mean girls

Twenty years after Mean Girls introduced Regina George and her pink-clad Plastics to cinema screens, the high-school Queen Bee is back in a new musical film and a West End stage musical. So why is a film for teenage girls still so popular two decades later? And what did it expose about the complicated politics of girl world?

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.

Guest: Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, pop culture historian and author of So Fetch: The Making of Mean Girls (And Why We’re Still So Obsessed With It).

Host: Manveen Rana.

Clips: Mean Girls (2004)/Paramount Pictures, CBS Sunday Morning, Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O’Brien/NBC, The Breakfast Club/Universal Pictures, Clueless/Paramount Pictures, Rosalind Wiseman/The Empower Program, Mean Girls (2024)/Paramount Pictures, Apex Predator/Barrett Wilbert Weed, Erika Henningsen/Mean Girls (Original Broadway Cast Recording).

Read more:

• The enduring cult of Mean Girls
• That is so fetch! Reneé Rapp, the star of the new Mean Girls movie

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Jordan (@JordanHarbinger) and Jason (@jpdef) are back to banter every week and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday on The Jordan Harbinger Show!

If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now, let's dive in!

On This Week's Feedback Friday, We Discuss:

• Having trouble listening to this podcast on Android or iOS? We recommend CastBox or PodcastOne.
• Tips for someone with little to no self-control who procrastinates and is easily distracted.
• Is it strange to take the last name of someone you're dating -- even if you're not in a hurry to get married?
• What's our secret to reading so many books over the course of a week -- and do we recommend it for most people?
• Tips for learning about a subject or topic in which you don't have a lot of experience.
• Mean Girls and Heathers exist in college, too. How should you deal with these bantamweight bullies?
• What's the best way to make plans with someone a few weeks after you've unintentionally blown them off?
• Is there a way to prevent stumbling over your own words during important meetings or being caught off guard by a hallway conversation when you're mentally exhausted?
• How can you add more self care to your self-imposed busy life?
• Recommendation of the Week: LA92
• Shoutouts to Ethel in the Philippines and Premysl Ciompa!
• Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com!
• Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger, and check out Jason's (@jpdef) other show: Grumpy Old Geeks. You can also find him on Instagram at JPD.

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