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New Books in Popular Culture
This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/…
Episodes
- New Books in Popular Culture
Jieun Kiaer, "Emoji Speak: Communication and Behaviours on Social Media" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
Emoji Speak: Communication and Behaviours on Social Media (Bloomsbury, 2023) by Dr. Jieun Kiaer provides an in-depth discussion of emoji use in a global…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Joanna Bourke, "Five Evil Women: Hindley, West, Wuornos, Homolka, Tucker" (Reaktion, 2026)
Why do certain women become icons of evil? Five Evil Women: Hindley, West, Wuornos, Homolka, Tucker (Reaktion, 2026) by Professor Joanna Bourke offers the…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Clarissa E. Francis, "Black Women's Bodily Autonomy, Sexual Freedom, and Pleasure: Explorations of the Hot Girl Movement" (Routledge, 2025)
Black Women's Bodily Autonomy, Sexual Freedom, and Pleasure: Explorations of the Hot Girl Movement (Routledge, 2025) explores scholarship, practice, and…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Michael Glover Smith, "Bob Dylan as Filmmaker: No Time to Think" (McNidder and Grace, 2026)
A deep dive into one of the most overlooked -- and fascinating -- sides of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature winner: Bob Dylan, the filmmaker. While his music…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Michèle Schaal, "Grrrl Writing: Virginie Despentes's Authorial Politics" (Peter Lang, 2026)
When Virginie Despentes (1969) published her provocative debut novel Baise-moi in 1994, no one could have anticipated how she would gradually become a…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Ashely Alker, "99 Ways to Die: And How to Avoid Them" (St. Martin's Press, 2026)
In 99 Ways to Die: And How To Avoid Them (St. Martins Press, 2026) emergency medicine doctor Ashley Alker presents an illuminating, hilarious, and practical…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Lynda Nead, "British Blonde: Women, Desire and the Image in Post-War Britain" (Yale UP, 2025)
In the 1950s, American glamour swept into a war-torn Britain as part of a broader transatlantic exchange of culture and commodities. But in this process, the…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Marc Masters, "High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape" (UNC Press, 2023)
The cassette tape was revolutionary. Cheap, portable, and reusable, this small plastic rectangle changed music history. Make your own tapes! Trade them with…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Jessica Martin, "Feminisms and Domesticity in Times of Crisis: The Rise of the Austerity Celebrity" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
Is the home still a site for feminist resistance? In Feminisms and Domesticity in Times of Crisis: The Rise of the Austerity Celebrity Jessica Martin, a…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Santiago Fouz-Hernández, "The Films of Bigas Luna" (Manchester UP, 2025)
Written by Professor Santiago Fouz-Hernández (Durham University), The Films of Bigas Luna (Manchester UP, 2025) is the first comprehensive English-language…
- New Books in Popular Culture
The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy
In an age of growing wealth disparities, politicians on both sides of the aisle are sounding the alarm about the fading American Dream. Yet despite all…
- New Books in Popular Culture
David M. Henkin, "Out of the Ballpark: How to Think about Baseball" (Oxford UP, 2026)
All over the world, masses of people watch, follow, document, and obsess over baseball. Everything remarkable about the impact of baseball derives from the…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Robert P. Kolker and David Wyatt, "The Film Auteur: Angles of Vision" (Routledge, 2026)
An accessible introduction to the concept of the auteur (author) in film theory. In The Film Auteur: Angles of Vision (Routledge, 2026) Robert Kolker and…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Alexis Lerner, "Post-Soviet Graffiti: Free Speech in Authoritarian States" (U Toronto Press, 2025)
Post-Soviet Graffiti: Free Speech in Authoritarian States (University of Toronto Press, 2025) is an empirically grounded ethnographic study of how graffiti and…
- New Books in Popular Culture
His Girl Friday
The average estimated words-per-minute in a feature film is 90; His Girl Friday (1940) clocks in at 240. And yet the fast dialogue is only one of its many…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Dan Hassler-Forest, "Fast and Furious Franchising: How the Serialized Blockbuster Remade Hollywood" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)
Fast and Furious Franchising charts the transformation of Hollywood through the story of one of its most successful cinematic universes. Released in 2001, The…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Paul Rees, "Raised on Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine and Payola - the AOR Glory Years 1976-1986" (De Capo, 2026)
Paul Rees' Raised on Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine and Payola - the AOR Glory Years 1976-1986 (De Capo, 2026) is a massively entertaining oral biography of the…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Ian Gittins, "The Cure: A Perfect Dream" (Gemini Books, 2025)
The story of The Cure: a tall tale of a truly unique British band. The Cure's story is a fantastical pop fable, but their trajectory has not been one of…
- New Books in Popular Culture
What Went Wrong with The Night Manager?
