In a first, the forty-eighth episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast finds friend of the podcast Joan Miller (@a_wild_acafan) joining Christopher Olson and myself to discuss the importance of the grand-daddy fan convention, San Diego Comic Con.

In this episode, the trio discuss how SDCC came to be the pop cultural juggernaut that it is today, tracing its history from beginning to boom period. In doing so, they also discuss its importance to our modern understandings of both fandom and how Hollywood operates. The good, the bad, and the ugly of SDCC, and other fan cons, are brought up to give a thorough and hopefully somewhat objective appraisal of the state of pop culture conventions in the 21st century.

Primary editing on the episode was done by Jean-Michel Berthiaume, and end song comes from Ookla the Mok.

As always, you are encouraged to become a part of this conversation by visiting any of the podcast’s social media sites. You can also talk with Christopher Olson on Twitter (@chrstphrolson) and at his academic blog seemsobvioustome.wordpress.com. And you can talk to CarrieLynn Reinhard on Twitter (@mediaoracle) and at her website www.playingwithresearch.com.