
Pure Innocent Fun
Essays
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Narrated by:
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Ira Madison III
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By:
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Ira Madison III
About this listen
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this nostalgic and raucous collection of sixteen original essays, Ira Madison III—critic, television writer, and host of the beloved Keep It podcast—combines memoir and criticism to offer a brand-new pop-culture manifesto.
“This is the most fun I’ve had reading all year. Like Chuck Klosterman before him, Ira Madison III takes seriously and analyzes the pop culture detritus that took up hours of our lives.”—Lin-Manuel Miranda
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 Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, which cemented the idea that pop culture could be a rigorous subject—and that, for better or worse, it shapes all of us.
In Pure Innocent Fun, 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 Buffy the Vampire Slayer; 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 Clueless: “a virgin who can’t drive.”
Brimming with a profound love for a bygone culture and alternating between irreverence and heartfelt insight, Pure Innocent Fun, like all the best products of pop culture, will leave you entertained and surprisingly enlightened.
©2024 Ira Madison, III (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
True to the book’s title, Madison’s humorous and perceptive essays will light a spark of recognition for those who came of age glued to their televisions at the turn of the century.”—The Washington Post, “10 Noteworthy Books for February”
“This is the most fun I’ve had reading all year. Like Chuck Klosterman before him, Ira Madison III takes seriously and analyzes the pop culture detritus that took up hours of our lives as byproducts of the late 1900’s. From Coldplay to Family Matters to Passions and everything in between, It feels like Ira has taken apart every dumb thing I’ve obsessed over and put it back together again—all my ‘roman empires.’ I laughed and cried and felt so, so seen. Buy it and KEEP IT.”—Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pulitzer Prize, Grammy, Emmy, and Tony award winning creator of Hamilton and NYT bestselling author of G'morning G'night
“Ira’s wit, intelligence, and reverence for pop culture is on full display in this fantastic essay collection. What a pleasure to read.”—Phoebe Robinson, award winning comedian and NYT bestselling author of You Can’t Touch My Hair
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Story
In in his debut book for adults, Jeffery Self invites listeners into his world, taking them through the usual foibles of gay adolescence, amplified in the vast wasteland of the American South and the odd characters who peopled it, from shoddy community theater productions to underage drinking with Broadway stars, from downtown comedy rooms to adventure-filled bedrooms.
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All stories, but no “so what”
- By Kyle Kung on 06-30-25
By: Jeffery Self
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Deep Cuts
- A Novel
- By: Holly Brickley
- Narrated by: Jayme Mattler
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy—who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it—can’t stop herself from overanalyzing the song, indulging what she knows to be her most annoying habit. But something is different tonight. The guy beside her at the bar, fellow student Joe Morrow, is a songwriter. And he could listen to Percy talk all night. Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs—and the results kick off a partnership that will span years.
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Checks all the boxes
- By Melissa Hudson on 03-14-25
By: Holly Brickley
Shoutout to Ira
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Too Much Fun
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Laugh out loud perspectives on 90s-00s pop culture
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instantly selfishly want more
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A funny, thoughtful, timely, and timeless series of essays
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short and sweet
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Excellent and enthralling personal dissection of culture
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Amazing Debut!
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Relatable! Great word choice! Hilarious!
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A fun and hilarious memoir from one of my favorites
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