In this penultimate analysis of Marvel Comics Civil War: Issue #6 , hosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds unpack the messy entanglements between superhero faction in this best-selling event series from writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven. The Marvel Universe heroes reach an impasse as Captain America and his Secret Avengers seek to liberate the heroes held prisoner in Reed Richards/Tony Stark's N-Zone detainment center. The action in Issue #6 is interesting in how it pits iconic cha...
May 04, 2023•49 min•Season 6Ep. 9
In this continuation of our Marvel Civil War: Dossier Specials , Nerd Alert co-founder Allison Bratcher joins host Garret Castleberry to discuss the Spider-Man graphic novel that corresponds with Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's best-selling event comic series. The graphic novel comprises issues of The Amazing Spider-Man (primarily #532-538) written by J. Michael Straczenski. The team use their Spider-Man familiarities to continue a conversation about superhero elasticity (7:30). Then, Allison fo...
May 02, 2023•30 min•Season 6Ep. 8
In this first follow-up to the Season 6 " Marvel Civil War Dossier Special ," host Garret Castleberry is once again joined by Allison Bratcher to discuss the tie-ins released continuity alongside Civil War . The goal with this discussion series is not to confuse the continuity of the Special Topics dialogic lecture series between Garret and Kyle Hammonds. Rather, their focus is to evaluate and assess the merits of key comics that lead up to, parallel with, or spin out of writer Mark Millar and a...
Apr 26, 2023•35 min•Season 6Ep. 7
In in episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds further this season's mission to examine and assess writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's crossover comic book event series, Marvel: Civil War . Conversation begins with a discussion about "crossover events" and the value they provide as a storytelling device in the superhero genre. Garret then considers the mass media modalities by which readers and super fans access and process information about their favorite texts, just as Kyl...
Apr 20, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 6Ep. 6
The plot thickens! Host Garret is joined by season regular Kyle Hammonds for a dialogic close reading of the explosive events culminating in the comic book event series from writer Mark Millar and artist Steven McNiven, Civil War . Marvel's Civil War provides the season 6 focus for Special Topics in Media Studies , and this season's hosts aim to not only explicate narrative meaning from this superhero text but rhetorically examine the story's subtext. Analysis includes reflecting on the cultural...
Apr 13, 2023•46 min•Season 6Ep. 5
In this ONE-OFF Dossier Special, host Garret Castleberry introduces listeners to local leader and connector on MACU's campus, Allison Bratcher. One of the early incubators of ESPORTS at MACU, Allison serves as I.T. Specialist and the Executive Assistant to the Chief Information Officer. As a legacy contributor to the "Nerd Alert" student organization, Allison also spearheaded cultivated the "Coffee and Comics" communal experience for students interested in alternative reading, gaming, and commun...
Apr 07, 2023•31 min•Season 6Ep. 4
In the third installation to our Marvel: Civil War season, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds assess the superhero culture clash under way in writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's event mini-series. Following polarized debate concerning the "Superhero Registration Act" legislation in Issue #2, part 3 focuses on the growing division within the superhero community as factions face unprecedented socio-political opposition. In addition to the main narrative, Garret and Kyle explica...
Apr 04, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Season 6Ep. 3
In the second installation to our Marvel: Civil War season, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Kyle Hammonds dive deeper into the unfolding cultural clash at the heart of writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven's event mini-series. Issue #2 focuses on the political fallout that results from the explosive encounter facing the superhero community amidst the terroristic tragedy that unfolds in Issue #1. This second chapter merges allegorical allusions between Marvel's fictional contemporary setting...
Mar 31, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 6Ep. 2
In the season six premiere, Special Topics in Media host Garret Castleberry is joined by Kyle Hammonds in an effort to introduce readers to the best-selling comic book event series from Marvel Entertainment, Civil War (2006-2007). This seven-issue mini-series provided a competitive economic property in a decade where comic-publishing titans Marvel and DC Comics dueled for commercial supremacy. Marvel typically dominated monthly sales among the top 10 and top 25 single-issue releases, while DC he...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Season 6Ep. 1
In this teaser episode, Special Topics in Media host Garret Castleberry introduces listeners to the new topic and recurring cohost joining the lecturecast for season six. In season six, two key shifts provide an opportunity to examine media from alternate angles. First, Special Topics season six shifts mass mediums away from film to focus on the literary medium of comic books. Specifically, season six focuses exclusively on the best-selling (yet also polarizing) superhero "event" storyline from ...
