The VoxPopcast: Recent Episodes
Vox Populorum
We’ve all had a discussion or an argument about popular culture. Sometimes it happens on Facebook, Tumblr or Twitter. Maybe it was in a literature, history, philosophy or psychology class in college. Perhaps it was at the local comic book shop. Or maybe it was at a bar and you ended up stabbing someone with a bottle or bludgeoning them with a pool cue. All of these discussions are exactly the same. The tenured professor at an academic conference deconstructing Batman through a Derrida lens is really doing the same thing as a bunch of teenagers passing a joint around in their mother’s basement. One just uses bigger words and the other swears more. Honestly, though, we’re not sure which. So why not bring them all together? Vox Populorum is a blog and podcast devoted to pop culture criticism. We believe that the best way to understand culture is to discuss it. Please join our weekly round table of media critics, academics and fans for engaging discussion about movies, novels, comic bo
There’s no sense burying the lead here. If you listen to our show at all, you know that Hannah is a Wicked fanatic. We talked about it last year (exactly…
The post e398. Of Course We’re Talking About Wicked For Good appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
One of pop cultures most enduring properties is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Not only is it often hailed as the first ever science fiction property, it is one of the all-time…
The post e397. All the Frankensteins! (like all the Draculas… but with Frankenstein) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We’ve mentioned on the show in the past that a large portion of Mav’s job is teaching in the Digital Narrative and Interactive Design(DNID) program at the University of Pittsburgh.…
The post e396. Games, Education, & Collaboration: The Role of Play in Learning and Connection appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
(Note: an earlier version of this episode failed to post correctly to our feed. Our apologies.) Every once in a while we like to step away from our usual serious……
The post e395. Stealing the Fives – Repost to fix error appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Every once in a while we like to step away from our usual serious… well… serious-ish, pseudo-academic intellectual pursuits and just do something a little fun. This is one of…
The post e395. Stealing the Fives (with permission of course) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Happy Halloween! As we move towards the end of Spooky Season this year, we realized that there is an interesting cultural phenomenon that we’ve never even considered on the show…
The post e394. Spirits and Spectacles: The World of Haunted Houses appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s SPOOOOKY SEASON!!! Actually, it has been for a couple weeks and yet we really haven’t gotten into it. But now it’s time to fix that. A year ago we…
The post e393. Eerie Elders: The Horror of Growing Old appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Has it been a year already since Mav last did a special GameJam episode? I guess so. For those who are new to VoxPopcast, every year Mav serves as a…
The post e392. Games4SocialImpact 2025 appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s always weird and oddly exciting when we discover that we have a hole in the things we’ve covered one the show. And in fact, It’s actually quite surprising that…
The post e391. Manga-101: Why is Manga? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We’ve talked a lot on the show in the past about Roland Barthes’ influential literary essay “La mort de l’auteur” or “the Death of the Author” and what it means…
The post e390. La Mort de le Mèmer? How memes make meaning appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
So… America is in a weird place right now. Frankly, we could say that just about every week these days. But this last couple of weeks it’s been even more…
The post e389. Boycotts and their Cultural Impact appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Well, it’s been a summer… that’s certainly true. And if you live in America, you know there’s been a bunch of… let’s say “news” that happened this week. Obviously we…
The post e388. 2025 Summer Catch Up! Was that it? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
There’s a lot of TV content out there. In fact, sometimes it feels like there’s maybe too much TV to watch. However, there’s a certain set of shows that it…
The post e387. TV is Our Religion: The Theological Lens of Peak Television appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
They don’t make TV like they used to. They quite literally just don’t!. There’s lots of business reasons for this and culture changes and just an over abundance of content…
The post e386. Unpacking Long-Running TV: From Sitcoms to Soap Operas appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s been a while since we did a “is this a bad movie” episode. But the best way of investigating a “is this a bad movie” is to pick one…
The post e385. Is Flash Gordon a Bad Movie? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In 2022, a show premiered on HBO that was perhaps tailor made for us. The Gilded Age was a 1880s period drama from the creators of Downton Abbey with sexual…
The post e384. From Vanderbilt Glam to Oscar’s Shades: The Gilded Age Deep Dive appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Way back on episode 47, we talked about Milkshake Ducks. That is to say, the concept of what to do when you suddenly discover that the creator of a beloved…
The post e383. Revisiting Milkshake Ducks appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
One of the most tried and true genres of fiction is the Whodunnit mystery. The premise is simple, a crime is committed and the reader or audience watches the a…
The post e382. How Catch ’em? Exploring the Inverted Mystery appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
For the past couple of years, the general sentiment seems to have been that superhero movies are becoming… well… kinda bad. But, as we spoke a couple weeks ago with…
The post e381. It’s Clobberin’ Time! Fantastic Four’s Impact on the Summer of Superheroes appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Eagle eyed (eared?) listeners might have noticed that it’s actually been a little tricky to get Monica booked on the show for the last couple of weeks because of a…
The post e380. Monica in Paris: The Tropes of Study Abroad appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Let’s face it, if you listen to our show there’ basically no way that you didn’t know that there was a Superman movie that came out this weekend. In fact,…
The post e379. and now… Superman appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In a media landscape driven by monetizing nostalgia, reboots and remakes are inevitable. Often this involves taking a new cast to offer a modern take on the property. However, there’s…
The post e378. For Mature Audiences Only: When Nostalgia Grows Up appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A couple weeks ago, Mav learned that they were making a sequel to a movie that he loves, Spring Breakers. The thing is, that’s an indy film that basically no…
The post e377. The Art of the Sequel: Continuity vs. Creativity vs. Capitalism appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Last week, A24 released a new movie called Materialists starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal and directed by Celine Song. Critical praise was high, but audience reaction was……
The post e376. Deconstructing RomComs: Genre, Trope and Capitalism appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Last week Monica saw the most recent Mission Impossible movie and was fascinated by a plot detail wherein the characters need to use ancient technology from the — shudder —…
The post e375. Floppy Disks and Fast Cars: Technological Nostalgia in Media appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
The nice thing about having your own podcast is that sometimes you can just turn a casual conversation into content that you discuss with the whole wide world. That’s what…
The post e374. The Accuracy Dilemma: Balancing Fact and Fiction in Pop Culture appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Do you have a collection of anything? Comics? Toys? Baseball cards? Records? Whatever? Ok, if you have such a collection, do you know what it’s worth. That is to say…
The post e373. Collecting Value. Understanding Valuation in Popular Culture appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
When we started this podcast we were very cautious that we didn’t want it to be too much about the MCU, even though we loved it and it was, at…
The post e372. MCU 2025: Exploring the Current Marvel Cinematic Landscape appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
As the school year wraps up and summer begins it’s time for an annual pop culture tradition, the summer movie season. And, as we’ve done the last couple of years,…
The post e371. Retro Revivals and Cinematic Sequels: Summer 2025 Preview appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Guess what?! We’re finally back from our conference and so the series of PCA specials is over. And so we return to business as usual and talking about the cultural…
The post e370. Free Comic Book Day and Geek Third Spaces appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We often say that at its essence, VoxPopcast is people hanging out and drinking at the bar after a conference. That’s not entirely true, but it’s not NOT true either.…
The post e369. PCA 2025: The After Show appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’ve been listening to the show for the past few weeks then you know that this month has been our special series of PCA episodes, and this might very…
The post e368. PCA 2025: The Presentations! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It took 367 episodes, but it finally has happened! In this special live episode of the VoxPopcast, host Christopher “Mav” Maverick is joined for the first time (in person) by…
The post e367. Live from PCA 2025: Unpacking Mainstream Sexuality appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Did you grow up watching movies like Porky’s? American Pie? Eurotrip? What about the Breakfast Club or Easy A? They sure don’t make them like they used to. Only not…
The post e366. What Ever Happened to the Teen Sex Farce? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
This is the 365th show. This means you can now listen to VoxPopcast every day for a year and not have any repeats. That should be exciting in and of…
The post e365. Works in Progress: PCA2025 appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
How often do you go to the movie? Not just watch a movie on TV or a computer. How often do you actually go out to the cinema to see…
The post e364. From the Theatre to the Stream: The Future of Indie Films appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We’re a pop culture analysis podcast. As such you’d think we’d analyze a lot more movies than we do. Maybe we should do more. That’s a question for another day.…
The post e363. Is The Mummy a Bad Movie? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Have you ever had that experience where you’re talking to a friend or a teacher or even just watching Jeopardy or something, and you end up knowing a fact that…
The post e362. Learning in the Stacks: Libraries & Learning from Pop Culture appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
You know how sometimes people say someone belongs on “the Mount Rushmore of music” or “the Mount Rushmore of comics” or “the Mount Rushmore of sports” or whatever? Maybe they…
The post e361. Carving Pop Culture Mount Rushmore (Simulcast w/ the Protagonist Podcast) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
You know how there’s all of those weirdos who are always claiming that “you get woke and go broke” while at the same time complaining that it’s unfair that all…
The post e360. Selling Woke: Navigating Complexities of Capitalism and Media Bias appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s one week before the Academy Awards and so that means it’s time to do our annual Oscar Preview episode. And because this is VoxPopcast, of course we’re going to…
The post e359. 2025 Oscar Preview appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Happy Valentines Day! Yes, we know we’re a few days late, but the show comes out on Mondays, and this was the closest chance we got, so what do you…
The post e358. Monster Crushes: Infatuation with the Unknown appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On this week’s episode, it’s Marie’s turn to pick a film that Mav has never seen before and she picks Nimona, a wonderful fantasy film about change, identity, acceptance, friendship…
The post X2Z Movies e7. Nimona appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
You know that part of the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where young Indy insists over and over again that a relic belongs in a museum? Or the part…
The post e357. The Museum Dilemma: Ownership, Ethics, and Colonialism appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
So far, we’ve been trading back and forth between some of Marie’s favorites more recent movies and some of Mav’s favorites from when he was younger. But now it’s time…
The post X2Z Movies e6. Casablanca appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A few weeks ago back on our Things you Missed episode, Mav recommended the movie My Old Ass with Maisy Stella and Aubrey Plaza. Since that time both Wayne and…
The post e356. Incidental Genre: Unpacking the Unexpected appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don’t forget your booties ’cause it’s cooooold out there today! It’s Groundhog Day, and you know what that means! It’s the return of your…
