Last week Monica saw the most recent Mission Impossible movie and was fascinated by a plot detail wherein the characters need to use ancient technology from the — shudder — 1990s! Just after that, John Oliver did an expose on air traffic control towers where he noted that they often still run on software from floppy disk computers that are several decades old. This got her to thinking about the nature of nostalgia in technology. We simultaneously complain about tech being outdated while also fetishizing it because they "don't make them like they used to." So on today's episode Monica and Mav are joined by returning guests John Martin and Michael Higgins to talk about the nostalgia we imbue within our technology. What makes us love things that are old...
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e367. Live from PCA 2025: Unpacking Mainstream Sexuality
It took 367 episodes, but it finally has happened! In this special live episode of the VoxPopcast, host Christopher “Mav” Maverick is joined for the first time (in person) by his full panel of co-hosts: Wayne Wise, Hannah Lee Rogers, Monica Geraffo, and Katya Gorecki. The full team broadcasts from the 2025 PCA/ACA conference in…
e366. What Ever Happened to the Teen Sex Farce?
Did you grow up watching movies like Porky’s? American Pie? Eurotrip? What about the Breakfast Club or Easy A? They sure don’t make them like they used to. Only not just in an old man kind of way. They really don’t make movies like that much anymore, do they? On this episode, Mav welcomes returning…
e365. Works in Progress: PCA2025
This is the 365th show. This means you can now listen to VoxPopcast every day for a year and not have any repeats. That should be exciting in and of itself. But how are we celebrating? Well, if you’ve been paying attention to the show lately, you know we are coming up on PCA. Our…
Call For Comments: What Happened to the Teen Sex Farce?
From Mav: So a few weeks ago, after Michelle Trachtenberg suddenly died, I started thinking about whether or not we wanted to do an episode of our “is this a bad movie?” series to talking about Eurotrip. Partly because I thought it would be interesting to talk about the changing sensibilities within American youth culture,…
e364. From the Theatre to the Stream: The Future of Indie Films
How often do you go to the movie? Not just watch a movie on TV or a computer. How often do you actually go out to the cinema to see a film? Ok, now when you go, do you usually go to the latest blockbuster or do you go to indie films? Does it still…
e363. Is The Mummy a Bad Movie?
We’re a pop culture analysis podcast. As such you’d think we’d analyze a lot more movies than we do. Maybe we should do more. That’s a question for another day. But every once in a while we realize that one of the hosts of the show absolutely adores a move that maybe isn’t as beloved…
e362. Learning in the Stacks: Libraries & Learning from Pop Culture
Have you ever had that experience where you’re talking to a friend or a teacher or even just watching Jeopardy or something, and you end up knowing a fact that you weren’t sure you even knew or not and then when questioned about how you know it you realize that you learned ir from a…
e360. Selling Woke: Navigating Complexities of Capitalism and Media Bias
You know how there’s all of those weirdos who are always claiming that “you get woke and go broke” while at the same time complaining that it’s unfair that all of media is now woke and suddenly they don’t have any non-woke alternatives. This seems incongruous and like it would be pretty hard for both…
Call For Comments: Get Nominally Woke Have Poorly Defined Return on Financial Investment
From Mav: We’ve talked before about the ways in which people complaining that media is “too woke now” are often just not aware that the media they’ve always loved always has been. A few years back I remember when there was an uproar amongst comic fans when Nick Spencer, then writer of Captain America comics…