Mar 23, 2023•28 min0
In this Season Seven Finale, Garret Castleberry hosts a leadership quorum comprised of students completing the Special Topics in Media Studies course emphasizing "Communicating Fears in Film". To facilitate a roundtable discussion on season seven, contributors were provided a set of course-related prompts to prepare for a hybridized media production/oral final. While every response or answer holds value, our LIVE roundtable special does represent an abridged attempt to spotlight high points clos...
Mar 16, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 7Ep. 21
Following this Season Seven focus on Communicating Fears in Film, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry pause to reflect on the season, examine course themes, and assess past and future potentialities for Special Topics in Media . In an homage to academic form, the dialogic duo engage in a bit of scholarly form that includes reviewing season seven's themes (00:54), the methods used to engage media analytically (7:42), a classical practice of peer review (23:21), an examination of formal a...
Mar 09, 2023•44 min•Season 7Ep. 20
It is the end of the road for the Eastern Othering focus, as well as the course-centered discussion series in this Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics in Media . Coinciding with the cult cinema 80s emphasis on Eastern Othering, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry investigate the ways in which director Joe Dante's 1984 feature film Gremlins mixes and mingles between comedy and horror, benefits from the Spielbergian rub, and anticipates future anti-Christmas movies while ...
Mar 02, 2023•2 hr 1 min•Season 7Ep. 19
Continuing the Eastern Othering unit for this Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics in Media (5:18), cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry examine a second consecutive cult film from the 1980s, John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China . While Carpenter's feature was distributed by 20th Century Fox in 1986, the project lingered in development for years. These tales of storytelling influence provide a rich preproduction backstory (11:16), while also setting up a second co...
Feb 23, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 7Ep. 18
In this episode, Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry initiate what could be considered the least identifiable "horror" entry to date in this "Communicating Fears in Film seventh season of Special Topics in Media . The dialogic duo venture into a fifth theme, "Eastern Othering", and inaugurate this topic with an unconventional selection, director John Milius's alternate history domestic war feature, Red Dawn (1984). In a fun twist, the cohosts diverge in their preference for the feature (11:02),...
Feb 16, 2023•2 hr 1 min•Season 7Ep. 17
This week Special Topics in Media expands discussion of Nightmarish Nature by welcoming special guest new voice to the program, Hannah Herron. An author and and avid reader of horror, thrillers, and sci-fi, Hannah joins Garret to discuss director three-time Academy Award nominee Frank Darabont's 2007 adaptation of the Stephen King novella, "The Mist". Garret and Hannah discuss Darabont's screenwriting career behind numerous horror projects, including sequels ( A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 , 1987;...
Feb 07, 2023•49 min•Season 7Ep. 16
Rounding out our formal trilogy of "Nightmarish Nature" films in this Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics in Media , cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry collaborate on on a unique outlier to the (mostly) horror focus with a biological thriller from director Steven Soderbergh in 2011, Contagion . Shot in Soderbergh's frequent handheld, close up-heavy fashion, Contagion anticipates with deadly realism the effects of a deadly global pandemic that functions as an eerily pre...
Jan 26, 2023•1 hr 55 min•Season 7Ep. 15
Special Topics in Media continues its trek into "Nightmarish Nature" in our Communicating Fears in Film season with a exploration of director Ron Underwood's cult classic Tremors (1990). Cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry unpack origins both filmic and ephemeral as this southwestern creature feature horror-comedy from Universal Studios occupies a unique space in cinema history. The dialogic duo delve deep into the collaborative industry practices that help make Tremors a film that is o...
Jan 19, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 7Ep. 14
Special Topics in Media is back! After an unscheduled hiatus in programming to usher in the New Year (while preparing for the new spring semester!), cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry RETURN with a transitional film conversation that bridges our previous focus on "Astrophobia" with a new emphasis this month, "Nightmarish Nature". Continuing season seven's sprawling topic "Communicating Fears in Film", the dialogic duo take aim with an eerily troubling thriller from "the master of suspe...
Jan 11, 2023•1 hr 54 min•Season 7Ep. 13
In part 3 of the "Astrophobia" discussion series to the Communicating Fears in Film season of Special Topics, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry jump ahead fifty years from recent coverage of 50s sci-fi chillers to discuss and dissect M. Night Shyamalan's blockbuster homage to Hitchcock, Signs (2002). The dialogic duo struggle with words (more Garret than Scott), either by intention or by design, while putting together a respectful defense of Shyamalan's auteur contributions to film hi...
