Pop Culture Diaries: Lena DeZutti

This week: a teacher's assistant preps some in-flight entertainment, catches up on her podcasts, and gets drawn into some fan fiction drama.

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Welcome to Pop Culture Diaries. Forget tracking calories and dollars—here, we follow the consumption that actually matters: books, music, TV, movies, threads, podcasts, YouTube videos, memes, and more. Think of this as a guilt-free way to read someone else’s diary and discover new pop culture obsessions, one week at a time.

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Name: Lena DeZutti

Occupation: 2nd Grade Teaching Assistant

Week Covered: April 21, 2025 to April 28, 2025

Monday (4/21):

With Easter now in the rear-view mirror, I must say goodbye to all of my California relatives and hitch a plane back to my home city now. I know I’ll only be at the airport for an hour or two and on that plane for just four, but we’ve all heard horror stories about delays and canceled flights, so I went into this trip fortified with media of all varieties, especially because you never know when you’re going to be stuck on a flight that doesn’t come with in-flight entertainment. (Like my flight going out to San Francisco.)

I had gone to my local Half Price Books and stocked up on their $2 magazines: Vogue, Elle, and Vanity Fair. They’re all from this year, so the price makes it feel like a steal. The only times I ever read magazines are on the beach or on a plane. I also have two books with me: Medieval English Verse from Penguin Classics and A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain. I also made sure to download two of my favorite Spotify playlists: “ASMR” and “Songs to Read Fanfic To.” And to round it all off, I downloaded some podcast episodes to listen to: After Dark, Betwixt the Sheets, Get Played, Gone Medieval, Smosh Reads Reddit Stories, and Textory. I can’t explain why I feel the need to travel with a small library, but I’m an options gal, and I like having a bevy of things I know I love to choose from.

But what do I decide to do with an entire fourth of my plane ride home? I watched a documentary that the flight offered: Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes (2024). I love love love anything and everything about Old Hollywood, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I spent the rest of the flight, however, engrossed in my podcasts. I listened to two episodes of Textory, which is hosted by Karolina Zebrowska. In “Supporting (18th Century) Women’s Wrongs,” we learn about women who do not fit into the sphere of domesticity stereotype that all women in history often fall into. Some of them are actually cold-blooded killers! And in “A Woman You Should Not Marry,” we get a glimpse into the mind of Reinhold Gerling, a man who somehow managed to hold an odd and wide array of views. He believed in women remaining single (because some women are ugly), lesbians (because you can’t make a tiger change their spots), and also eugenics (because he hates other races). And I listened to the episode “The Weirdest AITA Stories” from Smosh Reads Reddit Stories because sometimes you just need mindless entertainment from media that makes you feel like you’re with a group of friends judging the same crazy people for the same crazy reasons. A welcome respite in this day and age, honestly!

Days 2-7: Tuesday (4/22) to Monday (4/28)

I’m someone who engages with media in binge sessions. This pattern of mine was disrupted due to traveling away from home and experiencing the unpredictability that is par for the course when traveling by plane. When I’m no longer confined to a flying sardine can and have the ability to settle in without fear of disruption, I really lock in. For the rest of my media log, I will be talking about media I have enjoyed this week in sections based on media type as I will often listen to several podcast episodes in a row or watch several episodes of a show in a row. At the end, I will also share media of my own creation and the unexpected backlash I received for it.

Media Type: Podcasts

What am I and who am I without my podcasts? I don’t know! But this is because I prefer to spend my “filler” time—primarily commuting and cleaning—being a sponge sucking up new-to-me information. I listen to nineteen podcasts total, and of those nineteen, I listen to ten of them as soon as they upload a new episode. Whenever I start a new podcast, I always start with episode one, regardless of how many episodes a show has posted over however long they’ve existed before I was aware of them. (I do this with television shows as well.) I’m just too afraid of missing out on an inside joke or a reference to jump in in the middle, even if I have to sit through a podcast or show’s “awkward” season. This is what I’m currently doing with Smosh Reads Reddit Stories.

