Special Topics in Media

Continuing our Graphic Design and Portfolio Management mini-series, host Garret Castleberry introduces listeners to  graphic designer Caleb Cole. An alumni of Oklahoma Baptist University, Caleb unpacks his formal educational journey and professional training in visual design, and thoughtfully individualizes his experience in ways that will allow listeners to learn about the interests and motivations that drive his early career success.

Recommended readings:
Lidwell, W., Holden, K., & Butler, J. (2010). Universal principles of design, revised and updated: 125 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through design (2nd ed.). Beverly, MA: Rockport. ISBN: 978-1-59253-587-3 .

Roam, D. (2013). The back of the napkin: Solving problems and selling ideas with pictures (Extended ed.). New York: Portfolio/Penguin. ISBN: 978-1-59184-269-9. 

Sibbet, D. (2010). Visual Meetings: How graphics, sticky notes & idea mapping can transform group productivity. New York: Wiley. ISBN: 978-0-470-60178-5. 

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.  

In this extension to our Graphic Design and Portfolio Management mini-series, host Garret Castleberry connects with fellow academic and chair for the division of art and design at Oklahoma Baptist University, Corey Lee Fuller. Corey discusses the intricacies of a life (and lifestyle) devoted to art and graphic design. He helps unpack the evolution of art into contemporary professions like painting, illustrating, and integrated design. Garret presses Corey to describe the professional values of working in and parallel to graphic design, and they explore how professional opportunities coordinate with additional fields and professions ranging from math and architecture to website design and data analytics.

Recommended readings:
Lidwell, W., Holden, K., & Butler, J. (2010). Universal principles of design, revised and updated: 125 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through design (2nd ed.). Beverly, MA: Rockport. ISBN: 978-1-59253-587-3 .

Roam, D. (2013). The back of the napkin: Solving problems and selling ideas with pictures (Extended ed.). New York: Portfolio/Penguin. ISBN: 978-1-59184-269-9. 

Sibbet, D. (2010). Visual Meetings: How graphics, sticky notes & idea mapping can transform group productivity. New York: Wiley. ISBN: 978-0-470-60178-5. 

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.  

In this episode, Special Topics in Media bridges two themes tied to our Season 9 emphasis. Seasons 9 emphasizes two distinct professional arenas of digital communication, podcasting and graphic design. This week we blend and blur those words. We sit down with emerging graphic design artist Allison Garner. Alli shares parts of her creative journey, a somewhat untraditional path of artistic discovery that continues to gain momentum. Pieces of her personal (and professional) voyage also intersect with the world of podcasting, including previous collaborations to help construct the visual identity of Special Topics in Media. Special Topics is excited to spotlight this emerging  artist and allow her story to resonate with listeners considering careers in either podcasting or graphic design. 


Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Allison Garner (guest)

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings:
Ian Corbett. Mic It!: Microphones, Microphone Techniques, and their Impact on the Final Mix, 2nd edition. New York: Routledge, 2020.

David Miles Huber & Runstein, Robert. Modern Recording Techniques, 9th edition. New York: Routledge, 2017.

Guest media:
Christine Becker (co-host/co-producer). Aca-Media Podcast. 2013-present.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter/X at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.  

In this episode, the Media Methods and Content Creation mini-series welcomes Dr. Christine Becker, co-host and co-producer of the Aca-Media Podcast. As she explains, Aca-Media provides a cross-disciplinary series that serves as an mediated brand extension for the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS).  Dr. Becker then walks us through Aca-Media's collaborative production process, providing key insights into the attentive details that help promote the podcast's longevity as a publicly distributed academic and intellectual media project. 


Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Christine Becker (guest)

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings:
Ian Corbett. Mic It!: Microphones, Microphone Techniques, and their Impact on the Final Mix, 2nd edition. New York: Routledge, 2020.

David Miles Huber & Runstein, Robert. Modern Recording Techniques, 9th edition. New York: Routledge, 2017.

