Saturn’s Favorite Music the Podcast

EBS Tests, The Pie Song, and The Difference Between Players and Cats

Laura calls in musician Will Hoppey to talk about  Don McLean's “American Pie” and Steely Dan's “Deacon Blues” — two very different long songs with one thing in common: they’ve rescued a lot of DJs and working players over the years. The conversation wanders from radio-cart disasters and EBS tests gone wrong and why surrounding yourself with better musicians is the best career move you can make.

Wilkommen to Rickrolling, World Weariness, Alice's Restaurant, and Cabaret

Nick Bean is back to talk about Broadway, Liza Minelli and jazz hands. Nick laments never being rickrolled when Rick Astley's “Never Gonna Give You Up” was a meme. Bruce Springsteen's “Human Touch” leads to a discussion of when you need an uplifting song and when it's more cathartic to wallow in the sadness. And there are divergent opinions on Arlo Guthrie's “Alice's Restaurant.” One of the hosts gives it an A, while the other thinks it is 20 minutes of his life he'll never get back.

Lee Michaels is Stoned and So is the Plexiglass Toilet

Vinyl rules in this episode. A 1969 stoner anthem crashes a small-market radio shift as the wrong Lee Michaels song is played on air, the conversation wanders through hidden vinyl tracks, chateau recording studios in France with Elton John, the surprise appearance of Styx’s “Plexiglass Toilet,” and the classical roots of Eric Carmen’s All By Myself. Plus, a personal bombshell: Jenny reveals her all-time favorite song.

Yacht Rock, MTV Yachts, and Steely Knives

Fan favorites Jane Taylor and Justin Miller are back for an episode that starts on a yacht and ends in a hotel you may never be able to leave. They kick things off with Christopher Cross’s “Sailing,” which leads to waiting room music, funerals with questionable playlists, and the stodginess of the Grammy Awards. They compare and contrast Cross's “yacht rock” with the MTV video yachts of Duran Duran as they take up “Rio” and reveal their favorite Duran deep cuts. Elton John’s “The One” leads to a comparison with “Your Song,” and a discussion of intimacy, distance, and how love songs age. After a detour into the question of what the best song of the 70s might be, the episode closes with a long stay at the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” touching on desert road trips, childhood fear, resorts that are past their prime, and strangely ineffective cutlery. 

Women Are Not Funny (Can You Play Two Women Back to Back?)

In this episode, Laura is joined by performer and self-proclaimed “lyric guy” Nick Bean to talk through a deceptively simple stretch of early-90s radio playlists — and the rules hiding inside them. From the Dave Clark Five's blunt persistence to Rod Stewart’s affectionate Motown tribute that buries The Temptations deep in the mix, the conversation moves to inspiration, authority, and who gets positioned as “variety” rather than default.
The heart of the episode centers on two back-to-back songs by women — Gloria Estefan’s Coming Out of the Dark and Mariah Carey’s Vision of Love — and the broadcast logic that once said they shouldn’t sit next to each other. Along the way, Laura and Nick unpack vulnerability, gendered expectations in music and comedy, the difference between empowerment and display, and what it meant to hear genuinely new voices at the moment they arrived.

Accidental Adult Contemporary Murder Mystery Ballads

On this episode of Saturn’s Favorite Music, Laura Lee welcomes back fan-favorite guest Jenny Hunter for a deep dive into adult-contemporary greatness, confusion, and accidental murder ballads. They tackle the eternal sing-along that is The Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” grade Phil Collins’ infinitely repeating “One More Night,” question the chart-smashing mystery of Kenny G’s “Sentimental,” and attempt to solve the soft-rock true-crime puzzle of Richard Marx’s “Hazard.” Along the way, they debate bathroom songs, circular breathing, karaoke-booth reverb, suspicious rivers that don’t exist, and why a melodic ballad somehow involves a possible homicide.

Posters, Primal Scream, and the Stone Roses

Clara hangs her first apartment posters in Saturn’s Favorite Music—and Episode 4 dives into the soundtrack behind them. Laura Lee sits down with her niece, Sophia, a musical-theater fan, who listens to Primal Scream, The Sugarcubes, The Cure, and The Stone Roses for the very first time.
From the surreal swirl of “Birthday” to the moody sprawl of “Fascination Street,” Sophia gives fresh, sharp takes on songs that shaped early-90s alternative radio. And when “Made of Stone” turns out to be both catchy and lyrically grim—“everything a car crash is not”—the discussion becomes a perfect example of how tone and meaning collide in the music of the era.

Boppy Bop Bop and Ya Yas: 1990s Alternative Rock

On this episode of Saturn’s Favorite Music, Laura Lee sits down with longtime friends Jane Taylor and Justin Miller for a free-wheeling trip through the darker corners of 80s/90s alternative: Ministry’s “Every Day Is Halloween” and “N.W.O.,” Nine Inch Nails’ “Head Like a Hole,” and Tones on Tail’s “Go!”. They trace the jump from synth-pop to industrial, misheard lyrics and buried samples, club dance-floor memories, and why a “boppy bop-bop” goth anthem and a supposedly unlistenable industrial track can both still feel strangely cathartic in 2025.

Clock Hours and Cats

In this episode, Laura Lee and Jenny Hunter focus on some of the staples of early 90s adult contemporary radio. They talk about time travel, cheery songs about dysfunctional relationships, MTV Unplugged, and whether anything is ever truly “uncool” if it still gets stuck in your head. The conversation jumps from small-market radio station “clock hours” to Lennon–McCartney “rejects” that sound exactly like Beatles songs, before landing on Vanessa Williams’ comeback. Jenny shares what it was like to watch Williams become the first Black Miss America in a not-very-enlightened living room, and how “Save the Best for Last” feels like a quiet, satisfying rebuke to the people who tried to take her down. There are letter grades, a cat named Moses, cassingle memories, and a brief fantasy about an alternative-rock Barry Manilow covers album—but mostly it’s two friends revisiting the AC hits that filled the air between grunge explosions, and finding more there than just background music. 

Hey Hey It's Adult Contemporary!

On the premiere episode of Saturn’s Favorite Music, Laura Lee sits down with longtime friend Doc Shea to launch the series with a wildly eclectic first hour that jumps from Pearl Jam’s “Even Flow” to Steely Dan’s “Peg,” with plenty of emotional whiplash in between. Along the way they explore Michael Bolton's oeuvre including songs that are a bit stalkier than you remembered, Kenny G’s “Songbird,” and an unexpectedly deep and hilarious detour into the cultural afterlife of the Monkees. It’s a fast-moving mix of radio memories, soft-rock sincerity, alternative breakthroughs, and joyful overanalysis—setting the tone for a show where the music always takes you somewhere slightly unexpected.