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 most adapted characters in film, TV and other media. In fact, Netflix just produced a new version last week. That seemed like a good excuse to talk about it. So, on this episode Wayne, Hannah, and Mav welcome back our resident monster scholar and long-time friend of the show, Michael Chemers. On this episode we trace the history of the Frankenstein characters (both scientist and monster) and talk about the changes they’ve seen over the years as well as talk about why it has been so influential and inspired not only direct adaptations but informed the history and development of science fiction over the last 200 years. Listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Our episode about Dracula adaptations



* “A Brief History of the PhD” by Alisa Moskaleva



* Order Michael’s new book, The Figure of the Monster in Global Theater



* Listen to his podcast, The Show Where They Talk About Monsters









* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Hannah on BlueSky: @hannahleerogers



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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. Hence the occasional shows dealing with Game Jam. However, we’ve never talked about it in detail. Why is an English department so involved with this sort of thing and what’s the value in studying games anyway? Well, ever since Mav’s been employed there, he’s been working on getting his friend, video game designer, author, and friend of the show Cheryl Platz a spot doing a guest talk at his school. Well, we finally did that this week, as Cheryl stopped by Pittsburgh while on her tour for her new book, The Game Development Strategy Guide. And her talk was a great success that the students loved.



But that still doesn’t explain why any of this is important. So we decided that maybe we should do an episode talking about that. So on this episode Mav welcomes back Cheryl, as well as his coworker, returning guest, Jessica FitzPatrick, and first time guest (and Cheryl’s husband), actor and playwright David Foubert to talk about the the importance of games, narrative and collaboration on education and culture. Listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Buy Cheryl’s book from our Amazon affiliate link



* Learn all about Cheryl on her website: https://ideaplatz.com



* Or on her Linktree: https://linktr.ee/funnygodmother



* Learn all about Dave on his website: https://davidfoubert.com



* See Cheryl on the YouTube series, Shadowrun Corporate SINs



* See Dave’s vaudeville reinterpretation of Shakespeare, “Who Doth Inhabit the Primary Position” 



* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

(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… well… serious-ish, pseudo-academic intellectual pursuits and just do something a little fun. This is one of those weeks. Last week our friends at the Protagonist Podcast debuted a new game that they called “the Fives” and this week… well, we are shamelessly stealing it. Why? Because Mav listened to the episode and thought it was so fun that he just wanted to play. And so he grabbed Monica and Wayne and here we are. How does it work? Simple, each of the hosts picks a topic for a list and then they do a a round robin draft of the top five matching items for the list each. So I guess, maybe it’s sort of the fifteens? Whatever. The twist is you have to pick in the moment with no forethought leading up to it. It all makes sense in the end. And it was really fun and silly, so listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow Monica on Instagram: @monicamarvelous



* Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 those weeks. Last week our friends at the Protagonist Podcast debuted a new game that they called “the Fives” and this week… well, we are shamelessly stealing it. Why? Because Mav listened to the episode and thought it was so fun that he just wanted to play. And so he grabbed Monica and Wayne and here we are. How does it work? Simple, each of the hosts picks a topic for a list and then they do a a round robin draft of the top five matching items for the list each. So I guess, maybe it’s sort of the fifteens? Whatever. The twist is you have to pick in the moment with no forethought leading up to it. It all makes sense in the end. And it was really fun and silly, so listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow Monica on Instagram: @monicamarvelous



* Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 before but that is something of a classic pop culture phenomena — The Haunted House. Hannah recently visiting a haunted house for the first time in her life… well maybe… and she wanted to talk about the fascinating culture behind them. So on this episode, she and Mav are joined by haunted house enthusiast, returning guest Brooklin Minicone-Esola to talk all about her experiences frequenting and even working in haunted houses, and the appeal that they show for the public. It’s a fun conversation so check it out and let us know your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Hannah on BlueSky: @hannahleerogers



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 did an episode about “creepy kids” in media and why they are both so unsettling and so fascinating. Well, this year we thought we’d look at the opposite effect. What about “creepy old people”? On this week’s show Hannah, Wayne and Monica are joined by returning guest Blake Collins to talk about trope of the creepy old person as well as the place of the elderly in media and fiction in general and how it relates to our culture around us, particularly in horror movies, but in other media as well. Join us and then let us know your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Blake on his website: https://www.blakecollins.me



