Episode Details

Jason Yeung spent more than a decade working in video stores — not Blockbuster, mind you, but Hollywood Video, a distinction he holds with the unwavering intensity of a man asked to sing a rival team's fight song. (Mandy asks. It does not go well for the show.) He knows the smell. He knows what the drop box looked like on a Tuesday morning. He knows exactly which customers will get physical over a two-dollar late fee, and he can tell you the demographics.So this one is an exhumation. Somewhere between the story about the woman who wanted to discuss her gallstones and the part where Jason explains what "no late fees" actually did to a company already drowning in debt, this turns into an argument about what we lost — whether the video store was genuinely culturally rich for how a generation learned to talk to strangers, or whether that's just nostalgia doing what nostalgia does. (Mandy has a theory about boredom. Jason has one about dopamine. They are describing the same problem.) There's also a first date ruined by a shark movie, and a phone call that does not go according to plan. Press play.Guest Spotlight
Jason Yeung is a voiceover artist and returning Make Me a Nerd guest who spent ten-plus years in video and game retail, working his way from a first job at sixteen to general manager — which makes him, essentially, Sandi Harding with an Arizona accent and a grudge against Blockbuster. He is a fantasy football lifer currently dreading the first overall pick, a man who once drafted a kicker in round one and nearly won the league anyway, and the only guest to date who has answered a retail phone in a full Moviefone voice for years without anyone catching on.
Links & NotesThe Movie

• The Last Blockbuster (2020) — Letterboxd
• The Last Blockbuster — Wikipedia. Directed by Taylor Morden, written and produced by Zeke Kamm.
• The film on Rotten Tomatoes — worth a look, for reasons covered in the Fact-Check Corner

The Store Itself

• bendblockbuster.com — the official site, including the merch Mandy could not stop talking about
• Last Blockbuster — Wikipedia. 211 NE Revere Avenue, Bend, Oregon. Opened 1992 as a Pacific Video; became a Blockbuster franchise in 2000; last one standing since 2019.
• The Callgorithm: (541) 385-9111. Call it. A real human gives you a real movie recommendation. Mandy tried it live on the air and got the phone tree, so maybe call during business hours.
• Airbnb's announcement of the 1990s sleepover — the $4-a-night promotion Mandy digs up as a fun fact

The People in It

• Sandi Harding — general manager since 2004, and the heart of the film
• Lauren Lapkus — narrator
• Kevin Smith, Adam Brody, Ione Skye,

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