‘Just Chips Dot Com’—the Podcast, not the Website, is a Crunching Good Time

Armed with a brand-new bag of chips in every episode, Zoë Robertson and Sophia LePage travel the world together from the comfort of their closet where they record their zany talk show. In January 2017, they started sharing their adventures with the world via a podcast, “Just Chips Dot Com,” for your education and listening pleasure.

As it turns out, chips come in infinite varieties. They may be pizza-flavored, Eggs Benedict-flavored, or even Chesapeake Shrimp-flavored. And chips turn out to be a surprisingly amazing jumping point for conversation—Robertson and LePage talk about pop culture topics like memes, dogecoin, ASMR, and Keanu Reeves. One time they asked each other whether they would ever date a pirate. They also invite celebrities on their show over the phone or through FaceTime. Past guests have included an erotica writer, a marine biologist, a ghost expert, famous Canadian musicians, and the creator of the quirky Canadian dramedy “Dim the Fluorescents.” With their giggling, calls at strange hours, and occasional white lies about what the podcast is actually about (one guest believed that Robertson and LePage were extreme sports enthusiasts), listening almost feels like participating in a prank call. It’s obvious that the two have been best friends forever, and their chemistry is what makes the show. They’re bubbly and fun and they chime off of each other effortlessly.

A lot of the fun comes from just listening to the wonderfully satisfying sound of the crunching. Similarly to “mukbang” (the Korean phenomenon of watching people eat incredible amounts of junk food on YouTube), there’s a wonderful voyeuristic sort of pleasure that comes with listening to people eat. Each show opens with the popping opening sound of a soda can, a theme song of sound bites of a person munching on a snack, a voice that says “chips, chips, chip-chip-chip chips,” and a voice dropped ten octaves on GarageBand announcing “Just Chips Dot Com—the podcast, not the website.”

The meandering quality of the show is both its main charm and annoyance. Chips can take you anywhere, and “Just Chips Dot Com” is really a variety show disguised as a review of chips. The show wanders out into fields as diverse as the discussion of various species of rodents, the philosophy behind the origin of the word “breakfast,” and the history of Ruffles potato chips. But sometimes the tangents feel too random and drawn-out, and it is often tempting to just skip to the actual chip-eating. It also feels as if Robertson and LePage are enjoying their own conversation among themselves rather than trying to draw in the listener.

Robertson and LePage’s friends and family regularly chime in as guests giving "Just Chips" a charming homegrown feel, as if two friends decided to spend a rainy day making a podcast in their closet. When I was listening to this on speaker, my sister said she thought that I was on the phone with two really loud friends. I think that about sums up the experience of listening to “Just Chips Dot Com.” It’s very fun and quirky and utterly random. It’s a good show to turn on in the background during a long laundry session.

—Staff writer Faith A. Pak can be reached at Faith.Pak@thecrimson.com.