Bringing Analytical Rigour to “Girly Culture”: CBU Professors Launch New Pop-Culture Podcast “GirlTalk”

 

Behind the door of a shared faculty office in Cape Breton University’s School of Arts and Social Sciences, academic research collides daily with unapologetic pop-culture fanaticism. What began as desk-side banter, shared fixations on romance tropes and a mutual reread of Twilight has evolved into a new podcast project by Dr. Mariah Hudec and Dr. Veronica Litt: GirlTalk.

Recorded across campus in the Centre for Cape Breton Studies’ Digitization Lab, the bi-weekly series explores what the hosts call “contemporary girly culture.” Bringing research-driven analysis to female-focused film, television and literature, Mariah and Veronica take on cultural touchstones like Barbie, Twilight, The Hunger Games and Rachel Reid’s Heated Rivalry to interrogate the persistent stigmas surrounding feminine media.

At first glance, dissecting fan fiction, teen movies and pop megastars might look like a departure from traditional literary studies. For both professors, however, the material aligns directly with their scholarly foundations.

Veronica’s background centres on 18th-century literature, gender and sexual politics, alongside digital scholarship and a book on the 1990s film Clueless. Mariah’s research investigates gender and the supernatural in early modern and 19th-century writing, ranging from historical witch trials to modern fandom culture and a dedicated CBU course on Taylor Swift.

Applying that critical lens to modern media, the hosts argue that the reflexive dismissal of art made for women reveals more about cultural bias than artistic merit.

“Often this material gets dismissed out of hand as silly or frivolous or trivial, but those assumptions are often pretty rooted in misogyny,” Mariah says. “If a lot of people are engaging with something, it actually makes it even more important for us to spend some time thinking about why it’s appealing to such a large audience, why it’s resonating in that moment.”

Veronica points out that white male-dominated genres like science fiction or grim family dramas are often celebrated despite following predictable narrative formulas, while optimistic, romance-driven stories are penalized for the same structural beats.

“There’s this idea that the sophisticated, intelligent, correct way to respond to how bad the world is – is to recognize it, accept it and stew about it,” Veronica says. “Girly art manifestly refuses to do this. It really wants to imagine something better to provide relief for its viewer, and insists that the good parts of life – love, friendship, humour, family and connection – are just as valid as cynicism, seriousness and pain.”

Beyond interrogating narrative tropes, GirlTalk serves as an intentional experiment in public scholarship, aimed at dismantling the barriers that often keep university research cordoned off behind paywalls and dense academic prose.

“A lot of academic work is put behind paywalls and it’s hard for many people to reach, both because of paywalls and because academic writing can be hard to penetrate if you haven’t spent years in that exact field,” Mariah says. “Podcasts are one way to make scholarship more accessible, while still being a rigorous way of thinking through ideas. Scholarship should be fun!”

Veronica agrees, seeing the show as a conscious pushback against traditional academic stiffness.

“There’s an assumption that scholarship can’t be enjoyable,” Veronica says. “It’s an interesting experiment to ask: what if we go a little left of centre? Maybe it’s not about doing things wrong, but doing things differently and learning new things.”

For both hosts, showing that humanities scholarship is relevant beyond the classroom and building community connections are central to the mission.

“I hope the CBU and wider Cape Breton community tunes in,” says Veronica. “I’m genuinely curious to hear how people respond to the topics and questions posed by the show. I hope a listener enjoys the opportunity to think more deeply about movies and TV shows that sometimes hide in plain sight as ‘just entertainment’ and thus not worth more sustained attention.”

“Podcasts can be a great place to foster a sense of community,” adds Mariah. “Veronica and I are both interested in having fun, but also in taking the pop culture that we are immersed in seriously.”

The eight-episode first season of GirlTalk launches September 22 across major streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. Listeners can connect with the hosts directly at unwellfans@gmail.com.