Being a hardcore fan is a personal and life-affirming experience. Fan Club (V by Viacom/iTunes) sees enthusiastic host Ross Martin examining “why we love what we love,” from Judy Blume to cronuts. Although there’s a nod to the science behind fandom and the feelings it creates, this podcast concentrates on the passion attached to really loving something.
In the first episode, South Park superfans are put in an MRI scanner, which shows that the theme tune is a motivational cue that they are about to have a good time. “It’s like dopamine gets released and it’s like: ‘Oh, here comes more of what I love,’” says Martin.
He gets as excited about other people’s passions as his own, and asks every interviewee what they are a fan of. The best ones are those who fully embrace the question, such as the gloriously/controversially unfiltered MTV host Charlamagne tha God. He’s proud to be divisive: “the architect of aggravation”, “the ruler of rubbing you the wrong way”. But he just comes across as a nice guy. Refreshingly, he claims he is talking to artists he interviews from the perspective of the fans, and that’s what allowed him to call out Kanye West for making a rubbish album, or joke with Hillary Clinton that she’s pandering to black people. It turns out that he’s a big fan of teen author Judy Blume after becoming hooked in by an offer of free pizza at the library when he was younger.
This week’s episode is all about a different kind of fandom: food worship. “Food and dining is not just an experience any more. It’s an obsession that we can share on Instagram and let the world know we waited this many hours for that rainbow bagel, the cronut or that Shake Shack burger,” says Martin. Bon Appetit’s food director Carla Lalli Music is unconvinced by the power of the rainbow bagel. “That is something that is made for Instagram. 100%,” she says, weary of people jumping on the frosé (that’s a slushy made from rosé) bandwagon. With food fads magnified by Instagram photos, it’s easy to see why they can become ubiquitous, but who can deny a fan of baked goods their pleasure?
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