e82. Love, Politics and Jane Austen

Usually our show looks at pop culture produced in the relatively recent past. However, that’s not what “popular culture” really means. Really, what this show is about is looking at massive cultural influences and analyzing how and why they happened. And some of that media was produced at longer periods in the past. And some…

e81. Stephen King and Horror

It’s Halloween. And in classic podcast fashion that means it’s time to do a theme episode. Halloween is about many things, but one thing it’s about is horror. Horror movies. Horror books. And the master of horror, is Stephen King. Or at least that’s what everyone says… for some reason… But why? What makes Stephen…

e80. Irredeemable Characters

A couple of weeks ago, the movie Joker was released in cinemas. Even before it came out, there was a lot of concern and controversy about the tone and message behind the movie. Would it cause violence from copycats? Isn’t it just an homage to classic films by Martin Scorsese? Are those problematic too? Does…

e79. Crowdfunding Creative Culture

Technology has allowed us to live in the future. We live in a future where creators and artists can market their product directly to their fans, cutting out the middle man, by using innovative online software to… ummm… be a different middle man?!?! That can’t be right? But it sort of is. Between crowdfunding sites…

e78: Monster Studies-201: Course Syllabus

Happy October! it’s the beginning of Halloween month so we have something a little special. Just over a year ago, we had a show where we invited a bunch of academic friends who teach comics and we developed a course syllabus for a theoretical comics studies course on the air. It was a lot of…

e77. Pop Culture Etiquette

We live in a society and there are rules of polite behavior. But what are those rules? Well, that’s not exactly clear. For the most part the basic ones like saying please and thank you, most of us know. And then there are others like where do you put the forks when setting the table…

e76. Music Back in MY Day…

You know what the best music is? The music we listen to. It’s obviously better than everything else and everyone agrees. And the stuff we don’t like is trash. We can all agree on that, right? The problem is… none of us agree on what music WE listen to. Why does that happen? Why is…

e75. Judging a Show by its Pilot?

It’s fall and if you’re a television fan that means you know that we are on the cusp of dozens — or these days maybe even hundreds — of new shows hitting the TV airwaves. And every new TV show starts with a pilot… an episode that introduces you to the show and tries to…

e74. Harry Potter and the Politics of Wizardry

At this point it’s pretty safe to say that the Harry Potter book series is one of the most defining pieces of literature in a generation. Love it or hate it (and if you actually hate it, what’s wrong with you?) you absolutely know what it is… especially if you’re a millennial. But like all…

e73. Reading Practices

How do you read? Do you do it on a computer or a tablet or do you prefer good old fashioned paper texts? Do you listen to books on tape or use an audible subscription? Do you prefer to watch movies or videos? Do you like audiobooks? Do those even count as books? What about…