Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and welcome to Stephane.
Speaker 2: Never told your production of iHeartRadio, and today we have
Speaker 2: a very special recording for you for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 1: First off, Samantha is away.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna talk about it more in a second, but
Speaker 2: she is on a birthday trip. She is better from COVID,
Speaker 2: but she's on a birthday trip. But that means that
Speaker 2: my good friend Lauren and coworker Lauren, who is on
Speaker 2: the Savorite podcast with me, is filling in on what
Speaker 2: is quite an interesting experience we're having right now. We'll
Speaker 2: talk about it in a second, but welcome Lauren to Spinty.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you, yes, Hi, Hello. I am so glad
Speaker 3: to be here in this bizarre circumstance with you.
Speaker 2: You you stepped up because we got asked to go
Speaker 2: on this work trip to Las Vegas where we are
Speaker 2: recording live from the iHeart Podcast studio powered by Bows
Speaker 2: at the House of Music at the iHeartRadio Music Festival.
Speaker 2: And it's like a booth in the middle of a
Speaker 2: music festival.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and we have like this cool just just
Speaker 3: just plexiglass door, so it feels like an action figure box.
Speaker 3: It does can just kind of like stare at us
Speaker 3: and take pictures. Yeah, which makes me, as a podcaster
Speaker 3: who does this in my house with my cat, very comfortable.
Speaker 4: This is completely natural.
Speaker 1: Right, very natural.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I'm looking at right now and trying
Speaker 2: not to think too much about it. But we are
Speaker 2: very excited to have you. Thank you so much for
Speaker 2: volunteering to talk about this.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna have fun. We're gonna have fun.
Speaker 3: Oh, we certainly are. If it had been any other topic,
Speaker 3: I might have been like, you know, you.
Speaker 1: Do that one by yourself.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so we're here for the iHeart Music Festival
Speaker 2: and we've had a good time. We've had a good time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but it's been a whirlwind. And yeah, Samantha is away.
Speaker 2: Her birthday is September twenty sixth, which happens to be
Speaker 2: the last.
Speaker 1: Of us day. She always makes fun of me when
Speaker 1: I point that out.
Speaker 2: But that got me thinking, like, what could we talk
Speaker 2: about that would be in that kind of horror realm,
Speaker 2: all right, you know I don't need an excuse to
Speaker 2: talk about stuff like that, zero percent, right, But I
Speaker 2: was like, what could it be? And then I was
Speaker 2: thinking what could it be that would fit with you
Speaker 2: and it wouldn't be too much research. And then I
Speaker 2: realized the thirtieth anniversary of the X Files.
Speaker 3: Oh, which makes me feel very old, but in a
Speaker 3: really fun way.
Speaker 1: Yes, well, I'm glad for that. And so I was
Speaker 1: just like, I feel the.
Speaker 2: X Files and we're going to talk about this has
Speaker 2: come up in so many of our episodes when that
Speaker 2: wasn't the topic, that wasn't the case that was really
Speaker 2: looking into, because.
Speaker 3: You've done a couple on purpose, like you did one
Speaker 3: about Scully like in general as like a fictional lady human,
Speaker 3: and then you did one with Bridget about yeah, the
Speaker 3: Scully effects and science effect.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, and we will talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 1: But it just kept coming up, and I was so
Speaker 1: intrigued by that.
Speaker 2: I was so interested in why it is that I'm
Speaker 2: looking into the history of shipping and I'm learning about
Speaker 2: X Files, or I'm looking into the history of fan
Speaker 2: fiction and I'm learning about X file.
Speaker 3: And as your listeners probably know, you're not talking about
Speaker 3: like ground to air shipping, like you're talking about like
Speaker 3: fan fiction shipping.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But hilariously enough, Samantha did think that's what we.
Speaker 1: Were talking about.
Speaker 2: The shipping so, Samantha, I love you.
Speaker 4: That's amazing, that's so cool.
Speaker 1: Oh geez. She was like, what are we talking about
Speaker 1: ground No, honey, No. So I thought it would just.
Speaker 2: Be fun when we're here in Las Vegas, we're in
Speaker 2: this very interesting setup if we could have a conversation
Speaker 2: about both how this show impacted the Internet, because, as
Speaker 2: I've said a million times I'll say it again, in
Speaker 2: this probably when we're talking about fan fiction, when we're
Speaker 2: talking about fans spaces, a lot of that is women,
Speaker 2: non binary people, yeah, queer people. So I think it
Speaker 2: is if anyone's like, why is this on a feminist show?
Speaker 1: I think that that is enough to be worth talking about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but also the impact of Scully specifically.
Speaker 1: But I just think it.
Speaker 2: Would be fun for you and me, who liked the
Speaker 2: show but have different perspectives, to discuss.
Speaker 1: This thirtieth anniversary.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's fine, I'm fine with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I Also, Samantha made it very clear that we
Speaker 2: have a book that we're trying to sell. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: the STUFFMA never told you book, And there is a
Speaker 2: bunch of stuff about Scully in there.
Speaker 1: So oh heck, yeah, okay, yeah, yes, yeah, okay, But
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 2: Let's just I feel like sometimes do you ever feel
Speaker 2: this way, Lauren, where you know something so well you
Speaker 2: feel like you don't have to explain it absolutely, but
Speaker 2: you're not sure or if maybe no one else knows
Speaker 2: what you're talking.
Speaker 3: I yes, I feel that exact way about the X Files. Okay, great,
Speaker 3: and so I kind of try to. I feel like
Speaker 3: I overcompensate by overexplaining it.
Speaker 4: Actually, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yes, I am in the same boat. But so that
Speaker 2: being said, I am not going to give a big.
Speaker 1: Explainer of the X Files.
Speaker 2: That would take way too long and that's not really
Speaker 2: what this is about. But I will tell you a
Speaker 2: brief summary.
Speaker 3: Great, short, perfect, Yeah, let's ground ourselves in reality before
Speaker 3: we go completely bonkers.
Speaker 1: Love it. The truth is out there.
Speaker 2: The X Files is a sci fi paranormal television show
Speaker 2: that debuted in nineteen ninety three, and it follows the
Speaker 2: believer Fox Molder played by David Duchovney and the skeptic
Speaker 2: Danas Scully played by Jillian Anderson, their FBI agents that
Speaker 2: are assigned to the X Files, which is sort of
Speaker 2: a catch all for weird paranori one strange cases that
Speaker 2: pretty much know when else what Molder wants to work on.
Speaker 1: Would you add anything else to that description?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: His nickname around uh the FBI campus is Spooky Fuss
Speaker 3: Spooky Molder, So that pretty much tells you what you
Speaker 3: need to know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's like in a basement, like in the dark.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, it like it like used to be
Speaker 2: the copy room.
Speaker 3: Yes, uh and yeah, and then Scully gets called a Dana.
Speaker 3: Scully gets called in to basically like tattle on him.
Speaker 1: Right, That's how it starts. She's supposed to be the
Speaker 1: one that's.
Speaker 4: Like, yeah, and she is a skeptic.
Speaker 1: She is, she is.
Speaker 2: And again, if this was a different episode, we could
Speaker 2: talk about she has doesn't she have? She wears wears
Speaker 2: a cross? Yeah, and there's a whole arc examining absolutely
Speaker 2: her faith.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: But when this came out, I read a lot of
Speaker 2: articles that were like, it was not set up to
Speaker 2: be successful.
