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In this episode, Sangita Shresthova, Associate Research Professor of Communication at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and Sam Ford, Founding Partner and Chief Connection Officer, InnoEngine, discuss work they have been doing applying insights from the Civic Imagination Project to help address communities needs in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Bowling Green is a rapidly expanding urban center which has some of the most diverse schools and one of the largest population of refuges of Any American city. They are confronting the reality that by 2050, their population will be twice as big as it is now. How can they plan for such dramatic expansion? How can they preserve their core values as a community while also learning from the New Americans entering their ranks? This interview takes us through some of the tools – cultural,, organizational, and technical – which enabled the city to work together to anticipate  ideal future developments. It illustrates how  notions of Civic Imagination makes narrative development a key pillar of urban development.

Sangita Shresthova, PhD is a multilingual scholar specializing in civic participation, popular culture, and the intersections of digital media and intercultural communication. She leads a range of projects examining civic engagement in both digital and physical spaces. Shresthova’s expertise in designing and executing complex qualitative research is exemplified by her leadership in a multi-year study of youth activism in the digital age, which culminated in the publication of By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism. Shresthova’s other  published works include: Is It All About the Hips?: Around the World With Bollywood Dance, We Are Civic Media, Connected Cultures: How to Parent Across Borders,  Transformative Media Pedagogies, and Practicing Futures: The Civic Imagination Action Handbook. Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination: Case Studies of Creative Social Change explore how imaginative practices and popular culture can foster creative social transformation. She is also a co-creator of the Digital Civics Toolkit, a widely recognized resource designed to support educators and community leaders in guiding youth learning in digital environments. The toolkit was named one of the “Best Edtech of 2018” and continues to be a vital resource for fostering digital literacy and civic engagement. She is currently co-editing (with Henry Jenkins) The Global Handbook of the Civic Imagination.

Shresthova has been a guest on this podcast to discuss Civic Imagination  and innovative media pedagogies previously.

For more information on the Civic Imagination Project, visit their website.

To learn more about the workshops, download a PDF here.

Sam Ford is a Founding Partner of InnoEngine. He has worked on innovation approaches, engagement and storytelling strategies, and cultural intelligence initiatives with a wide range of organizations across multiple industry sectors, including consulting clients that have ranged from Lowe’s Hardware, WD-40, and the U.S. Department of State to Microsoft, University of Southern California, and WNYC.  As Director of Cultural Intelligence, Ford co-created an organic growth initiative for Paramount at the book publisher it then owned, Simon & Schuster. As VP of Innovation & Engagement, he oversaw innovation projects and partnerships across subsidiary companies owned by Univision. And, as a director for NYC strategic communications firm Peppercomm, he helped lead innovative communications strategies for clients ranging from Whirlpool, TJMaxx, Food Network, and MINI to EY, Siemens, Steelcase, and Lincoln Financial and was named Digital Communicator of the Year and a Social Media MVP by PR News in 2014 and Bulldog Reporter Social Media Innovator of the Year in 2011. Early in his career, Ford helped establish and run the MIT Convergence Culture Consortium research group. He has served as a research affiliate with MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing and as a Knight News Innovation Fellow with Columbia Journalism’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, the latter of which resulted in work that received the inaugural Research Prize for Professional Relevance from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in 2018. He has published more than 25 pieces of academic research, including being co-author of the NYU Press book Spreadable Media, named one of 2013’s Best Business Books by Strategy+Business.

The opening segment featuring West Virginia workshops participants comes from Us & Them,, a podcast produced by Trey Kaye for West Virginia Public Radio, which did a special episode about the Civic Imagination Project.

Other relevant Links for this episode:

AccelerateKY

WKU Innovation Campus

Bill Monroe

Digital Promise

MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program (MIT REAP)

Dr.  Timothy Carboni

Rusty Justice

Henry Buddy Steen

Dr. Terrance Brown

Doug Gorman

Andrea Wenzel

American Assembly, Columbia University

Google Polis

BG 2050

What Could BG Be?

