We found 10 episodes of Generation BSC: A Baby-Sitters Club Podcast with the tag “main series”.
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Episode 014: Hello, Mallory
April 7th, 2020 | 1 hr 9 mins
main series, mallory
We’ve long been anticipating (or dreading) this day, but Mallory (and Jessi) has officially joined the BSC! Despite the end of the last book with Stacey’s invitation to Mallory to join, the BSC decides to put Mallory through increasingly unreasonable tests and trials before she quits. This one also includes Jessi moving to Stoneybrook, Mallory deciding they would be best friends (and making it happen), Jessi’s family being subjected to some straight-up bullshit racism, and the formation of a BSC copycat, Kids Incorporated (which yes, results in us singing the theme song of the show with the same name). As always, the BSC, old and new, come together by the end, learning in the process and taking the maybe too easy way out in combatting racism. In addressing the racism storylines in this book, we acknowledge our own privilege in examining and addressing the stories of minority and marginalized groups and appreciate the limited inclusion and attempts at addressing major issues while also examining the difficulty of separating problematic art from its historical perspective and (although not applicable here) the artists later revealed to be human garbage and discussing how this type of story might be better approached by an author writing today. On lighter, but still on-topic, notes, we spend a long time reeling in the discovery that Mallory describes herself (and her entire family) as having dark brown hair, questioning whether Claudia is left-handed, and taking a deep dive into what it is about horses and pre-teen girls. In a shocking twist, we have very few random tangents, particularly of note as you’d expect us to want to change the topic from Mallory as quickly as possible, given our past feelings on her.
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Episode 013: Good-bye Stacey, Good-bye
March 24th, 2020 | 1 hr 3 mins
main series, stacey
Fresh off their timeless summer vacation to the Bahamas and Disney World (timeline wonkiness, what?), the girls are promptly faced with the Stacey’s family’s departure from Stoneybrook to return to NYC. It’s a rough road, particularly for Claudia, but the girls face it with excellent modelling behavior for readers – as Lauryn puts it in the episode, scary things happen, but good things can come from scary things. We discuss the difficulty as a child (and sometimes an adult) to recognize that you can have two conflicting emotions or feelings at the same time, the interplay of “smartness” being a big part of your self-identity and instances of someone else being smarter than you, the difference between all the breadcrumbs we’ve had about Jeff’s impending departure and Stacey’s abrupt and swift move, and take a deep dive on the realities of Mrs. Porter. Tangents (both on- and off-topic) include: reality TV recent and not, garage sales, growing affection (?) for Mallory and Dawn, FOMO, colloquialisms, and the repeated use of “exotic” to describe Claudia.
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Episode 012: Claudia and the New Girl!
February 25th, 2020 | 1 hr 9 mins
claudia, main series
Claudia’s got a new friend, despite our insistence on no new friends. Ashley Wyeth moves to town and is a Serious Artist. Claudia is immediately enamored of her and starts spending all of her time with Ashley, completely ignoring the BSC, her babysitting charges, and Stacey, in particular. Lauryn initially gets excited about the first non-straight "romantic" crush in the series, which leads to a conversation and re-evaluation regarding crushes and friendships at that age and their emotional complexities. Kate redeems her memory when her prediction of this book was spot-on (but she doubles down that Eddie from her Ghost at Dawn’s House prediction will for sure be in Beware, Dawn!, Mystery #2). As always, we touch on plenty of TV references – this time including, but not limited to, The Good Place, Project Runway, and Buffy. Newbury Award winners that we know and love are discussed in an actually on-topic tangent and we sort of make predictions for the next two books. Clearly, we’re figuring out how Super Specials actually fit in! We touch on Benedict Arnold (with Lauryn being a supporter? maybe?), Banksy, what art is anyway, early 2000s fashion, possibly and definitely problematic descriptive words, and reaffirm #nonewpeeps.
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Episode 011: Kristy and the Snobs!
February 11th, 2020 | 1 hr 8 mins
kristy, main series
Kristy’s been living in her new neighborhood for months now and refuses to get to know anyone because they’re all snobs with a pool, multiple tennis courts, and a cook named Agnes. She’s forced out of her self-imposed isolation when the BSC starts advertising in her neighborhood and jobs with new families start coming in, which takes jobs from Kate’s favorite future associate member, Shannon Kilbourne (one of the aforementioned snobs). Kristy and Shannon have a prank war before finally becoming friends after Kristy’s dog Louie has to be put down. Yes, it’s another SUPER emotional book, this time one that completely came out of left field and floored us during reading (as it likely will in this description). We spend some time discussing dogs we love and loved, while also discussing growing into your “self” and feeling comfortable in your skin, quoting Homer Simpson, pondering the power of positive thinking (however that works for you), and obsessing over Amelia Bedelia. Also – we learn how to properly pronounce Mary Anne’s last name thanks to our listener Deanna!!
