Zen Pop

Cathy and Todd discuss Dirty Dancing and how a low-budget film about a summer romance became a cultural phenomenon and why it still resonates. They explore how it’s not just a love story between Johnny and Baby, but also a deeper look at class tension, autonomy, and a girl finding her voice. They dig into behind-the-scenes tension, surprising casting what-ifs, and the film’s groundbreaking abortion storyline set in pre-Roe America, along with the chilling way privilege and disposability show up through characters like Robbie. It’s nostalgia, cultural analysis, and an important look at a movie that’s always been about more than just dancing. Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Cathy and Todd discuss Billy Elliot (2000), the British film set during the 1984–85 miners’ strike about a working-class boy who secretly pursues ballet while his community expects him to box and follow the rigid rules of masculinity. Using the film as a lens, they also discuss the documentaryLouis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, exploring how ideas about what boys “should” be, tough, unemotional, traditionally masculine, continue to shape conversations about gender today. They discuss the cultural impact of Billy Elliot, from its eventual transformation into the hit Elton John stage musical to the way the story challenges assumptions about masculinity through Billy’s passion for dance and his friendship with Michael. They also reflect on the powerful Swan Lake finale, where Billy’s final leap onstage becomes a symbol of freedom, an image of a boy stepping beyond the expectations of his community to become fully himself. Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Cathy and Todd discuss The Wedding Singer and why this Adam Sandler–Drew Barrymore rom-com lived fully inside the 80’s, the music, the clothes, and all that emotional earnestness. They talk about the chemistry that made it work and the unexpectedly sharp stuff underneath, and what happens when genuinely open-hearted people fall in love with each other. They get into Steve Buscemi’s awesome chaotic presence and why the soundtrack sold so many copies. The Wedding Singer helped reframe the ’80s as emotionally formative and it’s remained one of the most loved rom-coms of its era. Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

In this episode of Zen Pop Parenting, Cathy and Todd dive into the psychological thriller Misery and explore what makes it so deeply unsettling decades later. Through the intense dynamic between Paul Sheldon and Annie Wilkes, they unpack themes of control, obsession, entitlement, and the dangerous illusion of “love” without boundaries. Using the film as a lens, they examine how fear, power, and identity shape relationships—and what this story reveals about emotional captivity in both subtle and extreme forms. Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Categories Best 80’s Romance Best 90’s Romance Best Romantic Comedy Best Dramatic Romance Best Forbidden Love Best TV Romance Worst TV Romance Best Romance, Right Now (2026) Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Cathy and Todd discuss Best in Show to honor Catherine O’Hara and dive into America’s Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show in Philadelphia, where nothing “big” happens and that is exactly the joke. They examine Christopher Guest’s mockumentary style, made without a traditional script, in which an ensemble performs identity inside a highly rule-bound world. They move through their typical categories and share plenty of their favorite clips as they explore how the film, released in 2000 before reality TV normalized confessionals, predicted The Office and Parks and Recreation. Cathy and Todd connect the movie to modern life, where we curate versions of ourselves at school, work, in parenting spaces, and on social media, and reflect on what this means for girls who are trained to perform likability, calm, and competence. Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Todd and Cathy discuss The Sure Thing (1985), Rob Reiner’s early, quietly subversive road-trip rom-com starring John Cusack as Gib Lloyd, a smart, restless college guy chasing a guaranteed hookup that slowly reveals itself to be hollow, alongside Daphne Zuniga’s Alison Bradbury, a sharp, principled counterpoint who refuses to play the “cool girl.” Set in a pre-internet, pre-cell-phone America, the film captures mid-80s college culture while exploring the tension between impulse and integrity, desire and discernment, with Anthony Edwards’ best friend serving as a cautionary caricature of male entitlement and Nicollette Sheridan’s “sure thing” functioning more as fantasy than human. They share why Reiner softened the original raunchy premise into something more meaningful and human, and how the movie quietly suggests that growth, conversation, and shared values are the real turn-ons. Todd and Cathy also dive into their regular categories, plus their five favorite John Cusack movies and their five favorite two-person road-trip films. Say Anything Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Cathy and Todd discuss Why Heated Rivalry Matters, digging into why this hockey romance has become such a cultural lightning rod and emotional touchstone. They talk about Rachel Reid’s novel and the TV adaptation, but mostly they focus on what’s really happening alongside the sex scenes: two very different expressions of masculinity learning how to coexist without hierarchy, punishment, or performance. The conversation moves from the slow-burn relationship between Shane and Ilya to why so many women, queer viewers, and romance fans trust this story and feel oddly comforted by it. They explore how the show models emotional safety, real repair, and power that doesn’t turn into harm, and why that feels rare right now. It’s a mix of pop culture, psychology, and cultural reckoning about intimacy, vulnerability, and what people are longing for in relationships today. Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

