CONTENT WARNING: this episode contains discussions, though NOT graphic descriptions, of sexual assault and violence against women, rape and rape culture, trauma, and women’s loss of bodily autonomy as portrayed and commented upon in these films. If these topics will not be a good experience for you to hear about, please take care of yourself and skip this episode. We'll see you next time! We're calling this the "feminist body horror" edition of Summer "Camp" and looking at two modern...

Welcome "camp"ers to Pop DNA Summer "Camp"! To kick off our summer series all about our favorite campy movies, we first give a brief explainer of what we mean by "camp." We quote Susan Sontag and it's very professional. Then we look at two movies that portray creepy sentient dolls that turn murderous, the original 1988 classic Child's Play and the instant classic that sparked a million memes, M3GAN. Further Reading: Sontag's original essay "Notes on 'Camp'" M3GAN director on the...

Wrapping up our Taylor Swift series, we decided to look at Swift's relationship with her fame and her fandom, and how both fit into the broader context of how we talk about famous women. From the way our society likes to mock teen girls and young women and the art they like, to the cycles of public opinion we see around female pop singers like Lizzo, Britney Spears, Beyonce, and Swift herself, we've got a lot of internalized misogyny to unpack. We also look into the psychology of parasocial...

Did you know that we're kinda theater kids? And also huge literature nerds? And that Taylor Swift is both of those things, too? This week we look at the theatricality of Swift's tour shows, specifically with the set and costume design of the Eras Tour, and how those elements help tell the story. Then we dive into the literary sensibilities of the albums Folklore and Evermore, viewing these works as collections of short stories about, in Swift's own words, a "mythological American town." We...

This week we're diving in to the evolution of Taylor Swift, and we've got graphs! Over the course of her 17-year career, Swift has evolved as an artist and as a public figure, with distinct "eras" emerging in her music and aesthetic. We take a look at her early career as a teen country music artist, her transition to pop, and her deepening explorations and fine-tuning within both genres to find her current adult artistic voice. Find the timeline and word cloud images we discussed on our...

We're doing something totally new this month--discussing the works of a musical artist! And who better or more newsworthy to be our inaugural artist but Miss Americana herself, Taylor Swift. In part 1, we talk about the very recent announcement of Speak Now (Taylor's Version), look briefly at our personal connections with Swift's music, and take a very scientific BuzzFeed quiz to find out which Taylor Swift Era we are (but then we both self-identify as different ones). We also give an...

It's Rhonda's Birthday Bonus, so she roped Erin into talking about Twilight! As long-time listeners know, Rhonda is contractually obligated to bring up Twilight at regular intervals, and after this episode her quota will be met for quite some time. In our scholarly and insightful discussion, we talk about every Twilight consumer's burning question: Team Edward or Team Jacob? We also talk about our personal experiences with the books and movies, theorize about what makes the series so...

We wrap up our series on A League of Their Own this week by discussing romance! Erin gives us a rundown on the documentary A Secret Love, which chronicles the real-life love story of Rockford Peach Terry Donahue and her lifelong partner Patricia Henschel. Then Rhonda deep-dives into the reference made to Pride and Prejudice in the first episode of the show, and how this reference foreshadows or contextualizes the romance storylines. Further Reading: We also found this article on...

We're continuing our discussion of A League of Their Own with a look inside the real All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) and a few of the real women who played in the league over its 12 seasons. We also analyze how accurately the movie and TV series portrayed the realities of the league. Check out our recommended reading list below for our sources and further background on the history. Recommended Reading: This 2018 Chicago Tribune article offers lots of valuable...

It's officially baseball season and we're celebrating with a deep dive into the 2022 Amazon original series A League of Their Own, and the 1992 movie that inspired it! We open it up with a look at our first experiences with both the film and the series, and then do an overview of what we plan to explore in more depth this month. Topics include the true history of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and the real Rockford Peaches, as well as the real-life queer love stories...

This week we're very excited to welcome our guest Natania Barron, author of the Arthurian-based Queens of Fate trilogy, to talk about the film The Green Knight, the character of Gawain and his many iterations, nerdy medievalist Easter eggs, the enduring and transcending relevance of Arthuriana, and so much more! Find Natania and her books on her website and follow her on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. Her book Queen of None is still available from some sources, but it will be re-released...

This week in our discussion of The Green Knight, we look into readership and audience reception of the source text, the film, and other recent fantasy fiction. Medieval readers (or listeners) of Sir Gawain's story would have understood references and symbols in the text that many modern readers and viewers miss--what are some of these references? We also talk about the persistent myth that everyone in Medieval Europe was white, and how this racist myth has affected modern audiences'...

We're very excited to be diving in to the 2021 film The Green Knight this month, as well as the 14th century English epic poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight on which the film is based. As an introduction to this series, we discuss our overview thoughts on the movie, plus our experiences with the source text, as well as Arthurian legends in general.  We also do our usual "table of contents," giving you a taste of the topics we plan to talk about this month. Things like: the positioning...

Wrapping up our series on To All The Boys, we look at how psychology and long distances affect the relationships in the films as well as in real life.  Erin of course dips into her psychology expertise to talk about the vulnerability cycle in relationships, and how we see this play out especially in Lara Jean and Peter's story. And Rhonda breaks down some of the locations used in the films, from the Pacific Northwest, to Seoul, to NYC, looking at how setting informs the characters and...

This week in our To All the Boys discussion, we look at how ideas and themes in the films are reflected in the real world. We research some other works and the life of Jenny Han, author of the books the films are based on, as well as how the idea of "soulmates" is expressed in literature and pop culture, especially teen romcoms. How have Han's experiences shaped her stories, and her role in the adaptations of her stories, and how has the idea of one perfect soul mate for everyone impacted how...

Love letters and romance novels are two of the most prominent genres of writing that inform our cultural ideas about love and romance, and both feature prominently in To All the Boys. Lara Jean is an avid romance reader, and even has fantasies inspired by common romance novel tropes, and of course the entire premise of the first book and movie revolves around Lara Jean's love letters.  This week we dive into both of these forms of writing, the history behind them, how society has viewed them...

All February long we're talking about our favorite Netflix teen romcom movie series, To All the Boys I've Loved Before (sorry, Kissing Booth)! In part one we talk about our initial experiences with the movies, the source of comfort they were during quarantine, and get into the topics we plan to discuss in more depth throughout the month. Themes include: the history of love letters romance novels and romance readers self-efficacy in teen romance and more! We also decided to take our...

We wrap up our Stranger Things discussion with a look at some of the literary inspirations for the show, such as the work of Stephen King and the Choose Your Own Adventure children's book series, as well as the interweaving of Dungeons and Dragons-style narrative storytelling with the ability for players to choose their own path.  We also take the quiz to find out which characters we are, and you can take it here. Links: Fandom Wiki page on all the influences and references in Stranger...

Part 2 of our Stranger Things discussion dives into the DND lore, especially the monsters (because that's Erin's brand), from which the show draws inspiration (or even straight-up copies, it's a little murky). We also look at Stranger Things as a piece of nostalgia media, and discuss why viewing the past through such a rosy lens can be dangerous, especially when considering how the political and social messaging reads to a modern audience. For further reading: Every Dungeons and Dragons...

We are launching a three-part series dissecting your favorite 1980s-nostalgia-bait Netflix series (that Erin loves and Rhonda... doesn't love), Stranger Things!  In this first part, we look at the unique placement of Stranger Things and its fandom within main stream pop culture. From the show's homages to DND and sci-fi/horror fans, to the recent evolution in the online fandom through social media platforms like TikTok. Yes, we're talking about the "Chrissy, Wake Up" TikTok remix song.  We...

Happy New Year! In this bonus episode we discuss trends we noticed in the media of 2022, as well as themes and through lines that emerged in our favorite works. From the more abstract like exploring characters' vulnerability as a strength, to themes that are almost genres in themselves, like Rich People Nonsense™. We also look ahead to things we're excited to watch in 2023, and give a quick peek at what's on the itinerary for Pop DNA this year! Erin's Best of 2022: A League of their...

As we wrap up our final Narnia episode we're asking the big questions: Was C. S. Lewis sexist? Or can we draw any feminist or female-empowerment messages from his work? What does feminism even look like in the context of a fantasy world where children go into battle with talking animals? We also look specifically at The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a World War 2 story, exploring the story an as allegory for what was happening in the "real" world at the time it takes place. And of...

This week on our Narnia journey we are diving in to all things magic. We discuss the differences between hard and soft magic systems, how magic is expressed in the world of Narnia, and how it compares to the magic in other fictional worlds. We also look at Narnia as a touchstone of fantasy fiction, its relationship with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and its influence on modern fantasy works like Star Wars and Lev Grossman's book series The Magicians. --- Send in a voice message:...

This month we are talking about the best children's fantasy book series, The Chronicles of Narnia (and you can fight us on that). For our first glimpse into the wardrobe we share our first experiences with the series, favorite fan theories, and thoughts on various adaptations. We also definitively decide which order the books should be read, and preview the topics we plan to explore in the next two weeks of the series. Get your hot cocoa and your Turkish Delight, kick back, and get ready to...

One of our favorite things about The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window is that its long, ridiculous title is a perfect encapsulation of the genre it parodies, right down to the use of the words "girl" and "woman." The genre of course is the domestic noir thriller made popular in the past decade which we discussed last episode.  But why is this genre so gender-coded? Why all the girls? What relationship does the genre have with other female-dominated literary...