Unabridged: I Hated It, Thanks for Asking with Nora McInerny

Summary

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Episode Overview

Episode Title: Unabridged: I Hated It, Thanks for Asking with Nora McInerny
Podcast: The Stacks
Host: Traci Thomas
Guest: Nora McInerny
Date: December 19, 2025
Main Theme:
A special year-end “hater episode,” where Traci Thomas and Nora McInerny abandon best-of and favorites lists to air out their most memorable personal “hates” from 2025. The episode showcases their critical, often comedic venting style, both serious and lighthearted, centering on cultural annoyances, pop culture, and the personal gripes that didn’t make mainstream headlines.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Premise: "The Year in Hate"

• Personal Pet Peeves Over Big News:
  The duo intentionally skips over obvious, large-scale topics (e.g., political disasters, major scandals—see below) in favor of niche, more entertaining grievances.
  • Nora: “The most obvious things are not on this list. …We already know the worst parts of the world. …This is a list of things that we hated this year. They’re very niche, a lot of them. And hopefully a lot more entertaining…” (02:42)

Inspiration and Structure

• Origins of the Hate Roundup:
  Nora praises Traci’s “Show and Tell” newsletters for their smart blend of recommendations—and that juicy, always-paywalled “one thing I hate.”

  • Nora: “She’s as smart about what she hates as she is about what she loves. And that is what inspired this episode.” (02:01)

• Audience Engagement:
  Both encourage listeners to compose their own “hater lists,” inviting communal venting and solidarity.

  • Nora: “I want everybody out there to feel free to make their own [hater list].” (06:15)

On Embracing Thoughtful Hate

• Critical Thinking Hating:
  The difference between mean-spirited grumbling and intellectual critique is highlighted—“hating on a different level.”
  • Nora: “I saw a TikTok, which is how the worst conversations always start, that said, when I hate, it’s actually, you know, intellectual. I’m hating on a different level, okay? I’m hating in a…critical thinking kind of way.” (05:37)
  • Traci: “I’m never [petty].” (05:57)
• Hate as Community:
  Even when listeners disagree, Nora and Traci invite critiques: “You can hate our hate, but I don’t want to hear about it.” (06:19)

Main Hate Example: “Wicked” and Franchise Sequels

• Traci’s Big Hate #1:

  • Target: The two-part “Wicked” movie adaptations (especially Part 2).
  • Rationale:
    • Slicing a musical in half disrupts the story arc.
    • Act 2 relies on Act 1; making it standalone is “not possible”—likened to the excessive “Hobbit” trilogy.
    • Dislike of director Jon Chu’s approach; musical numbers chopped into pieces with dialogue or “interludes.”
    • Production critiques: “ugly” lighting, poor CGI, cheap-looking costumes.
  • Traci:
    • “I know the musical and I know that Act 2 of the musical is not its own story. It’s actually, in fact, part two of one whole thing. That’s how acts work in a play.” (06:39)
    • “If you break up the sex scene so that they can talk about how beautiful each other is…you’re ruining the song.” (08:43)
    • “I think the movies are ugly. I’m sorry? The lighting is ugly, the CGI is horrific…They look like Tom Ford knockoffs or whatever.” (09:15)

• Memorable Analogy:

  • Nora, on “The Hobbit” films: “Three movies. It was a novella.” (07:48)

The Creative Process Behind the Hater List

• Compiling Grievances:
  Traci admits sometimes the most challenging part of her newsletter is deciding “the hate”—she sometimes Googles “annoying things that happened this week.”
  • Traci: “Some weeks, I know the hate right away, and then some weeks, I write the entire thing, and I just sit there and I go, what did you hate? And I Google, like, annoying things that happened this week or, like, pop culture this week.” (04:49)

List Overload and Evolving Hates

• Traci’s Over-Preparation:
  • Traci: “You asked for five. I have 1, 2, 3… I have nine. And I just added one as we were talking.” (06:19–06:36)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Feeling Seen (and Read):
  • Traci: “The fact that people read show and tell is hilarious to me because I just feel like I’m writing into the void. …when people respond to things like pass the paywall… I’m always like, oh my God, people are really reading this.” (04:49)
• On Destroying a Musical:
  • Traci: “This isn’t a fucking interlude on a cd, my guy. This is a musical. The whole point is that people have to sing an entire song. That’s the way the show is written.” (08:24)
• On Soliciting Hate:
  • Nora: “Tell me what you hated about this year. Tell me what you hated about this episode, if you must.” (03:33)
• On the Joy of Shared Grievances:
  • Nora: “We always hate the same stuff, the same things.” (04:32)

