Pop Culture Detective: Audio Files

In this episode we explore a relatively new subgenre of science fiction called Solarpunk, which aims to imagine better ecologically harmonious futures. In many ways Solarpunk is a reaction to both the real-world climate crisis and to the many apocalyptic visions of collapse that fill our screens. Andrew Sage from the YouTube channel Andrewism joins us for this conversation.

In this episode, we discuss the fair use doctrine and why it's so important for everyone on the internet. We also dig into how fair use interacts with YouTube’s Content ID system. Two legal experts in fair use join the conversation: Art Neill and Erika Lee from New Media Rights.

An in-depth conversation with award-winning Swedish artist and storyteller Simon Stålenhag. Simon is the creator of narrative art books like Tales From the Loop, Things From the Flood, and The Electric State. We discuss what it’s like for a small artist to be courted by the Hollywood machine. We dig into the meaning and messages in dystopia science fiction. And we talk about the negative implications of AI art generators.

In this episode, we investigate the mind-bending multiverse movie Everything Everywhere All At Once and discuss the messages and meaning embedded in the cinematic madness.

We investigate The Book of Boba Fett and discuss how this new Star Wars series pulls many of its themes and motifs directly from old Hollywood Westerns, including a few regressive tropes popular in that genre.