Showing titles in Popular Culture

From taking the knee to transgender rights, wedge issues are everywhere in modern life - dividing opinions, polarising debate and tearing friendships and families apart. Even something as seemingly innocuous as wearing a facemask can provoke vicious disagreement. But how did we get here, and what does it mean for society going forward? In this gripping series, acclaimed writer and journalist Jon Ronson searches for the origin stories of the hostilities - the pebbles thrown in the pond, creating the ripples that led to where we are today.

Mr Punch Presents: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, following the fortunes of three ill-matched gold diggers, who are searching for treasure in Mexico. As they hunt for their elusive prize, the three prospectors become progressively more corrupt and greedy and fall foul of each other’s all-consuming greed, in this exciting adventure story. With Humphrey Bogart recapturing his role as the wicked Fred C. Dobbs and Walter Huston as the grizzled old-timer Howard, the role for which he received the Oscar as best supporting actor.

A sociological study of reality TV that explores its rise as a culture-dominating medium - and what the genre reveals about our attitudes toward race, gender, class, and sexuality.

Mr Punch Presents: It’s a Wonderful Life, the irresistibly heart-warming story of George Bailey, who is prevented from committing suicide by the elderly angel Clarence, who takes him on a journey back through his life to show him how the town of Bedford Falls would have been had he never lived. Originally directed by the celebrated Frank Capra, it is performed here for radio with James Stewart, Victor Moore and Donna Reed recreating their original roles.

Mr Punch Presents: All About Eve, the Oscar-winning story of the self-effacing and ambitious actress Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) who cleverly manipulates her way into the life of ageing Broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis). This venomous depiction of show business and backstage life has become a classic story of ambition and betrayal and one of Hollywood's all-time masterpieces.

Mr Punch Presents: It Happened One Night, the winner of five Oscar’s including Best Picture is Frank Capra’s classic romantic comedy, telling the story of a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) who falls in love with a cynical reporter (Clark Gable) on a cross-country bus trip across America.

Mr Punch Presents: National Velvet, telling the story of Velvet Brown (Elizabeth Taylor), the idealistic English farm girl with a passion for horses, who wins the spirited steed ‘Pie’ in the local town lottery. Her infectious enthusiasm encourages the embittered jockey Mi Taylor (Mickey Rooney) to train the horse ‘Pie’ for the Grand National - England's greatest racing event.

For No Reason at All: The Changing Narrative of the First World War in American Film discusses a variety of Great War-themed films made from 1915 to the present, tracing the changing approaches to the conflict over time.

Mr Punch Presents: The Virginian, who falls in love with Molly the local schoolmarm, in this classic Western starring Gary Cooper. He has to vie for her attention with his best friend, Steve, who soon becomes involved with a band of outlaws led by the villainous Trampas. Captured for cattle rustling, the film climaxes with a showdown between Trampas and the Virginian in a classic shootout on a dusty Western street.

It was long ago, but not as long as it seems: The Berlin Wall fell and the Twin Towers collapsed. In between, one presidential election was allegedly decided by Ross Perot while another was plausibly decided by Ralph Nader. Landlines fell to cell phones, the internet exploded, and pop culture accelerated without the aid of technology that remembered everything. It was the last era with a real mainstream to either identify with or oppose. The ’90s brought about a revolution in the human condition, and a shift in consciousness, that we’re still struggling to understand.

Tarot cards have been around since the Renaissance, and have become increasingly popular in recent years, often due to their prevalence in popular culture. This audiobook is an extensive history of the development and evolution of Tarot, and its place in culture. It begins with an extensive review from its roots as a game, to its supposed connection to ancient Egyptian magic; through its place in secret societies, and to its current use in meditation and psychology.

The L-Word is about modern love: from ghosting, polyamory, love in the times of social media to more every-day problems like dealing with heartbreak, infidelity and getting out of toxic relationships. Love can be many things—sometimes intimidating, frustrating, and often exhilarating—this book tells you how to make sense of it.

Since its premiere in 2002, ABC’s The Bachelor has become a staple of American television. Now, discover the fascinating history of the show, uncover the ins and outs of the phenomenon that has become Bachelor Nation, and take a deeper look at what separates the winners from the losers. From how best to exit the limo on Night One, to strategies for making a run for the all-important First Impression Rose, to how to avoid being labeled a villain, this clear-eyed guide illustrates the rules and strategies any would-be contestant should know.

Robert Crumb’s genius, according to author David Stephen Calonne, lies in his ability to absorb a variety of literary, artistic, and spiritual traditions and incorporate them within an original, American mode of discourse. R. Crumb: Literature, Autobiography, and the Quest for Self charts Crumb’s intellectual trajectory and explores the recurring philosophical themes that permeate his depictions of literary and biographical works.

William Gibson is known primarily as a novelist, with his work ranging from his groundbreaking first novel, Neuromancer, to his more recent contemporary best sellers Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History. During those nearly 30 years, though, Gibson has been sought out by widely varying publications for his insights into contemporary culture.

Until very recently, most languages had no words for numbers greater than five - anything from six to infinity was known as 'lots'. While the numbers in our world have become increasingly complex, our brains are stuck in the past. Yet the ability to communicate and understand numbers has never mattered more. So how can we more effectively translate numbers and stats so that the data comes alive? In Making Numbers Count, Chip Heath and Karla Starr argue that understanding numbers is essential - but humans aren't built to understand them.

Millennials might have grown up online, but now they want to log off. And it's not just millennials. A year of lockdowns, Zoom meetings and reduced physical contact has made us more dependent on the internet than ever before - but has it lost its humanity? Our focus on community and real connection has been sent off-course, and we're becoming more aware of how the algorithm manipulates us and how our data has made us a product to be sold. So, where do we go from here, and how can we get back on track?

Ogni giorno facciamo esperienza del nostro corpo in modi diversi. Possiamo "sentirlo" propriamente, senza alcuna mediazione: la carne è l'oggetto di questo sentire. Oppure lo "vediamo" dall'esterno, come quando guardiamo la nostra immagine riflessa allo specchio. L'equilibrio fra queste due modalità è la condizione ideale per sentire le nostre emozioni, che ci radicano in noi stessi e nel mondo. È così che si costituisce l'identità.

For American women today, working out is as accepted as it is expected, fueling a multibillion-dollar fitness industrial complex. But it wasn’t always this way. For much of the 20th century, sweating was considered unladylike and girls grew up believing physical exertion would cause their uterus to literally fall out. It was only in the '60s that, thanks to a few forward-thinking fitness pioneers, women began to move en masse.

Vivek Shraya knows this to be true: people change. We change our haircuts and our outfits and our minds. We change names, titles, labels. We attempt to blend in or to stand out. We outgrow relationships, we abandon dreams for new ones, we start fresh. We seize control of our stories. We make resolutions. In fact, nobody knows this better than Vivek, who’s made a career of embracing many roles: artist, performer, musician, writer, model, teacher. In People Change, she reflects on the origins of this impulse, tracing it to childhood influences from Hinduism to Madonna.