History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and Present
Two professors who love pop culture discuss why everything old (in movies, tv, music, and fashion) is new again.PhDs in History, advanced training in sass.Don’t forget to read your footnotes!
Yes, Movies About Sex Used to Include Sex (Ft. One Night Only, It Follows, Porky's, and Bachelor Party)
In their triumphant return for season two, Lauren and Christine stay up all night and wonder why Millenial and Gen Z films about sex are mostly about not having sex. And as mature Gen Xers, they agree that a donkey snorting coke will never not be funny.
Yes, He Is Eddie Murphy, Dammit! (Ft. Boomerang, Bowfinger, and Dolemite Is My Name)
In a fun-size episode, Lauren and Christine wear red leather suits and get out their diplomas from the Velvet Jones School of Technology while discussing the versatile career of genius Eddie Murphy.
Yes, Pop Culture Invented Friend Groups (Ft. Love is Blind, The Big Chill, and St Elmo’s Fire)
Lauren and Christine honor “girl code,” map out love triangles and quadrangles, and book a big table for brunch as they consider the recent-ish popularity of friend groups in pop culture. And they marvel at the size of Rob Lowe’s saxophone.
No, Cathy and Heathcliff Aren’t Hollywood’s First Mad Lovers (Ft. Wuthering Heights, Body Heat, & 9 1/2 Weeks)
Lauren and Christine sweat, sigh, and gasp as they consider passionate, obsessive, madly-in-love couples with unhappy endings. They make bad choices, but at least they look gorgeous!
No, Rob Reiner Didn’t Invent Rom-Coms, But He Perfected Them (Ft. When Harry Met Sally, The Sure Thing, and It Happened One Night)
Lauren and Christine take a road trip, sing show tunes, and bicker as they revisit two classic rom-coms directed by Rob Reiner, and the one directed by Frank Capra that started it all. And we’ll have what she’s having.
Yes, Rebels Are Always On the Run (Ft. One Battle After Another, North By Northwest, and Running on Empty)
Lauren and Christine change their names, color their hair, and get fake IDs as they discuss Hollywood’s long love for mistaken identities, new identities, and criminals on the run. And they imagine the what-could-have-been of the remarkable River Phoenix (R.I.P.).
Book recommendations:
Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin Guerre
Tom Engelhardt, The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation
Yes, Hollywood Has Always Turned the Camera on Itself (Ft. The Studio, Jay Kelly, and The Player)
Lights, camera, and action as Lauren and Christine ask why Hollywood is so fascinated with making media about itself - a fascination that is as old as filmmaking. And what’s so terrible about twelve movies in an MK Ultra franchise, anyway?
Book recommendations:
Arthur Laurents, Original Story By: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood
Peter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And-Rock n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
Michael Tolkin, The Player
Yes, Teachers and Students Are Always Complicated (Ft. After the Hunt, The Children’s Hour, & Tea and Sympathy)
Lauren and Christine pour the tea, button their cardigans, and worry about getting tenure as they discuss three films about complicated relationships between teachers (and teachers’ spouses) and their students. Amid suspicions, accusations, and counter-accusations, who has the power here?
Book recommendations:
Vito Russo, The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies
Carrie N. Baker, The Women’s Movement Against Sexual Harrassment
No, Don't Let That Dashingly Handsome Vampire Inside (Ft. Sinners, Dracula, and Interview With the Vampire)
In this Halloween episode, Lauren and Christine hunt vampires from Europe in the 19th century to the American South in the 21st. If vampires are metaphors for a society’s fears, why do they always look so good?
Book recommendations:
John Polidori, The Vampyre
John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Yes, Nicole Kidman Has Always Been a Sexy Bold Queen (Ft. Dead Calm, To Die For, Eyes Wide Shut, and Babygirl)
Lauren and Christine grab the harpoon guns and pour a cold glass of milk to discuss the diverse, sexy, bold choices of Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman. And they ask: When will Nicole date a nice 6’4” guy?
Yes, Mothers and Daughters Are Always Complicated (Ft. Mommie Dearest, Black Swan, and Unknown Number)
Lauren and Christine get out the wire hangers, put on matching dresses, and gulp a vodka on the rocks as they consider mothers and daughters in pop culture.
Yes, There’s More To Maine Than Stephen King (Ft. Carrie, A Summer Place, and Wet Hot American Summer)
In the second of our Hometown episodes, Lauren and Christine head Down East to the great state of Maine. Like Philadelphia, the Pine Tree State has its class issues. Unlike Philly cheesesteaks, its lobster rolls contain mayo. But if it is so beautiful, why is it so creepy?
