From Monica: Probably surprising no one who has listened to our many episodes about super spies or franchises with nine-plus installments, I love Mission Impossible movies. Tom Cruise can build new elaborate ways to not kill himself and I’ll eat it up every time. But perhaps because he is so insistent on doing things “for real,” the moments where viewers are asked to suspend disbelief are so much harder. I believe Cruise jumped out of a helicopter for 16 takes without a parachute. I don’t believe he knows how computers work. In the two part Ghost Protocol/Final Reckoning, Tom “Ethan” Cruise finds himself battling an all-powerful AI known as The Entity with the ability to mimic or transform video and audio recordings, so that nothing can be trusted as real....
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e374. The Accuracy Dilemma: Balancing Fact and Fiction in Pop Culture
The nice thing about having your own podcast is that sometimes you can just turn a casual conversation into content that you discuss with the whole wide world. That’s what happened for Mav this weekend when he walked in while his wife, returning guest Stephanie Siler, was watching a psychology YouTube podcast discussing the concept…
Call For Comments: So what is a sequel, anyway?
From Mav: A couple weeks ago, I saw an article announcing that there is going to be a sequel to the 2013 indie teen sex crime neo-noir dark comedy erotic thriller (it has a lot genres!) Spring Breakers. The headline caught my attention because I love that movie. So I read it found out that…
e373. Collecting Value. Understanding Valuation in Popular Culture
Do you have a collection of anything? Comics? Toys? Baseball cards? Records? Whatever? Ok, if you have such a collection, do you know what it’s worth. That is to say if it was destroyed in a fire or some other disaster would you know what to value it at for the insurance claim? Well, Wayne…
e372. MCU 2025: Exploring the Current Marvel Cinematic Landscape
When we started this podcast we were very cautious that we didn’t want it to be too much about the MCU, even though we loved it and it was, at that time, obviously the biggest thing in pop culture.. There are plenty of other shows that do that and we wanted VoxPopcast to be something…
e371. Retro Revivals and Cinematic Sequels: Summer 2025 Preview
As the school year wraps up and summer begins it’s time for an annual pop culture tradition, the summer movie season. And, as we’ve done the last couple of years, Mav, Hannah, and Monica are ready to discuss the upcoming summer movie season filled with nostalgia, sequels, and potential hits. What are we excited about,…
e370. Free Comic Book Day and Geek Third Spaces
Guess what?! We’re finally back from our conference and so the series of PCA specials is over. And so we return to business as usual and talking about the cultural significance of current pop culture. And this week we had an annual tradition that if you know about it you might be somewhat excited about…
e369. PCA 2025: The After Show
We often say that at its essence, VoxPopcast is people hanging out and drinking at the bar after a conference. That’s not entirely true, but it’s not NOT true either. But have you ever wondered what it actually is like when we just do that. Well, that’s what we have for you today. It’s our…
e368. PCA 2025: The Presentations!
If you’ve been listening to the show for the past few weeks then you know that this month has been our special series of PCA episodes, and this might very well be the episode that you’ve been waiting for. We all went the Popular Culture Association International Conference in New Orleans, but how did the…
e367. Live from PCA 2025: Unpacking Mainstream Sexuality
It took 367 episodes, but it finally has happened! In this special live episode of the VoxPopcast, host Christopher “Mav” Maverick is joined for the first time (in person) by his full panel of co-hosts: Wayne Wise, Hannah Lee Rogers, Monica Geraffo, and Katya Gorecki. The full team broadcasts from the 2025 PCA/ACA conference in…
Call For Comments: Retro Technology Worship
June 10, 2025
From Monica: Probably surprising no one who has listened to our many episodes about super spies or franchises with nine-plus installments, I love Mission Impossible movies. Tom Cruise can build new elaborate ways to not kill himself and I’ll eat it up every time. But perhaps because he is so insistent on doing things “for…