Popular Culture

Popular Culture

episodes

Interviews with scholars of popular culture about their new books.

Geraldine Fela, "Critical Care: Nurses on the Frontline of Australia's AIDS Crisis" (UNSW Press, 2024)

June 3, 2026

Critical Care

Geraldine Fela
Hosted by Hannah Forsyth

The claim that real change is enabled by grassroots, community-based movements might seem a distant ideal, but Dr Geraldine Fela shows such assertions…

Rivka Weinberg, "The Meaning of It All: Ultimate Meaning, Everyday Meaning, Cosmic Meaning, Death, and Time" (Oxford UP, 2026)

June 3, 2026

The Meaning of It All

Rivka Weinberg
Hosted by Blain Neufeld

You can stock your life with important work, relationships, activities, and art, and yet, you can still ask: what's the point of it all? Almost every …

For All Mankind Concludes Its Search For New Life

June 2, 2026

For All Mankind Concludes Its Search For New Life

It’s the Pop Culture Professors, and we conclude our analysis of season 5 of For All Mankind with a discussion of the finale, “This Land Is Our Land…

Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, "Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word and Me" (37 Ink, 2026)

June 2, 2026

Something We Said

Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor
Hosted by Sullivan Summer

The N-word is one of the most perplexing, controversial and misunderstood words in the American lexicon. It’s a word that Elizabeth Pryor has not only…

Helen Veit, "Picky: How American Children Became the Fussiest Eaters in History" (St Martin's Press, 2026)

June 1, 2026

Picky

Helen Zoe Veit
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Are children naturally picky? It sure seems that way. Yet, amazingly, pickiness used to be almost nonexistent. Well into the 20th century, Americans s…

Chloe Chapin, "Suitable: The Sartorial Revolution and the Fashioning of Modern Men" (Oxford UP, 2026)

May 31, 2026

Suitable

Chloe Chapin
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

How did black suits become so ubiquitous? Why has men's business clothing been so plain for the last 250 years? How did a style adopted by the Foundin…

Robin R. Means Coleman and Novotny Lawrence eds., "The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 29, 2026

The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film

Robin R. Means Coleman and Novotny Lawrence eds.
Hosted by Pete Kunze

Since the release of Jordan Peele's Academy Award-winning horror hit Get Out (2017), interest in Black horror films has erupted. This renewed intrigue…

Shefalee Vasudev, "Stories We Wear: Status, Spectacle and the Politics of Appearance" (Westland Non-Fiction, 2025)

May 28, 2026

Stories We Wear

Shefalee Vasudev
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is known for his outfits. Since rising to become India’s head of government in 2014, photographers and journali…

David Faflik, "Segregation Games: Boston, Busing, and the Making of Red Sox Nation" (U Massachusetts Press, 2026)

May 27, 2026

Segregation Games

A cultural history of race, resistance, and representation in a city divided by politics and play When outfielder Bernie Carbo joined the Red Sox i…

Mapping a New Politics in For All Mankind

May 26, 2026

Mapping a New Politics in For All Mankind

It’s the Pop Culture Professors, and we continue our analysis of season 5 of For All Mankind. In this show, we discuss episode 6 “No Sudden Moves”; Ep…

What AI Means for Fiction: A Discussion with Literary Critic Mark McGurl

May 26, 2026

What AI Means for Fiction

Mark McGurl
Hosted by Paul Starobin

How is the tool of Artificial Intelligence shaping the writing of fiction? Is AI emerging as more than just a potentially handy aid to an author—and, …

Nicole Seymour, "Glitter" (Bloombury, 2022)

May 25, 2026

Glitter

Nicole Seymour
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Glitter (Bloomsbury, 2022) by Dr. Nicole Seymour reveals the complexity of an object often dismissed as frivolous. Dr. Seymour describes how glitter's…

Oscar Winberg, "Archie Bunker for President: How One Television Show Remade American Politics" (UNC Press, 2025)

May 25, 2026

Archie Bunker for President

Oscar Winberg
Hosted by Lilly Goren

Political historian Oscar Winberg has a fascinating new book titled Archie Bunker for President: How One Television Show Remade American Politics. Thi…

Tony Lee Moral, "A Century of Hitchcock: The Man, the Myths, the Legacy" (UP of Kentucky, 2026)

May 22, 2026

A Century of Hitchcock

Tony Lee Moral

For over a century, Alfred Hitchcock has remained one of cinema's most influential directors. Known as the Master of Suspense, this visionary filmmake…

Richard Elwes, "Huge Numbers: A Story of Counting Ambitiously, from 4 1/2 to Fish 7" (Basic Books, 2026)

May 22, 2026

Huge Numbers

Richard Elwes
Hosted by Gregory McNiff

What if, every time you wanted to write down 1,000,000, you had to draw a picture of a god? And what if that number were the biggest you had a symbol …

Angharad N. Valdivia and Isabel Molina-Guzmán, "Rebooting Inequality: Critical Takes on Film and Television Remakes" (NYU Press, 2026)

May 20, 2026

Rebooting Inequality

Angharad N. Valdivia and Isabel Molina-Guzmán
Hosted by Pete Kunze

From Ghostbusters to Will & Grace, One Day at a Time to Jurassic Park, the past decade has seen Hollywood reach a new peak in its obsession with reboo…

Tom Meschery, "The Mad Manchurian: From the Internment Camps of Tokyo to the Hardwood Courts of the NBA" (Coffeetown Press, 2025)

May 19, 2026

The Mad Manchurian

Tom Meschery
Hosted by Paul Knepper

I was born in Harbin, Manchuria, (later China), in 1938. At the outbreak of the Second World War my mother, sister and I, along with other non-combata…

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

May 18, 2026

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

In 1828, a seventeen-year-old boy was found wandering the streets of Nuremberg, holding two letters and unable to say more than a few words. The loca…

Nayantara Srinivasan, "The Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore in Contemporary India" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

May 17, 2026

The Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore in Contemporary India

Nayantara Srinivasan
Hosted by Karishma Koshal

The Brick-and-Mortar Bookstore in Contemporary India (Cambridge UP, 2025) explores the landscape of anglophone trade bookselling in India, aiming to i…

Aycee Brown, "Embody Your Magic: Create the Life of Your Dreams Through Astrology, Numerology, Mediumship, Metaphysics, and Human Design" (HarperOne, 2026)

May 17, 2026

Embody Your Magic

Aycee Brown
Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan

Embody Your Magic: Create the Life of Your Dreams Through Astrology, Numerology, Mediumship, Metaphysics, and Human Design (HarperOne, 2026) from psyc…