Emily St. James

newsletter

Programming note — and a big sale

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pop culture weekend

Pop culture weekend (Sept. 8): Foundation and the rise of the "episodic" streaming show

Serialized shows can seem more episodic using this one weird trick.

emily rogers

How to make lemonade

My recipe blogging cis self thinks about motherhood and Stephen Sondheim

saw

Pop culture weekend (Sept. 1): On vacation

What are you reading, watching, listening to, or staring at blankly?

romance novels

Class and the modern romance novel

Romance as a genre can't escape the long shadow of that hot rich guy Mr. Darcy. Should it?

pop culture weekend

Pop culture weekend (Aug. 25): The millennial Big Chill (doesn't exist)

Is it possible to define a generation's experiences anymore? Was it ever?

barbie

What we discourse about when we discourse about Barbenheimer

The discourses around Barbie and Oppenheimer have followed very similar patterns.

pop culture weekend

Pop culture weekend (Aug. 18): I can't watch bad things happen to fictional kids anymore.

I became a parent, and you won't believe what happened next! (Spoilers: I found watching scenes of children dying or being endangered almost completely unbearable.)

pop culture weekend

Pop culture weekend (Aug. 11): Country music and hierarchies

Just how conservative is country music anyway?

criticism

You are not smarter than the art you critique

Here's my best advice for young critics: Don't presume you know better.

pop culture weekend

My pop culture week, your pop culture weekend - August 4 edition

August kicks off with the three of the most prominent women of our time: Taylor Swift, Leigh Bardugo, and Bluey.

trans

I was busy thinkin' 'bout boys

What if your sexuality transitions too? What then?