The Hunger Games: "Remember Who the Real Enemy Is" | Epilogues & Epiphanies with Jake Rupp

An eldest daughter and a couple of berries nearly took down an entire empire. Let's talk about that.  Lyndsey sits down with Jake Rupp - 20-year teacher, young adult literature obsessive, and the person who has watched The Hunger Games an uncomfortable number of times - to break down why Suzanne Collins' story keeps getting more relevant, not less.  They dig into why Katniss Everdeen succeeds not because she's charming but because she's incapable of being anything else, how Peeta and Katniss represent two completely different survival strategies inside a system designed to consume you, what Effie Trinket and Cato actually have in common, why the Capitol's pageantry works exactly as intended, and what it says about us that we can be completely gripped by a story about children killing each other and still miss the point.  Also: a pregnant wife watching the Rue death scene, softball dads as career tribute energy, and the rock. You know the one.  If you loved the books at 13 or 20 and are only now realizing what they were actually about - this one's for you.  Guest: Jake Rupp teaches English, rhetoric, and young adult literature and makes videos about rhetoric online. Find him on TikTok at @hashtagjrupp