About Lia Paradis and Brian Crim

Lia Paradis is a professor of history at Slippery Rock University. Brian Crim is a professor of history at the University of Lynchburg. For more on Lies Agreed Upon, go here.

NBN Episodes hosted by Lia Paradis and:

Shaken and Stirred

November 2, 2022

Shaken and Stirred

We couldn’t do a season on the Cold War without talking about Bond . . . James Bond. He was there from the beginning and has of course survived into t…

Shall We Play A Game?

October 26, 2022

Shall We Play A Game?

Remember Khrushchev-Nixon Kitchen Debate? America recognized its consumer culture was a Cold War weapon. By the early 80s, the home computer in the ha…

Wolverines!

October 19, 2022

Wolverines!

This episode and the next look back at films that came out in the 1980s, a decade when Hollywood seemed to cater to teenage audiences like never befor…

Bonus Episode: A Conversation about Past Episodes and Current Events

October 12, 2022

"Lies Agreed Upon" Bonus Episode

Lia and Brian revisit the first two seasons of Lies Agreed Upon for new listeners. Their conversation relates some specific episodes to current events…

The Two Russias

October 5, 2022

The Two Russias

In the late 1980s, Hollywood reflected the real world thaw in the Cold War by depicting the idea of two Russias: the cold bureaucratic state run by gr…

Cold War Homefront

September 28, 2022

Cold War Homefront

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. Yo…

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

September 21, 2022

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

Last episode we discussed films about how a nuclear war would start, particularly the insane logic of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). In this epis…

A MAD, MAD, World

September 14, 2022

A MAD, MAD, World

The world lived under the shadow of the acronym MAD for forty years. Mutually Assured Destruction was no laughing matter, but Stanley Kubrick thought …

Who Can You Trust?

September 7, 2022

Who Can You Trust?

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 i…

He May Be a Communist!

August 31, 2022

He May Be a Communist!

We are back for a third season! The Russian invasion of Ukraine reminded us all that “everything old is new again” and that includes Cold War tensions…

Back in the USSR

November 17, 2021

Back in the USSR

Dr. Zhivago (1956) and Reds (1981) humanize and problematize the Bolshevik Revolution during periods when the Cold War was particularly intense. When …

Workers of the World Unite!

November 3, 2021

Workers of the World Unite!

Continuing the theme of social revolution, this episode looks at cinematic depictions of the struggle for basic workers' rights and tolerable conditio…

Votes for Women . . . And More!

October 20, 2021

Votes for Women . . . And More!

Social revolutions may not always be bloody or prompt regime change, but they are vital to a healthy democracy. In this episode we cover popular repre…

"Westerners Do Not Have Answers Anymore"

October 6, 2021

"Westerners Do Not Have Answers Anymore"

In this episode we cover Australian director Peter Weir’s The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) and the unforgettable docudrama The Killing Fields (19…

¡Viva La Revolucion!

September 29, 2021

¡Viva La Revolucion!

On the theme of “covering the revolution”, we first take on two films that drop us in the middle of Latin America at the beginning of a bloody new cha…

Revolution! The Musical

September 15, 2021

Revolution! The Musical

In this third and final episode on the American Revolution, we look at the momentous events through an entirely different genre - the musical. You did…

History from Below

September 8, 2021

History from Below

In episode two we continue to examine the American Revolution, but we look at two series that focus less on the famous Founding Fathers and, instead, …

The Adams Family

September 1, 2021

The Adams Family

This season, we’re going to be looking at the general theme of rebels and rebellions, revolutionaries and revolts, insurrectionists and traitors, free…

SciFi and 9/11 (Part 2)

February 17, 2021

SciFi and 9/11 (Part 2)

In this second of two discussions about SciFi and 9/11, we look at 3 tv series: Battlestar Galactica, Falling Skies and The Leftovers. This is the las…

SciFi and 9/11 (Part 1)

February 10, 2021

SciFi and 9/11 (Part 1)

In our final 2 episodes of Season 1 we’re doing something a little different. Our focus has been on how historical events are portrayed on screen afte…

The Reckoning

January 27, 2021

The Reckoning

Moments after the planes hit, dozens of CIA and FBI officials had their worst fears confirmed. They each knew separate pieces of the story, but enduri…

September 11th, 2001

January 13, 2021

September 11th, 2001

In this episode of Lies Agreed Upon we examine the day everything changed, September 11, 2001. Until now we’ve talked about how the long cultural shad…

When We Were Terrorists

January 6, 2021

When We Were Terrorists

Our Lies Agreed Upon in this episode are: First, that a familiar, timeless story that reinforces who we think we are must be true. Second, that histor…

Fourth Estate Under Siege

December 30, 2020

Fourth Estate Under Siege

In the wake of Watergate, when Nixon flouted the Constitution and denigrated the press, Alan Pakula’s 1976 classic All the President’s Men made journa…