About Tracy V. Wilson
Tracy's nerdiness was obvious by fifth grade, when she reveled in writing her first book report (subject: "Jane Eyre") and winning her first science fair (subject: mold growth). As a literature student at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, she finally found her people and spent lots of time watching "Star Trek" and playing D&D -- when she wasn't writing poems or reading feminist fiction. Today, Tracy has a house full of computers, consoles and cats, and her library spans everything from Jane Austen to Marion Zimmer Bradley. Tracy joined HowStuffWorks.com as a staff writer in 2005 and is now the site director. You can find Tracy on Twitter at @PopStuffHSW and on Facebook at the official PopStuff page.
Most Recent: Tracy V. Wilson Postings
It may surprise you to know that I’m a Taurus, and Holly is a Gemini. It may also surprise you to know that neither of us believes in astrology (or, more succinctly, we both think it’s bunk) … but we look up our horoscopes from time to time. Or, in Holly’s case, all the times.
Holly collects many things! I … have a lot of things, but I don’t really think of myself as a collector of most of them. It turns out, there are all kinds of rituals and definitions that surround collecting and collectors.
Several listeners have asked for music podcasts, and here’s our first one! We took a giant risk with this episode by doing a thing we’ve never done before: putting in clips of things.
Here’s what we talked about, including links to where you can find the artists behind all the clips we played.
Once again, a thing we love: People asked us to talk about something we already want to talk about. This time, franchise reboots. As with comic book movies, these have a pretty bad reputation among moviegoers at this point. But once we started looking, we saw lots of stuff that’s really good.
In possibly our goofiest opening ever, Holly and I get down to why we didn’t talk about comic books when we talked about turning books into movies: It’s a whole other thing. As is turning manga into anime. But listeners have requested that we record an episode on comic book movies, so we complied.
PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 63: Diamonds are whose best friend?
by Tracy V. Wilson | April 30, 2012
Holly and I have opinions on diamonds. Apparently those views are very strong. And apparently we are unreserved at sharing them with you and others.
It’s What I Did on My Early Spring Vacation! OK, not really. The Penny Arcade Expo is the biggest consumer gaming show in the U.S., and going to PAX East for work is only kind of like a vacation. Most of the biggest names in games were there, and while I did get to see some awesome forthcoming stuff from some major players, I was really compelled by what’s going on in the independent game world right now.
There are lots of cats at Holly’s house and a couple of them at mine. We’ve both been known to call ourselves crazy cat ladies. Whether that’s in jest is a little up for debate. We’re not just talking about our cats in this episode, though. It’s more about the crazy things people do — and crazy amounts they spend — on their pets.
PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 60: The Art of the T-shirt
by Tracy V. Wilson | April 18, 2012
Every time we record, Holly has some kind of awesome T-shirt on, with some kind of fantastic design on. Not this time. She was in plain ol’ black, which is basically the opposite of what we were talking about.
PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 59: When Trendy Foods Attack
by Tracy V. Wilson | April 16, 2012
I’m so glad so many listeners have asked us to talk about food more. It gave us the perfect excuse to talk about trendy, trendy foods, many of which we truly love. Some of which we don’t get. I don’t know why I had doubts that food is part of pop culture: I just got from the Pop Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference, and it has an entire subject area on food.
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
- Contest – Design a $300 house and win $25,000
- How the Philtrum works – the place under your nose where your face comes together
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
- Golden Fields of Canola
- The Park That Never Sleeps: Central Park
- Draw a Pretty Picture With Your Bike and Your Phone
Keep Asking
- Why can a 5 foot 8 inch man dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim while some people of taller stature can’t?
- What happens to our sun once it runs out of fuel?
- How do we know the age of the universe?
Stuff Mom Never Told You
- Who invented the Christmas card?
- How the Kinsey Report Fueled Whiskey Sales
- How to Get Your Wedding Announcement into The New York Times
Stuff to Blow Your Mind
- Blow Your Mind: Nebula in a Box
- Blow Your Mind: Three Minutes Till Impact
- Touching the Void: Psychedelics and Death
Stuff You Should Know
- Stuff You Should Know at SXSW
- The Southern Death Cult, the Maya and Georgia
- Deformed Baby Spider Brains
The Stuff of Genius
CarStuff
- Listener Mail: What’s the world’s largest engine?
- Listener Mail: What makes a “classic car” classic?
- Was Chrysler’s “It’s Halftime in America” Super Bowl commercial a little too political?
How-to Stuff
- How to Enjoy the Fruits of Your Labor
- How to Travel the World in 4 Days
- How to Smell Like Someone at HowStuffWorks
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 68: Astrology: What’s PopStuff’s Sign?
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 67: Collecting: PopStuff’s Cabinet of Curiosities
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 66: Tracy and Holly’s Running Playlists
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
- Good News from the Oldest Mayan Calendar
- One Year Later: Colony Collapse Disorder
- Who Killed Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Stuff to Change the World
- Who will own the Arctic?
- Obesity: The New Global Crisis
- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Butch Cassidy: Should we read between the lines?
- Are we rooting for D.B. Cooper?
- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics

