Aliens are one of the most enduring concepts in popular culture. It makes sense really. If we know there are other planets then it stands to reason that we might wonder what’s on them. There’s no shortage of books, films, TV shows and video games that explore this. So it’s kind of weird that we…
Category: Television
e428. The Supergirl Legacy: The Evolution of the Maid of Might
If you pay attention to the weekly pop-culture media landscape you might be aware that a new Supergirl movie released the weekend before this episode. It performed… somewhat underwhelmingly at the box office. It also had mixed reviews. But is that fair? On this episode Mav, Wayne and Hannah welcome returning guest, comics scholar Anna…
e418. PCA Roundtable: Enjoying the Art of Immoral Artists: An Ethical and Aesthetic Dilemma
It’s that time of year again! If you’re a long time listener to the show then you probably know about PCA already. PCA is acronym for both the Popular Culture Association and their annual convention that in many ways is part of the genesis of the show. Last year all of the cohosts attended, but…
e416. All the Cinderellas: an Exploration of Trope and Transformation
Often when we think about pop culture we think about relatively recent things. But sometimes it’s good to think about the enduring sources. Fairytales have been popular culture for longer than anyone in history knows. So much so that we don’t even know who wrote a lot of them. On today’s episode, Monica, Mav, and…
e415. Beyond the Final Frontier: Star Trek’s Influence on Culture & Fandom
Four hundred and fifteen episodes over eight years and we never talked about Star Trek. How could that possibly be? Well, it can’t be. Of course we’ve talked about Star Trek, but we’ve never devoted a whole episode to it and that seems crazy given that it is one of the most enduring pop culture…
e414. Strings Attached: Puppetry, from Marionettes to AI
Puppetry is one of the oldest and most respected performance art styles in the world. Except, in America we have reduced it almost entirely to the domain of children’s entertainment. Or have we? Maybe puppets are all around us in every kind of media. Maybe we’re actually using puppets every day and we don’t even…
e409. Tommy Westphall’s Snowglobe: Exploring Fiction’s Largest Shared Universe
Most TV, movies, books… fiction in general don’t exist. This is obvious. That’s sort of the point of fiction. but what if it didn’t exist beyond the obvious fact that we imagined it. What if all we didn’t even imagine it… or maybe most of us didn’t. What if the vast majority of fiction ever…
e408. Wonder Woman: Boundaries, Bondage, and Breakthroughs
Wonder Woman is almost certainly one of the most enduring characters in all of pop culture. She’s certainly the most famous female superhero of all time. But we would argue that she’s significant even beyond that. Why? Well, let’s talk about it. On this week’s show Mav, Wayne and Monica are joined by returning guest…
e406. So, We Live in the Pitt and Here is What We Think of It…
Well, unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably heard of HBOMax’s new hit series the Pitt. After all, it recentlywon like a billion Golden Globes and Emmys. Well… ok, two Globes and five Emmys but still. It’s doing super well, and it’s critically acclaimed. We mentioned it briefly on our “Things You Missed” episode,…