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Important Timestamps

• 1:27: Nora’s intro—Purpose and ethos of the “hater episode”
• 2:41: What’s not on the hate list, scope of complaint
• 4:31–5:58: Traci and Nora discuss compiling the "hate" segment and thoughtful critique vs. pettiness
• 6:15: Rules of engagement—make your own hater list
• 6:39–9:15: Traci’s #1 hate: “Wicked” movie adaptation (detailed critique)
• 7:48: “Hobbit” trilogy analogy

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Tone & Style

• Conversational and deeply personal
• No-holds-barred honesty (“This isn’t a fucking interlude on a cd, my guy” – Traci)
• Self-aware humor about being “haters”
• Mixture of light sarcasm, pop-culture savvy, and cultural criticism

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Final Thoughts

This episode of The Stacks flips the usual “best of” tradition on its head, giving Traci Thomas and Nora McInerny space to intellectually and comedically vent about pop culture and societal trends that irked them in 2025. It’s part therapy, part book-club gab, and wholly entertaining for listeners ready to laugh—and maybe scream—about the year’s biggest annoyances.
To hear the full hater list, listeners are encouraged to support via Patreon or Substack.

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Transcript

[A]

Hey, everybody, it's me, Tracy Thomas, host of the Stacks. And you are in for another bonus episode, the Stacks on a Bridge, which is exclusive to Patreon and Substack paid subscribers. Today for my end of year episode, I joined forces with the great Nora McInerney to talk about 2025 in Hate. That's right. We're talking about all of the things we hated from this year year. Many of you have heard a lot of my hates before. Maybe in the Substack newsletter, maybe on the podcast. But they're going to be all nice for you in one tidy place. Since Nora and I recorded this episode together, Nora's team has edited and produced this episode. So you're going to get a full intro from Nora right after this. But I just wanted to give you a heads up. That's what you're getting to hear today. This is exclusive to my paid subscribers and Nora's paid subscribers. And listen, if you're listening to this episode for about, I don't know, 10 minutes and all of a sudden it cuts out, that's because you're not a PA Subscriber to my stuff on Patreon or Substack and you should do that right now. Go to patreon.com thestacks to join the Stacks pack and check out my newsletter@tracy thomas.substack.com all right, that's all. Let's dive into the Year in Hate 2025 edition.

[B]

Hello, everybody. Welcome to a bon episode of thanks for Asking. A little note before we start. This is not a normal episode of thanks for asking. Although what is a normal episode of thanks for asking? This episode is very different. This episode is a hater episode. This episode is just, you know, venting. This episode is what some people might call complaining. This is a time of year when everybody is making their best of lists. I love those. Those are great. But at my core, also, am I a little bit of a hater? Yeah. That's why I look forward to emails from Tracy Thomas of the Stacks podcast. She sends out an email with a roundup of what she loves and one thing she hates. And that hated item or hated topic or hated person is behind the paywall for real fans only. And I always love it because she's as smart about what she hates as she is about what she loves. And that is what inspired this episode. The things that I love are already out there in a million different places. But this episode is really a work. Worst things list. This is a hater list for the year 2025. What are the things that ground our gears, that got us riled up, that annoyed us, that just ticked us off? And the most obvious things are not on this list. So obvious things include ice raids, Kristi Noam, Cash Patel, Pete Hegseth, this administration in general. They're not on this list. Like, we already know the worst parts of the world. We have a big old firehous of that stuff to drink from every day, and I myself have chugged it. This is a list of things that we hated this year. They're very niche, a lot of them. And hopefully a lot more entertaining than just watching our country be dismantled by the most idiotic group of dorks who ever existed. So some of these are very lighthearted. Some of these are a little bit more serious. They are all, I would say, related to the world at large pop culture. Now, if that doesn't sound appealing to you, this episode is just not for you. And that is okay. That's okay. This episode was fun for us to make. It was fun for us to vent these things. And also I encourage you to leave a comment. Tell me what you hated Tell me what you hated about this year. Tell me what you hated about this episode, if you must. And let's get into it. This episode's also a long one, guys. We cut it down and it is still a long one. Tracy Thomas, welcome to. Thanks for asking. Thank you for joining me. I think you know why we're here, and it's because your show and tell emails are something that I look forward to for so many reasons. One, I always feel like I'm smarter. I always feel like I know a little bit more about the world. And, and three, I don't know what number we're on.

