Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. When I was 11, I was living in rural Washington,

and over that next couple of years, I was a fountain of unselfconscious creativity. I made little

home movies with my sister and her friends with homegrown sketch comedy characters,

created a UCLA basketball website, and coded a virtual version of my hometown on the early World Wide Web.

Were I to look at any of these things now, I imagine I would probably die from a combination of cringe and joy.

In the year 2000, four preteen girls in Santa Rosa, three 11-year-olds, and one

nine-year-old little sister, wrote and recorded an album inspired by pop stars with production

help from a longtime musician, one of their moms. They called themselves, et cetera, and the album

has become now, like in the current moment, a cult hit.

It even got picked up by Numero Group, which is probably the coolest record label in the world.

It's a wild story and has chronicled in a new documentary Summer 2000, the Et cetera story.

It was also a powerful and pretty relatable healing experience.

Joining us to talk about it all, we've got two of the band members up first.

We've got Aidan Maieri, who is the director of Summer 2000, The Et cetera Story,

which just won Best Documentary Feature at South by Southwest last month.

And, of course, she was a member of the band. Welcome, Aiden. Thanks. Have you ever looked back at your old sketches? Oh, God. I would never. They're there. I think they're sitting there amidst, like, you know, middle school football tapes in my dad's desk. but, you know, I've always hoped the desk might just burn, you know, I'd never have to think about it again.

Um... in my dad's desk, but, you know, I've always hoped the desk might just burn, you know,

and I never have to think about it again.

We're also joined by your co-member of Etcetera, Jessica Hall.

Welcome, Jessica.

Thank you. Hello.

Happy to be here.

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