Shows / History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and Present
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and Present
Two professors who love pop culture discuss why everything old (in movies, tv, music, and fashion) is new again.
PhDs in History, advanced training in sass.
Don’t forget to read your footnotes!
Episodes
- History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and Present
Yes, Lady Scammers Gonna Scam (Ft. You Can See Everything, The Last Seduction, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)
Lauren and Christine, doe-eyed and vulnerable, scout for likely male dupes as they discuss lady scammers in real and cinematic life. Has feminism finally…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentNo, Sports Movies Are Never Actually About Sports (Ft. Ted Lasso, The Longest Yard, Bull Durham, and A League of Their Own)
Lauren and Christine suit up, stretch out, and run excitedly out of the locker room as they ponder the American love of the sports movie (or tv show)…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, Movies About Sex Used to Include Sex (Ft. One Night Only, It Follows, Porky's, and Bachelor Party)
In their triumphant return for season two, Lauren and Christine stay up all night and wonder why Millenial and Gen Z films about sex are mostly about not…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, He Is Eddie Murphy, Dammit! (Ft. Boomerang, Bowfinger, and Dolemite Is My Name)
In a fun-size episode, Lauren and Christine wear red leather suits and get out their diplomas from the Velvet Jones School of Technology while discussing the…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, Pop Culture Invented Friend Groups (Ft. Love is Blind, The Big Chill, and St Elmo’s Fire)
Lauren and Christine honor “girl code,” map out love triangles and quadrangles, and book a big table for brunch as they consider the recent-ish popularity of…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentNo, Cathy and Heathcliff Aren’t Hollywood’s First Mad Lovers (Ft. Wuthering Heights, Body Heat, & 9 1/2 Weeks)
Lauren and Christine sweat, sigh, and gasp as they consider passionate, obsessive, madly-in-love couples with unhappy endings. They make bad choices, but at…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentNo, Rob Reiner Didn’t Invent Rom-Coms, But He Perfected Them (Ft. When Harry Met Sally, The Sure Thing, and It Happened One Night)
Lauren and Christine take a road trip, sing show tunes, and bicker as they revisit two classic rom-coms directed by Rob Reiner, and the one directed by Frank…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, Rebels Are Always On the Run (Ft. One Battle After Another, North By Northwest, and Running on Empty)
Lauren and Christine change their names, color their hair, and get fake IDs as they discuss Hollywood’s long love for mistaken identities, new identities, and…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, Hollywood Has Always Turned the Camera on Itself (Ft. The Studio, Jay Kelly, and The Player)
Lights, camera, and action as Lauren and Christine ask why Hollywood is so fascinated with making media about itself - a fascination that is as old as…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, Teachers and Students Are Always Complicated (Ft. After the Hunt, The Children’s Hour, & Tea and Sympathy)
Lauren and Christine pour the tea, button their cardigans, and worry about getting tenure as they discuss three films about complicated relationships between…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentNo, Don't Let That Dashingly Handsome Vampire Inside (Ft. Sinners, Dracula, and Interview With the Vampire)
In this Halloween episode, Lauren and Christine hunt vampires from Europe in the 19th century to the American South in the 21st. If vampires are metaphors for…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, Nicole Kidman Has Always Been a Sexy Bold Queen (Ft. Dead Calm, To Die For, Eyes Wide Shut, and Babygirl)
Lauren and Christine grab the harpoon guns and pour a cold glass of milk to discuss the diverse, sexy, bold choices of Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman. And they…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, Mothers and Daughters Are Always Complicated (Ft. Mommie Dearest, Black Swan, and Unknown Number)
Lauren and Christine get out the wire hangers, put on matching dresses, and gulp a vodka on the rocks as they consider mothers and daughters in pop culture.
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, There’s More To Maine Than Stephen King (Ft. Carrie, A Summer Place, and Wet Hot American Summer)
In the second of our Hometown episodes, Lauren and Christine head Down East to the great state of Maine. Like Philadelphia, the Pine Tree State has its class…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentNo, Mayo Should Not Be Put On Cheesesteaks (Ft. Rocky, Trading Places, and Billy Joel)
In the first of two Hometown episodes, Lauren introduces Christine to the culinary magic known as the pizza steak as they visit Philadelphia. Can they run up…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentNo, Sydney Sweeney Is Not the First Denim Bombshell (Ft. Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon)
In this episode, nothing gets between Lauren, Christine, and their Calvins, as they look back at the career of Gen-X icon Brooke Shields. Book recommendations…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentNo, Beaches Do Not Always Mean Bad Decisions (Ft. Love Island, Blame It On Rio, and Where the Boys Are)
Lauren and Christine get out the sunscreen and head to the beach, asking why films and tv often associate this setting with booze, hooking up, and regrets. And…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, Sex and the City Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda Skipped the Reboot (Ft. And Just Like That)
In a double-sized episode, Lauren and Christine say “hello, lover” to Sex and the City, while leaving a break-up Post-It note for And Just Like That. Book…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, “Forever” Has Been Around Forever, Pt. 2 (Ft. American Pie, Fast Times, and Beverly Hills 90210)
Lauren and Christine return to first love and high school, surveying American culture’s fascination with virgins. If we can’t all be Brenda and Dylan, or even…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, “Forever" Has Been Around Forever, Pt. 1 (Ft. Fast Times at Ridgemont High)
Lauren and Christine cast a misty eye on stories of first love, senior year in high school, and college applications — and feel nostalgic about the days when…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, There Were Angry Young Men Before the Internet (Ft. Adolescence, 8 Mile, and Blackboard Jungle)
Lauren and Christine ask if Adolescence deserves its anti-misogyny hype, if anger can boost a young man's ambition, and if World War II created a generation of…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentYes, Women Can Be Friends and Not Frenemies (Ft. White Lotus, Gossip Girl, and The Women)
Lauren and Christine ask why bitchy, backstabbing lady-friends have always been so compelling in popular culture, and if “best friends” should make…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentNo, Biopics Don’t Always Suck (Ft. A Complete Unknown and The Doors)
Lauren and Christine ask why biopics and biographies of musicians and other celebrities are so hard to do well, what we really want when we want to “know” a…
History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and PresentNo, Anora is Not a Good Film About Sex Workers (Ft. Pretty Woman & Belle de Jour)
Pop-culture-loving history professors Lauren and Christine discuss three films about sex workers. Is it really so hard to make a good movie about the world’s…