Pop Goes the Culture Newsletter: June 2023

June is here! While Memorial Day weekend might be the unofficial start of summer, it’ll officially be summer this month. Just as the seasons change, so too must Pop Goes the Culture change. Without further adieu, it’s time for our big announcement…

The Pop Goes the Culture podcast team is growing. We are adding a second team of hosts starting in the month of June. This will allow us to release new episode every week again starting this month. This Friday, June 2nd, you’ll get a new episode from our usual crew. Ouit r new team will make their debut the following Friday, June 9th. It won’t be a strict every-other-week schedule, but each team will release a couple of episodes a month and the two teams will release an equal number of episodes between now and the end of the year.

Why are we doing this? First, it gives us a fresh set of hosts each week. How many times the episode after a convention has the conversation gone something like this:

“So, what has everyone been up to since the last episode?”

“Nothing, man. Just trying to catch up on sleep.”

Having a second team ready to roll will eliminate those low energy episodes. This will also allow everyone time with their families and friends without worrying about missing a recording. It’ll help eliminate burnout. It’ll give you fresh, new perspectives on all things entertainment & pop culture. It will provide a larger audience for the new team (who have been killing it on their own podcast… now they get to do it with listeners). It will bring us new opportunities for Pop Goes the Culture as a whole.

It’s going to be a really good thing for everyone involved.

Speaking of new opportunities, we’re going to slowly be rolling out new content throughout the year. This month’s focus is bringing back the monthly newsletters and getting both teams of hosts comfortable in the new format. After that, we’ll be resurrecting some things we’ve done in the past and trying some new things on the podcast, on our social media, here on the website, and a few other platforms (I’m not spoiling anything for you in this newsletter — come back next month for more). The only way we get that content created is if we have the people willing to put in the time and effort to make those projects work.

One of those projects will be more posts here on the website. This thing is a hobby and doesn’t make any money (okay, not zero money… I think we made around $10 one holiday season through links to Amazon). However, it has opened up a lot of doors for us and gotten us into some rooms and invited us into others that we couldn’t make happen at that time. If you’re interested in potentially writing for the website as a hobby, whether that’s news, previews, reviews, lists and guides, whatever, reach out to me on social media (our DMs are open) and I’ll get with you on the specifics. The more the merrier!

If you’re interested, be thinking about the types of things in entertainment and pop culture that you’re into and can write about. Are you a big movie fan? Maybe you want to do movie reviews. Into video games? Maybe live streaming on the Pop Goes the Culture Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook Page is up your alley. Want to share entertainment and pop culture nuggets of history and interesting factoids? We can do that! Want to record tabletop gaming sessions? We’d love to host them on our YouTube channel. Are you the king or queen of your fantasy football league and want to publish articles and/or videos with tips every week during the season? Let’s make it happen.

I know I’m missing a lot of ideas. If you have an idea, DM us.

After a nice, long, three month break, the Pop Goes the Culture convention crew hits the road again this month, kicking off a run of (at least) one event a month between now and Thanksgiving. Join us Saturday, June 24th and Sunday, June 25th in Jackson, Mississippi for Mississippi Comic Con! Get your tickets online now, because you don’t want to be stuck waiting at the door for the chance to maybe buy a ticket if and when they go on sale on-site during the convention weekend. Guests scheduled to appear at the event include Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?), Sean Astin (The Goonies, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Stranger Things), WWE Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart, Gates McFadden, Christopher Sabat, Sean Schemmel, Ethan Suplee, and many more.

We hope to see you there. If you do make it out, be sure to stop by the main stage and say “hi”!

If you haven’t already done so, be sure to join the Pop Goes the Culture Discord server. We have chat channels and forums for every convention we’ll be attending through the end of the year, voice channels for gaming (you’ll currently catch us using the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic voice channel a lot), an All Access channel for anyone and everyone where you can chat with us, other fans, and we’ll be adding more content, watch parties, and more throughout the year.

While we’re plugging ways to find, follow, and interact with us, be sure to follow us at @PGTCpodcast on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. This is where you’ll find and be able to vote in our weekly Pop! Quizes, it’s the first place we’ll post photos from the various conventions and events, and more.

If you haven’t checked out the Pop Goes the Culture online store in a while (or ever), be sure to head over there. We always have the full color Pop Goes the Culture logo merch, and right now we have select items in the Pop Goes the Summer Sunshine design, Pop Goes ‘Merica design, and Pop Goes the PRIDE design. These are only offered for a limited time, so get them before they go away.

Have design ideas you’d like to see in the future? Let us know!