Pop Culture

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg considers the rhetorical strategies of angry talk show hosts -- divorced from their politics.

Lee is the creator of such Marvel comic book superheroes as Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk, and The Fantastic Four. He joined Marvel comic books at the age of 16, more than 30 years ago. Lee is currently launching Excelsior Comics, an independent comic book division of Marvel Entertainment. He is also co-executive producer of several top rated television series including "X-Men." (REBROADCAST FROM 10/17/91)

Steven Levy tells us why it's taken him to so long to use CD-ROMs and other multimedia.

Cultural critic Greil Marcus. He is the author of "The Dustbin of History" (Harvard University Press) about the history embedded in cultural moments. He'll talk with Terry about one of the essays in the book about the song, "Too Soon to Tell," written by Deborah Chessler and recorded by the Orioles in 1948.

Amherst College professor Austin Sarat, a Ph.D. in political science with a law degree from Yale University, is teaching a course on Murder which is the most popular in the school's history--with one fifth of the entire student body enrolled. It breaks the record of a course on Human Sexuality offered in the 70's. The syllabus includes selections from literature, film, and television like "Crime and Punishment," and "Macbeth," as well as "Pulp Fiction," and "Psycho." (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Linguist Geoff Nunberg on the long history of the word "suburbs."

A new movie about the Hustler Magazine publisher, "The People vs. Larry Flynt," will open at theaters this month. In addition, Flynt's autobiography "An Unseemly Man: My Life as Pornographer, Pundit and Social Outcast" was published this month by Dove Books. Flynt was paralyzed in 1978 after being shot by a man who said he was offended by an inter-racial depiction of a couple he saw in Hustler. In Feb of 1988, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Flynt and Hustler magazine in a landmark libel case filed by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

A story for Valentine's Day from WBEZ's This American Life. Host Ira Glass talks about the drama of trying to be "just friends" with an ex-girlfriend.

Writer and commentator Dagoberto Gilb talks about his experience with trying to track down a psychic. While he never did get see her, a message telling his fortune did find its way to him.

Author and historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg. Her new book, "The Body Project," attempts to trace back through the century to discover why young women report unhappiness with their bodies now more than ever. Working with girls' diaries from the 1830's up to the present day, Brumberg outlines the shifting pressures that have altered the way females define themselves.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "Nightmare on Main Street" (Harvard) by Mark Edmundson about our culture's obsession with the Gothic.

Michael Barson is the author of the new book "Teenage Confidential: An Illustrated History of the American Teen (Chronicle Books, illustrated by Steven Heller). The book traces the evolution of the "teen" and the concept of the "teenager" which didn't exist before World War 2. The book also collects teenage artifacts, like movie posters, magazine covers, and advertisements.

Azeezaly Jaffer is Executive Director of Stamp Services for the U.S. Postal Service. This branch has introduced the popular stamp collecting program which features pop-culture icons on the stamps. Some of the Post Office’s most popular stamps include: Elvis Presely, Marilyn Monroe, and Bugs Bunny.

We feature excerpts from a panel of Hollywood screenwriters discussing violence in movies. This was held 6/4/99 in Santa Monica, California. The seminar was title "Guns Don't Kill People." Among the panelists were Callie Khouri who wrote "Thelma and Louis," William Mastrosimone who penned "Extremities, and The Burning Season," Steven De Souza who wrote the first two Die Hard movies, and Miguel Tejada-Flores, who wrote "Revenge of the Nerds:" and Jack Valenti, a Washington lobbyist for the top Hollywood studios.

Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg comments on the history of combing two words to create a new one. i.e. Swirl and Twist = Twirl.This is called a portmanteau. Today, they are common place, such infotainment, Reganomics, and Medicare.

Pokemon (POH-kay-mahn) is the latest kid craze and worldwide phenomenon. It hails from Japan, and began as an Nintendo game, featuring the superpowered animals called Pokemons. There are 150 characters in all. After the game came the trading cards, comic book series, and weekly cartoon. Now there's the Pokemon movie. We meet the American translator of the Pokemon characters, Gerard Jones.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg tells us what words he would like to see us get rid of for the year 2000.

Journalist Orville Schell talks about his new book Virtual Tibet: Searching for Shangri-La from the Himalayas to Hollywood (Metropolitan Books). For centuries now, the mountainous and remote nation of Tibet has been the object of Western fascination. Today, Tibet is the subject of movies and Hollywood celebrities have taken on Tibetan Freedom as their cause. Schell talks about Tibet, real and imagined, and takes us through the history of the West’s infatuation. Schell has covered China and Tibet for many years.

Cartoonist Daniel Clowes. Drawn in 1950s pop culture style, his comics are darkly humorous satires of middle class America. His graphic novel Ghost World (first published in 1993) is the basis of the film of the same name. Ghost World has just been nominated for an academy award in the Adapted Screenplay division. Clowes' first comic book series was Lloyd Llewellyn, followed by Eightball

Writer Gerard Jones is the author of the new book, Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy Games, Superheroes, and Make Believe Violence (Basic Books). A former creator of comic books, he's written text for Batman, Superman, X-Men, and Pokemon. This is his fourth media studies book. He lives in San Francisco.