Buffering the Vampire Slayer | A Buff...

Hosts Kristin Russo & Jenny Owen Youngs are heading back into the Buffyverse for Buffering the Vampire Slayer: Once More, With Spoilers! After a critically-acclaimed, spoiler-free watch of the series from 2016-2022, your hosts are returning to the Hellmouth to discuss all 144 episodes of Buffy for a second time, but this go-round *with* spoilers — a never-before-attempted feat of love and chaos!

Buffering the Vampire Slayer is part of the Buffering: A Rewatch Adventure network of podcasts.

TV & Film
TV Reviews
After Shows
51
Buffering the Vampire Slayer: The Curtain Call ...
One last one for the road, scoobs — in this very special Curtain Call episode we journey through Jenny's "Supernaturalatives," discussing some of our favorite arcs (and favorite hunks) in the series, read through some of your beautiful letters, talk about our music writing process over the course of 161 songs, and also share some feelings about each other and our future together in the pod space. WE LOVE YOU, OKAY?!
97 min
52
7.22 Chosen | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Podcast
Anything we say is gonna sound like goodbye.It's Season 7 Episode 22, "Chosen," live from Brooklyn's Bell House.We love you oh-so-much.
170 min
53
7.21 End of Days | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer P...
It's a scythe, it's an axe, it's a great big .... one handed weapon, okay?! Buffy is BACK, the team is back together, the sword has been pulled from the stone, there's an old lady (she looks great for her age) in a tiny temple who has been there for so long, Spike has feelings, Faith has feelings, WE have feelings, and... Angel is back?!?!?! A doozy indeed. It's Season 7 Episode 21: End of Days.
109 min
54
7.20 Touched | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Podcast
The First is blippin' in and out all over Sunnydale and our scoobies are doing a lot of their own blippin' on many surfaces of 1630 Revello Drive. It's Season 7 Episode 20: Touched and the end is fast approaching (of the world, of the series, of the podcast) so get out your ice cream, find someone to hold you, and — OH NO NOT A BOMB?!?!
108 min
55
7.19 Empty Places | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer ...
LaToya Ferguson, pod-nemesis, joins us in conversation about S7E19: Empty Places! There are hot pockets, sexual tension on the Revello porch that might make your head set aflame, a proper recipe for a bloomin' onion, and a power struggle for the ages that results in Buffy being ousted from her own home...
112 min
56
Willow: Jewish, Witch, Jewitch?
Kristin is talking with with Rabbi Leah Jordan and Pam Grossman — writer, curator, and teacher of magical practice and history — to dig deep into Willow's Jewishness, her witchy-ness, and how those two identities are in conversation with each other (or how we *wish* they would have been!) across seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.This episode contains spoilers through the end of Season 7 of Buffy!
112 min
57
7.18 Dirty Girls | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer P...
Faith is back in Sunnydale and we are feeling dirtier than ever, Nathan Fillion's bangs are the most evil part about Caleb, Spike remembers the entire galloping, warm champagne monologue (vampires, they're just like us!), and a lot of other really hard, really bad shit happens because this is Season 7! We are LIVE from Chicago's Lincoln Hall this week discussing S7E18: Dirty Girls, with special guests Jess Abbott, Rosemary Maybe, Morgan Lutich, and Alba Daza!
112 min
58
7.17 Lies My Parents Told Me | A Buffy the Vamp...
We've got mommy issues, we've got daddy issues, and we've got A LOT OF BULLSHIT! In flashbacks, Spike wants to bring his mom on vacation with Drusilla (lol) and tiny, adorable Robin knocks over a trash can to assist his slayer-mom Nikki. In present day, the power of iTunes 1.0 triggers Spike inside of Robin's cross-laden garage and they FIGHT, while elsewhere Giles behaves like a f*cking asshole. Yes, yes, it is time for Season 7 Episode 17: Lies My Parents Told Me!
114 min
59
7.16 Storyteller | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer P...
Welcome, gentle viewers, to our taping of S7E16's "Storyteller" LIVE from Philadelphia!!! We have shirtless cereal pours, many mispronunciations of the word VamPYRE, two oven mitts and a smoking jacket, a history of mirrors, and many Andrew-feelings from special guests Jeremy Rodriguez, Caroline Orejuela, and our very own nemesis LaToya Ferguson!! Massive thanks to World Cafe Live for a wonderful evening and to all of the beautiful folks of Philly for making the night so special!!
