If you live on planet Earth right now, you might have noticed that Taylor Swift is touring. Her concerts are selling out even though tickets prices are out of control. Is it worth it? that’s a whole different show! However, some recent articles have implied that many young Swifties are experiencing a weird phenomenon. Concert…
Category: Science
Call For Comments: Concert Amnesia and Flashbulb Memories
From Steph: Recently, news media has reported claims from many Taylor Swift concertgoers that they cannot remember large parts or even any of the 3-hour “Eras Tour” concert such as which songs Taylor performed. This so-called “concert amnesia” is particularly distressing for those paying the high prices of resale tickets. However, it is widely known…
e225. Can We Talk About Climate Change?
If you line in the United States and follow political news you might have noticed something crazy last week. The Democrats kind of… did something! In fact, they did something potentially huge. On Thursday, July 28th, essentially out of nowhere, senators Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer announced that they had come to terms on what…
e219. Why We Still Love the Jurassic Park Franchise
Somehow, in 2022, there’s a Jurassic Park movie at the top of the box office. Some twenty-nine years after the first film and 32 years after the release of the first novel, this series is still going strong. There are cartoons, video games, Lego sets and other toys. Even though Jurassic World Dominion is theoretically…
e209. PCA2022 Conference Paper Workshop & Preview
This week we’re going to try something a little different on the show. We’ve been mentioning in the past few weeks that we several of the hosts and our most frequent guests are all gearing ups for our big annual pop culture academia conference, PCA. In the past, we’ve had shows where we presented our…
e160. Remembering Thought & Thinking About Memory
Do you remember the song that was playing when you had your first kiss, lost your virginity, or danced at your wedding? Do you know what movie that you crowded around the TV to watch as a family every holiday as a kid? Do you have fond memories of the vacation you took in the…
e158. Superhero Thought Experiments
Have you ever had one of those pointless internet arguments about the philosophical righteousness of Batman, Superman, Rorschach or Luke Skywalker? Or maybe you’ve spent hours arguing about how time travel works based on old Fantastic Four comic books. And I’m sure many of you have tried to defend the value of some superhero movie…
Call For Comments: Memory Triggers In The Digital Age
From Wayne: I think about memory a lot. I’ve always had a pretty good one, enough so that people comment on it. My ancient mother has lost a lot of her short term memory in recent months, so that’s on my mind. I’m getting old enough to feel nostalgia for stuff. I’ve been going through…