Pop Literacy
93 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 1 year ago - ★★★★★ - 11 ratingsYour biweekly pop culture book club.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Why Jeannie Gaffigan Was, Is, and Will Always Be, a Superwoman
October 01, 2019 02:30 - 1 hour - 135 MBShe was already a writer, producer, and director, a mom of five, and the personal and professional partner of her husband, comedian Jim Gaffigan. Then Jeannie Gaffigan found out she had a tumor the size of a pear in her brain, and her fierceness really kicked in. This week on Pop Literacy, we have the pleasure of talking to Jeannie about her life-changing experience, which she details with honesty, heart, and humor in her new memoir When Life Gives You Pears.
All Hail The Queen, Queen Meryl of Hollywood!
September 24, 2019 02:30 - 1 hour - 153 MBShe’s been nominated for a record 21 Oscars (and won three). She can sing, she can dance, she can whip up an accent like nobody’s business. She can make you laugh, cry, quake in your stilettos with a mere two-word phrase (“That’s all”). She is, quite simply, and quite universally, called the best actress of her (and, those to come, we’re guessing) generation. We speak oh so reverently, of course, about Meryl Streep, the subject of author Erin Carlson’s engaging, fun new biography, Queen Mery...
Generation Friends
September 17, 2019 02:30 - 54 minutes - 99.2 MBWe talk with author Saul Austerlitz about his excellent new book Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era. Discussions include: the recent spate of internet takedowns calling out Friends as problematic; why the show has endured long enough to be subject to such takedowns and enchant new generations of fans; and the writers’ room debates that considered moving the sexy sextet to Minneapolis, came up with the surprisingly brilliant pairing of Monica and Chan...
Stealing BH90210: A No-Fucks-Given Conversation With Christine Elise
September 09, 2019 02:30 - 1 hour - 124 MBChristine Elise is the greatest revelation of the mind-bending, meta reboot-about-a-reboot BH90210: The actress who once played bad girl Emily Valentine on the original 90210 returned to play a version of “herself” as a network executive in charge of the show-within-a-show, oozing punk rock attitude and sex appeal and stealing every one of her scenes. And yet, it turns out she’s an even bigger character when she’s off script. This week, she talks to us about how she brazenly pitched herself ...
Why Women Matter in TV and Criticism: With Maureen Ryan
August 26, 2019 03:14 - 1 hour - 124 MBMaureen Ryan has been a TV critic for the Chicago Tribune and Variety through the medium’s seismic changes over the last two decades and continues to write about it for basically every high-profile outlet that covers television. She’s also long been among the few prominent female critics during that time, and, as such, she has advocated for more women behind the camera and better representation in front of the camera. She’s featured in a new documentary, This Changes Everything, discussi...
Being A Stay-At-Work Mom on the ‘Roseanne’ Reboot, ‘Two Broke Girls,’ and Other Great Sitcoms
August 19, 2019 03:08 - 51 minutes - 93.7 MBLiz Astrof is a “stay-at-work mom,” by her own admission—and for her, “work” means writing sitcoms such as Two Broke Girls, King of Queens, and the infamous Roseanne reboot. To celebrate her great new essay collection, Don’t Wait Up, Liz gives us some inside scoop on the surprising sexism behind the scenes of the Roseanne reboot, the feminism of Two Broke Girls, and the future of comedy on television.
Rebooting Beverly Hills 90210: What Did We Just Watch?
August 11, 2019 14:30 - 2 hours - 221 MBFrom its hashtag-friendly title to its celebreality-meets-where are they now character throwback premise, Fox’s BH90210 gave viewers all the feels during its premiere last week: joy at seeing these ‘90s teen pin-ups back on our small screens, amusement at how willing they were to poke fun at their own most famous (or infamous, and alleged) histories, confusion about what exactly to expect – will the rest of the six-episode run focus mostly on the heightened versions of the actors or on the W...
