The JV Club with Janet Varney

It doesn’t take an armchair detective to understand what drew JV and the charming Kerri Doherty (The Goldbergs; Out On The Lanai podcast) to each other, but it DID take an awesome investigator to make their worlds collide. Now the two new friends discuss Girls who are Golden, Truth and Justice, and how Goonies never say die.

This will be one of our shorter episode descriptions, and here’s why: you simply MUST listen to this episode with Rose Abdoo ("Gilmore Girls!" “Hacks!" “Reboot!" More more more!), because you will be missing too much joy otherwise. Truly!

Pour this bit of sunshine into your ears (which sounds weirder than we meant it to) with the dear and inspiring Cricket Leigh (MAI in AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER!), whose own stories of teenage insecurity mixed with bravery and ambition make for a classic episode for what The JV Club is all about! 

Get a gorgeous mountain range in view and savor that green chile omelette with Migizi Pensoneau (“Reservation Dogs”), who takes us from Minnesota to New Mexico to Connecticut to… well, just get ready to travel. And bring your love of 80’s/90’s absurdist comedies with you! Plus: more love for "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and the scrumptiously watchable “Barkskins!"

This week asks the hard-hitting question: why? WHY can’t Janet stop saying “Shaker” when she means “Quaker?” Her dreamy Boy of Summer Abe Forman-Greenwald (Netflix’s "Big Mouth”) endeavors to figure it out, while also sharing tales of small-town Pennsylvania  youth and the gift of sitting in silence, even when someone’s making you do it! 

Stop the presses! Remember when we said we’d collected the entire Hey Riddle Riddle crew? NOT SO FAST! This week brings you delightful Boy of Summer, Arne Parrott, the talent behind the truly delicious various and sundry themes/songs/la-la-las to one of JV’s favorite podcasts. So put on your Ren Faire best and a wad of crabcake… it’s ON!

Grab your lobster roll and your trash juice for this week’s Boy of Summer, the wonderful Desmin Borges (You’re The Worst, Utopia)! JV and Dez talk contemporary adventures: losing your sense of taste and smell and finding it again through the wonder of an avocado; they talk past adventures: sports! Theatre! Da Bears!; and of course, they talk about their happy days playing often-miserable characters on You’re The Worst.

This week brings you novelist, podcaster and Boy of Summer Toby Ball (Crimewriters On, Strange Arrivals), whose addition to The JV Club completes the Crimewriters On collection! In this episode you’ll not only learn about Toby’s teens and twenties, you’ll also hear him rescue JV from her own politics-and-media existential quagmire! So grab your favorite album and treat yourself to some ice cream as summer rolls on...

The Hey Riddle Riddle Collector’s Set is complete! JV is delighted to welcome the ridiculously fast and funny JPC as this week’s Boy of Summer, along with a conversation about Catholic school Religion classes, early-onset improv magic syndrome (a term we just now made up), and what we can confidently say is one of The JV Club’s all-time-greatest “Boys of Summer” covers. And for all you HRR lovers out there, the end of this description takes you all the way to... Jupiter! 

Dive into this conversation with Boy of Summer - Boy of Star Wars - Boy of San Diego, Hector Navarro, who describes the delicate balance of being a well-behaved hooligan in those important teen formative years, how honest parental communication has its pros and cons, and how to jump into fandoms when you can’t celebrate your birthday! Plus: Oh M.J. Watson… how we love you!