The VoxPopcast

Oct 28 2024 345 ep. 71 mins 12
The VoxPopcast Podcast artwork

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

  Society & Culture  Education  TV & Film
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


e342. Creepy Dolls and the Freudian Uncanny

Oct 28 2024
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, Mav, Wayne and Monica are joined by friend of the show and Director of University of California at Santa Cruz’s Center for Monster Studies, Michael Chemers to talk all about the spooky

e341. #Games4SocialImpact 2024: The Rise of Jerry

Oct 21 2024
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 Mav interviews students in the midst of the 3 day design marathon as they build games that explore social issues. This year’s th

e340. Reimagining Dracula: a Conversation with Matt Wagner and Kelley Jones

Oct 14 2024
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 find. A few years ago, we did an episode all about the varying film adaptations of Dracula and noted that Dracula himself was perhaps one of the most adapted characters in the history of fiction. But what

e339. Why Do Smart People Like Trashy Reality Shows?

Oct 07 2024
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 watch a bunch of them. And like… we’re smart! in fact, being smart is sort of the entire point of this show. And yet, we watch some of the admittedly most mindnumpingly dumbest TV shows possible. Regularly! On t

e338. Fandom and Identity: The Evolution of Beloved Characters

Sep 30 2024
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 comics films bears surprisingly little in common with his original comic book impetus. In this episode, Mav and Wayne Wise are joined by guests recent Eisner winning comics scholar Andrew Deman and PCA fando

e337. Umm… So, is this like a Reboot?!? Or Something?

Sep 23 2024
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 lifeguards. As he watched it, he was entranced, but couldn’t help thinking to himself “isn’t this just Baywatch?” But alas, the show seemed to want to present itself as an entirely new progr

e336. So, Why Pop Culture?

Sep 16 2024
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 of popular culture (with drinking and swearing) is an important activity. We certainly feel that way, and chances are if you’re a regular listener you probably think so too.

e335. Prequels Unraveled: Stitching Gaps or Snagging Cash?

Sep 09 2024
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 cast of a film back)? Prequels are obviously the answer. But why? Is there any value to prequels or are they nothing more than shameless cash grabs. And in that respect, are the a

e334. From DNC to SDCC: Comparing the Convention Experience

Sep 02 2024
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 gatherings that one can imagine but for different groups. Of course Mav is enough of a pop culture and politics addict that he watched them both! And as he did, he noticed a lot of similarities

e333. Twisters, Titanics, & Terror: Deconstructing Disaster Narratives

Aug 25 2024
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 many of them that are basically about what if our modern problems became not only inescapable, but became the absolute worst case scenario of themselves and threatened to destroy the world? In this episode Mav, Katya, and Hannah are