Each week, Mandy Kaplan is introduced to some form of nerdery way outside her comfort zone. Welcome to a full-blown sci-fi/D&D/Ren Fair-loving quest to expand her horizons and recruit her to nerd-dom.

Yuri on Ice with Zehra Fazal

Actor Zehra Fazal joins Mandy Kaplan to nerd out over Yuri!!! on Ice, the anime that somehow turned figure skating into a meditation on love, anxiety, and gluteal perfection. It’s part sports drama, part queer awakening, and all the proof you need that nerds can be both passionate and impeccably choreographed.

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Recently on Make Me A Nerd

Yuri on Ice with Zehra Fazal

Actor Zehra Fazal joins Mandy Kaplan to nerd out over Yuri!!! on Ice, the anime that somehow turned figure skating into a meditation on love, anxiety, and gluteal perfection. It’s part sports drama, part queer awakening, and all the proof you need that nerds can be both passionate and impeccably choreographed.

Listen Now »

Madonna: Truth or Dare with Abdi Nazemian

Mandy and Abdi Nazemian go full Blonde Ambition to unpack Truth or Dare—the documentary that made pop culture queer, fearless, and very, very sweaty. It’s equal parts history lesson and group therapy, with just enough profanity to make your Nana clutch her pearls.

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Dracula with Lester Ryan Clark

Mandy Kaplan finally reads Bram Stoker’s Dracula and discovers a shocking truth: there’s almost no Dracula IN Dracula. Joined by Lester Ryan Clark—a high school teacher who annually reads this book and somehow convinced teenagers to care about Victorian epistolary novels—they dissect why the world’s most famous vampire is barely in his own story, and how that might be the best marketing strategy ever devised.

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Complete Archive: Make Me A Nerd