New Books in Popular Culture

Marshall Poe

Michael Mann

Hollywood

Attention

Feminism

For All Mankind

Human Fracking

Technology

Bigas Luna

Video Games

Hip Hop

Attention Activism

Mental Health

28 Years Later: the Bone Temple

The Night Manager

Spanish Cinema

Solitude

Environmental Crisis

Communities

Fandom

Collective Reclamation

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to ... more

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Publishes	Daily	Episodes	1773	Founded	16 years ago
Number of Listeners		Categories	Society & CultureHistory

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Latest Episodes

Once Upon a Time in South Central LA: John Singleton's Hood Trilogy with Mark D. Cunningham (UP of Mississippi, 2026)

After the groundbreaking success of his debut film, Boyz N the Hood in 1991, filmmaker John Singleton (1968–2019) gained worldwide acclaim, earned the respect of major film industry figures, and became the topic of both scholarly and popular culture ... more

Today • 1 hr

BAM!: John Madden, the NFL Explosion, and the Video Game that Changed Sports with Scott Howard-Cooper (Diversion Books, 2026)

John Madden retired abruptly from coaching in 1979, five months after receiver Darryl Stingley suffered a paralyzing injury against his Raiders. The tragedy would never leave him. He had no intention of entering broadcasting. Yet, within a decade—BAM... more

Today • 47 min

Poetry in General: How a Literary Form Became Public with Keegan Cook Finberg (Columbia UP, 2025)

What is the place of poetry in the modern world? In Poetry in General: How a Literary Form Became Public (Columbia UP, 2025), Keegan Cook Finberg, an Associate Professor of English at University of Maryland, Baltimore County narrates the contemporary... more

Today • 46 min

Pink Auteur, Red Outlaw: Adachi Masao and Japan's Cinema of Revolution with William Andrews (Awai Books, 2026)

Pink Auteur, Red Outlaw: Adachi Masao and Japan’s Cinema of Revolution (Awai Books, 2026) is the first-ever English-language book on Adachi Masao. Based on extensive interviews with the director and years of research, this study offers a comprehensiv... more

24 Oct 2026 • 1 hr 5 min

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Recent Guests

Neil Selkirk

Photographer and editor of Why Photographs?

Episode: Neil Selkirk on Why Photographs?

John Potter

Singer, author, former University of York lecturer, and former member of the Hilliard Ensemble.

Episode: Christmas Carols: An English Enchantment with John Potter (Yale UP, 2026)

Drew Ayers

Professor of film and director of the film program at Eastern Washington University; author of Action Bodies.

Eastern Washington University

Episode: Action Bodies: VFX, Identity, and Embodiment in Blockbuster Cinema with Drew Ayers (U Texas Press, 2026)

Matthew Warner Osborn

Associate professor of history at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and author of Night Hawk

University of Missouri–Kansas City

Episode: Night Hawk: A Nineteenth-Century Superhero and the Dawn of American Mass Culture with Matthew Warner Osborn (U Chicago Press, 2026)

Lise Shapiro Sanders

Literature and cultural studies professor and author of Reading for Pleasure

Hampshire College

Episode: Reading for Pleasure: Working Women and the Popular Romance in Early Twentieth-Century Britain with Lise Shapiro Sanders (Bloomsbury, 2026)

Eleanor Johnson

Professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and author of books on horror and medieval literature

Columbia University

Episode: Monstrous Bitch: A History of Terrifying Women with Eleanor Johnson (Princeton UP, 2026)

Aaron Trammell

Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, author and senior editor of Analog Game Studies

University of California, Irvine

Episode: How Dungeons and Dragons Changed the Way We Play with Aaron Trammell (Duke UP, 2026)

Timothy Thurston

Associate professor in the study of contemporary China and author of Satirical Tibet

Episode: Satirical Tibet: The Politics of Humor in Contemporary Amdo with Timothy Thurston (U Washington Press, 2025)

Andrew Coe

Food historian and independent scholar, and author of books on Chinese food and American food history

Episode: American Bread: A History with Andrew Coe (U California Press, 2026)

Hosts

Michael Johnston

Host of The New Books Network

Rudolf Inderst

Host of New Books in Game Studies; host of The New Books Network channel Game Studies

Reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars from 17 ratings

Poor journalism
The reason journalists are so maligned
Apple Podcasts
1
SpongeBobbyHil589
United Statesa year ago
New books in Pop culture
Excellent interviews and subjects; sadly the echo is frustrating and distracts from the top notch content.
Apple Podcasts
4
Amethyst-eye
United States8 years ago

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Listeners Say

Key themes from listener reviews, highlighting what works and what could be improved about the show.

