Dune may be the greatest science fiction epic ever written. The way you can tell is that if you go up to any Dune fan, they will tell you that... at length! And if you don't care for it, almost certainly a fan will happily explain to you that you secretly love it and just need to try harder. This goes for the original novels, the 1984 movie, the 2000 TV miniseries, the comics, the video games, the table-top role-playing game, and even the 2013 documentary about NOT getting to make a version of Dune in the 1970s. And yet, as much as the core fans of Dune love it... no matter how hard they try, Dune never seems to "happen". A couple weeks ago, Denis Villeneuve released the latest...
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e189. Dune: How to Control the Spice & Influence People
Dune may be the greatest science fiction epic ever written. The way you can tell is that if you go up to any Dune fan, they will tell you that… at length! And if you don’t care for it, almost certainly a fan will happily explain to you that you secretly love it and just…
e188. The Eternals and the MCU This Year (so far…)
Somehow, we went the entire year of 2020 just… without a Marvel movie. Phase three ended and there was a real life global pandemic and then… there just weren’t any MCU films. For the first time in over a decade, they were just gone! This year, they came back… BIG! in fact, there’s been three…
CFC: So, Is “Sexy” Just A Television Genre Now?
From Mav: Regular listeners know that I adore the Riverdale (some people are saying it’s the best show on television!). You might have also heard me mention that I love Nancy Drew or The 100 or all of the Arrowverse shows. Basically, I love the CW TV formula. Everyone is pretty… everyone has abs… everyone…
e187. 4x4ward: Overlanding and the Great Outdoors
When you study “pop culture” people automatically think of the MOST popular media that is available of the day. For us living in 2021, that’s largely superhero movies. Of course, if you listen to this show, you know we also frequently talk about music, TV shows, books and video games. But popular culture is much…
Call for Comments: WTF Is Up With Eternals?
From Hannah: Marvel’s newest movie — Eternals for those of you who don’t care about the MCU — debuts this weekend. And it’s making headlines for being first in a lot of things in terms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (some way more important than others). Critics don’t seem to love Marvel’s latest entry, at…
e186. Wayne, Hannah, Mav & Jehnie’s Infinite Mixtape
Have you ever made a mixtape? We’re sort of willing to guess that if you’re listening to our show, at some point or another you have. But… did you actually do it on “a tape” or was it a mix CD? Was it a playlist in the cloud? Does this matter? Are all of these…
CFC: Controlling the Spice, the Universe, And the Dune(s?)
(Editor’s Note: This is a guest blog from frequent guest of the show, Natalie Sheppard-Baudean. She’s suggested we do a show all about Dune, so read what she has to say and let us know your thoughts in the comments.) From Natalie: One of the best ways to get to know someone is to read…
e185. The Wicked, the Witches and the Witch-ish
Halloween season continues and so it’s time for another special episode. One of the most enduring pop culture figure is probably the witch. Witches appear through the ages in media. From the Weird Sisters of MacBeth to the good and bad witches of Oz to to Arthur Miller’s the Crucible, to Samantha of Bewitched to…
CFC: A Funny Thing Happened When I Talked About Mixtapes
https://twitter.com/chrismaverick/status/1447466435828228097?s=21 From Mav: So funny story. Last week, I was having trouble sleeping, and I was listening to a podcast and someone said “we should make a playlist for this episode” and because neurons are weird and it was 3am, the mention of the word “playlist” made me think of “mixtapes” and I had a…
CFC: in which Katya learns a new word, or what is Overlanding & am I tacticool though?
Photo by 4x4WARD Photo by 4x4WARD From Katya: My favorite way to introduce Cultural Studies to people is Raymond Williams’ “Culture is Ordinary.” Williams insisted that culture included a person’s or community’s whole way of life. Culture isn’t just the novels, films, games, or general “stuff” of culture but everything that is part of your…