Speaker 1: It was it was.
Speaker 2: Coming out of Friday Nights, I believe, which is sort
Speaker 2: of known as the Death Sway. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Even the creator, Chris Carter, definitely didn't think it was
Speaker 3: going to get more than one season. He was epically
Speaker 3: unprepared for that happening, and was kind of like scrambling.
Speaker 3: He was like, oh more, really, I wasn't this plot
Speaker 3: arc doesn't make any sense?
Speaker 2: Really, Okay, sure figure out.
Speaker 3: So if you've ever thought that the mythark, if you're
Speaker 3: a watcher of the X Files and you've ever thought
Speaker 3: that the mythark is very silly, that's maybe the reason why.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, what a fascinating mindset to be like,
Speaker 2: this is definitely gonna fail.
Speaker 1: Oh whoa, oh no, what do I do now?
Speaker 2: But one of the interesting things the Xiles came out
Speaker 2: during third wave feminism, and it was very there was
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff happening, yeah, in this sphere. And
Speaker 2: one of the interesting things about Scully, who we're going
Speaker 2: to talk about a lot in this, is that she
Speaker 2: was the skeptic. She was playing against kind of stereotypical
Speaker 2: gender type.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And according to Chris Carter, who was the creator of
Speaker 2: the series, he was like immediately he wanted to cast her,
Speaker 2: but the network was like.
Speaker 1: They want they wanted a bombshell and apparently they wanted
Speaker 1: Pamela Anderson.
Speaker 4: I love this. I love this alternate universe in which
Speaker 4: that happened.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: I mean, okay, first of all, I am personally offended
Speaker 3: that anyone would say that Gillian Anderson is not a bombshell, right,
Speaker 3: she is a beautiful lady.
Speaker 4: There's that episode.
Speaker 3: There's an image that lives in my mind permanently, and
Speaker 3: thank thanks the universe for it for living. There is
Speaker 3: the moment in an episode of Hannibal season three.
Speaker 4: When she is swaning through.
Speaker 3: An Italian palazzo and she is just a divine creature,
Speaker 3: just absolutely hecking gorgeous, and I'm just like, so so
Speaker 3: a but b yeah, what a gift that the network
Speaker 3: was that wrong, and the Chris Carter fought back.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Also Carter said he didn't want romance between Molder and Scully.
Speaker 1: We are going to be talking about that a lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it didn't turn out that way, I guess,
Speaker 3: but uh no.
Speaker 2: And so this is one of the interesting things and
Speaker 2: we're about to get into this. I have seen all
Speaker 2: the X Files, if you've listened to the other episodes
Speaker 2: we've done of the X Files, though my memory is
Speaker 2: not great.
Speaker 1: Lauren is here to help me.
Speaker 4: A little bit yet.
Speaker 3: Well, okay, so I've I haven't watched past season six
Speaker 3: with any regularity. There there are there are what nine
Speaker 3: original seasons, and then they came back and did two
Speaker 3: shorter one ten eleven, like twenty years later. Yep, two movies,
Speaker 3: two movies. I saw the first movie. I don't think
Speaker 3: I ever bothered seeing the second one. So up through
Speaker 3: season like six, I have a near like photographic memory
Speaker 3: because I watched these episodes over and.
Speaker 1: Over and over and over and over again.
Speaker 3: In a way that only like an eleven year old
Speaker 3: with no job can do. There's nothing but like a
Speaker 3: VHS and nothing else going on.
Speaker 2: So yeah, interesting, did you record them?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yes I did? Okay, yes, I hecking did.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I'm going to pick your brain about this
Speaker 2: in the second Okay, yes, I would love to talk
Speaker 2: about that. But yes, there was this whole idea of
Speaker 2: Scully being kind of the more lot skeptical one, which
Speaker 2: was near.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, and and her being right like her being
Speaker 3: the scientist like Moulder is kind of the like impassioned
Speaker 3: creative ideas guy, and she's the one going like really, Molder,
Speaker 3: but yeah, like she's the one constantly having to to
Speaker 3: like check him and like be like could we bring
Speaker 3: logic to this conversation literally at all, and him usually
Speaker 3: going we know, but uh, but yeah, because like Molder
Speaker 3: is an absolute mess, like and this is known from
Speaker 3: like the first episodes, like he is just Zany is
Speaker 3: putting it kindly and like he definitely I think within
Speaker 3: the first uh season, he's like observed to have a
Speaker 3: little bit of a like poor an addiction of what yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: he's wow. He's like calling sex lines like his yeah,
Speaker 3: like he is completely incapable of having a relationship with
Speaker 3: a real human woman. He's frequently through these episodes the
Speaker 3: damsel in distress that Scully has to come save. Uh
Speaker 3: and like Scully has her hack in life together like
Speaker 3: like she is, I mean until she meets Molder.
Speaker 4: And then she kind of gets drecked.
Speaker 1: Is Molder? Is Molder a manic pixie dream boy? Oh
Speaker 1: oh okay that that warn't some thought?
Speaker 2: Uh now something else you said? Because you when I
Speaker 2: gave you this assignment and you kindly stepped up. You
Speaker 2: have been rewatching some old episodes I have.
Speaker 3: I've been watching like all of my favorite like season
Speaker 3: one through season three episodes this week.
Speaker 4: And it's it's honestly holds up. It's okay, I'm.
Speaker 3: Biased, Like I have no I have no way to
Speaker 3: be unbiased about this show because I loved it so
Speaker 3: hard and so much when I was a tiny child,
Speaker 3: or like it like a teenager, which is the same thing.
Speaker 3: No offense to any teenagers out there right now. I
Speaker 3: was certainly a tiny child during that time. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I feel like it holds up. I feel like it
Speaker 3: really Like the writing is sharp. David Deevney and Gillian
Speaker 3: Anderson are both doing a bang up job.
Speaker 4: All of the.
Speaker 3: Random side characters are doing interesting things, like they're making
Speaker 3: interesting choices and some of the like, yeah, like I
Speaker 3: was picking and choosing episodes very carefully. Okay, my favorite
Speaker 3: My favorite are four that were written by this one writer,
Speaker 3: Darren Morgan. He's the little brother of Glenn Morgan, who's
Speaker 3: one of the director producers of the series.
Speaker 4: And from the.
Speaker 3: Beginning, he was like, please let me write for this show.
Speaker 3: This seems so cool, it's right up my alley. And
Speaker 3: Glenn was like, nah, but if you want to get
Speaker 3: in this rubber Flukeman costumes and sit in a pool
Speaker 3: for ten hours to film the Flukeman.
Speaker 4: Episode, then you can do that. And he said yes.
Speaker 3: And then either later later in the first season or
Speaker 3: maybe at the beginning of the second season, he's got
Speaker 3: to start writing, and he wrote my four favorite episodes,
Speaker 3: uh huh, which are Humbug Hosehns from Outer Space, War
Speaker 3: of the kaffer Phages, and Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose. Oh
Speaker 3: great titles, right, yeah, and they're like they're like the
Speaker 3: funny episodes, like they're they're definitely making fun of the
Speaker 3: tropes that X Files has already set up, right and
Speaker 3: like really playing with like how silly and funny these
Speaker 3: situations can be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that was another thing you pointed out, was
Speaker 2: that this is a if you haven't seen it, and
Speaker 2: I'm always interested when people discover things late or they're
Speaker 2: younger and they discover it after it's long been off
Speaker 2: the air, that it's a genre show where like you
Speaker 2: get all.
