Burst Your Bubble is going on a bit of a hiatus. Check out some new to you shows in the meantime: Your Fave Is Problematic, Cabronas y Chingonas, The Bechdel Cast, Gayest Episode Ever, I Hate It But I Love It, or Movies That Matter. Logo by Jer

Joker: Why Make a Sympathetic Shooter?

Feb 13th, 2020 35m 51s

EP70 - Let’s talk about toxic masculinity, gun violence, and mental illness in Joker. Because here’s the real question: in a world where we can see real life mass shootings on TV and read about them in newspapers and hear about them on the radi

Harry Potter, Representation, and Intention

Jan 23rd, 2020 31m 46s

EP69 - Whether you've read the books, watched the movies, both, or never have and never will, everyone knows Harry Potter. But what we like to avoid are the issues: from lack of representation and stereotypes to what JK Rowling does (and doesn'

Bonus

When It Rains, It Pours

Dec 26th, 2019 1m 12s

While new episodes are usually released the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month, the next new episode won't be released till January 23rd. Thanks for being a loyal listener, and I'll have a new one for you soon! Logo by Jeremy Ferris. www.burstyo

ESG, Sampling, and Sexism

Dec 12th, 2019 31m 35s

EP68 - Have you ever heard of ESG? They're a band made up of four sisters that blend genres, merging funk, punk, and hip hop. And whether you realize it or not you’ve probably heard their music. How? ESG’s track “UFO” is one of the most sampled

The One Where We Talk About Friends

Nov 14th, 2019 26m 40s

EP67 - To put it simply, Friends was a phenomenon, not just influencing TV and pop culture, but American beliefs and values. Friends aired from 1994 to 2004, and while it may have been progressive for its time, now it just feels dated and probl

Cultures Aren't Costumes

Oct 31st, 2019 22m 6s

EP66 - It happens every year - someone wears a Halloween costume that's problematic, not thinking about the historical and cultural background of that costume. But let's talk about it, and why cultures aren't costumes. Art by Jeremy Ferris. New

Haunted Halloween: Dracula and the Eugenics Movement

Oct 24th, 2019 29m 7s

It's Halloween season! Let's talk about Dracula. Art by Jeremy Ferris. New episodes are usually released the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month, but this October we're looking at my favorite past Halloween episodes of Burst Your Bubble. The next

Bonus

Haunted Halloween: The Exorcist and the Middle Eastern Demon

Oct 17th, 2019 26m 25s

It's Halloween season so let's talk about something spooky, creepy, and disturbing, like how the 1973 horror film The Exorcist perfectly packaged anti-Arab sentiment, Islamophobia, and xenophobia to its audience. Art by Jeremy Ferris. New episo

Bonus

Haunted Halloween: White Zombie

Oct 10th, 2019 32m 55s

It's Halloween episode time! Let's talk about zombies - specifically from the 1932 film White Zombie. Art by Jeremy Ferris. New episodes are usually released the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month, but this October we're looking at my favorite p

Bonus

Come to Sound Education!

Oct 8th, 2019 2m 59s

Sound Education is an educational audio conference for podcast creators and listeners. It's in Boston October 9th - 12th, 2019, and you should come! There are talks, panels, live podcast recordings, and free workshops. I'll be there on a panel

Bonus

Haunted Halloween: Candyman and the Fear of "Urban Society"

Oct 3rd, 2019 30m 20s

It's Halloween episode time! We're going to focus on Candyman, a 1992 film that plays off a white, middle class audience's fear of "urban society": their fears of urban housing projects and the residents living there, all fueled by underlying r

Sam Smith, the Associated Press, and They/Them

Sep 26th, 2019 14m 53s

EP65 - Recently Sam Smith announced on social media that they use they/them pronouns. But when the story was picked up by the Associated Press - a news organization whose strives for "the highest standards of integrity and ethical behavior" fre

I Love Lucy: The All American Girl and "The Latin"

Sep 12th, 2019 31m 14s

EP64 - I Love Lucy starred Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Arnaz was Cuban American, and so the real life married couple was the first interracial couple on television at a time when the typical TV family was suburban, mi

The Queer Coded Villain and Sounding Gay

Aug 22nd, 2019 22m 18s

EP63 - Long before we saw multidimensional LGBTQ characters in pop culture, The Hays Code regulated movies. Homosexual storylines didn't meet the moral standards, and as a result queer characters would be coded into the films. But what does it

Breakfast at Tiffany's, Yellowface, and Whitewashing

Aug 8th, 2019 28m 10s

EP62 - Breakfast at Tiffany's may be a classic film but it's hard to ignore Mr. Yunioshi, a Japanese character played by a white man in yellowface. While discussing this adaptation of Truman Capote's 1958 novel, let's look at the history of yel

The "Greatest" Showman?

Jul 25th, 2019 26m 26s

EP61 - In The Greatest Showman P.T. Barnum is shown as a champion for outsiders who accepts and celebrates their differences and their diversity, but can the movie truly have a positive message when the very man who it makes its sympathetic her

From the Heart to the Rind: The Watermelon Stereotype

Jul 11th, 2019 25m 8s

EP60 - There's a stereotype that all black people love watermelon, but where does this trope come from? In this episode we'll talk about how since the Civil War the black community has been negatively associated with watermelon throughout pop c

Game of Thrones: Race and Dany's White Savior Complex

Jun 27th, 2019 32m 2s

EP59 - Here's part two of the problems with cultural phenomenon Game of Thrones. This time we're going to talk about race, representation (or lack thereof), and Dany Targaryen's white savior complex. Art by Jeremy Ferris. New episodes released

Game of Thrones is Terrible to Women

Jun 13th, 2019 45m 52s

EP58 - Game of Thrones is a cultural phenomenon, but we need to talk about its problems - especially when it comes to women and how they are treated. Art by Jeremy Ferris. New episodes released the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. www.burstyo

The Orientalist History (and Future) of Aladdin

May 23rd, 2019 24m 22s

EP57 - Disney's 1992 Aladdin is a childhood classic. Growing up I know it was one of my favorites - but it's important to talk about the story from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights and how its orientalist views later influenced any and all a

The History of Prom

May 9th, 2019 20m 28s

EP56 - Prom is something just about every American teenager goes through, but how much do people know about the history of prom, a history full of issues concerning class, race, gender, and sex. Art by Jeremy Ferris. New episodes released the 2

Will & Grace, The Puppy Episode, and a Missed Opportunity

Apr 25th, 2019 41m 49s

EP55 - First airing in 1998 and running for 8 seasons before its 2017 reboot, Will & Grace has always been applauded as revolutionary - but the show only focused on a very narrow part of the queer community: the wealthy, white, cis man. While y

Sixteen Candles and Toxic Masculinity

Apr 11th, 2019 29m 27s

EP54 - Sixteen Candles is an 80s classic, but when you rewatch it it's easier to see the films problems: racism, homophobia, and - above all - that masculinity and a guy's reputation are marked by the relationships and control men have over wom

Bonus

Operation Switcheroo: Conspiracy Theoryology

Apr 4th, 2019 1h 2m

We don't have a new episode of Burst Your Bubble today (after all, new episodes are the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month), but we still have a special treat for you. This year we're taking part in Operation Switcheroo, an episode swapping proj