In an effort to distract myself from my spiraling thoughts of fear and anxiety that occurred when I was doing mindless wedding planning or corporate email job tasks this summer, I started listening to the Las Culturistas podcast, hosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers. From the beginning. For those of you who don’t know, Las Culturistas started airing in spring of 2016 and the comedy duo are still producing episodes to this day, recently releasing their live performance of the Culture Awards this summer.
I love listening to the podcast so much that I hardly open Spotify to play music anymore. Rather I’m opening the app to talk—or I suppose listen—to my close personal friends, Matt and Bowen. For the 8–9 hours I’m alone all day, I’m a little less alone when they’re in the background yapping.
For any readers who don’t consider themselves Culturistas, Matt and Bowen’s podcast first premiered in March 2016 and usually involves the duo interviewing their friends and fellow comedians or artists. Over the years, the elements of the podcast have changed and shifted as Matt and Bowen explore their different creative outlets, but my favorite elements have stayed the same from the outset. Each episode begins with Matt and Bowen saying, “Ding dong! Las Culturistas calling!” in sync. Each guest is asked, “What is the culture that shaped you? What is the culture that made you say, ‘Culture is for me!’?”.
They also define clear Rules of Culture in each episode, giving each a number and repeating the rule in sync. These rules range in clarity, from Rule of Culture #1: If you don’t love Gaga, you don’t love yourself; to Rule of Culture #50: Shrek holds the key to humor; and others like Rule of Culture #194: Cooking is a vicious cycle. Finally, each guest participates in the now-famous “I Don’t Think So, Honey!” segment where they have one minute to “rail against something in culture” and must use the phrase “I don’t think so, honey!” as much as possible.
Listening to Las Culturistas has been both comforting and inspiring and depressing. To listen to a comedy podcast discussing the culture of the late 2010s in 2025 is complicated. Yes, go off about Lemonade and Reputation, two equally good albums (joke)! Yes, it is pretty wild that The Post won Best Picture at the Oscars! But not more wild than the La La Land/Moonlight fiasco! Yes, tell me more about the various improv and sketch groups of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, a college I never went to! But at the same time, the often acknowledged tension of the background is the first Trump administration and the initial wave of the MeToo movement.
In the first handful of episodes, Matt and Bowen discuss their various volunteer efforts for the Clinton campaign, then following the election, talk honestly about their fears for what this means for America. Although it isn’t the main thesis for the podcast, politics is a part of culture. As much fun as I’ve had reliving the culture of my teen years, it was not fun to remember the feelings I had during the 2016 election. And while I am thankful to be listening now, I am not looking forward to hearing about the same hopeful volunteering Matt and Bowen performed for the Harris campaign, followed by another election that ends with Donald Trump as president.
It is hard to listen to even the 2018 episodes discussing plans to travel in 2020 or mentioning their hope about the film and television industry changing in big ways after MeToo, hoping for simply more female director nominees. They don’t know yet that there will be three more years until the next women are nominated in that category. They don’t know about the global pandemic. At the same time, though, they also don’t know about Beyoncé’s RENAISSANCE album, let alone COWBOY CARTER. They haven’t heard the name “Chappell Roan” or “Emerald Fennell.” There is so much culture yet to come.
Despite the dramatic irony that I, the listener, know what’s coming and have no way to warn them, I am enjoying this podcast. I wish I had discovered it sooner. When I was an aspiring comedian in high school, it would have meant so much to me to listen to comedians discussing comedy and their struggles to get their big breaks. What would it have felt like to have fallen in love with Bowen Yang’s sense of humor and then seen him join the cast of Saturday Night Live to much acclaim?
Even listening to it now, it is amazing to hear people like young Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, even younger Cole Escola, Rachel Bloom, D’arcy Carden, Michell Buteau, Jaboukie Young-White, Dulcé Sloan, Ayo Edibiri, Ziwe, and more discuss their careers as they are starting out, still working their survival jobs. It is so incredible to see Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang move from 25-year-old best friends starting a podcast to hosting their “I Don’t Think So, Honey! Live” performances in 2019 to hosting their own Culture Awards this summer.
Ultimately, this is just a podcast that I enjoy spending my days listening to passively. I am not close personal friends with Matt Rogers or Bowen Yang, they are just voices in my headphones (and real-life excellent comedians). I can’t wait to finally catch up on all the episodes and get to listen in real time as Matt and Bowen interview their friends and celebrities. And you better believe that I am on the waitlist for the release of the Las Culturistas coffee table book, The Rules of Culture, Volume 1, and you should be too.
Carlisle Patete (‘22) came to Calvin University from the mountains of North Carolina and graduated with a double major in film & media and creative writing. After brief stints in Los Angeles and Chicago, she now resides in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she enjoys sweet tea on her front porch and identifying every tree and bird she runs into on any hiking trail.
