Okay, I have to admit that I never understood the craze of podcasts. I’m a Gen-Z so of course I have a short attention span; meaning there is no way you could have me hooked by just listening to you talking about the same thing every week. This is exactly how I felt until about a year and a half ago when I saw a video come up on my YouTube “for you” page called, “Good Children: Episode 1: Meet You At The Mall”. I quite literally discovered my two favourite people in life, that I have never even met despite feeling like I’ve known them forever, Joe Hegyes and Andrew Muscarella. Ugh, they just sound like stars. Joe and Andrew are the hosts of the absolutely addicting and loveable comedy podcast, Good Children. They met at the age of four, nowhere else but at the pool of the Hard Rock Hotel. Two closeted gay boys who were THE good children in every situation grew by each other’s side, going through every phase possible together, and did not come out to one another until their early 20s, who created content left and right that would eventually grace our screens years later. This podcast covers anything and everything you would ever want to hear. Laugh, cry, smile, and scream while listening to Joe and Andrew share what it was like to grow up as the tattle tales and teacher’s pets, and never daring to do anything that a good child would not do. Through this podcast you are transformed right into their living room, tearing up from all the laughter.
Ah. Childhood trauma. We just love talking about that and eating it up. Despite the serious baggage that comes with it, Joe and Andrew find the perfect balance to joke about the terrible things we’ve all experienced, while also shedding light on so many issues that we can all identify with. What drew me in most about this podcast, other than the incredibly charming hosts, was their ability to be authentic right from the first 5 seconds of the very first episode. Despite Joe and Andrew being in their mid-20s, and experiencing their lives as gay men trying to figure out who they are, I, as a 19-year-old, straight girl, completely relate to almost everything they say. Growing up with a queer sister about their age, I consumed all the same media they did. As a fellow child who grew up chubby and fabulous, they completely blew my mind with all their relatable stories and content. They are truly telling my life story while broadcasting theirs. From reminiscing on the stress of asking your friend to get your towel at a pool party, so you could cover your body as you’re getting out of the water in 5th grade, to spending your days making YouTube videos that you would get miserably teased about, we survived a parallel existence!
Even though I am not a podcast person, this show is so much more than a podcast. It’s like reliving my childhood and having someone read my mind as they tell their own stories. The way they structure each episode and have a genuine conversation where you can feel their bond grow into an even closer friendship than they already have, is a beautiful thing to witness. I’ve recommended this podcast to so many of my friends because I just know that if you have a sense of humour and love nostalgia, you will eat this up. I listen to it everywhere: on my way to campus, when I’m cooking a sad dinner in my student house, while doing my makeup, and when I’m in bed, watching them laugh with each other.
Growing up as the quintessential “good child” who always needed to get the best grades, be the leader, have control, but also be known as the innocent and well-behaved child with the best manners who enjoyed talking with the parents at a birthday party more than the kids, I am so deeply rooted in their material that it’s almost like we’re carbon copies. I feel so seen and so do all the other Rachel Berry’s who constantly craved that gold star, but were genuinely hiding behind their insecurities. We would use our identity as “the good child” to feel like we were someone amidst the crowd of kids we grew up around. We so badly wanted to be cool, and we very much were, it’s just that no one knew it yet. Hearing Joe and Andrew talk about how badly they wanted Abercrombie & Fitch and how they could barely fit into it at 12, begging their moms for it, was so parallel to my relationship with Brandy Melville at the same age, simply because of what the cool kids had; of course, this is just 1 of many resemblances between our childhoods and early adolescent experiences.
I’m not even sure how you’re still reading this instead of being on a podcast platform, pressing play on that 1st first episode of Good Children right now, but get to it soon! From Andrew being in full drag as Cindy Lou Who and freaking out over someone being at their apartment front door, to Joe coming clean about his collection of hundreds of Webkinz, more people need to be spreading the message of Good Children, and I’ll gladly be one to do so. This podcast is, might I say, just perfect.