We’re sad to be here, but today is the finale of season three! Aled Thomas and Vivian Asimos respond to your thoughts and comments on the subjects we’ve covered this season. We chat about social blinders, the Flobots, and how wonderful boardgames are.

Just Vivian this week, dropping in to just do a quick thank you for listening and contributing and talking, and to encourage you to take breaks during this period, whether your celebrating Christmas or not! Aled unfortunately has Covid, and is quite ill. If you could send him your get well soon wishes, I’m sure he’d appreciate it! But obviously, his health comes before the pod, but we should be back in two weeks or more with a finale episode!

This week, Vivian Asimos and Aled Thomas talk about the slow downfall of twitter as it happens before our very eyes. We chat about what it means to have freedom of speech, the reality of echo chambers, and how the movement of people online mimics the movement of people in religion.

In today’s episode, Aled Thomas and Vivian Asimos battle through plumber interruptions to talk about the role of Homelander in Amazon’s The Boys. We talk about the origins of the term ‘cliffhanger ending’, Christian nationalism in the United States, and why Vivian hates long television shows. Apologies for any oddities in this recording… it was a day!

This week, Vivian Asimos and Aled Thomas talk about Klaus’s cult in season two of the Umbrella Academy on Netflix. We use it as a fun basis to then jump around sociological analyses of new religious movements, including Max Weber’s typology of charisma. We talk about the charisma of political leaders and religious leaders, how charisma changes, and what may have altered in the world between Max Weber’s ideas and our podcast. We also talk about nineties lyrics and the differences - or lack thereof - between structural anthropology and post-structural anthropology.

In this episode, Aled Thomas and Vivian Asimos round out Spooky Season with Vivian’s favourite autumnal movie/show: Over the Garden Wall. There are spoilers, so if you want to watch it fresh, please do! In this episode, we talk about the nature of purgatory, the aesthetics of nostalgia, and the role of a psychopomp.

This week, Aled Thomas and Vivian Asimos chat about the famous musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Once More With Feeling”. We chat about the Christian influence on the ideas of Heaven and Hell in the Buffy verse, and how Spike is one of the best vampires. We also chat about the overall themes of communication, of speaking one’s heart, and it’s impact on the formation and relationship of society and culture, and the ever-present argument between free will and determinism in all of Buffy’s episodes - but most notably in the musical episode. Hopefully you’ll say you’re happy with this episode, once more with feeling.

This week, Vivian Asimos and Aled Thomas are joined by pop culture writer and cosplay expert Holly Swinyard. We chat about all things interesting about cosplay, including aspects of costuming vs buying, the connection between fiction and cosplayer identity, and the transformative nature of cosplay.

This week, in an episode recorded live from the British Association for the Study of Religion Conference, Vivian Asimos and Aled Thomas are joined by Paul-Francois Tremlett who has a passion for board games. We chat about board game nostalgia, the collective fervour of playing games, and how to teach religion through the power of play.

Netflix’s new show How to Build a Sex Room attempts to de-stigmatise sex in United States culture through the interior design services being offered to a sex room. In this episode, Vivian Asimos and Aled Thomas talk about How to Build a Sex Room, and it’s Durkheimian use of language of sex as something sex aside and special. We talk about religion as sacred vs profane, and where sex fits into this dichotomy. We talk about how United States and United Kingdom culture privatises sex while also, paradigmatically, making sex so inherently part of every part of our everyday experience.

This week, Aled and Vivian talk about Green Day’s album American Idiot, and in particular the figure of the Jesus of Suburbia. We talk about protest music, American nationalist myths, the connections between religion and politics, and how graffiti is the holy scripture of the shopping mall.

This week, Vivian Asimos and Aled Thomas delve into country singer Orville Peck. We talk about the different types of country music, and how hiding your identity can also be a way of being authentic about your identity. We talk about the performance of music and the comfort of the LGBT+ community. We also talk about mythology, and the creation of a cowboy mythology, and the shifting of this typically hetero-white mythology to support a marginalised community.

This week, Aled Thomas and Vivian Asimos return to Star Trek for an episode breakdown. This time, it’s the Original Series, season 2, episode 2 called “Who Mourns for Adonis?” And ooo boy is there loads to unpack in this one. We talk about E.B Tylor and his idea of religion and myth and the impact this has on popular conceptions of religion. We also talk about the World Religions Paradigm, and how this erases so many wonderful religions which exist. And Vivian tries really hard to not go on a feminist rampage about the representation of women.

Vivian and Aled return to the world of pilgrimage once again, following Vivian’s attendance at MCM Comic Con in London. After a bit of a roundabout start, we dig into the notion of the fan convention as pilgrimage, following many conversations and interactions Vivian’s had while doing fieldwork. We talk about the notion of the convention as home, and how that relates to conceptions of the travel involved in pilgrimage. We also talk about the idea of landscape, and the changing conception of the notion of place when it comes to the convention hall.

With the release of the 2021 film Dune, a conversation about Dune’s depiction of religion and it’s connection to Islam has been re-ignited. For this episode, Vivian Asimos and Aled Thomas want to dig into the depictions of Islam in Dune, especially following scriptwriter John Spaihts comment about Islam in the current day versus when Frank Herbert wrote his book in the 1960s. We talk about Islamic history, and how Islam’s history means that Islam also has a future. We discuss the notion of Jihad in Islam, as well as Talal Asad’s conception of Islam as a “discursive tradition”.

This episode, Vivian Asimos and Aled Thomas discuss the pitfalls, trials and tribulations of crafting religion in fictional worlds - whatever that means. We talk about how religion is sometimes crafted in books, movies, role-playing games, and other forms of pop culture in un-realistic ways. We talk about the difference between “institutional” religion and lived religion, what “folk” religion means, what vernacular religion means, and the incredible importance of the experience, relationships and interactions of everyday people. Religion is about way more than just belief or doctrine - if you’re thinking about creating a religion for your book or next role-playing game, we hope this episode gives you some lovely things to think about!

In this episode, Vivian Asimos and Aled Thomas talk about Pixar’s Turning Red, and the complicated conception of pilgrimage. Using Mei’s family temple as a jumping off point, Vivian and Aled talk about religious tourism, religion and capitalism, and complicating the idea of the tourist. What makes a pilgrim different than a tourist? What types of pilgrimage are there, and how is pilgrimage acted? How does money and commodification play into these definitions and distinctions?

The Religion and Popular Culture Podcast is back with Season 3! Anthropologist Vivian Asimos joins once again with Sociologist Aled Thomas to discuss Netflix’s Love is Blind season 2, specifically the relationship between Kyle and Shaina. This relationship was filled with conversations about religion: what it means to be religious or “Godly”, how people of different religious understandings can be married, and what it means to be secular. In this episode, Vivian and Aled dissect Kyle and Shaina’s relationship, talking about secularisation, how religion impacts everything in our life, and how Shaina’s conversations revealed a lot about her understanding of family and gender.

We’re coming back to your ears on May 12, and Aled Thomas and Vivian Asimos were just too excited to keep it from you. The Religion and Popular Culture Podcast, where we talk about religion, popular culture and everything in between, is back again with season three. Anthropologist of religion Vivian Asimos and sociologist of religion Aled Thomas are going to be dishing on all things study of religion and all the regular media and pop culture we consume every day.

Today, we reflect on the episodes we’ve gone over in season two. We not only talk about the huge variety of episode topics we’ve covered, but also trace the different analytic threads running through them all. Despite such wide-ranging topics, there are many different elements that can be seen throughout the episodes. We also give a little bit of a sneak-preview for what’s coming up in Season 3, and when to expect that to drop.