Book recommendations:
Carol F. Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England
Edna St Vincent Millay, Collected Poems
No, Mayo Should Not Be Put On Cheesesteaks (Ft. Rocky, Trading Places, and Billy Joel)
In the first of two Hometown episodes, Lauren introduces Christine to the culinary magic known as the pizza steak as they visit Philadelphia. Can they run up the Rocky Steps in their training montage while singing every word to “Piano Man”?
Hoagie recommendations:
https://dalessandros.com/
https://leeshoagiehouse.com/
No, Sydney Sweeney Is Not the First Denim Bombshell (Ft. Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon)
In this episode, nothing gets between Lauren, Christine, and their Calvins, as they look back at the career of Gen-X icon Brooke Shields.
Book recommendations:
E.J. Bellocq, Storyville Portraits: Photographs From the New Orleans Red Light District, circa 1912
https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_2678_300299020.pdf
Kathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture
https://www.pennpress.org/9780812221671/hope-in-a-jar/
No, Beaches Do Not Always Mean Bad Decisions (Ft. Love Island, Blame It On Rio, and Where the Boys Are)
Lauren and Christine get out the sunscreen and head to the beach, asking why films and tv often associate this setting with booze, hooking up, and regrets. And they resolve never to go to Rio with Michael Caine.
RIP Connie Francis.
Book recommendations:
Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer People
E.M. Forster, A Room With a View
Yes, Sex and the City Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda Skipped the Reboot (Ft. And Just Like That)
In a double-sized episode, Lauren and Christine say “hello, lover” to Sex and the City, while leaving a break-up Post-It note for And Just Like That.
Book recommendations:
Colette, Chéri
Ann Douglas, Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s
Yes, “Forever” Has Been Around Forever, Pt. 2 (Ft. American Pie, Fast Times, and Beverly Hills 90210)
Lauren and Christine return to first love and high school, surveying American culture’s fascination with virgins. If we can’t all be Brenda and Dylan, or even Jim and Michelle, can we at least avoid being Stacy and Ron?
Yes, “Forever" Has Been Around Forever, Pt. 1 (Ft. Fast Times at Ridgemont High)
Lauren and Christine cast a misty eye on stories of first love, senior year in high school, and college applications — and feel nostalgic about the days when teachers and students could smoke in school.
Book recommendations:
Wendy Mogel, The Blessing of a Skinned Knee
Theodore Sizer, Horace’s Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School
Yes, There Were Angry Young Men Before the Internet (Ft. Adolescence, 8 Mile, and Blackboard Jungle)
Lauren and Christine ask if Adolescence deserves its anti-misogyny hype, if anger can boost a young man's ambition, and if World War II created a generation of angry, jazz-hating, rock-and-roll loving, juvenile delinquents.
Book recommendations:
Dan T. Carter, The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics
https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Rage-Conservatism-Transformation-American/dp/0807125970
Leonard Sax, Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men
https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Adrift-Epidemic-Unmotivated-Underachieving/dp/0465072100
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Yes, Women Can Be Friends and Not Frenemies (Ft. White Lotus, Gossip Girl, and The Women)
Lauren and Christine ask why bitchy, backstabbing lady-friends have always been so compelling in popular culture, and if “best friends” should make compromising videos of themselves with their friends’ boyfriends.
Book Recommendations
Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media
https://a.co/d/2s1Ib7m
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
https://a.co/d/bKDE724
No, Biopics Don’t Always Suck (Ft. Val Kilmer)
Lauren and Christine ask why biopics and biographies of musicians and other celebrities are so hard to do well, what we really want when we want to “know” a celebrity through a film or book, and why everyone is staring so adoringly at Bob Dylan all the time.
Check out our book recommendations!
Lauren Sklaroff, Red Hot Mama
https://a.co/d/hVAmXZU
Harvey Cohen, Duke Ellington's America
https://a.co/d/8Dcgv1O
Nick Tosches, Hellfire
https://a.co/d/1DgSX...
No, Anora is Not a Good Film About Sex Workers (Ft. Pretty Woman & Belle de Jour)
Pop-culture-loving history professors Lauren and Christine discuss three films about sex workers. Is it really so hard to make a good movie about the world’s oldest profession?
Book links:
Murder of Helen Jewett
https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Helen-Jewett-Patricia-Cline/dp/0679740759/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2QXSITL9P8AHO&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.1piwib8a9EvuEnthmq_q4AIABiYlipZO38yrp9J1qhNhYmzOIiv4FYxf-5fSBqZ3cuRiaiMdWjrEg_J8uX_MORG3uf430nxd_MwdT0hpwBK2FkoohKSsgAnFSGfBKtx6.G-bOUX610gAuhOaXM1_81r5XesxmfQ6DmFgD0gHGmzs&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+murder+of+helen+jewett&qid=1743378804&sprefix=Helen+Jewett%2Caps%2C8199&sr=8-1
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