Ira Madison — Pure Innocent Fun - with Dan Zak

<p>You can recall the first TV show, movie, book, or song that made you feel understood--that shaped how you live, what you love, and whom you would become. It gave you an entire worldview. For Ira Madison, that book was Chuck Klosterman's <em>Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, </em>which cemented the idea that pop culture could be a rigorous subject--and that, for better or worse, it shapes all of us.</p><p>In<strong> </strong><em><strong>Pure Innocent Fun</strong></em>, Madison explores the key cultural moments that inspired his career as a critic and guided his coming of age as a Black gay man in Milwaukee. In this hilarious, full-throttle trip through the '90s and 2000s, he recounts learning about sex from <em>Buffy the Vampire Slayer;</em> facing the most heartbreaking election of his youth (not George W. Bush's win, but Jennifer Hudson losing American Idol); and how never getting his driver's license in high school made him just like Cher Horowitz in <em>Clueless</em> &quot;a virgin who can't drive.&quot;</p><p>Brimming with a profound love for a bygone culture and alternating between irreverence and heartfelt insight, <em>Pure Innocent Fun</em>, like all the best products of pop culture, will leave you entertained and surprisingly enlightened.</p><p><br /></p><p>PURCHASE BOOK HERE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9780593446188?ic_referral=4IkohOtCueOkTM5TrD3wZeNB_5hP5Q2qndgAsHPY9ecwM4C1S-2fs1mUA51pnrz7DBwlg1SOXhbQb-lmMf7DGx6eUf1R6UW6vLOCJwtwHxB8r4f7leauFapxLAx32uXa3jdfLXM</p><p><br /></p><p><strong>Ira Madison III </strong>is the host of Crooked Media's pop culture podcast <em>Keep It</em>. His television writing credits include <em>Uncoupled, Q-Force, Nikki Fre$h</em>, and <em>So Help Me Todd</em>. He has written for <em>GQ, New York Magazine, Interview, MTV News, </em>and <em>Cosmopolitan, </em>among other publications. <em>Nylon</em> named him one of the &quot;most reliably hilarious and incisive cultural critics writing now.&quot; He has appeared on <em>The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Watch What Happens Live, The Wendy Williams Show, </em>and the second season of the Netflix drama <em>You</em>. Ira Madison III lives in New York City.</p><p>Madison is in conversation with <strong>Dan Zak</strong>, a journalist for <em>The Washington Post</em>, where for nearly 20 years he has covered everything under the sun. He is the author of the 2016 nonfiction book <em>Almighty</em>, about an 82-year-old nun who broke into a nuclear weapons facility in Tennessee. He lives in Northeast D.C. and these days he's an editor in the features department of <em>The Post</em>.</p><p><br /></p><p>*recorded 3/2/2025</p>