What do the men of the vague East, ambiguously homosexual bad boys, and the sparkling redhead in your Biology class all have in common? They’re threats to American masculinity. Oh, and they want to suck your blood. In our media-rich fifth episode, the pod bites into the immortal myth of the vampire. Listener, beware...!

Timestamps:

0:25 introduction, appetizer, and blood-sucking tidbits

14:33 whetting our palate with the myth’s orientalist origins

32:50 do vampires take pre-workout? and other questions for the eighties

55:00 post-Twilight, undead daughters of the confederacy, and a return to fetishistic form

1:37:11 outro, ft. contenders for the next hot monster

Resources:

This episode’s interludes borrow from the Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) soundtrack, composed by Josef van Wissem and Sqürl.

Carmilla by Sheridan LeFanu, 1872

Russian Fairy Tales by W.R.S. Ralston, 1887

Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1897

Nosferatu dir. by F.W. Murnau, 1929

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, 1976

Lost Boys dir. by Joel Schumacher, 1987

Near Dark dir. by Kathryn Bigelow, 1987

From Dusk Til Dawn dir. by Robert Rodriquez, 1996

Blade dir. by Stephen Norrington, 1998

Queen of the Damned dir. by Michael Ryder, 2002

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, 2005

My Immortal by XXXbloodyrists666XXX, 2006

True Blood, 2008

The Vampire Diaries, 2009

Only Lovers Left Alive, 2013

Gloves: An Intimate History by Anne Green, 2021

Why Are There So Many Confederate Vampires? By Princess Weekes, 2023