Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchPeter D. McDonald, "The Impossible Reversal: A History of How We Play" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)
Episode 1662
Tracing the cultural history of play--from Fluxus to SimCity Games and gamified activities have become ubiquitous in many adults' lives, and play is …
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Margaret Heffernan, "Embracing Uncertainty: How Writers, Musicians and Artists Thrive In An Unpredictable World" (Policy Press, 2025)
Episode 1663
Most people hate and fear uncertainty. It causes such stress and anxiety that we often choose certain surrender over doubt, becoming passive, depende…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Jan Yager, "Time Masters: Eleven Secrets to Greater Productivity and Life Fulfillment" (Hannacroix Craft Books, 2026)
Episode 1660
Jan Yager's latest book, Time Masters: Eleven Secrets to Greater Productivity and Life Fulfillment (Hannacroix Craft Books, 2026), examines the quest…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Pavel Brunssen, "The Making of 'Jew Clubs': Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures" (Indiana UP, 2025)
Episode 1661
Today we are joined by Pavel Brunssen, a Research Associate and Alfred Landecker Lecturer at the Research Center on Antigypsyism at Heidelberg Univer…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Is "For All Mankind" the Most Ambitious Show on Television?
Episode 1659
It’s the Pop Culture Professors, and we analyze the first two episodes of season five of For All Mankind, Apple+TV’s alternate history show about a w…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Jordan Treske, "Building the Milwaukee Bucks: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, and the Rapid Rise of an NBA Franchise, 1968-1975" (McFarland, 2025)
Episode 1658
In three short years, the Milwaukee Bucks went from merely an idea to NBA champions. What started as a quest by Marvin Fishman and eventually Wesley …
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Katharine K. Wilkinson, "Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home" (Amber Lotus Publishing, 2026)
Episode 1657
When maps come up short and the path ahead is uncertain, how do we find our way? Visionary climate leader Katharine K. Wilkinson offers a compassiona…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Fiction’s Lost Ambition with Writer Sam Kahn
Episode 1656
Fiction has “lost its ambition,” and not only that, “its centrality to the culture,” Sam Kahn says in a recent piece on “Castalia,” his popular Subst…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
David Arditi, "Music Technology Panic Narratives Beyond Piracy: From Taping to Napster to TikTok" (Anthem Press, 2026)
Episode 1655
Who makes a living from the music industry? In Music Technology Panic Narratives Beyond Piracy: From Taping to Napster to TikTok (Anthem Press, 2026…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Peter Richardson, "Brand New Beat: The Wild Rise of Rolling Stone Magazine" (U California Press, 2026)
Episode 1654
Rolling Stone's first decade was truly rock and roll: chaotic, wild, and unpredictable. Brand New Beat: The Wild Rise of Rolling Stone Magazine (U Ca…
6 months, 3 weeks ago