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Episode 010: Logan Likes Mary Anne!!
January 28th, 2020 | 1 hr 9 mins
main series, mary anne
There’s a new boy in school – Logan Bruno, fresh from Louisville, Kentucky – and Mary Anne has a crush! He crushes right back, surprising Lauryn, whose main reaction to Mary Anne consistently seems to be “her?” Discussion of the gender dynamics and “romantic” relationships at play in this book includes tangents (both related and wildly varied) about shy girl tropes, the ins and outs of talking to boys at that age, the on-going absence of Cokie Mason, and feeling left behind when your friends take steps you haven’t yet. We touch on shipping from a more global perspective and realize we were both unexpectedly here for it for #reylo in The Rise of Skywalker. Lauryn reveals her Jenny Prezzioso past and unintentionally (?) shades Kate’s styling abilities, while Kate manages to squeeze in multiple references to Kristy’s Mystery Admirer and identifies strongly with Mary Anne.
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Episode 009: The Ghost at Dawn's House!
January 14th, 2020 | 1 hr 8 mins
dawn, main series
Dawn, her love of scary stories, and her search for a hidden passage in her house (built in 1715) are the focus in this book and episode. No really, the main plot is all about Dawn and her search for and discovery of a hidden passage and then her slow revelation of its existence to her friends and family. We both acknowledge just how wrong our predictions about this one were (with the caveats that Kate’s is 100% a future Mystery book plot and Lauryn’s Underground Railroad thoughts may still be revealed to be accurate). Lauryn relays her tale of “accidental” library book theft and Kate sets everyone up for the terrifying revelation that horror movie characters are living lives just as normal as ours before the horror events kick in. Plenty of random tangents abound as always: repeated day movie/TV tropes, bad Christmas movies on demand, first class plane travel, nerdy dog names, and font design.
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Episode 008: Boy-Crazy Stacey!
December 31st, 2019 | 1 hr 10 mins
main series, stacey
The BSC is separated for the last two weeks of the summer for conveniently-timed vacations, including a trip to Sea City for Stacey and Mary Anne, as they travel with the Pike family as mother’s helpers. Stacey falls in LUV while shirking her babysitting responsibilities, while Mary Anne gets her first (somehow?) sunburn to deal with while covering for Stacey. We discuss first crushes and LUV and maturity generally along with navigating the ins and outs of nurturing friendships and romantic relationships simultaneously. Kate gets her first major soapbox moment with a discussion of sunscreen and Lauryn gives us some insight into her quintessential 7th/8th grade crush. We each reveal our irrational fears derived from early childhood movie-viewing (sharks for Kate and birds for Lauryn) and yet again question some of Stacey’s sartorial (along with life) choices.
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Episode 007: Claudia and Mean Janine!
December 17th, 2019 | 1 hr 12 mins
claudia, main series
Claudia and Janine just don’t seem to get each other after some backsliding since their personal and relationship growth in Phantom Phone Calls. Things come to a head after Mimi has a stroke (completely blindsiding Kate and Lauryn in their reread). We discuss our experiences with siblings and grandparent health issues and spoiler alert, find ourselves unexpectedly, but solidly, on Team Janine (except when it comes to correcting grammar and speaking like a walking thesaurus in certain situations). There is some debate over how best to pronounce Reese’s Pieces and we again find ourselves questioning Stacey’s sartorial choices. Seriously - we clearly just accepted what the other girls said about her while disregarding the outfit descriptions!
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Episode 006: Kristy's Big Day!
December 3rd, 2019 | 1 hr 4 mins
kristy, main series
Kate and Lauryn take on the wedding industrial complex when Kristy's mom and Watson have to move their Fall wedding up because of "reasons"... In addition, there's the $3 per hour that the BSC members are making for babysitting fourteen children for like 40 hours in one week leading up to the wedding? There are lots of feelings, but of a much more positive variety than last episode! And spoiler alert - Kristy's super on board not only with being a bridesmaid but with the dress and flowers in her hair that go with it. We were way off in our predictions! Shocking, but true!
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Episode 005: Dawn and the Impossible Three!
November 19th, 2019 | 57 mins 20 secs
main series, mary anne
After becoming the Alternate Officer of the BSC, Dawn takes on primary responsibility for babysitting the so-called “Impossible Three” Barrett children. There are very problematic aspects of this story and WE. HAVE. FEELINGS. The continuing discussion on maturity takes an extreme turn in this episode due to the negligent and borderline absentee parenting by Mrs. Barrett. We recognize our prior mistaken overlooking of Claudia’s race and look forward to our future opportunities to bring other perspectives into our conversations. On a lighter note, Kate and Lauryn wrap up the episode with a discussion their favorite babysitting charges, Jackie Rodowsky and Jamie Newton in particular for both and Charlotte Johansson for Kate.