Popular Culture

Popular Culture

episodes

Interviews with scholars of popular culture about their new books.

Patrick Humphries, "Cleopatra and the Undoing of Hollywood: How One Film Almost Sunk the Studios" (History Press, 2023)

May 4, 2024

Cleopatra and the Undoing of Hollywood

Patrick Humphries
Hosted by Latoya Johnson

The astonishing behind-the-scenes story of the 1963 film Cleopatra and how it changed the face of Hollywood makes it one of the most fabled films of …

Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola, "The Rule Book: The Building Blocks of Games" (MIT Press, 2024)

May 4, 2024

The Rule Book

Jaakko Stenros and Markus Montola

How games are built on the foundations of rules, and how rules—of which there are only five kinds—really work. Board games to sports, digital games t…

Michael Gilson, "Behind the Privet Hedge: Richard Sudell, the Suburban Garden and the Beautification of Britain" (Reaktion Books, 2024)

May 3, 2024

Behind the Privet Hedge

Michael Gilson
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Britain is a nation of gardeners; the suburban garden, with its roses and privet hedges, is widely admired and copied across the world. But it is litt…

Robert Farley on how "Andor" recreates "The Battle of Algiers" (and it works)

May 3, 2024

Robert Farley on how "Andor" recreates "The Battle of Algiers" (and it works)

Robert Farley
Hosted by UConn PopCast

It’s the UConn Popcast, and today we are joined by Professor Robert Farley, author of “Andor: Star Wars Recreates the Battle of Algiers (And it Works)…

Hanne Elliot Fønss Nielsen, "Brand Antarctica: How Global Consumer Culture Shapes Our Perceptions of the Ice Continent" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)

May 1, 2024

Brand Antarctica

Hanne Elliot Fønss Nielsen
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Antarctica is, and has always been, very much “for sale.” Whales, seals, and ice have all been marketed as valuable commodities, but so have the stori…

Adrian Tinniswood, "Noble Ambitions: The Fall and Rise of the Post-War Country House" (Basic Books, 2021)

April 28, 2024

Noble Ambitions

Adrian Tinniswood
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

As the sun set slowly on the British Empire in the years after the Second World War, the nation's stately homes were in crisis. Tottering under the we…

Dana Gorzelany-Mostak, "Tracks on the Trail: Popular Music, Race, and the US Presidency" (U Michigan Press, 2023)

April 26, 2024

Tracks on the Trail

Dana Gorzelany-Mostak
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

From Bill Clinton playing his saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show to Barack Obama referencing Jay-Z's song "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," politicians have u…

Pamela Robertson Wojcik, "Unhomed: Cycles of Mobility and Placelessness in American Cinema" (U California Press, 2024)

April 24, 2024

Unhomed

Pamela Robertson Wojcik
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In Unhomed: Cycles of Mobility and Placelessness in American Cinema (University of California Press, 2024), Dr. Pamela Roberston Wojcik examines Ameri…

Jane Hamlett and Julie-Marie Strange, "Pet Revolution: Animals and the Making of Modern British Life" (Reaktion Books, 2023)

April 23, 2024

Pet Revolution

Jane Hamlett and Julie-Marie Strange

Pet Revolution: Animals and the Making of Modern British Life (Reaktion Books, 2023) tracks the British love affair with pets over the last two centur…

Gary S. Cross, "Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal" (NYU Press, 2024)

April 23, 2024

Free Time

Gary S. Cross
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Free time, one of life’s most precious things, often feels unfulfilling. But why? And how did leisure activities transition from strolling in the park…

Diana Leon-Boys, "Elena, Princesa of the Periphery: Disney’s Flexible Latina Girl" (Rutgers UP, 2023)

April 19, 2024

Elena, Princesa of the Periphery

Diana Leon-Boys
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the summer of 2016, Disney introduced its first Latina princess, Elena of Avalor. Elena, Princess of the Periphery: Disney’s Flexible Latina Girl (…

Eve Golden, "Strictly Dynamite: The Sensational Life of Lupe Velez" (UP of Kentucky, 2023)

April 17, 2024

Strictly Dynamite

Eve Golden

Before Salma Hayek, Eva Longoria, and Penelope Cruz, there was Lupe Velez―one of the first Latin-American stars to sweep past the xenophobia of old Ho…

Paul Williams, "The US Graphic Novel" (Edinburgh UP, 2022)

April 12, 2024

The US Graphic Novel

Paul Williams
Hosted by Elizabeth Woock

This book analyses the way that changes in the comics industry, book trade and webcomics distribution have shaped the publication of long-form comics.…

Maaheen Ahmed, "Openness of Comics: Generating Meaning within Flexible Structures" (UP of Mississippi, 2016)

April 10, 2024

Openness of Comics

Maaheen Ahmed
Hosted by Elizabeth Woock

Never before have comics seemed so popular or diversified, proliferating across a broad spectrum of genres, experimenting with a variety of techniques…

Shiamin Kwa, "Perfect Copies: Reproduction and the Contemporary Comic" (Rutgers UP, 2023)

April 9, 2024

Perfect Copies

Shiamin Kwa
Hosted by Elizabeth Woock

Analyzing the way that recent works of graphic narrative use the comics form to engage with the “problem” of reproduction, Shiamin Kwa’s Perfect Copie…

Benoît Crucifix, "Drawing from the Archives: Comics Memory in the Contemporary Graphic Novel" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

April 8, 2024

Drawing from the Archives

Benoît Crucifix
Hosted by Elizabeth Woock

Following Art Spiegelman's declaration that 'the future of comics is in the past, Drawing from the Archives: Comics Memory in the Contemporary Graphic…

Adele Oliver, "Deeping It: Colonialism, Culture & Criminalisation of UK Drill" (404 Ink, 2023)

April 7, 2024

Deeping It

Adele Oliver
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Deeping It: Colonialism, Culture & Criminalisation of UK Drill (404 Ink, 2023) by Adèle Oliver shines a critical light on UK drill and its fraught rel…

Joseph M. Thompson, "Cold War Country: How Nashville's Music Row and the Pentagon Created the Sound of American Patriotism" (UNC Press, 2024)

April 6, 2024

Cold War Country

Joseph M. Thompson
Hosted by Katie Coldiron

Country music maintains a special, decades-long relationship to American military life, but these ties didn't just happen. This readable history revea…

Sandra Fox, "The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America" (Stanford UP, 2023)

April 6, 2024

The Jews of Summer

Sandra Fox
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the decades directly following the Holocaust, American Jewish leaders anxiously debated how to preserve and produce what they considered authentic …

Daniel de Visé, "The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic" (Grove Atlantic, 2024)

April 5, 2024

The Blues Brothers

Daniel de Visé
Hosted by Daniel Moran

The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic (Grove Atlantic, 2024) tells the story of the e…