Strange Days, Here We Come: Pop Culture, Dystopia & Collapse

V FOR VENDETTA, Black Lives Matter, and the Dangers of Book Banning

(Note: This episode was originally released under the old podcast title "This is the End: Pop Culture & Collapse." As of July 2025 the show is now titled, "Strange Days, Here We Come: Pop Culture, Dystopia & Collapse.")In this episode, we talk to Muncie Central High School English teacher Katey O'Connor about teaching V FOR VENDETTA and how her students practiced civil disobedience when their class projects, which drew parallels between the book and real-life issues, were censored. We also discuss the wave of book banning and the hysteria over race, gender, and sexuality that's sweeping schools across the U.S. 
NOTE: In our opinion, there are no spoilers for 'V for Vendetta' in this episode. But out of an abundance of caution, here are 3 time marks where something is mentioned that *might* be perceived as micro-spoilers:
9:56 - 10:06
10:21 - 10:30
10:50 - 10:56
Even if you have only seen the 2005 film, there are absolutely no new spoilers for the book (or vice versa). 
 
LINKS:"School removes student project about fascism after cops complain"
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3abqp8/muncie-school-removes-student-project-about-fascism-after-cops-complain
 
"Police in schools continue to target Black, Brown, and Indigenous students with disabilities. The Trump administration has data that's likely to prove it."
https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/police-in-schools-continue-to-target-black-brown-and-indigenous-students-with-disabilities-the-trump-administration-has-data-thats-likely-to-prove-it/
 
"Conservatives are just openly endorsing book burning now"
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/11/virginia-school-board-book-burning
 
"Texas House committee to investigate school districts' books on race and sexuality"
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/26/texas-school-books-race-sexuality/
"Let's talk about Muncie Central High and V for Vendetta..." by Beau of the Fifth Column (YouTube video mentioned by Katey O'Connor)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrHxTU-k47M&t=229s
 
Leah Moore's tweet about Alan Moore's statement
https://twitter.com/leahmoore/status/1462425010816040963
 
Student Voices (Muncie Central High School student activism page)https://www.facebook.com/MuncieStudentVoices/
Muncie students' BLM t-shirt fundraiser on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1617898138587004&id=100011005005621
 
Muncie students' BLM t-shirt fundraiser on Twitter
https://twitter.com/MrsBoudreau/status/1462645762404323329
(Or make a donation to Elayna Justice on Venmo at @elaynajustice )
 
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
http://cbldf.org/
 
"I understood the assignment" TikTok compilation (mentioned by Katey O'Connor)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Gy6yA1bvI
 
Katey O'Connor on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/katey.oconnor.3
 
Katey O'Connor on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/OConnorKatey
 
Support our Patreon
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FOUNDATION, Deep Adaptation, Doomerism, and Real-Life Hari Seldons

(Note: This episode was originally released under the old podcast title "This is the End: Pop Culture & Collapse." As of July 2025 the show is now titled, "Strange Days, Here We Come: Pop Culture, Dystopia & Collapse.")Content Warnings: Extreme climate change, Ecological/societal collapse, Natural disasters, Hurricanes (loss of shelter, power), Past personal crises
 
Spoiler Warning: FOUNDATION S1 E1, “The Emperor’s Peace” (No spoilers before the 2:00 time mark and after the 6:00 time mark)
 
LINKS
 
Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos (the best single source to understand Deep Adaptation)
https://amzn.to/3qEJidu
 
"Deep adaptation: A map for navigating climate tragedy" (the paper mentioned in this episode)
https://www.lifeworth.com/deepadaptation.pdf
 
Article criticizing the Deep Adaptation paper & movement
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/faulty-science-doomism-and-flawed-conclusions-deep-adaptation/
 
Professor Jem Bendell’s response to the article above
https://jembendell.com/2020/07/15/letter-to-deep-adaptation-advocate-volunteers-about-misrepresentations-of-the-agenda-and-movement/
 
