117: Wannabe and the Pop Culture that Shapes Us with Aisha Harris

Dolls of Our Lives

Allison Horrocks and Mary Mahoney

Society & Culture, History

4.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2023

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We are SO excited to bring you a special episode with Aisha Harris, author and co-host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour. Drawing on her new book, Wannabe: Reckonings with the Pop Culture that Shapes Me, we talk American Girl and growing up with pop culture in the 90s. We love Aisha’s new book, and we think you will too!

Check out Aisha’s new book here: https://www.aishaharris.com/wannabe-book

Pre-order our book: Dolls of Our Lives: Why We Can't Quit American Girl

Resources:

You can find episodes, resources, and a link to our merch store and patreon on our website: dollsofourlivespod.com

Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/dollsofourlivespod

We love to hear from you! Drop us a line [email protected]

Follow us on social media:

Instagram -@dollsofourlivespodcast

Twitter - @dollslivespod

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/DollsOfOurLivesPod/

Follow Allison on Twitter and Instagram @allisonhorrocks

Follow Mary @mimimahoney (Instagram) or @marymahoney123 (Twitter)

Need a source of calm in your day? Listeners will get a free audiobook when you start a new monthly Libro.fm membership for $14.99 a month. You'll get two audiobooks for the price of one in your first month as a member. Valid in the US and Canada.Subscribe to Libro FM! Choose from over 150,000 audiobooks and even support your local bookstore with your purchases as a member. To sign up, use code DOLLS or this link: https://tidd.ly/3EwqiF5

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome everyone to dolls of our lives. This is the podcast where we're reliving the American
0:15.4	Girl Series book by book. Except on this episode we're so honored to be joined by Aisha Harris,
0:21.4	a co-host of pop culture happy hour and author of wannabe reckoning with the pop culture that
0:26.8	shapes me. Welcome Aisha. Hey, it's great to be here. We're so excited to have you here both to
0:32.7	talk about your own American Girl story but also about this really wonderful book of essays both
0:37.8	about kind of the pop culture that shaped you and you know the ways that they and kind of like
0:42.7	bigger questions about pop culture and how we all interact with it. So lots to kind of get into.
0:47.8	But first I just want to say we I just noted off here that we're both from Connecticut so I learned
0:52.5	about kind of meet young Aisha in the book at the start but can you kind of tell us a little
0:57.8	bit about like what's your American Girl story like how did it come into your life? Oh man,
1:03.4	I think if I recall correctly I was like five years old or so when the Addie doll came out
1:12.2	and I got it for either that Christmas or the Christmas after it came out but I was already
1:18.4	familiar with the books like the books and the magazine. I was very obsessed with it and so I
1:24.9	remember asking for the doll and yeah there's a photo of me holding Addie in her school outfit
1:35.2	which was like a dark blue skirt with a petticoat underneath and then the matching blouse like
1:42.6	vest and it was you know she was she was a doll that I had very complicated feelings about
1:52.4	but I did enjoy playing with her and yeah she was she she was she was she was such a part of my life
2:00.5	in many ways that I'm sure we'll get into but yeah Addie holds a special place in my heart.
2:06.8	For sure I mean and you mentioned in the book there's a mention of American Girl magazine which
2:11.0	also has like had a big place in my childhood heart but are there other American Girl things
2:15.9	that you were interested in or that kind of you know we were a fan of? Oh yeah I mean I was
2:22.8	definitely a huge fan of the magazines and also the advice books that they had I have lots of them
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Allison Horrocks and Mary Mahoney, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Allison Horrocks and Mary Mahoney and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.