Sydnee McElroy, Rileigh Smirl and Teylor Smirl
497 episodes listed below
Two hosts revisit one film, show, or book a week, plus long personal tangents.
Still Buffering treats pop culture as a shared memory box, moving from Scrubs, Labyrinth, SNL UK, Freaky Friday, Foo Fighters, and Stranger Things into the lives around them. Its best moments feel casual but specific, where a book fair story, winter weather, or a messy sandwich becomes the point.
PRESS PLAY
Still Buffering is a conversational, panel-style show built around two recurring hosts rather than rotating outside guests — in the sampled episodes, all discussion happens between Sydney McElroy and her co-host Teylor Smirl, with no third-party interviewees present. Each episode nominally centers on one piece of media: a movie (Freaky Friday, Jawbreaker), a TV show (Scrubs, SNL UK), or a book (Camp Damascus), which the hosts revisit or discuss with an eye toward how its jokes, politics, or representation read today. A large share of runtime goes to loosely connected personal-life segments before the main topic — food delivery mishaps, snow-day school policy, PAX East versus New York Comic Con, or a TikTok dandelion-wine project — that set up the episode's tone rather than relate directly to the media discussed. Recurring threads include social media's tendency to edit out the real effort behind viral trends, consumer culture and advertising (infomercials, fast food, beer branding) as a lens on identity and politics, and the contrast between McElroy's life in Huntington, West Virginia, and Smirl's in Brooklyn, New York. The hosts also bring in family anecdotes — McElroy's children Charlie and Cooper appear repeatedly — and personal history, including McElroy's account of her religious upbringing, which surfaces during discussions of conversion-therapy themed fiction. Political figures (Donald Trump, JD Vance, RFK, Ben Shapiro) come up as reference points for broader cultural arguments rather than as the show's main subject. The overall register is comedic and informal, but individual episodes touch on heavier material, including healthcare-system critique, religious trauma, and queer representation in horror and comedy. New episodes are released weekly, on Thursdays. Listeners who enjoy long-form rewatch and rewind podcasts, or who follow the broader McElroy podcast family, are likely to recognize the format. The show assumes some familiarity with the media discussed but frames most segments so a listener unfamiliar with the specific title can still follow the conversation.
Made for: Listeners who enjoy casual, tangent-heavy rewatch podcasts covering movies, TV, and books across generations.
What sets it apart: Pairs unscripted, personal-life banter with pop-culture rewatches, framed through the hosts' contrasting Appalachian and Brooklyn perspectives.
A cross-generational guide to the culture that made us, by Sydnee McElroy, Teylor Smirl, and Rileigh Smirl. New episodes every Thursday.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Sydney McElroy and Taylor Smurl turn pop culture into candid conversation about changing taste, social assumptions, and what survives a second look.
Still Buffering takes familiar cultural objects seriously without draining the fun from them. Sydney McElroy and Taylor Smurl move from infomercials, films, television, books, and sketch comedy into sharper questions about politics, online behavior, queer representation,…
One minute it's Freaky Friday; the next, Sydney and Taylor are litigating an over-sauced sandwich.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose, funny Still Buffering chat where PAX East, old vegetables, bees, and SNL UK all get folded into the same wandering conversation.
Still Buffering uses SNL UK as the nominal destination, but the episode is happier taking the long way there. Sidney and Taylor start with Taylor's trip to PAX East, where the appeal is less celebrity spectacle than a convention that actually lets people do things: panels, live…
A loose Scrubs revisit with cats, Appalachian unease, and a wary look at the sitcom's dated sexism.
Still Buffering's Scrubs episode moves in the show's familiar sideways fashion, opening with Sydney and Taylor on Abraham Lincoln as an alleged cat lover, pets with grudges, and the strange intimacy of learning history from TikTok.
A funny, wandering culture chat that turns intro flubs and messy fast food into social comedy.
Still Buffering: Freaky Friday works best as a loose, culture-chat hangout, with Sydney McElroy and Taylor Smurl letting small mistakes become the point.
A warm culture chat about food, curiosity, and the line between cultural exchange and spectacle.
Still Buffering uses Jawbreaker (1999) as a doorway into looser, sharper culture talk, with Sydney McElroy and Taylor Smurl moving from January disorientation and food-pyramid fatigue into bigger questions about food, class, access, and respect.
A funny, drifting look at infomercials, everyday objects, and the social meanings people attach to them.
Infomercials gives Still Buffering room to treat commercial culture as a trail of odd little habits: snow days recast as virtual learning days, beer choices as social signals, and the faintly chaotic promise of tools that cut cans or make pizza faster.
