Remembering Thirst Aid Kit conjures an array of glorious sounds – wistful sighs, gleeful gasps, and most of all, a whole lot of laughter. Running from 2017 to 2020, first as a Buzzfeed production before being snapped up by Slate, Thirst Aid Kit was a podcast hosted by writers Bim Adewunmi and Nichole Perkins. It had a simple premise: each episode, the two would talk at long, lascivious lengths about their crushes on famous actors.
Usually, they would be one hottie per episode, but others would have themes (‘90s heartthrobs, the ‘Hollywood Chrises’, the attractiveness of beards, etc.) Some weeks, they’d have mailbag editions, where listeners would expound upon their own crushes. Each instalment would end with a fan fiction duel, where both hosts would write an imagined fantasy centred on that week’s prime "thirst object," and fans could vote on which one they preferred. Over 96 episodes, they covered a lot of ground.
Now, if you think listening to people talking about their crushes for hours at a time does not sound particularly edifying – well, maybe you just don’t deserve Thirst Aid Kit. You would, however, be missing out on a much richer experience than you might expect.
For one thing, as almost all of the "thirst objects" were actors, Thirst Aid Kit actually functioned as a stealthy repository for media criticism. Because they were often just talking about one man at length, they’d dive deep into scene-by-scene analysis, discussing performance on a minute, gestural basis. As well as being just plain fun, that kind of deep exploration into how these actors use their bodies to inspire those kinds of reactions in us was quite illuminating.
Adewunmi and Perkins did an excellent job at discussing issues of representation in mainstream romances. Their episode on John Cho – tragically underused in the romcom genre – was particularly enlightening in this regard, exploring the choices he’s made as one of the few Asian-American leading men in Hollywood, all too aware of his responsibilities.
Ultimately, while there were more respectable reasons for enjoying it than you’d perhaps first think, the main reason for pressing play on Thirst Aid Kit every week was the most obvious. Listening to two entertaining, engaging women talking and thinking about pleasure, and asking others to do the same, was, in itself, pleasurable. Funny that!
Although nothing has filled that gap in quite the same thirsty way since, there are shows that have scratched a similar itch.
Sentimental Garbage
Hosted by writer Caroline O’Donoghue, Sentimental Garbage is a podcast dedicated to exploring the cultural phenomena deemed unworthy of highbrow attention simply because they are aimed at women. The show covers movies, books, TV, music, as well as more miscellaneous subjects (Theme parks, ‘Yuckiness’). Most episodes are standalone, but there are sporadic miniseries that have explored long-running shows such as Friends and Sex and the City from a host of different perspectives.
Sentimental Garbage has a mission statement similar to Thirst Aid Kit’s, and yields a similarly appealing combination of belly laughs and insightful takes on culture you may not have considered before. O’Donoghue’s rapport with her guests, often friends and writers like herself, helps make each episode a fun, surprisingly thoughtful time.
Why Won’t You Date Me? With Nicole Byer
Why Won’t You Date Me? is a dating themed interview podcast, where comedian Nicole Byer asks her guests questions about their romantic lives and dating histories. As with Thirst Aid Kit, the discussions here can get pretty raunchy, but there’s also a sweetness and vulnerability to the conversations which adds extra depth.
Byer has been hosting Why Won’t You Date Me? for almost a decade, and is a warm, astute interviewer. While many of her guests are fellow comedians, and it’s always entertaining listening to them riff together, she’s also excellent at drawing out the more reticent and making them feel comfortable, as evidenced in a recent episode with Heated Rivalry author Rachel Reid. In either case, like Thirst Aid Kit, the podcast is a reliably good hang.
Fatal Attractions
If one of the less heralded aspects of Thirst Aid Kit was its canny media criticism, that’s the headline trait for Fatal Attractions, a show where critics Matthew Turner, Leslie Byron Pitt, Anna Cale, and Paul Costello (plus an occasional guest host) discuss an erotic thriller each week.
If you think that sounds like a lot of hosts for a podcast, well you’re not wrong! But the plethora of voices is actually a benefit here. Though Fatal Attractions is significantly dryer than the other shows on this list, the inevitable crosstalk results in plenty of entertaining banter. And in a very real sense, the podcast is just as dedicated to exploring what arouses us as Thirst Aid Kit, it just goes about it a little differently.
