Fandom talk with memory, bite, and heart.
It’s a Fandom Thing mixes casual panel banter with sharp fandom commentary, moving from Gen-X movie memories to fanfic, streaming shifts, horror events, and trailer reactions. The tone is affectionate, opinionated, and comfortable making room for both jokes and heavier cultural criticism.
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It’s a Fandom Thing is a long-running fandom and pop-culture conversation built around enthusiasm, memory, and strongly held opinions. Erin Marlowe leads the show with a rotating panel and occasional interview guests. The format is loose by design. Episodes often begin with chatter, then slide into the real subject through a personal association, a correction, or a shared laugh. Horror is a major thread, especially when the show talks about childhood movie encounters that left lasting marks. Poltergeist, The Shining, Gremlins, clowns, dolls, strange trees, and old TV sign-offs all become part of a larger conversation about how fandom starts. The show is just as comfortable with fanfiction. Its episode on M/M slash treats fanfic as creative play, identity exploration, writing practice, and a source of community rather than a punchline. Weekly fandom news gives the show a more current-events shape, with trailer reactions, streaming-industry talk, and quick pivots through Marvel, Spider-Man, Severance, The Devil Wears Prada 2, and Netflix. The Netflix discussion broadens into media consolidation, theatrical change, and anxiety about who controls major entertainment libraries. Interviews add another lane. KJ Brantley appears to discuss the SoCo Women In Horror Festival, while Jessica Hernandez talks about editing The Best Summer and shaping a concert-film experience around a 1995 festival atmosphere. The show can be warm and goofy. It can also be blunt. Discussions of misogyny, difficult documentaries, queer identity, and political solidarity are treated as part of fandom culture rather than distractions from it. That mix gives the show its shape: personal fandom history, pop-culture news, media criticism, and community values all in one busy conversation. It is best for listeners who like their fandom talk lived-in, candid, and willing to care loudly.
Made for: For listeners who follow pop culture through personal attachment: horror fans, fanfic readers, trailer-watchers, streaming skeptics, and people who like fandom discussed with politics and feeling attached.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by letting pop-culture commentary stay personal and conversational, pairing news and critique with childhood memories, fan practices, and rotating guest perspectives.
Join us each week as we explore all things fandom and pop culture from the female perspective. Hosted by Erin Marlow.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Erin Marlowe turns fandom into revealing conversations about screen stories, personal history, creative expression, and the attachments behind critical opinion.
Erin Marlowe builds each discussion around the way fandom shapes interpretation, memory, and identity. A conversation about Tremors moves through character relationships before reaching its monsters, while the Gen-X movie discussion connects horror films with childhood fears and…
Val and Earl's bickering gets sibling-energy scrutiny; your old fanfic folder gets a little dignity.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Childhood horror memories shape a movie-minded chat, with PG-13, The Sixth Sense, and old fears still lingering.
The host and the panel build their discussion around the movie scares that lodged earliest and stayed there. A babysitter who showed The Shining also left behind a lasting fear of clowns, dolls, weird trees, and even the TV's sign-off screen, so the talk keeps returning to the…
Trailer chatter, spoiler talk, and a loose live-event detour keep this fandom check-in moving.
It spends much of its time on the Obsession trailer, and the back-and-forth settles into a simple, appealing question: whether it is better to go in cold so the reaction stays real.
A candid, grounded look at M/M slash as a space for self-discovery and writing practice.
Fanfiction, especially M/M slash, is framed here as more than a private hobby or guilty pleasure. It becomes a creative practice that can help a writer think through sexuality and gender identity when few other outlets are available.
A Spider-Man trailer sparks a lively talk about Marvel loyalties, memory, and spotting Milchuk.
Erin Marlowe's episode is at its sharpest when a Spider-Man trailer turns into a small emotional puzzle. Tom Holland's sadness, Zendaya forgetting him, and the group's split Marvel histories give Emily and Vee plenty to work through: one stays loyal to Tobey Maguire's…
A candid Netflix documentary discussion leads into The Devil Wears Prada 2 and the show's Patreon community.
A week of pop-culture talk turns to a Netflix documentary about loneliness among men, with Erin Marlowe and her guests sitting in the discomfort rather than rushing past it.
A focused conversation about Philip Springer, "Santa Baby," and the family story behind Tamar Springer's documentary.
More Than Santa Baby uses a familiar title as the doorway into a fuller musical life. Erin Marlowe's conversation with filmmaker Tamar Springer centers on Tamar's father, Philip Springer, composer of "Santa Baby," while leaving space for the work and career beyond that signature…
A warm fandom review finds its best charge in Val and Earl's comic sibling energy.
The episode is strongest when Erin Marlowe positions the film as horror comedy tilted firmly toward comedy, then lets the conversation settle around Val and Earl.
Great books, taken chapter by chapter, with delight
Book talk with room to wander.
Host Erin Marlowe and panelists Moth, Paula, and Tiff discuss the 1990 horror-comedy 'Tremors' during Horror Month.
Host Erin Marlowe interviews filmmaker Tamar Springer about her short documentary 'More Than Santa Baby,' which explores the life and career of her father, composer Philip Springer.
Aaron Marlowe opens horror month on It's a Fandom Thing with The Craft, and the panel rates it Moth 3, Sarah 4, Aaron 4 and Stephanie roughly 2.5 to 3 out of five "spells." Panelists pick favorites such as Nancy for style, Rochelle for motivation and Sarah for "the most character growth," while Aaron criticizes how Rochelle is treated as a token character.
The host and guests trade childhood movie memories.
It opens on a trailer for Obsession.
Erin Marlowe uses this It’s a Fandom Thing episode to talk with Emily and V from Mind the Tags about slash fanfic, starting with Star Trek, Kirk and Spock, and the slash mark between names.
Erin Marlowe hosts Emily and V from Mind the Tags on It's a Fandom Thing, and the conversation moves from pop-culture headlines into fanfiction norms.
Host Erin Marlowe and guest Ixchel discuss Netflix's impact on pop culture and streaming, including its failed acquisition of Warner Brothers and the rise of Paramount Plus.
Erin Marlowe and Ixchel discuss Netflix's "Louis Theroux Inside the Manosphere," a documentary they describe as "terrifying and vile" while highlighting how it follows men across the United States and other countries.
Erin Marlow interviews KJ Brantley about the SoCo Women In Horror Festival, a one-day literary horror event in Pueblo, Colorado.
Host Erin Marlowe interviews editor Jessica Hernandez about the documentary 'The Best Summer,' a concert film capturing the 1995 summer salt festival.
Composer Ben Harlan discusses his work on the film Goodbye June, directed by Kate Winslet, focusing on the script's themes of family, death, and snow.
Host Erin Marlowe interviews filmmaker Tamar Springer about her short documentary 'More Than Santa Baby', which explores the life and career of her father, composer Philip Springer.
Host Erin Marlow interviews filmmaker Tamar Springer about her short documentary 'More Than Santa Baby', which explores the life and career of her father, composer Philip Springer.