Welcome to our slightly unhinged summer series, Millennial Falcon!

This three-part series is all about the fandoms we've never felt like we were truly a part of until the past few years, our Millennial Falcons, if you will. For Rhonda, that's romance novels, and for Erin it's Star Wars.

In our introductory episode, we discuss our histories with our respective Millennial Falcons, why we feel it took us so long to engage with them, and how we feel about those fandoms now. We also talk a little about what we are currently watching and reading.

Next time we will talk more broadly about fandom and culture, and the psychology and sociology of popular fandoms.

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In the finale of our The Office series and of our regular season, we look at the show's ties to popular media that came both before and after.

Erin did a deep dive into the history of the mockumentary, and you won't believe what the first one was!

We also discuss some well-known mockumentary films, like This is Spinal Tap and Best in Show, and works that use mockumentary elements, such as When Harry Met Sally and Arrested Development.

Then we explore the stylistic impact of The Office on subsequent American comedy, touching on shows like Parks and Recreation, Superstore, Abbott Elementary, and, somehow, Game of Thrones.

This episode also contains our final Finer Things Club meeting discussing Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, plus what we are currently watching/reading/listening to. For Rhonda, it was lots of Hunger Games.

Come back in May for a bonus episode and a couple rereleases of our Summer Theatre Program from 2021!

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In part four of our discussion of The Office, we dive in to the various romance storylines the show featured, and how we feel about them!

From the classic sitcom "will-they-or-won't-they" tension between Jim and Pam, to Michael and Holly's second chance romance, to the hilariously toxic relationship between Kelly and Ryan, there's a little something for everyone. (Erin's personal favorite is, of course, Dwangela.)

Our exploration veers into a series of hot takes on romance novel tropes like enemies to lovers, mutual pining, and love triangles, and you know how Rhonda feels about love triangles (she thinks they're good, actually).

We also look at how the romances on The Office compare to love stories in other sitcoms, like New Girl, How I Met Your Mother, Abbott Elementary, and Friends.

And this episode features our Finer Things Club discussion of the book Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.

Our next episode is our last planned installment of our Office discussion, so be sure not to miss it! Follow us on Instagram, but don't expect too much.

“Do I need to be liked? Absolutely not. I like to be liked. I enjoy being liked. I have to be liked. But it's not like this compulsive need to be liked, like my need to be praised.”

–Michael Scott

Likeability plays a huge role in how characters on The Office relate to one another, and how we as the audience perceive them. Discuss!

This episode also features our second Finer Things Club meeting, in which we talk about the novel The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende and Rhonda learns how effective her SEO was in her blog post about it.

Further Reading:

Isabel Allende's interview with the LA Times

The science behind our need to be liked from American Psychological Association

How wanting to be liked gets you rejected from Psychology Today

Rhonda's blog post about all the books mentioned on The Office

Despite its undercurrent of warmth and optimism, The Office (US) went to some pretty dystopian places in its explorations of the workplace--which were really just reflections of the boring dystopia of our reality.

In this episode, we look at how The Office fits within the context of Workplace Dystopian media, works such as Superstore, Office Space, Sorry to Bother You, and Silicon Valley. We also place The Office head-to-head with the most popular workplace dystopia on TV right now, Severance.

Our discussion delves into how corporate companies like Dunder Mifflin and Lumon, and those in other workplace dystopian media, use tactics like Diversity Day or "waffle parties" to present a veneer of benevolence to distract workers from how terrible their jobs actually are.

But, you know, in a fun way.

We also introduce our new segment for this series: The Finer Things Club! We discuss E. M. Forster's novel A Room with a View. It's very exclusive.

Further Reading:

Corporate Erin on TikTok

Defining a Boring Dystopia

Comparing the workplaces in The Office and Severance

If you've ever listened to us trade The Office references on the pod and thought, "why don't they just talk about The Office already?" this new series is for you!

In your orientation packet, you'll find an overview of our thoughts on the American series in comparison with the original British version, and a quiz to discover which characters we are. We also go over a preview of the topics we plan to discuss in the coming episodes, including, but not limited to:

• Race, gender, class, and the dystopia of capitalism in The Office, but, like, in a fun way
• The Office in the context of other workplace media such as Office Space, Superstore, and Sorry to Bother You
• The show's examination of success, achievement, and happiness as defined by individual characters
• Romantic relationships over the course of The Office's nine seasons, and how they compare to romances in other sitcoms
• The Office's afterlife in pop culture

Our yearly tradition of discussing our favorite movies and TV, plus a little music and books, is back!

We had every intention of talking about Wickiator/Glicked, but there's really no story there. There's Wicked, which we talked about for far longer than we intended because we had so many thoughts, and then there's Gladiator, which... was a movie.

We also talked about some common themes we noticed in the media we were drawn to in the past year, plus a few pieces that were just a little disappointing.

Things we loved but didn’t have time to talk about because we spent so long talking about Wicked:

Next time we will finally wrap up our A Song of Ice and Fire series, and beginning in February we'll have a shiny new mystery topic to discuss!

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Read Rhonda's Lisa Frankenstein essay!

Check your Christmas ornaments, there might be important documents inside! Please enjoy this regifted episode from 2019 about the Netflix Christmas Cinematic Universe, specifically A Christmas Prince.

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:

Honestly, this episode was a long time coming. A Christmas Prince is rich in cultural influences, from the lives and loves of historical real-life royals, to classic fairy tales, to... investigative journalism, I guess?

We also discuss other vitally important topics, like the dystopian alternate universe in which the movies take place and the cultural relevance of Volvos. (Volvo is not a sponsor of Pop DNA.)

Our commentary for Netflix's The Knight Before Christmas is free on our Patreon page! Patreon.com/popdna Happy Holidays!

We have another regifted episode for you this week! We couldn't choose between our two Narnia episodes, so we're regifting both!

This episode from December of 2022 touches on gender and violence, and how children experience fear and danger in fantasy worlds, all themes we explored in our A Song of Ice and Fire discussions. This one is perfect for if you want to dive a little deeper into another perspective on those ideas.

We have one more regifted episode for you, so look for that on Christmas Day! (Or listen to it the day after, we don't care.) And join us in January for our Best of 2024 Bonus!

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As we wrap up our final Narnia episode we're asking the big questions: Was C. S. Lewis sexist? Or can we draw any feminist or female-empowerment messages from his work? What does feminism even look like in the context of a fantasy world where children go into battle with talking animals?

We also look specifically at The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a World War 2 story, exploring the story an as allegory for what was happening in the "real" world at the time it takes place.

And of course we took a quiz to find out which Pevensie kids we are, and you can take it ⁠here⁠.

Check out ⁠The Feminine Ethos in C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia⁠ by Monika Hilder.

Happy December! We are taking a much-needed break to enjoy the holiday season, but thought we'd take the opportunity to revisit some of our previous episodes this month. It's Regifting Time!

This episode from our Chronicles of Narnia series in December of 2022 explores the topics of magic, magic systems, and prophecy in fantasy fiction and Narnia's relationship with other fantasy classics. It's a perfect coda for some of our A Song of Ice and Fire discussions.

Join us the rest of December for more regifted episodes, and come back in January for our Best of 2024 Bonus!

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ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:

This week on our Narnia journey we are diving in to all things magic. We discuss the differences between hard and soft magic systems, how magic is expressed in the world of Narnia, and how it compares to the magic in other fictional worlds. We also look at Narnia as a touchstone of fantasy fiction, its relationship with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and its influence on modern fantasy works like Star Wars and Lev Grossman's book series The Magicians.