How do you like it so far?

In this episode, Professor and chair of the Communication Studies division at American University’s School of Communication, Aram Sinnreich, and Jesse Gilbert, an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of visual art, sound and software design, join us to explore the presence of data in our life and the future of data. The conversation starts with personal experiences at rallies and the challenges of digital activism. ...

In this episode, David Wolinsky, author of The Hivemind Swarmed: Conversations on Gamergate, the Aftermath, and the Quest for a Safer Internet, and Sam Close, Assistant Professor at DePaul University College of Communication, join us to unpack systemic challenges in the video game industry. From gender and racial discrimination to toxic workplace culture, they highlight the need for moral courage, ethical decision-making, and struc...

In this episode, professors Colin and Henry, along with T.L. Taylor, Director of the MIT Game Lab, explore the rise of game studies as an academic field. Taylor shares her journey from studying virtual worlds in the 90s to becoming an expert in live streaming and eSports, shedding light on gaming's cultural impact and academic challenges.

They delve into the interactive relationship between game designers and players, examining how ...

In this episode, we chat with Charlie Jenkins, whose lifelong passion for wrestling sparked a remarkable journey into writing. He started writing fan fiction around the age of five, dictating stories for his father to type on the computer. In high school he became an active player and game master in e-wrestling, an online roleplaying game that allowed fans to write their own pro wrestling characters and storylines, and now Charlie ...

In this episode, we take a deep dive into the evolution of food television, from the early days of simple, instructional shows to today's diverse and dynamic culinary landscape. We'll explore how icons like Betty Crocker shaped early cooking programs, empowering women in the kitchen, and how trailblazers like Julia Child, Emeril Lagasse, and Guy Fieri pushed boundaries—changing not just how we cook, but how we see race and gender i...

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating journey of Barry, a visionary who started as an aspiring theme park ride designer and evolved into a groundbreaking toy creator and educator. We explore how divergent and convergent thinking shape creativity, and how toys serve as more than just playthings – they're tools for limitless imagination. From Lego’s transformation to society’s expectations on toy use, we challenge the restric...

Grace L. Dillon is an American academic and author. She is a professor in the Indigenous Nations Studies Program, in the School of Gender, Race, and Nations, at Portland State University. She received her PhD in literary studies with an emphasis in sixteenth-century literature, and her recent research regards Science fiction studies, especially the use of science fiction by indigenous peoples around the world. Similar to the concep...

Caty Borum, Executive Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact and Provost Associate Professor in the School of Communication at American University, joins us again to discuss her new book, The Revolution Will Be Hilarious: Comedy for Social Change and Civic Power. Starting with what Caty finds funny and how she uses comedy as part of her practice as an educator, we go on to talk about how comedy can allow us to approach te...

In addition to being Henry’s former dissertation advisee, Meryl Alper is am an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies (College of Arts, Media, and Design) and Affiliate Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (Bouvé College of Health Sciences) at Northeastern University. At Northeastern, she studies  the social, cultural, and health implications of communication technolo...

This week we’re joined by USC Faculty colleagues Alison Trope, Clinical Professor of Communication, and DJ Johnson, Associate Professor of Practice, Cinematic Arts. Together they direct the Critical Media Project (CMP), a free media literacy web resource for educators and students (ages 8-21) that enhances young people’s critical thinking and empathy, and builds on their capacities to advocate for change around questions of identit...

Robeson Taj Frazier is an associate professor of communication and director of IDEA (the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg), as well as the author of The East is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination and KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell, and producer of IT'S YOURS: A Story About Hip-Hop and the Internet and Hip-Hop and the Metaverse on PBS. Reflecting on his roots and early influen...

As a former volunteer and later employee of Fandom Forward (what was then called The Harry Potter Alliance) and a transgender man, Jackson Bird’s feelings about Harry Potter have certainly evolved, especially given the extremely divisive statements JK Rowling has made about the transgender community. He shares how what was once an important part of his identity has faded away and why, as well as how he feels about his memoir four y...

Our guest today is Maggie Hennefeld, McKnight Presidential Fellow and Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, who has co-curated a dvd set of the medium’s early female comedians titled Cinema’s First Nasty Women. Maggie talks us through the current resurgence in interest in silent cinema and the global landscape of festivals, supporters and restoration projects...

Listen to the original episode HERE.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Share your thoughts via Twitter with Henry, Colin and the How Do You Like It So Far? account! You can also email us at howdoyoulikeitsofarpodcast@gmail.com.

Music:
“In Time” by Dylan Emmett and “Spaceship” by Lesion X.
In Time (Instrumental) by Dylan Emmet  https://soundcloud.com/dylanemmet
Spaceship by Lesion X https://soundcloud.com/lesionxbeats
Cr...

Bonus content not released as part of Episode 108 - hear the original episode here: https://www.howdoyoulikeitsofar.org/?p=1307

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Share your thoughts via Twitter with Henry, Colin and the How Do You Like It So Far? account! You can also email us at howdoyoulikeitsofarpodcast@gmail.com.

Music:
“In Time” by Dylan Emmett and “Spaceship” by Lesion X.
In Time (Instrumental) by Dylan Emmet  https://...

We’re thrilled to be joined by Academy-Award winning Production Designer Rick Carter, who has four decades of experience working on Hollywood productions, including with his own personal “Mt. Rushmore” of blockbuster directors: Stephen Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, James Cameron and J.J. Abrams. Carter walks us through how he tackled his latest Oscar-nominated project, The Fablemans, and recounts numerous other experiences on some of...

We’re joined by Alexandria Arrieta, doctoral candidate at USC Annenberg and Christopher Cayari, associate professor of music education at Purdue University, about how music creators are using platforms like YouTube and TikTok to not just share performances but actually create content and hone their craft. By providing a distribution outlet for amateur artists, these platforms have spawned not just viral sensations, but also new fan...

We begin to talk about the story between MIT’s Open Doc Lab and our guests’ book Collective Wisdom with Kat’s experiences working for the National Film Board of Canada and how this provided a precious chance for her to dig into collective wisdom. William Uricchio brings in the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT and two major characteristics of its cross-media study: remarkable community and applying humanity to work. Then we ...

We start by digging into each of our guests’ definitions of “meme” (in contrast to Richard Dawkins), zeroing in on the agency of the meming process, how it connects with politics, and the need to be responsive to the way popular culture and the participating communities are using and defining these terms. Whitney offers “trolling” as an example to show how terms can be conflated and the consequences that result. Our guests talk abo...