You Must Remember This
Created, Written, and Hosted by Karina Longworth
New season premiering March 28 on all podcast platforms

by Tori Potenza, Staff Writer

The 80s and 90s were the time for erotic films. No one knows that better than Karina Longworth, creator, writer, and host of the hit podcast You Must Remember This. If you have not listened to the show before, Karina's podcast is dedicated to exploring the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood's first century. On the last season of the show, she delved into the “erotic 80s” dedicating an episode to each year of the decade exploring movies like Body Heat, Fatal Attraction, and Crimes of Passion. Not only does she discuss the movies in depth, she also talks about history, actors, and other social influences that played an important role in Hollywood at the time. For her newest season, she continues on this path with “Erotic 90s” a time that was so sexually charged she had to make an extended season in order to fully explore.

This season will feature 21 episodes that discuss the people, history, politics, and movies that are essential to understanding this period of time. Breaking from the format of last season, each episode will focus on different films, people, and major shifts in media consumption. As she says in the first episode, the 90s were so packed with sex that it will take 12 episodes just to get through 1993. Unlike other podcasts that might discuss a movie outside the context of the time in which it came out, Longworth grounds her podcast in a deep understanding of the time period to highlight the connections between our past and present. You Must Remember This has a sleek production quality and thorough research that makes it stand out amongst other movie podcasts. As historians say, history does not live in a vacuum, and Longworth does her due diligence in making sure listeners understand the array of moving parts that are involved in the production of and discourse around film. 

For the season opener, listeners can look forward to a detailed prologue that discusses porn, feminism and the NC-17 rating that all played an essential part of setting the tone of the 90s. You’ll hear about the anti-porn and pro-porn feminist discourse of the era, the struggles movies had in fighting the MPAA system, and the rise of video stores and direct-to-video movies. While there is a hefty amount of research and information that goes into these episodes, they do not feel overly dry. Longworth finds a way to embed a cheeky sense of humor when talking about the various elements that are important to understanding this era of film history. It’s impressive to see a history podcast be able to find that balance of entertainment and history, but when the subject is as juicy as this, it's hard not to be intrigued. 

In the second episode, Longworth dives right into 1990 with the first sexually charged release of the year, Pretty Woman. She hones in on the sex politics of the time and how they play into this story of sex workers, love, and capitalism. She then goes into the career of Julia Roberts and a very different kind of film she did, Sleeping with the Enemy. One of the most impressive aspects of this season is how she effortlessly connects these cultural artifacts to their time and place in history and shows their relevance today. This is especially prevalent in this episode when she ties in misogynistic laws and ideologies to recent events like the Heard/Depp trial. Longworth showcases how far we still have to go in the fight for equality, making it clear that the media treatment of men v. women is still a battle being fought. 

The rest of the season will continue on with episodes dedicated to Basic Instinct, Lolita narratives in movies, Madonna, Showgirls, lesbian cinema, and more. Given how meticulously structured the first two episodes are, fans are sure to love where the rest of the season will go. For those who have not listened to the show before, the seasonal topic structure makes it easy to jump in and begin listening to whatever strikes your fancy. If you love Hollywood history, and specifically love to learn about the time of sleazy 90s erotica you won’t find a better show to educate you on the time.