Hollywood didn't make older women invisible. It did something more calculated than that: it built a system of permits. You can be the detective. You can transgress amusingly. You can decay on screen as long as the decay is your fault. You can share a film with four other women the industry won't back individually. What you cannot do is simply exist, unremarkable, on your own terms, without justification.

This episode names the rules.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? - dir. Robert Aldrich (1962) Sunset Boulevard - dir. Billy Wilder (1950) Death Becomes Her - dir. Robert Zemeckis (1992) The Substance - dir. Coralie Fargeat (2024) Barbarian - dir. Zach Cregger (2022) The Visit - dir. M. Night Shyamalan (2015) Still Alice - dir. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (2014) Away From Her - dir. Sarah Polley (2006) The Father - dir. Florian Zeller (2020) The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - dir. John Madden (2012) Nebraska - dir. Alexander Payne (2013) Calendar Girls - dir. Nigel Cole (2003) Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning - dir. Christopher McQuarrie (2025) F1 - dir. Joseph Kosinski (2025)

THE COMPANION PIECES

Non-fiction: The Deal - therulespodcast.substack.com/p/the-deal Fiction: Mindbend and Invincigirl - available from 22nd May 2026 - therulespodcast.substack.com/ Director's Cut: Old Ladies - therulespodcast.substack.com/p/old-ladies-directors-cut

The Rules is an independent podcast from Pegasus Podcasts. New episodes drop weekly. If you liked this one, the best thing you can do is tell someone.

THE RULES: CHILD STARS

Child stars have a story. Discovery, difficult phase, drugs, breakdown, comeback. We've been eating that story for decades and it tastes great. This episode is about what that story was designed to obscure: a system that isolates children, sidelines the people protecting them, and turns their pain into someone else's revenue.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Coreyography - Corey Feldman (2013). Feldman's memoir, the first major public account of systemic abuse of child actors in Hollywood.

My Truth: The Rape of Two Coreys - Corey Feldman, dir. (2020). Documentary in which Feldman names his abusers on the record.

An Open Secret - Amy Berg, dir. (2014). Documentary following former child actors who came forward about abuse in the California film industry.

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV - Investigation Discovery (2024). Five-part documentary on the culture of abuse on Nickelodeon sets from the 1990s to 2000s. Drake Bell names himself publicly for the first time.

The Woman in Me - Britney Spears (2023). Spears's memoir, covering the conservatorship and the conditions that preceded it.

Framing Britney Spears - Samantha Stark, dir. (2021). New York Times documentary on the conservatorship and the media's role in constructing the breakdown narrative.

The Wizard of Oz - Victor Fleming, dir. (1939). Judy Garland, 16 years old at time of filming.

THE COMPANION PIECES

Non-fiction: The Clock Was Always Running - therulespodcast.substack.com/p/the-clock-was-always-running

Fiction: Bloody Virgin - therulespodcast.substack.com/p/bloody-virgin

Director's Cut: The Real Rules of Child Stars - available from 15 May 2026 - therulespodcast.substack.com/

The Rules is an independent podcast from Pegasus Podcasts. New episodes drop weekly. If you liked this one, the best thing you can do is tell someone.

Technology: Never Trust a Femmebot

A hundred years ago, Fritz Lang built a robot. She was beautiful, she was dangerous, and she wore a real woman's face. We have been building her ever since.

This episode, Neil traces a single question through a century of science fiction: not can a machine be conscious, but who gets to have a self? From Maria in Metropolis to the Stepford Wives to Rachel, Dolores, and Ava, the femmebot is not a new technology. She is a very old story about women, told again with better special effects.

