Kate Vlasek
Co-Host of Generation BSC: A Baby-Sitters Club Podcast
Kate grew up a Mary Anne who desperately wanted to be a Stacey. As an adult, she’s a Claudia/Shannon hybrid whose days are spent practicing law and whose evenings and weekends are spent making jewelry and purses in between walks with her dog, Indiana, and her husband. She would like to thank her mom for “loaning” all her BSC books to cousins when she was a child, as it resulted in the Friday afternoon eBay hunt and resulting purchase that inspired the creation of this podcast.
Kate Vlasek has hosted 102 Episodes.
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M03: Mallory and the Ghost Cat!
August 27th, 2024 | 1 hr 7 mins
mallory, mystery
We're wrapping up our season with our third mystery, this time focused on a mysterious white cat that might be a ghost or might not be a ghost or may be a reincarnated version of a cat referenced in the letters of a previous occupant. It's another mystery that might not be much of a mystery after all!
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Episode 051: Stacey's Ex-Best Friend!
August 13th, 2024 | 1 hr 24 mins
main series, stacey
Stacey is dealing with the realization that she and Laine have grown apart and what that means for their friendship after Laine comes to visit Stoneybrook. It's a difficult situation all around and our girls (including Laine) could've handled it better. And it all ends with a pretty brutal letter from Stacey to Laine, essentially calling it quits on their friendship and including her half of their best friends necklace. But hey, at least it's also Valentine's Day and Friday the 13th and there are a whole bunch of crushes going around! This includes a dance and a BSC-hosted event for all their babysitting charges.
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Episode 050: Dawn's Big Date!
July 30th, 2024 | 1 hr 12 mins
dawn, main series
Dawn's focused on Logan's cousin Lewis coming to visit because she needs to get a boyfriend (out of nowhere), but despite Lewis seemingly knowing and liking the real Dawn, she decides to change everything about herself, only to realize by the end of the book that she should just be herself. And in the B-plot this book, we have a huge content warning, as it deals with a new boy babysitting charge who is overweight and dealing with bullying and a terrible home situation. We discuss weight stigma, disordered eating, and our own personal experiences with both, so if these issues are difficult for you, you may want to skip this episode and join us again in two weeks.
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SS07: Snowbound!
July 16th, 2024 | 1 hr 45 mins
guest, super special
We're joined by artist extraordinaire, Rosie Shaw, to discuss the various adventures and misadventures of our girls when a snowstorm of the century hits Stoneybrook with tons of warning that no-one heeds. The parents make a lot of dubious choices when it comes to the girls and their predicaments, but it wouldn't be a BSC super special without some over-the-top occurrences!
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M02: Beware, Dawn!!
July 2nd, 2024 | 1 hr 10 mins
dawn, mystery
We're back with our new season and second mystery! The kids in Stoneybrook decide to elect Sitter of the Month, which goes about as well as usual when our girls compete, but this time there's someone playing pranks on all of them... except Kristy. There are many mysteries throughout that we discuss and unpack, but it's no mystery how excited we are to be back with all of you!
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EM026: Emergency Meeting - Announcing our next season!
June 11th, 2024 | 2 mins 12 secs
emergency meeting
Kate and Lauryn check in to provide an update on when our next season returns! We'll be back with new episodes starting Tuesday, July 2, with more episodes to follow every two weeks through July and August. We're so happy to be back and to share more books with all of you!
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EM025: Emergency Meeting - It's no April fool!
April 2nd, 2024 | 19 mins 57 secs
emergency meeting
Hello, friends!! Kate and Lauryn are checking in with you all after a long and unexpected break. We're here with an update on what's been going on, what we've been doing, and what we're planning for the future of Generation BSC. Long story short, we're in it for the long haul and will be back soon with our next season. We've missed you all and can't wait to get back into our discussions of our favorite group of babysitters!
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Re-Read 017: Mary Anne and the Bad Luck Mystery!
October 31st, 2023 | 1 hr 11 mins
kristy, main series
In honor of Halloween, we're doing a re-read episode where we revisit our discussion of Mary Anne and the Bad Luck Mystery - one of our first spooky books!