The post GroundPod Day 2025! Happy Groundhog Day! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We took a few weeks off for the holidays (and school!) but now we’re back with a follow-up to our review of Wicked. During that review it became clear that…
The post X2Z Movies e5. Return to Oz appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
So if you live on planet Earth, even if you’re not an American, you likely know that Donald Trump returned to the US presidency last week. And along with him,…
The post e355. The Great Social Media Sunset: Where Do We Go From Here? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s a dark day here at VoxPopcast and … well, for some of us, all across America. If you’re listening to this episode on the day that it drops then…
The post e354. Diamonds Aren’t Forever: The Rise and Fall of Comics Distribution appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you live on the planet earth and watch TV in the modern era, chances are you watch at least some streaming TV shows. What was once a niche and…
The post e353. Prestige TV vs. Streaming Movies appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On this episode, it’s Marie’s turn to pick a movie as she and her uncle Mav do a two generation review of 2017’s Jumanji reboot, Welcome to the Jungle. It’s…
The post X2Z Movies e2. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Happy New Year. And with the new year comes one of our longest running traditions. It’s time for the annual box office draft! Every year, we play a game where…
The post e352. The 2025 Box Office Fantasy Draft appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On this week’s epsiode, Mav and Marie team up to review a current movie that’s in theaters now. It’s Wicked! Obviously, the film is already a success. But how does…
The post X2Z Movies e3. Unpacking Wicked: A Generational Review appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s the last episode of the year. Except we did our year end recap like two weeks ago. So what are we to do this week? Well, how about a…
The post e351. Cinematic Trolley Problems: Exploring Moral Grey Areas Through Film appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s only the second episode of X2Z Movies, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t time for a special! Besides, it’s Christmas, so of course maybe we should talk about…
The post X2Z Movies e2. Is Die Hard a Christmas Movie? A Generational Debate appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s that time of year again! That festive time at the end of the year when everyone gets together with friends and family and celebrates the true reason for the…
The post e350. Cheesy Christmas Movies 2024 Extra Thirsty Edition appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Now for something a little different. Welcome to X2Z Movies. This is Mav’s new mini-podcast where he is going to review movies (new and old) with his co-host (and niece)…
The post X2Z Movies e1: Discovering ‘The Book of Life’ with Mav and Marie appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
As we close in on the end of the year, we reach that time when all pop culture podcasts do the tried and true tradition of reviewing the best content…
The post e349. Things You Missed 2024 appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s the holiday season and that means that it’s time to begin the tried and true and for some people massively neurotic holiday tradition: Present Shopping! In this episode, Mav…
The post e348. The True Meaning of Gifting: Connection over Consumerism appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Yes, we know the world is on fire, but that’s just going to be our status quo for the next several months. And it’s Thanksgiving week and we wanted to…
The post e347. Jack vs. Jack: The Jack Off appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Did you know there was a movie adaptation of the film Wicked released this week? If not then we assume you must not see any commercials or advertisements in your…
The post e346: Over the Rainbow: Examining Wicked, Oz, and their Cultural Impact appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
For a show that was originally created in a comic book shop, we do surprisingly few episodes about comic books. Today is an opportunity to fix that. A few weeks…
The post e345. Superpowers, Sex, and Science with Diana McCallum appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Well, the US presidential election happened. And you’ve probably heard a ton about it. But we’re living in denial here at VoxPopcast so we’ve decided to pretend it’s still Halloween!…
The post e344. Creepy Kids & Horror: Exploring Unsettling Youth in Film appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Well, here we are. There’s only one day from the time this episode drops until the US Election. It’s not really a secret how we fall on presidential politics on…
The post e343. 2024 US Election Special appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Happy Halloween! As has been our tradition, we wanted to make sure we marked the season with a special episode or two highlighting the concepts of horror. On today’s episode,…
The post e342. Creepy Dolls and the Freudian Uncanny appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On this week’s “very special episode” of VoxPopcast, join Mav as he once again chaperones his university’s yearly game jam, “#Games4SocialImpact” at the University of Pittsburgh. On this yearly episode…
The post e341. #Games4SocialImpact 2024: The Rise of Jerry appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s October and we’re well into spooky season and like every year we like to spend that time diving into some of the more horror based pop culture we can…
The post e340. Reimagining Dracula: a Conversation with Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Do you watch reality shows? No really. You can admit it. We won’t tell. We want to let you in on a secret. We actually watch some. In fact, we…
The post e339. Why Do Smart People Like Trashy Reality Shows? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
What does it mean to be a fan of a character? There have been millions of different interpretations of Batman and the character of Wolverine as he appears in Marvel…
The post e338. Fandom and Identity: The Evolution of Beloved Characters appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A couple weeks ago, Mav was watching a football game and he saw a commercial for a new TV show, Rescue: HI-Surf. It appeared to be an action procedural about…
The post e337. Umm… So, is this like a Reboot?!? Or Something? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In all the years we’ve been doing this show we’ve worked under a very basic assumption: Everyone involved as a host, guest, or listener presumes that the pseudo academic discussion…
The post e336. So, Why Pop Culture? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In today’s nostalgia driven, franchise driven, pop culture world sequels are obviously big business. But what do we do when sequels become too boring (and we can’t get the original…
The post e335. Prequels Unraveled: Stitching Gaps or Snagging Cash? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In the last couple of weeks in America we’ve seen both San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) and the Democratic National Convention (DNC). These are quite possibly two of the nerdiest…
The post e334. From DNC to SDCC: Comparing the Convention Experience appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If one of the the primary functions of books and movies is to help us escape from the adversity of day to day life, then why do we have so…
The post e333. Twisters, Titanics, & Terror: Deconstructing Disaster Narratives appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
So here’s a weird question for you… in a TV show like Batman, do the regular people know the phrase “dynamic duo?” In the movie Amazing Spider-Man Peter Parker uses…
The post e332. The 4th Wall Bounce: The Reflexivity of Media and Culture appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We’re quickly running out of summer and as we do the new school year is even more quickly approaching. That means, for those of us who teach classes… or who…
The post e331. Understanding the Syllabus: Learning Frameworks and Inclusive Practices appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’re a fan of geek media, you likely noticed two important things from Marvel Studios last week. One was the long-awaited release of Deadpool & Wolverine. The second was…
The post e330. The Immortal Legacy: Aging Actors and Endless Franchises appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s been a hell of a week. Ok, let’s face it… it’s been a hell of a summer. This is a pop culture show and so we try to stay…
The post e329. Biographies, Blockbusters, And Biden! What a Week! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s been a weird week of American politics. And we can’t really keep up. Yeah, we know something big happened this week (the whole shakeup of the democratic nomination) but…
The post e328. What’s the Deal with Presidential Assassinations? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Recently an 18year old college student who calls herself alisha not alihsha posted a vlog where she argues in favor of what she calls “being a hater” in her video…
The post e327. Decoding Literary Criticism: From BookTok to Shakespeare appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Every once in a while we like to do something really different on the show. This is one of those times. Since the team is all on vacation in various…
The post e326. From Mr. Ed to the Minions: Pop Culture Across Generations appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
One of the best parts about being an academic is that you “get summers off.” One of the worst parts of being an academic is “your off days are just…
The post e325. So You Have To Write a Prospectus? Now What Is It, Exactly? (and can an ointment clear it up?) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s that time again… we’ve had another year of Bridgerton and of course we had to analyze it. Think about it, it’s a show about British regency society. In some…
The post e324. Unpacking Bridgerton Season 3: Penelope, Queerness, and Fandom Reactions appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
So how about that Barbie? No, not THAT Barbie… we did a show on the movie last year. No, what we want to talk about is enduring legacy of the…
The post e323. The Complex Legacy of Barbie: Gender, Fashion & Identity appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s somehow been five years since Disney’s acquisition of Fox and the impending promise therein of having the X-men added into the MCU. While we have … let’s just say…
The post e322. 4 Killer Out-of-the-Box X-men Movie Pitches for the MCU appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A couple weeks ago, Apple Music released their list of the 100 Best Albums of all time. This isn’t really new. People do it all the time. In fact, Rolling…
The post e321. The All-Time Best All-Time Best Albums List of All Time appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
What do you do if you’re in couple that was designed on an 80s sitcom so you have extremely traditional gender roles of a feminine partner who loves lovey dovey…
The post e320. Adrenaline and Affection: Exploring the Action Romance Genre appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
There’s an argument that the current wave of superhero dominated content that pervades popular media doesn’t begin with the MCU but with X-men the Animated Series, a cartoon that ran…
The post e319. X-men ’97 Revisited: Superheroes, Sacrifices, & Saturday Mornings appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
(Note from Mav. This is an episode about A.I. and Academic writing… so I decided to just let A.I. take a stab at writing the show notes all by itself.…
The post e318. A.I. in Academia: Balancing Technology and Traditional Learning appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Sometimes when the world is on fire, you just want to watch a dumb feel good sports movie. Right now the world is on fire, so we thought maybe we’d…
The post e317: From Field to Frame: Life Lessons from Sports Movies appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s been four years since movies shut down for the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. It’s probably been too long to say we’re still “rebuilding” the box office. We…
The post e316. 2024 Summer Movie Season appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
So did you know there was a new remake of The Crow coming out? If you did then chances are, at least according to the internet, that you’re probably outraged…
The post e315. Revisiting Classics: The Delicate Art of Remakes and Adaptations appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On this week’s show, all five co-hosts are online to celebrate six years of producing a weekly pseudo academic roundtable of pop culture analysis with drinking and swearing. It isn’t…
The post e314. Fashion, Furniture, and Furballs — Six Years of VoxPopcast appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On this week’s special epsiode we take one last look at this year’s Popular Culture Association conference in Chicago with a look at papers from one of the panels in…
The post e313. PCA2024: Adapting X-Men appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Six years ago, this show was birthed out of the aftermath of PCA2018, the annual conference for the Popular Culture Association. As is tradition, we’ve once again returned there. PCA2024…
The post e312. PCA2024: The AfterParty appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Have you ever done that thing where you hear a song that’s a cover of another song you like, only to find out later that you have it backwards and…
The post e311. From Original to Ovation: Tracing the Threads of Musical Covers appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We did a couple of shows in the lead up to the Academy Awards last week. You’ve heard us talk about why the Oscars still exist and what function they…
The post e310. The Biggest Oscar Upsets and Travesties appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
You know that movie where the hero loses someone he loves to an act of senseless violence and so he embarks on a path of carnage and destruction to gain…
The post e309. The Human Kaiju: Translating the Unstoppable Monster To Human Scale appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s hard to believe it, but it’s been exactly a year since our last Oscar show. It’s kind of funny how that works out! Years being annual and all of…
The post e308. 2024 Oscars Predictions! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It seems silly to ask if you’ve seen Madame Web. We can see the box office returns and we know that you probably didn’t. BUT, if you’re listening to our…
The post e307. Madame Web, Morbius, and Movies of Obligation appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Last year, almost as if by accident, somehow the surprise hit of cinema was a relatively low budget Godzilla movie. The film, Godzilla Minus One, literally came out of nowhere.…
The post e306. Kaiju Kachoo: From Gojira to Godzilla Minus One appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Have you seen that new Dark Academia show about the mysterious elite school for special kids where there’s the one kid who doesn’t seem to belong even amongst the other…
The post e305. Dark Academia: a Deep Dive into Murder, Mystery & Midterms appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Last week the Oscar nominations came out and if you were hanging around the internet, you might have heard one story in particular… Barbie was snubbed. Everyone was talking about…
The post e304. Barbie, the Oscars & Leavisism (What’s That Now?) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don’t forget your booties ’cause it’s cooooold out there today! It’s Groundhog Day, and you know what that means! It’s the return of your…
The post GroundPod Day 2024! Happy Groundhog Day! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It could be argued that the pop culture that you absorb makes you who you are. That’s certainly true of the hosts of this show. After all, it’s a show…
The post e303. Our Lives in Pop Culture appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We’ve done shows on AI before and our feelings on how it is being used in art and creative endeavors. We’ve tried to not just be reactionary and alarmist about…
The post e302. So, A.I. George Carlin… WHY?!?!? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s no surprise that the US movie box office hit something of a slump last year. With few exceptions (ahem #Barbenheimer) most tried and true tentpole blockbusters underperformed (perhaps not…
The post e301. Is Saltburn A Good Movie? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Somehow we’ve been making this show for 300 episodes! We can’t believe it either! And what better way to celebrate that than doing one of our very favorite regular episodes?…
The post e300. The 2024 Box Office Draft appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Happy New Year! If you listen to podcasts which you must if you’re listening to this, then you probably know by now that they way people end a year in…
The post e299. Things You Missed in 2023! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Merry Christmas from VoxPopcast. The thing is, we’ve been doing Christmas special episodes for the last couple weeks already. And we figure you probably have a Christmas episode or twelve…
The post e298. Why Does Everyone Hate Mary Sues? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Every year around Christmas we do a special that talks about the latest offerings in a weird little emergent pop culture niche. The Cheesy Christmas Movie. Of course this year,…
The post e297. Cheesy Christmas Movies Five! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Do you have a Christmas Tree? If you do then chances are, even without thinking about it, you have taken a side in the great Christmas tree debate. You have…
The post e296. The Great Christmas Tree Debate appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
An ongoing concern in the geekosphere world these days is the worry that “superhero fatigue” is setting in and the bubble is bursting. But the funny thing is, if you…
The post e295. Superhero Fatigue & The Illusion of Change appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s Black Friday week. There’s simply no way you don’t know that. Even if you’re not from the United States, where we just had Thanksgiving, if you’re on the Internet…
The post e294. Black Friday and Toy Riots! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
(Note: Previously a corrupted version of the audio of this file was uploaded. This was due to a mistake in the mix that has now been corrected to the best…
The post e293. Soundtracks, Scores & Race in the Superhero Film (Remastered) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
(Note: Previously a corrupted version of the audio of this file was uploaded. This was due to a mistake in the mix that has now been corrected to the best…
The post e293. Soundtracks, Scores & Race in the Superhero Film appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On this week’s not exactly Halloween special episode, Mav, Wayne and Monica are joined by returning guests Dr. Michael Chemers and Dr. Samantha Langsdale, two experts in the field of…
The post e292. Monstrous Women and the Horror Gaze appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On this week’s episode we explore the complex topic of public domain publishing by tackling the recent controversy surrounding comic book author Bill Willingham, creator of Fables. After a long…
The post e291. Fables, Fanfic and Fair Using the Public Domain appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Fall may be the weirdest season for pop culture. Think about it, we have celebrations based around the winter holidays… not just Christmas… but the whole season is just full…
The post e290. Figuring Out Fall & Analyzing Autumn appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Did you know it’s Superman’s 85th Anniversary? You might have. Did you know that he was created in Cleveland? Maybe. And if you didn’t know these things, well, it is…
The post e289. Superman in Cleveland appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Last year, we had a very special episode where Mav attended the University of Pittsburgh’s Games4SocialImpact game jam event as a judge and mentor. Well, that was so much fun…
The post e288. Games4SocialImpact 2023 appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Do you like to knit? Paint? Build stuff? Sew? Bake? Garden? Work on your own car? Maybe you don’t do any of those things, but chances are you have some…
The post e287. We Made This! Why We Love DIY! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On last week’s episode, we delved into the world of classic literary character Hercule Poirot and his cultural significance across multiple iterations. This week, we go in the exact opposite…
The post e286. The Legend of Harley Quinn appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Some fandoms just claw their way into pop culture and steadily grow. Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot may have never been the largest pop culture figure, but he’s been in the…
The post e285. The Legend of Hercule Poirot appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
How many members of a musical band need to present to make the band the band. Is it different if a member dies than it is if a member simply…
The post e284. Making the Band of Theseus appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A few weeks ago when we did our episode saying goodbye to Riverdale, Monica made Mav promise that we could do an episode watching and analyzing one of her favorite…
The post e283. Is Josie and the Pussycats a Bad Movie? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A couple weeks ago the RNC presidential primary debates opened with a segment where each candidate got to explain why they best epitomized the conservative values for the real american…
The post e282. Misunderstood Pop Music Politics appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Riverdale has been a constant for this podcast since almost the very beginning. We devoted our sixth episode to talking about it. Calling it “the best show on television” has…
The post e281. Saying Goodbye to Riverdale, the Best Show on Television appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We watch a lot of movies. Like really a lot of movies. Similarly, our friends over at the Protagonist Podcast watch a lot of movies. How many? Really a lot!…
The post e280. The VoxPopcast Protagonist Movie Calendar Playlist Game appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
So the truth is, when we do our “is ____ a bad movie?” episodes, we expect that the listeners are going to be predisposed to say “yes, obviously it sucks.…
The post e279. Is Sucker Punch a Bad Movie? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’re a fan of current American popular culture it’s pretty much impossible to not know that Hollywood is on strike right now. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has…
The post e278. Hollywood is on Strike! (But, what does that mean?) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Every once in a great while an unprecedented unpredictable pop culture moment organically happens and takes the world by storm. This was the cast last week when, after an incredibly…
The post e277. The VoxPopcast #Barbenheimer Double Feature Double Date appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
There’s a lot of roles for old guys in media these days. Or rather, not just roles for old guys, there’s a lot of roles for characters that we’ve seen…
The post e276. Old Heroes Never Die! (But Do They Even Fade Away?) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you live on planet Earth right now, you might have noticed that Taylor Swift is touring. Her concerts are selling out even though tickets prices are out of control.…
The post e275. Concert Amnesia and the Power of Flashbulb Memory appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Last week the fifth (and supposedly final) Indiana Jones movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, finally hit theaters to substantially mixed reviews and audience reaction. Some have complained…
The post e274. Indiana Jones and the Legacy of Pulp appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Last week, Pixar released their 27th feature film, Elemental and it has had… less than stellar box office reception despite having pretty rave reviews. This has actually been a problem…
The post e273. Is Pixar Over? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
There certainly are a lot of superheroes adaptations. In fact, some people would say there’s too many. And yet, they just keep coming and coming. In fact, one of them,…
The post e272. Why Are So Many Superhero Adaptations So Very, Very, Bad? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Have we done a show about multiversal superhero movies? It feels like it’s come up before… as though this were just a thing that we feel the need to talk…
The post e271. Crossing The Spider-Verse appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you ever talk to a big fan of Star Wars you’ll probably quickly find that they hate just about as much about Star Wars as they love. The same…
The post e270. Why Do Fans Hate Things They Love? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Last weekend Disney released their most recent in an ever expanding series of live action reboots of animated classics. This time they chose the Little Mermaid, and it seems to…
The post e269. Wide World of Disney Reboots appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Two years ago, when Monica first joined the show, we celebrated the release of the ninth Fast & Furious movie by devoting a whole episode to discussing the the cultural…
The post e268. Fasterer and Furiouserer appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On previous episodes we have discussed the ages of comic book superheroes and the ages of Disney movies, but recently we started questioning if perhaps movie superheroes followed different structures…
The post e267. Ages of Superhero Movies! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A couple weeks ago, our friends over at Wisecrack made a video about “the purpose of snobbery” which was a catchy title and all, but really the point they were…
The post e266. Everybody’s A.I. Critic? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We love movies on this show. That much should be obvious. Every year we play our famous box office prediction game, and now, as we enter Summer Movie season that…
The post e265. 2023 Summer Movie Preview appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We’ve talked about nostalgia on the show before. In fact, we did it all the way back on our second ever episode. Remember that? The thing is, when we usually…
The post e264. Do You Remember Nostalgia? Do You Want To? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Every once in a while a TV Show comes along that is just so bizarre that we feel like it deserves a deep dive examination just in and of itself.…
The post e263. We Gotta Talk About MILF Manor! We Just Do… appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We have probably mentioned on previous episodes that Monica worked at a museum. We’ve also mentioned once or twice that Wayne was on the board of a museum. And really,…
The post e262. Hey! So, How Do Museums Work? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
After two years being held virtually, and a cancelled conference in 2020, the Popular Culture Association returned to in person conferences for PCA2023. There were some good notes (Mav won…