The rules haven't changed. The operating system is a hundred years old.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

• Metropolis - dir. Fritz Lang (1927)
• The Stepford Wives - Ira Levin novel (1972) / dir. Bryan Forbes (1975)
• Blade Runner - dir. Ridley Scott (1982)
• Fatal Attraction - dir. Adrian Lyne (1987)
• Colossus: The Forbin Project - dir. Joseph Sargent (1970)
• Ex Machina - dir. Alex Garland (2014)
• Westworld - HBO (2016-)
• Her - dir. Spike Jonze (2013)
• Siri and Alexa default gender settings - widely reported, multiple sources

THE COMPANION PIECES

• Essay: Little Gay Eunuch Robots - the non-fiction companion piece on the male robot archetype - therulespodcast.substack.com/
• Fiction: The Pineapple - the companion short story - therulespodcast.substack.com/

Editing, sound, and music by Oliver Chapman - https://www.instagram.com/cogcog7

The Rules is an independent podcast from Pegasus Podcasts. New episodes drop weekly. If you liked this one, the best thing you can do is tell someone.

Magic: The Management Would Like To See You

Magic is everywhere in fiction. But it's never free, never equal, and never as simple as waving a wand. In this episode, Neil breaks down the unspoken rules that govern every magical world you've ever visited. From Hogwarts to the crossroads at midnight to a coven in a California shopping mall.

Because the magic system isn't a fantasy. It's just the class system in a cloak.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling. Referenced throughout. Referencing is not endorsement.

Bewitched (1964-1972) - ABC. Samantha Stephens, the most powerful witch in the room, hiding it to keep the peace.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003) - ABC/WB.

The Craft - dir. Andrew Fleming (1996)

The VVitch - dir. Robert Eggers (2015)

Wicked - book by Gregory Maguire (1995) / musical (2003) / film dir. Jon M. Chu (2024)

Agatha All Along - Marvel/Disney+ (2024)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - created by Joss Whedon (1997-2003)

The Wizard of Oz - dir. Victor Fleming (1939)

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - anime series (2009-2010)

What We Do In The Shadows - FX series (2019-)

Wyrd Sisters / Granny Weatherwax - Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters (1988)

Dennis Wheatley - The Devil Rides Out (1934) and the Duke de Richleau novels

Faust - Christopher Marlowe (1592) / Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1808)

Robert Johnson - blues musician (1911-1938). The crossroads legend.

The Monkey's Paw - W.W. Jacobs (1902)

The Sorcerer's Apprentice - orig. Goethe, Der Zauberlehrling (1797) / Fantasia, dir. James Algar (1940)

Jack Parsons (1914-1952) - rocket scientist, occultist, co-founder of JPL. Full article on the Substack.

THE COMPANION PIECES

Essay: The Rules - Episode 2 - Magic - The Management Would Like to See You Now - the full non-fiction essay - Click here

Fiction: A More Comfortable Cage - the companion short story - Click here (after 30th May 2026) *fair warning this link is cursed if you click early

Further reading: Jack Parsons: The Man Who Launched America Into Space With Magic - Click here

The Rules is an independent podcast from Pegasus Podcasts. New episodes drop weekly. If you liked this one, the best thing you can do is tell someone.

Ghosts: Home Is Where the Horror Is

Ghost stories are everywhere. But why do they all look the same? In this episode, Neil breaks down the unspoken rules that govern every haunted house story you've ever encountered — from Shirley Jackson to Poltergeist to your mate's cousin's thing that happened that one time.

Because the ghost is rarely the most frightening thing in the building.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959)

Henry James, The Turn of the Screw (1898)

The Amityville Horror — Jay Anson (1977) / film dir. Stuart Rosenberg (1979)

Poltergeist — dir. Tobe Hooper (1982)

The Haunting — dir. Robert Wise (1963)

The Conjuring 2 — dir. James Wan (2016)

Sinister — dir. Scott Derrickson (2012)

The Haunting of Hill House series — Mike Flanagan, Netflix (2018)

Night Swim — dir. Bryce McGuire (2024)

Host — dir. Rob Savage (2020)

Unfriended — dir. Levan Gabriadze (2014)

The Enfield Poltergeist (1977) — Guy Lyon Playfair, This House Is Haunted (1980)

Cock Lane and Common-Sense — Andrew Lang (1894)

Derek Acorah / Kreed Kafer incident — Most Haunted, Living TV

THE COMPANION PIECES

Essay: Scratching Fanny — the first haunting to go viral - therulespodcast.substack.com/

Fiction: How to Gay — the companion short story - therulespodcast.substack.com/

The Rules is an independent podcast from Pegasus Podcasts. New episodes drop weekly. If you liked this one, the best thing you can do is tell someone.

