e328. What’s the Deal with Presidential Assassinations?

It’s been a weird week of American politics. And we can’t really keep up. Yeah, we know something big happened this week (the whole shakeup of the democratic nomination) but we recorded this episode last week after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. It oddly feels like old news now. But the thing is, we’re…

e326. From Mr. Ed to the Minions: Pop Culture Across Generations

Every once in a while we like to do something really different on the show. This is one of those times. Since the team is all on vacation in various places this week, Mav decided to record a show on the road. So, in this episode he sits down with his mom, Lynn, and her…

e325. So You Have To Write a Prospectus? Now What Is It, Exactly? (and can an ointment clear it up?)

One of the best parts about being an academic is that you “get summers off.” One of the worst parts of being an academic is “your off days are just a time to do more homework.” That’s where Monica is, as she is currently knee deep in trying to write her PhD prospectus. But that…

e294. Black Friday and Toy Riots!

It’s Black Friday week. There’s simply no way you don’t know that. Even if you’re not from the United States, where we just had Thanksgiving, if you’re on the Internet and listening to our show you are at least aware of the Black Friday sales that have just become pervasive throughout the world. But how…

e277. The VoxPopcast #Barbenheimer Double Feature Double Date

Every once in a great while an unprecedented unpredictable pop culture moment organically happens and takes the world by storm. This was the cast last week when, after an incredibly lack luster summer blockbuster season at the box office, two films Barbie and Oppenheimer dropped on the same day. We’ve known this was coming for…

e223. The Cultural Impact of Ms. Marvel on Disney+

This Wednesday saw the season finale of Ms. Marvel on Disney+, a show that we have been thoroughly enjoying. However, there’s been a weird bit of reaction to Ms. Marvel and the MCU in general as of late. While the critical reviews of Ms. Marvel are overwhelmingly positive (it currently sits at a 98% on…

e222. So, The World’s On Fire… Everything is Fine…

It’s been a while since we spent the show just talking about the state of the world. Mostly because… well, the state of the world kinda sucks right now… and we sort of didn’t want to deal with it. But this is a show about culture and the culture in the world right now, particularly…

e202. To Kill a Mockingbird… and a Maus — Censorship & Book Banning

Every once in a while the world of weekly pop culture and the world of literary academia collide so totally that the world notices even outside of our show. Last week was one of those weeks. A school board in Tennessee voted to remove Maus, the critically acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize winning Holocaust memoir graphic novel,…

e192. How to Win Christmas & Influence People

Christmas traditions are huge part of popular culture. In fact, they’re such a huge part of popular culture that — despite the so-called war on Christmas — they pretty much infuse the western winter holidays regardless of your religion or beliefs. It’s the “holiday” season. But, no matter how secular we try to make things,…

e191. Pop Culture Casserole

As we transition from the fall holidays through the winter ones we’ve noticed that there was a bunch of pop culture things have just fallen through the cracks. Like, really a WHOLE lot of them. And what do you do when you have a bunch of odds and ends left over from Thanksgiving that don’t…