The JV Club with Janet Varney

It’s been a rough summer for the planet, friends! So take this opportunity to smile at delightful Boy of Summer Matt Apodaca (Get Played pod) and his SoCal class clownery. So get those double jumps and hot wings queued up for a summery good time!

Hop into your time machine to hit the message boards in small-town Maine with this week’s divine Boy of Summer, Alex Steed (You Are Good podcast)! Journey with Alex for rides to the mall… and stay with him for the ecosystem of friendships therein!

This week brings you terrific Boy of Summer Eric Silver of Multitude, who brings tales of teen life in Jersey, including a couple of years of not-so-great football (and the coaches who really do seem hatched right out of an 80’s comedy), a couple of years of much-better Drama, and what it means when your mom dresses you and your twin alike... to prove how UN-identical you are!

We’re taking a week off of Boys of Summer to bring you producer, musician and creative maven Carolyn Kendrick! So grab your fiddle and a bowl o’ noodles for this chat about podcasting (You’re Wrong About and more!), how to sweet-talk yourself into any band, and more!

Can’t say enough good things about this week’s Boy of Summer, Carl Tart (Gossip Kings)! Sit in on this conversation about becoming a 12 year-old Caddy driver, the discovery of where “home” is and how that evolves, and for gods’ sake don’t forget your Bluebell Banana Pudding ice cream!!

Hope everybody’s having a fun-- if sizzling— summer! We’re delighted to have our pal Doug Benson (Doug Loves Movies) regale us with teen stories coming out of sunny San Diego.

It’s JV’s delightful Truth & Justice co-host, Zaq Weaver! Bundle up and head to the edge of the lake for this chat about doodling, shooting hoops, tattooing, and any other words with two o’s that we’re not thinking of at the moment. Plus! Could Zaq’s M.A.S.H. be predicting a real-life resolution to a decades-old true crime case?

It’s the simply fantastic Max Mittleman as our latest Boy of Summer! If you’re an anime fan or a gamer, you will know his delightful tones as he and JV mosey through his teen years in the Los Angeles Valley, dodging bullies (heavy sigh) and crushing on a certain fantastic actress… whom he may or may not end up with in his M.A.S.H. future!

Get your art on, friends! Whatever form it takes! And while you’re at it, feast your ears on this episode with Boy of Summer Video Dave who talks crafting, family histories, music and way more, of course! So grab that mac and cheese and puppet up!

Grab your overnight bag, because we’re all sleeping at Shai’s! Join this week’s guest Shai Korman takes us from the streets of Montreal to a family house by the lake, along with some summer camp joy for good measure.

We’re gleaming the cube with comedian and delight Kyle Kinane, who talks Chicago teenagerness featuring wry remarks and maybe not-so-great punk band experiences (experiences great = band itself, maybe not so great?). Grab a gyro, and surf’s up!

It’s Julia Schifini from the Spirits podcast, upon which JV made a recent appearance! Find out about Julia’s high school passions, including some more JV Club Ellen Ripley and Wolverine love, musicals and dream roles, and a certain shark-adjacent island.

Spend this episode of The JV Club with the terrific graphic novelist and illustrator Melissa Capriglione (Basil and Oregano).

What better way to celebrate a MaxFun Crossover than with one of the Maxiest, Funniest, Crossoveriest(?) people around, Mr. John Hodgman? It’s a smorgasbord of topics and delight in this special episode. This episode was originally published in 2021.

This week we’re elated to welcome the brilliant author and producer Kendra James (Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School) for a venture into the elite world of a world-famous college prep high school and all of the speed bumps and landmines that come along with it. So throw on your ice skates and get ready to ice-dance with an icon!