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…

e356. Incidental Genre: Unpacking the Unexpected

A few weeks ago back on our Things you Missed episode, Mav recommended the movie My Old Ass with Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza. Since that time both Wayne and Mav’s wife Stephanie have watched it. In talking to them Mav noted a curious thing about the film. It’s technically a science fiction movie, sort…

e354. Diamonds Aren’t Forever: The Rise and Fall of Comics Distribution

It’s a dark day here at VoxPopcast and … well, for some of us, all across America. If you’re listening to this episode on the day that it drops then it is inauguration day for the United States presidency. And this means, after four years Donald Trump is going to return to power. If you…

e345. Superpowers, Sex, and Science with Diana McCallum

For a show that was originally created in a comic book shop, we do surprisingly few episodes about comic books. Today is an opportunity to fix that. A few weeks ago, Mav was contacted by a publishing agent and asked if we could interview the author of a book that was all about comic book…

e340. Reimagining Dracula: a Conversation with Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones

It’s October and we’re well into spooky season and like every year we like to spend that time diving into some of the more horror based pop culture we can find. A few years ago, we did an episode all about the varying film adaptations of Dracula and noted that Dracula himself was perhaps one…

e338. Fandom and Identity: The Evolution of Beloved Characters

What does it mean to be a fan of a character? There have been millions of different interpretations of Batman and the character of Wolverine as he appears in Marvel comics films bears surprisingly little in common with his original comic book impetus. In this episode, Mav and Wayne Wise are joined by guests recent…

e336. So, Why Pop Culture?

In all the years we’ve been doing this show we’ve worked under a very basic assumption: Everyone involved as a host, guest, or listener presumes that the pseudo academic discussion of popular culture (with drinking and swearing) is an important activity. We certainly feel that way, and chances are if you’re a regular listener you…

e332. The 4th Wall Bounce: The Reflexivity of Media and Culture

So here’s a weird question for you… in a TV show like Batman, do the regular people know the phrase “dynamic duo?” In the movie Amazing Spider-Man Peter Parker uses the theme song from the 1960s Spider-man cartoon as his ringtone… but what song does he think that is? If two TV shows cross over,…