e237. So, We Need to Talk About Kanye…

Three weeks ago, Kanye West decided to premiere a line of White Lives Matter t-shirts at Paris Fashion Week… and somehow with that at the starting point pretty much every day since he has somehow managed to become MORE racist and problematic. And so, in the last few weeks, Kanye has continued a persistent stream…

e236. Is The Rocky Horror Picture Show a Bad Movie?

If you’ve been following the show the last several weeks then you know we’ve started a series where we have been looking at some of our favorite controversial movies and trying to convince you of the value of them as great films. It’s also October, so we wanted to get some Halloween content in for…

e233. Is Under the Cherry Moon a bad movie?

Have you ever had a favorite movie, that you’ve loved since childhood and then all of a sudden as an adult you discover that other people don’t like that movie? In fact, it seems MOST people don’t like that movie. And then you question yourself. Is the movie any good? Have you been deluding yourself…

e211. #PCAACA22: The Presentations

Regular listeners of our show will know that the last couple weeks we have devoted to #PCAACA22, the annual conference for the Pop Culture Association. Two weeks ago, we devoted the show to our planning workshop. Last week, you got to hear us meet with other conference attendees to talk about how it went at…

e207. The Voice of the Crowd is Close to Madness!

“Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.” The Latin quote (a letter from Alcuin of York to Charlemagne the Great) we named our show after roughly translates to “and those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the…

Call for Comments: Unintentional Group Synchrony and the Madness of Crowds

From Wayne: I’ve had several conversations with people about their experience in crowds at various events. For me this was primarily a function of my experience at concerts. I can verily easily just get caught up in the music and the moment, losing a certain amount of a sense of self and ‟becoming one with…

e192. How to Win Christmas & Influence People

Christmas traditions are huge part of popular culture. In fact, they’re such a huge part of popular culture that — despite the so-called war on Christmas — they pretty much infuse the western winter holidays regardless of your religion or beliefs. It’s the “holiday” season. But, no matter how secular we try to make things,…

e186. Wayne, Hannah, Mav & Jehnie’s Infinite Mixtape

Have you ever made a mixtape? We’re sort of willing to guess that if you’re listening to our show, at some point or another you have. But… did you actually do it on “a tape” or was it a mix CD? Was it a playlist in the cloud? Does this matter? Are all of these…

CFC: A Funny Thing Happened When I Talked About Mixtapes

https://twitter.com/chrismaverick/status/1447466435828228097?s=21 From Mav: So funny story. Last week, I was having trouble sleeping, and I was listening to a podcast and someone said “we should make a playlist for this episode” and because neurons are weird and it was 3am, the mention of the word “playlist” made me think of “mixtapes” and I had a…

e160. Remembering Thought & Thinking About Memory

Do you remember the song that was playing when you had your first kiss, lost your virginity, or danced at your wedding? Do you know what movie that you crowded around the TV to watch as a family every holiday as a kid? Do you have fond memories of the vacation you took in the…