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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 …

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Interviews with scholars of popular culture about their new 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 15, 2022

Hell of a Hat

The Rise of '90s Ska and Swing

Kenneth Partridge

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In the late ’90s, third-wave ska broke across the American alternative music scene like a tsunami. In sweaty clubs across the nation, kids danced themselves dehydrated to the peppy rhythms …
General History April 12, 2022

Bandits, Misfits, and Superheroes

Whiteness and Its Borderlands in American Comics and Graphic Novels

Josef Benson and Doug Singsen

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
American comics from the start have reflected the white supremacist culture out of which they arose. Superheroes and comic books in general are products of whiteness, and both signal and …
African American Studies April 12, 2022

Played Out

The Race Man in 21st Century Satire

Brandon J. Manning

Hosted by Brittney Edmonds
In this episode, Dr. Brandon J. Manning talks about his most recent book, Played Out: The Race Man in 21st Century Satire (Rutgers UP, 2022). Here's a short description: through contemporary …
Recall This Book April 7, 2022

Fantasy Then, Now, and Forever with Anna Vaninskaya

A Conversation with Anna Vaninskaya

Anna Vaninskaya

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Elizabeth and John talk about fantasy's power of world-making with Edinburgh professor Anna Vaninskaya, author of William Morris and the Idea of Community: Romance, History and Propaganda, 1880-1914 (2010) and …
Film April 6, 2022

Citizen Spielberg

Lester D. Friedman

Hosted by Nathan Abrams
Steven Spielberg's extraordinary career redefined Hollywood, but his achievement goes far beyond shattered box office records. Rejecting the view of Spielberg as a Barnumesque purveyor of spectacle, Lester D. Friedman …
Performing Arts April 6, 2022

A Revolution in Three Acts

The Radical Vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge

David Hajdu and John Carey

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Too often, vaudeville is seen from the perspective of its decline: it is the corny, messy art form that predated the book musical, or that gave us Chaplin, Keaton, and …