Speaker 1: Kinds of things in it.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's like one is very scary, one is funny,
Speaker 2: one is a cops like sad time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's not I mean like right, like like
Speaker 3: there's usually some kind of supernatural, paranormal kind of kind
Speaker 3: of element to it, but other than that, they're really
Speaker 3: allowed to be either dramatic or funny, or rite or
Speaker 3: horrifying or horrifying in different ways, Like you might go
Speaker 3: body horror one episode and then have a totally different
Speaker 3: like jump scare kind of horror and another.
Speaker 4: One, and it's just like what they're up to. And
Speaker 4: I love the idea.
Speaker 3: Of that writer's room being so open and so free
Speaker 3: to be able to do that, and I think that's
Speaker 3: part of why it was such a good show.
Speaker 2: It was and it resonated with a lot of people,
Speaker 2: and we're going to talk about that, and it resonated
Speaker 2: with meeting Lauren. So I thought we would go into
Speaker 2: sort of our personal experiences here.
Speaker 4: Okay, yes, yep, yep, ER's so yes.
Speaker 2: As I've discussed before several times, I have a very
Speaker 2: bad track record of not listening to my parents when
Speaker 2: they would tell me not to watch them, and then
Speaker 2: it turns out they were right.
Speaker 1: I probably shouldn't have watched something.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 1: They knew you. They were like, yeah, you just shouldn't
Speaker 1: do that.
Speaker 2: So I had been told I shouldn't watch it, I
Speaker 2: really wanted to watch it, and I snuck in and
Speaker 2: watched it, and I would like watch it. I would
Speaker 2: time it because it would come on there would be
Speaker 2: reruns on Sundays at like three am and I would like.
Speaker 1: Play it really low when I get close to the TV.
Speaker 2: And yeah, they found out because I started having nightmares
Speaker 2: and They're like, where is this coming from?
Speaker 1: And I was like like, oh no, They're.
Speaker 2: Like, how did you hear of Killer be I was
Speaker 2: like the news, terrible.
Speaker 1: Liar, I'm a terrible liar. Wow, there is a killer
Speaker 1: episode every Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I was banned for a while, but eventually the
Speaker 2: band was lifted and I was allowed to watch again.
Speaker 1: And I would watch it with my friend of the phone.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, totally totally in the day of like
Speaker 3: corded phone ye, like yeah, yep.
Speaker 1: And we would cheat.
Speaker 2: Her satellite connection was a little bit better than mine.
Speaker 2: She I would hear her gasp and I'd be like
Speaker 2: what and then a secondard like oh well, it was
Speaker 2: so fun. Yeah. And this is also I've told the
Speaker 2: story a million times. I didn't have the language for
Speaker 2: it at the time, but this is when I realized
Speaker 2: probably gay, oh.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a little bit, a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that wasn't I didn't realize certainly at the time,
Speaker 3: right right, like I was eleven, it was nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 4: I didn't have the linguistics.
Speaker 1: For this yet.
Speaker 4: But uh.
Speaker 3: But in college when I realized I'm by, I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: Molder and Scully. Of course, why didn't I see this before? Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's like in retrospect, I'm like duh, like what like?
Speaker 3: But but that was like the one example that I
Speaker 3: would like people would be like what really like like
Speaker 3: what I had kind of like my coming out to
Speaker 3: my friends. I think this is actually the first time
Speaker 3: I've ever come out on a podcast. So welcome, welcome
Speaker 3: to welcome, thank you. Yeah yeah, but right, like like
Speaker 3: I like, people would be like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 3: And I would be like Molder and Scully, right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: and it would be like really, I'm like, yeah, I
Speaker 3: don't know, man, how I feel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was I just remember because I think I
Speaker 2: was in seventh grade when I realized and I was
Speaker 2: just watching it, and again I didn't have the language
Speaker 2: that I was just.
Speaker 1: Like, I have an interest here something.
Speaker 2: I feel the same way about these two characters.
Speaker 1: And we're not alone because that there is essays.
Speaker 2: There are essays you can find about how quote Jillian
Speaker 2: Anderson Danis Scully made me gay From the nineties, She's
Speaker 2: jaking jokingly referred to as the gateway lesbian of choice.
Speaker 4: She's a good one.
Speaker 1: Come on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and those pantsuits, let's go.
Speaker 1: I know she made them look very sharp. Oh she did.
Speaker 2: I have a whole theory about this, and we can't
Speaker 2: get into it, but I feel like it's sort of
Speaker 2: the when people are not conforming to their stereotypical genders,
Speaker 2: people are like like, wait a minute, interesting, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yes, but that was my experience, what about you, Laura?
Speaker 3: So right, So so this show started coming out when
Speaker 3: I was eleven, and I was immediately hooked. My dad
Speaker 3: didn't want my dad didn't like spooky things, so he
Speaker 3: never wanted to be watching it. Like I couldn't watch
Speaker 3: it with him in the room, but which is part
Speaker 3: of why I started videotaping it. But yeah, but I was.
Speaker 3: He was totally like, yeah, do whatever you want, kid,
Speaker 3: But no, I was.
Speaker 4: I was obsessed. I was very obsessed.
Speaker 1: I was like.
Speaker 3: It it was sort of my whole personality for a while,
Speaker 3: like that level, and it was very intense. It was
Speaker 3: an intense love but like like to like to the
Speaker 3: point that I definitely I was. I was on the
Speaker 3: yearbook staff. If that wasn't already clear to anybody, uh,
Speaker 3: and because I was on the eearbook staff, we could
Speaker 3: have basically whatever we wanted printed on the front of
Speaker 3: the book instead of our name. And if my my
Speaker 3: my senior year yearbook definitely says Lauren to Coveney.
Speaker 1: On the cover. Wow, I'm so happy to have learned this.
Speaker 3: I am very embarrassed. But it's okay. It's just okay,
Speaker 3: it's okay, that's fine.
Speaker 2: You know about my first emails, Angel come on, so
Speaker 2: I loved Nea from the Matrix.
Speaker 1: It's all right.
Speaker 3: Also, Neo and Trinity come on.
Speaker 1: It's right there. Oh gosh, you're so right anyway.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so's so right.
Speaker 3: So I kind of fell off watching around season six
Speaker 3: to seven. I think partially because like I went to
Speaker 3: school and I didn't have a TV access really anymore,
Speaker 3: but partially because like the show was going through these changes,
Speaker 3: like the first movie had come out between seasons five
Speaker 3: and six, and David Coveney had the show moved to
Speaker 3: la they had been previously filming in Vancouver, and just
Speaker 3: the whole palette of the show change, and like a
Speaker 3: lot of the crew was different, like I don't know,
Speaker 3: the feel was different. And then yeah, d Coveny took
Speaker 3: some time off and they had different characters in there,
Speaker 3: and I was like, I don't care about this, which
Speaker 3: is sad or I mean it certainly was at the time,
Speaker 3: like it kind of broke my heart.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you love something so much and then its
Speaker 2: just it either because you don't like this how it's
Speaker 2: going anymore, it's just move on.
Speaker 1: It's sad. I hear you. I watched all of it.
