Call For Comments: The PCA/ACA Preview Special

From Mav: We’re doing something a little different on the next show. One of the reasons we started VoxPop was because as academics we end up doing a lot of academic conferences… and we had the idea that the kinds of discussion we have at them would make for an interesting show, especially since my…

e49. Cinema vs. Streaming

Recently Steven Spielberg allegedly implored the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to make it harder for films distributed primarily through streaming platforms to win Oscars. Or maybe he didn’t. The details are actually kind of fuzzy. But moreover, we’re not sure it really matters whether he did or not. The very idea of…

e48. Political TV and Nostalgia

In the current age of Trump, we’ve noticed a peculiar trend. People yearning for the days of an earlier president… a great orator… a wise statesmen with decorum… a calming presence on television. Not Barack Obama (well, maybe he too). We’re talking about Jed Bartlet, fictional president on television’s The West Wing. Of course, he…

e47. Milkshake Ducks & Problematic Artists

It seems like it happens every day lately. Your favorite writer, comedian, singer, actor, sports star, politician or whatever suddenly hits the news because it turns out he’s a racist, rapist, sexist, homophobe, murderer or otherwise deplorable person. Particularly in the #MeToo era, we’re seeing this more and more with the likes of Bill Cosby,…

Call for Comments: Bartlet for America 2020?

From Hannah: Since the 2016 election, I’ve participated in (and noticed) a trend: turning to optimistic, liberal leaning television shows to escape the reality of our current political system. Shows like The West Wing, Parks and Recreation, and Madam Secretary allow us to imagine that the people running our government take the term public servant…

e45. Game of Oscars

This weekend is the Oscars and if you’re a movie junkie like Mav and Hannah, then in a way, this is kind of the Super Bowl of movies. And if you’re not an Oscar fan… well, don’t you want to be able to impress your friends by making all the right picks in the office…

e44. Young Monsters In Love

Happy Valentines Day! We thought we’d celebrate by exploring the most romantic of all pop culture genres… no… not RomComs… Monsters of course! Today, Wayne, Hannah and Mav are joined by a returning Michael Chemers and Heather Duda, our resident monster experts to talk about the romance, love and sexuality that is implicit in the…

Call for Comments: Monster Love

From Hannah: When we came to the end of recording our second monster episode on Halloween, I jokingly claimed that the 1999 version of The Mummy was the “greatest love story of all time,” to which our guest Michael Chemers declared, “All monster stories are love stories.” And we named (and have since named) a ton of examples…

e42. Diss Continuity

Chances are if you listen to this show you consider yourself a geek about some pop culture media or another. In fact there’s a good chance that you geek out about several forms of pop culture media. And if that’s true, you’ve probably come to realize that in any long term franchised intellectual property, that…

e41. Snatching Banders?

You turn on the internet and you see that everyone on social media is talking about a new Netflix Original film. You know what’s coming next. Sometimes a piece of pop culture comes around that’s so big, it feels like the whole world is talking about it. When that happens, it’s a sure bet that…