History Harpies: Pop Culture, Past and Present

In a fun-size episode, Lauren and Christine wear red leather suits and get out their diplomas from the Velvet Jones School of Technology while discussing the versatile career of genius Eddie Murphy.

Lauren and Christine honor “girl code,” map out love triangles and quadrangles, and book a big table for brunch as they consider the recent-ish popularity of friend groups in pop culture. And they marvel at the size of Rob Lowe’s saxophone.

Lauren and Christine sweat, sigh, and gasp as they consider passionate, obsessive, madly-in-love couples with unhappy endings. They make bad choices, but at least they look gorgeous!

Lauren and Christine take a road trip, sing show tunes, and bicker as they revisit two classic rom-coms directed by Rob Reiner, and the one directed by Frank Capra that started it all. And we’ll have what she’s having.

Lauren and Christine change their names, color their hair, and get fake IDs as they discuss Hollywood’s long love for mistaken identities, new identities, and criminals on the run. And they imagine the what-could-have-been of the remarkable River Phoenix (R.I.P.).Book recommendations:Natalie Zemon Davis, The Return of Martin GuerreTom Engelhardt, The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation

Lights, camera, and action as Lauren and Christine ask why Hollywood is so fascinated with making media about itself - a fascination that is as old as filmmaking. And what’s so terrible about twelve movies in an MK Ultra franchise, anyway?Book recommendations:Arthur Laurents, Original Story By: A Memoir of Broadway and HollywoodPeter Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And-Rock n’ Roll Generation Saved HollywoodMichael Tolkin, The Player

Lauren and Christine pour the tea, button their cardigans, and worry about getting tenure as they discuss three films about complicated relationships between teachers (and teachers’ spouses) and their students. Amid suspicions, accusations, and counter-accusations, who has the power here?Book recommendations:Vito Russo, The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the MoviesCarrie N. Baker, The Women’s Movement Against Sexual Harrassment

In this Halloween episode, Lauren and Christine hunt vampires from Europe in the 19th century to the American South in the 21st. If vampires are metaphors for a society’s fears, why do they always look so good?Book recommendations:John Polidori, The VampyreJohn Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Lauren and Christine grab the harpoon guns and pour a cold glass of milk to discuss the diverse, sexy, bold choices of Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman. And they ask: When will Nicole date a nice 6’4” guy?

Lauren and Christine get out the wire hangers, put on matching dresses, and gulp a vodka on the rocks as they consider mothers and daughters in pop culture.

In the second of our Hometown episodes, Lauren and Christine head Down East to the great state of Maine. Like Philadelphia, the Pine Tree State has its class issues. Unlike Philly cheesesteaks, its lobster rolls contain mayo. But if it is so beautiful, why is it so creepy?Book recommendations:Carol F. Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England Edna St Vincent Millay, Collected Poems

In the first of two Hometown episodes, Lauren introduces Christine to the culinary magic known as the pizza steak as they visit Philadelphia. Can they run up the Rocky Steps in their training montage while singing every word to “Piano Man”?Hoagie recommendations:https://dalessandros.com/https://leeshoagiehouse.com/

In this episode, nothing gets between Lauren, Christine, and their Calvins, as they look back at the career of Gen-X icon Brooke Shields.Book recommendations:E.J. Bellocq, Storyville Portraits: Photographs From the New Orleans Red Light District, circa 1912https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_2678_300299020.pdfKathy Peiss, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culturehttps://www.pennpress.org/9780812221671/hope-in-a-jar/

Lauren and Christine get out the sunscreen and head to the beach, asking why films and tv often associate this setting with booze, hooking up, and regrets. And they resolve never to go to Rio with Michael Caine.RIP Connie Francis. Book recommendations:Emma Rosenblum, Bad Summer PeopleE.M. Forster, A Room With a View

In a double-sized episode, Lauren and Christine say “hello, lover” to Sex and the City, while leaving a break-up Post-It note for And Just Like That.Book recommendations:Colette, Chéri Ann Douglas, Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s

Lauren and Christine return to first love and high school, surveying American culture’s fascination with virgins. If we can’t all be Brenda and Dylan, or even Jim and Michelle, can we at least avoid being Stacy and Ron?

Lauren and Christine cast a misty eye on stories of first love, senior year in high school, and college applications — and feel nostalgic about the days when teachers and students could smoke in school.Book recommendations:Wendy Mogel, The Blessing of a Skinned KneeTheodore Sizer, Horace’s Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School

Lauren and Christine ask if Adolescence deserves its anti-misogyny hype, if anger can boost a young man's ambition, and if World War II created a generation of angry, jazz-hating, rock-and-roll loving, juvenile delinquents.Book recommendations:Dan T. Carter, The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politicshttps://www.amazon.com/Politics-Rage-Conservatism-Transformation-American/dp/0807125970Leonard Sax, Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Adrift-Epidemic-Unmotivated-Underachieving/dp/0465072100

Lauren and Christine ask why bitchy, backstabbing lady-friends have always been so compelling in popular culture, and if “best friends” should make compromising videos of themselves with their friends’ boyfriends.Book RecommendationsSusan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Mediahttps://a.co/d/2s1Ib7mJane Austen, Pride and Prejudice https://a.co/d/bKDE724

Lauren and Christine ask why biopics and biographies of musicians and other celebrities are so hard to do well, what we really want when we want to “know” a celebrity through a film or book, and why everyone is staring so adoringly at Bob Dylan all the time. Check out our book recommendations!Lauren Sklaroff, Red Hot Mamahttps://a.co/d/hVAmXZUHarvey Cohen, Duke Ellington's Americahttps://a.co/d/8Dcgv1ONick Tosches, Hellfirehttps://a.co/d/1DgSXz3

Pop-culture-loving history professors Lauren and Christine discuss three films about sex workers. Is it really so hard to make a good movie about the world’s oldest profession?Book links:Murder of Helen Jewetthttps://www.amazon.com/Murder-Helen-Jewett-Patricia-Cline/dp/0679740759/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2QXSITL9P8AHO&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.1piwib8a9EvuEnthmq_q4AIABiYlipZO38yrp9J1qhNhYmzOIiv4FYxf-5fSBqZ3cuRiaiMdWjrEg_J8uX_MORG3uf430nxd_MwdT0hpwBK2FkoohKSsgAnFSGfBKtx6.G-bOUX610gAuhOaXM1_81r5XesxmfQ6DmFgD0gHGmzs&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+murder+of+helen+jewett&qid=1743378804&sprefix=Helen+Jewett%2Caps%2C8199&sr=8-1Trying Neiarahttps://www.amazon.com/Trying-Neaira-Courtesans-Scandalous-Ancient/dp/0300094310?ref_=ast_author_dp_rw&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.bgBN1VY33MxTLLYU6vDJzHRK8ZbFtaHXSwjTNKv9AhkpotErhhn0NS3UIwLZRdHtKwi7jQlTxtT-geSCeUh_2Ouanx5885DK9PnxarofxbSJTZT6_w1euIACB4-wn0kNDaOaUuAHzEamDlyDIFs-mcU2f4QRgfHLdeEcsDeLfAZhJUmI9sGxdyqr23BOBS6M.c8yAJk3ECGlT1ksTPRr0Oc5-K5FPwJZ8866WdpSsGH8&dib_tag=AUTHOR