The post e261. PCA2023 After Dark! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
The thing with Hollywood is that it’s a young people’s game. Or at least that’s what we say. And it’s true, the majority of big budget starring roles are for…
The post e260. Why Do We ♥ Stories Where Old People Still ƒµ¢&? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
The day is finally here. We’ve been waiting for months and months and months, but we have now see Cocaine Bear. And if you check the box office returns, a…
The post e259. The Enduring Cultural Legacy of Cocaine Bear! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A few weeks ago we did a show all about the “Ages of Comics” and why comics scholars and fans broke things down the way they do. It was a…
The post e258. A Primer on the Ages of Disney appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A few shows ago we talked about the makeover in The Princess Diaries and how it wasn’t quite as … well… makeover-y as the haze of memory might make us…
The post e257. Glasses Off, Hair Down! The Magic of Movie Makeovers appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s Oscar season. Every year Hollywood gets all aflutter to have a night where they celebrate… themselves. Nothing screams pop culture like a room full of millionaires giving each other…
The post e256. Oscars, Oscars, All at Once! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’re the kind of person that listens to our show, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard about the whole fiasco where Warner Brothers-Discovery cancelled and vaulted an essentially…
The post e255. The Mystery of the Disappearing Media! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’re a long time comic book fan, you’ve probably used the terms “Golden Age”, “Silver Age”, “Bronze Age” and “Modern Age” to talk about different periods in comic publishing…
The post e254. A Primer On the Ages of Comics appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In 2001, Disney released the film adaptation of the YA novel The Princess Diaries, starring Ann Hathaway and launching her career on a trajectory that would eventually earn her an…
The post e253. So… Is Princess Diaries 2 a Bad Movie? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Everyone is talking about Velma. It’s not exactly clear why. Most people don’t seem to like it that much. But if you don’t pay attention to what anyone is saying,…
The post e252. Velma and Pouring Some Edgy on It! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don’t forget your booties ’cause it’s cooooold out there today! It’s Groundhog Day, and you know what that means! It’s the return of your…
The post GroundPod Day 2023! Happy Groundhog’s Day! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A curious set of movies have been racking up nominations on the film circuit this awards season. Glass Onion, the Menu, and Triangle of Sadness. Each of these films has…
The post e251. Eating the Rich! (on film) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Do you remember “quiet quitting”? We can’t really blame you if you don’t. But the news media was all in an uproar about it… wow… like five months ago! They…
The post e250. We Always Figured We Would Do a Show on Quiet Quitting (Eventually) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
You know that book everyone tells you is great and you’ve been meaning to read it for literally years and haven’t gotten to it? What about that game that all…
The post e249. The Media Guilt Pile appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s that time again! if you’ve been listening for a while you know that every year the hosts of Voxpopcast play a fantasy box office game! The BEST fantasy game.…
The post e248. 2023 Box Office Draft appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Another year is in the books. 2022 has come and gone. Welcome to 2023. But, there’s one last piece of business to finish from yesteryear. Welcome to the annual VoxPopcast…
The post e247. 36-ish Things You Missed in 2022 appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
And now for something a little different to close out this Christmas season. A couple of weeks ago on Twitter, we had a request from listener Jim Roberts to discuss…
The post e246. a Very Star Wars Andor Holiday Special appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s that time again. Ever since we started this show, we’ve been in something of a renaissance of Christmas Movies. It all started with films by the likes of the…
The post e245. Cheesy Christmas Movies IV appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you listen to our show, chances are you’re on the Internet. If you’re on the Internet, then chances are in the last couple weeks you’ve seen a proliferation of…
The post e244. An A.I. Took Your Art, Daddy! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Sometimes we come up with an episode idea that we just completely mean to be filler. We have no real agenda and not as much research as normal, but we…
The post e243. What’s in a Name? (or Several) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’ve been watching the news lately you might have noticed that things have been… kind of gloomy. Trump is running for president again. Twitter is imploding. The pandemic is…
The post e242. A Specifically Very Positive Thanksgiving Ep appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Wakanda Forever, the sequel to Black Panther, is finally here. Obviously we have to talk about it. Due to the unfortunate passing of Chadwick Boseman, this movie sort of had…
The post e241. Wakanda Forever & MCU Diversity appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Running a pop culture podcast isn’t easy. One of the biggest problems is that popular culture is a moving target. There’s just… always stuff happening! We can’t really get to…
The post e240. Reality Twitter? (and Politics) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
This is another one of those shows where we wonder how have we done this many episodes of a pop culture podcast without devoting one to this fandom. Doctor Who…
The post e239. Why Doctor Who? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
There’s been a lot of Fantasy TV on the air lately. House of the Dragon and Rings of Power have both been airing as prequels to their respective fantasy genres…
The post e238. Dragons and Rings and Other Fantasy TV appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Three weeks ago, Kanye West decided to premiere a line of White Lives Matter t-shirts at Paris Fashion Week… and somehow with that at the starting point pretty much every…
The post e237. So, We Need to Talk About Kanye… appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’ve been following the show the last several weeks then you know we’ve started a series where we have been looking at some of our favorite controversial movies and…
The post e236. Is The Rocky Horror Picture Show a Bad Movie? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A couple of weeks ago we looked over the film Under the Cherry Moon to prove that it was a good movie. Mav got Monica to watch the film and…
The post e235. Is Jennifer’s Body a bad movie? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On this week’s show we’re doing something a little different. As part of Mav’s new job he was asked if he was asked to volunteer as a faculty advisor and…
The post e234. Games4SocialImpact appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Have you ever had a favorite movie, that you’ve loved since childhood and then all of a sudden as an adult you discover that other people don’t like that movie?…
The post e233. Is Under the Cherry Moon a bad movie? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A couple weeks ago, a story broke about a young woman named Paige Niemann turning 18 years old and starting an OnlyFans account. By all rights this shouldn’t be notable…
The post e232. Paige v. Ariana: The Right to be Sexy on the Internet appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Way too often, when we talk about “pop culture” in 2022, we focus on superheroes, space cowboys with laser swords, and maybe a couple fantasy epics. And in fact, if…
The post e231. So, You Should Be Watching A League of Their Own appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’re a fan of American television, you’ve no doubt heard of “Nielsen ratings” or just “the Ratings” as they’re often called. They’re the lifeblood by which TV shows live…
The post e230. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ratings But Were Afraid to Ask appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It is pretty much impossible at this point to not have some MCU content in the current release. Between the films and the TV shows, they are a ubiquitous part…
The post e229. She-Hulk: Sensational & Savage appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We’ve all heard complaints that the current pop-culture fad du jour is getting repetitive. For instance, right now, it’s superhero movies. People are constantly complaining about “the MCU formula” where…
The post e228. Investigating the Style Cycle appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
After “endless” years in development, the impossible has happened. The Sandman TV show is now streaming on Netflix. Of course we watched it! Remarkably, it appears to be a hit.…
The post e227. the Endless Culture of the Sandman appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
When we started our little psuedo-academic pop-culture analysis podcast with drinking and swearing, we had a few requirements. One of those was that the show would be smart and would…
The post e226. So… uh… what is a Dissertation? (and why would you do one?) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you line in the United States and follow political news you might have noticed something crazy last week. The Democrats kind of… did something! In fact, they did something…
The post e225. Can We Talk About Climate Change? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
One of the most important things about academia is being in conversation with other academics. That is to say that the way knowledge happens is one scholar says something and…
The post e224. A Filler Episode on Filler Episodes appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
This Wednesday saw the season finale of Ms. Marvel on Disney+, a show that we have been thoroughly enjoying. However, there’s been a weird bit of reaction to Ms. Marvel…
The post e223. The Cultural Impact of Ms. Marvel on Disney+ appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s been a while since we spent the show just talking about the state of the world. Mostly because… well, the state of the world kinda sucks right now… and…
The post e222. So, The World’s On Fire… Everything is Fine… appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s always odd when we hit on one of those episode ideas where we feel like “obviously we’ve done like half a dozen shows on this topic over the years”…
The post e221. Exploring the World of Stranger Things appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
This week saw the end of the Disney+ Star Wars series Obi-Wan Kenobi, a show devoted to… actually it’s really hard to talk about. Arguably, one of the biggest problems…
The post e220. Obi-Wan Kenobi & the Star Wars Legacy appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Somehow, in 2022, there’s a Jurassic Park movie at the top of the box office. Some twenty-nine years after the first film and 32 years after the release of the…
The post e219. Why We Still Love the Jurassic Park Franchise appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A funny thing happened last week. The internet got into a minor scuffle about whether Fire Island, a film about gay men, was sexist because it failed the Bechdel Test,…
The post e218. Does the Bechdel Test Fail the Bechdel Test? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
When’s the last time you hung out at the mall? We don’t mean when is the last time you went to a mall, ran in, got something and left. When…
The post e217. Online Shopping, Thrifting, and The Death of Mall Culture appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you haven’t had a chance to see the new Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers movie, you probably should watch it. It’s maybe the perfect blend of nostalgia, humor and…
The post e216. Chip’n Dale: Rescue Rangers & The Art Of The Cameo appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Does it bother you when you’re watching your favorite steamy teen drama on TV and they add a formulaic subplot about two step siblings who suddenly fall in love. What…
The post e215. Taboo Teen TV Tropes appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Have you ever done that thing where you’re doing some work, and you toss on a Netflix documentary, just to have some background noise going. You’re not really trying to…
The post e214. How To Make A Great Documentary! (and Why?) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you follow the American movie landscape then you probably know that this weekend the box office has been set on fire by Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.…
The post e213. Everything Everywhere in the Multiverse of VoxPopcast appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
There’s no shortage of movies, TV shows, comics and other media that are “gritty reboots” of older series or property. Sometimes these are official reboots, like the reimagining of Battlestar…
The post e212. Pour Some Gritty On It! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Regular listeners of our show will know that the last couple weeks we have devoted to #PCAACA22, the annual conference for the Pop Culture Association. Two weeks ago, we devoted…
The post e211. #PCAACA22: The Presentations appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
For the last several weeks the hosts of VoxPopcast have been preparing for a conference. Well, that was this week! Last week you heard our conference workshop where we tried…