Guest media:
Christine Becker (co-host/co-producer). Aca-Media Podcast. 2013-present.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter/X at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.  

This week we return to our Media Methods and Content Creation mini-series. Host Garret Castleberry interviews Scott Hardy and Cam Smith, cohosts of SpyHards -- A Spy Movie Podcast. Scott and Cam reveal the origins of their multimedia partnership and explain how their participatory roles within fan culture helped birth their current mission to engage audiences with the history of spy cinema.


Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott Hardy (guest) and Cam Smith (guest)

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings:
Ian Corbett. Mic It!: Microphones, Microphone Techniques, and their Impact on the Final Mix, 2nd edition. New York: Routledge, 2020.

David Miles Huber & Runstein, Robert. Modern Recording Techniques, 9th edition. New York: Routledge, 2017.

Guest media:
Scott Hardy & Cam Smith (hosts). SpyHards -- A Spy Movie Podcast. 2020-present.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.  

"What is real? How do you define, real?" In this episode, cohosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry unpack the wide-reaching cultural significance of 1999's The Matrix. Written and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, produced and distributed by Warner Bros., The Matrix redirected popular cinema for the 21st Century through its ingenious remixing of philosophy, theology, and mythology baked into a dystopian action film that also functions as a techno-remix of classical tales like Alice in the Looking Glass and The Wizard of Oz. Has The Matrix faded from the popular imaginary, or does its brief legacy suggest a temporally resonant cultural artifact that  continues to inspire new audiences?  

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

This week the Film Listology season of Special Topics in Media continues with an all-timer that has evolved from lowbrow crowd-pleasing mainstream B-movie from 20th Century Fox and relatively unknown director upon release, Sir Ridley Scott, to a "Top-Shelf Classic" that finds increasing cultural cache for its simplicity, elegance, ingenious conception, and nightmarish aesthetics.

A.....L......I......E.....N.....

Host Garret Castleberry is joined by Scott McMurry to rank Alien's cultural significance, and, perhaps more importantly, to widen the origin of creative credit that goes into this iconoclast space/horror genre mashup. 

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

The Film Listology season continues with a welcome break from recent genre form.  Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry revisit Woody Allen's Academy Award Winner for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay from 1977, Annie Hall. The film captured the hearts of film critics and belongs in the pantheon of great "New York movies". Indeed, much of writer-directer Allen's oeuvre became synonymous with a handful of directors forever linked to New York City and their filmic relationship to this vibrant city of tomorrow. Ironically, some of the offscreen choices made by Allen over time have altered the relationship between his expressed ideas, his films as art, film audiences, and their reception versus rejection of his work. Do external factors impact the film's cultural significance, or can the film's haughty whimsy elude critique? The dialogic duo debates to arrive at a contemporary interpretation of Annie Hall and its film legacy. 

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

In this episode, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry introduce uninitiated listeners to the unique career highlights of artist-director David Lynch. For the uninitiated, the dialogic duo walk through a chronological explanation of the director's nontraditional route to fame, contextualizing his journey as a lead-in to this week's feature film focus, Mulholland Drive. Released in 2001 but primarily produced in the late 1990s, Mulholland Drive experienced transformative change from illicit cult thriller to bonafide international critical praise. Listed at #8 in the 2022 Sight and Sound cinema poll, our hosts consider the extent to which the film ascends outwardly in its slow-burn accumulation of cultural significance.

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

This week Special Topics in Media resumes its focus on "Film Listology" with a discussion of director Lewis Milestone's 1930 war film All Quiet on the Western Front. Winning the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director, All Quiet might better be understood as an anti-war film for its grueling depictions of the human cost of war. Based on the novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque, the source material was revisited as a TV movie in 1979 and again as a critically acclaimed streaming film distributed by Netflix in 2022. Do remakes and reinterpretations help or hinder a film's cultural significance? Hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry place these texts in conversation with one another as a means of discerning the context of the earliest film and its place in the pantheon of World War I literature.

