggest film history nerds of all time, I will tell Paul, June and Jason that their podcast was my origin story.
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