Karen Tongson on the Pleasures of Pop Culture

What can popular music teach us about migration and cultural change? How can pleasure and joy help us redefine what it means to be a “serious” intellectual?  What might be stimulating or even transformative about the sprawl of Southern California?

In episode 52 of the Imagine Otherwise Podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews podcaster and professor Karen Tongson about music and its relationship to place, the migratory and melodic flows between Manila and Los Angeles, how the Spice Girls can help us understand Adorno and Horkheimer, and the queer and transnational inspiration that Karen draws from her namesake, Karen Carpenter.

Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/52-karen-tongson