Summer Road Trippin’, Pop Culture Style
July 29, 2019 04:00 - 53 minutes - 97.8 MBSummer vacation means heading out on the highway for a lot of travelers, and if you’re a TV fan looking for some primetime inspiration for a New York City road trip, author Marion Miclet has written the perfect road map with her new book Binge Watching New York: A Travel Guide Through the Most Emblematic TV Series. The book, a beautiful, photo-packed tome filled with NYC sites from and inspired by series like Seinfeld, Friends, Law & Order, Will & Grace, Billions, The Affair, The Mindy Pro...
The ‘Jenny from the Block’ Video: A Historical Analysis
July 23, 2019 14:49 - 1 hour - 155 MBJennifer Lopez turns 50 this month and is at the top of her game: dancing her way through an international tour, engaged to baseball superstar Alex Rodriguez, and managing to be one of the few massive pop stars with lots of loyal fans and relatively few haters. But it wasn’t always thus. Her career hit a precarious point in 2002—when, yes, she was churning out hits, but the tabloids were constantly on her tail and media coverage spewed vitriolic hatred at her very public relationship with ac...
The Lifelong Appeal of The Muppets and Sesame Street
July 15, 2019 14:27 - 1 hour - 114 MBThe Muppet Movie is celebrating its 40th anniversary (with special screenings in movie theaters July 25 and 30) and Sesame Street is celebrating its 50th. That means they’ve been around for nearly the entire lifespan of Gen Xers, many of whom remain fans of the characters originally created to entertain them as children. In this episode, we talk to Joe Hennes, editor of the Muppet fan site Tough Pigs, about the enduring appeal of Kermit, Piggy, Bert and Ernie, and the rest of the Muppetverse...
Daniel Ford and ‘Black Coffee’ in Pop Culture
July 08, 2019 04:00 - 53 minutes - 98.1 MBPop Literacy producer Daniel Ford’s short story collection Black Coffee inspired us to talk about our favorite legal stimulant and its role in popular culture. We talk Gilmore Girls, The West Wing, You’ve Got Mail, and many other pop icons driven by caffeine, and we recommend some of our favorite pop culture pick-me-ups. Discussions include: Black Coffee playlist Aug. 24 Black Coffee book event hosted by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong at Kew and Willow Books in Queens, N.Y. Tom Hanks ...
‘Seinfeld’ at 30: Reconsidering That Finale, Celebrating the Legacy of ‘Nothing’
July 02, 2019 04:00 - 1 hour - 144 MBSeinfeld celebrates its 30th anniversary this month, and that show about “nothing” still gives us plenty to talk about. We pay tribute by sharing behind-the-Seinfeld-reporting tidbits from throughout our careers, some insights from Jennifer’s experience writing and touring with her bestseller Seinfeldia, alternative theories about the polarizing finale (spoiler: we actually love it), and some thoughts about its TV comedy descendants such as Barry and Veep. Plus we recommend some of our favor...
Country Music’s Reckoning: Race and Gender, 2019-Style
June 25, 2019 04:00 - 58 minutes - 108 MBThe song of the summer, “Old Town Road,” is as 2019 as it gets: It’s a bop, but it’s a hit that rose to popularity thanks to online platforms and that calls into question all conventional wisdom about race and country music. This showdown also comes amid a years-long discussion about the lack of women allowed into the upper echelon of still-critical radio airplay in the country music industry. (Even awards queens such as Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert aren't immune.) So can country musi...
Eltonpalooza: Celebrating the Summer of ‘Rocketman’
June 17, 2019 04:00 - 1 hour - 165 MBElton John burst onto the music scene in 1970 with his self-titled album, dominated the charts in the 1970s and ‘80s, gave us enduring songs like “Tiny Dancer” and “Your Song,” survived a classic rock ‘n’ roll rock-bottom, and became an icon. It’s a journey beautifully rendered in the new musical biopic Rocketman. The exhilarating film is just one plank in the legacy platform John is carefully constructing this year, which also includes his farewell tour and an autobiography due out in the f...