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Re-Watch 11: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season Two, Episode Four: Jessi and the Superbrat!
October 24th, 2023 | 44 mins 32 secs
emergency meeting, jessi, netflix series, rewatch
As promised after our discussion last week, we're revisiting our discussion of the Netflix series episode, Jessi and the Superbrat. We'll be back next week, on Halloween, with a Halloween-themed re-read episode and then our season finale will be on November 14 with more details about when we'll be back and about our Patreon.
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Episode 049: Claudia and the Genius of Elm Street!
October 10th, 2023 | 1 hr 7 mins
claudia, main series
Claudia gets a regular babysitting job with a genius child star named Rosie Wilder. Rosie's parents have done a real number on her and she spends all her time taking lessons, practicing, and working (and regurgitating lines from her parents about said career and her life generally). It's a real contrast with the home life of our Superbrat Derek Masters. Claudia ultimately connects with Rosie over drawing and they put on an art show together (where we see the junk food-inspired pop art that is classic Claudia). The girls all pitch in on the art show and babysitting Rosie on occasion and even Janine gets to be an honorary BSC member!
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Episode 048: Jessi's Wish!
September 26th, 2023 | 1 hr 44 secs
jessi, main series
It's the volunteering book! Jessi gets interested in volunteering at Stoneybrook Elementary to keep a club where the kids do good deeds in the community and brings the rest of the BSC along. The SES school club included a girl named Danielle who is recovering from leukemia and who connects with Becca, Charlotte, and Jessi and ends up with a BSC universe version of Make-A-Wish trip to Disney World. Jessi's Wish had so many opportunities to go so wrong, but it threaded the needle to a perfectly pleasant and quintessential BSC book. We really did enjoy this book and it resulted in one of our favorite conversations so far!
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Episode 047: Mallory on Strike!
September 12th, 2023 | 1 hr 7 mins
main series, mallory
Mallory is all about winning a writing competition at Stoneybrook Middle School for Young Authors' Day (that inexplicably has nothing to do with the 8th grade author projects from Mary Anne Misses Logan). Her inability to find time to work on her submission without constant interruption reveals just how far her parentification goes and she finally goes on strike. For one day... In usual BSC fashion, the conflict is resolved, but sadly it's an unsatisfying outcome for us.
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M01: Stacey and the Missing Ring!
August 29th, 2023 | 52 mins
mystery, stacey
It's our first mystery! And the biggest mystery for us going in was what our mystery episodes might look like and how they might be different from our regular series or super special episodes. Join us to find out just how different this might be as we discuss a so-called "mystery" that maybe isn't so much? Stacey's babysitting when a ring goes missing and the BSC springs into supportive and not-so-supportive action to figure out what might have happened.
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Re-Read! 038 - Kristy's Mystery Admirer!!
August 15th, 2023 | 1 hr 33 mins
kristy, main series
In honor of Kate's original Hodges Solieau artwork from this book, we're doing a re-read episode where we revisit our discussion of the book with our very special guest, Kelly Biscopink, co-host of It's a Clue (which returns with a new season this month)!
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Episode 046: Mary Anne Misses Logan!
July 25th, 2023 | 1 hr 3 mins
main series, mary anne
We were dreading the return of the Mary Anne and Logan ship, but it turns out Logan was kind of a non-entity considering his name is in the title, and Mary Anne is much more level headed and reasonable about missing him on their road to reconciliation. But what we missed in melodrama from Mary Anne, we made up for in spades with Cokie Mason antics, toilet monsters, group projects, and speeches in front of "famous" fake authors.
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Re-Watch 10: Emergency Meeting - Netflix Season Two, Episode Eight: Kristy and the Baby Parade!!
July 11th, 2023 | 1 hr 39 secs
emergency meeting, netflix series, rewatch
As promised in our last episode, we're revisiting our discussion of the series ( :( ) finale of the Netflix Baby-Sitters Club series to compare and contrast with the book, as we hadn't read the book before that episode aired and we discussed it. We'll see you in two weeks for our next regularly-scheduled episode!