119 min
60
7.15 Get It Done | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer P...
We've got a heaping scoop of racism and colonialist bullshit this week, including but not limited to a very troubling (and problematic af!) origin story of the Slayer line! We also have a damn fine performance by Lalaine, a deep dive into the difference between puppets and muppets (unclear), and Buffy being REALLY OUT OF LINE. Yes, that's right, it is Season 7 Episode 15: Get It Done.
114 min
61
7.14 First Date | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Po...
Robin Wood is taking Buffy on a date to a hidden restaurant in the alleys of Sunnydale (that makes brandied pears?!), Xander is helping Ashanti pick out the right rope to help tie him up over the Seal of Danzalthar, and the gang has really outdone themselves at home by trying to us a WIRE on Andrew to record The First. Wow. Here we are with Season 7, Episode 14: "First Date."
114 min
62
7.13 The Killer In Me | A Buffy the Vampire Sla...
You know that feeling when you kiss a girl and it hits you so hard that you turn into the dude you killed last season?! And then you run into the girl who you kept as a rat in a cage for years?!?!?! It is a wild time in Sunnydale this week, folks, and to top everything off Riley Finn flirts with Spike from miles and miles away by lovingly calling him "assface." It is Season 7, Episode 13: "The Killer In Me."
96 min
63
7.12 Potential | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Pod...
Listen. We love Dawn, okay? She f*cking rules!! Join us and special guest Jessie Blount as we praise Dawn's virtues, question some of Buffy's choices as head counselor at Camp Potential, welcome Amanda into the fold and dig deep into the history of Snausages. It is Season 7 Episode 12, "Potential."
117 min
64
7.11 Showtime | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Podcast
You know that feeling when you're a centuries-old vampyric ancestor named Turok-Han and you just want to kill a bunch of potential slayers so that you can keep the world's oldest evil happy, but then you wind up at a half-built library and the Slayer herself turns on the spotlights, dons a top hat, and promptly beheads you in front of all of your adoring fans?! It's Showtime, baby...
100 min
65
7.10 Bring On The Night | A Buffy the Vampire S...
Giles is back in corduroy with some new potential slayer step-sisters, Drusilla as The First is wriggling and giggling about, Xander and Andrew *cannot* stop flirting, and Turok-Han is really, really strong. So strong, in fact, that he almost undoes Buffy... but, battered and bruised, she explains to the potentials and the Scooby gang that if the Hellmouth is gonna f*cking swallow them?? It is gonna CHOKE. ON. HER. It is Season 7 Episode 10: Bring On The Night, and we are ready to rock.
92 min
66
Welcome to the HelenMouth: Linguistics in Buffy...
Dear friend of the pod Helen Zalztman (The Allusionist, Answer Me This!) joins us today for a deep dive into linguistics in Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Why does Giles' leatherbound book use a "Y" in Vampyre? Why does television rely so heavily on Latin to convey magic spells? Where does the word "coven" originate? Did Buffy coin the term "wiggins"?! In the words of one Jenny Owen Youngs, wow wow wow Wow WOW.
69 min
67
Celebrating 25 Years of Buffy from Sunnydale High
We celebrated the 25th Anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from Torrance High School, aka Sunnydale High, with hundreds of your beautiful nerdy faces — and it was one of the best nights of our damn lives. We are going through some of our favorite high-school moments from Buffy, including the infamous Oedipus Rex performance at the end of "The Puppet Show," (17:22) the meeting of The Mayor, Faith, Buffy, Angel and everyone else in "Choices," (33:12) and that romantically terrifying lovers-to-ghosts possession in "I Only Have Eyes For You" (55:14). Oh, and then we prove that Buffy and Faith absolutely totally entirely had sex with each other (1:10:20). It was truly a night for the books.
94 min
68
7.09 Never Leave Me | A Buffy the Vampire Slaye...
Andrew is cosplaying as Spike and being interrogated by Xander and Anya while Actual Spike is drinking blood out of bags and shattering chairs to bits (at the behest of another More Evil Spike). The scoobies would do well to remember that there are manacles in the basement, and everyone else would do well to remember that they could USE THE DOOR instead of BREAKING THE F*CKING WINDOWS AGAIN. It is Season 7 Episode 9: Never Leave Me!
