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SSEAC Stories May 26, 2022

Boys Love and Japanese Queer Popular Culture across Southeast Asia

A Conversation with Tom Baudinette

Tom Baudinette

Hosted by Natali Pearson
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers across East and Southeast Asia have found themselves turning to Thai soap operas known as “Boys Love series” as a source of …

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Interviews with scholars of popular culture about their new books.

Political Science May 26, 2022

Caricature and National Character

The United States at War

Christopher J. Gilbert

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Dr. Christopher Gilbert, Assistant Professor of English at Assumption College, has a new book that examines the understanding of American national character and culture through the works of caricature and …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight May 26, 2022

Music, Lyrics, and Life

A Field Guide for the Advancing Songwriter

Mike Errico

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Mike Errico about his new book Music, Lyrics, and Life: A Field Guide for the Advancing Songwriter (Backbeat Books, 2022). Brain teasers invite you; brain embarrassers are …
Japanese Studies May 25, 2022

The Afterlife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Historical Fiction and Popular Culture in Japan

Susan Westhafer Furukawa

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Popular representations of the past are everywhere in Japan, from cell phone charms to manga, from television dramas to video games to young people dressed as their favorite historical figures …
Art May 18, 2022

The Memeing of Mark Fisher

How the Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism and What to Do about It

Mike Watson

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Through his blog K-Punk, Mark Fisher become one of the cult figures of cultural theory after the economic crash of 2008. One of Fisher’s insights, widely taken up by the …
General History May 17, 2022

Globalizing Automobilism

Exuberance and the Emergence of Layered Mobility, 1900–1980

Gijs Mom

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Why has "car society" proven so durable, even in the face of mounting environmental and economic crises? In Globalizing Automobilism: Exuberance and the Emergence of Layered Mobility, 1900–1980 (Berghahn Books …
Animal Studies May 13, 2022

Elephant Trails

A History of Animals and Cultures

Nigel Rothfels

Hosted by Marcela Hernandez
When looking at historic records of all kinds—from prehistoric cave drawings and ancient rock art in Africa and India, from poetic narrations of travelers to hunter memoirs and press stories …
African American Studies May 13, 2022

Black Dragon

Afro Asian Performance and the Martial Arts Imagination

Zachary F. Price

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
In Black Dragon: Afro Asian Performance and the Martial Arts Imagination (Ohio State UP, 2022), Zachary F. Price illuminates martial arts as a site of knowledge exchange between Black, Asian …
Sports May 5, 2022

Rethinking Fandom

How to Beat the Sports-Industrial Complex at Its Own Game

Craig Calcaterra

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Sports fandom isn't what it used to be. Owners and executives increasingly count on the blind loyalty of their fans and too often act against the team's best interest. Intentionally …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones May 3, 2022

The Future of Statues

A Conversation with Alex Von Tunzelmann

Alex Von Tunzelmann

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
What are the rights and wrongs of toppling statues? Sometimes everyone agrees it’s a good idea. After the second world war, for example, the defeat of fascism meant that all …
Popular Culture April 28, 2022

I'm Not Holding Your Coat

My Bruises-And-All Memoir of Punk Rock Rebellion

Nancy Barile

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Nancy Barile shares her love of hardcore punk in her new memoir, I'm Not Holding Your Coat: My Bruises and All Memoir of Punk Rock Rebellion (Bazillion Points, 2022). From disaffected Catholic schoolgirl …
Sports April 27, 2022

Hoops

A Cultural History of Basketball in America

Thomas Aiello

Hosted by Paul Knepper
From its early days as a sport to build “muscular Christianity” among young men flooding nineteenth-century cities to its position today as a global symbol of American culture, basketball has …
Biblical Studies April 27, 2022

Nightmares with the Bible

The Good Book and Cinematic Demons

Steve A. Wiggins

Hosted by David Kunsman
Demons! Nightmares with the Bible: The Good Book and Cinematic Demons (2021) published by Fortress Academic views demons through two lenses: that of western religion and that of cinema. Sketching out …
Celebration Studies April 26, 2022

Mardi Gras Beads

Doug MacCash

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
The first in a new LSU Press series exploring facets of Louisiana’s iconic culture, Mardi Gras Beads (2022) delves into the history of this celebrated New Orleans artifact, explaining how Mardi …
General History April 22, 2022

A Righteous Smokescreen

Postwar America and the Politics of Cultural Globalization

Sam Lebovic

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Dr. Sam Lebovic’s A Righteous Smokescreen: Postwar America and the Politics of Cultural Globalization (University of Chicago Press, 2022) is an examination of how the postwar United States twisted its …
High Theory April 21, 2022

JVN

A Discussion with Angelina Eimannsberger

Angelina Eimannsberger

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Angelina Eimannsberger talks to Saronik about cultural phenomenon Jonathan Van Ness, and movements in queer femininity that they represent. They touch briefly on Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, Jean …
British Studies April 19, 2022

The Culture of Male Beauty in Britain

From the First Photographs to David Beckham

Paul R. Deslandes

Hosted by Manamee Guha
Spanning the decades from the rise of photography to the age of the selfie, The Culture of Male Beauty in Britain: From the First Photographs to David Beckham (University of Chicago Press …
Popular Culture April 19, 2022

Taking a Stand

Contemporary US Stand-Up Comedians As Public Intellectuals

Jared N. Champion and Peter C. Kunze

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Stand-up comedians have a long history of walking a careful line between serious and playful engagement with social issues: Lenny Bruce questioned the symbolic valence of racial slurs, Dick Gregory …
On Religion April 18, 2022

The Buddha at the Bellagio

(Teaching) Religion in Sin City

Corey Landon Wozniak

Hosted by Gregory Soden
Today I talked to Corey Landon Wozniak about his Revealer article (2022) "The Buddha at the Bellagio: (Teaching) Religion in Sin City." As Wozniak points out, Las Vegas (for all that …
Popular Culture April 18, 2022

A Concise Dictionary of Comics

Nancy Pedri

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Written in straightforward, jargon-free language, Nancy Pedri's A Concise Dictionary of Comics (University Press of Mississippi, 2022) guides students, researchers, readers, and educators of all ages and at all levels of comics …