The Social Breakdown

We're returning to our first Christmas with you all with this re-release! Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, it's hard to avoid it. Not only is it a day of celebration for Christian religions, but it has become commercialized and commodified for the sake of consumption and capitalism. Christmas also has a strong culture associated with it, full of rituals and traditions--from decorating the tree to gift-giving to singing in groups in front of people's houses. Join us this week as we discuss these rituals, and get some tips from our amazing sociology gift guide!

Me Before You? The Fault in Our Stars? Chicken Soup for the Soul? Popular culture representations of disability and the disabled community have shown us the dramatic sides of the disability status. How can we better understand disability? Guest star future-Dr. Hillary Steinberg joins us today to talk about the sociology of disability as well as her working in a children's hospital. We outline the three conceptual models of disability, critique the popular culture and disability porn representations, and untangle labels such as 'neurodivergent' and 'differently abled'. Join us to learn more about a field of sociology that isn't often talked about!

The music industry is a fascinating setting to understand the power of pop culture AND political economy. (Yup, like that Karl Marx kinda of political economy!) So Dr. David Arditi joins us to explore how power and institutions influence the music we listen to, and the art that musicians create. We discuss self-censorship, Soundcloud, commercialization, Bhad Bhabie, and more! Tune in here, and go check out Dr. Arditi's book 'Getting Signed: Record Contracts, Musicians, and Power in Society'!

Are you a newly minted or almost PhD graduate? Have academic job prospects been stressing you out? Look no further - we may have the solution for you! The academic job market isn't looking too hot right now, so here we are with a PhD's Guide to getting a non-academic job! We draw from our personal experiences of navigating the non-academic job market and give you all the practical deets on what search terms to use, what job sites to scour, how to revamp your CV into a resume that's not 15 pages long, and much more!! Tune in to see if there's a non-academic job in your future!

The way neighborhoods are transformed as investors, capital, and newcomers arrive cannot be understood without talking about cafes, lattes, food security, avocado toast, and race. Dr. Alison Alkon and Dr. Joshua Sbicca join us this week to discuss how food is both a gentrifying force and has been gentrified itself. The conversation was initiated by a new edited volume by our guests (and Dr. Yuki Kato who could not make it) titled, A Recipe for Gentrification! Tune in to learn more about how neighborhood foodscapes change, and how these changes warrant sociological analysis. All you food and environmental justice peeps, this one's for you!

The Social Breakdown Team has been busy the last several weeks and we were able to get a guest interview with Hawai'i Deputy Public Defender Jacquie Esser. Esser recently ran for State Prosecutor and continues to be a key player in the struggle to bring fundamental change to the criminal legal system in Hawai'i and throughout the nation. As we head into the final moments of one of the most important presidential elections in recent memory, the stakes could not be higher in understanding the future impacts of deinstitutionalization, police, and criminalization in U.S. society.

Over the past three years, those of us in higher education have become more and more aware of the role politics play in academia. And on July 6th 2020, things came to a head when the Department of Homeland Security announced that international students who take only online courses in Fall 2020 were required to transfer schools, find in-person classes to take, or leave the country. Roughly a week later, DHS rescinded the order. So, we have our friend and colleague, Nathalie Rita, with us to discuss the role of politics in the academy, the role of the academy in politics, and the precarity of international students in the United States. Tune in to listen to our special pre-election episode, and please GO VOTE!

We're continuing our trek into the world of politics and spectacles a la Murray Edelman this week in preparation for the upcoming election. We review what Edelman means when he says, "politics is a spectacle," and how spectacles can lead us to vote against our own interests. Why is it that people targeted by Trump's policies voted for him in 2016, and may still vote for him in 2020? How do politicians carefully craft (or impulsively create) spectacles that serve their own good? Tune in here to learn more, and be sure to go out and VOTE!

It's election season! So, we've got a rerelease for you all of an episode from May 2020 about politics, politics, politics! This week we're going to explore politics using a Symbolic Interactionist lens and the fantastic work of Dr. Murray Edelman to make sense of what's going on in our state and federal governments every day. Is politics an earnest attempt at changing our society for the good? Is it just a spectacle meant to distract us? Or maybe somewhere in between? Tune in here to learn more, VOTE, and stay healthy out there!

We've talked about femininity, feminism, and feminist criminology, but we have yet to tackle masculinity! So, we have a fabulous guest, Dr. Dan Cassino, a professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, with us this episode to explain what hegemonic masculinity is, how there are masculinities (plural!), and how they manifest themselves in our society. Join us for a timely discussion about what it means to be a "man" today, and how masculinity has influenced and continues to influence our politics today.