The post e210. #PCAACA22: The Afterparty appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
This week we’re going to try something a little different on the show. We’ve been mentioning in the past few weeks that we several of the hosts and our most…
The post e209. PCA2022 Conference Paper Workshop & Preview appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Last year, we (like many people) were so overcome with the Netflix show Bridgerton that we recorded not one but two episodes about it. We weren’t the only ones. It was a runaway sensation.…
The post e208. What Time Is It? It’s Bridgerton Time! (Again) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
“Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.” The Latin quote (a letter from Alcuin of York to Charlemagne the Great) we…
The post e207. The Voice of the Crowd is Close to Madness! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’re a movie fan then you might know that the Oscars are coming up next weekend. In fact, you probably even know if you’re not a movie fan. The…
The post e206. Return of the Oscars Preview – 2022 appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’re a regular listener of this show then you no doubt are aware that the Batman was released in cinemas last week. At the current moment, it is in…
The post e205. Why Do We Love Batman? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s the episode you’ve been waiting for! The one where we talk about The Emoji Movie! 😝 Ok… maybe not… well, a little, but for good reason. One aspect of…
The post e204. Viral Grammar: Rhetoric, Semiotics, and Emoji appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Can you tell the difference between Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Gucci, and Versace? What about Michael Kors, Tom Ford, Alexander McQueen and Jimmy Choo? Do you even know who these…
The post e203. Consumption, Capitalism, and the Culture of Luxury Fashion appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Every once in a while the world of weekly pop culture and the world of literary academia collide so totally that the world notices even outside of our show. Last…
The post e202. To Kill a Mockingbird… and a Maus — Censorship & Book Banning appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Despite the fact that it is perennially one of the best selling genres in literature, Romance is often looked down upon. Part of this is simple misogyny; as a culture…
The post e201. The Romance Show: (Hannah wouldn’t let us call) Love In The Time Of COVID appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s unbelievable, but somehow we’ve been doing this for 200 episodes! It’s time to celebrate. One today’s episode we look back on nearly four years of podcasting AND we discuss…
The post e200. Secret Origins Starring VoxPopcast: Special Anniversary Edition appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Nancy Drew may be one of the most enduring figures in American Popular culture. First premiering in 1930, she predates Superman, Donald Duck, the Lone Ranger, two US states, FM…
The post e199. Nancy Drew & the Hidden Staircase to Pop Culture Immortality appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’ve been or known any kid who has gone to an American school in the last 50 years or so you’ve probably heard the advice to “get into STEM”…
The post e198. STEM vs Humanities: the Clatter in the Classroom appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Way back on episode 170 we did a show talking about Serialization. As is often the case on our show… we resolved nothing. But we did note that there was…
The post e197. Serialization II: Electric Boogaloo (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Franchise) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s that time of year again. Every year the hosts of Voxpopcast play a fantasy box office game! Even though it’s only the second week of the year, we are…
The post e196. The 2022 Box Office Draft! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
2021 is over! It’s hard to believe that because in a lot of ways it still feels like it’s 2020. But somehow, a whole year went by nonetheless. And, since…
The post e195. 34 Great Things You Missed in 2021! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Spies may be one of the longest standing genres in pop culture. From James Bond to Maxwell Smart to Jason Bourne, spies have been ever present on the screen for…
The post e194. Dr. Golden Spies From V.O.X.P.O.P with Love appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! If you’ve been listening to this show for a while then you know that the winter holidays mean that we celebrate a certain tradition on…
The post e193. Cheesy Christmas Movies 3 appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Christmas traditions are huge part of popular culture. In fact, they’re such a huge part of popular culture that — despite the so-called war on Christmas — they pretty much…
The post e192. How to Win Christmas & Influence People appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
As we transition from the fall holidays through the winter ones we’ve noticed that there was a bunch of pop culture things have just fallen through the cracks. Like, really…
The post e191. Pop Culture Casserole appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Ever since the advent of movies enterprising humans have asked that age-old important question “how can we use this for sex?” That’s not hyperbole; the modern motion picture dates back…
The post e190. Pour Some Sexy On It! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Dune may be the greatest science fiction epic ever written. The way you can tell is that if you go up to any Dune fan, they will tell you that……
The post e189. Dune: How to Control the Spice & Influence People appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Somehow, we went the entire year of 2020 just… without a Marvel movie. Phase three ended and there was a real life global pandemic and then… there just weren’t any…
The post e188. The Eternals and the MCU This Year (so far…) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
When you study “pop culture” people automatically think of the MOST popular media that is available of the day. For us living in 2021, that’s largely superhero movies. Of course,…
The post e187. 4x4ward: Overlanding and the Great Outdoors appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Have you ever made a mixtape? We’re sort of willing to guess that if you’re listening to our show, at some point or another you have. But… did you actually…
The post e186. Wayne, Hannah, Mav & Jehnie’s Infinite Mixtape appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Halloween season continues and so it’s time for another special episode. One of the most enduring pop culture figure is probably the witch. Witches appear through the ages in media.…
The post e185. The Wicked, the Witches and the Witch-ish appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s Halloween season and time to do some spooky theme shows! Of course, we’ve tackled monsters several times on the show before, but we’ve never devoted the whole show to…
The post e184. Bram Stoker’s Dracula & the Draculi that Followed appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’re a comic book fan, one of the things people often ask you is “I want to get into comics. Where do I start? What should I read?” This…
The post e183. How to Read All of the Marvels appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If the internet is good at anything, it’s dumping on asked for criticism at other people. Everyone does it. In fact, in a very real way, that’s pretty much what…
The post e182. I Fixed That for You, Now GTFO! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Over the past year, our viewing consumption habits have changed a lot. We spent months indoors streaming everything — including new release films — largely through new media platforms like…
The post e181. Entertainment and Other Unions — IATSE Solidarity appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Oddly enough, for a show that is devoted to talking about pop culture, one of the things we don’t talk about so much is podcasts. In a way, podcasting might…
The post e180. So, You Say You Wanna Host a Pseudoacademic Pop Culture Analysis Podcast (with Drinking and Swearing) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Several weeks ago, we did a show on how stand-up comedy works in the middle of a pandemic. We talked about the transition that comedians went through to move a…
The post e179. ImproveReality? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
How do we learn history? The easy answer is to say we learn it from history books, but is that true? How many of us ever read a history book…
The post e178. Pop History vs. Public History appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s been a while since we devoted a whole episode to one TV show. We’ve done it with a couple of the Marvel shows as well as stuff like Game…
The post e177. Deconstructing the Chair appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Instagram recently made an announcement that they were going to be shifting their social networking focus away from “photos”. This decision prompted a collective “WTF?” from the users who saw…
The post e176. What Was Social Networking? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We don’t talk about games as much as we should on this show, but arguably they’re one of the most enduring mediums of popular culture. They’re certainly one of the…
The post e175. Game Studies: Ludology vs. Narratology appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We live in an era of constant reboots and updates to well known IP franchises. People (including us) like to complain about it, but honestly, well known franchises do very…
The post e174. The Arthurian Roundtable Roundtable appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
The Internet has one main purpose: arguing about things that don’t really matter. I’m sure you’ve seen this, people will fight over whether a movie was good or bad, what…
The post e173. War of the Readings appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We’ve always had a tag on our show of “the weekly pseudo-academic roundtable with drinking and swearing” but honestly, it’s usually more of the latter. We might be drinking while…
The post e172. (More Drinking Than Swearing…) The Culture Of Alcohol appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Somehow, summertime media is special. Or at least, we seem to think it is. We have summertime blockbusters. We have summertime beach reads. We have summer TV specials and songs…
The post e171. Summertime! Time to Kick Back and Unwind appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In today’s pop culture landscape, serialization is everything. TV, movies, novels, comics. Addict people to your ongoing series and hope they keep paying for another installment. Somehow, despite the fact…
The post e170. What is Serialization? Tune in next week! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Movies are back! After a year and a half of almost total dormancy, movies came back to the American box office, and filmgoers were welcome with the very sophisticated and…
The post e169. The Subtle & Sophisticated Highbrow Culture of The Fast & The Furious appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Have you ever noticed how infrequently superheroes in most superhero TV shows and movies actually wear their superhero costumes? It makes sense when you think about it. Superhero costumes are…
The post e168. Time to Stop Wearing Underwear on the Outside appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
After last week’s primer on the male gaze, we wanted to spend some time thinking about the ways in which it could be complicated. What happens when we try to…
The post e167. Considering the Fanboy Gaze appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Sometimes academic terms bleed over into the popular lexicon and gets used by people almost as second nature without anyone really bothering to think about what it means. “The Male…
The post e166. So… What is the Male Gaze Anyway? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s the PCA-2021 recap show! In many ways, Popular Culture Association(PCA) national conference is responsible for this show. One of the things we’ve always strived for is to have the…
The post e165. PCA-2021 Recap appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On today’s episode we reveal that secretly this geeky little pop culture show was always actually about education and academic all along. Did you pick up on the clues we’ve…
The post e164. Why Do We Love Plot Twists? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Pop culture fandom is defined by a hierarchy dedication. It’s easy to watch nine Star Wars movies; how much of the Expanded Universe do you know? Anyone can watch a…
The post e163. The Secret World of American Girl appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We live in a geeky world. There are roughly 800 bajillion superhero tv shows and movies released every year. Even once we get away from superhero content, we quickly move…
The post e162. Multimedia & Literary Crossovers appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Do you like to play games? We do. And Hannah really likes to play games. In fact, she’s addicted. So much so that she made a game about games… and…
The post e161. Describing 20 Games We Haven’t Played appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Do you remember the song that was playing when you had your first kiss, lost your virginity, or danced at your wedding? Do you know what movie that you crowded…
The post e160. Remembering Thought & Thinking About Memory appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
it’s pretty safe to say Disney has a chokehold on popular culture in America, and to a lesser extent the entire world. Once again, the Powers that Be, as it…
