Your Hosts

Dan Dissinger grew up without cable TV and lived to tell the tale. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California, Poet & Kerouac scholar, creator & host of the award-winning podcast Writing Remix and co-creator of The Humanities Podcast Network. His obsession with podcasting is outmatched by his love for all 90s pop culture and nostalgia. Dan is on the lookout for size 14 rollerblades and needs to get back to playing Magic the Gathering. As the host of The Nostalgia Test Podcast, he’s on a mission to put his entire childhood to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST!

Manny Coelho watched way too much cable television as a kid and the jury is still out on the impact that’s had on him. He studied film at CW Post University, is the co-owner & Master Brewer at Lithology Brewing CO on Long Island, Creative Director at Moverz Group, avid snowboarder, and has traveled to 27 countries and counting. He loves his movies to either be all 80s cheese or 90s trash, and he’ll watch anything starring Tom Cruise. To date, he’s dressed as (number) johnny Depp movie characters for Halloween, and his Nostalgia Test mission is to raise the Rotten Tomatoes rating of the 1989 Tom Cruise classic Cocktail to at least 30%.

Billy D’Elia officially joined the podcast in 2025, and The Nostalgia Test hasn’t been the same. By day, Billy holds an MBA and is Head of Marketing Intelligence and dad to three amazing kids. By night, he’s a podcasting metal head and an 80s action movie afficionado with the hottest takes on pop culture past and present in the game. If he sees a reboot any kind, he’s suplexing it through a table. Legacy sequels, he’s taking them out with a steel chair. Billy won’t tolerate any Rocky slander, unless it’s about Rocky V or Philadelphia. He’s saying what we’re all thinking, which is why we love him. 

Nostalgia Test Overview: 

The Nostalgia Test is a weekly pop-culture podcast is all about hanging out with your lifelong friends like it’s back in the day when you’d be up all night down in the basement playing videogames, talking about your favorite movies, and listening to music way too loud for how late it was. It’s a comedic journey back to see if the movies, music, TV shows, and food that we loved as kids are still good, just nostalgic, or were pop-culture mistakes. To answer this crucial question, everything gets put to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST!

Hosted by longtime friends Dan Dissinger, Manny Coelho, and Billy D’Elia, The Nostalgia Test Podcast is a one-stop-shop for all things pop-culture. There’s the classic Nostalgia Tests that puts things at least 10-years old to the ultimate test, Nostalgia Test (Now!) that predicts whether something new will have staying power, Nostalgia 101 episodes feature directors, international pop-culture scholars, authors, actors, and more, and then there’s the Nostalgia Test News episodes that are a reaction episode in the vein of Best Week Ever. 

Each episode strives to be a fun and nostalgic experience with hot takes, jokes, strong opinions, and moments of deeply personal stories and tangents. The goal is for listeners to consider us their new best friends, laugh, cry, and talk about some nerdy stuff. 

The Nostalgia Test Podcast is all about hanging out, laughing, making fun of the things we love, and celebrating longtime friendships. If you like the sound of that you’re always invited to chill every Tuesday and put your childhood favs to the ultimate test—THE NOSTALGIA TEST!