Pop DNA

Welcome back!

We're riding our dragons to King's Landing for a six-part series on A Song of Ice and Fire and all its connected works, including the TV series Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.

This week, we're just getting our feet wet with a look at our first introductions to George R. R. Martin's work, our thoughts on the main ideas of the series, and an overview of Martin's cited influences, including the English Wars of the Roses and the Accursed Kings series of historical novels.

Plus we take quizzes to find out which Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon characters we are, which you can take here and here.

With this episode we launch not just a new series and new season, but a brand new format for the show. Episodes will now come out every other week, and we're spending three months in this world, so get comfy!

We wrap up our summer book-to-screen club series with the science fiction classic that inadvertently sparked a thousand sandworm popcorn bucket memes.

Our discussion topics include Dune's influence on and connections to other staples of the science fiction and fantasy genres such as Star Wars, Wheel of Time, and A Song of Ice and Fire; how the recent Villeneuve films interpret certain aspects of the story and characters; and how the book explores girlhood (because it actually kinda does).

ALSO: Rhonda goes on a rant about the stupidity of spoiler culture, and Erin makes a convincing case for Castaway as a comfort movie. And we probably spend a little too much time talking about Katy Perry, but seriously, what is she doing???

We will be back in September with a new format for a new season!

Follow on Instagram for memes and infrequent announcements pertinent to listeners of this podcast.

Continuing our discussions of classic American novels, this week we read Alice Walker's The Color Purple!

We talk about how the novel explores girlhood and relationships between women, the Black experience in the early 20th century, and finding the joy in life even through darkness. We also look at the 1985 and 2023 films and the stage musical, and how these adaptations interpreted the themes and characters from the book.

Segments also include our pop music recommendations and What Are We Watchin'

Join us next time for a discussion of Frank Herbert's Dune! Follow on Instagram too if you want.

Welcome to our 2024 Summer Series! This summer we decided to read some classic American novels with recent film adaptations, and we're starting with Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.

We talk about our personal experiences with the novel, how we see this work in the context of American literature, and how the 1994 and 2019 film adaptations explore the book's themes. We also answer the age-old question: are you a Meg, Jo, Beth, or Amy?

Join us next time for a discussion of Alice Walker's The Color Purple! Follow us on Instagram for very infrequent and halfhearted posts.

Theme song: Swings and Roundabouts by Hey Pluto

For Rhonda's Birthday Bonus we're talking COWBOY CARTER and THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. Why are both of these albums' titles styled in all caps?

Our conversation explores our initial reactions to and top five tracks from each album, as well as some interesting parallels between these two bodies of work. How does Beyoncé break genre boundaries on COWBOY CARTER? How does Taylor explore her relationship with art and fame on THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT? And how do both albums further the cultural discussion of women driving their own narratives?

We also talk about the bigger picture of women in pop music beyond Tay and Bey, and the current pop moment embodied in artists like Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, and Miley Cyrus.

Oh, and we also definitely talk about Kendrick and Drake.

Listen to our Women in Pop playlist here.

If you thought we were going to let it slide that Depression Barbie's comfort show is the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice, you thought wrong.

We're digging in to some possible literary inspirations and parallels for the Barbie movie, looking specifically at Christian/Catholic creation theology and how much Greta Gerwig may have been influenced by the work of Jane Austen. We also talk about who we would choose if we could recast Ken, and follow up with a coda to our discussion of gender dynamics in Barbie Land from last week.

Further Reading:

Barbie Land as Garden of Eden

Rolling Stone Greta Gerwig Interview

For updates on Rhonda's book, follow here

Pop DNA is taking a brief break, and we will be back in early May with a Bonus Episode! Stay tuned!

We are back from a long, semi-unplanned hiatus, but don't worry, there's still plenty more Barbie to talk about! This week we look at how both Barbie Land and Stereotypical Barbie's perspective in the film explore gender and femininity.

How does Barbie Land fit into the context of women-dominated societies in other fictional works?

How does Barbie as a film both defy and uphold patriarchal beauty standards?

And how does Barbie as a character help us as women and feminine people explore how we can define femininity and identity for ourselves?

Further Reading:

Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Power by Naomi Alderman

Ritual of Proof by Dara Joy

Sci-Fi Movies About All-Female Planets Have a Hidden Agenda -- video essay from Slate

Barbietopia and Feminist Futures: Next Steps on the Heroine’s Journey -- essay by Ivana Milojević

What ‘Barbie’ teaches us about the beauty of growing old -- article by Steve Lopez

Justice for Weird Barbie -- article by Natalie Michie

Books to Read After Watching Barbie -- post by Rhonda

Does anyone want to run our Instagram account? lmk

Hi Barbies! We have sooooo much to talk about in this three-parter, so we squished some background discussion of fashion dolls and the cultural mythos of Barbie into this first episode. We also have some thoughts on the Barbenheimer phenomenon, the Barbie movie as a capitalist product, and our own experiences playing with Barbies as children. Then we give a brief overview of some other topics we want to dive into in our next two episodes and take a quiz to find out which Barbies we are (but, as happens quite often, the quiz was wrong).

This month we're talking about:

Follow us on Instagram I guess but don't expect too much.

What was supposed to be a fun and light chat about video games this week turned into a philosophical discussion of free will as a player of video games, and how this illusion of choice translates into the choices (or lack thereof) of characters in the TV series of The Last Of Us, especially in terms of gendered actions and decision-making. It's still fun, though, we promise!

Further Exploration:

GamerGate coverage by Aja Romano

Tropes vs. Women in Video Games video series by Anita Sarkeesian

Playing As/Against Violent Women paper by Stefan Schubert

Our episode on femininity and power in fantasy media

Our episode on The Chronicles of Narnia where we discuss Susan and Lucy not fighting in the battle

Vulture piece on patriarchy in the world of TLOU

This week we are getting apocalyptic! We talk about why we as humans seem to be fascinated with the fall of civilization or even of humanity itself. From the ancient epic of Gilgamesh to several separate HBO shows, our literature and culture are full of stories about humans at the end of the world.

How does The Last of Us explore the human significance of the apocalypse? And what other works of apocalyptic and zombie fiction can we discuss to contextualize what TLOU might be trying to say about humanity? Works we discuss include:

Follow us on Instagram for more about the literature and commentary we reference.