Serious Fun

This special episode of Serious Fun is a recording of a February 27, 2019 discussion of the film "BlacKkKlansman" featuring Bryan and Dr. Vince Lowery. The discussion was recorded after a screening of the Academy Award-winning film, and covers a wide variety of topics concerning how the film talks about race and racism in our contemporary climate, how it performed at the Academy Awards, its historical context, and what we do next. You'll also hear from UWGB students, staff, and community members who stayed to be part of the conversation and give their thoughts on the film and its surrounding issues.

Professional wrestling and comics are perhaps two of the purest art forms known to humanity, and much like the proverbial peanut butter and chocolate, when smashed together end up being quite tasty indeed. This episode of Serious Fun speaks with Lan Pitts, one such confectioner of this treat and writer for Boom! Studios' WWE comics series. Bryan and Lan talk about writing for comics, finding the story in professional wrestling, the mythic storytelling possibilities of The Million Dollar Man and Razor Ramon, Pitts' original work, and so much more in a wide-ranging interview. Everyone has a price, but luckily yours...is free! Listen now. Music Credits: Jim Johnston - "It's All About the Money" Jim Johnston - "Bad Boy" World Wrestling Entertainment - "Million Dollar Man" clip

You've spent all season arguing about whether it was a Christmas movie, but is it possible Die Hard is...so much more? This week we're launching a new subfeature on Serious Fun just in time for the holidays called Overthinkin' It! Bryan is joined by Dr. Ryan Martin (UWGB Psychology) and Dr. Michelle McQuade Dewhirst (UWGB Music) for a deep-dive, overthought analysis of the action classic Die Hard in time for its 30th anniversary! Is Die Hard secretly a feminist action movie? What can it teach us about scripting and plotting? And is John McClane a spiritual descendant of Ludwig van Beethoven? All that and more in this super-sized episode! Put it on your MP3 player and enjoy the holiday!

After a brief and largely unplanned hiatus, Serious Fun is back! This time around, Dr. Carr talks to representatives from the UWGB Anime Club about anime, anime fandom, and more! Ntxhee Yee Thao and Jacob Huempfner share their favorite shows, talk about the business and process of creating anime, and reflect on their fandom and the friends they made along the way.

It’s a special all-Frankenstein, all the Franken-time episode of Serious Fun! This episode stitches together two of Bryan’s presentations on the legacy of Mary Shelley’s work as part of our on-campus celebration of the novel’s 200th anniversary. First, gasp as Bryan talks about the surprising way Shelley’s work has been reinterpreted by pop culture icons you might not expect! Then, thrill to a discussion of Frankenstein’s monster, copyright law, and the public domain! Get your Halloween started off right with this new episode of Serious Fun! NOTES: Zac Fanni’s incredible analysis of David from the Alien franchise as a stand-in for the Romantic elements of the Frankenstein story can be found here: http://www.audienceseverywhere.net/david-modern-frankenstein-romantic-analysis-alien-covenant/ Josh Corman’s discussion of the Alien franchise as ongoing Frankenstein allegory is here: https://bookriot.com/2017/06/06/the-alien-franchise-is-now-one-big-frankenstein-story/ Jonathan Bailey’s discussion of the copy

Another great year of Brown County Library Comic-Con episodes comes to a grand finale with a special Phoenix Studios crossover event! Bryan joins forces with the powerful minds over at Psych and Stuff (represented here by Dr. Ryan Martin and Dr. Chuck Rybak) to talk about supervillains, psychology, mental health, and political philosophy! Is Killmonger justified? Does Lex Luthor have a complex? Can we read Two-Face as a metaphor for depression? And what of Thanos? All that and Bryan airs his grievances with the Joker and Suicide Squad in a riotous, hopefully insightful hour of podcasting.

Serious Fun at the Brown County Library Comic-Con continues as Bryan sits down with the Scribe award-winning author John Jackson Miller! Miller, the writer of countless comics, novels, and more for franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, Star Trek, and the Simpsons talks about the challenges of working in established universes, the process of writing comics in a digital age, the perils of focusing too much on canonicity and continuity, and so much more in a wide-ranging and entertaining discussion that is a must-listen for any aspiring writer or fan. Come for the writing advice, stay for the snark about the Clone Saga - and check out JJM's new Battlestar Galactica comic, available at a shop near you!

The first of our three-episode series LIVE (to tape) from Brown County Library Comic-Con is here! Bryan sits down with local artist Carli Ihde to talk about her style, her experiences working in art forms ranging from murals to pumpkins, her time at the Kubert school and working in the comics industry, her advice for aspiring artists, and her thoughts on drawing powerful women. It's funny, it's inspiring, at points maybe even a little inappropriate - a great episode of Serious Fun with a fantastic artist. LINKS: We refer to Carli's work several times in this episode. You can check it out in lots of different places: Carli's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlieyed/?hl=en Carli's DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/carliihde Carli's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carliihdeart/

The COUNTDOWN TO COMIC-CON at the Brown County Library continues on Serious Fun! This week - Bryan sits down with UWGB Psychology professor Dr. Regan Gurung to talk about comics and superheroes across borders as well as his own experience with the medium as a child growing up in India. What can Superman tell us about the immigrant experience? How can comics explain and find commonality across culture? What is the psychological payload of identity - dual or otherwise - in superhero media? And what is the impact of the rise of Afrofuturism as a genre and aesthetic? All this and more this week on Serious Fun! Music clips: Hans Zimmer - "Flight", Man of Steel (2013) Original Score John Williams - "Superman March", Superman (1978) Original Score

