A few years ago, in an interview with Stephen Colbert, Will Smith said that he believed that racism isn’t getting worse — it’s getting filmed. While it may be hard to quantifiably judge the first part of that statement, the second part is certainly true. In the last couple of weeks, the public availability of…
Category: Race and Class
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…
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.…
Call For Comments: Why are award shows dumb?
From Mav: Last year, after our Oscars prediction show — and the actual Oscars — Hannah vowed that she never wanted to do another Oscars show again. So I was kinda surprised when she asked me about doing one this year. However, she did have a different direction she wanted to go. Instead of predicting…
e83. 
Watching Watchmen
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen is one of the most popular comic books of all time. It’s been a best seller since 1987, has never been out of print, has been adapted into a movie, video games, role playing game, and now a TV show. It is the single comic book appearing on Time…
Call for Comments: The Legacy of Jane Austen
From Hannah: This show is, according to our tagline, “a podcast about pop culture discussion, critique and analysis with beer and swearing.” For the most part, in our seventy-something episodes, we’ve covered contemporary topics because that’s what most of us think popular culture is. As the co-host whose main periods of study are the eighteenth…
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…
e69. So, let’s talk about Puerto Rico…
A couple of weeks ago, many Americans were surprised to turn on the news and learn that protests had seemingly suddenly erupted on the island of Puerto Rico demanding the resignation of the governor. This went on for several days until the governor relented and stepped down and then the story all but vanished from…