Invasion of the Copy Snatchers: Small Town Slop and the Limits of ‘Support Local’
You walk the streets of your small town. You look around in shop windows, and you see the same store owners. The same reliable patrons. The same smiles. But something is off. Something is wrong. Some kind of vibrancy has been replaced. What lingers here is, somehow, no longer human. Something alien has emerged instead,…
“Running out of time” in the economic horrors of Obsession
Fall is officially here, and with it is the start of Spooky Season. For me, that means reveling in horror movies as many nights as I can for the next month and a half. This year has already been great breakout horror movies, and arguably none has entered the zeitgeist more than Curry Baker’s Obsession. …
What’s in a word? Apple’s “Health Sensing System” and the production of sensible bodies
Recently, Apple announced its Apple Watch Series 12 device, which will come with a “Health Sensing System.” The Watch is set to go on sale today. This new version of the Watch increases the amount of sensors on the underbelly of the device, adding more (and updated) eletrical and optical sensors. As I’m writing this,…
Hitting Yourself in the Head With a Hammer: Observations on Dumb AI Use
Author: James Gilmore, Associate Professor, Clemson University (jngilmo@clemson.edu) Maybe this will be the start of a new series? One of the logics I see people who are into AI talk about it is the “tool ideology” – it’s “just a tool,” and it’s “about how humans use the tool.” Sometimes you see comparisons between hammers…
New Research: podcasting and the infrastructural politics of Google data centers
Yesterday, I had a new article published in Critical Studies in Media Communication called “‘You can actually feel the machines processing: podcasting and the infrastructural politics of Google data centers.” This article was a collaboration with my graduate student Kamila Eshalieva, who just graduated from our program and is starting another Masters degree at Arizona…
The Best Movies of 2025
There’s no way to sugarcoat this: I loved a lot of the movies I was able to see from 2025. The movies on this list represent efforts at capturing the complexity of the present conjuncture, as well as representing complicated human emotions and experiences through sometimes absurd, sometimes tragic stories. They all resonated deeply with…
Culture Critically Ep 04: Hypertension and Apple Watch
In this guestless episode, James breaks down Apple’s recent announcement about a hypertension detector in newer Apple Watch models and how it’s part of the company’s broader push into health monitoring data. Find James around the Internet @JamesNGilmore and at jamesngilmore.com Direct link to mp3 here
Culture Critically Ep 03: Crisis Communication w/ Dr. Andrew Pyle
In this episode, Dr. Andrew Pyle joins the pod to talk about why crisis communication research is important and the challenges it faces in the current social media ecosystem. Find us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Direct link to episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2526001/episodes/17789562-episode-03-crisis-communication-w-dr-andrew-pyle.mp3?download=true If you want to connect with Andrew, find him here: https://bsky.app/profile/aspyle.bsky.social Connect with host James…
Culture Critically ep 02: “Social media research w/ Brandon Boatwright”
In this episode, Dr. Brandon Boatwright joins the pod to talk about why people research social media, how social media has changed over the last twenty years, and the ways social media is manipulated and manipulative. Find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Direct link to the episode mp3: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2526001/episodes/17709151-episode-02-social-media-research-w-brandon-boatwright.mp3?download=true If you want to connect…
Culture Critically ep 01: “…And we’re back!”
We’re relaunching the Culture Critically podcast! This quick intro episode welcomes listeners back to the show as we gear up to feature guests and discussion in the weeks ahead.
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