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About Joel Tscherne

Master in Library Science, Kent State University; Master of Arts in History, Cleveland State University
Joel Tscherne is an Adjunct History Professor at Southern New Hampshire University and an Associate Faculty member at University of Arizona Global Campus. His Twitter handle is @JoelTscherne.

NBN Episodes hosted by Joel:

Film January 20, 2023

After Midnight

Watchmen After Watchmen

Drew Morton

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbons’s Watchmen fundamentally altered the perception of American comic books and remains one of the medium’s greatest hits. Launched in 1986—“the year that changed comics” for …
Film November 23, 2022

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks

Jeanne Theoharis

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Beacon Press, 2015) is the definitive political biography of Rosa Parks and the basis for a 2022 documentary, Theoharis's book examines Park's six decades …
Film November 8, 2022

The Academy and the Award

The Coming of Age of Oscar and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Bruce Davis

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Written by the former executive director of the Academy, this is the first behind-the-scenes history of the organization behind the Academy Awards.  For all the near-fanatic attention brought each year to the …
Film October 25, 2022

The Oxford Handbook of Film Theory

Kyle Stevens

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Despite changes in the media landscape, film remains a vital force in contemporary culture, as do our ideas of what "a movie" or "the cinematic" are. Indeed, we might say …
Film October 21, 2022

Black Panther

Scott Bukatman

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Black Panther was the first Black superhero in mainstream American comics. Black Panther was a cultural phenomenon that broke box office records. Yet it wasn’t just a movie led by …
Film October 18, 2022

Shadow of a Doubt

Diane Negra

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Today I talked to Diane Negra about Shadow of a Doubt (Auteur, 2021). Shadow of a Doubt (1943) was British-born Alfred Hitchcock's fifth American film and the one that he at various times …
Film October 17, 2022

Runaway

Notes on the Myths That Made Me

Erin Keane

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
From Erin Keane, editor in chief at Salon, comes Runaway: Notes in the Myths that Made Me (Belt Publishing, 2022), a touching memoir about the search for truths in the stories families …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery September 22, 2022

Corrections in Ink

A Memoir

Keri Blakinger

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Corrections in Ink (St. Martin's Press, 2022) is an electric and unforgettable memoir about a young woman's journey-from the ice rink, to addiction and a prison sentence, to the newsroom-emerging …
Film August 26, 2022

The Empire of Effects

Industrial Light and Magic and the Rendering of Realism

Julie A. Turnock

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Just about every major film now comes to us with an assist from digital effects. The results are obvious in superhero fantasies, yet dramas like Roma also rely on computer-generated …
Film August 12, 2022

History by HBO

Televising the American Past

Rebecca Weeks

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
The television industry is changing, and with it, the small screen's potential to engage in debate and present valuable representations of American history. Founded in 1972, HBO has been at …
Film July 18, 2022

From Hollywood with Love

The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy

Scott Meslow

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
An in-depth celebration of the romantic comedy's modern golden era and its role in our culture, tracking the genre from its heyday in the '80s and the '90s, its unfortunate …
Film July 8, 2022

Making The Best Years of Our Lives

The Hollywood Classic That Inspired a Nation

Alison Macor

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Released in 1946, The Best Years of Our Lives became an immediate success. Life magazine called it “the first big, good movie of the post-war era” to tackle the “veterans …
Film June 15, 2022

Cimino

The Deer Hunter, Heaven's Gate, and the Price of a Vision

Charles Elton

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Cimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven's Gate, and the Price of a Vision (Abrams Press, 2022) is the first biography of critically acclaimed then critically derided filmmaker Michael Cimino--and a reevaluation …
Film May 30, 2022

The Films of James Woods

Chris Wade

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
James Woods is one of the most versatile and captivating actors in American film history. From his breakthrough performance as Greg Powell in The Onion Field (1979), Woods has grabbed …
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 …
Film January 27, 2022

The 15 Best Films about the Holocaust

Selected by Rich Brownstein

Rich Brownstein

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
In this special follow-up episode in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I again speak with Rich Brownstein, author of Holocaust Cinema Complete: A History and Analysis of 400 Films …
Film January 25, 2022

The First True Hitchcock

The Making of a Filmmaker

Henry K. Miller

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
This untold origin story of the filmmaker explores its transatlantic history. Alfred Hitchcock called The Lodger "the first true Hitchcock movie," one that anticipated all the others. And yet, the …
Film January 21, 2022

Dreams of Flight

'The Great Escape' in American Film and Culture

Dana Polan

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Caught on film, the iconic jump of escaped POW Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) over an imposing barbed wire fence on a stolen motorcycle has become an unforgettable symbol of a …
Film December 31, 2021

Holocaust Cinema Complete

A History and Analysis of 400 Films, with a Teaching Guide

Rich Brownstein

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Holocaust movies have become an important segment of world cinema and the de-facto Holocaust education for many. One quarter of all American-produced Holocaust-related feature films have won or been nominated …
Film December 9, 2021

Hollywood Shutdown

Production, Distribution, and Exhibition in the Time of COVID

Kate Fortmueller

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
By March 2020, the spread of COVID-19 had reached pandemic proportions, forcing widespread shutdowns across industries, including Hollywood. Studios, networks, production companies, and the thousands of workers who make film …
Film November 18, 2021

Below the Stars

How the Labor of Working Actors and Extras Shapes Media Production

Kate Fortmueller

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Despite their considerable presence in Hollywood, extras and working actors have received scant attention within film and media studies as significant contributors to the history of the industry. Looking not …
Film October 19, 2021

Reclaiming Popular Documentary

Christie Milliken and Steve F. Anderson

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
The documentary has achieved rising popularity over the past two decades, thanks to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. Despite this fact, documentary studies still tends to favor works that appeal primarily to …
Film October 13, 2021

Engineering Hollywood

Technology, Technicians, and the Science of Building the Studio System

Luci Marzola

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Luci Marzola's book Engineering Hollywood: Technology, Technicians, and the Science of Building Studio System (Oxford University Press, 2021) tells the story of the formation of the Hollywood studio system not as the …
Film October 11, 2021

Reginald Rose and the Journey of 12 Angry Men

Phil Rosenzweig

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Phil Rosenzweig's Reginald Rose and the Journey of 12 Angry Men (Fordham Press, 2021) is the first biography of a great television writer, and the story of his magnum opus …