Pop DNA

Rhonda Watts and Erin O'Loughlin

Pop DNA traces the roots of your favorite pop culture works. We're Erin and Rhonda, and we are big old nerds. We love dissecting our favorite movies, TV shows, and more, and we're really into how literature, history, and culture have impacted the works we consume. We explore connections across mediums, from the classic novels we see reflected in our favorite horror movies, to the politics in superhero franchises, to the influence of Shakespeare in, like, literally everything. There are also bad jokes. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram!

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Pop DNA

Episodes (207)

Mar 30th The Lord of the Rings (Revisited): A MODieval Middle Earth
Mar 9th The Lord of the Rings (Revisited): Let's Do a Medievalism
Feb 23rd The Lord of the Rings (Revisited): At Home in the Shire

Pop DNA

Mar 30, 2026
1½ hours
57 MB

The Medieval Revival of the 1960s and '70s coincided and communicated closely with the LOTR books' surge in popularity at that time. Hippies and other sects of 1960s counterculture adopted the Shire and the Hobbits as their own, and produced expressions of art and culture that Tolkien was really kind of a curmudgeon about. In this episode we explore how medievalism (or MODievalism) permeated 1960s pop culture, in art, literature, media, and fashion. We also look at how different versions of Middle Earth were envisioned by various artists, from those influenced by...

Pop DNA

The Lord of the Rings (Revisited): A MODieval Middle Earth

Rhonda Watts and Erin O'Loughlin

00:00 -01:02:35