For the fourth episode of the Culture Study podcast I’m joined by Philip Maciak — who manages to be a professor, the television critic for The New Republic, and an avid consumer of children’s television — to talk about Paw Patrol.

We talk about copaganda, plot laziness, why 90% of the characters are boys, how Paw Patrol gets “in the water” at most kids’ schools even if they don’t actually watch the show, and take arguably too deep of a dive into the theme song. If you hate Paw Patrol, this episode is for you. If you’re annoyed by its banality, this episode is for you. Even if you’ve never heard of it, it’s a really fascinating exploration into why so much kids media turns out the way it does.

• Phil on the glory of Bluey

• The Problem With Cop Storylines in Children’s Media — and you can find Amanda Hess’s overview of the critique here

• This poster is the best representation of the Paw Patrol ‘universe’

• The Paw Patrol Theme Song (if you really want to subject yourself to that again)

• The DuckTales Theme Song!!!!

• Just a good Paw Patrol Meme:

• You can read my previous interviews with Phil here (on Reservation Dogs) and here (on screentime) and find Avidly Read: Screentime here.

• Goodreads (what has made it so bad, a particular trend you’ve observed, should you go to Storygraph, you can take this anywhere you want)

• Very Contemporary Architecture Trends (like ‘modern farmhouse’) and/or wtf is going on with Chip & Joanna Gaines these days, why is their new show so banal

• Cold Plunge Culture

• Whatever Bradley Cooper’s deal is

• ONLINE PURCHASE REVIEWS (as in: what motivates people to leave reviews? With photos? What makes a good review, what makes a worthless one?)

• You can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here (and here’s the subscriber-only priority form)