Special Topics in Media

Garret Castleberry

5.0 (4)
TV & FILM
UPDATED WEEKLY

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.

MAY 5

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

Send us Fan Mail 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 at MACU. This month, Garret sits down with key officers in the Communication and Media Club, starting with the current CMC President, and 2025-26 Communication Award recipient, Mia Haynes. Host: Garret Castleberry, Jacob Mallozzi (Guest) Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) 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/. Support the show

25 min
APR 28

Film Listology: #71 - Parasite

Send us Fan Mail 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. Parasite tells the story of families dueling for class status amidst the backdrop of modern Seoul, South Korea. Parasite presents itself as a family black dramedy, a social satire, and even a heist-horror. In essence, Joon Ho's work functions as a genre-bender, and one that rewarded the director with an armful of Oscars. But how does the film hold up less than a decade later? Unsurprisingly, better than ever. The Dialogic Duo debates the film's cultural significance as an important "can't miss" feature that is also somewhat already hard to find. 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/. Support the show

1h 10m
APR 21

Film Listology: #72 - High Noon

Send us Fan Mail 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 Cooper as Marshal Will Cain, the outgoing lawman of the small New Mexican town of Hadleyville. Marshal Cain relinquishes his badge in favor of domesticity, but when word that his feared foe, Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), is released from prison en route to the quiet town, Cain once again brandishes the badge in a desperate effort to enact justice one final time. But the question for our time is: does High Noon maintain its relevance in an age of social justice warriors and ideological talking heads? Can High Noon maintain its cultural context in a time where truth is relative? Garret Castleberry and Scott McMurry evaluate High Noon's cultural significance as the #72-ranked film on the Listology Super Index. 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/. Support the show

1h 6m
APR 7

Film Listology: #73 - Barry Lyndon

Send us Fan Mail 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 Bonaparte biopic with a loose adaptation of the William Makepeace Thackeray novel, The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. The result is as meditative and synchronic an examination into the spaces between love and loss, triumph and defeat, and possibly a search for satisfaction amidst unquenchable appetites. Barry Lyndon boasts a symphony of technical production film stories. But are these enough to position it among the elite titles of film history? The dialogic duo examine Kubrick's most refined work. 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/. Support the show

56 min
MAR 31

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

Send us Fan Mail 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. C. political establishment. Mr. Smith stands as a perennial "feel good" movie about how the American political system functions as the ultimate course corrective within an unjust world. But what happens if the film were to feel increasingly like a disillusioned fantasy far removed from modern sentiment? The dialogic duo discuss the film to arrive at a contemporary assessment of its cultural significance factor in the twenty-first century. 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/. Support the show

43 min
MAR 17

Film Listology: #75 - The Graduate

Send us Fan Mail Our "Film Listology" season sets sail once again with the #75 film according to the MCM Super Index, The Graduate. Mike Nichols directs Dustin Hoffman in this Academy Award Winning feature from 1967. The film "spoke" to a generation with its coming-of-age themes, scandalous insinuations, and the postwar malaise that seemingly swept over the Baby Boomers at the heart of the New Youth movement in America. But what happens when none of this matters? The Graduate posits the ultimate MeGeneration fantasy, which has echoed through pop culture history ever since. But to what extent? Scott joins Garret for an abridged discussion of this aging metaphor about cyclical perceived individuality. 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/. Support the show

48 min
MAR 3

Film Listology, Reveal Episode! #75-71

Send us Fan Mail Film Listology RETURNS! Scott McMurry joins Garret Castleberry to reveal the next five films currently ranked #75-71 by the analytics super index. Which films made the cross-composite list? Should each of these be canonized in filmdom's Top 100? Check them out, send us your memories of each, and listen in as we resume the Season 8 focus on "Film Listology" on Special Topics in Media Studies. 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/. Support the show

41 min
FEB 17

The Heist Film: Logan Lucky (2017)

Send us Fan Mail The Special Topics in Media winds down prematurely with our Heist Film conversation (circa 2021) focusing on Steven Soderbergh's 2017 rural caper, Logan Lucky. Host Garret Castleberry is joined by dialogic duo partner in crime Scott McMurry in a serenading love letter to the quieter films that often go unnoticed. Due to an inadvertant data dump, this conversation culminates our "Heist Film Season" of Special Topics. Host: Garret Castleberry, Scott McMurry Producers: Garret Castleberry, Will McMurry (Audio Engineer), Alli Garner (Cover Art), Austin Foster (Music) Recommended readings to pair with Season 5 "The Heist Film": Jim Leach & Jeannette Slowniowski (editors). The Best Laid Plans: Interrogating the Heist Film. Wayne State University Press, 2017. Daryl Lee. The Heist Film: Stealing With Style. Wallflower Press, 2014. 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/. Support the show Support the show

1h 42m

5

out of 5

4 Ratings

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.

Creator

Garret Castleberry
Years Active

2022 - 2026
Episodes

181
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2026 Special Topics in Media
Show Website

Special Topics in Media