e98. Experience vs. Consumer Culture

We have a weird question for you. Which would you rather have a free Ferrari or an all expenses paid, one month trip around the world staying in luxury hotels? Ok, what about this one? Would you rather have every 5000 albums or front row tickets to see your favorite band perform at a sold…

e97. Fictional & Celebrity Crushes

Happy (Belated) Valentines Day! You know what that means? It means time to do a “very special episode” where we somehow try to tie in the holiday concept to the kinds of stuff we normally do. Academic cultural analysis of popular culture… but with beer! Last year we talked about the “shipping” and the secret…

e96. Mask Theory

In the 21st century, when we think of masks, we think of superheroes. But the idea of superheroes as a concept is only about a century old. Masks have been around forever. They have a long history in theatre, professional wrestling and costume balls. Beyond that they have a cultural tradition that dates back to…

e95. The Good Place and Philosophy

Welcome! Everything is fine. Well, almost everything is fine. Except The Good Place is no more. This week was the season finale of one of the most unique shows ever — a broadcast sitcom based on deconstructing moral philosophy in the afterlife. If you’ve listened to our show before you know that we’re big fans…

e94. Why Do Award Shows Suck?

After being disappointed by last year’s Oscars, Hannah swore that we would never do another show about them. But then she started thinking about it and wanted to take a different approach. It seems like every year during Oscar season, from the announcements all the way through the picks, more people are upset than happy.…

e93. Golden Age of Comics

If you’re at least a casual comic book fan you probably know the terms Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age and Modern Age. If you’re a massive comic geek, you probably even know when those ages are. But why do they exist? What’s the relevance of splitting things up like that? What the cultural relevance…

e92: 2010s Decade in Review

Somehow it’s 2020. I don’t get how that happened. 2020 isn’t a year… 2020 is what you make up if you’re setting some science fiction story in the future and you’re too lazy to pick an interesting sound year like 2027 or something. But somehow it actually is 2020, which means the start of a…

e91. 2020 Box Office Draft

Happy New Year! And with a new year, we have a whole new year of movies to look forward to. And for our show, that means the return of the Box Office Game (shamelessly stolen form the Protagonist Podcast… credit where credit is due). On today’s show, Hannah, Katya, Wayne and Mav invite back Stephanie…

e90. 30 Good Things You Missed!!! 2019 Year in Review

Happy New Year! It’s the end of 2019, and that means it’s time for all good podcasts to do a year in review episode. The thing about a show focused on pop culture like ours is that we have already devoted episodes to all of the biggest pop culture events of the year. We know…

e89. Star Wars: Epic Retrospective

If you’ve been anywhere on the Internet in the last few days… honestly, if you live anywhere on the planet Earth, then you probably know that after forty-two years in the making, Star Wars is finally complete. Certainly if you’re the kind of person who listens to our show you know that. Of course, you…