This month sees a rerelease of the classic ‘80s film The Goonies, which is about to turn 40. In honor of that milestone, we’re heading into the Sewers archives to hear my 2018 chat with Andrew Putschoegl, whose childhood mirrored that of ‘80s films where groups of neighborhood kids are thrown together into unstructured days of outdoor exploration. In those movies, each kid tends to have one unique trait that sets them apart, and marks them as an outcast. For Andrew, that trait was that at the age of 9, he suddenly woke up to find his hair falling out. It was a medical mystery that made his already-awkward teenage years even more difficult.

We’ll have that conversation in a moment. And I also want to give you a quick heads-up that there may be some breaks between episodes of the podcast. I just learned that I’ve sustained some damage to my spine — nothing too serious and I’m getting treatment, but I might need to step away from my desk now and then for medical appointments and rehab. I’m expecting to make a full recovery, it’ll just take a couple months to get back to 100%.

The short version of what’s going on is that one of my lower vertebrae has slipped slightly to the side, and it’s pressing on a nerve that’s causing blindingly bad pain all the way down one leg. But there’s good news! As these things go, it’s the least severe grade of damage; I’m on some wonderful painkillers at the moment; and I have a team of experts helping with my recovery. As I’m typing this, my pain is at a 2 out of 10, which is a huge relief after a few days of not being able to move! It’s looking pretty good for me to get better, but I’ll have to be patient as it won’t happen overnight. In the mean time, the painkillers should add to the unhinged chaos of my weekend livestreams.

I’ll be posting about my recovery process on Bluesky, so give me a follow there if you’d like to see how things are coming along. As a little tease, right now you can see an ultrasound image of my left butt cheek!

My guest this week is Danny Roberts, one of the stars of Real World: New Orleans, which originally aired on MTV in 2000. Danny was planning to become a teacher and wound up on the show through a series of coincidences, accidents, and last-minute changes of plan, so he was a little unprepared for the fame that he soon found thrust upon him. To say nothing of the weird — and sometimes awful ways — that fame took control of his life. But fortunately, he was able to find a way to take control back.

Check out Danny’s work with History UnErased at https://unerased.org/

I recorded this interview with Danny for a video that I’m working on about The Real World’s cultural impact. That’ll be coming your way on YouTube a bit later in January, so stay tuned for that — and subscribe to my free email newsletter to get a heads-up when it goes live, at mattbaume.com.

It's the 500th episode of the Sewers of Paris, and to celebrate James and I are doing a special Q&A with questions sent in by listeners! Huge thanks to everyone who sent questions, and let me know if you'd like to hear more episodes like these!

And as requested by patron David, here are some of my favorite early episodes for anyone who wants to get started with the podcast, or jump back and re-listen:

Camp is like Pornography (Ep. 1: Eurovision)

I was Quite Happy to be the Villain (Ep. 2: Julian and Sandy)

Not a Fan of Hanging Around in Reality (Ep. 36 - Steve Kmetko)

The Person I was in Namibia and the Person I am Now (Ep. 44 - Desperate Housewives)

The Joke of Being Gay (Ep. 45 - Polyester & Arrested Development)

I Embrace Being High-Strung (Ep. 50 - Louis Virtel & Jeopardy!)

You Don't Want to See Minnie Mouse Take Her Head Off (Ep. 63 - Ben DeLaCreme)

A Kid Who Had Powers in Japan (Ep. 79 - Sailor Moon)

A Need to be Doused in Black Culture - (Ep. 95 - Sonari Glinton)

A Big Purple Man in a Loin Cloth (Ep. 96 - Gargoyles)

My Life is Drama -- Make me Laugh (Ep. 100 - Dan Savage)

Failed Mystics (Ep. 114: Buffy, X-Men, He-Man, and Lwaxana Troi)