The Dream of the ‘80s Is Alive: Framing John DeLorean
June 10, 2019 04:00 - 49 minutes - 51.5 MBIt was the 1980s, and John DeLorean was livin’ large: a supermodel wife, two children, and a swanky New York City apartment he’d bought from pal Johnny Carson. DeLorean’s lifelong dream was coming true, too, as his passion project, a gulf winged sports car, was about to be released. It was a car that would become one of the most famous autos in pop culture history. But by the time the DeLorean car co-starred alongside Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, DeLorean’s dream had crashed. Unde...
How to Find New Music, Plus: A BTS Concert Update!
May 28, 2019 04:00 - 1 hour - 133 MBSummer’s the perfect time to relax with some new tunes in your earbuds … but with so many options, finding stuff you haven’t heard before can feel overwhelming. On this week’s Pop Literacy, we get help from Billboard’s Joe Lynch to give you the best new acts to listen to, the best ways to use Spotify, and the best websites and music writers to follow for new-music tips. Plus: an update from the BTS concert scene!
Live Sitcom Throwbacks: Why ABC’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons Have Us So Excited
May 20, 2019 13:49 - 1 hour - 136 MBThis week ABC airs a throwback stunt that thrills us TV history nerds: On Wednesday May 22, star-filled casts will perform old All in the Family and The Jeffersons episodes, live in front of a studio audience. On this week’s Pop Literacy, we break down all the reasons we’re excited: the high-wire act of live TV, the fact that these aren’t just more reboots, and the stellar casts. (Jamie Foxx and Wanda Sykes as George and Weezy! Woody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei as Archie and Edith! And so man...
Streaming TV: Understanding the (Many, Many) Options That Overwhelm Us All
May 13, 2019 04:00 - 1 hour - 119 MBTo cord cut or not to cord cut; that is the question. Or rather, one of the many questions that overwhelm TV watchers, as the amount of television programming, and the number of ways to watch it, continue to multiply at a faster and faster pace. Do we replace our cable with a streaming service and a live TV option, plus several other streaming sites? Do we stick with cable and resign ourselves to at least half a dozen streaming subscriptions each month? What happens when Disney and Apple lau...
Pop Culture Pacifiers and Palette Cleansers
April 29, 2019 04:00 - 56 minutes - 104 MBBetween the exhausting news cycle and the endless selection of complicated TV dramas to watch, we can all use a shot of lighter pop culture sometimes. This week, we discuss what we call our “pop culture pacifiers”—the short, sweet online videos, clips, and songs that lift our spirits in the middle of the hardest days—and “palette cleansers”—the rewatches and brain-candy TV and movies that allow us to relax and enjoy ourselves mindlessly. Hint: Jamie Foxx singing The Brady Bunch, a cat named ...
Did You Hear the One About the Movie Salvador Dali Wrote for The Marx Brothers?
April 22, 2019 04:00 - 51 minutes - 51.1 MBEven some of the most devoted of Marx Brothers fans don’t know about this project: a wild, fantastical movie script that Surrealist artist Salvador Dali wrote for the comedy icons, after forging a fast friendship with the most beloved of the Marxes, Harpo. The movie was called Giraffes on Horseback Salad, and not only was it too over the top to get made, the film script was also lost to history. Until now. Pop culture archaeologist, and lifelong Marx Brothers fan, Josh Frank, spent six yea...
BTS for Beginners
April 16, 2019 04:00 - 48 minutes - 66.7 MBAfter years of massive popularity around the world, Korean boy band BTS is breaking through to the top of mainstream American culture. They just dropped a new album (Map of the Soul: Persona), which includes the single “Boy with Luv,” featuring Halsey; and they played Saturday Night Live, a first for a Korean act. They also recently surpassed 5 billion streams on Spotify. All of this has many Americans wondering what, exactly, is going on with these seven boys with pastel-colored hair, Kor...
The State of the Boy Band
April 08, 2019 13:43 - 1 hour - 134 MBBoy bands as we know them have been around since New Edition got together in 1978—and now, they’re bigger than ever, thanks to online fandom. New Kids on the Block, Backstreet Boys, O-Town, 98 Degrees, and Boyz II Men are among the groups who have recently been on tour or recorded new music. And the boy band legacy is evident in two recent developments: An excellent new YouTube Originals documentary, “The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story,” tells the cautionary tale of the impresario behi...
