Entertainment Weekly recently published an article by Derek Lawrence that made the somewhat shocking claim that “movies are more likely to star an actor named Chris than women over 60.” Well, that seemed like exactly the kind of thing we should investigate on this shows. So we looked into it a little deeper and. Well,…
Category: Movies and Film
e423. Father Knows Less: Unpacking Bad Dad Stereotypes in Film
There’s a movie coming out next weekend starring comedian Nate Bargatze called The Breadwinner. Curiously, even though we were aware of it, not one of the five co-hosts on the show chose it in the box office game. It just didn’t seem interesting. Recently we’ve gotten a chance to see the trailer and just. Well,…
e422. Anatomy of a Heist: More Than Just Stealing
The Heist may be one of the popular pop culture tropes of all time. And yet, we’ve never talked about it before. So you know what that means. It’s time to change that. On this episode, assemble a ragtag group of experts… to pull off one last job… figuring out what makes a heist movie…
e420. 2026 Summer Movie Preview
It’s summer! Ok, maybe it’s not quite summer summer, but it is summer movie season as the U.S box office. There’s a lot of movies coming out this summer, but honestly not that many franchises. So, how do you decide what to see? On this episode, Mav, Hannah, and Maybe are joined by returning guests…
e418. PCA Roundtable: Enjoying the Art of Immoral Artists: An Ethical and Aesthetic Dilemma
It’s that time of year again! If you’re a long time listener to the show then you probably know about PCA already. PCA is acronym for both the Popular Culture Association and their annual convention that in many ways is part of the genesis of the show. Last year all of the cohosts attended, but…
e416. All the Cinderellas: an Exploration of Trope and Transformation
Often when we think about pop culture we think about relatively recent things. But sometimes it’s good to think about the enduring sources. Fairytales have been popular culture for longer than anyone in history knows. So much so that we don’t even know who wrote a lot of them. On today’s episode, Monica, Mav, and…
e415. Beyond the Final Frontier: Star Trek’s Influence on Culture & Fandom
Four hundred and fifteen episodes over eight years and we never talked about Star Trek. How could that possibly be? Well, it can’t be. Of course we’ve talked about Star Trek, but we’ve never devoted a whole episode to it and that seems crazy given that it is one of the most enduring pop culture…
e414. Strings Attached: Puppetry, from Marionettes to AI
Puppetry is one of the oldest and most respected performance art styles in the world. Except, in America we have reduced it almost entirely to the domain of children’s entertainment. Or have we? Maybe puppets are all around us in every kind of media. Maybe we’re actually using puppets every day and we don’t even…
e413. Teen Beach Movie Revisited: a Conversation with the Screenwriter
A few weeks ago Mav and Monica did a very special show where three of Mav’s current students from his “Introduction to Popular Culture” class where the students joined us to explain their view of one of their favorite movies, Disney’s Teen Beach Movie and both its cultural relevance and its usefulness as an academic…
e412. The 2026 Oscars Prediction Special
The time comes but once a year… Hollywood’s biggest night! Or so they say. Actually, for as long as we have been doing this show, almost every year Hannah and Mav have to beg people to come and talk about the Oscars because almost no one is ever interested. Well, this year is different, we…