Don’t you love New York in the fall? Torsten and Sabrina give each other bouquets of pencils as they discuss how neoliberalism is ruining book shop owner Kathleen Kelly’s life in this Nora Ephron romcom from the late 90s (neoliberalism also goes by the name of Joe Fox, F-o-x). Of course this stars Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, and there’s a lot of Starbucks references.

They talk about a few things you may want to check out:

– The Ernst Lubitsch movie “Shop Around the Corner” on which this is based: https://archive.org/details/the-shop-around-the-corner-1940-ernst-lubitsch

– The age of AOL: https://time.com/3857628/aol-1985-history

Welcome to “In Front of Ira,” the podcast in which historians, friends, and lovers… of romcoms Sabrina Mittermeier and Torsten Kathke discuss how the romantic comedy genre has evolved, what it can tell us about society, and whether this movie is worth watching.

Find us @infrontofira on various social media apps and drop us a line at infrontofirapod@gmail.com

Our music is “Night in Venice” by Kevin MacLeod.