Make Me A Nerd with Mandy Kaplan

What makes a nerd? Is it the obsessive cataloging of obscure details? The unyielding commitment to lore? The passionate embrace of minutiae deemed trivial by the larger world? This week, Mandy the Mainstreamer welcomes back Justine Huxley, a voiceover artist of rarefied skill, a legend among the Apex Legends.

Together, they hit play on The Jungle Book, the 1967 Disney classic, to marvel at the lilting menace of Sterling Holloway’s Ka, the bombastic warmth of Phil Harris’s Baloo, and the aristocratic terror of George Sanders’s Shere Khan. They ask: Were the Beatles really supposed to lend their voices to a quartet of Liverpudlian vultures? And if they had, would it have changed history? What makes something timeless? And what makes it better left alone?

If that question is too big to ponder, don’t worry. Stick around for The Great Recasting!

Links & Notes

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What is Make Me A Nerd with Mandy Kaplan?

Hey folks. Mandy Kaplan here. I’d like to share a bit about my intentions and mission for MMAN if you’ll indulge me. You will? Huzzah!

Look, I am a lot of things. I’m a writer, actress, mother, and lover of musicals and cats, but NOT Cats, The Musical. Give me a little bit of credit, would ya? So...throughout my life, I’ve been surrounded (and intrigued) by all things nerd. A sister who plays D&D, a Star Wars-obsessed husband, friends who love anime, comic books, video games, and...well, you get the picture. Somehow, I have always held it all at arm's length. Not to get too deep, but maybe I never thought I was smart enough to follow it. Or maybe I have control issues and have never been able to embrace fantastical things like dragons and time travel. Until now!

So, with an open mind and heart, I am ready to join this massive (and beautifully inclusive) club and GEEK THE #%$ OUT! It’s time for all my wonderfully strange friends to baptize me into NERD-DOM. Please join me on this journey. Who knows? Maybe you’ll discover or remember a side of yourself along the way. Or at least make fun of me as I try!