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In this nostalgic and raucous collection of sixteen original essays, Ira Madison III�critic, television writer, and host of the beloved Keep It podcast�combines memoir and criticism to offer a brand-new pop-culture manifesto. �This is the most fun I�ve had reading all year. Like Chuck Klosterman before him, Ira Madison III takes seriously and analyzes the pop culture detritus that took up hours of our lives.��Lin-Manuel Miranda You can recall the first TV show, movie, book, or song that made you feel understood�that shaped how you live, what you love, and whom you would become. It gave you an entire worldview. For Ira Madison, that book was Chuck Klosterman�s Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, which cemented the idea that pop culture could be a rigorous subject�and that, for better or worse, it shapes all of us. In Pure Innocent Fun, Madison explores the key cultural moments that inspired his career as a critic and guided his coming of age as a Black gay man in Milwaukee. In this hilarious, full-throttle trip through the �90s and 2000s, he recounts learning about sex from Buffy the Vampire Slayer; facing the most heartbreaking election of his youth (not George W. Bush�s win, but Jennifer Hudson losing American Idol); and how never getting his driver�s license in high school made him just like Cher Horowitz in Clueless: �a virgin who can�t drive.� Brimming with a profound love for a bygone culture and alternating between irreverence and heartfelt insight, Pure Innocent Fun, like all the best products of pop culture, will leave you entertained and surprisingly enlightened.