e213. Everything Everywhere in the Multiverse of VoxPopcast

If you follow the American movie landscape then you probably know that this weekend the box office has been set on fire by Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. You might also we aware that the last few weeks, we another multiverse movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once, has been making huge waves as…

e212. Pour Some Gritty On It!

There’s no shortage of movies, TV shows, comics and other media that are “gritty reboots” of older series or property. Sometimes these are official reboots, like the reimagining of Battlestar Galactica or like Riverdale, the greatest show on television. Other times, these are conceptual reimaginings, sharing a thematic inspiration but being given the gritty treatment.…

e210. #PCAACA22: The Afterparty

For the last several weeks the hosts of VoxPopcast have been preparing for a conference. Well, that was this week! Last week you heard our conference workshop where we tried to help each other with our ideas. Next week., we’re going to bring you the papers themselves so you can see what we did. But…

e209. PCA2022 Conference Paper Workshop & Preview

This week we’re going to try something a little different on the show. We’ve been mentioning in the past few weeks that we several of the hosts and our most frequent guests are all gearing ups for our big annual pop culture academia conference, PCA. In the past, we’ve had shows where we presented our…

e208. What Time Is It? It’s Bridgerton Time! (Again)

Last year, we (like many people) were so overcome with the Netflix show Bridgerton that we recorded not one but two episodes about it. We weren’t the only ones. It was a runaway sensation. Well, it’s been a year and Bridgerton time has returned with slightly more fixed fanfare. Even this week’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver has…

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…

e206. Return of the Oscars Preview – 2022

If you’re a movie fan then you might know that the Oscars are coming up next weekend. In fact, you probably even know if you’re not a movie fan. The Oscars are weird. Every year they’re a big deal for Hollywood… except really, does anyone care? The Oscars have been bleeding viewers lately, with last…

e204. Viral Grammar: Rhetoric, Semiotics, and Emoji

It’s the episode you’ve been waiting for! The one where we talk about The Emoji Movie! 😝 Ok… maybe not… well, a little, but for good reason. One aspect of popular culture we probably don’t think about very often is communication. Communication is the cornerstone of culture, on the internet or otherwise. In today’s world…

e202. To Kill a Mockingbird… and a Maus — Censorship & Book Banning

Every once in a while the world of weekly pop culture and the world of literary academia collide so totally that the world notices even outside of our show. Last week was one of those weeks. A school board in Tennessee voted to remove Maus, the critically acclaimed, Pulitzer Prize winning Holocaust memoir graphic novel,…

e201. The Romance Show: (Hannah wouldn’t let us call) Love In The Time Of COVID

Despite the fact that it is perennially one of the best selling genres in literature, Romance is often looked down upon. Part of this is simple misogyny; as a culture we look down upon things that are seen as “for women.” However, not only are romance novels dominant best sellers, romance as a concept essentially…