It’s that time of year again! If you’re a long time listener to the show then you probably know about PCA already. PCA is acronym for both the Popular Culture Association and their annual convention that in many ways is part of the genesis of the show. Last year all of the cohosts attended, but…
Category: Literature
e416. All the Cinderellas: an Exploration of Trope and Transformation
Often when we think about pop culture we think about relatively recent things. But sometimes it’s good to think about the enduring sources. Fairytales have been popular culture for longer than anyone in history knows. So much so that we don’t even know who wrote a lot of them. On today’s episode, Monica, Mav, and…
e408. Wonder Woman: Boundaries, Bondage, and Breakthroughs
Wonder Woman is almost certainly one of the most enduring characters in all of pop culture. She’s certainly the most famous female superhero of all time. But we would argue that she’s significant even beyond that. Why? Well, let’s talk about it. On this week’s show Mav, Wayne and Monica are joined by returning guest…
e403. Things You Missed 2025
Well here we are at the end of the year 2025; a year that somehow seemingly lasted 147 months. And yet somehow it was really only 12 months and that means we had only 52 weeks to analyze everything that happened in popular culture. Obviously we didn’t get to it all; we never do. And…
e397. All the Frankensteins! (like all the Draculas… but with Frankenstein)
One of pop cultures most enduring properties is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Not only is it often hailed as the first ever science fiction property, it is one of the all-time most adapted characters in film, TV and other media. In fact, Netflix just produced a new version last week. That seemed like a good excuse…
e391. Manga-101: Why is Manga?
It’s always weird and oddly exciting when we discover that we have a hole in the things we’ve covered one the show. And in fact, It’s actually quite surprising that we’ve been doing this show for 391 episodes and haven’t devoted an episode to manga before now. Sure it’s come up in discussions about comics…
e390. La Mort de le Mèmer? How memes make meaning
We’ve talked a lot on the show in the past about Roland Barthes’ influential literary essay “La mort de l’auteur” or “the Death of the Author” and what it means in practical terms for cultural studies and related fields. Recently however, friend of the show Andrew Darowski, texted Mav and casually asked if that concept…
e385. Is Flash Gordon a Bad Movie?
It’s been a while since we did a “is this a bad movie” episode. But the best way of investigating a “is this a bad movie” is to pick one where one of the hosts is honestly surprised that there are people who don’t like the film. That’s what we have today. One of Mav’s…
e383. Revisiting Milkshake Ducks
Way back on episode 47, we talked about Milkshake Ducks. That is to say, the concept of what to do when you suddenly discover that the creator of a beloved media product turns out to be a very problematic individual. Even back then we acknowledged that things were much more complicated than the world liked…