Speaker 1: I was definitely sad when David Ducopney left.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I love Robert Patrick, who played agent Doggett,
Speaker 3: who stepped in as a skeptic to Scully's believer.
Speaker 5: Yeah, interestingly, Yes, Oh my gosh, I just want to
Speaker 5: pick your brain about some plot point stuff because oh gosh, Okay.
Speaker 2: Just a couple of specific things, because like I said,
Speaker 2: you you have been watching stuff, and I my memory,
Speaker 2: even though I've watched it all, I have very specific,
Speaker 2: clear memories of certain things and nothing else.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, but one of the big things I do
Speaker 2: remember is the pregnancy arc with Scully, and I didn't
Speaker 2: you know there was like kind of a real life
Speaker 2: thing going on as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so so what happened with this was in
Speaker 3: season five It's revealed that Scully had had a baby
Speaker 3: while she was Alien abducted back in season two during
Speaker 3: the episodes Duanne Barry and Ascension, which are two of
Speaker 3: the episodes that I just watched.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, research this is like extra nerdy for me.
Speaker 1: I love it. You're in a place.
Speaker 3: But but but right, the whole abduction thing was written
Speaker 3: in because Jillian Anderson was pregnant in real life and
Speaker 3: she had to go have a baby. And the episodes
Speaker 3: leading up to this, like her coats keep getting bigger,
Speaker 3: and like her costumes keep getting billowyer and like yeah,
Speaker 3: and then and then she had she she goes, she
Speaker 3: has the baby. She's off the show for like maybe
Speaker 3: like one episode, and then she comes back and you know,
Speaker 3: the plot of this is that she's coming back from
Speaker 3: being from having disappeared for a period of time, and
Speaker 3: she's like lying in a hospital and I swear to heck,
Speaker 3: they must have like built up her boobs to like
Speaker 3: hide the pregnancy stomach, like and because because she's a
Speaker 3: slight little lady.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and those booms are huge. I mean it could
Speaker 1: be it could be her milk could come in.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure.
Speaker 3: I wasn't there, but it definitely looked hilarious. Okay, anyway,
Speaker 3: uh yeah, so so so right, So they bring in
Speaker 3: this this this plotterarc in season five, it turns out
Speaker 3: that the baby had been adopted out, and then I
Speaker 3: think the child died shortly after that. Scully is at
Speaker 3: the time pronounced infertile, but then definitely has a baby
Speaker 3: in season eight, some kind of like miracle baby that
Speaker 3: I guess has psychic powers.
Speaker 4: I didn't watch that part.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I guess it's I guess it's Moulder's child. I thought
Speaker 2: it was, but then I thought it was an alien chap.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's all.
Speaker 4: Maybe it's both. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, she
Speaker 4: has that.
Speaker 3: Smalls be the alien thing going on, so she could
Speaker 3: have weird DNA in there.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know her life. That's true.
Speaker 2: I actually am fascinated and I want to come back
Speaker 2: to at some point the depiction of pregnancy and horror.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yes, I love this.
Speaker 2: I love this.
Speaker 3: I will come back and talk about this literally anytime.
Speaker 3: I love so much that, like the one admittance that
Speaker 3: we get from dudes in Hollywood that being female might
Speaker 3: suck is all of these horror pregnancy tropes.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, anyway, in every.
Speaker 2: Horror you're like, oh you're pregnant, Oh no, oh no.
Speaker 3: Or when like a dude is pregnant in whatever way,
Speaker 3: like an alien or something like that.
Speaker 4: How completely horrifying it.
Speaker 2: It's horrifying trade Yes, exactly, exactly. Well another day, Yeah,
Speaker 2: something else you mentioned that I uh didn't pick up
Speaker 2: on when I was watching this is how Scully is
Speaker 2: kind of depicted as a foil.
Speaker 1: There's other women that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, so okay, So so like the principal cast
Speaker 3: of the show is really like Scully and a bunch
Speaker 3: of dudes. It's basically all dudes and Scully, but like
Speaker 3: like there's there's lady characters in like episode to episode,
Speaker 3: and and I remember them all being you know, if
Speaker 3: anyone has watched more of it more more recently than me,
Speaker 3: like check me if I'm wrong, but I remember them
Speaker 3: always being written as like people like imagine that.
Speaker 1: Like whoa I know, right?
Speaker 4: You know, like occasionally.
Speaker 3: Episodes would be centered around yeah, like like using speculative
Speaker 3: fiction to create metaphors around lady issues of one kind
Speaker 3: or another, which we're probably a little bit too on
Speaker 3: the nose.
Speaker 4: But yeah, but that's okay. Uh certainly.
Speaker 3: One one standout side random lady character for me is
Speaker 3: doctor Banby Barrenbaum, the name alone, who is an entomologist. Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm saying the right one. It's bugs, not words. Yeah, entomologist.
Speaker 3: Y's great and yeah she her parents were both naturalists.
Speaker 3: That's why she has the name Bamby. Oh okay, okay,
Speaker 3: but she is this lovely, kind of bucksome woman who
Speaker 3: Molder meets in one of my favorite episodes, Where Are
Speaker 3: the Copper Pages in season three, and he has he's
Speaker 3: he has a total crush on her. He's like, goofy, yeah,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, the whole thing, the whole thing, and she's
Speaker 3: talking about cockroaches and he hates bugs and like so
Speaker 3: it's very funny but like but like also, like Scully
Speaker 3: is like trying to get a hold of him while
Speaker 3: he's trying to get his game on, and at one
Speaker 3: point he just answers the phone and goes like not
Speaker 3: now and.
Speaker 1: Hangs it right back. Oh my good.
Speaker 3: So when Scully finally meets her, like Scully is very snippy,
Speaker 3: which which I didn't which I get was like funny,
Speaker 3: but I don't appreciate the writing if I hate the
Speaker 3: trope of like ladies hate other ladies, especially when there's
Speaker 3: a love interest possibly involved, right, especially because they were
Speaker 3: not even in a relationship at that point except in
Speaker 3: my mind.
Speaker 2: Right, oh my gosh, we're gonna talk about this in
Speaker 2: the shipping part.
Speaker 1: But I feel like that's yeah, that's what are you
Speaker 1: doing at that point? Right? Yeah, come on?
Speaker 3: But that was that was the thing, Like, like that
Speaker 3: I was certainly noticing going back through, Like they start
Speaker 3: acting like an old married couple pretty much immediately, and
Speaker 3: certainly when she gets abducted in season two, like it
Speaker 3: is clear that Mulder would kill or die for this lady,
Speaker 3: Like he is just completely it's sort of like a
Speaker 3: Zara fl In Crowley and uh yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah that's so again, Lauren.
Speaker 2: You I'm so glad you're here because you're bringing such
Speaker 2: knowledge to it, because I, like I said, I don't
Speaker 2: want listends will be hearing me and be like, well,
Speaker 2: she doesn't know anything about this. I didn't watch it all,
Speaker 2: but I think I was just too young, oh sure
Speaker 2: to pick up on a lot of it.
Speaker 1: But that is definitely interesting that they were already.
Speaker 2: Especially since Chris Carter, as we already said, was saying
Speaker 2: I didn't want a romantic relationship, and then it seems.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, it's also like it's so difficult to.
