Click here to watch along to our YouTube Party Playlist featured in this episode!
Hello Gazers! Break out the bunting, inflate the balloons, and check the expiry date on the party snacks — The Problematic Gaze has officially reached its second birthday and 100th episode of our main show!
Broadcasting live from the grand ballroom of PG Manor (capacity: two hosts and a worrying number of themed playlists), we celebrate the milestone with listener questions, musical memories, and a journey through a YouTube mixtape that quickly reminds us just how strange popular culture used to be. Along the way we revisit songs that somehow made it onto the radio despite lyrics about underage romance, obsessive surveillance masquerading as love, and enough cultural appropriation to keep a university seminar busy for a fortnight.
The celebrations continue with a deep dive into controversial adverts from decades past, including chocolate campaigns that definitely wouldn't survive today's focus groups, aftershave commercials fuelled entirely by misplaced confidence, and drinks adverts that somehow became embedded in the national consciousness. As ever, nostalgia proves to be a dangerous place.
We also answer Gazers questions about how we choose topics, our favourite and least favourite episodes, standout performers from the films and television we've covered, dream movie-night selections, and what our lives look like away from the microphones. There are quick-fire dilemmas, unexpected revelations, reflections on coming out across different generations, and a heartfelt discussion about why we started the podcast and the wonderful community that has grown around it.
Plus: laughter, memories, occasional emotional sincerity, and enough birthday chaos to power us through the next hundred episodes. Thank you for listening, thank you for your support, and thank you for proving that being problematic is always better together.
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