It’s The Pop Culture Professors, and we consider the final three episodes of The Night Manager, season two. We ask what went wrong with the second season, as…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Areum Jeong, "K-Pop Fandom: Performing Deokhu from the 1990s to Today" (U Michigan Press, 2026)
K-Pop Fandom: Performing Deokhu from the 1990s to Today (U Michigan Press, 2026) insists that K-pop fan practices and activities constitute a central…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Jonathan Wilson, "The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup" (Bold Type Books, 2025)
As the world prepares for the 2026 World Cup, Jonathan Wilson’s new book, The Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup (Bold Type Books, 2025)…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Bill Kopp, "What's the Big Idea: 30 Great Concept Albums" (Hozac, 2025)
As long as there has been music, the form has been used as a vehicle for storytelling. Artists who have something to say often find that putting it into music…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Hilary French, "Ballroom: A People’s History of Dancing" (Reaktion Books, 2022)
In the early twentieth century, American ragtime and the Parisian tango fuelled a dancing craze in Britain. Public ballrooms were built throughout the country…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Robert Guffey, "Hollywood Haunts the World: An Investigation into the Cinema of Occulted Taboos" (Headpress, 2026)
In Hollywood Haunts the World: An Investigation into the Cinema of Occulted Taboos (Headpress, 2026), Robert Guffey deconstructs the most powerful taboos of…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Gaoheng Zhang, "Italian Dumplings and Chinese Pizzas: Transcultural Food Mobilities" (Fordham UP, 2025)
Italian Dumplings and Chinese Pizzas: Transcultural Food Mobilities (Fordham UP, 2025) by Dr. Gaoheng Zhang designs a novel analytical framework to approach…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Mark Gallagher, "Cosmosexuals: Screen Acting, Stardom, and Male Sex Appeal" (U Texas Press, 2025)
In Cosmosexuals: Screen Acting, Stardom, and Male Sex Appeal (U Texas Press, 2025), Dr. Mark Gallagher presents an examination of male screen sex appeal and…
- New Books in Popular Culture
163* The Drama of Celebrity with Sharon Marcus (JP)
As Oscar Season rolls around, Recall This Book looks back to John's 2019 discussion with Columbia University professor Sharon Marcus about The Drama of…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Justin L. Mann, "Breaking the World: Black Insecurity and the Horizons of Speculation" (Duke UP, 2026)
Breaking the World: Black Insecurity and the Horizons of Speculation (Duke UP, 2026) takes Black speculative fiction as a central archive for understanding…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Rolando Pujol, "The Great American Retro Road Trip: A Celebration of Roadside Americana" (Artisan Publishers, 2025)
Rolando Pujol's The Great American Retro Road Trip: A Celebration of Roadside Americana (Artisan, 2025) celebrates the nostalgic pleasures of America's vintage…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Misty L. Heggeness, "Swiftynomics: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy" (U California Press, 2026)
A feminist romp through pop culture that illuminates how women influence and shape the economy. Taylor Swift isn't just a pop megastar. She is a working woman…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Kay Dickinson, "Fernando: A Song by ABBA" (Duke UP, 2025)
Since its release in 1976, ABBA's song "Fernando" has been loved by fans around the globe both for its sing-along chorus and its revolutionary spirit. In…
- New Books in Popular Culture
M. Hinds and J. Silverman, "Johnny Cash International: How and Why Fans Love the Man in Black" (U Iowa Press, 2020)
In Johnny Cash International: How and Why Fans Love the Man in Black (University of Iowa Press, 2020), Michael Hinds and Jonathan Silverman examine…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Robert P. Kolker and Nathan Abrams, "Kubrick: An Odyssey" (Pegasus Books, 2024)
The definitive biography of the creator of 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and A Clockwork Orange, presenting the most in-depth portrait yet of the…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Is 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple the Most Important Movie of the Year?
It’s The Pop Culture Professors, and today we analyze the new movie 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. A parable of humanism and dehumanization centered on two…
- New Books in Popular Culture
The Friends of Attention, "Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement" (Crown, 2026)
“You are correct: something is seriously wrong.” So begins Attensity: A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement (Crown, 2026) written by members of the…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Christopher Lynch, "Formulating Foster: Stephen C. Foster and the Creation of a National Musical Myth" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Stephen C. Foster (1826–1864) was a prolific song composer. A few of his minstrel tunes have become so enmeshed in American musical culture that they are often…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Min Joo Lee, "Finding Mr. Perfect: K-Drama, Pop Culture, Romance, and Race" (Rutgers UP, 2025)
Finding Mr. Perfect: K-Drama, Pop Culture, Romance, and Race (Rutgers UP, 2025) by Dr. Min Joo Lee explores the romantic relationships between Korean men and…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Oline Eaton, "Finding Jackie: The Second Act of America's First Lady" (Diversion Books, 2023)
In her new book, Finding Jackie: A Life Reinvented (Diversion Books, 2023), scholar and writer Oline Eaton examines the story of an era's biggest "star of…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Johanna Lukate, "(Dis)Entangled: Black Hair, Race, and Identity" (Coronet, 2025)
Even before we get to introduce ourselves by name, our hair has already started to tell stories about who we are, where we are from and where we are at. Our…
- New Books in Popular Culture
The Night Manager Episodes 1—3 Analysis: It Never Ends!
