e349. Things You Missed 2024

As we close in on the end of the year, we reach that time when all pop culture podcasts do the tried and true tradition of reviewing the best content from the last twelve months. Well, here at VoxPopcast we do it a little differently. We’ve spent the last year talking about much of the…

e347. Jack vs. Jack: The Jack Off

Yes, we know the world is on fire, but that’s just going to be our status quo for the next several months. And it’s Thanksgiving week and we wanted to do something fun. So we decided this week we’d play a fun little game that we borrowed from our friends over at the Protagonist Podcast.…

e346: Over the Rainbow: Examining Wicked, Oz, and their Cultural Impact

Did you know there was a movie adaptation of the film Wicked released this week? If not then we assume you must not see any commercials or advertisements in your life ever, because the marketing is PERSISTENT. And by all accounts it’s doing fairly well at the box office. That’s to be expected; the play…

Call for Comments: Wicked and the Wonderful (?) World of OZ

From Hannah: In our next show, we’re tackling populism, propaganda, and resistance — through Wicked (the film, the musical, the book series) and its source material the Oz series by L. Frank Baum. The world of Oz has always been political (especially in terms of American politics) since The Wonderful Wizard of Oz first appeared…

e344. Creepy Kids & Horror: Exploring Unsettling Youth in Film

Well, the US presidential election happened. And you’ve probably heard a ton about it. But we’re living in denial here at VoxPopcast so we’ve decided to pretend it’s still Halloween! Actually, before the election occurred, we recorded an episode dealing with the concept of creepy kids in horror. You might recall we talked about creepy…

e342. Creepy Dolls and the Freudian Uncanny

Happy Halloween! As has been our tradition, we wanted to make sure we marked the season with a special episode or two highlighting the concepts of horror. On today’s episode, Mav, Wayne and Monica are joined by friend of the show and Director of University of California at Santa Cruz’s Center for Monster Studies, Michael…

e338. Fandom and Identity: The Evolution of Beloved Characters

What does it mean to be a fan of a character? There have been millions of different interpretations of Batman and the character of Wolverine as he appears in Marvel comics films bears surprisingly little in common with his original comic book impetus. In this episode, Mav and Wayne Wise are joined by guests recent…

e337. Umm… So, is this like a Reboot?!? Or Something?

A couple weeks ago, Mav was watching a football game and he saw a commercial for a new TV show, Rescue: HI-Surf. It appeared to be an action procedural about lifeguards. As he watched it, he was entranced, but couldn’t help thinking to himself “isn’t this just Baywatch?” But alas, the show seemed to want…

e336. So, Why Pop Culture?

In all the years we’ve been doing this show we’ve worked under a very basic assumption: Everyone involved as a host, guest, or listener presumes that the pseudo academic discussion of popular culture (with drinking and swearing) is an important activity. We certainly feel that way, and chances are if you’re a regular listener you…

e335. Prequels Unraveled: Stitching Gaps or Snagging Cash?

In today’s nostalgia driven, franchise driven, pop culture world sequels are obviously big business. But what do we do when sequels become too boring (and we can’t get the original cast of a film back)? Prequels are obviously the answer. But why? Is there any value to prequels or are they nothing more than shameless…