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The Big Hit Show

Higher Ground

The Big Hit Show

A weekly Society, Culture and Music podcast featuring Alex Pappademas
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The Big Hit Show

Higher Ground

The Big Hit Show

Episodes
The Big Hit Show

Higher Ground

The Big Hit Show

A weekly Society, Culture and Music podcast featuring Alex Pappademas
Good podcast? Give it some love!
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Episodes of The Big Hit Show

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The battle is over, and Pokémon has won. Almost twenty-five years after it arrived on these shores, Pokémon hasn’t just survived— it’s become the kind of pop-cultural phenomenon that parents share with their kids. But what does that say about P
Thanks to nostalgic fans and influential new collectors, the value of vintage Pokémon trading cards is through the roof. But you don’t have to find and flip a million-dollar Charizard to have your life changed by Pokémon. An episode about colle
At the end of the ‘90s, after blowing up in Japan, Pokémon came to America. And it became so ubiquitous so fast that critics saw it as a plot to turn U.S. children into hypnotized consumers— or even devil-worshippers. But the version of Pokemon
In which a red-hot video game company crashes and burns, with a little help from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The decline of Atari paved the way for a gaming renaissance— think Donkey Kong, Mario and eventually Pikachu. But as Japan took the upp
There are big hits, and there are really big hits— and then there’s Pokémon, a kids’ game from Japan that evolved into the biggest multimedia entertainment franchise of all time. In this episode we’re time-traveling from ‘90s Tokyo— where a bug
The Big Hit Show Season 4 debuts on August 17th. How did a Japanese video game from the 1990’s become the single highest grossing franchise in history - bigger than Star Wars and Harry Potter combined? This season on The Big Hit Show, we’re exp
“Masculinity is a lot like Fight Club. The first rule is that you don't talk about it.” In this episode, we’re breaking that rule, examining what Fight Club has to say about the emotional lives of men, the links between masculinity and extremis
There were two verdicts on Fight Club: the opening-weekend box office numbers (spoiler alert: yikes) and the judgment of history. We’ll look at how Fight Club channeled the anti-consumerist politics of its moment, and explore some of the more p
Seriously, though— how did a movie as unashamedly anti-capitalist and absurdly homoerotic as Fight Club get made by a major studio, let alone a studio owned by Rupert Murdoch? In this episode, an unlikely piece of material— and an uncompromisin
There would be no Fight Club without Chuck Pahlaniuk, the diesel mechanic turned novelist who dreamed up the concept during a shift on the assembly line. In this episode we’re diving into the wild life of Fight Club’s author and the people, pla
It’s easy to reduce Fight Club’s legacy to a few pop-cultural bullet points: The First Rule, the Second Rule, Brad Pitt’s abs. But in 2022 hindsight, this radical 1999 sleeper hit feels more relevant than ever. We’re looking at the messed up cr
The Big Hit Show Season 3 debuts on July 13th. Making satire is hard. And what if the satire you make is so cool, so star-studded, so subversive that the audience takes the wrong message from it? In Season 3 of The Big Hit Show, we’re breaking
The battle is over, and Pokémon has won. Almost twenty-five years after it arrived on these shores, Pokémon hasn’t just survived— it’s become the kind of pop-cultural phenomenon that parents share with their kids. But what does that say about P
Thanks to nostalgic fans and influential new collectors, the value of vintage Pokémon trading cards is through the roof. But you don’t have to find and flip a million-dollar Charizard to have your life changed by Pokémon. An episode about colle
At the end of the ‘90s, after blowing up in Japan, Pokémon came to America. And it became so ubiquitous so fast that critics saw it as a plot to turn U.S. children into hypnotized consumers— or even devil-worshippers. But the version of Pokemon
There are big hits, and there are really big hits— and then there’s Pokémon, a kids’ game from Japan that evolved into the biggest multimedia entertainment franchise of all time. In this episode we’re time-traveling from ‘90s Tokyo— where a bug
In which a red-hot video game company crashes and burns, with a little help from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The decline of Atari paved the way for a gaming renaissance— think Donkey Kong, Mario and eventually Pikachu. But as Japan took the upp
The Big Hit Show Season 4 debuts on August 17th. How did a Japanese video game from the 1990’s become the single highest grossing franchise in history - bigger than Star Wars and Harry Potter combined? This season on The Big Hit Show, we’re exp
“Masculinity is a lot like Fight Club. The first rule is that you don't talk about it.” In this episode, we’re breaking that rule, examining what Fight Club has to say about the emotional lives of men, the links between masculinity and extremis
There were two verdicts on Fight Club: the opening-weekend box office numbers (spoiler alert: yikes) and the judgment of history. We’ll look at how Fight Club channeled the anti-consumerist politics of its moment, and explore some of the more p
Seriously, though— how did a movie as unashamedly anti-capitalist and absurdly homoerotic as Fight Club get made by a major studio, let alone a studio owned by Rupert Murdoch? In this episode, an unlikely piece of material— and an uncompromisin
Kendrick communes with ghosts—specifically the ghost of Tupac Shakur—as he faces the central questions about leadership and responsibility that drive To Pimp a Butterfly.TRANSCRIPT: HERECREDITS:Host, Writer: Alex PappademasShowrunner: Colin McN
There would be no Fight Club without Chuck Pahlaniuk, the diesel mechanic turned novelist who dreamed up the concept during a shift on the assembly line. In this episode we’re diving into the wild life of Fight Club’s author and the people, pla
It’s easy to reduce Fight Club’s legacy to a few pop-cultural bullet points: The First Rule, the Second Rule, Brad Pitt’s abs. But in 2022 hindsight, this radical 1999 sleeper hit feels more relevant than ever. We’re looking at the messed up cr
The real story behind the defining protest song of our age, and how Kendrick grappled with the post-Ferguson moment.TRANSCRIPT: HERECREDITS:Host, Writer: Alex PappademasShowrunner: Colin McNultyProducers: Taylor Jones and Sabrina FangProduction
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