Speaker 3: You know, you have two attractive people together, and I
Speaker 3: think the the reaction is like, oh, they're in a relationship. Yeah,
Speaker 3: especially if it's if it's two people who are supposed
Speaker 3: who are like attracted to that sex, a person right
Speaker 3: for that gender, yeah, right, and so like so like,
Speaker 3: part of it is just that we have so few
Speaker 3: examples in media of people who aren't in relationships, So
Speaker 3: people who are just friends and who that is a
Speaker 3: sustained life, long term friendship, yes, which is worked. That
Speaker 3: is completely silly. That happens in real life so many times.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, And I've been talking about this too, because
Speaker 2: since I'm not into romance, I identify as grace sexually a sexual.
Speaker 2: I don't know why I'm always looking for romance and
Speaker 2: stuff like why is this happening?
Speaker 1: I don't even like it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it feels like we've made it into a
Speaker 2: more important relationship absolutely than a friendship, and that should
Speaker 2: be it shouldn't know, but oh my goodness, that we're
Speaker 2: almost getting to the shipping. Part of this we Are
Speaker 2: we Are we Are.
Speaker 3: One other lady that I wanted to point out from
Speaker 3: the show is starting in season four, there was a
Speaker 3: lady informant. We had previously had a deep Roat and
Speaker 3: mister X, and now this lady informant came in.
Speaker 4: By the name of Marita.
Speaker 3: Core core cor Corvit nikes, yes that's her name.
Speaker 1: It's Russian.
Speaker 3: But she was just like very ice cream stereotype and
Speaker 3: so and so. She was also in contrast with Scully
Speaker 3: being so much goofier and warmer and like, yeah, fans
Speaker 3: hated her, hated or.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well this is I mean, going back to your point,
Speaker 2: is she's the only woman in the show. I feel
Speaker 2: like every other woman that comes on is going to
Speaker 2: be pitted against her totally, which is we've talked about
Speaker 2: that before. It shouldn't be the case that like there's
Speaker 2: one spot and then everyone everyone has an enemy of Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Yeah, Like if your entire principal cast is white
Speaker 3: and then you necessarily only have room for black people
Speaker 3: to be villains, and it's just like that.
Speaker 2: Is so wrong. Why is this a thing?
Speaker 1: Yes, Supernatural and Buffy, what the heck were you doing? Anyway, Yes, anyway.
Speaker 2: One of the reasons I really wanted to talk about
Speaker 2: this is because since it's the thirtieth anniversary, there have
Speaker 2: been a lot of headlines about how the X Files
Speaker 2: shaped the Internet.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, and this is actually not a thing that
Speaker 3: I realized until you, until you brought it to my attention.
Speaker 1: Yes, and it's wild how much of an impact it had.
Speaker 2: And again, as I said, with fan fiction, this is
Speaker 2: a this is a space that has a lot of women,
Speaker 2: a lot of queer people, a lot of marginalized.
Speaker 1: People in it because.
Speaker 2: Perhaps they're not represented and the thing they're watching or
Speaker 2: the thing they're enjoying. So I wanted to go into
Speaker 2: a couple of those things and talk about our maybe
Speaker 2: experiences with that. But one of the big things is
Speaker 2: communities like fan communities online. And when the show came
Speaker 2: out in nineteen ninety three, that was when a lot
Speaker 2: of us in the United States were getting access to
Speaker 2: the Internet regularly for the first time.
Speaker 1: It might not have been good.
Speaker 4: Oh no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3: That that was definitely during dialogs. Oh yeah, that that
Speaker 3: modem sound lives in my brain forever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh my gosh, it's the sound of nightmares. Younger listeners.
Speaker 1: You don't know, you don't even know.
Speaker 2: But the interesting thing too, I was thinking about this
Speaker 2: is that kind of dovetails with how.
Speaker 1: I feel like the.
Speaker 2: Internet allowed a lot of these like here's this picture
Speaker 2: of bickfoot, here's this like oh shure. It kind of
Speaker 2: proliferated a lot of things that the X files was
Speaker 2: talking about.
Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, and I mean and right right, it really
Speaker 3: made possible because previous to that, like anyone who is
Speaker 3: who was talking about those kind of mysteries and real
Speaker 3: world lore and fringe theories like had do it by
Speaker 3: zine and in like mail and you know, and so
Speaker 3: you might you might write letters back and forth. But
Speaker 3: the Internet let people connect like that. It did, I
Speaker 3: mean not instantly, like you had to go make a
Speaker 3: cup of coffee while page loaded, but I would take a.
Speaker 1: Shower thirty minutes later. It might beloaded, who.
Speaker 2: Knows, but yeah, it really did. And that is part
Speaker 2: of what shaped our Internet as it is. So people
Speaker 2: who loved the x files called themselves x files p
Speaker 2: h I.
Speaker 3: L e yep, yep. That is a moniker that I
Speaker 3: self identified by.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, yeah to hear about jeez.
Speaker 2: So here's the quote from CNN about this. Oh my gosh, Yes,
Speaker 2: NN wrote about it. The show's peak popularity in the
Speaker 2: mid to late nineties coincided with the prolifer use of
Speaker 2: the Internet, where fans self proclaimed X Files gathered to
Speaker 2: debate theories and behind the scenes gossip while posting fan fiction,
Speaker 2: fan art and more.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, this is from a twenty twenty three article. Yes,
Speaker 4: this is from like recently.
Speaker 1: Yes, wow, I'm telling you, Lauren, there's no reason we're talking.
Speaker 4: About that's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and yeah, like like in addition to I really
Speaker 3: do think it it dovetailed with the Internet because the
Speaker 3: show lent itself to fandom so much, because it raised
Speaker 3: so many questions and did involve all of these mysteries
Speaker 3: and little pieces of lore and bits of conspiracy, and you.
Speaker 4: Know, like it was a little.
Speaker 3: Less niche and and sexier than other nerd dramas of
Speaker 3: the era, like like Star Trek. The next generation, like
Speaker 3: people who would not be caught dead watching Star Trek right,
Speaker 3: thought X Files was cool.
Speaker 2: Right, And I think part of that was maybe they'll
Speaker 2: get together.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, which.
Speaker 2: Leza's defand fiction. As you know, I love to talk
Speaker 2: about listeners.
Speaker 1: I am shocked.
Speaker 2: I never read X Files fan fiction. Really, Oh wow,
Speaker 2: you know what I started on? Oh god, wow, Wow
Speaker 2: you are younger than great. That's bonkers.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was probably like Sailor Moon and the X Files
Speaker 3: were two of my earliest Like, was.
Speaker 1: There some good X Files fans? No? But it filled me?
Speaker 1: It did?
Speaker 2: It?
Speaker 4: Did? I definitely.
Speaker 3: I don't think I ever wrote any particularly like I.
Speaker 3: I did write a class assignment like that featured Molder
Speaker 3: because you had to like describe someone in details, so
Speaker 3: and I was like, I can do that and it's
Speaker 3: not a real person.
Speaker 1: So I'm not gonna insult anybody. That's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, yeah, I wasn't into the writing.
Speaker 1: Part at that point.
Speaker 2: Okay, I should check it out because it's I'm sure
Speaker 2: still there.
Speaker 1: I'm positive it is and the community is still there.
Speaker 2: I wrote a lorther Rings fan fiction and I had
Speaker 2: a friend read it and she was like they kissed
Speaker 2: for four minutes.