86 min
69
7.08 Sleeper | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Podcast
Time to repair all of the broken windows at the Summers' house, see Aimee Mann at The Bronze, and get a little kinky with Spike in the name of detective work! The thing beneath us is also getting PARTICULARLY hot and bothered as we near the mid-point of the season, and perhaps relatedly, several women in Sunnydale seem to only be able to speak in breathy porn voices when they meet attractive vampires who want to bite them. It is Season 7 Episode 8: Sleeper!
90 min
70
7.07 Conversations with Dead People | A Buffy t...
Special Guest Hrishi Hirway joins us to discuss S7E7: Conversations with Dead People! Cassie is back in the library making Willow cry (which makes us cry), Dawn is microwaving marshmallows with poltergeists, Spike is on a date, Holden Webster is EXACTLY the kind of guy who would rise from the dead just to tell you about how your womanly mind works, and Andrew is doing very very bad things at the spooky seal underneath the high school. Also, Cassie swallows herself? It's a real journey, folks.
113 min
71
7.06 Him | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Podcast
You know that feeling when something from beneath you is devouring and you're like, really trying to sort what the hell that is so you can save the world for like the billionth time, but then some high school student puts on a mystical letterman jacket and then instead of working on saving the world you have to try to bazooka the principal to win over the love of this letterman jacket wearing hottie? Life is hard!! It is S7E6: Him and honestly, scoobies, shit is getting W I L D.
96 min
72
7.05 Selfless | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Podcast
We are BACK, the year is 2022, and everything is coming up Anya. We go deeper into understanding Anya's origins and past then ever before, we get a brilliantly horrible CGI spider, Kristin dubs the frat house "Murdercrombie" (did she miss the perfect opportunity to say "Murdercrombie and Witch" — yes, she did) and Jenny expounds on what it means when you call someone "Lemon Drop." We hope that someday we get a spin-off show at the Vengeance Demon Offices, but until that time we will revel in one of our favorite episodes: Selfless!
102 min
73
7.04 Help | A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Podcast
Buffy is using all of her slayer know-how to be a guidance counselor at the new Sunnydale High and it seems that, as many might have anticipated, those two skill sets do not have significant overlap — though she is great at sharpening pencils. Spike is still feeling very very sad in the basement, Zachary Ty Bryan is here to remind us that boys (in robes) will be boys (in robes), and Cassie's death hits the Scooby gang hard because... what do you do if you know you can't help?
84 min
74
7.03 Same Time, Same Place | A Buffy the Vampir...
Today's episode was taped LIVE and both of us were in the same place at the same time ...to talk about Season 7 Episode 3, "Same Time, Same Place"! HOW NOVEL. Will there be Gnarl impressions? Yes. Will we re-enact the entire scene between Willow and Anya with their sexy candles? Pretty much. Will we get weepy in the end when, as always, chosen family holds strong? Damn right.
80 min
75
Seeing Red & "The Monster Myth" | A Buffy the V...
This is a re-airing of "Seeing Red & 'The Monster Myth,'" which originally aired in our Patreon feed alongside Buffy's S6E19: "Seeing Red" We've chosen to re-air this episode in the main feed the week after Season 7's second episode, "Beneath You," to double down on the conversation surrounding accountability, and on the nuance that exists when there is a pre-existing intimate relationship that has to be navigated in the context of harm. You’ll hear Jess talk about those who share childcare responsibilities, finances, and in other ways still have to rely on the person who has harmed them, and also hear us speak to the importance of letting the person harmed — in this case Buffy — dictate the terms of the relationship. Content Warning: Sexual Assault, Sexual Violence, RapeThis episode contains spoilers through the end of Buffy Season 7 •••We are in conversation with Jess Clark, who today joins Alba Daza and Kristin Russo to foster a space for much-needed and nuanced conversation on Spike's sexual assault of Buffy as depicted in S6E19's "Seeing Red." We explore how media has historically shaped what we anticipate and assume about sexual assault, how this episode upends some of those tropes, and how the episode's depiction and the larger arc between Spike and Buffy can be used as a lens to explore much more beyond Sunnydale.
69 min