Special Topics in Media

Special Topics in Media Studies is a lecture-based podcast that tackles media history one artifact at a time. Each season of the series we will investigate a different mass media theme, medium, or programming genre. While our focus is educational (it is an academic podcast after all), we tailor our conversations toward a broad audience of media enthusiasts.

Podcasting since 2022 • 181 episodes

Special Topics in Media

Latest Episodes

Student Spotlight Series: Mia Haynes (Chapter President, Communication & Media Club)

This May, Special Topics in Media returns to a newer tradition, our "Student Spotlight Series". Last year, we examined a number of successful internship experiences shared by students in the Media Production and Communication program a...

May 05, 2026 • Season 12 • Episode 7 • 24:47

Film Listology: #71 - Parasite

As our "Film Listology" season counts down the Top 100 films in the Listology Super Index, we rediscover a surprise import of international acclaim: Parasite, from Academy Award-winning writer-director Bong Joon Ho, in 2019. P...

April 28, 2026 • Season 8 • Episode 47 • 1:09:35

Film Listology: #72 - High Noon

In this "Film Listology" episode of Special Topics in Media, the dialogic duo wrangles with the impact of Fred Zinnemann's Academy Award-winning 1952 film, High Noon. This ideological Film Western stars Gary Coop...

April 21, 2026 • Season 8 • Episode 46 • 1:06:10

Film Listology: #73 - Barry Lyndon

Our "Film Listology" season continues with a surprise entrant in the #73 slot, from famed director Stanley Kubrick in 1975, Barry Lyndon. One could argue that Kubrick fuses a surrogate love letter to his never-filmed Napoleon Bona...

April 07, 2026 • Season 8 • Episode 45 • 55:36

Film Listology: #74 - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

The "Film Listology" season continues with our #74 entry, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Released in 1939, Frank Capra directs Jimmy Stewart in this tale of an idealistic junior senator thrust into the cynical matrix of the Washington D...

March 31, 2026 • Season 8 • Episode 44 • 42:55