Pop DNA

We are back from a long, semi-unplanned hiatus, but don't worry, there's still plenty more Barbie to talk about! This week we look at how both Barbie Land and Stereotypical Barbie's perspective in the film explore gender and femininity.

How does Barbie Land fit into the context of women-dominated societies in other fictional works?

How does Barbie as a film both defy and uphold patriarchal beauty standards?

And how d...

Hi Barbies! We have sooooo much to talk about in this three-parter, so we squished some background discussion of fashion dolls and the cultural mythos of Barbie into this first episode. We also have some thoughts on the Barbenheimer phenomenon, the Barbie movie as a capitalist product, and our own experiences playing with Barbies as children. Then we give a brief overview of some other topics we want to dive into in our next two ep...

What was supposed to be a fun and light chat about video games this week turned into a philosophical discussion of free will as a player of video games, and how this illusion of choice translates into the choices (or lack thereof) of characters in the TV series of The Last Of Us, especially in terms of gendered actions and decision-making. It's still fun, though, we promise!

Further Exploration:

GamerGate coverage by Aja Romano

This week we are getting apocalyptic! We talk about why we as humans seem to be fascinated with the fall of civilization or even of humanity itself. From the ancient epic of Gilgamesh to several separate HBO shows, our literature and culture are full of stories about humans at the end of the world.

How does The Last of Us explore the human significance of the apocalypse? And what other works of apocalyptic and zombie fiction can we...

Welcome to our first regular episode of 2024! We're kicking the year off with a discussion of the (maybe?) zombie show that everyone was talking about in early 2023.

This week we talk about our first experiences with the world of The Last of Us, discuss the question of whether or not this is in fact a zombie show, and take a quiz to find out which character we are. Then we introduce the ideas we want to explore more in-depth i...

It's a new year, which means it's time for us to talk about our favorite movies and TV (plus a little theater and music) of 2023!

We also discuss how the Hollywood strikes affected how we view media, and how the theme of girlhood seemed to be a throughline in a lot of the media we loved this past year. We talk about a few of our disappointments as well, and then look ahead to what we're excited for in 2024.

2023 S...

The Wizard of Oz is a quintessentially American story, and over the 120+ years since the novel's release, the tale and its subsequent iterations have reflected the political climate of particular moments in our culture.

From its inception as an alleged allegory for the late 19th century Populist movement, to the imagery of early women's suffrage in the witches of Oz, to the echoes of FDR's New Deal and the Great Depres...

We're wrapping up 2023 with a look at the beloved 1939 classic musical fantasy film The Wizard of Oz, and its 1900 source novel by L. Frank Baum.

This week we give you a wizard's-eye view of the topics we plan to dig into deeper in the next couple episodes. We'll look at the popular theory of the original novel as an allegory for U.S. politics and economics at the turn of the 20th century, as well as the significance of...

Following up on our conversation from last time, this installment in our discussion of The Hunger Games looks at the vulnerability of children in both Panem and the ongoing attacks on Palestine, the troubling parallel between the Capitol citizens of Panem and we in the privileged Western world in our parasocial relationships with those respective children, and how these traumatic events will affect the human psyche and our ways of ...

With a new installment of The Hunger Games film franchise hitting theaters this month, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to revisit the series, and we brought a friend!

Jac Frost (known as @jacfrostisreal on TikTok) joins us for an intro to the deep-dive discussions we're planning on the books by Suzanne Collins and their film adaptations.

Our conversation focuses on the ways our current world is reflective of P...

Happy Halloween!

As a coda to our Wednesday series, we decided to watch an iconic movie from our childhoods and talk over it!

Tangents include the research Rhonda did about the house in Practical Magic before we visited the town where it was filmed for Galentine's Day, the summer camp Erin worked at one summer that reminded her of Wednesday's summer camp in really uncomfortable ways, and the prolific career of Joan Cusack...

We wrap up our Wednesday series with a deep dive into the character's emotional landscape. The therapy sessions that Wednesday is compelled to attend are not a healthy depiction of mental health care, so let's talk about that! Let's also talk about whether or not romance was really necessary to Wednesday's story (it wasn't), and whether romance storylines in media in general are underappreciated (they are).

Come...

This week we're talking about the ways the titular Wednesday explores her identity throughout the series, from finding other weird kids at Nevermore Academy, to differentiating from the Addams Family ethos.

Further Reading:

Nevermore Academy website

Nevermore filming locations

The All Ghouls School on TV Tropes

Children's author Chris Priestly on the appeal of the special school in fiction

Introduction to Bowen Theory in fa...

Wednesday is both a piece of Addams Family media and a Tim Burton work, so we're looking at the intersection of those two origins.

We take a trip down memory lane to look at how Wednesday and the rest of her family have been portrayed in various media over the decades, from the original 1930s comics by Charles Addams, all the way up to its current iteration in the Wednesday Netflix series.

Then we talk about Tim Burton's ae...

It's full-on Spooky Season at Pop DNA and we're celebrating with a discussion of our favorite spooky teen, Wednesday Addams!

In part 1 of this series, we talk about some of our initial thoughts on the Netflix show Wednesday, our relationships with the Addams Family franchise, and how we feel Wednesday fits into this 85-year legacy.

We also take the quiz to find out which character we are, which you can take here, and then g...

We wrap up our series on Abbott Elementary with some thoughts on how the show pays homage and stands out from older network sitcoms, Quinta Brunson's inspirations for the series, and a more lighthearted look at teaching and the veteran teachers who have shaped all of our lives.

Further Reading:

Abbott's "Revitalization" of the network sitcom

Quinta Brunson on Abbott's "cool factor"

The real teac...

This week we're digging into some of our favorite characters on Abbott Elementary!

We take a look at our favorite terrible boss Ava, with a psychological analysis of supervisor-employee relationship patterns, and how Ava's management style stacks up to other fictional bosses like Michael Scott or Don Draper.

Then we explore Janine and Barbara's unique found family mother-daughter dynamic, a type of relationship we don&#...

This week we look at how Abbott Elementary reflects popular opinions on the public education system, and how it portrays the experience of teaching as a profession. We also dip into the hot-button issue of charter schools, looking at a more nuanced discussion of this debate than we see presented on the show.

Further Reading:

Social media creators Honest Teacher Vibes, Mrs. Call's Campers, and Teacher Tales of Miss Smith give fi...

Happy Season 6 to Pop DNA! To kick off September we're going back to school to talk about Abbott Elementary!

To set the stage for this four-part series, and the whole podcast for the foreseeable future, we discuss the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, how they affect Abbott Elementary, and why we should all be aware of the issues involved.

We also take a quiz to find out which characters we are, which you can take here, and gi...