I’m a late-comer to the podcast and the media company in general, but it’s exactly the kind of entertainment I’ve been craving. It’s low-stakes, it’s hosted by a rotating cast of comedians within my age demographic, everyone involved in every part of the production are liberal, and their topics are always of-the-moment or relevant to the current social and political climate. It’s great! This week, I’ve listened to six episodes of the podcast: “Critical FAIL Stories,” “Relationship Dilemmas That Make You Think,” “Reddit’s Messiest Drama,” “From the Weird Corners of Reddit,” “Why Would They Do This?,” and “What Were They Thinking?!” If you’re looking for a group of Millennials who will likely validate you by saying, “Yeah, this is asshole behavior!” then they are the podcast for you. Sometimes it’s just nice to know that other people feel and think the same things as you when we live in a society where the kind, caring, and compassionate people are the ones who are made to feel like the crazy ones.

But while this podcast has gotten the most of my attention due to it being the newest podcast I’ve added to my roster, it’s not the only podcast I’ve listened to this week. Though I do not and have never played video games, I’m a big fan of Get Played, hosted by Nick Wiger, Heather Anne Campbell, and Matt Apodaca. Every week they talk about the history of video games, past and present, and I just eat it up. Though I have no stake in their favorite media, I’m always interested in people who are passionate about their hobbies. People come alive when they have the opportunity to talk about something they love, and they clearly are very passionate. They do tier lists, console ranking, character drafts, documentary reviews, games with their audience, character work, improv, etc.

My bread and butter when it comes to podcasts, however, are the book and history genres. History Hit is a British media company, and I listen or listened to most of the podcasts they produce: After Dark, Betwixt the Sheets, Gone Medieval, Not Just the Tudors, and You’re Dead to Me. I also listen to non-History Hit podcasts though: The Exploress, Noble Blood, The Rest is History, Vulgar History, What’s Her Name, and You Must Remember This. And to round it out, the book podcasts: Books Unbound, Reading Glasses, and Reading Smut. I always say that the worst thing about graduating college was losing access to professionals who want to share their craft and knowledge with others, and I have come to see podcasts as a viable, reliable way to fill that gap...after doing careful research on whether or not these hosts can be trusted, of course! I think there is a misconception that podcasts are solely or mostly centered around men promoting the most vile forms of toxic masculinity, but there are so many great shows by and for those of us in marginalized communities that I hate to see the genre belittled! (Imagine swearing off podcasts and missing out on Dolls of Our Lives!)

Media Type: T.V. Shows

Having grown up in the 1990s and early 2000s with a mother who is a nurse, I was acquainted with Noah Wyle from a young age (a.k.a. during the run of E.R.). Even though my memories of the show’s original run are foggy and even though the situations on the show scared me (I was only 7!), I wanted to give The Pitt a try, and I am so, so glad I did! I fell in love with the cast, the characters’ stories, the writing, the camerawork, etc. I fell in love with it to the point where I started writing fanfic about it and started watching E.R. I typically enjoy doing liveblogs of whatever show I’m watching on my tumblr, and there is a small, but warm, friendly community that is enjoying both shows right alongside me. It has been a real delight to watch the shows at the same time—E.R. for the first time and The Pitt for a second time—because the parallels, homages, and references are so exciting to spot and share with other fans.

What both shows really excel at are infusing their stories and their characters with heart. They feel real. They feel like stories a friend would tell me. They feel like someone a relative might know and work with. I like that the writers and actors approach such serious subject matter with warmth and humanity infused with jokes, love, camaraderie, companionship, romance, etc., which really grounds their narratives in reality without relying solely on shock value or over-the-top sensationalizing. Both of these shows have all of these elements that lend themselves to discussion, interpretation, theorization, which are the perfect breeding grounds for fanworks of all kinds.

Media: Fanfiction & “The Incident”

Fandom has always been a huge part of my life. I discovered it the summer before I went into seventh grade (2006), and I have never looked back. I’ve seen the rise and fall of various fandom and fanfic websites over the years, but tumblr and AO3 have been the permanent social media homes. They are actually the only social media accounts I have, though I have deleted and remade them numerous times for various reasons over the last fifteen years. My tumblr is where I share my many fandom loves, my hobbies, stories about me and my life, aesthetics, cute animals, etc. It is essentially my public diary, though I keep my personal information private for safety reasons. And AO3 (archiveofourown) is the only place I publish my fanfic.