Speaker 1: I was like, is that no normal? She's like no,
Speaker 1: And then I didn't post it.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm sorry that you were discouraged, but I'm glad
Speaker 3: that it was for good reasons.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just love that she was like, no, yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean but but like definitely, I yes, Like I
Speaker 3: it was clear to me and all of my friends
Speaker 3: that Moulder and Scully wanted.
Speaker 4: We're yeah, we're gonna get together. We're gonna get together.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was rooting for it for a very long time
Speaker 4: until it happened.
Speaker 1: Then I was mad, Oh, I can't wait to talk
Speaker 1: about it. Yes.
Speaker 2: So my friend who discouraged me from posting this fan fiction,
Speaker 2: she also was a huge She was the same one
Speaker 2: you've listened on the phone with.
Speaker 1: She was like, they're going to get together. She was
Speaker 1: giving me all.
Speaker 2: These clues and like see this look and all of
Speaker 2: these things.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, what, don't go.
Speaker 2: As I've said many times, the X Files was one
Speaker 2: of the first large fan fiction communities online, and it
Speaker 2: was so big that the Scotland Yard investigated because they
Speaker 2: thought that it was a cult and perhaps they should feed.
Speaker 3: Wow, yeah, I mean sort of a cult. They did
Speaker 3: not need to intervene.
Speaker 4: No one knows like.
Speaker 2: They looked intensely at each other, which brings us to
Speaker 2: shipping at last. Yes, you can see our episode for
Speaker 2: shipping we did recently for more about this, but shipping
Speaker 2: or Relationshipping is what it sounds like. It can look
Speaker 2: a million different ways.
Speaker 1: Anyway you can.
Speaker 2: Imagine, but it's essentially putting people or peoples into a relationship.
Speaker 1: Or not canonically.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, and even in real life people.
Speaker 4: Oh yes, that creeps me out.
Speaker 1: But yes, that does happen.
Speaker 2: And it involves often like fan works, fan fiction, music
Speaker 2: and art, fan videos. Sure like a community around like again,
Speaker 2: did you see this look or did you see this?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And very right and especially with the internet, very immediate
Speaker 3: and very intense.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, And they are also anti shippers. I I
Speaker 2: was gonna say, or no romos, but I actually think
Speaker 2: they're different. Okay, So anti shippers, I would say, are
Speaker 2: somebody who are like I don't want this ship to
Speaker 2: happen and I hate this ship.
Speaker 1: I would say, No, romos are more like I just.
Speaker 2: Don't want romance. Okay, all right, that's my experience again.
Speaker 2: You can listen to our shipping episode where we talked
Speaker 2: about how that went really wrong on Tumblr. But uh
Speaker 2: oh yeah, but the in either case, they can be
Speaker 2: just as passionate as shippers and like, I really don't
Speaker 2: want this to happen. And some of the earliest online
Speaker 2: no Romos felt like they lost when Molder and Scully
Speaker 2: their relationship became canon.
Speaker 1: They were like, oh this war, yeah, we have a.
Speaker 4: I have been defeated by their smooches. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. As it turns out, like I guess, I just
Speaker 3: wanted the unresolved sexual tension. Yes, that's what I does.
Speaker 3: That's what I enjoyed. I didn't actually want it to
Speaker 3: happen on the show.
Speaker 1: I liked.
Speaker 4: I liked the.
Speaker 2: Tension, right, So I talked about this in our shipping episode.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I think you can ship something, but by shipping it,
Speaker 2: you don't actually want it to ever happen, right, You
Speaker 2: kind of just.
Speaker 1: Like the idea of what it might be.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, mm hmm.
Speaker 2: And also there are plenty of examples of yes, when
Speaker 2: the ship becomes canon, it did not go how you
Speaker 2: it too?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 4: Oh that too, that too?
Speaker 3: Absolutely like, which is one of the purposes of fan
Speaker 3: fiction is to you know, like create something that that
Speaker 3: that the way that you would do it. And once
Speaker 3: once you've done that, then you can be setting yourself
Speaker 3: up for failure in terms of like what actually comes
Speaker 3: next and what the creators choose to.
Speaker 1: Do, right exactly.
Speaker 2: And I would also say there are, and I would
Speaker 2: put myself in this category. They're multi shippers, like I
Speaker 2: could just ship like oh yeah, sure them, Yeah great,
Speaker 2: sounds nice.
Speaker 4: Yeah right, that's fun. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't have a particular attachment a lot of the time, right,
Speaker 3: in particular, especially in like a like a team up
Speaker 3: kind of thing, like like an Avengers Universe kind of
Speaker 3: thing like that, I'm like, yeah, sure, whatever, let's.
Speaker 1: See like in a relationship. Yeah cool, But I don't
Speaker 1: ever want it to happen. Usually, I'm just kind of
Speaker 1: like I'm interested.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, right, you could read it that way, you
Speaker 3: can read it this other way.
Speaker 4: Interesting. It's like a fun little science experiment, right, It's.
Speaker 1: Just like that's going to go. Yeah. But it is
Speaker 1: interesting with the show like X Files, where you do
Speaker 1: have like.
Speaker 2: In a very heteronormative sense, like this attractive woman attractive man,
Speaker 2: and it was like.
Speaker 4: Are they are they?
Speaker 3: Are they?
Speaker 1: When? When what happened? Yeah?
Speaker 4: And so right.
Speaker 3: I had literally no idea that the word shipping was
Speaker 3: invented with the X Files fandom.
Speaker 1: Yes it was.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that either, Like we have been doing
Speaker 2: it since we've been creating entertainment, But the term shipping
Speaker 2: Relationshipping was first used in nineteen ninety three in X
Speaker 2: Files fandom.
Speaker 1: And the fun part of this is it's all online.
Speaker 2: You can see all these old posts. They've been archived.
Speaker 3: Oh dear, that makes me suspect that probably some of
Speaker 3: my very embarrassing like thirteen year old like like like
Speaker 3: fan theories about stuff are out there somewhere.
Speaker 1: The truth posts are out there.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh they're great, like heck it is, I recommend
Speaker 2: looking it up. But yeah, interestingly to me. Because shipping
Speaker 2: has gone mainstream now people use it all the time,
Speaker 2: But at this point it was viewed as something strange.
Speaker 2: People did like what are you doing? You don't you
Speaker 2: don't think this show was perfect. You're trying to do
Speaker 2: your own thing. Oh you're not a real fans And
Speaker 2: there would be email attacks, they would get harassed, like
Speaker 2: it was very so some of the posts you'll see
Speaker 2: were like, hey, I'm doing my shipping thing, but I'm
Speaker 2: not bothering you, like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, like like like you can feel
Speaker 3: however you want to about it.
Speaker 4: This is just how I feel.
Speaker 1: Exactly, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: And even some of them said like I don't I
Speaker 2: don't even want it to become a romance show that's
Speaker 2: like like the last thing I want.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just am kind of exploring this sure aspect
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just saying that they want a bone because
Speaker 3: you just want.
Speaker 1: To smush their faces.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're both attractive faces that it would look nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of exactly. I did read. I don't know
Speaker 1: if this is true.
Speaker 2: I haven't really looked into it, but I did read
Speaker 2: that ust resolve sexual tension, as you said, was also
Speaker 2: from X files. I also heard ms R Molder Scully romance.