A Tribute to Luke Perry, the Nicest Bad Boy Who Ever Lived
March 11, 2019 04:10 - 28 minutes - 52.3 MBLuke Perry had a solid 30-year acting career, but he became an instant ‘90s icon with one of his first roles: dreamy “bad boy” Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills, 90210. When he died March 4 after a massive stroke at age 52, the outpouring of public grief was overwhelming. He was still young and starring as a dad on the teen drama Riverdale, so it took his untimely death for most of us to calculate how much he had meant to us. With the help of guest Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly’s TV cr...
Will 1990s Nostalgia Always Be the Best Nostalgia?
March 04, 2019 05:00 - 38 minutes - 70.8 MBIt was the decade of “The Macarena,” the O.J. Simpson trial, the teen pop boom, VHS tapes, and Nintendo. It was also before 9/11 and Columbine, a time when the nation hung on every lurid detail of the president’s sex life and the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan feud. Though 2000s nostalgia is on the way—as we discussed previously—it’s hard to let go of our nostalgia for what looks like our last relatively innocent decade from here. Is there something extra special about the ‘90s? We discuss wit...
Paul Simon: Timeless Treasure and Poet of the Midlife Crisis
February 26, 2019 05:00 - 1 hour - 133 MB"Graceland," "America," "You Can Call Me Al," "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard," "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes"—Paul Simon’s list of classic songs is long and literary. So any week is the perfect week for Pop Literacy to celebrate this rare master of songwriting, who completed his final tour in the fall and has an album out, In the Blue Light, filled with reimagined versions of some of his songs. A literary master is always revising. Pop Literacy h...
2000s Nostalgia: Yes, It’s Happening
February 19, 2019 05:00 - 1 hour - 146 MBAOL Instant Messenger, the first iPods, Paris Hilton, emo, Mean Girls, The O.C., low-rise jeans… Now that it’s 2019, it’s time to prepare for a wave of 2000s nostalgia. Pop Literacy host Jennifer Keishin Armstrong is joined by guest co-host Andrea Bartz, author of the forthcoming 2009 nostalgia novel The Lost Night, to discuss what we miss most about the 2000s, from MySpace to the very first memes, The Osbournes to the rise of the Brooklyn hipster. We also discuss the innocence of a time bef...
Fandemonium Extra: A Podcast for Stans of Stans, by Stans of Stans
February 12, 2019 05:00 - 1 hour - 113 MBWelcome to our insanely experimental pretend backdoor pilot for It’s It’s Britney Bitch, Bitch!, “a podcast for stans of stans, by stans of stans.” As a follow-up to last week’s chat with T. Kyle and Bradley Stern, the hosts of the It’s Britney, Bitch! podcast for Britney fans, we fall further down the internet fandom rabbit hole with our loving breakdown of their loving breakdowns. Just call us the Seinfeld2000 of Britney fandom. Or something. Regular Pop Literacy host Jennifer Keishin Ar...
Fandemonium: The Britney Army With It’s Britney, Bitch!
February 04, 2019 05:00 - 1 hour - 126 MBIn the first of an occasional series on fandom, we dive into one of the most loyal, long-running followings in pop music: that of the humble legend Ms. Britney Spears. As an official Britney stan, Pop Literacy cohost Jennifer Keishin Armstrong knows it well, and is here to dissect it with the cohosts of her favorite podcast, It’s Britney, Bitch!, T. Kyle and Bradley Stern. With Kyle and Bradley, we walk you through the incredible 20-year tale of Britney, from her astonishing debut at 17, ...
Episode 14: Super Bowl Box Set Part 2 – The Commercials and Post-Game Programming
January 28, 2019 05:00 - 1 hour - 135 MBLast week, we talked about this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, and the collective lack of enthusiasm for it. Could this year’s SB commercials and post-game programming save the entertainment aspects of Super Bowl LIII from being a big, dull dud? Well … With 100 million viewers every year, the Super Bowl is the one telecast networks and advertisers can be sure we’ll be watching. Even after the game is over, a big percentage of the audience is willing to stick around for a series debut or...
