e279. Is Sucker Punch a Bad Movie?

So the truth is, when we do our “is ____ a bad movie?” episodes, we expect that the listeners are going to be predisposed to say “yes, obviously it sucks. No one cares about that garbage movie” and we are attempting to do kind of a reparative reading of it. That’s what we were expecting…

e261. PCA2023 After Dark!

After two years being held virtually, and a cancelled conference in 2020, the Popular Culture Association returned to in person conferences for PCA2023. There were some good notes (Mav won a major award for his doctoral dissertation) and some bad notes (Mav ended up catching COVID during the trip) but along the way there was…

e201. The Romance Show: (Hannah wouldn’t let us call) Love In The Time Of COVID

Despite the fact that it is perennially one of the best selling genres in literature, Romance is often looked down upon. Part of this is simple misogyny; as a culture we look down upon things that are seen as “for women.” However, not only are romance novels dominant best sellers, romance as a concept essentially…

e190. Pour Some Sexy On It!

Ever since the advent of movies enterprising humans have asked that age-old important question “how can we use this for sex?” That’s not hyperbole; the modern motion picture dates back to 1893, and erotic films like Le coucher de la mariée (aka The Bride’s Bedtime) were being produced in wide release as early as 1896.…