Popular Culture

Popular Culture

episodes

Interviews with scholars of popular culture about their new books.

John O’Connor, "The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster" (Sourcebooks, 2024)

March 16, 2024

The Secret History of Bigfoot

John O’Connor
Hosted by Daniel Moran

Bigfoot is an instantly recognizable figure. Through the decades, this elusive primate has been featured in movies and books, on coffee mugs, beer koo…

Peter D. McDonald, "Run and Jump: The Meaning of the 2D Platformer" (MIT Press, 2024)

March 15, 2024

Run and Jump

Peter D. McDonald

How abstract design decisions in 2D platform games create rich worlds of meaning for players.Since the 1980s, 2D platform games have captivated their …

Micajah Henley, "The Clash's Sandinista!" (Bloombury, 2024)

March 14, 2024

The Clash's Sandinista!

Micajah Henley
Hosted by Bradley Morgan

Following the success of their instantly iconic double LP, London Calling, The Clash set out to do something "triply outrageous." Named after the Nica…

Piotr Florczyk, "Swimming Pool" (Bloombury, 2024)

March 12, 2024

Swimming Pool

Piotr Florczyk
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

This instalment of the Object Lessons series focuses on the Swimming Pool (Bloomsbury, 2024). The book explores the pool as a place where humans seek…

Eleanor Patterson, "Bootlegging the Airwaves: Alternative Histories of Radio and Television Distribution" (U Illinois Press, 2024)

March 12, 2024

Bootlegging the Airwaves

Eleanor Patterson
Hosted by Pete Kunze

Long before internet archives and the anytime, anywhere convenience of streaming, people collected, traded, and shared radio and television content vi…

Reading Taylor Swift as a Cultural and Political Text

March 11, 2024

Reading Taylor Swift as a Cultural and Political Text

Hosted by UConn PopCast

It’s the UConn Popcast, and Taylor Swift is by some measures the most popular person on the planet. Her periodic reinventions set the mass cultural te…

David Savran, "Tell It to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad" (Oxford UP, 2024)

March 11, 2024

Tell It to the World

David Savran
Hosted by Pete Kunze

Tell It to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad (Oxford UP, 2024) offers a look at how the Broadway musical travels the world, influencing and even …

Samantha Majic, "Lights, Camera, Feminism?: Celebrities and Anti-Trafficking Politics" (U California Press, 2023)

March 10, 2024

Lights, Camera, Feminism?

Samantha Majic
Hosted by Nick Cheesman

Recent years have brought an upsurge in celebrity activism. Not a day goes by without an actor or musician taking to a stage, a podium or the internet…

Dune, Part Two: An Interview with Dr. Kara Kennedy

March 8, 2024

Dune, Part Two

Kara Kennedy
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Part Two of director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films embeds viewers among the Fremen, the Indigenous inhabitants of the planet Arrakis. The sole source …

Amy Coddington, "How Hip Hop Became Hit Pop: Radio, Rap, and Race" (U California Press, 2023)

March 6, 2024

How Hip Hop Became Hit Pop

Amy Coddington
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

How Hip Hop Became Hit Pop: Radio, Rap, and Race (U California Press, 2023) examines the programming practices at commercial radio stations in the 198…

Justin Owen Rawlins, "Imagining the Method: Reception, Identity, and American Screen Performance" (U Texas Press, 2024)

March 3, 2024

Imagining the Method

Justin Owen Rawlins
Hosted by Pete Kunze

Only one performance style has dominated the lexicon of the casual moviegoer: “Method acting.” The first reception-based analysis of film acting, Imag…

Jinying Li, "Anime's Knowledge Cultures: Geek, Otaku, Zhai" (U Minnesota Press, 2024)

March 3, 2024

Anime's Knowledge Cultures

Jinying Li
Hosted by Anthony Kao

With comics franchises getting turned into multi-billion dollar revenue opportunities and consumer technology companies dominating daily headlines — t…

Jesse David Fox, "Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture–and the Magic That Makes It Work" (FSG, 2023)

March 2, 2024

Comedy Book

Jesse David Fox
Hosted by Pete Kunze

In Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture–and the Magic That Makes It Work (FSG, 2023), Jesse David Fox—the country’s most definitive voice in come…

Tyler C. Gore, "My Life of Crime: Essays and Other Entertainments" (Sagging Meniscus Press, 2022)

February 28, 2024

My Life of Crime

Tyler C. Gore
Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

In his debut essay collection, My Life of Crime (Sagging Meniscus Press, 2022), Tyler C. Gore brings readers on an awkward visit to a nude beach. A bi…

Eve Benhamou, "Contemporary Disney Animation: Genre, Gender and Hollywood" (Edinburgh UP, 2022)

February 27, 2024

Contemporary Disney Animation

Eve Benhamou
Hosted by Pete Kunze

Eve Benhamou's book Contemporary Disney Animation: Genre, Gender and Hollywood (Edinburgh UP, 2022) is the first in-depth study of Disney’s latest ani…

Alessandro Gerosa, "The Hipster Economy: Taste and Authenticity in Late Modern Capitalism (UCL Press, 2024)

February 27, 2024

The Hipster Economy

Alessandro Gerosa
Hosted by Jeff Adler

Today, being authentic has become an aspiration and an imperative. The notion of authenticity shapes the consumption habits of individuals in the most…

Kunal Purohit, "H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars" (HarperCollins, 2023)

February 20, 2024

H-Pop

Kunal Purohit
Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu

Can a song trigger a murder? Can a poem spark a riot? Can a book divide a people? Away from the gaze of mainstream urban media, across India's dusty, …

John Howland, "Hearing Luxe Pop: Glorification, Glamour, and the Middlebrow in American Popular Music" (U California Press, 2021)

February 18, 2024

Hearing Luxe Pop

John Howland
Hosted by Nathan Smith

Hearing Luxe Pop: Glorification, Glamour, and the Middlebrow in American Popular Music (U California Press, 2021) explores a deluxe-production aesthet…

Kartik Nair, "Seeing Things: Spectral Materialities of Bombay Horror" (U California Press, 2024)

February 14, 2024

Seeing Things

Kartik Nair
Hosted by Priyam Sinha

1980s Bombay was a time when a wave of low-budget, gory horror films made by independent film producers such as the Ramsay Brothers swept the B-movie …

Joshua Paul Dale, "Irresistible: How Cuteness Wired our Brains and Conquered the World" (Profile Books, 2023)

February 10, 2024

Irresistible

Joshua Paul Dale
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Why are some things cute, and others not? What happens to our brains when we see something cute? And how did cuteness go global, from Hello Kitty to D…