Welcome to Pop Culture Sociologist!
In this brand new monthly podcast about media I’ll tell you about interesting movies, TV shows and books, from old favorites like A Song of Ice and Fire to the connections between classic literature and modern horror TV. I have two degrees in sociology and I find that lens is always present and prominent in any analysis I do, hence the name. So, subscribe and let me tell you cool stories about media in each new episode.
For regular updates you’re also welcome to follow my Twitter or Facebook.
You can listen to the podcast on your preferred podcast app or website, here are some of the most popular ones:
But if you’d, you can also listen to all the episodes right here! They’re listed from latest to earliest (the very first one is the trailer!).
Some episodes come with bonus content, like blog posts, and every episode except the very first one has a transcript, all linked below.
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider supporting it on Patreon! Patrons get early access to bonus material, Q&A, a Zoom chat with me, and various other perks.
Episode 7: Bonus Q&A Episode
For this special episode listeners submitted questions and the host answered them in a live, unscripted recording. Questions included everything from the writing process to opinions about genres and different social issues.
Timestamps: full list of questions and timestamps
Episode 6: Is there a right way to write a matriarchy?
When’s the last time you read a story set in a matriarchy? Did you enjoy it? What are the common tropes to writing matriarchies and who do they serve? In this episode you’ll hear about fantasy and science fiction matriarchies in everything from Star Trek to books by Kameron Hurley, Sarah Rees Brennan, C.S. Pacat and many more, and what they get “right” and “wrong” about this form of social worldbuilding. In the final part of the episode you’ll hear more in detail about a TV show that’s breaking all the rules of fictional matriarchies – “Motherland: Fort Salem”, a show where witches serve in the U.S. military.
Transcript: coming soon!
Episode 5: Who gets to be the hero in historical narratives?
How accurate does historical fiction have to be to enhance our understanding of the past rather than harm it? In the age of historical retellings/reimagenings like Hamilton and Bridgerton, I look at the works of historical romance novelist KJ Charles and the British TV series “The Devil’s Mistress” to examine how marginalized people are and aren’t allowed to take up space in historical narratives. Can fictional characters ever be “accurate”, and is that the only standard we should judge historical fiction by? No knowledge of either KJ Charles’ books or the TV show is necessary for enjoying the episode.
Transcript: here’s a full transcript of the episode.
Episode 4: Does Jemisin’s “The Fifth Season” solve the “X-Men Problem”?
The X-Men universe popularized a unique set of tropes common to fantasy worldbuilding: people with superpowers who are feared and persecuted by society. This trope is everywhere from the “Witcher” books/games/show to many popular YA novels, but it creates a particular set of problems when it comes to representing systemic oppression. In this episode I’ll explain the “X-Men Problem” and why it’s a common genre trope, and dive into the award-winning book “The Fifth Season” by N.K. Jemisin, which offers a refreshing, fascinating take on this issue. No knowledge of either the X-Men franchise or the contents of the book is necessary for enjoying the episode.
Transcript: here’s a full transcript of the episode.
Episode 3: The best queer pairing you’ll never watch: Root/Shaw on Person of Interest
Sometimes TV shows give us amazing queer pairings but end up not treating them right. In this special episode of Pop Culture Sociologist I’m going to give you all the best parts of badass assassin Sameen Shaw and hacker spy Samantha “Root” Groves and their epic (canonic!) romance from the show “Person of Interest”. If you’ve never watched the show, I’ll give you the best parts, and if you’ve watched it, I’ll analyze the characters and the pairing and hopefully give you some new interesting things to think about.
Bonus: here’s the episode guide to “Person of Interest” that I mention during the episode!
Transcript: here’s a full transcript of the episode.
Episode 2: Lyanna Stark and how “Game of Thrones” was almost a brilliant social critique
What does Lyanna Stark’s portrayal on “Game of Thrones” have to do with women in the real world being written out of history? The show has been both praised and criticized for its portrayal of female characters, but could the difference in Lyanna’s plot between George R. R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire Books” and the TV show be the key to understanding women’s stories in the world of Westeros? In the second episode of Pop Culture Sociologist you’ll hear about the One Weird Trick the show could have used to bring the most subversive part of the books into the adaption.
Bonus: here’s the post about women artists I mention during the episode!
Transcript: here’s a full transcript of the episode.
Episode 1: Why “Hannibal” is the best screen adaptation of Nabokov’s “Lolita”
Why is Bryan Fuller’s “Hannibal”, a horror show about a cannibal and an FBI profiler, a more accurate adaptation of “Lolita” than the two official film adaptations of the book, by Stanley Kubrick and Adrian Lyne? In the first episode of Pop Culture Sociologist we’ll be talking about the TV show “Hannibal” and the book “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov, what they have in common, and how Hollywood failed to communicate the things that TV did successfully.A trailer for the show: