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PODCAST

Stuck in the "80s Podcast

The longest-running ’80s podcast—featuring interviews with music legends, movie stars, and MTV icons. Deep dives, debates, and Gen X nostalgia every week. Hosted by Steve Spears and Brad Williams, the show blends sharp takes with insider stories from the people who lived it. From ’80s music and movies to MTV culture and pop culture history, each episode goes deeper than nostalgia to uncover what made the decade unforgettable.

music music history

All Episodes

00:57:18

When in Rome’s Andrew Mann on “The Promise,” “Human...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/10/03

Few synth-pop songs from the late ’80s have enjoyed a second life quite like When in Rome’s “The Promise.”Released in 1988, the song became the band’s signature hit, but its story didn’t end there. Years later, a memorable appearance at the end of Napoleon Dynamite introduced “The Promise” to a whole new generation and helped turn it into one of those ’80s songs that seems to keep finding new fans. This week on Stuck in the ’80s, Steve talks with Andrew Mann of When in Rome about the band’s

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01:05:08

Always Something There to Remind Me: Remembering Pete...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/09/26

Some episodes of Stuck in the ’80s are harder to record than others.This week, Steve goes solo to remember Pete Byrne, the unmistakable voice of Naked Eyes, who has passed away at age 74. For millions of music fans, Pete will always be remembered for the synth-pop classics "Always Something There to Remind Me" and "Promises, Promises." But for Steve, Pete was much more than the voice behind two of the decade's most beloved songs. An interview during the early days of Stuck in the ’80s grew into a

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00:59:03

Live Aid Runaways: Chasing a Dream to the Biggest...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/09/17

What if you were 16 years old in the summer of 1985, armed with little more than a Sony Walkman, a few cassette tapes and the belief that somehow — some way — you had to make it to Live Aid?That’s the idea at the heart of Live Aid Runaways, the new novel by Shane Robitaille. Shane joins the podcast along with researcher Livi Stanford to take us behind the scenes of a story that mixes fictional characters with one of the most unforgettable real-life events of the decade. The novel follows teenagers

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00:34:57

Remembering Dolly Parton: The Songs, Stories and...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/09/10

There really was nobody else quite like Dolly Parton.In this special episode of Stuck in the ’80s, we remember Dolly — the songwriter, singer, actress, entrepreneur and wonderfully funny human being who somehow became a national treasure without ever seeming like she was trying to be one. Joining us is longtime friend of the show Annie Zaleski, music journalist and author of the new book Dolly Parton: The Stories Behind the Songs. Annie takes us inside Dolly’s extraordinary songbook, from the

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01:06:29

Book of Love and the Synth-Pop Bands We Wish We’d...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/09/03

Some ’80s bands sold millions of records. Some filled arenas. Some became so permanently embedded in pop culture that you can’t walk through a grocery store without hearing them over the frozen peas.And then there are the bands that somehow found us anyway. This week on Stuck in the ’80s, we’re celebrating Book of Love and a handful of other synth-pop bands that deserved a little more attention the first time around — and whose music might sound even better today. Our centerpiece is a conversation

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00:38:08

Streets of Fire: Revisiting Our Tribute 15 Years Later

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/08/31

We all have that one movie from the ’80s. Maybe yours is Back to the Future. Maybe it’s The Breakfast Club, The Goonies or Say Anything. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the greatest movie ever made. It just has to be the movie that found you at exactly the right time and somehow never let go. For Steve, that movie has always been Streets of Fire. Walter Hill’s 1984 “rock & roll fable” gave us a strange and wonderful world of neon streets, roaring motorcycles, pounding music, Michael Paré,

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00:50:40

Paul Simon’s Graceland at 40: The Album That Changed...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/08/22

Forty years ago, Paul Simon released one of the most unlikely blockbuster albums of the 1980s.Graceland arrived on Aug. 25, 1986, blending Simon’s unmistakable songwriting with South African rhythms, zydeco, gospel harmonies and a completely new way of building songs. The result was an album that sounded unlike almost anything else on the radio — and somehow became one of the defining records of the decade. In this episode of Stuck in the ’80s, we go track by track through Graceland, from “The Boy

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01:09:53

Those Crazy Movie and TV High Schools of the '80s

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/08/18

If you could go back and spend four years at any fictional high school from the ’80s, where would you enroll?Would you hang out with Spicoli at Ridgemont High? Serve Saturday detention with the Breakfast Club at Shermer High? Shoot hoops for Hickory? Learn the African Anteater Ritual at Crandall High? Or maybe you'd choose a school where there's absolutely no chance of being murdered by your classmates or attacked in your dreams. This week on Stuck in the ’80s, Steve and Brad are going back to

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00:54:42

Classic Interview: MTV VJ Adam Curry on Madonna,...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/08/15

When Stuck in the ’80s was just getting started, we somehow convinced Adam Curry to talk to us.This was our second-ever celebrity interview, and Curry came armed with exactly the kind of stories we hoped an MTV VJ would have. Madonna. Sebastian Bach. Moscow. Richard Marx. And that's just for starters. In this classic Stuck in the ’80s interview, former MTV VJ Adam Curry takes us behind the scenes of Music Television during its glory years and shares some wonderfully strange stories from life at the

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00:56:47

Stand By Me at 40: Revisiting the Classic...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/08/08