Speaker 1: Was the whole term.
Speaker 4: Okay, I don't remember that one, but sure.
Speaker 2: And then I want to read this quote again from CNN.
Speaker 2: But there's no denying how much the online discourse revolved
Speaker 2: around the Molder and Scully pairing, whether it involved shippers
Speaker 2: and no Romo's good naturally good nature really, or in
Speaker 2: all seriousness flaming each other in online forums or Molder
Speaker 2: slash Scully fan fiction. Are fan videos set to schmaltzy
Speaker 2: love song Oh yeah, yes, oh yeah, oh dear fan
Speaker 2: videos man fan video.
Speaker 1: Oh. I would watch them when I was younger.
Speaker 2: I like the proof I needed, but I also forgot
Speaker 2: about flaming.
Speaker 1: Yep. Ye oh yes, all right, well, well we're going
Speaker 1: to get into the impact.
Speaker 2: But again, just so you know, if you're hearing anything
Speaker 2: around us, you are listening to stuff I've never told you.
Speaker 1: With Lauren Vogelbaum guest host.
Speaker 2: Thank You so Much, live at the iHeart Podcast Studio
Speaker 2: powered by Bows at the House of Music at iHeartRadio
Speaker 2: Music Festival. It's fun to be talking about the X
Speaker 2: Files with all of this going on outside. I wish
Speaker 2: we could showcase what's happening.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty wild. There's just people walking by and
Speaker 3: kind of kind of kind of waving or just sort
Speaker 3: of staring, being a little bit confused that Yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: just talking about my fanfic feels about Moldern Scully. It
Speaker 3: feels right, yeah, sure, why yeah we are.
Speaker 1: We are the in the nineties, the weirdos that are
Speaker 1: quarantined from people going to do other things. Oh heck,
Speaker 1: thank you, Wed.
Speaker 2: We did want to talk about the impact that this
Speaker 2: show had and Scully had.
Speaker 3: Oh sure, right, because like all right, like like when
Speaker 3: X Files really in general just paved the way for
Speaker 3: other genre fiction in television, like it did dovetail with
Speaker 3: the launch of the Sci Fi Channel in nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 3: But like without X Files, I don't think we would
Speaker 3: have had Lost or Buffy or certainly Fringe or Supernatural
Speaker 3: or like Rick and Morty or you know.
Speaker 1: On and on.
Speaker 3: It kind of created its own genre of what we
Speaker 3: were talking about earlier, of like long running TV series
Speaker 3: that have main recurring characters and like an overall plot
Speaker 3: arc ish, but are also allowed to play from episode
Speaker 3: to episode within the broader realm of what genre fiction
Speaker 3: is or what it can be. And yeah, like like
Speaker 3: even in the same episode, sometimes bouncing from horror to
Speaker 3: mystery to drama to comedy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you haven't watched this listeners like some
Speaker 2: of the episode, they'll stay with you.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, some of them are very hecking upsetting.
Speaker 3: I did not watch Home Ever again, Yes, that.
Speaker 1: One's well, yeah, we talked about that one. Did the
Speaker 1: Bridget episode?
Speaker 3: Right? I think I might have watched it like one
Speaker 3: other time. I was like maybe maybe, Nope, still very upsetting. Nope,
Speaker 3: still don't like that.
Speaker 4: Okay cool?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was one of those episodes that was like, Eh,
Speaker 2: there's no supernatural part to this one.
Speaker 1: Really just people, just people. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that episode got banned from ever being aired again.
Speaker 1: Yep, sure did. Sure, but yeah, I know.
Speaker 3: Like some of the some of the images and some
Speaker 3: of the I still think of the There was one
Speaker 3: episode where Scully got a tattoo and started tripping out
Speaker 3: and like there was all of this bad stuff happening.
Speaker 1: And I still think about that one.
Speaker 2: I'm like, lol, yeah ah, and it has had. I
Speaker 2: was reading a list of like all of the instances
Speaker 2: The X Files has appeared in, like songs or other media,
Speaker 2: and it's just it's a huge list. Had this really
Speaker 2: big impact, and Scully did too. She people loved her, like,
Speaker 2: she was really critically acclaimed, and she's stuck around. She
Speaker 2: has a Barbie, which I love. She's always on these
Speaker 2: list of iconic heroines that have often inspired other iconic
Speaker 2: heroines in media, and she the legacy of her a
Speaker 2: lot of people write is she encouraged a whole generation
Speaker 2: of young women, of young girls to think about a
Speaker 2: career in stem, whether they pursued it or not, like yeah,
Speaker 2: just to think like, oh, oh yeah I want to
Speaker 2: do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah I can do that.
Speaker 3: She's doing that so well, she's so professional and good
Speaker 3: at this.
Speaker 4: Job, and maybe yeah maybe I could. Yeah, why not.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and let us talk about that a minute.
Speaker 2: So we did do the episode with Bridget where she
Speaker 2: really broke this down really well, So check that out.
Speaker 2: But just just in case, since we're doing kind of
Speaker 2: a like round up of all X files news place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally one place.
Speaker 2: So the Scully effect is essentially something that has been
Speaker 2: studied by the Gina Davis.
Speaker 1: Institute, which I love.
Speaker 4: Yes, absolutely, Yes.
Speaker 2: Two thousand women they surveyed, they found, quote, among the
Speaker 2: women who are familiar with the character, fifty percent say
Speaker 2: Scully increased their interest in STEM, and forty three percent
Speaker 2: say that they considered working in STEM because of her.
Speaker 2: Wow tint to one percent that knew of her said
Speaker 2: she was a good role model and it was great
Speaker 2: reading the stories people wrote, and they would talk about
Speaker 2: like just sitting around and watching the show with friends
Speaker 2: and being like inspired, like okay, love, maybe I want
Speaker 2: to go do that.
Speaker 1: Is so cool.
Speaker 4: It kind of had the opposite effect for me. I
Speaker 4: was like, I definitely.
Speaker 3: Couldn't do an autopsy. I could never do an autopsy
Speaker 3: in my life. I'm not going to go into that one.
Speaker 3: But appreciate still appreciate the role model of course.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I mean, that's also fair.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you got to recognize that I could do it,
Speaker 2: but it's not for me. Yeah, yes, and I do
Speaker 2: love When Jillian Anderson was asked about this, she said,
Speaker 2: we got a lot of letters all the time, and
Speaker 2: I was told quite frequently by girls who were going
Speaker 2: into the medical world or the science world, or the
Speaker 2: FBI world or other worlds that I reigned that they
Speaker 2: were pursuing those pursuits because of the character of Scully.
Speaker 1: And I said, Yeah, that's so sweet, isn't it. That's
Speaker 1: really cool. I love it so much.
Speaker 2: Oh oh, and that's the that's the importance of representation.
Speaker 2: Representation isn't everything, but it is important. Like if you're
Speaker 2: watching something as a kid at three am, your huddles
Speaker 2: in front of the TV and you're like, oh, I
Speaker 2: want to be like her. Oh I could do it, Yeah,
Speaker 2: she can do it. Like that's important.
Speaker 3: It is absolutely absoluecondently, more of that, more of that place.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, but this brings us to our final note.
Speaker 2: And I wanted to put this in here because I
Speaker 2: love it, but also because Samantha did threaten me if
Speaker 2: I don't talk about the book. We do mention Scully's
Speaker 2: pants suits in the Okay, okay, yes, so one thing
Speaker 2: people love about this character are her pant suits. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: are tumblers just kind that's amazing.
