In this episode, Laura is joined by longtime friend and performer and self-proclaimed “lyric guy” Nick Bean to talk through a deceptively simple stretch of early-90s radio playlists — and the rules hiding inside them. From the Dave Clark Five's blunt persistence to Rod Stewart’s affectionate Motown tribute that buries The Temptations deep in the mix, the conversation moves to inspiration, authority, and who gets positioned as “variety” rather than default.

The heart of the episode centers on two back-to-back songs by women — Gloria Estefan’s Coming Out of the Dark and Mariah Carey’s Vision of Love — and the broadcast logic that once said they shouldn’t sit next to each other. Along the way, Laura and Nick unpack vulnerability, gendered expectations in music and comedy, the difference between empowerment and display, and what it meant to hear genuinely new voices at the moment they arrived.

On this episode of Saturn’s Favorite Music, Laura Lee welcomes back fan-favorite guest Jenny Hunter for a deep dive into adult-contemporary greatness, confusion, and accidental murder ballads. They tackle the eternal sing-along that is The Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” grade Phil Collins’ infinitely repeating “One More Night,” question the chart-smashing mystery of Kenny G’s “Sentimental,” and attempt to solve the soft-rock true-crime puzzle of Richard Marx’s “Hazard.” Along the way, they debate bathroom songs, circular breathing, karaoke-booth reverb, suspicious rivers that don’t exist, and why a melodic ballad somehow involves a possible homicide.

Clara hangs her first apartment posters in Saturn’s Favorite Music—and Episode 4 dives into the soundtrack behind them. Laura Lee sits down with her niece, Sophia, a musical-theater fan, who listens to Primal Scream, The Sugarcubes, The Cure, and The Stone Roses for the very first time.

From the surreal swirl of “Birthday” to the moody sprawl of “Fascination Street,” Sophia gives fresh, sharp takes on songs that shaped early-90s alternative radio. And when “Made of Stone” turns out to be both catchy and lyrically grim—“everything a car crash is not”—the discussion becomes a perfect example of how tone and meaning collide in the music of the era.