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

The Special Topics in Media Film Listology season reveals a number of contemporary classics just in time for the holiday season. No, these films don't necessarily rock around the Christmas tree. But they do rock, and in some cases, heads will roll.  Hosts Garret  and Scott  announce and respond to the latest output from the McMurry SuperIndex, the #95-91 entrants to the amalgamated film ranking system. This batch once again  provides genre diversification in need of culturally significant rating. What films emerged In the MSI #95-91 poll position? Have a listen and let our hosts know what cultural significance factor you would apply to each of these film features.   
 

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.

The Film Listology season of SpecialTopics in Media continues with an abbreviated assessment of the critically adorned foreign langugage film from renown French director Jean Renoir, 1939's The Rules of the Game. Highly valued for its groundbreaking use of deep focus and dolly camera movement, Renoir's coveted love lorn prewar social satire employs artistic expression as a means to encode class criticism. Garret and Scott debate whether the film maintains topical functionality while also asking if the film now feels more like "homework" than required viewing. 

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.   

This week Special Topics in Media  resumes production on our Film Listology journey with the bad boy grandchild born out of wedlock between Film Noir and Golden Age Hollywood, writer/director Curtis Hanson and co-screenwriter Brian Helgeland's detective potboiler L.A. Confidential. Adapted from the same name novel by James Ellroy, L.A. Confidential reaped considerable word-of-mouth praise from critics and audiences upon release in 1997 but has since fallen under the social radar among contemporary audiences. In a film that introduced American audiences to not one but two rough and tumble Australian imports in Russell Crowe and Guy Pierce, hosts Garret and Scott debate whether this instant classic remains a top shelf rental in the streaming age.     


Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.   

With the holiday season in full swing, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry step away from the dinner table long enough to partake in an alternative pastime, cultivating our Film Listology season on Special Topics in Media. In this episode, the dialogic duo revisit the recently invoked "Dad Movie Hall of Fame" to inaugurate what many consider the apex entrant to the spaghetti western subgenre, director Sergio Leone's 1966 Spanish production The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. While universally associated with its rising star Clint Eastwood--once again portraying "the man with no name" (aka "Blondie")--Leone's epic picture splits time between three characters, with special emphasis placed on character actor Eli Wallach's performance as "Tuco".  The film functions as a capper to Leone's "Dollars trilogy", a deconstructive approach to antihero revisionist storytelling. Of note, the cultural placement primarily takes place south of the border, which joins a host of late westerns that shifted lenses to consider the intercultural tensions between Eastern American migrants, post-Civil War ex-militants, soldiers of fortune, and a confluence of Mexican and Mexican American LatinX players (often portrayed by Spaniard locals hired by the film's Italian director).  The result is a bit of film magic and a time capsule into an explosive age of masterful cult filmmaking.


Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.   

As our Film Listology season drops into the nineties, Scott and Garret examine The Great Dictator from 1940.  Falling in familiarity to many, The Great Dictator  wisely uses comedy (and tragedy) to spotlight and critique rising fascism in early twentieth century Europe. Charlie Chaplin writes, produces, and directs this satirical story of mistaken identity, brandishing his patented broom mustache and embodying a parodic variation of Adolph Hitler. The film exhibits iconoclast status in film history, but does it maintain its cultural significance in the age of instant gratification?   

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.   

...

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.   

The Special Topics in Media Film Listology season is BACK! After our Communicating Fears in Film Octoberfest, hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry return to the realm of classic cinema to count down the algorithmic rankings computated by the "McMurry Super Index" (MSI) to determine an alpha populous movie rating system to end all movie rating systems. Having previously completed the "Honorable Mentions" films in contention for elite status, the dialogic duo present the first of many "reveal episodes" to set the table for the next series of filmic conversations. What films come in at #100-96 on the SMI?  You are only one click away from finding out!