Occasional critical takes on pacing or focus may appear.

Strong booking of subject-matter experts across disciplines.

High-quality scholars with well-researched takes.

Thoughtful, credible guest conversations for academic audiences.

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Talking Points

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Soviet Blocks: The Bizarre Puzzle of How Tetris Embraced Western Values with Julien Mailland (MIT Press, 2026)

Q: Could you walk us through some of the legal battles and intellectual property questions that shaped Tetris' ownership history?

Mailland outlines disputes over ownership after the Soviet Union collapsed, competing licensing claims involving Atari and Nintendo, and a later ruling that he says gave the Tetris Company a flawed basis for pursuing clones.

Soviet Blocks: The Bizarre Puzzle of How Tetris Embraced Western Values with Julien Mailland (MIT Press, 2026)

Q: How did a game created under KGB monitoring manage to cross the ideological divide so effectively?

Mailland says Tetris's simple, mathematical puzzle mechanics had no political message, storyline, or language barrier, helping it appeal across countries, generations, and demographics.

Women in Comics: Iconic Characters and Influential Creators 1923-Today with Susan E. Kirtley and Nhora Lucía Serrano (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2026)

Q: Can you talk about the choice of thinking about those archetypes and how you structured the book around them?

Serrano says the archetypes emerged through ongoing conversations and function as feminist lenses for reconsidering familiar tropes. Kirtley explains that they organize the book's histories without claiming the categories are exhaustive, and notes that characters often fit more than one archetype.

Women in Comics: Iconic Characters and Influential Creators 1923-Today with Susan E. Kirtley and Nhora Lucía Serrano (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2026)

Q: Could you talk about why you felt you needed to and wanted to write about Women in Comics?

Nhora Lucía Serrano describes the book as a collaborative passion project that asks what comics history reveals when women are put at its center. Susan E. Kirtley adds that they wanted to investigate and celebrate women's contributions to comics.

Egyptian Male Film Stars in the Nasser Era: Envisioning a National Identity with Samar Abdel-Rahman (American U of Cairo Press, 2026)

Q: Why did the Nasser government go on to nationalize the movie industry in the 1960s?

She describes a gradual process involving censorship changes, subsidies, and increasing state control. Major studios were nationalized amid broader political and economic changes, while bureaucracy made filmmaking harder; she notes the policy was not simply intended to shut filmmakers down.

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Frequently Asked Questions About New Books in Popular Culture

What is New Books in Popular Culture about and what kind of topics does it cover?

This show centers on scholarly conversations with authors and researchers about recently published works across culture, media, history, and society. Guests typically include university professors, researchers, and book authors who illuminate how their scholarship intersects with popular culture, film, urban studies, music, and technology. Episodes often explore how ideas migrate from academia to public understanding, with attention to historiography, media representations, and cultural critique. A notable strength is assembling multidisciplinary perspectives around a single book or theme, often from different regional or cultural viewpoints, making it useful for listeners who want informed, thoughtful analysis tied to current scholarly con... more

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Which podcasts are similar to New Books in Popular Culture?

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1. London Review Bookshop Podcast
2. Intelligence Squared
3. Plain English with Derek Thompson
4. HistoryExtra podcast
5. The Daily

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New Books in Popular Culture launched 16 years ago and published 1773 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on New Books in Popular Culture?

Recent guests on New Books in Popular Culture include:

1. Neil Selkirk
2. John Potter
3. Drew Ayers
4. Matthew Warner Osborn
5. Lise Shapiro Sanders
6. Eleanor Johnson
7. Aaron Trammell
8. Timothy Thurston

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