It’s The Pop Culture Professors, and we analyze the first three episodes of The Night Manager, season two. We consider the season as a continuation of Le…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Angie Hobbs, "Why Plato Matters Now" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
Does Plato matter? An ancient philosopher whose work has inspired and informed countless thinkers and poets across the centuries, his ideas are no longer…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Peter F. Burns et. al, "Disneyland Politics: How a Medium-Size City and Corporate Giant Coexist" (Temple UP, 2025)
When Walt Disney decided to build Disneyland in Anaheim, CA in the 1950s, the move presented a puzzle for Anaheim’s government: How would the city balance the…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Vanessa Díaz and Petra R. Rivera-Rideau, "P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance" (Duke UP, 2026)
P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance (Duke UP, 2026) explores the work of Puerto Rican musical superstar Bad Bunny (Benito…
- New Books in Popular Culture
"Plenty for All: The Art of Rick Fröberg" (Akashic Books, Ltd., 2016)
Rick Fröberg was an accomplished artist and musician born in Southern California who spent most of his early creative years in San Diego before moving to New…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Rob Harvilla, "60 Songs That Explain The 90s" (Twelve, 2023)
A companion to the #1 music podcast on Spotify, this book takes listeners through the greatest hits that define a weirdly undefinable decade. The 1990s were a…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Stuart Klawans, "Crooked, But Never Common: The Films of Preston Sturges" (Columbia UP, 2023)
In a burst of creativity unmatched in Hollywood history, Preston Sturges directed a string of all-time classic comedies from 1939 through 1948--The Great…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Barbara Jane Brickman, "Suffering Sappho! Lesbian Camp in American Popular Culture" (Rutgers UP, 2023)
An ever-expanding and panicked Wonder Woman lurches through a city skyline begging Steve to stop her. A twisted queen of sorority row crashes her convertible…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Pluribus Episodes 8 & 9 Analysis: It’s Over!
It’s The Pop Culture Professors, and we continue our analysis of Pluribus, with our thoughts on episode 8, “Charm Offensive” and episode 9, “La Chico o El…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Scott Feinberg, “The Hollywood Reporter’s 100 Greatest Film Books of All Time” (2023)
In the October 12, 2023 issue of The Hollywood Reporter, Scott Feinberg offered an annotated list of the 100 greatest film books of all time. Drawing on a jury…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Anna Zeide, "US History in 15 Foods" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
From whiskey in the American Revolution to Spam in WWII, food reveals a great deal about the society in which it exists. Selecting 15 foods that represent key…
- New Books in Popular Culture
J. W. Rinzler and Lee Unkrich, "Stanley Kubrick's The Shining" (Taschen, 2023)
In 1966 Stanley Kubrick told a friend that he wanted to make “the world’s scariest movie.” A decade later Stephen King’s The Shining landed on the director’s…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Andy Cowan, "B-Side: A Flipsided History of Pop" (Headpress, 2023)
In his new book B-Sides: A Flipsided History of Pop (Headpress, 2023), Andy Cowan explores a century of music b-sides. Pop music would be a different beast…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Helle Strandgaard Jensen, "Sesame Street: A Transnational History" (Oxford UP, 2023)
In Sesame Street: A Transnational History (Oxford UP, 2023), author Helle Strandgaard Jensen tells the story of how the American television show became a…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Kathryn Cornell Dolan, "Breakfast Cereal: A Global History" (Reaktion Books, 2023)
Breakfast Cereal: A Global History (Reaktion, 2023) by Dr. Kathryn Dolan presents the long, distinguished and surprising history of breakfast cereal. Simple…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, "Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist" (Simon and Schuster, 2025)
Hello, this is Eric LeMay, a host on the New Books Network. Today, I speak with Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, author of the new artist’s biography Lin-Manuel…
- New Books in Popular Culture
How to Fix Baseball with author Jane Leavy
For hard-core baseball folks, for anyone who cares for the future of the game, veteran baseball writer Jane Leavy compels attention with her provocative book…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Sustainability, Identity, Artisans and Designers
Long before the fashion industry formally addressed questions of sustainability and advocated for “slow fashion,” a husband-and-wife design duo were working to…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Pluribus Episodes 6 & 7 Analysis: I Feel Fine!
It’s The Pop Culture Professors, and we continue our analysis of Pluribus, with our thoughts on episode 6, “HDP” an episode 7, “The Gap.” Support our show by…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Thomas Manuel Ortiz, "Why We Struggle to Go Green: Hard Truths about the Clean Energy Transition" (Texas A&M Press, 2025)
Clean energy won’t save us from the effects of climate change. Amid corporate Net Zero campaigns, the politics of the Green New Deal, and the calls to abandon…
- New Books in Popular Culture
Patrick C. Fleming, "Animating the Victorians: Disney's Literary History" (UP of Mississippi, 2025)
Many Disney films adapt works from the Victorian period, which is often called the Golden Age of children’s literature. Animating the Victorians: Disney’s…