Speaker 4: I'm so proud of the Internet for that. That's beautiful.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, So okay, So if you're if you're unfamiliar
Speaker 3: with the show, she was always wearing or most of
Speaker 3: the time, like her professional business attire was these big suits,
Speaker 3: like these big puffy suit jackets and long trench coats
Speaker 3: and tapered pants and and that evolved over time as
Speaker 3: style evolved. But yeah, certainly in the beginning in nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety three, it was that very boxy concept of the
Speaker 3: early nineties. And then as third wave feminism really hit
Speaker 3: pop culture and we started getting you know, the the
Speaker 3: Buffy Summers and the share Horwitzes and the Spice girls
Speaker 3: of the world, then you know, like like outfits started changing,
Speaker 3: and business attire for women started becoming hyper feminine in
Speaker 3: some ways, and like certainly more sleek but less based
Speaker 3: on men's wear and less.
Speaker 1: Giant shoulder pads.
Speaker 2: Right yeah, right, And you can see her the profile
Speaker 2: we did on Danas Scully for more about that, because
Speaker 2: I do love talking about her pants. Suits, but they
Speaker 2: are very popularly. A lot of people call it competence
Speaker 2: core yea. And you can trace kind of what you
Speaker 2: were talking about, how her costuming changed, and there is
Speaker 2: an interesting narrative.
Speaker 1: Of like.
Speaker 2: Fitting into a male space by wearing more male clothes.
Speaker 1: And then more traditionally male clothes and.
Speaker 2: Then moving away from that and what does that mean?
Speaker 2: But it is fascinating. I'm a big let's talk about
Speaker 2: costuming person.
Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3: And and and as a character too, you know, like
Speaker 3: like she's going through all of these changes and she's
Speaker 3: getting a lot more.
Speaker 4: She kind of rediscovers herself throughout the course of the show.
Speaker 3: And and what she wants that to be and what
Speaker 3: that can be.
Speaker 2: Right, I have the most epic shoulder pad.
Speaker 1: It's a dress suit. It's not a pants suit. Okay,
Speaker 1: I think it's my mom's, but it might be one
Speaker 1: of her sisters. Okay, but it's it's magenta, and it has.
Speaker 2: Roses like embroidered, and it is the most like feminine
Speaker 2: business power dress suit.
Speaker 1: Wow, you can imagine. And I still have it because
Speaker 1: you do love it.
Speaker 3: You should never let that go. That's that sounds beautiful
Speaker 3: and very intense at the.
Speaker 1: Same time word it adds like shower. Yeah, okay, for sure.
Speaker 3: So I graduated high school in the year two thousand
Speaker 3: and while this show was still very much a thing,
Speaker 3: and for sure, the like interview suit that I went
Speaker 3: out and bought was a double breasted pinstripe suit.
Speaker 1: Yes, with it's a Scully suit.
Speaker 4: That's what it is.
Speaker 1: That's just what coplay. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Oh absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I've I've never I've never actually done a Skully
Speaker 3: like a full Scully cosplay, but the suit's right there.
Speaker 2: I mean, I know, and we talked about, well, I
Speaker 2: said I might cosplay as Scully, and then I just
Speaker 2: did it. Right.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was so sad when I heard that.
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm going to show up to this
Speaker 2: and then I was like, but my backpack is minutes
Speaker 2: from breaking, which it really is.
Speaker 3: But yeah maybe maybe someday. Yeah, and we can always
Speaker 3: just casual cosplay some Skully like men. We could just
Speaker 3: show up to the next like work meeting or whatever.
Speaker 3: It is, like it both in our.
Speaker 1: See if anyone realizes what it is. I love that game.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're good at that game.
Speaker 1: I am good at that game. It's a strange sense
Speaker 1: of accomplishment when no one realizes it. Sure, then it's
Speaker 1: also like appreciation when someone does. It's a strange totally
Speaker 1: am well.
Speaker 2: Any closing thoughts on The Wildford.
Speaker 4: You know, uh, it gave us the gift of Jillian Anderson.
Speaker 3: She did write and direct an episode in one of
Speaker 3: the later seasons, I want to say season.
Speaker 1: Eight ish maybe, And.
Speaker 3: You know, like, I'm so glad that she's been able
Speaker 3: to have a lovely career, and because I enjoy watching her.
Speaker 3: It's so fun whenever she's in anything. Yeah, and her
Speaker 3: British accent is so on point. I think you guys
Speaker 3: talked about that too, and yeah, yeah, I like, what
Speaker 3: a what a weird thirty years ago? That's fine, that's great,
Speaker 3: that's great, that's fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of things Jurassic Park as well. Oh wow, heck,
Speaker 2: which I also got troubled for watching.
Speaker 1: This was a risky year for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of groundings happened, I heard.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think it's.
Speaker 2: It's fascinating to look back at the impact it's had,
Speaker 2: especially now, and we didn't know what the Internet was
Speaker 2: going to be. We know it was going to become
Speaker 2: this thing, and the creators didn't know. We didn't know
Speaker 2: The X Files was going to be such a big
Speaker 2: part of that, and how much it did impact fan
Speaker 2: communities who are largely women. And then like the Scully
Speaker 2: the Scully effect.
Speaker 1: Keully effect. That's amazing, that's so cool.
Speaker 3: That is that is the coolest thing about this weird
Speaker 3: genre television show from the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 2: I would love to hear from listeners if you haven't
Speaker 2: watched it.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, go and watch it and let us
Speaker 1: know what you think.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yeah, let us let us know maybe maybe
Speaker 3: maybe do it in two parts, like, let us know
Speaker 3: what you think it's going to be based on this episode.
Speaker 3: If you've got all the way through this episode having
Speaker 3: no I have never watched it, yes, and then the
Speaker 3: after the after.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh my gosh. If anyone wants to just like
Speaker 1: constantly update, it's like, what.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sorry, I've just given you homework. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: that that would be fabulous.
Speaker 1: It's great homework though very fun. It is good home well.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Lauren for
Speaker 2: guesting on this. This was so fun and what thank
Speaker 2: you so much for having me. Oh, of course in
Speaker 2: this wild environment. We're gonna try to get some pictures. Yeah.
Speaker 3: It's pretty weird, yeah but lovely. Thanks so much to
Speaker 3: iHeart and de Vos for having us here.
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2: If you want to let us know about your X
Speaker 2: files watching, yes you can. You can email us at
Speaker 2: Stephanie mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find
Speaker 2: us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast, or on Instagram
Speaker 2: and TikTok at stuff When Never Told You.
Speaker 1: We have a tea public.
Speaker 2: Store, and we do have a book, ohware, we talk
Speaker 2: about Dana Scully. You can get it at stuff you
Speaker 2: should read books dot com. Thanks as always to our
Speaker 2: super producer Christina, our executive pruser Maya, and our contributor Joey.
Speaker 1: And special thanks.
Speaker 2: To Paul who is here helping us out friend of
Speaker 2: the show at this event, and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 2: Stuff I Never Told you'spection ByHeart Radio. For more podcasts
Speaker 2: from my Heart Radio, you can check out the heart
Speaker 2: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or where you listen to your
Speaker 2: favorite shows.