We decided to re-run an old “Pop Culturing” Podcast in honor of the tragic death of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele. We will be creating 4 new Zen Pop Episodes based off of 4 other Rob Reiner films for the month of January. When Harry Met Sally… is a 1989 American romantic comedy film written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. It stars Billy Crystal as Harry and Meg Ryan as Sally. The story follows the title characters from the time they meet in Chicago just before sharing a cross-country drive, through twelve years of chance encounters in New York City. The film raises the question “Can men and women ever just be friends?” and advances many ideas about relationships that became household concepts, such as “high-maintenance” and the “transitional person”. Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Cathy and Todd discuss Love Actually as part of their “Christmas movies that might not actually be Christmas movies” month. Released in November 2003 and written and directed by Richard Curtis, the film uses its London-at-Christmas setting, stacked ensemble cast, and interwoven stories of romantic, familial, awkward, and heartbreaking love to reflect a long-held worldview: messy humans and basic decency still matter. Cathy and Todd go through their categories, debate the storylines, and unpack why its message that “love is all around” became an annual ritual for so many—and what lands differently when we watch it now.. Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Cathy and Todd talk about The Family Stone and why it works so well as “a Christmas movie that isn’t really a Christmas movie”. They explore how it’s a story about family systems, grief, belonging, and what happens when someone new steps into a familiar and often fragile emotional ecosystem. They get into the best family movies, the most uncomfortable scenes, each character’s role, birth order patterns, sibling energy, and the tension Meredith brings into the house. They also look at why this messy and tender story is still such a holiday staple twenty years later. Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Cathy and Todd discuss Die Hard, the 1988 action classic that redefined the genre, covering everything from its Christmas Eve plot and iconic Nakatomi Plaza setting to the film’s surprisingly heartfelt themes of family, reconciliation, and love. They discuss why so many (including Cathy) consider it a Christmas movie, break down the characters and casting surprises, highlight the film’s legacy and genre-shaping influence, and share the behind-the-scenes stories that made Bruce Willis’s hero an unexpected cultural icon. From Hans Gruber’s unforgettable villainy to the film’s “Die Hard in a ____” effect across decades of action films, it’s a nostalgic and big-hearted look at why this movie endures and why so many of us return to it every holiday season. Some Ways to Support Us Sign up for Cathy’s SubstackOrder Restoring our GirlsJoin Team Zen Links shared in this episode: For the full show notes, visit zenpopparenting.com. This week’s sponsor(s): Avid CoDavid Serrano- Certified Financial Planner- 815-370-3780MenLiving Todd Adams Life & Leadership Coaching for Guys Other Ways to Support Us InstagramYouTubeFacebookCathy’s Book Zen Parenting: Caring for Ourselves and Our Children in an Unpredictable WorldResources PageMenLiving Connect profile

Todd and Cathy share the upcoming changes to their podcast, Zen Parenting Radio, which will be renamed Zen POP Parenting starting June 1st! They also discuss the normal shifts in kids’ friendships, highlighting the importance of loyalty, boundaries, and the reality that friendships evolve. As parents, we can feel more overwhelmed than our kids when these changes happen, but it’s important to normalize the ups and downs of friendships and offer support without letting our own fear or discomfort take over.

Todd and Cathy share the upcoming changes to their podcast, Zen Parenting Radio, which will be renamed Zen POP Parenting starting June 1st! They also discuss the normal shifts in kids’ friendships, highlighting the importance of loyalty, boundaries, and the reality that friendships evolve. As parents, we can feel more overwhelmed than our kids when these changes happen, but it’s important to normalize the ups and downs of friendships and offer support without letting our own fear or discomfort take over.

Todd and Cathy share the upcoming changes to their podcast, Zen Parenting Radio, which will be renamed Zen POP Parenting starting June 1st! They also discuss the normal shifts in kids’ friendships, highlighting the importance of loyalty, boundaries, and the reality that friendships evolve. As parents, we can feel more overwhelmed than our kids when these changes happen, but it’s important to normalize the ups and downs of friendships and offer support without letting our own fear or discomfort take over.