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with our Film Listology season:
Rick Altman. Film/Genre. British Film Institute, 1999.

Jim Collins, Ada Preacher Collins, Hilary Radner (Eds.). Film Theory Goes to the Movies, 1st Edition. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.   

This week Special Topics in Media teams up with the Okie Bookcast for a podcasting event! We're crafting a two-part discussion surrounding the adaptation of author David Grann's 2017 New York Times bestseller Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI into a major motion picture now in theaters from director Martin Scorsese. Produced by Apple Studios for over $200 million and with a runtime of 3 hours and 26 minutes, Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon represents a monumental achievement in the effort to bring light to the "Reign of Terror" that wreaked havoc upon the Osage people of northeastern Oklahoma in the early 1900s.

Part 1 of our crossover conversation begins with the literary source material and tackles the formal process of adapting nonfiction source material. Part 1 is available NOW for free on the Okie Bookcast feed. In Part 2, Special Topics hosts Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry convene with Okie host J Hall to discuss the stunning achievements brought to life through Scorsese's film.* Finally, it is important to note that these conversations work as independent threads, so listeners can appreciate one or both in any order. 

*Production Note: This conversation was recorded prior to the surge of dialectical public discourse surrounding the Killers film. We're intrigued by these sentiments and continue to monitor the valuable dialogues in response to the film. We hope to return to the subject in appreciation for the wide range of reactions and responses to the film, its director, and the production team's authorial choices.


Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry, J Hall (guest)

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended media:

J Hall. (Host). "Killers of the Flower Moon - Adapting Book to Film." In Okie Bookcast. [Podcast]. Oklahoma City, OK, USA: 2023. 

Scorsese, Martin (Director). Killers of the Flower Moon. Oklahoma, USA: Appian Way/Apple Studios/Paramount Pictures, 2023.

J Hall. God Help Me, I'm a Dad: 10 Essentials for Becoming the Dad Your Kids Need. Independent, 2023.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.  

Part 2 of our interview with Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Dr. Kendall Phillips.  In conversation with our Communicating Fears in Film topic theme, Kendall discusses his own "origins" and how his path first intersected with horror cinema at the crucial threshold of childhood adolescence. Garret and Kendall discuss several horror texts that marked  rhetorical influences in their lives. Stick around to the end for Dr. Phillips' horror readings and screening recommendations this October.   

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kendall Phillips (Guest)

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film":
Kendall Phillips. Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film. Southern Illinois University Press, 2012.

Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Popular Culture. New York: Polity, 2005.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.  

As the Communicating Fears in Film, The Return! season continues, host Garret Castleberry sits down with Professor of Rhetoric and Communication Dr. Kendall Phillips to discuss the fantasy of horror entertainments and their relationship to the reality of American anxieties. In part 1 of their conversation, Kendall helps paint a picture for "Why Rhetoric Matters" as a way to understand mass media and human communication. He also gives insights into various "academic processes", including the value of writing, sharing research, and trusting the process of peer feedback. Later this week, part 2 of their discussion will examine Kendall's relationship to horror as a popular narrative genre. He will also provides a bounty of spectral reads and recommendations this that horror fans can feast their eyes on this October.   

Hosts: Garret Castleberry, Kendall Phillips (Guest)

Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music)

Recommended readings paired with Season Seven "Communicating Fears in Film":
Kendall Phillips. Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film. Southern Illinois University Press, 2012.

Kendall Phillips. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Popular Culture. New York: Polity, 2005.

Ways to Connect with us online:
Follow and engage with Special Topics in Media on Twitter at @podcast_topics.

"Like" to follow our Special Topics in Media Page on Facebook (search Special Topics in Media).

Join the Special Topics in Media Facebook Group and share your reviews of the film or this episode.

Subscribe to Dr. Castleberry's academic YouTube Channel.

Garret's academic website is available at https://garretcastleberry.academia.edu/.