“To criticize Deep Adaptation, start here”
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/criticise-deep-adaptation-start-here/
 
Prof. Bendell’s general response to overall criticism
https://jembendell.com/2020/02/27/the-worst-argument-to-try-to-win-response-to-criticism-of-the-climate-science-in-deep-adaptation/
 
How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference, by Dr. Rebecca Huntley
https://amzn.to/3cuCo2i
 
"Does hope inspire more action on climate action than fear? We don't know"
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/12/5/16732772/emotion-climate-change-communication
 
“Does anticipating the possibility of collapse motivate prosocial behaviors?”
http://iflas.blogspot.com/2020/06/does-anticipating-societal-collapse.html
“Climate science and collapse: Warnings lost in the wind”
https://jembendell.com/2020/06/15/climate-science-and-collapse-warnings-lost-in-the-wind/
 
International Scholars Warning on Societal Disruption & Collapse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0frHoqXLB0&list=WL&index=93
 
Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet by Dr. Tom Murphy
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9js5291m
 
Do the Math (Dr. Tom Murphy’s blog)
https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/
 
"Society could collapse in a decade, predicts math historian" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/peter-turchin-cliodynamics-society-collapse_n_586f1e22e4b02b5f85882988
 
Ages of Discord: A Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History, by Dr. Peter Turchin
https://amzn.to/3HFODre
 
Curated playlist of all podcasts/interviews mentioned in episode
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1c8KrxJi9hTDLzWHPdyvlF?si=a111ffcd6d7546a0
 
Support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/popmythology
 

DUNE, Water Scarcity, and Saving Our Planet Arrakis

(Note: This episode was originally released under the old podcast title "This is the End: Pop Culture & Collapse." As of July 2025 the show is now titled, "Strange Days, Here We Come: Pop Culture, Dystopia & Collapse.")In this episode, we use DUNE to springboard into a discussion about the growing crisis of water scarcity in the face of climate change and what we can do about it. 
  LINKS:
All of Earth's water in a single spherehttps://www.usgs.gov/media/images/all-earths-water-a-single-sphere
Mapping the strain on our waterhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/08/06/mapping-strain-our-water/
10 violent water conflictshttps://reliefweb.int/report/world/editor-s-pick-10-violent-water-conflicts
Interstate water wars are heating up with the climatehttps://theconversation.com/interstate-water-wars-are-heating-up-along-with-the-climate-159092
Collapse by Jared Diamondhttps://amzn.to/3bUlREz
This Mayan city died out after poisoning its own water. Our cities could be next.https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-death-knell-for-mayan-city-inadvertently-poisoned-its-own-water-supply-1.8953324
The End of Abundance by David Zetlandhttps://amzn.to/3C06aGr
What About Water? with Jay Famigliettihttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-about-water-with-jay-famiglietti/id1485919205
 

Episode Zero: Personal Collapse & Societal Collapse

(Note: This episode was originally released under the old podcast title "This is the End: Pop Culture & Collapse." As of July 2025 the show is now titled, "Strange Days, Here We Come: Pop Culture, Dystopia & Collapse.")This "episode zero" describes what this podcast will be about and its origin story. It also clarifies certain terminology and concepts that are often used vaguely and misunderstood.LINKS:
How do you know when a society is about to fall apart? - NY Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/magazine/societal-collapse.html
Are we on the road to civilization collapse? - BBChttps://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190218-are-we-on-the-road-to-civilisation-collapse
 
Society is right on track for a global collapse, new study of 1970s report finds - Live Sciencehttps://www.livescience.com/collapse-human-society-limits-to-growth.html 
Are we witnessing the fall of the United States? - The Weekhttps://theweek.com/articles/958509/are-witnessing-fall-united-states 
Interview with John Michael Greer - Breaking Down: Collapse (podcast)https://collapsepod.buzzsprout.com/1403161/7916929-episode-22-interview-with-john-michael-greer
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