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Global Media & Communication September 29, 2022

Sirens of Modernity

World Cinema via Bombay

Samhita Sunya

Hosted by Aswin Punathambekar and Jing Wang
Hello, world! This is the Global Media & Communication podcast series. In this inaugural episode, our host Aswin Punathambekar speaks with Samhita Sunya, the author of the book Sirens of …

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Interviews with scholars of popular culture about their new books.

Lies Agreed Upon September 28, 2022

Cold War Homefront

On The Deer Hunter (1978), Coming Home (1978), and Da Five Bloods (2020)

Hosted by Lia Paradis and Brian Crim
We could do a whole season on Vietnam war films, but in this episode we chose three films that highlight the Cold War’s omnipresence in daily life. You wouldn’t associate …
Popular Culture September 27, 2022

Listen, World!

How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America's Most-Read Woman

Julia Scheeres and Allison Gilbert

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Together, bestselling author Julia Scheeres and award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert have written Listen, World!: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America's Most-Read Woman (Seal Press, 2022), the first biography of Elsie Robinson …
General History September 23, 2022

Long Days, Short Years

A Cultural History of Modern Parenting

Andrew Bomback

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
When did "parenting" become a verb? Why is it so hard to parent, and so rife with the possibility of failure? Sitcom families of the past--the Cleavers, the Bradys, the …
Japanese Studies September 23, 2022

Yuming's The 14th Moon

Lasse Lehtonen

Hosted by Ran Zwigenberg
Today I will be talking to Lasse Lehtonen about his book The 14th Moon, which came out with Bloomsbury this year (2022). With me today is Dr. Brooke McCorkle, who …
Film September 23, 2022

Horror Films for Children

Fear and Pleasure in American Cinema

Catherine Lester

Hosted by Pete Kunze
Children and horror are often thought to be an incompatible meeting of audience and genre, beset by concerns that children will be corrupted or harmed through exposure to horror media …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight September 22, 2022

Futsal

The Indoor Game That Is Revolutionizing World Soccer

Jamie Fahey

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Jamie Fahey about his book Futsal: The Indoor Game That Is Revolutionizing World Soccer (Melville House, 2021). Some 60 million people player futsal worldwide, as this five-a-side version …
Gender Studies September 21, 2022

The Goddess Myth in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture

A Feminist Critique

Mary J. Magoulick

Hosted by Iqra Shagufta Cheema
Goddess characters are revered as feminist heroes in the popular media of many cultures. However, these goddess characters often prove to be less promising and more regressive than most people …
Lies Agreed Upon September 21, 2022

It’s The End Of The World As We Know It

On On the Beach (1959), The Day After (1983), and Threads (1984)

Hosted by Lia Paradis and Brian Crim
Last episode we discussed films about how a nuclear war would start, particularly the insane logic of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). In this episode we explore how American, British, and …
Music September 20, 2022

Unrequited Infatuations

A Memoir

Stevie Van Zandt

Hosted by Bradley Morgan
What story begins in a bedroom in suburban New Jersey in the early '60s, unfolds on some of the country's largest stages, and then ranges across the globe, demonstrating over …
Music September 19, 2022

My Old Kentucky Home

The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song

Emily Bingham

Hosted by Kristen Turner
Any song as old and as familiar as “My Old Kentucky Home” is bound to have accrued many different meanings and an interesting history. Emily Bingham’s book, My Old Kentucky …
Sports September 19, 2022

From Football to Soccer

The Early History of the Beautiful Game in the United States

Brian D. Bunk

Hosted by Bennett Koerber
Across North America, native peoples and colonists alike played a variety of kicking games long before soccer's emergence in the late 1800s. Brian D. Bunk examines the development and social …
Popular Culture September 16, 2022

Nocturnal Admissions

Behind the Scenes at Tunnel, Limelight, Avalon, and Other Legendary Nightclubs

Steve Adelman

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Nocturnal Admissions: Behind the Scenes at Tunnel, Limelight, Avalon, and Other Legendary Nightclubs (Santa Monica Press, 2022), nightclub director Steve Adelman reflects on his years working in some of the world's most …
African American Studies September 16, 2022

Buy Black

How Black Women Transformed US Pop Culture

Aria S. Halliday

Hosted by Mickell Carter
Buy Black: How Black Women Transformed US Pop Culture (U Illinois Press, 2022) examines the role American Black women play in Black consumption in the US and worldwide, with …
Music September 15, 2022

Earworm and Event

Music, Daydreams, and Other Imaginary Refrains

Eldritch Priest

Hosted by Nathan Smith
In Earworm and Event: Music, Daydreams, and Other Imaginary Refrains (Duke UP, 2022) Eldritch Priest questions the nature of the imagination in contemporary culture through the phenomenon of the earworm …
Lies Agreed Upon September 14, 2022

A MAD, MAD, World

On Dr. Strangelove (1964), and Failsafe (1964)

Hosted by Lia Paradis and Brian Crim
The world lived under the shadow of the acronym MAD for forty years. Mutually Assured Destruction was no laughing matter, but Stanley Kubrick thought dark comedy was the only way …
American South September 13, 2022

Remembering Enslavement

Reassembling the Southern Plantation Museum

Amy Potter et al.

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
Remembering Enslavement: Reassembling the Southern Plantation Museum (U Georgia Press, 2022) explores plantation museums as sites for contesting and reforming public interpretations of slavery in the American South. Emerging out of …
Critical Theory September 13, 2022

True Story

What Reality TV Says About Us

Danielle J. Lindemann

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Why is reality TV important? In True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us (FSG, 2022), Danielle J. Lindemann, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University, uses a sociological …
American Studies September 13, 2022

Rockstar Games and American History

Promotional Materials and the Construction of Authenticity

Esther Wright

Hosted by Rudolf Thomas Inderst
For two decades, Rockstar Games have been making games that interrogate and represent the idea of America, past and present. Commercially successful, fan-beloved, and a frequent source of media attention …
Lies Agreed Upon September 7, 2022

Who Can You Trust?

On The Parallax View (1974), The Three Days of the Condor (1975), and All The President’s Men (1976)

Hosted by Lia Paradis and Brian Crim
Can you imagine living in a society that is ostensibly a democracy but secret forces are working behind the scenes to manipulate events? What if our intelligence agencies run amok …