The post e159. Obviously, it’s the Falcon and the Winter Soldier Show appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Have you ever had one of those pointless internet arguments about the philosophical righteousness of Batman, Superman, Rorschach or Luke Skywalker? Or maybe you’ve spent hours arguing about how time…
The post e158. Superhero Thought Experiments appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Zoom meetings are are a simple fact of life in the pandemic lockdown world. Work meetings, school classrooms, social events. At this point, we’ve all done them. And quite honestly,…
The post e157. Standup Comedy Sitting on the Couch appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Last year, all four hosts got together and did a show we called “Bad Things We Love” in which we built a list media that we have some kind of…
The post e156. ~~More Bad~~ Things? ~~We Love~~ appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
What does it mean to be an ergodic text? That’s a complicated question. For one thing, the very meaning of the word “text” can be variable to different people, but…
The post e155. Introduction to Ergodic Texts and Reading appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Every day another celebrity “is cancelled” for any number of problematic reasons. Typically, the celebrity responds by claiming they’ve done nothing wrong and blaming “cancel culture” gone wild. Over the…
The post e154. Can We Cancel Cancel Culture Culture? (or can’t we?) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Do you remember the before times? The long, long ago. Do you remember a time where you used to have real live friends that you used to be able to…
The post e153. Seeking a Game for the End of the World appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Somethings are inevitable and predictable. Water is wet, gravity pulls us down, and this show was going to have to talk about WandaVision. That was clear even before the series…
The post e152. Obviously it’s the WandaVision Show appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A few weeks ago when we did our Bridgerton recap show we found ourselves with way more to talk about than we could possibly fit in a single episode. That…
The post e151. Yet More Bridgerton! and other good things appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Have you ever noticed how sexy cartoons are? On last week’s Valentines Day show we talked about sexuality in superhero comics and other media. In that case we were largely…
The post e150. Sexy Cartoons: You Know… for the Kids! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Happy Valentine’s Day! If you had a podcast devoted to pop culture with a penchant for discussing comics with some bit of regularity and a holiday came up that was…
The post e149. Let’s Talk About SuperSex appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Surprisingly, Netflix’s latest original programming sensation is Bridgerton, a regency period romance chronicling the sexual exploits, politics and scandals of 19th century London. Or perhaps this isn’t surprising at all.…
The post e148. Sex, Love, & Bridgerton appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Charts Rock! Charts are Big Fun! Seriously! Don’t you just love a good chart? Ok, maybe you don’t think you do. In fact, you might even be thinking to yourself,…
The post e147. Big Fun with Charts, Data, and Analytics! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s been weird doing a show based around pop culture for the last year. A lot of that weirdness, of course, is because pop culture largely stopped for a bit.…
The post e146. TV in the time of COVID-19 appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s a new year and that means we get to do one of our most exciting shows. It’s the fantasy box office draft! Every year we play a game (shamelessly…
The post e145. 2021 Fantasy Box Office Draft appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We totally didn’t want to talk politics this week. And we certainly didn’t want to talk about the world being on fire. 2020 had enough of that. All we wanted…
The post e144. So, It’s Been a Week! (1/3/21 – 1/9/21) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
The year 2020 is over. You’re probably as relieved as we are. Of course the problems with 2020 are largely still with us, but at least getting here feels like…
The post e143. Thirty Great Things You Missed In 2020 appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If anything has characterized pop culture in the year 2020, it’s streaming media. From Hamilton to Tiger King, during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the essential elimination of out-of-the-home entertainment, we…
The post e142. Deconstructing the Queen’s Gambit appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is likely the most famous Christmas story ever written. First published 177 years ago, it has been produced as stage plays, adapted into dozens of…
The post e141. Ghosts, Spirits, Scrooge and a Merry Marxist Christmas appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
From Broadway to London, music has been a part of the history of drama for over a thousand years. The genre is enough of a part of American pop culture…
The post e140. Why Do We Suddenly Love Musicals? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Christmas movies have been a seasonal spectacle almost as long as there have been movies. A couple years ago, we did an episode speaking to the recent trend of Lifetime,…
The post e139. The 22 Reviews of Christmas (Cheesey Christmas 2) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s the holiday season. In the United States we just celebrated Thanksgiving, and in the coming weeks that will be followed by Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Years, Pancha Ganapati, Yule,…
The post e138. Holiday Tradition and Ritual in the Time of COVID appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 global pandemic, people the world over have been forced to spend more time meeting and communicating virtually. As different communities have implemented differing…
The post e137. Think Virtually, Live Locally! Our New Virtual Reality appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In a world where four podcasters are exhausted from the never ended horrific news cycle of politics, racial tensions, pestilence and death that has been the year 2020, these weary…
The post e136. Describing 14 Films We Haven’t Seen appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
As most of our regular listeners are probably aware, the United States had a little election last week. Barely worth mentioning! And in that election Joe Biden and Kamala Harris…
The post e135. Election 2020: So Now What? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On last week’s show, we investigated the comedic world of horror movies. This week, we wanted to go a different way… the reality of horror. Yes, of course there are…
The post e134. Reality of Horrors! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Halloween Season is upon us! As scary as 2020 has been in general, we are finally at the part of the year where we are supposed to be scared… or…
The post e133. Comedy of Horrors! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A global pandemic, rampant racism, social unrest, the fall of American democracy, the deaths of celebrity and political icons, feral hogs and murder hornets, and an asteroid is hurtling towards…
The post e132. Is 2020 the Darkest Timeline? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s rare that a tiny little foreign market indie film gets any mainstream media attention at all. It’s even rarer that it actually trends on social media, creating calls for…
The post e131. Cuties: Eroticizing the Innocent and Infantilizing Sexuality appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Way back at beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown — what seems like a million years ago — we did a special episode where we talked to Tristyn and Sophie, two…
The post e130. Freshman Year in Quarantine appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
The corset might be one of the most fascinating garments in the history of fashion. On one hand, it’s simply underwear. It is a garment that provides a specific function.…
The post e129. Corsets: Enhancement, Imprisonment, Empowerment, & Empresses appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Pop Culture is a double edges sword. The more we love a certain type of media, the more of it we absorb. But the more we absorb, the more we…
The post e128. 9 Popular Culture Pet Peeves We Hate and Why appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In our contemporary moment pop culture is controlled by two forces. A focus on so-called “geek culture” and a push for more inclusive diversity across media forms. While there is…
The post e127. Dungeons & Diversity appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Ever since the mid 1980s and the publication of Watchmen comics, their creators, and their fans, have been obsessed with the idea of “deconstruction.” Director Zack Snyder is extremely fond…
The post e126. Reconstructing Deconstructed Superheroes appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s 2020 and the world is ending… or maybe it’s not… or maybe it ended months ago and we just can’t tell anymore. Honestly at this point it’s pretty much…
The post e125. It’s the End of the World as we show it… appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’ve been following the show for the last several months, you know that in our COVID pandemic quarantine imposed death of media, we have turned our constant starvation for…
The post e124. Marveling Over Marble League! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Have you ever gotten into an argument with someone on the Internet and they tried to prove their point by forwarding some meme that was a quote of a famous…
The post e123. Culture, Context, Protest, and Memefication appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
There are a lot of television shows and movies about teenagers, both comedies and dramas.There always have been. And yet, actual teenagers on television are extremely rare. Teens are typically…
The post e122. twentysomethingteen appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We’ve had such a long string of super serious shows lately with some very heavy topics that we’ve been wanting to try and do some things that were more fun,…
The post e121. The Improv Story Game appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Let me tell you a story, children. Way back in the before time, in the long long ago, before the plague came, we used to have this stuff we called…
The post e120. Quarantine Comfort TV appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A few weeks ago, we released an episode about “copaganda.” On that show we started out talking about the TV show Paw Patrol and internet calls to have it and…
The post e119. Copaganda II: Going Rogue appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We live in very interesting times. The world around us is changing every day… and with the internet if feels like it’s changing ever rapidly. With everything from #COVID-19 to…
The post e118. #activism appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
There was a weird story that broke a few weeks ago when people discovered that episodes of the 2012 teen sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place had “censored” the cleavage of…
The post e117. Post-Release Censorship and the Disney Vault appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
One of the most interesting side effects of the recent #BlackLivesMatter protests sparked off by the George Floyd murder has been the #DefundPolice movement gaining national attention. Obviously that’s a…
The post e116. Copaganda, Cartoons, and You appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Every story (well most stories) have a protagonist that we follow throughout the narrative. Usually we are meant to identify with them; they are our link to the plot and…
The post e115. Why Do We Love Minor Characters? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A few years ago, in an interview with Stephen Colbert, Will Smith said that he believed that racism isn’t getting worse — it’s getting filmed. While it may be hard…
The post e114. Your Black Friend is Tired appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A couple of weeks ago, in order to placate the masses during a worldwide quanrantine, Facebook released their new “Avatar” system — a tool to allow users to create little…
The post e113. Cartoons vs. Avatars appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’re unlucky enough to live on the planet Earth, you probably know that it’s not doing terribly well lately. We’ve had a global pandemic sweeping through every corner of…
The post e112. Social Media and Free Speech appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Some things are hard to get over. Your first love. The death of a beloved pet. That time your team lost the Super Bowl. And… apparently that season finale of…
The post e111. STILL Not Over It! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Way back on episode 23 we did our first syllabus episode. We got a bunch of comic scholars together and asked the question “if we wanted to teach a class…
The post e110. Comic Studies-350: X-Men Course Syllabus appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
What makes a good soundtrack to a movie? What makes a good score? And actually, what is the difference between a score and a soundtrack anyway? The answer to that…
The post e109. Scores & Soundtracks appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Way back on episode 86, our four hosts got together and talked about “Good Things We Hate” Hannah, Katya, Wayne and Mav discussed the idea of taste and high brow…
The post e108. Bad Things We Love appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
