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About Us

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This Is Pop Heist

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To celebrate Heistmas — and Pop Heist's first anniversary — we're offering 20% off a new annual or monthly subscription!
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Pop Heist is a worker-owned, reader-funded pop culture news and journalism website, and we're here to rock your world.

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Pop Heist

Ian Carlos Crawford is an anxious writer and podcaster with MFA in nonfiction writing. He loves Buffy, X-Men, Scream, and pugs. His writing has appeared on sites like GQ, BuzzFeed, NewNowNext, and other random corners of the internet. He hosts the queer pop culture podcast Slayerfest 98 and cohosts the horror podcast My Bloody Judy.

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Ian Carlos Crawford

TV playing ALIEN EARTH with grammophone horn sticking out of it

needledrops

The Best Needle Drops on TV 2025

Matthew Jackson (he/him) is a writer, critic, podcaster, and nerd-for-hire who&#8217;s been writing about pop culture for more than 15 years. He lives in Austin, Texas, and when he&#8217;s not writing he&#8217;s usually counting the days until Christmas.

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Matthew Jackson

MAS – 4

Heistmas

2025 Heistmas Advent Calendar Day 21: Ho Ho Ho, Baby

Ethan Kaye (he/him) is a writer/editor/book hoarder. He is scared of the Loch Ness Monster.

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Ethan Kaye

MAS – 2

Sweet Christmas! Ethan’s 10 Most Vital Christmas Songs

Andy Williams in front of christmas swirl

MAS – 1

A Festive and Totally Reasonable Analysis of a Christmas Song That’s Slowly Driving Me Insane

Advent Day 14

The 2025 Heistmas Advent Calendar Day 14: Van Halen Saves Christmas in Dallas

Sebastian Deken (he/him) is a writer and musician originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He is the author of <a href="https://bossfightbooks.com/products/final-fantasy-vi-by-sebastian-deken">Final Fantasy VI</a> (Boss Fight Books, 2021), a critical exploration of the music from the 1994 game of the same name. He received his BA in music and French language and literature at Washington University in St. Louis and his MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Columbia University. He currently lives in Queens, New York, with his husband and two cats.

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Sebastian Deken

The 2025 Heistmas Advent Calendar Day 13: I’ll Be Home for Quismoiss

The 2025 Heistmas Advent Calendar Day 12: ‘Fairytale of New York’ as You’ve Never Heard It Before

The 2025 Heistmas Advent Calendar Day 11: The 1996 National Christmas Tree Lighting

Brett White (he/him) is a pop culture journalist and editor-in-chief of Pop Heist. Prior to this, he was a senior reporter/producer for Decider for seven years. Prior to joining Decider, he covered pop culture for Comic Book Resources, Marvel.com, and MTV News. His areas of expertise include Marvel Comics, Star Wars, Drag Race, classic sitcoms, Sam Neill, unexpected thirst traps, and unlikely menswear icons.
In his spare time, he cohosts the podcast Must Have Seen TV and is writing his first book: a biography of <a href="https://www.haydenrorke.com/">Hayden Rorke</a>.
He also lives out his feminine fantasy as <a href="https://www.barbhardly.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Barb Hardly</a>, his drag queen alter ego.
His hobbies include spending way too much money on action figures, swimsuits, and fashion accessories. He currently lives in Queens with his handsome husband and two large, orange cats.

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