In the second of our Hometown episodes, Lauren and Christine head Down East to the great state of Maine. Like Philadelphia, the Pine Tree State has its class issues. Unlike Philly cheesesteaks, its lobster rolls contain mayo. But if it is so beautiful, why is it so creepy?

In the first of two Hometown episodes, Lauren introduces Christine to the culinary magic known as the pizza steak as they visit Philadelphia. Can they run up the Rocky Steps in their training montage while singing every word to “Piano Man”?

Hoagie recommendations:

https://dalessandros.com/

https://leeshoagiehouse.com/

In this episode, nothing gets between Lauren, Christine, and their Calvins, as they look back at the career of Gen-X icon Brooke Shields.

Book recommendations:

E.J. Bellocq, Storyville Portraits: Photographs From the New Orleans Red Light District, circa 1912

https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_2678_300299020.pdf

Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture

https://www.pennpress.org/9780812221671/hope-in-a-jar/

Lauren and Christine get out the sunscreen and head to the beach, asking why films and tv often associate this setting with booze, hooking up, and regrets. And they resolve never to go to Rio with Michael Caine.

RIP Connie Francis.

Book recommendations:

Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People

E.M. Forster, A Room With a View

In a double-sized episode, Lauren and Christine say “hello, lover” to Sex and the City, while leaving a break-up Post-It note for And Just Like That.

Book recommendations:

Colette, Chéri

Ann Douglas, Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s

Lauren and Christine return to first love and high school, surveying American culture’s fascination with virgins. If we can’t all be Brenda and Dylan, or even Jim and Michelle, can we at least avoid being Stacy and Ron?

Lauren and Christine cast a misty eye on stories of first love, senior year in high school, and college applications — and feel nostalgic about the days when teachers and students could smoke in school.

Book recommendations:

Wendy Mogel, The Blessing of a Skinned Knee

Theodore Sizer, Horace’s Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School

Lauren and Christine ask if Adolescence deserves its anti-misogyny hype, if anger can boost a young man's ambition, and if World War II created a generation of angry, jazz-hating, rock-and-roll loving, juvenile delinquents.

Book recommendations:

Dan T. Carter, The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics

https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Rage-Conservatism-Transformation-American/dp/0807125970

Leonard Sax, Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men

https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Adrift-Epidemic-Unmotivated-Underachieving/dp/0465072100