e324. Unpacking Bridgerton Season 3: Penelope, Queerness, and Fandom Reactions

It’s that time again… we’ve had another year of Bridgerton and of course we had to analyze it. Think about it, it’s a show about British regency society. In some ways this might be the most cultured and sophisticated thing we ever do. Also, there’s a lot of sex. On this week’s episode of VoxPopcast,…

e323. The Complex Legacy of Barbie: Gender, Fashion & Identity

So how about that Barbie? No, not THAT Barbie… we did a show on the movie last year. No, what we want to talk about is enduring legacy of the concept of Barbie. Starting with the doll and going through to the movie, Barbie is just… always there. Or at least she has been for…

e286. The Legend of Harley Quinn

On last week’s episode, we delved into the world of classic literary character Hercule Poirot and his cultural significance across multiple iterations. This week, we go in the exact opposite direction. Recorded at the exact same time as last week’s show, Wayne and Mav are joined by returning guest Andrew Deman and first time guest,…

e283. Is Josie and the Pussycats a Bad Movie?

A few weeks ago when we did our episode saying goodbye to Riverdale, Monica made Mav promise that we could do an episode watching and analyzing one of her favorite nostalgic films, Josie and the Pussycats, a 2001 movie drawn from the same IP as Riverdale was. Mav agreed and so here we are. Was…

e279. Is Sucker Punch a Bad Movie?

So the truth is, when we do our “is ____ a bad movie?” episodes, we expect that the listeners are going to be predisposed to say “yes, obviously it sucks. No one cares about that garbage movie” and we are attempting to do kind of a reparative reading of it. That’s what we were expecting…

e277. The VoxPopcast #Barbenheimer Double Feature Double Date

Every once in a great while an unprecedented unpredictable pop culture moment organically happens and takes the world by storm. This was the cast last week when, after an incredibly lack luster summer blockbuster season at the box office, two films Barbie and Oppenheimer dropped on the same day. We’ve known this was coming for…

e263. We Gotta Talk About MILF Manor! We Just Do…

Every once in a while a TV Show comes along that is just so bizarre that we feel like it deserves a deep dive examination just in and of itself. That was the case with MILF Manor! If you’ve not heard of MILF Manor, it is a reality dating show on TLC, The Learning Channel,…

Call For Comments: So have you seen MILF Manor?

From Mav: Every once in a while the universe just smiles upon me and grants down upon me a gift of content that is just… just for me. Like… regular readers know that unironically like Riverdale, Cop Rock, Manimal, The Circle and Showgirls. So if you know that about me… and you are somehow aware…

e261. PCA2023 After Dark!

After two years being held virtually, and a cancelled conference in 2020, the Popular Culture Association returned to in person conferences for PCA2023. There were some good notes (Mav won a major award for his doctoral dissertation) and some bad notes (Mav ended up catching COVID during the trip) but along the way there was…

Call For Comments: on “Old People Still ƒµ¢&!” movies

From Mav: A few weeks ago, Wayne in passing mentioned the last year’s movie Good Luck to You, Leo Grande — a film starring 63yo Emma Thompson having an affair with a 30yo Daryl McCormack. Among other things, the film is trying to present an image of elder woman who still has sexual needs and…