The genre that made every outsider feel seen, and left the system completely intact.

High school movies are a pressure valve. They make you feel understood just enough that nobody asks why the hierarchy is still standing. In this episode we look at the unwritten rules of the genre the cliques that never go away, the parties where the hunting ground has a John Hughes soundtrack, the adults who fail you, the one who doesn't, the lesson that costs nothing, and the rule underneath all the others: you just have to get through it. Featuring The Breakfast Club, Heathers, Pretty in Pink, Clueless, Booksmart, Mean Girls, Easy A, and Carrie.

Substack

Pegasus Podcasts

Youtube Version

Bluesky

Instagram

TikTok

Email: pegasuspodcasts@gmail.com

​

Written and produced by Neil

Music by Oliver Chapman

Recorded and mixed by Oliver Chapman at Sirkus

Sources:

The Breakfast Club (1985), dir. John Hughes

Pretty in Pink (1986), dir. Howard Deutch

Weird Science (1985), dir. John Hughes

Heathers (1988), dir. Michael Lehmann

Clueless (1995), dir. Amy Heckerling

Carrie (1976), dir. Brian De Palma

Mean Girls (2004), dir. Mark Waters

Easy A (2010), dir. Will Gluck

Booksmart (2019), dir. Olivia Wilde

Pump Up the Volume (1990), dir. Allan Moyle

American Pie (1999), dir. Paul Weitz

Porky's (1981), dir. Bob Clark

*Any resemblance to a real podcast is purely coincidental. No animals were harmed. May contain nuts. People who read all the show notes are undeniably sexier than those that don't. Subscribers to my Substack agree that their appearance visibly improved within 10 minutes.

Hello again, this shownote reading is becoming a habit with you.

Merry Christmas! We made it. It's the night before Christmas and we managed to get the final episode out! Find out why that is a Christmas miracle when you listen to the show. In this episode, you can marvel at my ability to get drunk on three sips of espresso martini while I present you with a little Christmas Eve buffet of Christmas facts to small for an episode for themselves.

Thank you everyone has listened this year. It's been ace! I'll probably write a couple of bits on my Substack so keep an eye out. I'm definitely going to do another podcast in the new year so keep this feed live.

I hope you all have the Christmas you want.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Content warning: I say the 's' word, sometimes with relish in the discussion of a defecating log!

Sources: My brain, 1974 edition.

Here's all the ways you can contact me.

Email – wydkachristmas@gmail.com

Bluesky - @solsixer.bsky.social

Newsletter - What You Don't Know About Christmas | Neil Chapman | Substack

Discord: -What You Don't Know About Christmas Discord

If you hear anything you think needs correcting, get in touch. If there’s anything you would like to know, get in touch! I’d also love to hear your own Christmas traditions whether it’s specific to your family, your country, or your culture. Some photos of Christmassy stuff would be great too.

Feeling generous?

Christmas is coming, The goose is getting fat, Please put a penny in the podcasters hat.

If you haven’t got a penny, A ha’penny will do, If you haven’t got a ha’penny, Then don’t worry about it just enjoy the show guilt free.

Hey, I get it, times are tough and shelling out extra for a podcast is not what you need to be doing, especially at Christmas. But if you’re doing okay or recently had a visit from three ghosts and feel compelled to buy everyone big poultry you can always tip us instead at:

https://ko-fi.com/whatyoudontknow

Hello, reading the shownotes even when there's no show. Good for you!

And a great big thank you to everyone who has listened over the past couple of weeks. I've had a word with Santa and you're all granted immunity from the naughty list.

Here's all the ways you can contact me.

Email – wydkachristmas@gmail.com

Bluesky - @solsixer.bsky.social

Newsletter - What You Don't Know About Christmas | Neil Chapman | Substack

Discord: -What You Don't Know About Christmas Discord

If you hear anything you think needs correcting, get in touch. If there’s anything you would like to know, get in touch! I’d also love to hear your own Christmas traditions whether it’s specific to your family, your country, or your culture. Some photos of Christmassy stuff would be great too.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.