Hello friends and subscribers! We're going on a brief production hiatus to put more work into all the structure behind the scenes that will keep Cringe Benefits running into the future. We'll see you in a few months! SPONSORS: Click here for your free 30-day trial with Audible! We are live on the Internet - come be our friend! Facebook: @CringeBene…

Buckle up and get ready to break 88: this week's episode's a lightning-fueled time warp to the glorious 80s and everyone's favorite feel-good franchise, Back to the Future. We're joined by activist and lawyer Brandt Kincaid to interrogate (ha) this classic time trip from all sides: why is it the best? Where did Crispin Glover go? Where did Tom Wils…

We're on a wee holiday break this week, but Cringe Benefits will be back with an all new episode next Monday! In the meantime, we wanted to wish you the very best of all possible things in the New Year. Support Sally's Surgery with Robin Campbell! Facebook: @CringeBenefits Twitter: @CringeBenefits Instagram: @cringebenefits Guest: Robin Campbell Tw…

How do you measure a show's worth of cringe? We do our best to find out in the thrilling conclusion to our two-part series on the musical that defined a generation of theater punks, "RENT." Last episode was all about what we loved then, but this week is all about what we know now: the moral weight of being a sellout, the deadly dogma of struggling …

This week we're joined by theater geek and musical theater expert Robin Campbell for long look at the catalyst of every theater kid's grunge phase, 90s musical RENT. You'll hear Part One of our thrilling conversation this week, in which we talk about the origins of the musical and its impact on us as people and artists, before turning our focus on …

Cringe Benefits is back with a visit from actor, comedian, and improvisational all-star Mike McShane to talk about a little bit of everything through the lens of the legendary lone vigilante, Batman. This episode cuts a wide swath through the dark history of America's mental health system and the Dark Knight's mental health, women in comics and wom…

Welcome back to the bayou for Part 2 of our conversation with Regina Renée Russell about Disney's failed foray into cultural diversity, The Princess and the Frog. On the docket this week: what Hollywood gets wrong about voodoo, Charlotte LaBoeuf and the troublesome trope of Good White People, the long history of Black characters as animals, and mor…

This week we are thrilled to welcome back friend of the pod Regina Reneé Russell for a deep dive into Disney's last hand-drawn movie musical The Princess and the Frog, and let us just warn you: it is worse than you remember it. This week we'll cover the empty spaces in the Disney Princess Cinematic Universe, the many missteps in the journey to the …

This week we Return to the Cringe with special guest Joe Raik and the conclusion of our conversation about The Lord of the Rings! Last week we leaned heavily on our love and affection, so of course this week will be a closer look at what parts of Middle Earth make us flinch: the narrative importance of blood purity, the flatness of the female chara…

Time to take a long expected journey with actor and director Joe Raik as we delve deep into JRR Tolkein's seminal masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. As is fitting a saga of this stature, we simply couldn't complete our quest in one episode. This week we'll start with our childhood memories, our favorite moments, and we'll just dip our toes in the …

Strap on your happy helmets, kids: you're gonna need them. This week, Abby is joined by actor, pop culture afficionado, and true crime nerd Nate Betancourt for a granular gaze at that iconic Nicktoon of the 1990s, Ren & Stimpy. Come with us for an extremely geeky discussion about the history of animation, the evolution of Nickelodeon, and the lasti…

In a world looking for sex-positive, feminism-forward entertainment, we couldn't help but wonder: was Sex in the City one giant step for women, or a giant leap back for womankind? To help us answer that question (spoiler: it's the second one), we're joined by Tsebiyah Mishael Derry, a poet, actor, singer, and New York native with more than a little…

This week, Abby is joined by actor, producer, and filmmaker Alexandra Goodman to discuss Kenneth Branagh's cinematic adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Join us for a rollicking romp through the Claudius conundrum, where we stand on Branagh v. Thompson (the answer should not surprise you), and of course, Keaton and Keanu. Supplement…

Welcome to the Hellmouth: actor Becca Musser is here with host Abby Wilde to take us through this forbidden favorite of both of their childhoods. What did we ever see in Xander Harris? What was going on behind the scenes? Can we agree that Willow Rosenberg is the best of all things? (We can.) And most of all: what does it mean to be a strong female…

When you're a theater kid, you're a theater kid all the way: this week, playwright and screenwriter Monet Hurst-Mendoza (The Kilroys, Law & Order: SVU) and I take a trip down memory lane in a redux of West Side Story. Turns out we have plenty to say about cultural misappropriation, truly terribly brownface, and some ham-fisted dramaturgical racism.…

Let the great race begin! This week I'm joined by author, playwright, and director Laura Pittenger for a breakneck journey through Jules Verne's classic novel, "Around the World in Eighty Days," with scenic detours through its adaptations for the screen and the PC. Join us as we traverse such exotic locations as, well, the white-gaze concept of "ex…

Cowabunga, dude! (I had to.) This week Abby is joined by guest Zev Hurwich of Aeaea Podcasting and HurwichCraft.com for a trip through time to the nostalgic 90s with your friends and mine, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Join us as we surf the sewers of unfortunate voice acting, comic book sexual politics, and bringing a katana to a gun fight. We…

This week, Abby is joined by New York-based actor, writer, and director Regina Renée Russell to follow their hearts through the 1994 Don Bluth classic, Thumbelina. The following interview includes but is not limited to discussions of stranger danger, Broadway legends, the distressing effects of perpetual damselment, and how fairy tales can indeed b…

This week Abby is joined by comedian, podcaster, and mental health writer Reed Brice to talk about Gen X comedy's Canadian bad boys, The Kids in the Hall. Join us for a brief dissertation on gender, queer identity, mental health, how jokes work and why they matter. Y'know: simple stuff. We are live on the Internet - come be our friend! Facebook: ht…

This week, Abby is joined by New York theater-maker Laurel Andersen to talk about that classic tale of pride (or is it prejudice?), You've Got Mail, a movie that's luckily managed to age a bit better than its titular technology. Join us as we parse this 90s rom-com's myriad problems with emotional infidelity, cutthroat capitalism, the only people o…

This week Abby is joined by Melissa Slaughter, a producer at Pineapple Street Studios and one of the hosts of the podcast, We're Not All Ninjas. Join them as they dive into the storybook world of 1980s home rental classic, The Princess Bride, where their journey will take them through the perilous lands of bad relationship models, brownface casting…