A warm, strange Camp Damascus chat about queer horror taste, Halloween leftovers, and Chuck Tingle's weirder orbit.
Still Buffering turns its Camp Damascus discussion into a loose, funny handoff from Halloween comedown to queer horror enthusiasm. Sydney and Taylor open with the very local drama of trick-or-treat being moved off Halloween in Huntington, complete with cold rain, Friday night…
Anna Martin interviews writers and couples about the real stories behind Modern Love essays.
Knox and Jamie turn celebrity gossip, film deep dives, and streaming news into weekly comedy.
A Brazilian journalist spends years reinvestigating unsolved child disappearances in Paraná.
Cris Bartz and Juva Lauer alternate debate and interview episodes on Brazilian social issues.
Robert Wright interviews specialists on Iran, Gaza, Ukraine, Taiwan, and open-source AI.
A Baltimore bus driver's daily bus-seat reflections on money, faith, and family, signed "God's Boy."
Sydney McElroy and Taylor Spurl open Still Buffering with Taylor saying her fingers are “permanently stained yellow” after trying to make dandelion wine from a TikTok.
PAX East opens the ramble.
Abraham Lincoln liked cats, apparently.
Still Buffering: Freaky Friday mixes a long stretch of cultural commentary with a late discussion of both Freaky Friday films, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, and the sequel’s four-person swap.
The hosts share a heartwarming story about their children's experience at a school book fair, highlighting family dynamics and childhood generosity.
The hosts discuss their podcast's identity as a cross-generational guide to culture, with humorous self-reflection on their claims and personal podcast listening habits.
The host humorously discusses the 2026 Superbowl and winter Olympics, focusing on the perceived danger and absurdity of cold sports like ice skating.
The hosts discuss the Groundhog Day prediction and its implications, blending humor with cultural observation.
The hosts discuss their experiences with a winter storm and being iced in, blending personal stories with cultural commentary.
Sydnee and Teylor discuss a TikTok trend revitalized by SNL and banter about preparing for an upcoming snowstorm.
January already feels too long.
The hosts open by acknowledging a heavy week in America and offer listeners a warning before discussing current events, then transition to their main topic of heated rivalry.
Sydnee and Teylor chat about the end of 2025, weather extremes, and British Chinese food TikTok trends.
Two hosts discuss the modern shift from traditional snow days to virtual learning days, sharing personal experiences with their children's school assignments and the challenges of helping with math.
Snow days start the phone call.
The hosts discuss the cultural trope of parents celebrating when kids go back to school, questioning its validity.
The hosts discuss their TikTok obsessions and share a nostalgic personal story about a first kiss at age 14, tied to a pop tab necklace talisman.
The hosts of Still Buffering discuss recent internet happenings, including a TikTok prank involving fake baby cries to get formula from religious centers, while avoiding serious topics like government shutdowns.
Spooky season gets one last little sendoff.
The hosts discuss a controversial TikTok criticizing EBT recipients, exploring internet culture and social responsibility.
The hosts discuss Halloween activities, focusing on a visit to the Blaze event in Sleepy Hollow featuring 7,000 carved pumpkins in various themed displays.
The hosts celebrate Trans Day of Visibility and discuss cultural topics with humor and personal anecdotes.
The hosts discuss the MaxFunDrive and share personal stories about driver's license renewals and taking driving tests while pregnant.
The hosts humorously introduce a Max Fun pledge drive, joking about NPR fans and listener support.
The hosts discuss interviewing high school seniors for a scholarship program and reflect on generational differences in technology use.
The hosts discuss watching the Oscars, their predictions, and the films they saw.
The hosts discuss dealing with illness and the tendency to ignore being sick, sharing personal anecdotes and humorous observations.
The hosts discuss a viral TikTok drama involving a mom, blending humor with cultural analysis.
The hosts humorously discuss their Super Bowl experience and NFL team preferences.
The hosts discuss their detached, TikTok-based consumption of the Grammys and fashion culture while introducing their podcast's focus on Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.
The hosts introduce the show as a comedy and do a personal check-in about their feelings amid current events.
The hosts humorously discuss the idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico, mocking the proposal and Trump's spelling.
The hosts banter about the polar vortex and West Virginia's lack of infrastructure, setting up their cross-generational discussion of culture.
The hosts discuss the strange experience of being at Disney World while a major news story about a TikTok star accused of murder breaks.
Sydnee shares a humorous story about her daughter's preference for Heinz ketchup over a healthy alternative.