* Follow Hannah on BlueSky: @hannahleerogers



* Follow Monica on Instagram: @monicamarvelous



* Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 judge and mentor for an annual event held at his place of employment, the University of Pittsburgh, where students compete to create playable games with pro-social messages over a marathon session that takes the entire weekend. This was that weekend! And since Mav is there the entire time, he;s taken to spotlighting various student projects by interviewing the participants while they work. So join us for this year’s Games4SocialImpact GameJam special and hear what all the students were working on and about their design process. Then, head on over to the contest’s webpage where you can download the games and play them yourself. And as always, if you have thoughts, let us know in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Download the games for play at the Games4SocialImpact 2025 itch.io page





* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 we’ve been doing this show for 391 episodes and haven’t devoted an episode to manga before now. Sure it’s come up in discussions about comics and other things, but we never didd a show about manga in and of itself. Well now is the time to fix that. On today’s episode Mav is joined by Manga experts Sean O’Brien, Andrew Deman and Ren to talk about manga, how it came to be, how it differs from American comics and what is the culture around them. We’ve never talked about manga before so there’s a lot to catch up on. Listen and let us know what we should follow up on in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* LIsten to Andrew and Ren’s podcast: Sexuality and Gender in Manga



* Buy Andrew’s new book on Chris Claremont, or his old one!



* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 in practical terms for cultural studies and related fields. Recently however, friend of the show Andrew Darowski, texted Mav and casually asked if that concept applied to images and most specifically memes? It turns out that this is a concept that Mav talks about in a class that he teaches regularly. After talking about it for about two seconds Mav and Andrew both realized this was obviously a show, and so… well, here you go. On today’s episode, Mav explains the influential theories of John Berger, author of Ways of Seeing and how he sees them as applying to meme culture of today as we talk a trip through media and politics and a bunch of other stuff. Listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* John Berger’s Way’s of Seeing (book)



* John Berger’s Way’s of Seeing (documentary series)



* Our original episode on the Death of the Author





* Listen to Andrew’s show, Disney Animation Minute Essentials and follow him on Twitter: @disminute



* Listen to Andrew’s other show The Protagonist Podcast



* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 so than our (new) normal level of crazy. A couple of weeks ago, right-wing political commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered while performing his college campus speaking tour bit. This episode isn’t really about that. We promise! In the aftermath comedian Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about president Donald Trump which in a convoluted chain of events (we’ll talk about it on the show) resulted in Kimmel’s show being “indefinitely suspended”. In response a lot of people called for a boycott of Disney+ and Hulu since they are owned by the same conglomerate (Disney) that owns ABC, the network that Kimmel’s show is on. As a result, Mav made a comment on social media about the boycott and its effectiveness and that brings us to this moment. What makes a boycott effective? How does collective social action work anyway?



On today’s episode Mav welcomes returning friends of the show Stephanie Siler, Les Kay and Matthew Brake to tall all about boycotts. From Disney+ to Target to Amazon to the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56, we break down how they work and why they work and why they are important and why they sometimes fail. We also explain how the FCC works and licensing and everything you need to know to understand the basics and the specifics of this particular case. Listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Follow Les on his Substack: leskay.substack.com



* Follow Matt on his blog: popularcultureandtheology.com



* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 have opinions on it. But honestly, you’re likely getting enough of that. So this week, Mav and Hannah decided to do a light show where we just recap the movies of the summer and we speak to demise of the American monoculture and how that is affecting the pop culture landscape. It’s light and easy and sometimes that’s what you need. Listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Hannah on BlueSky: @hannahleerogers



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 seems everyone agrees “these are the prestige shows”. The shows that the critics talk about. The shows that people say “that’s quality”. Of course, these days there are even more of those than ever as well. On this week’s show Mav and Wayne are joined by sort-of-returning guest George Tsakiridis to talk about the concept of peak television and what makes it work. Plus we’re going to talk about not only why this kind of television is worth analyzing, and since George is currently in the process of editing an essay collection on Theology and Peak TV, we’re going to discuss why anyone would want to discuss a theoretically non-religious show with a theological lens — and what does that even mean anyway? Well hopefully we’ll break it all down, so listen and then give us your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Submit and abstract to George’s CFP for Religion & Peak TV



* The Revolution Was Televised by Alan Seppinwall



* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 vs what there used to be. But for better or worse, the day epic 20+ season runs of several hundred episodes are probably behind us, with the exception of a couple shows that are still on the air. So on today’s epsidoe, which literally came to Monica in a dream, she Mav and Wayne are joined by returning guest Blake Collins to talk about the evolution of television with respect to long-form story telling. Listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Blake on his website: https://www.blakecollins.me



