This is The End: Pop Culture & Collapse
For many people, the years 2020 and 2021 have felt like the intersections of fictional dystopias and real-life dystopias, between systems collapse and personal collapse. Join the Pop Mythologist as he uses pop culture to explore the many connections between real-life dystopias, the collapse of societal systems, and the individual lives affected by those systems, all viewed through the lens of movies, books, comics, games, and TV shows. If you‘re a nerd, geek, activist, or just someone concerned about the state of the world—or all of the above—this podcast is for you.
Episodes
NOTE: This episode was recorded in Dec. of 2022 but I've only gotten around to editing it now. Since then I've become much better acquainted with ChatGPT and so, yes, I know its name (whereas at the time of this recording I still didn't).
LINKS:
- Jess Kroll's film reviews https://www.popmythology.com/author/jmskroll/
- Jess Kroll author page on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jesskrollauthor
- 'The One' series by Jess Kroll...
PopMythology.com film critic and novelist Jess Kroll joins me to have a conversation about 10 different movies that depict collapse in some way. In this episode, Part 1, we discuss the first five.
Scroll all the way down below to see the titles of the films discussed and during which timestamped moments that spoilers or semi-spoilers of these films are mentioned.
LINKS:
- Jess Kroll's film reviews https://www.popmythology.com...
In this episode, I interview political commentator, former congressional candidate, and now regenerative farmer Haven Scott McVarish, author of LAST CHANCE TO SAVE AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. Haven talks about his favorite novel, STARK by Ben Elton, a dystopian comedy thriller about how corporations and the wealthy cause a global ecological collapse. Haven also discusses the novel's themes in relation to his own book about the current, ong...
This is a longer version of a talk I recently gave at San Diego Comic Con 2022 as part of a panel on Marvel's street-level characters (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, etc.) moderated by Dr. Scott Jordan as part of the Comics Arts Conference. Thank you to Dr. Jordan for inviting me onto the panel and to Dr. Shelly Clevenger, my guest from the last episode, who was the speaker originally slated to talk about the Punisher on the panel but w...
We're joined by Dr. Shelly Clevenger, professor of criminology and victim studies, and chair of the Department of Victim Studies at Sam Houston State University, to discuss BITCH PLANET, the feminist dystopian comic book by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine DeLandro, published by Image Comics. Dr. Clevenger, who is also a gender scholar, discusses crime and criminal justice through the lens of gender and gender identity and answers...
In this episode, I interview Jim Carey, host of ‘The Left is Dead,’ a podcast about news, politics, and culture from a leftist lens. We discuss one of Jim’s favorite works of fiction, the novel LES MISERABLES by Victor Hugo, and its relevance to the societal and political turmoil we see today.
Jim talks about how the U.S. has basically become an entire nation of Javerts—moral absolutists obsessed with control and punishment—and h...
Chopin's Polonaise Op. 40 No. 1 in A major ("Polanaise Militaire") performed by Pistos, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.5 Canada License
In this episode I interviewed four amazingly talented songwriters from the U.S., Germany, and Brazil who have written music on the subject of collapse, and who discuss what they feel are the important roles and value of music, and of art in general, amid the current societal turmoil and the many risks of collapse.
LINKS
My “Collapse Challenge” on FAWM
(February Album Writing Month)
https://fawm.org/forums/topic/12288/
You...
In this episode, I talk to Dr. Sørina Higgins, a professor of English literature at Signum University. We discuss how speculative fiction can teach us to take care of our planet, both ecologically and societally. Authors and works discussed include: Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, Octavia Butler's Kindred, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, and superhero fiction. (**NO SPOILERS** for any works.) Real ...
**No spoilers** for any of the works discussed in this episode.
LINKS:
- Breaking Down: Collapse "Episode 70 - Pop Culture & Collapse" https://collapsepod.buzzsprout.com/1403161/9909499
- "Climate science meets a stubborn obstacle: Students" https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/04/us/education-climate-change-science-class-students.html
Since the very day of its release, Don’t Look Up has been spurring intense discussion and debate about its symbolic depiction of climate change as an existential threat, and the struggle of climate activists to get governments and people to mobilize and take action against it. In this episode, I explain why it is so difficult for people to understand the urgency of the threat, and what we must do to rectify this before it’s too lat...
We interview Dr. Althea Rizzo, Geological Hazards Program Coordinator, of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management (OEM), about WITHOUT WARNING! WILDFIRE, a comic book produced in partnership between OEM and Dark Horse Comics with the objective to help kids and teens get informed about, and prepared for, wildfires (and other hazards).
WITHOUT WARNING! WILDFIRE is available for free at Dark Horse Digital, the website for the Ore...
In this episode, we talk to Muncie Central High School English teacher Katey O'Connor about teaching V FOR VENDETTA and how her students practiced civil disobedience when their class projects, which drew parallels between the book and real-life issues, were censored. We also discuss the wave of book banning and the hysteria over race, gender, and sexuality that's sweeping schools across the U.S.
NOTE: In our opinion, there are no ...
Content Warnings: Extreme climate change, Ecological/societal collapse, Natural disasters, Hurricanes (loss of shelter, power), Past personal crises
Spoiler Warning: FOUNDATION S1 E1, “The Emperor’s Peace” (No spoilers before the 2:00 time mark and after the 6:00 time mark)
LINKS
Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos (the best single source to understand Deep Adaptation)
"Deep ...
In this episode, we use DUNE to springboard into a discussion about the growing crisis of water scarcity in the face of climate change and what we can do about it.
LINKS:
- All of Earth's water in a single sphere https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/all-earths-water-a-single-sphere
- Mapping the strain on our water https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/08/06/mapping-strain-our-water/
- 10 violent water conflicts...
This "episode zero" describes what this podcast will be about and its origin story. It also clarifies certain terminology and concepts that are often used vaguely and misunderstood. LINKS:
- How do you know when a society is about to fall apart? - NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/magazine/societal-collapse.html
- Are we on the road to civilization collapse? - BBC https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190218-are-we-on-t...
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