As we continue this never ending battle with COVID-19, a lot of our socializing takes place on the internet… even more than it already had been. As such, there’s been…
The post e107. Senior Year in Quarantine appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We live in strange times. Obviously, the number one problem right now is that we’re in the middle of a global pandemic that has ground the WHOLE DAMN PLANET to…
The post e106. COVID-19 & the Death of the Comic Shop appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’re listening to our show, chances are you live on the planet Earth (and if not, welcome!) and so that means for the last few week, you have likely…
The post e105. Animal Crossing & Cozy Games in Worldwide Pandemics appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you live anywhere on the planet Earth — and if you’re listening to this podcast, we assume you do — then you’re probably aware that we are currently in…
The post e104. 5 Victorian Parlour Games for Worldwide Pandemics appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
All across the world, everyone is trapped in their homes riding out the COVID-19 pandemic. Movie cineplexes are shut down. Sports, Concerts and other Events are being cancelled. TV shows…
The post e103. Birds of Prey and the Fantaboulous Deconstruction of one VoxPopcast appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Newspapers are a dying breed in the twenty-first century. This isn’t a new thing; it’s been happening for a while. But at this point, more than just newspapers are dying.…
The post e102. News by Meme appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
So first some notes… we’re in a weird place. As we recorded this episode, we were on the cusp of much of America (where all of our hosts are located)…
The post e101. Not the Next Big Thing appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Think about your favorite book, video game, or comic. Who do you think should play the protagonist in the movie? Chances are you have a pretty good idea. Chances are…
The post e100. Hollywood vs. FanCasting appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We live in a content driven world: Movies, Books, Music, TV, Comics, Video Games, and even Podcasts. “Content is king!” or so they say. But of course, different types of…
The post e99. Pseudo-Academic Content: Listener Discretion is Advised appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We have a weird question for you. Which would you rather have a free Ferrari or an all expenses paid, one month trip around the world staying in luxury hotels?…
The post e98. Experience vs. Consumer Culture appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Happy (Belated) Valentines Day! You know what that means? It means time to do a “very special episode” where we somehow try to tie in the holiday concept to the…
The post e97. Fictional & Celebrity Crushes appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In the 21st century, when we think of masks, we think of superheroes. But the idea of superheroes as a concept is only about a century old. Masks have been…
The post e96. Mask Theory appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Welcome! Everything is fine. Well, almost everything is fine. Except The Good Place is no more. This week was the season finale of one of the most unique shows ever…
The post e95. The Good Place and Philosophy appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
After being disappointed by last year’s Oscars, Hannah swore that we would never do another show about them. But then she started thinking about it and wanted to take a…
The post e94. Why Do Award Shows Suck? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’re at least a casual comic book fan you probably know the terms Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age and Modern Age. If you’re a massive comic geek, you…
The post e93. Golden Age of Comics appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Somehow it’s 2020. I don’t get how that happened. 2020 isn’t a year… 2020 is what you make up if you’re setting some science fiction story in the future and…
The post e92: 2010s Decade in Review appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Happy New Year! And with a new year, we have a whole new year of movies to look forward to. And for our show, that means the return of the…
The post e91. 2020 Box Office Draft appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Happy New Year! It’s the end of 2019, and that means it’s time for all good podcasts to do a year in review episode. The thing about a show focused…
The post e90. 30 Good Things You Missed!!! 2019 Year in Review appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’ve been anywhere on the Internet in the last few days… honestly, if you live anywhere on the planet Earth, then you probably know that after forty-two years in…
The post e89. Star Wars: Epic Retrospective appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Christmas time is nearly upon us and that means… well, actually it means a lot of things. Maybe to you Christmas is about family, or love, or religion, or presents.…
The post e88. Yes, Internet, There is a Santa Claus appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
As we move toward the holiday season, there is one thing for certain that we will see: more and more cheesy Christmas movies. You know the type… they’re on Lifetime,…
The post e87. Sentimentalism: Punching Them in the Feels appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
(Repost! This is a repost of an earlier posted blog that was lost in a server crash and upgrade) Taste is a funny thing. Whether it’s books, movies, tv shows,…
The post e86. Good Things We Hate appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
(Repost! This is a repost of an earlier posted blog that was lost in a server crash and upgrade) We live in the future. We live in a world where…
The post e85. Digital Acting (and Deep Fakery) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Live from MAC Charity Con 2019. Comic book conventions stopped being about comic books a long time ago. In fact, the comic book subculture stopped being about comics a long…
The post e84. Comics, Sci-Fi, Fantasy: What is Geek Culture? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen is one of the most popular comic books of all time. It’s been a best seller since 1987, has never been out of print,…
The post e83. 🙂Watching Watchmen😵 appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Usually our show looks at pop culture produced in the relatively recent past. However, that’s not what “popular culture” really means. Really, what this show is about is looking at…
The post e82. Love, Politics and Jane Austen appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s Halloween. And in classic podcast fashion that means it’s time to do a theme episode. Halloween is about many things, but one thing it’s about is horror. Horror movies.…
The post e81. Stephen King and Horror appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A couple of weeks ago, the movie Joker was released in cinemas. Even before it came out, there was a lot of concern and controversy about the tone and message…
The post e80. Irredeemable Characters appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Technology has allowed us to live in the future. We live in a future where creators and artists can market their product directly to their fans, cutting out the middle…
The post e79. Crowdfunding Creative Culture appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Happy October! it’s the beginning of Halloween month so we have something a little special. Just over a year ago, we had a show where we invited a bunch of…
The post e78: Monster Studies-201: Course Syllabus appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We live in a society and there are rules of polite behavior. But what are those rules? Well, that’s not exactly clear. For the most part the basic ones like…
The post e77. Pop Culture Etiquette appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
You know what the best music is? The music we listen to. It’s obviously better than everything else and everyone agrees. And the stuff we don’t like is trash. We…
The post e76. Music Back in MY Day… appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s fall and if you’re a television fan that means you know that we are on the cusp of dozens — or these days maybe even hundreds — of new…
The post e75. Judging a Show by its Pilot? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
At this point it’s pretty safe to say that the Harry Potter book series is one of the most defining pieces of literature in a generation. Love it or hate…
The post e74. Harry Potter and the Politics of Wizardry appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
How do you read? Do you do it on a computer or a tablet or do you prefer good old fashioned paper texts? Do you listen to books on tape…
The post e73. Reading Practices appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
The Internet has two main purposes: porn and cute kittens. The reason people like porn is obvious… or if it isn’t… well, that’s a different show. But what about the…
The post e72. The Power of Cuteness appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
There’re two ways that kids learn about college before they go. Either they talk to parents or high school counselors and they learn about all of the hard work and…
The post e71. Back to School appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Live from Wizard World Pittsburgh! Shows like ours and… well, a lot of the rest of the internet are hopelessly devoted to popular culture: Comic books, movies, music, video games,…
The post e70. Does Pop Culture Matter? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A couple of weeks ago, many Americans were surprised to turn on the news and learn that protests had seemingly suddenly erupted on the island of Puerto Rico demanding the…
The post e69. So, let’s talk about Puerto Rico… appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
You ever notice that thing that happens when a movie studio releases a movie and then another studio releases a movie with pretty much the exact same premise at the…
The post e68. Parallel Media appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Back on June 23rd, a popular social network took a bold stance for 2019. It decided to pronounce all support of Donald Trump or his #MAGA campaign as hate speech…
The post e67. Social Justice Knitting appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Did you hear about the thing a couple weeks ago where a Christian watchdog group started a petition to get Netflix to cancel the hit TV show Good Omens because…
The post e66. Fandom Petitions appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
(Note: an earlier version of this podcast had an audio problem. It has now been corrected. Please redownload if there is an issue) If we’d asked the question “do you…
The post e65. AR Gaming appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you live in the United States of America, then this week is Independence Day, the day when we patriotically celebrate the greatest of our heritage and the foresight of…
The post e64. Mythologizing the Founders appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Recently Mav witnessed something fascinating on the internet. Several men arguing on a message over whether or not it was appropriate to post transgender cosplay models and to talk about…
The post e63. Transcosplaphobia appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Did you know comic books used to be produced almost entirely for children? Yeah! It’s true. Ok, maybe you did know that, but there was a time in America where…
The post e62. Comics! You know… for the Kids! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We seem to like stories we already know. Not just rereading or rewatching an old favorite. We seem to derive some sort of pleasure in seeing a new version of…
The post e61. Narrative REMIX! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Have you ever been perusing Facebook or Twitter and run across a meme that maybe seemed a little funny at first, but when you thought about it, you just thought…
The post e60. Poverty Shaming appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Well, the Game of Thrones finale has come and gone and of course we have to talk about it. The internet had opinions and so do we. But this is…
The post e59. Game of Finales appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
History does not look upon tyranny with favor. The Persian Empire, The Mongol Empire, the Roman Empire, The Qing Dynasty, The British Empire. In our modern contemporary moment we tend…
The post e58. Gaming an Empire appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’ve listened to the show before you know that Hannah and Mav have an ongoing argument about how Riverdale is the best show on television and Hannah is incorrect…
The post e57. You Kant Like That! appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
So, if you’ve ever listened to our show, it shouldn’t be a surprise that we’re doing an episode about Avengers: Endgame. Honestly, this week, pretty much every podcast is doing…
The post e56. Endgame Analysis appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’ve been listening to the show for the last few weeks, you know that all four hosts have been preparing for PCA2019, the national conference of the Popular Culture…
The post e55. PCA-2019 Recap appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Do you remember all of those great Batman supporting characters of color. You know… Batman’s black, latinx, asian and other ethnic sidekicks and villains like… errr… uh… you know… yeah……
The post e54. The Unbearable Whiteness of being Batman appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
On last week’s episode, Katya and Hannah shared the topics of their papers for this year’s upcoming PCA/ACA. Now it’s Wayne and Mav’s turn to do the same. As we…