Dec 29, 2022•2 hr 11 min•Season 7Ep. 12
Still reeling from last week's calamitous "Thing-off!" double-feature, the dialogic duo dare to stare into the abyss once more in their continuation of the "Astrophobia" unit for this "Communicating Fears in Film" season of Special Topics . Crossing the mid-point of season 7, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry examine another key fixture of 1950s science fiction cinema, director Jack Arnold's It Came from Outer Space (1953). Their examination includes a close reading of the text (12:18...
Dec 22, 2022•49 min•Season 7Ep. 11
Blasting off into the upper atmosphere of film discussion, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry ignite their third unit focus for season seven of Special Topics in Media . This new unit carries over some trends from the previous unit, Cold War Creatures, but settles in on a focused fear of things from above, or as Stephen Prince calls it, "Astrophobia". The dialogic duo tackle concurrent themes relating to Astrophobia first with a primary focus on director Christian Nyby's (but also Howa...
Dec 13, 2022•1 hr 48 min•Season 7Ep. 10
In this episode, host Garret Castleberry is joined by special guest Dr. Tim Craig, Chair of the Communication Arts Department at Warner University. Tim's educational background in journalism and professional experience in radio and audio production includes serving as academic advisor to Warner's digital radio station. Dr. Craig's research familiarity with cult film history presents a unique opportunity to bridge our Season 7 shift from the Unit 2 focus on " Cold War Creatures " to the Unit 3 em...
Dec 08, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 7Ep. 9
Rounding out the third part of our unit emphasis on "Cold War Creatures", cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry rev up their affection for Atomic Age allegories with director Gordon Douglas's 1954 classic, Them! The film experienced waves of praise among critics and moviegoers, followed by decades of broad audience obscurity, and then resurgent cult reverence over time. The dialogic duo explore Them! 's use of distinct desert mise en scene and how it functions in opposition to seafaring c...
Nov 29, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 7Ep. 8
Traveling deeper into the second unit emphasis on "Cold War Creatures", cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry pivot away from Universal movie monsters to examine the alpha creature feature Asian import, Gojira! Setting a cinema standard for what would become the Kaiju sub-genre, Ishiro Honda's Godzilla (1954) functions as an allegorical post-war pandora's box in relation to its focus on nuclear testing in the Atomic Age. The dialogic duo tackle the allegorical and mythological functions o...
Nov 22, 2022•1 hr 29 min•Season 7Ep. 7
Continuing the season seven theme Communicating Fears in Film, this episode marks the first "transitional film" slated to move conversation from the first unit focus on "Monstrous Metaphors" to the second unit emphasis on "Cold War Creatures". Cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry close out their focus on the era of Universal's classic movie monsters with a leap forward into 1950s science fiction-horror. Kicking off their month-long examination of sci-fi/horror, the dialogic duo blend cla...
Nov 14, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Season 7Ep. 6
In this nontraditional min-episode, Garret organizes a storytelling monologue coinciding with the occasion twin holiday of his birthday and election day in the U.S.A. Garret recounts his own election day adventures before celebrating the BIG 4-0 with an overview of key films and horror texts that communicated fear to and through each of his first four decades alive. References: Cunningham, Sean (Producer). Friday the 13th . [Film series]. Paramount Pictures, 1980-2009. Darabont, Frank. (Co-creat...
Nov 11, 2022•34 min•Season 7Ep. 5
In our first "Halloween Special" a seasonal spinoff with Unit I implications, host Garret Castleberry is joined by Communication and Rhetorical teacher-scholar Kyle Hammonds for a close examination of the Disney+ Marvel Entertainment special "Werewolf by Night" (2022). Garret and Kyle confess limited familiarity with Marvel's Werewolf by Night comic book that spun out of Marvel Spotlight in the early 1970s (8:00), instead focusing on the (for now) standalone TV special and its overt narrative an...
Oct 31, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 7Ep. 4
In the third entry in our Communicating Fears in Film focus on "Monstrous Metaphors", cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry unveil the hidden mysteries detailed within director James Whale's horror film adaptation The Invisible Man (1933). The hosts peek into H. G. Wells' source material novel as well as subtle influences connected to Universal's growing catalog of suspense-thriller and classic monster movies (3:58). This leads to a conversation about cultural context that elevates The In...
Oct 27, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Season 7Ep. 3
In this second entry in the Communicating Fears in Film focus on "Monstrous Metaphors", cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry reanimate the hidden horror history of director James Whale's horror film Frankenstein (1931). Adapted from Mary Shelly's 1818 novel Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus, Universal Studios solidified their "Classic Monster Movie" formula (2:10) with this second feature that released later in the same year audiences came out to screen Bela Lugosi portray Dracula ...
Oct 20, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Season 7Ep. 2