Episode 13: Super Bowl Box Set Part 1 – Halftime Shows
January 21, 2019 13:58 - 1 hour - 168 MBEveryone’s talking about who isn’t playing the Super Bowl halftime show this year: Rihanna, Cardi B, and most anyone else who isn’t Maroon 5. Could this be the end of the Super Bowl halftime show as a cultural event? Possibly. Meanwhile, we look back on the history of the halftime show, from college marching bands to Up With People to Phil Collins in cargo pants to, somehow, because humanity is terrible and grand, Prince. In this review of modern halftimes, we talk the good (Aerosmith wit...
Episode 12: Mrs. Maisel, Transparent, and the Importance of Jewish Life on TV
December 17, 2018 05:00 - 47 minutes - 86.9 MBWith anti-Semitism on an astonishing rise and the recent mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, it suddenly seems more important than ever that Jews are depicted sympathetically on television. Luckily, Jewish TV writers have been “coming out” as Jewish the last few years with unapologetic depictions on shows such as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Transparent. On this week’s episode, we explore the skittish history of Jews on television with Allison Perlman, an associate professor of film ...
Episode 11: Journey, Jail, and Jesse Gets Away: TV Series Finales We Love, Hate, and Love to Debate
December 10, 2018 05:00 - 59 minutes - 109 MBIt’s been five years since Jesse Pinkman took off like a bat out of a drug-making hell in the final episode of Breaking Bad. It’s been more than a decade since Tony Soprano may or may not have been whacked by that dude coming out of the Holsten’s bathroom. It was 20 years ago that Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, and George were sentenced to jail time for, well, basically for being jerks, in the Seinfeld series ender. And viewers have been debating those television series finales ever since they first...
Episode 10: Should We Still Care About Movies?
December 03, 2018 05:00 - 57 minutes - 105 MB2018 has brought a few glimmers of hope for disaffected moviegoers sick of superheroes, explosions, and special effects: A Star Is Born, Crazy Rich Asians, Eighth Grade, Boy Erased. But many of us (your hosts included) are much more excited about the seemingly infinite great TV offerings these days than by the prospect of schlepping to the movies to see the latest in high-budget forgettableness. Are we wrong to cross movies off our pop culture to-do lists? Our guests this week are here to ...
Episode 9: Prison Life in Pop Culture: Why Are We So Obsessed?
November 19, 2018 05:00 - 43 minutes - 79.9 MBOrange Is the New Black, The Night Of, Oz, Rectify… they’re the finest examples of what TV has offered viewers in depictions of prison life. Add in classic movies like The Shawshank Redemption, Cool Hand Luke, The Green Mile, and American History X, and there’s no lack of quality storytelling when it comes to Hollywood’s spin on the unique system of rules and roles that make up life inside the penitentiary. We’re fascinated by these tales, because they give us access to a world most of us...
Episode 8: A Very Pop Literacy Holiday: The One About Thanksgiving and Christmas TV Episodes
November 12, 2018 05:00 - 1 hour - 133 MBThe Office owns TV Christmas episodes, the Friends own TV Thanksgivings, and Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang have been serving up leftovers, er, repeats, of their beloved classic specials for both holidays for more than four decades. In this week’s very special holiday-themed episode of Pop Literacy, Jennifer and Kim trace the history of holiday episodes, break down the differences between Christmas and Turkey Day TV, and share their all-time favorites from each. We ...
Episode 7: How to Be a Male Pop Star in 2018: The John Mayer Story
November 05, 2018 05:00 - 1 hour - 124 MBJohn Mayer has been releasing new pop tunes this year and even did something that looked suspiciously like a comeback interview. It didn’t go so well; even though it was for his own Instagram show, he sparked a flurry of 2010-reminiscent headlines by saying he’d slept with “sub-500” women, which was interpreted as around 500 women, which he later clarified was closer to 6. Given that his celebrity reputation was built on the details (often revealed by him) of his time scoring with the ladie...