The post e53. PCA/ACA 2019 Preview: Comic Studies appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’ve been listening to the show for a while, then you’ve no doubt heard us mention the PCA/ACA conference that all four of us are attending in a few…
The post e52. PCA/ACA 2019 Preview: Game Studies appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
We’ve been talking a lot about subcultures on our last couple of episodes. And the terms comes up a lot on the internet — usually negatively — to refer to…
The post e51. So What Is Subculture Anyway? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Somewhere along the line, when they were making the show The Big Bang Theory, someone said “hey, this guy is a geek. Put him in comic book T-shirts, and everyone…
The post e50. Are You What You Wear? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Recently Steven Spielberg allegedly implored the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to make it harder for films distributed primarily through streaming platforms to win Oscars. Or maybe he…
The post e49. Cinema vs. Streaming appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In the current age of Trump, we’ve noticed a peculiar trend. People yearning for the days of an earlier president… a great orator… a wise statesmen with decorum… a calming…
The post e48. Political TV and Nostalgia appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It seems like it happens every day lately. Your favorite writer, comedian, singer, actor, sports star, politician or whatever suddenly hits the news because it turns out he’s a racist,…
The post e47. Milkshake Ducks & Problematic Artists appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
(Note: This episode initially contained a corrupted audio file. It has been cleaned up and reuploaded. The current uploaded version should have better sound. Sorry for the inconvenience) As we…
The post e46. Black Superheroes and Representation appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
This weekend is the Oscars and if you’re a movie junkie like Mav and Hannah, then in a way, this is kind of the Super Bowl of movies. And if…
The post e45. Game of Oscars appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Happy Valentines Day! We thought we’d celebrate by exploring the most romantic of all pop culture genres… no… not RomComs… Monsters of course! Today, Wayne, Hannah and Mav are joined…
The post e44. Young Monsters In Love appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Remember that one time in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows where Hermione and Harry had sexy? No? How about that one time in Star Wars where Luke and Leia…
The post e43. Sexy Ships & Head Canon appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Chances are if you listen to this show you consider yourself a geek about some pop culture media or another. In fact there’s a good chance that you geek out…
The post e42. Diss Continuity appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
You turn on the internet and you see that everyone on social media is talking about a new Netflix Original film. You know what’s coming next. Sometimes a piece of…
The post e41. Snatching Banders? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In an interesting and rare moment, two period dramas about European royalty, The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots, are at the top of the US box office right now. Well, maybe not the…
The post e40. Favourite RoyalTV (and movies) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Once any TV show is on the air for long enough, a curious thing happens. It amasses enough devoted fans that watch it every week that they begin to turn…
The post e39. Media Addiction appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Do you think we can review every movie coming out next year… before we’ve seen any of them… with no real knowledge…. in one hour? Well, just you wait! Welcome…
The post e38. 2019 Box Office Draft appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s that time of year when everyone gets together and does the most Christmasy thing ever. They complain about stuff. Specifically, for the last few years we’ve had people complaining…
The post e37. Problematic Christmas Songs appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you’re Hannah, Christmas means one thing… watching cheesy Christmas romantic movies. She’s not alone. Hallmark Channel, Lifetime, and now Netflix have carved out a niche for themselves producing dozens…
The post e36. Cheesey Christmas Movies appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Ever since the rise of the Internet we have all lived in constant fear of all of our favorite movies, books, TV shows and every other media being spoiled by…
The post e35. SPOILERS! (and Mystery Boxes) appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
When we recorded the following podcast, or rather the bulk of it, we were avoiding work, sitting in front of a computer, several feet any roommate, in homes we rented,…
The post e34. FarmSims: Digital Transcendentalism appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you live in the United States, it was Thanksgiving last week, and that means spending time with family. And lately, it seems that a big part of spending time…
The post e33. Thanksgiving Politics appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Albert Einstein once said, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Well, honestly he probably never said that… or at least…
The post e32. Reboots, Remakes, Revivals appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
The antihero… just like the hero… except he can kill. Wait… heroes kill too now. In fact they always have. Well maybe it’s that the antihero swears… Actually, heroes swear…
The post e31. Heroes, Villains & Antiheroes appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Way back in August we recorded our first Monster Mash episode where we discussed the place of the Monster and the Monster Hunter in popular culture. That was a great…
The post e30. Monster Mash 2: Breaking Twilight appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
“In the regular world, Halloween is when children dress up in costumes and beg for candy. In Girl World, Halloween is the one night a year when a girl can…
The post Episode 29: Sexy Halloween appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
What’s your favorite scary movie, listener? Well, chances are if the answer isn’t something super obvious and popular, Mav probably hasn’t seen it. That said, he’s fascinated with the basic…
The post Episode 28: Slashers and Final Girls appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
In 1967, literary critic and semiotician Roland Barthes wrote an essay called “La mort de l’auteur” that is in many ways foundational for the field of literary studies. It describes…
The post Episode 27: La Mort de l’Auteur appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Last week David Reddish, a former writer for Sesame Street, announced that he’d always thought of Bert and Ernie as gay… and the internet exploded. Some people were happy… some people…
The post Episode 26: The Secret Lives of Puppets appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Just about any parent in American who has a five year old girl knows about the Disney Princesses. Between Frozen, Tangled, Moana, and the others, the “House of Mouse” has…
The post Episode 25: Sex and the Disney Princess appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
At best, “genre fiction” often seems to be taken as synonymous with “popular” or “exciting”. At worse, it is often used a pejorative meaning “low brow” or “garbage”. But what…
The post Episode 24: Genre in General appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
When everyone knows that you are a comics geek, it turns out people ask you quite often “so what should I be reading?” When your job is literally “be a…
The post Episode 23: Comic Studies-301: Course Syllabus appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
A couple of weeks ago, a protest at the University of North Carolina resulted in the toppling of “Silent Sam” a statue that stands at the university to commemorate Civil…
The post Episode 22: Monuments and Memories appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you live in the United States, then it’s almost football season. Even if you’re the kind of non-fan that likes to unaffectionately refer to it as “sports ball” you’re…
The post Episode 21: Sports, Patriotism, and Social Justice appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
“The Monster” and “The Monster Hunter” may be among the oldest figures in popular culture. It is the most basic of stories. Some great evil is threatening the community. Someone…
The post Episode 20: Monster Mash appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s pretty well accepted in contemporary geek culture that “representation matters.” At least, it’s accepted by everyone except for the evil corners of the internet that we don’t really care…
The post Episode 19: Cosplayers of Color appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
If you happened to see a mid-tier 1980s cartoon superheroine get a costume update that was less objectifyingly sexy for a modern day reboot of the series in the last…
The post Episode 18: She-Ra and the Male Gaze appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Wayne loves music. Do you love music? Yeah, we get it, everyone loves music. But Wayne really loves music! Why is that? Why do we connect so strongly with music,…
The post Episode 17: Music, the Soundtrack of our Lives appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Way back on episode 3, Mav, Katya and Abby discussed violence in video games and the conversation segued into talking about video games with sex in them. We promised to…
The post Episode 16: Sex in Video Games appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Remember that one fight in the Matrix that kicked ass? Wait, those all kicked ass. What about that fight in Kill Bill that kicked ass? Actually those all kicked ass…
The post Episode 15: Cinematic Violence & the Impossible Body appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
This week, the United States of America (or what currently passes for it) celebrated it’s birthday. Of course, if you’re a longtime geeky comic book fan, you might also know…
The post Episode 14: Captain America – Patriotism & Nationalism appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Some stories are timeless: Homer’s Odyssey, the legends of Hercules and King Arthur, the fairy tale of Snow White. These are stories that have been repeated so often that everyone…
The post Episode 13: Mythic Reboots appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Dear Mr. Vernon, It was the summer of 2018 and it was the best year of our life. We spent that summer podcasting with… (you know, it’s really hard to…
The post Episode 12: The Coming & Going of the Coming of Age appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
As great as internet is for creating a safe place for people to enjoy all manner of geeky hobbies, there’s a dark side of fandom. From Gamergate to 4chan, there…
The post Episode 11: Toxic Offenders & the Dark Side of Fandom appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
To some the world of fan fiction is the ridiculous hobby of geeks. To others it is a massive repository of erotica and pornography. But to many, it is a…
The post Episode 10: Sex, Gender & FanFic appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Today we change focus and discuss something a little more serious than most of our topics. Mav is away on vacation this week, so Wayne is joined by Marcel Walker…
The post Episode 9: Chutz-Pow! Superheroes of the Holocaust appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Earlier this month Duke University appeared in the news amid a minor controversy where a school administrator was offended by the rap music playing in a campus coffee shop and…
The post Episode 8: Academia & Viral Social Justice appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Live from 3 Rivers Comicon! Comic book conventions began in 1960s as small specialized gatherings of science fiction fans clubs who met to trade magazines. Over the past several decades…
The post Episode 7: Comic Con Culture appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
When we started this podcast, one of our first goals was to make sure we did and episode about the CW reboot of Archie comics, Riverdale. The show reimagines the classic…
The post Episode 6: Sex & Drugs & Riverdale appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
It’s the obligatory Avengers: Infinity War episode! Well, sort of. Infinity War is, as one might expect, the biggest movie in the world right now… and by certain metrics, the…
The post Episode 5: Infinity Franchises & Cinematic Universes appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Never argue about politics or religion on the internet! Well, really, they’re the same thing. But so are arguments about atheism. And comics. And sports. And movies. And unix text…
The post Episode 4: Losing My Religiosity? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Do video games make you violent? Probably not, but if so why is there so much controversy surrounding them? This week, Mav is joined by Katya and Abby — both…
The post Episode 3: Violence in Video Games appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
Today we talk about nostalgia porn. No… not that kind of porn… though I guess it might be interesting to do a whole episode devoted to talking about vintage pornography…
The post Episode 2: Do You Remember Nostalgia? appeared first on The VoxPopcast.
At long last, it is finally here. Welcome to the first episode of the VoxPopcast, “Origin Stories.” Here, Wayne and Mav, joined by special guest John Darowski, explain the concept…
The post Episode 1: Origin Stories appeared first on The VoxPopcast.