Call for Comments: Dissertations, what the hell are they?

From Katya: You know us as the pseudo-academic podcast with drinking and swearing. We also lied about that (very openly, in all fairness.) All of us have Ivory Tower experiences through teaching, conferences, independent scholarship, and the occasional long-winded degree. I left academic research a few years ago and the transition from being surrounding by…

e198. STEM vs Humanities: the Clatter in the Classroom

If you’ve been or known any kid who has gone to an American school in the last 50 years or so you’ve probably heard the advice to “get into STEM” because that’s where the future is. It’s an odd bit of advice really, because essentially all it means is “Hey kids! Pay attention in school…

Call for Comments: Humanities vs. STEM — Dawn of Nerdom

From Katya: There’s a generic assumption in academic circles that the humanities are embattled — for funding, for prestige, for influence within the university, etc. — against the BBEG of STEM. STEM is stealing our students. STEM is stealing our funding. STEM is gnawing our legs off (for science!) As you might guess, I don’t…

e180. So, You Say You Wanna Host a Pseudoacademic Pop Culture Analysis Podcast (with Drinking and Swearing)

Oddly enough, for a show that is devoted to talking about pop culture, one of the things we don’t talk about so much is podcasts. In a way, podcasting might very well be the epitome of pop culture in the current cultural moment… and also… we are one! So, on today’s very special meta episode,…

e165. PCA-2021 Recap

It’s the PCA-2021 recap show! In many ways, Popular Culture Association(PCA) national conference is responsible for this show. One of the things we’ve always strived for is to have the kind of wide variety of cultural scholarship that is found there as well as the open and inclusive vibe and ideology that the organization and…

Call for Comments: Freshman Year in Quarantine

From Mav: Way back in April — so you know basically a million years ago in the COVID world —we did a show about what it was like to finish up your senior year of high school during a worldwide pandemic lockdown. Back then (seriously it really does seem like forever ago) we had on…

Call for Comments: The X-men Syllabus

From Mav: Back when we did our first comics syllabus episode, we went out of our way to make sure that we had a breadth of topics and genres instead of just focusing on superheroes. We wanted to make sure we showed the versatility of comics and not just “here are some superhero stories.” I…

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…

e71. Back to School

There’re two ways that kids learn about college before they go. Either they talk to parents or high school counselors and they learn about all of the hard work and studying and how it’s important to take it seriously and avoid all the horrible dangers of drugs and sex and alcohol that the “bad kids”…

Call For Comments: Back to School College Survival Tips

From Mav: It you’ve listened to the show, you’ve probably picked up that all four hosts (and many of the guests) are college teachers. Add onto that, that between the four of us, we’ve been in school of one kind or another for like 100 years. That means we’ve seen a lot of shit! Some…