Serious Fun makes a triumphant return for a new season with the first part of the Countdown to Comic-Con event! With a plethora of new games, movies, and comics coming out this fall, Spider-Mania is alive and well - but what about Spider-Man makes him endure and why do we care about him as much as we do? CU-Boulder Media Studies professor J. Richard Stevens sits down with Bryan to talk about the character, his enduring faith in humanity, his origins as a borderline horror character, and why we love this spider-guy so much. Music and other clips: Michael Giacchino – Theme (from “Spider-Man”) [Original TV Series] – Spider-Man Homecoming Danny Elfman – Main Title, Spider-Man (2002) Original Motion Picture Score Audio from "Spider-Man" (2002), Dir. Sam Raimi, Sony Pictures

Serious Fun is proud to present another live panel show from UntitledTown 2018! This time around, Bryan moderates a panel on hybrid storytelling featuring "Bend in the River" creator BJ Hollars, and Appleton Storycatchers Tara Pohlkotte and Kathryn Gahl. They'll talk about their own work and how to go beyond prose and page to tell a great story - from podcasting to setting poetry to music and more.

Live from UntitledTown 2018, Bryan moderates a panel with "Imagine Wanting Only This" author & art director and New York Editor for "The Believer" magazine Kristen Radtke and Milwaukee-based comics artist, educator, and hip-hop MC Mistaloo Meff (creator of "Angry Kat: Zombie Protocol"). It's all about comics, from the mechanics of sequential art to breaking into the industry to representation and beyond!

The Serious Fun Women's History Month series concludes with a celebration of the unsung and underappreciated women in popular culture. Panelists Dr. Rebecca Nesvet, Dr. Kris Coulter, and Dr. Michelle McQuade Dewhirst cover female achievement in everything from screenwriting to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to sports bras and hair care products, discuss ways to promote and celebrate women's accomplishments, and even call out Paul McCartney along the way. (Recorded live at the Common Grounds Coffeehouse on UWGB's campus, April 5 2017.)

Our special Women's History Month series continues with a discussion of gender issues and body image in popular culture, recorded live at the Common Grounds Coffeehouse at UWGB. Panelists Dr. Jana Fogaca, Dr. Christine Smith, Alison Gates, and Kwynn Carter share their own experiences with body image and explore where our obsession with the "perfect" female body comes from - from classical art history to the Kardashians and beyond. (NOTE: There are some sound issues for the first minute or so but it's better after that - apologies!)

Tired of convention panels on feminism and gender issues in media that are just dudes who look like Bryan? So is Serious Fun. As part of the celebration of Women's History Month, we're launching a three-part series about issues facing women in popular culture - all recorded live at the UWGB Common Grounds Coffeehouse with all-female panels. First up - the female action hero. Once a rarity, we're now seeing women take charge and punch faces more regularly in pop culture - but what does that mean for feminism and what does it mean to be an empowering character? Panelists Dr. Ioana Coman, Selena Deer, and Anna Katner talk about this issue from Wakanda to Wonder Woman and beyond.

In this Serious Fun, we dig into the cultural phenomenon that is Marvel Studios’ Black Panther. The movie has already made All Of The Money worldwide, but why is it resonating so strongly? What does it have to say about complex topics like the African diaspora, Black liberation, and the responsibility of a king and a country to its people and the world? And is Shuri a great character, or the greatest character? Bryan sits down with University of Oklahoma Journalism and Mass Communication professor Dr. Meta G. Carstarphen and UWGB Psychology Chair Ryan Martin for a wide-ranging discussion of all things Wakanda! (Note: this episode contains spoilers for the movie so get out and see it beforehand.) Music and other clips: Ludwig Göransson – “Wakanda”, Black Panther: Original Score Ludwig Göransson – “United Nations/End Titles”, Black Panther: Original Score Kendrick Lamar and SZA – “All the Stars”, Black Panther: The Album (Music From and Inspired By) Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Corporation - “Black Panther Te

Leading experts agree: last year was the most 2017 of any year yet. At least the video games were good. Join Bryan and returning guest Steve Watts as they talk about the best and brightest the year had to offer in digital interactive entertainment in the first-ever live streamed episode of Serious Fun!

This week on Serious Fun – is there such a thing as ethical sports fandom? Or does the often exploitative nature of college and professional sports mean that we’re complicit in some of the very things to which we are often morally opposed? Bryan sits down with freelance journalist Jessica Luther, author of “Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape”, to discuss her work as well as topics ranging from the systemic problems inherent in college and other levels of athletics to the role the media play in perpetuating these problems to what we can do to challenge the status quo and make sports more inclusive.

This week, Bryan talks with UWGB Associate Provost and historian Clif Ganyard about pop culture's ongoing fascination with World War 2. Has using the conflict as a backdrop for comparatively simple popular culture in turn simplified our view of the war? How do games like Call of Duty and Wolfenstein and films like Inglourious Basterds turn the war into an abstract...and how might they be used to educate as well? All this plus a lengthy discussion of Captain America.

As part of Serious Fun’s ongoing commitment to riding the coattails of major pop culture events, this week Bryan sits down (virtually) with long-time friend, former podcast co-host, and veteran video games journalist and editor Steve Watts to talk about the long-term impact and cultural value of the Super Mario franchise in light of the release of Super Mario Odyssey. On the docket: our memories of Mario, the importance of Mario to game design, the series’ often turbulent relationship with feminism, and discussion about why Mario endures as a pop culture figure nearly four decades after his debut. All that and lots more, including coming to grips with the the truly disturbing realization that Mario is only canonically 24 years old (seriously, look it up). Tune in! MUSIC AND OTHER CREDITS: Super Mario Bros. – “Ground Theme” – Koji Kondo Super Mario Bros. The Movie Trailer Super Mario Galaxy – “Gusty Garden Galaxy” – Mahito Yokota & Koji Kondo Super Mario Bros. Super Show – “Do The Mario” – Performed by Capt