Some movies don't just survive the passage of time—they become part of who we are.Released 40 years ago, Stand By Me captured something rare: the bittersweet moment when childhood gives way to adulthood. Based on Stephen King's novella The Body, the film transformed a simple search for a missing boy into one of the most heartfelt stories ever told about friendship, growing up and realizing that life only gets more complicated from there. In this classic episode of Stuck in the '80s, hosts Steve

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00:58:16

License to Podcast: Ranking the James Bond Movies of...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/08/03

James Bond didn't just survive the 1980s—he evolved. The decade began with the familiar charm of Roger Moore, who somehow managed to save the world while delivering one-liners smoother than a shaken martini. But by the end of the '80s, the tuxedo belonged to Timothy Dalton, whose darker, more serious interpretation helped pave the way for the modern Bond audiences know today. On this week's Stuck in the '80s, hosts Steve Spears and Sean Daly welcome former St. Petersburg Times film critic Steve

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00:59:28

Nick Heyward Charts a New Course with Haircut 100

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/07/25

Some bands reunite because nostalgia sells.Others reunite because they still have something to say. Listening to Haircut 100's new album, Boxing the Compass, it's pretty clear which camp they fall into. This week, Steve welcomes the always charming Nick Heyward back to Stuck in the '80s to talk about the band's first album featuring the original lineup in an astonishing 44 years. Rather than trying to recreate 1982, Haircut 100 has delivered an album that acknowledges the decades that have passed

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00:54:40

Summer Albums of 1986: R.E.M., Genesis, the Cure and...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/07/16

Episode 791: Forty years ago, the summer of 1986 came with its own soundtrack. It was a season when some of the biggest artists in music were reinventing themselves, while other bands were just beginning to find the audiences that would follow them for decades. Turn on the radio, walk into a record store or press play on your cassette deck, and you might hear something polished and enormous one minute—then something jangly, strange or wonderfully underground the next. In this episode of Stuck in the

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01:07:27

Pretty Wrecked: Tracy Viola on Addiction, Recovery...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/07/07

Episode 790: Not every story from the 1980s comes wrapped in neon, movie quotes, and mixtapes. Some begin in darkness. This week on Stuck in the '80s, I sit down with author Tracy Viola to discuss her remarkable memoir, Pretty Wrecked: Confessions of a Teenage Addict and Her Road to Recovery. While many of our episodes celebrate the music, movies and pop culture that made the decade unforgettable, this conversation reminds us that the '80s also shaped people in ways that weren't always

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00:45:28

Summer Forever: A Classic 2008 Look Back at the Best...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/07/02

Episode 789: Summer has a funny way of collapsing time. One minute you're hearing a familiar song on the radio or smelling charcoal from the neighbor's grill, and suddenly you're sixteen years old again. You're counting down the days until the next blockbuster hits the theater. You're hanging out with friends until the streetlights come on. You're convinced that summer might actually last forever. With the Fourth of July weekend here, we thought it was the perfect excuse to revisit one of our

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01:07:02

Toys of the '80s and Beyond with Jonathan Cathey of...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/06/27

Episode 788: If you grew up in the 1980s, chances are your childhood memories can be measured in action figures, toy catalogs, and Saturday mornings spent convincing your parents that you absolutely needed "just one more." The toys weren't simply things we owned—they became the stars of our own adventures. They transformed living room floors into battlefields, bedrooms into space stations, and backyards into fantasy worlds that lasted until the streetlights came on. This week on Stuck in the '80s,

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01:05:24

Summer of '86: The Underappreciated Movies Turning 40...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/06/19

Episode 787: When people talk about the summer movies of 1986, the conversation usually starts with Top Gun and ends somewhere around Aliens, The Karate Kid Part II, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It was one of the strongest movie summers of the decade, packed with blockbusters that still dominate pop-culture conversations 40 years later.But every great movie season leaves a few worthy titles behind. This week on Stuck in the '80s, we revisit four films from the summer of 1986 that may not get the

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00:48:19

Novelty Songs of the ’80s: “Star Trekkin’,” “Rappin’...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/06/10

Episode 786: From sci-fi parodies and comedy catchphrases to political satire and celebrity rap records, the ’80s produced some truly unforgettable novelty hits. Steve and Chuck revisit songs that were silly, bizarre, occasionally controversial—and somehow impossible to forget.In this episode, they discuss: • "Star Trekkin'" by The Firm, the cult classic that became a No. 1 hit in the United Kingdom • "You Look Marvelous" by Billy Crystal, inspired by his legendary Saturday Night Live character

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01:03:48

Katrina Leskanich on “Walking on Sunshine,”...

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/05/28

Some songs don’t just define a decade — they instantly improve your mood the second they begin playing. Few tracks from the MTV era carry that kind of joyful energy quite like Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves. This week on the Stuck in the ’80s Podcast, Steve sits down with frontwoman Katrina Leskanich for a lively conversation about music, touring and the remarkable twists and turns of her career.The episode begins with Katrina reflecting on her experiences aboard The 80s Cruise, where

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01:02:01

Peter Gabriel’s ‘So’ at 40 | Songs, Stories and Legacy

Stuck in the "80s Podcast ·

2026/05/19

Forty years later, So still stands as one of the most ambitious, emotional and sonically adventurous albums of the 1980s. Released in 1986, the landmark record transformed Peter Gabriel from respected art-rock innovator into a full-fledged MTV superstar thanks to unforgettable songs like Sledgehammer, In Your Eyes, Big Time and Red Rain. This week on the Stuck in the ’80s Podcast, Spearsy revisits one of the show’s classic deep-dive episodes celebrating the 40th anniversary of an album that helped

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