Community Driven

Speculative Journalism

Civic Imagination Incubator

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Geri Gay Professor of Communication at Cornell University and founder of the Data & Society Research Institute, danah boyd, joins us to talk about data and the US census. danah covers census history and its importance in the datafication of the US populace for congressional representation, redistricting and directing trillions of dollars of federally funded programs. She gives us an incredible window into the 2020 and 2030 decennials through her ethnographic work with the Census Bureau, featured in her new book, Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census. Along with Mizuko Ito and Henry Jenkins, boyd co-authored Participatory Culture in a Networked Era: A Conversation About Youth, Learning, Commerce, and Politics. She also wrote It’s Complicated: The Social Life of Networked Teens.

In the wide-ranging conversation, danah speaks about the difficulties of acquiring data and what makes it legitimate. She delves into the many political tensions around the census and how a wide range of actors interact with those tasked with making the decennial census. We end by reflecting on how the census connects to motivations for political movements and change amongst the people it affects the most. Since the show was recorded, the Administration has proposed significant changes for the 2030 decennial census and there’s more information in the links below.

Here are some references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper.

Learning Resources:

• Data Are Made, Not Found A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census by danah boyd
• The American Census: A Social History by Margo J. Anderson
• Democracy's Data The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them by Dan Bouk
• Today’s Census News Is A Big Deal by danah boyd in Made Not Found (9/2026)
• ​​American Democracy Depends On The Census. Trump Is Undermining It. by danah boyd in The Guardian (9/2026)
• Independent Census Scientific Advisory Committee recommendations (9/2026)
• National Conference on Citizenship Primer on Census Datar
• The Population Bomb [Amazon link, Wikipedia entry]
• Voting Rights Act (1965)
• FERPA
• Participatory Culture in a Networked Era: A Conversation on Youth, Learning, Commerce, and Politics by Henry Jenkins, Mizuko Ito, danah boyd [Amazon link]

People & Organizations:

• Wilbur Ross
• Herman Hollerith
• United States Census Bureau 
• IBM
• Bureau of Labor Statistics Data Users Advisory Committee
• Census Advisory Committees
• U.S. Department of Commerce
• National Public Radio census (and more) reporter extraordinaire, Hansi Lo-Wang
• The Census Project
• Fair Count
• John Tanton
• Franz Kafka
• Kris Kobach
• Thomas Hofeller
• John Eastman
• Monument to the Unknown Bureaucrat

Media & Events: 

• “Hotel California” (song)
• United States Semiquincentennial
• Jenga (game)
• Get Counted, NYC! Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez & Lin-Manuel Miranda Teach on the 2020 Census (PSA)
• Everybody Counts, featuring Ed Helms
• Census Taker vs. Old Lady - SNL

Opportunities for Action:

• Comment on proposed changes to Census by 10/13/26 at Regulations.gov 
• Census Counts  (current campaign)
• Hands Off Our Census (current campaign)

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MIT Media Lab’s Mitchel Resnick speaks with us about the development of his Lifelong Kindergarten research group and their efforts to affect the educational landscape through creative technological activities. Throughout the conversation, we describe the shifts in academic environments, starting from the free-form, highly imaginative kindergarten rooms to the stricter halls of higher learning. Mitch relates these changes to different uses of technology within the classroom setting and the differences in learning methods. He emphasizes that participatory uses of technology, such as remixing media or sharing projects, invite creativity and community for students. We compare Mitch’s practices to those used by fandom and liken them to building LEGO masterpieces without instructions; both emphasize the sharing of information and building communities. This conversation with Mitch is filled with the hope that curiosity and creativity will keep people as lifelong learners.      

Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:

Academic/Educational readings and resources:

People & Places:

Media:

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USC professor of English, gender & sexuality studies, and American studies & ethnicity, and chair of the Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies Karen Tongson and NYU Assistant Professor of History Adrian De Leon join us to talk about their adoration of baseball and reality TV. Using their piece “Both Sides Now: On the 2025 World Series,” we discuss the affective and cultural dialogues sports media creates. Karen and Adrian draw from their own Filipino upbringings and fandom of the MLB to showcase the complexities between corporate actions, fan desires, and the influence of imperialism in athletics. We then relate the creation of narratives and societal reflections in sports to reality TV shows like The Amazing Race and Traitors. The conversation culminates in a description of how sports fandom and reality TV watchers are more strongly alike than others think. Karen and Adrian suggest that people both enjoy and be critical of sports and reality TV because they can assist with understanding the world around us. Or, they can help us laugh at social rules within romantic relationships or sports rituals. 

Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:

Academic/Educational readings and resources:

People & Places:

Media:

See even more links for this episode on our website!

For another perspective on reality television, check out our earlier episode with Diane Winston on Religion and Reality Television

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University of Chicago Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies,

AE Stevenson and Rutgers University–New Brunswick, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies Brooklyne Gipson join us to talk about digital Black feminism online. We start our discussion with America’s relations with the platform TikTok, and how it is a large social media site for Black creators. We then explore how to define community and culture, especially for Black people online, in a world resistant to progress. Building from this, AE and Brooklyne discuss how certain communicative practices in the Black community focus on storytelling as a vehicle for critical thought rather than a lack of media literacy education. This leads to the larger topic of online discourse around the films Sinners and One Battle After Another. We end with dissecting how the recognition of, or lack thereof, Black culture affects people’s views of these films. Although they both feature Black actors, they interact with culture very differently. Ultimately, we push for an awareness of the multilayered discussions of media seen as progressive or discursive. They should think about what cultures and communities are being featured and how.       

Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:

Academic/Educational readings and resources:

People & Places:

Media:

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Showing her love of movies, Izzy from Be Kind Rewind chats with us about her process of creating video essays and connection to researching actresses in the Hollywood system. We discuss how her fannish love of TCM films turned into a passion for making videos and navigating complex topics often overlooked or simplified into gossip. Diving deeper into this, Izzy speaks about her recent video on actress Merle Oberon’s race as it relates to William Wyler’s Wuthering Heights (1939) and its latest adaption by Emerald Fennell. There we discuss how the construction of stardom and the text of a piece impact readings of race as a racialized work attempts to become de-racailized by directorial choices. Using her Vanessa Redgrave video, Izzy also talks to us about the Oscars,its relationship to politics, and how it impacts actresses. We end this longer epsiode with a hint of the future for Be Kind Rewind and our 2026 Oscar predictions. Afterwards, Samantha and Henry give their Oscar predictions in every category.

This episode is filled with fun, fandom, and just a touch of Hollywood magic! We get into what passions drive a video essayist and the interesting topics that can happen about the film industry if we are not strictly going by salacious headlines. It is an episode that not only asks viewers to watch more films but, also challenges them to think about the wider implications of the moving image.  

Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:

Some Suggested BKR Videos:

Academic/Educational readings and resources:

People & Places:

Media:

You might also enjoy our previous Oscar Themed episode and the Oscar Watch series Henry is currently running on his blog. 

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Professor of Journalism at USC Annenberg, Robert Kozinets, and Henry Jenkins speak with us about their ongoing book series Frames of Fandom. Both authors explore how they met, their ever-evolving work in fan studies, and what inspired them to create a 16-book series. Both scholars discuss the complexity of fandom as it intersects with consumer culture and subcultures. They even ask if fandom itself can be considered a subculture or something akin to religion! The conversation ends with a discussion of accessibility to academic texts, their choice of writing personal ethnographies throughout the books, and the future of the book series.   

Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:

Academic/Educational readings and resources:

People & Places:

Media:

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In this episode, Bertha Chin— Senior lecturer and the Director of the National University of Singapore’s Communications And New Media program— and Swapnil Rai—Associate Professor Film, Television and Media Associate Professor Communication and Media at the University of Michigan—join us to speak about the global streaming media landscape. From Bollywood to Hollywood, Rai and Chin dissect the complexity of media movements as both parts of cultural imperialism and the widening of fandoms. Both scholars lead us through discussions of the transnational circulations and development of series on streaming platforms, relating them to the wider topic of power relations within globalization. By the end, we are left to examine how we engage with transnational shows, who produces them, and how other countries have interpreted the same show. Is streaming the best way to be exposed to other cultures, or is it trying to mobilize the audiences and resources of other countries? 

Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:

Academic/Educational readings and resources:

• Transnational Streaming Television Reshaping Global Flows and Power
• Networked Bollywood How Star Power Globalized Hindi Cinema
• Crowdfunding the Future Media Industries, Ethics, and Digital Society
• Eating Fandom Intersections Between Fans and Food Cultures
• Bollywoodizing Netfix or globalizing Hotstar? The cultural-industrial logics of global streaming platforms in India
• Modi vs. Wild: Celebritized Politics and the Mediations of a Spiritual Strongman
• What Is Arthouse Cinema? A Guide to Movies Off the Mainstream Path [Article Link]
• Netflix Subscribers Statistics 2026 [Link]
• South Korean Panda discourse [News Link]

People & Places:

• Venice International Film Festival
• Berlin International Film Festival
• Cannes Film Festival
• Trader Joe’s
• Ted Sarandos
• Reed Hastings
• Lori Morimoto
• Julia Sonnevend
• Moo Deng
• Narendra Modi
• Bear Grylls
• Victor Orban
• Priyanka Chopra
• Lee Jung-jae
• Quentin Tarantino
• Sergio Leone
• Bong Joon Ho
• Dave Chappelle
• Takashi Miike

Media:

• Netflix
• Amazon Video
• Disney+ Hotstar
• K-pop (music genre)
• The X-Files
• Doctor Who
• BBC
• Salaam Namaste
• Paranormal
• Narcos
• Sacred Games [book, Netflix]
• Gangs of Wasseypur
• Gangs of Wasseypur 2
• 3%
• Game of Thrones
• Squid Games
• KPop Demon Hunters
  • Shin Ramyun Kpop Demon Hunters
• Bon Appétit, Your Majesty
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Scooby Doo
• Frankenstein (2025)
• Winter Sonata
• Man vs.Wild
• Star Wars
• Star Trek
• Mortal Kombat
• The Acolyte 
• The Mechanism
• Grillo Vs. Grillo
• Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj
• Record of Ragnarok [manga, TV show]
• Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2025 
• Universal Language
• Sukiyaki Western Django

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In this episode, we chat with Ethan Zuckerman— a Public Policy, Communication and Information professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst— about his views on the present political climate and major movements occurring in reaction to the Trump administration. From the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis to memes on the internet to the Boston Massacre, we discuss the various forms of resistance the public can perform in the face of adversity. Zuckerman also delves into the historization of mass movements and how their retellings, or lack thereof, can shape how we perform and learn about resistance. We end by circling back to a discussion of memes and AI as they influence how America views current events. Zuckerman leaves us wondering what America looks like and how the celebrations will roll out as we hit its 250th birthday in 2026.  In particular, we explore what monuments and memorials might look like if they emerged bottom-up from the people rather than top-down from government institutions.

Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:

Academic/Educational readings and resources:

• How Right Wing Influencers Used AI Slop to Turn Renee Good Into a Meme
• Gramsci’s Nightmare: AI, Platform Power and the Automation of Cultural Hegemony
• Mistrust Why Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them
• Digital Cosmopolitans Why We Think the Internet Connects Us, Why It Doesn't, and How to Rewire It
• 1984

Historical Events or Celebrations:

• America’s 250th bicentennial
• Boston Tea Party
• Boston Massacre
• 1992 Los Angeles riots/ Rodney King Riots
• Watergate
• Lincoln Brigades 
• Kent State shootings

People & Places:

• Alex Pretti
• Renee Good
• Rodney King
• George Floyd
  • George Floyd Memorial
• Eric Garner
• Elon Musk
• Alexander Hamilton
• Antonio Gramsci
• Jill Lapore – These Truths
• Heather Cox Richardson
• Stone Mountain
• National Memorial for Peace and Justice
• Harold Innis: Marble vs. Papyrus
• James Mitchner on Kent State

Media:

• The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
• 1776
• Hamilton
• Mary Tyler Moore Anti-ICE statue [Link]
• JD Vance Couch Meme [News Link]
• US Tries to Take Greenland [News link]
• White House posts digitally altered image of woman arrested after ICE protest [News link]
• Grok “Woke Bias” [News link]
• Trump White House “Walk of Fame” Plaques [News link]

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In this episode, Mathew Klickstein , the host of Comic-Con Begins, and Emily Schindler, Senior Director of Learning and Engagement at the Comic-Con Museum, educate us on the history of and learning opportunities at San Diego Comic-Con. Mathew discusses how Comic-Con formed and why he documents that history in his podcast and his book, See You At San Diego: An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture. Emily informs us about what is displayed at the Comic-Con Museum and the educational programs she runs. She describes the outreach and collaboration that happens between the museum and institutions around San Diego County. 

At the heart of this conversation is the formation and nurturing of communities that occur because of Comic-Con. Mathew tackles this as a SDCC historian and Emily as an SDCC educator. By the end of the episode, we ask how the culture and construction of SDCC have changed since its inception. We also question what being part of the Comic-Con means and how it's preserved. 

Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:

Academic/Educational readings and resources:

• See You At San Diego: An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture
• Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age
• Diary of Anne Frank
• Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World
• Connected Learning Initiative
• Only at Comic-Con Hollywood, Fans, and the Limits of Exclusivity
• Comic-Con Kids
• Comic-Con Museum
  • Comic-Con Museum Educational Access Program [Link]
• San Diego State University Comic Collection 
• Comic-Con Kids

People & Places:

• Barry Alfonso
• Jack Kirby
• Stan Lee
• Ray Bradbury
• Marc Summers
• Atrhur Miller 
• Rebecca Miller
• Martin Scorsese
• Steven Spielberg
• George Lucas
• Francis Ford Coppola
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Charlie Chaplin
• Phil Tippett
• Roger Corman
• Studs Terkel
• Alan Lomax
• Charlie Lippencott
• Elizabeth Taylor
• Mizuko Ito
• Erica Halverson
• Cynthia Lewis
• Kurt Squire
• Kevin Smith
• Pamela Jackson
• Morgan Spurlock
• Balboa Park
• Detroit Triple Fan Fair
• Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center
• Cannes Film Festival
• Sundance Film Festival 
• The Academy Museum
• Gallifrey One
• WonderCon

Media:

• Comic-Con Begins
• Sega Genesis
• TurboGrafx-16
• Neo Geo
• Nickelodeon
• Double Dare
• Food Network
• SiriusXM
• French New Wave
• Star Wars
• Jurassic Park
• Fantastic Four (Roger Corman)
• Spider-Man
• Funko
• King Kong
• Mr. Scorsese [Apple TV]
• Comic-Con: Episode IV - A Fans Hope
• Doctor Who
• BBC
• DC Comics
• Marvel
• Mattel
• Hasbro
• Hanna-Barbera
• Harry Potter
• Lord of the Rings
• Godzilla
• Pokemon
• Beetlejuice 
• Three's Company
• True Blood
• Game of Thrones
• Unofficial Comic Con Blog

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