Call For Comments: The 2019 Fantasy Box Office Game

From Mav: There are many reasons I wanted to start this podcast. Obviously I like talking about the topics that we cover here a lot… sure. And honestly, a lot of what we do on the show is me working out concepts that I am addressing in my own work (or one of the other…

Call For Comments: But Baby is it really cold outside? Is it really?

From Mav: It’s the winter holiday season… that means lots of thing for pop culture: It means Christmas movies (which we already have a Call For Comments up for). It means endless consumerism, it means FoxNew turning to discussions on the War On Christmas. It means pumpkin spice everything. And it means Christmas carols… lots…

Call for Comments: Watching/Streaming Cheesey Christmas Movies

From Hannah: Over the past few years Christmas has somehow become synonymous with cheesy Christmas movies from channels like Hallmark, Lifetime, and ABC Family (before it became Freeform). I’m not imagining things — Hallmark, for example, has increased its production of holiday movies to 37 and will add Hanukkah movies to its schedule next year.…

Call for Comments: Mediated Politicking

From Katya: Sick of hearing about electoral politics? Prepare to hear about it some more! (Hopefully not as bad as that family member that we often encounter over the holidays.) Media has always had a huge role in politics. In the U.S., we have the myth that  JFK won the presidency because TV  (which is…

Call for Comments: Mystery Boxes, Spoilers, and Fandoms

From Hannah: Before I was on the show, we received a suggestion for a show topic on how popular culture fandoms react to spoilers from listener Jessi Bencloski. Spoilers are tricky, especially in big fandoms such as Harry Potter, Lost, Star Wars, and Game of Thrones. Part of what drives (or drove) those fandoms, especially once fan communities emerged online,…

Call for Comments: The Rhetoric of Digital Farming, Anti-Capitalism, and Talking Jellybeans

From Katya: Eric Barone and Chucklefish recently released the popular farm simulator, Stardew Valley, to iOS. The game draws heavily on Harvest Moon, allowing players to grow crops, care for animals, fish, befriend and even marry townsfolk. Having missed the farm sim. craze train (multiple times, in fact), and coming down with a nasty flu…

Call for Comments: Media Reboots, Revivals and Adaptations

From Mav: So we had a topic suggested by a listener, specifically Maximilian, who wrote our theme song (and was on our music of your youth episode). By the way, if it isn’t obvious, you can totally suggest topics for us to use. Anyway, Max requested we do an episode talking about the recent trend…

Call For Comments: MAC LIVE show and the antihero?

From Mav: Even though we haven’t recorded this next week’s show just yet (we’re doing it tonight, so you still have a chance to throw in some comment on Monsters, so check that Call for Comments) we’re already planning another one. This Saturday, I will be appearing at MAC Charity Con in Mt. Aloysius, PA.…

Call For Comments: The Return of Monster X

From Wayne: (Deep resonant voiceover): ‟In a world where podcasts have virally assimilated human consciousness, an intrepid band of scholars attempt to dissect the Monster that we have all become.” In August we recorded an episode of VoxPopcast on the topic of “The Monster and The Monster Hunter” with our guests Michael Chemers and Heather Duda. The…

Call for Comments: Cat Ears and Lingerie?

From Mav: It’s October, and so we are continuing our string of Halloween themed, or at least Halloween adjacent shows. This week we want to explore something that I’ve actually used as a debate topic when I teach freshman comp. Sexiness and Halloween costumes. Or specifically, are Halloween costumes getting too sexy? Remember that part…