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow Monica on Instagram: @monicamarvelous



* Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 where one of the hosts is honestly surprised that there are people who don’t like the film. That’s what we have today. One of Mav’s favorite movies from childhood was the 1980 adaptation of Flash Gordon. Mav has seen it so many times that the honest truth is he really didn’t know that there were people who didn’t love it. So on this episode Mav is joined by Wayne and Flash Gordon IP superfan Neal Jones — who it turns out has never watched this film before — to analyze the film and it’s relation to the greater universe of Flash Gordon media. Do you love the film? Do you hate it? Is it good? Is it bad but you love it anyway? Listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 and gender politics, racial dynamics and a treatise on the invention of class dynamics, all thrown together with a collection of Broadway’s finest actors in some absolutely fantabulous period costumes. Hannah and Monica immediately started planning an episode. That was three years ago. We’re just getting to it now. But that’s perfect, because last week was the season 3 finale and so that just means we have plenty to talk about! So on this episode, we welcome back friend of the show Josh Stroud, so that he Hannah, and Monica can introduce Mav to the Gilded Age and we can discuss what makes the show work and not work. Whether you’ve seen the show or not, listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments below.



Citations and Links:




* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Hannah on BlueSky: @hannahleerogers



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow Monica on Instagram: @monicamarvelous



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 media product turns out to be a very problematic individual. Even back then we acknowledged that things were much more complicated than the world liked to make it out to be. But now, as time has gone on and more an more creators are cancelled for various reasons AND we have had pushback and backlash from … well, let’s face it… a post-Trump America, what does cancelling someone for being problematic even look like anymore? Is it even possible. On this week’s episode Mav and Wayne are joined by friend of the show Stephanie Siler to revisit the topic of milkshake ducks. Do you have thoughts? Listen and let us know in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 detective solve the mystery. They are our eyes and ears. We know only what they know, and we must solve the crime along with the detective. This is not an episode about those. Instead, we want to talk about a related genre, the Howcatchem, aka the inverted mystery. There are a surprising amount of entries int he pop culture landscape about crimes where the audience is fully aware of details of the crime that the detective is not. Often, we may even see the crime committed in the opening scene. On this crossover episode with the Protagonist Podcast, Mav is joined by returning guests Joe Darowski and Stephanie Siler to explore this phenomenon and what makes it great. Why do we enjoy mysteries so much when what is traditionally thought of as the defining trait of the genre is rendered moot? Listen and then let us know your thoughts in the comments.



Citations and Links:




* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Listen to Joe on The Protagonist Podcast and follow him on BlueSky: @jdarowski



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 new Superman movie, things have been looking up a bit this summer. But something odd has been happening. For some reason, the general vibe among superhero movie fans has sort of been hanging the future of the genre on the new Fantastic Four movie. This is sort of weird because arguably there’s never been a good Fantastic Four movie before. In fact, some might argue that all of the previous recent attempt have been distinctly bad! And yet, we had high hopes as well. So what did we think? Well, on this episode Mav, Hannah and Wayne are joined by returning guests Ryan Scott Thomas and Mark Schultis to talk about the new movie and the cultural impact of Fantastic Four from the comics through the various movie attempts and even the cartoons. Listen and let us know what you think.



Citations and Links:




* Learn about Mark’s books on his website or order them on Amazon



* See Mark’s toy photography on Instagram: @thenemesisrises



* Follow Ryan on Instagram: @ryanscottthomas



* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Hannah on BlueSky: @hannahleerogers



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow Wayne on Instagram: @tetroc2017



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!

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 time zone issue. She’s currently living in Paris on a research fellowship for her dissertation. This means that she’s basically doing the bulk of her “being awake” while all of the other co-hosts AREN’T! Nonetheless, we wanted to make sure she got some time to talk about it, so on this episode Mav and Monica discuss not only Monica’s personal travels but also the narrative trope of “going abroad” as well as the the American cultural fascination with it. It’s along range conversation covering coming of age, colonialism, education, sex, love, fashion, film, old TVs and movies, and booking several other potential shows. So we’d definitely like to know what you think. Let us know in the comments below.



Citations and Links:




* Thank you to Maximilian’s thoughtForm Music for our theme



* Follow Mav on BlueSky: @chrismaverick



* Follow Monica on Instagram: @monicamarvelous



* Follow us on BlueSky: @voxpopcast



* Follow us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/voxpopcast



* Subscribe to our YouTube channel



* Make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever podcasts are found and please leave us a review!