‘Free Period’ revels in the cringe of teenage awkwardness
No one wants to recount all of the ridiculous things they did when they were 13, yet in their confessional podcast “Free Period,” best friends Sasha Spielberg and Alana Haim refuse to let the past die in all its glorious awkwardness. Every Tuesday, Sasha (one half of musical duo Wardell and also known as her solo alter ego Buzzy Lee) and Alana (member of the sister rock trio HAIM and star of “Licorice Pizza” (2021)) tell all about their regrettable 2000’s fashion choices, the humiliation of trying to join in with the cool kids and of course, their grand plans and romanticizations of their bat mitzvahs where the loves of their young lives would arrive on horseback and sweep them off their feet.
“When Alana and I first met, we asked each other ‘What were you like in 7th grade?’ because we think that is the most telling piece of information,” Sasha said in the debut episode.
The podcast is fresh on the scene, having premiered on Oct. 11, and the girls have already covered a spectrum of experiences ranging from middle and high school to beyond. Episodes have the feel of friendship bracelet making and midnight sleepover banter, and they span just the right amount of time to fill up a free period between classes.
Conversations are packed with laughter, second-hand embarrassment and an underlying bubbling love between Alana and Sasha, making it feel like you’re being let into their friendship circle. There’s a relaxed, honest and self-deprecating energy to their conversations, and they’ll often take turns into unexpected but welcomed tangents about forgotten childhood memories or strange occurrences that they only half-remember and need to fact check with their siblings. Many of the awkward experiences they discuss could be considered universal, but each week they bring new stories and new angles that make every episode a must-listen.
Out of all of their experiences, Sasha and Alana are most eager to share their golden stories about crushes, romance, and the insecurities they faced while trying to snag a seat with the cute boy at the lunch table. During their adolescent years, fulfilling their goal of getting a first kiss was about “as easy as discovering an element on the periodic table.” Their chronicles of dating struggles, wistful longing, and strange romantic fantasies are comforting and relatable—and it’s why they have the podcast. “This is like our therapy,” Alana joked.
The girls also bond over the ‘90s and ‘00s cultural backdrop of their middle school years, including their love for the TV show “Felicity” or experiences on MySpace. Los Angeles natives will be pleased by the plethora of shoutouts to teenage nightlife of the San Fernando Valley and namedrops of Sasha and Alana’s K-12 schools. And of course, the girls talk about their mutual experiences of Jewish girlhood, of making their way through the bar/bat mitzvah circuits, or the Jewish parent-isms they inherited into their adult lives.
Exciting guests have already chimed in on the conversation. Alana’s sister and bandmate Este Haim appeared in their second episode to banter about experiences with fake IDs and tell her story about the larger than life stunt she pulled at her middle school graduation. More recently, actress-writer-producer Rashida Jones joined in to discuss jumping ship from prank call escapades and feeling “uncool” when she was younger.
Spoiler alert, but Sasha and Alana made it out of their teenage years alive. They’ve both grown up to become successful artists, having achieved an aura of rockstar cool (Alana and her sisters were just named Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year), and they’ve had their first kisses (Sasha is also recently married). The musicians give insight into their recent achievements while reflecting on the dreams of their girlhood, including the excitement of touring together and the serendipity of HAIM selling out the Hollywood Bowl, a place Alana and Sasha drove past their entire lives. But as they reveal, awkwardness is a perpetual affair. Even in these high moments, rest assured a costume malfunction will occur on stage to humble you, as Sasha recounts on one episode.
Alana and Sasha aren’t afraid to delve into the most awkward experiences of both their teenage and adult lives, making “Free Period” an opportunity to escape from overthinking your own everyday embarrassment and to allow someone else to process the emotions for you. It’s a reminder that at the end of the day, no matter how abominable a mishap can be, it will still make a great story. And that yes, it is more than valid that your middle school crush still intimidates you to this day, and that they likely will for the rest of your life.
New episodes of “Free Period” drop every Tuesday and are available to listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audacy.