Like any other hobby or community, there are unspoken rules and guidelines that are there to keep everyone happy. Or at least keep most people happy most of the time. The biggest rules of being in a fandom are as follows:

1. Let people write what they want to write, read what they want to read, draw what they want to draw, etc.

2. If you don’t like it, don’t engage. Just block and move on.

3. Don’t send your fanworks to the actors under any circumstances.

This last rule is the one that I see people take the most to heart. In the same way that authors are discouraged from keeping tabs on their books on GoodReads or on StoryGraph, fandom bloggers and creators are discouraged from forcing actors to engage with non-canon, non-sanctioned fanworks.

Thankfully, at least in my personal corners of various fandoms, this has never been an issue. I have always kept a close circle, and since I don’t have any social media with my name and face attached to it, I have never had to worry about my fandom blogging getting into the wrong hands in the wrong circles. In fact, I have even gotten unexpectedly favorable coverage in two opinion pieces from actual media journalists. There was one who described me as “prolific” in a particular fandom and another who described my works as “perfect for reading while taking a warm bubble bath.” And I have received hundreds of positive reviews from other fans over my fifteen years as a writer and blogger! (A good use of my English degree, right?)

Here are some lovely comments I have recently received:

Unfortunately, fate thought I’ve had it too good for too long in fandom spaces because I just experienced my first negative fandom experience outside the petty squabbles that are par for any hobby community. I had an actual media journalist write an actual journal article about me and several other fans where our works were sampled, mocked, and linked to. This journalist described me, specifically, as an “absolute weirdo.”

Had a kind stranger not linked me to this listicle, I likely never would’ve known of the piece’s existence. After thanking them for the heads up, I received this lovely comment from them:

This woman did not ask permission to talk about us nor did she even tell us that this is what she would be doing. She decided to enter our fandom space—a space she is not a part of nor welcome in—and look at the things we write for ourselves and our fellow fans for free, for fun, and on our own free time and decided she needed to put us in our place like some schoolyard bully.

I have been called many names over the course of my thirty-two years, but weird/weirdo has been the most common. I get it. I’m low-hanging fruit. I’m an easy target. I’m queer and asexual. I’m autistic. I’m awkward. I’m loud about the things I love. I have niche interests. (All aspects that this journalist chose to ridicule, I might add.) At this point, I expect people to find me weird. I have learned to accept, love, and embrace being weird. But this is the first time someone with a well-known name in the industry and the platform of a large, wide-reaching publication from which to speak from has decided to punch down and hit me specifically. I have seen many hit pieces on fans and fandom spaces in general over the years, but rarely have I seen people in a specific fandom called out by name with links provided to people’s accounts.

I can’t speak for everyone she called out, but I and a few others shared the information with the wider fandom, and I made sure to share links with people for how to lock your fics so that only registered AO3 users can read and comment on them on the off chance that there would be backlash, or, god forbid, before it could reach the eyes and ears of any member of the cast or crew. I spoke to a few of my fellow burn book victims, and while the general consensus was that we would continue to watch the show and write our fics, we were quite shaken up by what had happened. Because here were these labors of love that we’d put time and effort into, that we chose to share with the community, and then in walks this bully who tries to shame us into giving up our creative pursuits and the friendships we’ve fostered within the fandom.

Luckily, I have been through enough therapy at this point where comments from a stranger behind a screen won’t destroy me, but that doesn’t make what she did okay. It’s never okay to make fun of people who belong to marginalized communities, and no matter how thick someone’s skin may be, having your worst fears—that people think there is something wrong with you because you’re queer/ace/autistic/etc.—confirmed majorly sucks. But despite this person’s best efforts, I am proud to be “absolutely weird.” I love being queer and asexual. I love being autistic. I don’t care that I’m awkward. I love being loud about the things I love. I love my niche interests. And I love being in fandoms! That is really the core of who I am and what I hope I have conveyed in this pop culture essay. I hope the people who read this remember to love what you love without shame and without guilt, to ignore the people who try to shut down your joy, and to keep on being “weird”!

Call Me! (or not!)

I’d love to hear from you! Drop your thoughts in the comments to share with the Landline community, or reply to this email to contact me. You can also find me on Instagram, or email me. I don’t have a dedicated phone line yet (just like in my youth), but maybe someday I’ll achieve Claudia status and get a Landline.

Thanks for reading!

This is a free post for subscribers of Landline. Consider subscribing to the paid plan to get my weekly email of recommendations and links, a podcast episode, and more! You can also help me spread the word by sharing it with a friend who would love it. Thank you for being a friend!

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