OUR RATING:
Listen, I need to be honest with you: “Are You Garbage?” is the podcast equivalent of looking through your childhood photos and realizing your mom absolutely sent you to school in outfits that violated the Geneva Convention. Hosts H.Foley and Kevin Ryan have created something special here: a show that asks the hard-hitting questions mainstream media refuses to touch, like “Did your family reuse paper plates?” and “How many toilets were in your house growing up?” It’s investigative journalism for the working class?
Comedians come on the show to be interrogated about their upbringing to determine whether they are, in fact, garbage. Did you drink out of old Country Crock butter containers? Garbage. Did your parents have a “junk drawer” that was actually three drawers? Garbage. Did you think Olive Garden was fancy? Oh buddy, you’re garbage and you don’t even know it yet. The cleverness is that everyone, and I mean everyone, has at least a little garbage in their DNA, no matter how much money they make now.
Ryan and Foley have this odd chemistry that can only come from two guys who clearly grew up adjacent to sketchy gas stations and understand that there’s a specific type of honour in eating cereal with a fork because all the spoons are dirty. They’re not judging their guests (well, they are, but lovingly), they’re celebrating the bizarre ingenuity of broke families everywhere. Your dad fixed the TV with a wire hanger and electrical tape? That’s not poverty, that’s engineering.
What makes the show work is that it strips away the usual podcast pretense. There’s no “let’s discuss your creative process” or “tell us about your journey.” It’s just “Did your family have a piss drawer?” straight out of the gate. Guests who come on thinking they’re going to promote their special end up having Vietnam-style flashbacks about the time they shared bathwater with their siblings. It’s therapeutic in the way only public humiliation can be.
You’ll be laughing along as someone describes how their family had a “car towel” (you know, the towel that lived in the car for reasons no one could quite explain), and then suddenly you’re struck with the memory that YOUR family also had a car towel, and you’re having an existential crisis in the middle of your commute. It’s like therapy, except you’re paying nothing and learning that your childhood bedroom sharing arrangement was, in fact, insane.
“Are You Garbage?” is so very addictive because it’s class consciousness disguised as comedy. In an era where everyone on social media is pretending they grew up in a Nancy Meyers movie, the hosts of this podcast are out here asking if your parents ever made you return something to a store because they “found it cheaper elsewhere.” It’s refreshing, it’s relatable, and it’s a reminder that most of us are only a few paychecks away from becoming our parents, reusing aluminum foil as Christmas tree decorations and calling it “being resourceful.”
The guest list has gotten increasingly impressive, which creates this hilarious dynamic where legitimately famous people have to admit their dad once tried to pay a restaurant bill in loose change. Watching successful comedians realize, in real-time, that they grew up way more “garbage” than they thought is entertainment gold. The show has created a safe space for people to admit that yes, their family did in fact have “car snacks” that had been in the glove compartment since 2007.
Look, “Are You Garbage?” isn’t going to solve world hunger or explain the mysteries of the universe. But it will make you call your parents and ask them why the hell they thought it was normal to have six different remote controls held together with rubber bands. It’s stupid, it’s silly, and it’s somehow one of the most honest podcasts out there. In a world full of podcasts trying to be the next “This American Life,” this podcast decided to say… “what if we just asked people about their fucked up childhoods?”
At the end of the day, we’re all a little bit garbage, and this podcast is here to prove it. So pour yourself a drink in that one cup from a gas station that your family has inexplicably kept for fifteen years, sit back, and enjoy the chaos.
Final Verdict: Peak garbage, would recommend. 🗑️
Where to listen to Are You Garbage?
Pod.link | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Pocket Casts | Castro
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