[A]

Seven.

[B]

Seven. I live for. I live for the and one thing I hate. And one thing and one thing I hate. I, I, when I saw that paywall, I said, let me in, let me in. I'm. I'm going to. I need to see the thing that you hate. And you know what? We always hate the same stuff, the same things.

[A]

Here's my thing. I have to tell you that the fact that people read show and tell is hilarious to me because I just feel like I'm writing into the void. Like so much of the work that we do is just feels like into the void. But when people respond to things like pass the paywall like other, I'm always like, oh my God, people are really reading this. And so many people tell me that they like show and tell. But the hardest part sometimes is the hate. Some weeks, I know the hate right away, and then some weeks, I write the entire thing, and I just sit there and I go, what did you hate? And I Google, like, annoying things that happened this week or, like, pop culture this week. And I just try to think, is there something I hate? And then some weeks, I do a bonus hate earlier in the article because I'm just like, you've annoyed me.

[B]

So I saw a TikTok, which is how the worst conversations always start. That said, when I hate, it's actually, you know, intellectual. I'm hating on a different level, okay? I'm hating in a. In a. In a. In a critical thinking kind of way. I'm not always.

[A]

I'm never.

[B]

I wanted to just let it rip on just what might be just our personal pet peeves of 2025, our biggest hates of 2025. Biggest hates of 2025, the hater list. I want everybody out there to feel free to make their own. Okay?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And. And to join in. And you can hate ours.

[A]

You can hate our hate, but I don't want to hear about it. And I'll talk more about that later. You asked for five. I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. I have nine.

[B]

Okay, that's.

[A]

And I just added one. I just added one as we were talking. So I was like, oh, my God, I can't believe this isn't on my list.

[B]

Okay, okay. Ooh, ooh. Okay, I'm ready.

[A]

I don't know how to start. You know what? I'm going to start with something that I want to make sure I have enough time to talk about, and that is I hate Wicked and Wicked Part 2. Back in the habit for good. I hated Wicked last year, and I talked about it on Sam Sanders podcast in my newsletter, and a lot of people were mean to me about hating it, and I said, okay, it's fine that you're wrong and I'm right. Like, that's fine. And I understand that that can be hard for you to accept, but I also told everyone last year, even if you like this one, good fucking luck with part two. Because I know the musical and I know that Act 2 of the musical is not its own story. It's actually, in fact, part two of one whole thing. That's how acts work in a play. Act one and act two work together to have a full story arc. When you take the second half of the thing and try to make it its own story arc, you're already facing trouble. But when that second thing is Act 2 of Wicked. It's not possible. Yeah. And then I was the Hobbit.

[B]

Three movies. It was a novella.

[A]

Yeah, we don't need. We don't need so much. I know you want to make money. I get it, and I'm happy to give you my money, but I actually would have just given you the, like, $70 I paid for the ticket and all the food that I ordered during the movie. So I had an excuse to leave the theater to pick up my pretzel bites just so that I could have had that time back in my life. So I'm going to tell you some of the reasons I hate this movie. One, I just said two, John Chu hates musicals. He does a thing in Wicked Part one and Wicked Part two where he takes a song that, you know, goes, chala, la la la la la la la. And he breaks it up, for example, and he breaks it up and he says, TRA la la la. Let's have a scene here. And then he says, la, la la. Another scene, la. More conversation. And I said, john, this isn't a fucking interlude on a cd, my guy. This is a musical. The whole point is that people have to sing an entire song. That's the way the show is written. That's the way the music is written. That's how a musical functions. If you break up the sex scene so that they can talk about how beautiful each other is in unconventional ways or whatever the. Or that's just a different way of looking at things. You're ruining the song. It doesn't make the scene work. Drives me crazy. Also, I think the movies are ugly. I'm sorry? The lighting is ugly, the CGI is horrific. And I know people love Paul Tazewell's costumes. They look cheap to me. They look like Tom Ford knockoffs or whatever. All right, that is the end of this bonus teaser. If you were liking what you were hearing, you can listen to the entire episode by going to either patreon.com the stacks and joining the Stacks Pack, getting access to the Discord, being able to participate in our virtual book club, and. Or you can go to tracythomas.substack.com and subscribe to Unstacked, where you're going to get my writing about books, pop culture, you're going to get other exclusive author interviews, and of course, these bonus episodes. So go to one of the those two places, join us, get to hear the rest of this episode, and support the work that I do by being a part of these wonderful communities. Thank you so much. And I'll see you in the snacks.

[C]

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