Episode 6: The Cultural Power of Friendships
October 29, 2018 04:00 - 46 minutes - 84.2 MBOr: What is Dave Chappelle doing in A Star Is Born? We were intrigued when Chappelle showed up in the middle of that delirious fever dream of a trailer for A Star Is Born, so we investigated. Turns out he’s friends with director-star Bradley Cooper, so, voila! A dramatic acting cameo is born. Inspired by this chance cinematic encounter, this week we investigate the cultural power of friendships. First, we talk to Sam Maggs about her new book Girl Squads: 20 Female Friendships That C...
Episode 5: Is Tom Hanks Hollywood’s Last True Adult Man?
October 22, 2018 04:00 - 49 minutes - 42.2 MBIn a culture where every day we’re afraid to look at the news, lest we hear of yet another public figure who’s caught up in an appalling scandal, Oscar winner Tom Hanks remains one of Hollywood’s best examples of a decent guy. Not perfect, not a scoundrel; not too political, but ready to stand up for what he believes in; not preachy, but, well, he’s a guy who takes the time to return a lost ID card to a college student. All of these traits are what inspired bestselling author Gavin Edward...
Episode 4: Women Who Survived – and Thrived – in TV’s (Even More) Sexist Past
October 15, 2018 04:00 - 1 hour - 168 MBWomen have been battling their way through Hollywood sexism behind the scenes for decades to get us to the point where more women than ever are now making television shows. This week we talk to two heroines of the male-dominated past. First, Mary Tyler Moore Show writer Susan Silver, whose memoir Hot Pants in Hollywood details her days as a writer on some of the best sitcoms of the 1970s, her mentorship with Garry Marshall, and a jaw-dropping TV Guide profile on her headlined “The Writer W...
Episode 3: Maybe Reboots Aren’t So Bad
October 08, 2018 04:00 - 27 minutes - 49.7 MBWe’re certainly at Peak Reboot, with this fall’s Magnum P.I., Charmed, and Murphy Brown reimaginings hitting the air, and talk of rebooting everything from Frasier and Mad About You to Alf and The Twilight Zone. Few will argue passionately in favor of another round of Alf, but perhaps our griping about reboots has also gotten out of hand. In this episode, Pop Literacy talks to Charmed executive producers Jessica O’Toole and Amy Rardin about the pleasures of updating the inherently empoweri...
Episode 1: Meet the Writer Who's Making BET the New HBO
October 01, 2018 04:00 - 1 hour - 51.1 MBIn Episode 1, Pop Literacy investigates: Why the hell is BET’s new biographical miniseries about Bobby Brown so extraordinary? The short answer is that it was written by the same guy who scripted BET’s last ingenious biographical excursion, The New Edition Story. Abdul Williams talks to Pop Literacy about doing therapy-level interviews with the guys from the OG boy band, New Edition, as they worked out their decades’ worth of bad blood, good times, money woes, and ego battles—and then craf...
Episode 2: Female Authors Are Fueling TV’s Darkest Shows
October 01, 2018 04:00 - 40 minutes - 74.6 MBMany of this year’s biggest shows are dark, twisted, complicated, and angry. And many of them come from books written by women—The Handmaid’s Tale, Sharp Objects, Big Little Lies, Dietland, and You among them. In this episode, Pop Literacy peeks behind the scenes of Lifetime’s You with author Caroline Kepnes, who dreamed up the twisted tale of toxic masculinity, the vulnerabilities of social media life, and how classic romantic ideals blend into straight-up stalking. We also offer our th...
Introducing Pop Literacy
September 21, 2018 19:06 - 1 minute - 2.45 MBWe find smart things to say about pop culture so you don’t have to. We’ll take you into the writers’ rooms, songwriters’ heads, and novelists’ thoughts that are fueling pop culture conversations. And we’ll give you the smart insights, factoids, and conversation starters to get you through your next cocktail party conversation about the latest in TV, music, movies, and books. Seriously: You don’t even have to binge watch that whole season or read that whole book. Just listen to Pop Literacy a...