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What makes Boston Boston?

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Is that the accent, the sports
teams, the attitude.

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A good place to start to answer
that question

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might be understanding the pop culture
inspired by the city.

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In the latest installment
of No Stupid Questions.

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Reporter Dana Gerber has created a guide
to help newcomers

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earn their Boston bonafides.

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And she joined us to share.

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All right, Dana,
you write that this pop culture guide

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can help capture the Geist of the city.

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Love that you use the words
white guys love that word.

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But why pop culture?

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Yeah, I mean, I.

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First of all, I love the word.

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and, you know,
I've always used pop culture

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as a way to sort of understand a moment
in time, like, even if it's not the most

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truthful, like, representation of,
you know, I think most of us

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who watch good Will hunting know that
that's not really what happens at MIT.

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but it still sort of captures this,
the spirit of what the city was like,

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you know, in the 90s.

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Like, I was not around to have a sandwich
at the Tasty and Harvard Square,

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but I can watch good Will hunting
and see the same environment that I walk

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through every day, in Harvard Square
and sort of understand, you know, why

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it has that bohemian flavor,
even though that shop isn't there anymore.

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So it's sort of just,

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I spoke with, a podcast host who runs
a podcast called Explain Boston to me,

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and she put it in a way that was really,
wonderful, where it's like pop culture

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deepens your experience of the city.

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It gives you context,
especially if you're not from here

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or you weren't around for it's,
you know, bygone arrows.

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You mentioned the movie good Will hunting
and you spoke to a podcaster here.

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Your guide has movies, podcast,

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music.

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How did you decide what made the guide?

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So I was a little bit biased.

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I tended to choose things

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that I've consumed and enjoyed and thought
were representative of the city.

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But I also asked my globe colleagues.

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We put out a call out on Instagram
for reader suggestions,

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so we tried to capture a cast
a pretty wide net.

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and so it really ran the gamut.

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Some I just found on Google
because I tried to also get,

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a fair amount of, stuff
from previous decades.

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Current day really tried to,
to capture the biggest selection possible.

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So if you're a newcomer to Boston,
what should you be listening to

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when it comes to the podcast?
What movie should I watch?

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What music should I listen to?

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Yeah, so I can name a couple of my
my personal favorite suggestions

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that are in the guide. Please do. Yeah.

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so one, movie I put in

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there was it's a movie called funny
ha ha, which is, sort of this, like it's

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it was the first movie
in the mumblecore genre, which is,

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which was like it's characterized
by like hyper realistic dialog,

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and it's often like 20 somethings
and very like low production value.

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I don't know if I was listening.

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Are you guys married?

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Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

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or like makeshift production value
and and it was shot in Austin

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and it's like very quintessentially
like post-grad,

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you know, student life that I feel like
captures that neighborhood.

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for a book I put, the idiot
which is a novel about,

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Turkish American woman
making her way through her freshman year

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of Harvard University.

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And I think that's a really cool example.

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for songs, I put,

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Oh, my gosh, did I put, oh,
the Charlie, the MTA, which is a song

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that inspired the term Charlie Card.

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Well, let me tell you,
the story of a man named Charlie

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on a tragic and fateful day. He.

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And then for podcast, I included, the
the woman I spoke with for the article.

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her podcast is called
Explain Boston to me.

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And I think that just really cuts out
the middleman and explains a lot of Boston

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pop culture.

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She interviews a lot of really fascinating
guests who were involved with it.

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so that's a cool that's a cool
little slice of history for you, too.

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I know that it's not, you know,
there are no stupid questions

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and that's your thing.

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So if I feel like this is just
how accessible is the guide like because,

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you know, books and podcasts like
do I Have to Be Boston Smart to understand

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the guide?

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Oh, I don't think so
and all, but it's also,

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you know, it's like a book saying,
take what you want, leave what you don't.

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And, you know,
if something catches your interest,

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I think it's it's no fun to consume
content that you're not jazzed about.

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So just if something catches your eye,

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maybe give it a try and understand
the city a little better.

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But if not, then, you know,
just take a walk around the city.

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Reporter

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Dana Gerber,
creator of No Stupid Questions.

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Thank you so much for joining us.

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Thank you so much for daily access
to Boston Globe today.

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All segments and episodes are available
on demand in the Boston

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Globe app by clicking Watch.