New Books Network
Popular Culture
Food May 7, 2021

Why We Cook

Women on Food, Identity, and Connection

Lindsay Gardner

Hosted by Daniela Gutierrez
Why We Cook: Women on Food, Identity, and Connection (Workman, 2021) includes essays, recipes, interviews and profiles of more than 100 women in the world of food; from restaurateurs and …

Subscribe to

Popular Culture

on the NBN

RSS Spotify Stitcher Apple Premium Ad-Free Email Alerts
American West May 7, 2021

Writing Kit Carson

Fallen Heroes in a Changing West

Susan Lee Johnson

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
The only constant in Western history is change. Susan Lee Johnson, Harry Reid Endowed Chair in the History of the Intermountain West at UNLV, knows this better than most. Author of …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight May 6, 2021

Men to Avoid in Art and Life

Nicole Tersigni

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Nicole Tersigni about her book Men to Avoid in Art and Life" (Chronicle Books, 2020). Nicole Tersigni is a comedic writer experienced in improve comedy and women’s …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast May 3, 2021

Love Lives

From Cinderella to Frozen

Carol Dyhouse

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Cinderella stories captured the imagination of girls in the 1950s, when dreams of meeting the right man could seem like a happy ending, a solution to life's problems. But over …
Sex, Sexuality, and Sex Work April 29, 2021

The Black Queer Work of Ratchet

Race, Gender, Sexuality, and the (Anti)Politics of Respectability

Nikki Lane

Hosted by Rachel Stuart
Nikki Lane's The Black Queer Work of Ratchet: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and the (Anti)Politics of Respectability (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019) enters as a corrective to the tendency to trivialize and (mis)appropriate …
Communications April 28, 2021

Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy

A Psychoanalytic Exploration

Jack Black

Hosted by Lee Pierce
Jack Black, Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy (Routledge 2021). In what ways is comedy subversive? This vital new book critically considers the importance of comedy in challenging and redefining …
Critical Theory April 27, 2021

The Generic Closet

Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom

Alfred L. Martin, Jr.

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
How do race and sexuality intersect in the American sitcom? In The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom (Indiana University Press, 2021),  Alfred L Martin, an assistant professor …
Sociology April 23, 2021

The Pornification of America

How Raunch Culture Is Ruining Our Society

Bernadette Barton

Hosted by Michael Johnston
Bernadette Barton, Ph.D. exposes the double standard we attach to women’s sexuality in The Pornification of America: How Raunch Culture is Ruining Our Society (NYU Press, 2021) Pictures of half-naked …
Economics April 21, 2021

Digital Renaissance

What Data and Economics Tell Us about the Future of Popular Culture

Joel Waldfogel

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Digitization is reshaping creative industries. Old gatekeepers in music, publishing, television, movies, and other industries no longer play such an important role, and digital piracy makes it easy for consumers …
Popular Culture April 20, 2021

Vinyl Ventures

My Fifty Years at Rounder Records

Bill Nowlin

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Vinyl Ventures: My Fifty Years at Rounder Records (Equinox, 2021), founder Bill Nowlin combines memoir with a history of the founding and evolution of Rounder as he talks about his …
Music April 19, 2021

Chronicling Stankonia

The Rise of the Hip-Hop South

Regina N. Bradley

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South (University of North Carolina Press, 2021) pulses with the beats of a new American South, probing the ways music, literature, and film have remixed …
Sex, Sexuality, and Sex Work April 16, 2021

Reinventing Licentiousness

Pornography and Modern China

Y. Yvon Wang

Hosted by Rachel Stuart
Y. Yvon Wang draws on previously untapped archives--ranging from police archives and surveys to ephemeral texts and pictures--to argue that pornography in China represents a unique configuration of power and …
Critical Theory April 16, 2021

Redlining Culture

A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction

Richard Jean So

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
What is the story of race in American fiction? In Redlining Culture: A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction (Columbia University Press, 2020), Richard Jean So, an assistant professor of …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast April 15, 2021

The Hidden History of Coined Words

Ralph Keyes

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Successful word-coinages--those that stay in currency for a good long time--tend to conceal their beginnings. We take them at face value and rarely when and where they were first minted …
Sex, Sexuality, and Sex Work April 13, 2021

Provocauteurs and Provocations

Screening Sex in 21st Century Media

Maria San Filippo

Hosted by Rachel Stuart
Twenty-first century media has increasingly turned to provocative sexual content to generate buzz and stand out within a glut of programming. New distribution technologies enable and amplify these provocations, and …
Popular Culture April 9, 2021

My Private Lennon

Explorations from a Fan Who Never Screamed

Sibbie O'Sullivan

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In My Private Lennon: Explorations From a Fan Who Never Screamed (Mad Creek Press, 2020), Sibbie O'Sullivan offers a new point of view from which to consider the Beatles’ impact on society and on …
Literary Studies April 8, 2021

Laughing to Keep from Dying

African American Satire in the Twenty-First Century

Danielle Fuentes Morgan

Hosted by Reighan Gillam
The election of Barack Obama propelled the idea of a post-racial United States, or that the country had moved beyond race as a defining feature of social difference and beyond …
Food April 8, 2021

Consumption and the Literary Cookbook

Roxanne Harde and Janet Wesselius

Hosted by Carrie Helms Tippen
Consumption and the Literary Cookbook, edited by Roxanne Harde and Janet Wesselius (published 2021 by Routledge) examines the ways in which recipe authors and readers engage with one another through …
Popular Culture April 5, 2021

Millennials Killed the Video Star

MTV's Transition to Reality Programming

Amanda Ann Klein

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
In Millennials Killed the Video Star: MTV’s Transition to Reality Programming (Duke University Press, 2021), Dr. Amanda Ann Klein examines the historical, cultural, and industrial factors leading to MTV's shift away from music videos …
Popular Culture April 2, 2021

Warhol's Mother's Pantry

Art, America, and the Mom in Pop

M. I. Devine

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Warhol's Mother's Pantry: Art America and the Mom in Pop (Mad Creek Press, 2020), M.I. Devine introduces readers to a collection of 21st-century multi-genre essays inspired by Andy Warhol's mother …