EPISODE 1022: CYNTHIA NIXON SUMMER
Also, the sound of a ghost whistling while aliens steal your DNA.
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
Hi and welcome back to Pop Culture Spirit Wow, the pop culture newsletter that believes it doesn’t matter what the pundits call it, Summer 2025 is Cynthia Nixon Summer. The wonderful stage and screen actress is currently starring in both The Gilded Age and the Sex and the City sequel …And Just Like That, both on HBO Max. And while both her characters seem to be quietly losing their minds—Aunt Ada, just take a drink, for everyone’s sake!—Nixon herself is crushing it.
Meanwhile’s there lots of other pop culture-y things going on, too. Let’s get into it!
THE WOWND UP
The new Superman film is doing gangbusters business, and it seems pretty clear the reason for its immediate success is this guy.
Writer/director James Gunn has revealed that the idea of having Krypto the Superdog in the film was the thing that finally broke open the script for him. Krypto first appeared in the comics in 1955, after Superman had been around for a while. And his origins are kind of wild: he, too, was launched in a rocket from Krypton—but years earlier than baby Kal El. He was actually sent into space as an early test of the rocket idea. In other words, he’s basically Krypton’s Laika.
He’s also adorable as all get out. Too bad he gets killed in the end. :(
Meanwhile, New York City is supposedly seeing an uptick in lightning bugs because of all the heat and humidity, and everyone is talking about it. They all mention the same things—why it’s happening, how lightning bugs glow in the first place, how it’s a mating ritual (and also how sometimes the females respond positively just so that the male bugs will fly closer, and then the women eat them). But first prize goes to this piece, which includes a series of not real, probably-AI photos like this one that make it seem like our lawns are basically covered in lightning bugs.
I call it, “Tell Me You’ve Never Seen a Lightning Bug Before without Telling Me”.
And in Washington, the current administration is responding to complaints that it foolishly gutted its entire weather analysis and prediction department by insisting they’ve replaced the hundreds of employees it’s fired with an extraordinarily-talented guy called Noah.
Sounds like it’s all going to be fine.
PLEASE DON’T TAKE OUR UBERMENSCH AWAY
While people seem to be flocking to see Superman, some are complaining because the film identifies Superman as an immigrant. “SuperWoke,” burped Fox News. Lois & Clark Superman and right wing knucklehead Dean Cain described the description as a “political comment,” as though writer/director James Gunn was inserting some new element into the Superman mythos.
Here’s the first page from Action Comics #1, Superman’s first appearance.
Here’s the first page from Superman #1 a year later.
He was literally sent from another planet to our world by his parents to save his life. His creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were themselves the sons of immigrants. But please, tell us more about how the Big Bad Hollywood Mogul has stolen your childhood.
Early comic book Superman also spent his time attacking corrupt politicians, evil landlords, and greedy business owners. This was the way he was identified.
Chew on that “political comment,” why don’t you?
For the film’s release, Popverse asked me to write a piece about Superman the character. I ended up exploring how Clark Kent’s awkwardness in the 1978 film made it feel okay to be socially awkward.
There really is no one like Christopher Reeve.
FLOODLIT
This week I read about a new supposed Gen Z dating activity called floodlighting, which is when people share really traumatic things with someone they’re just starting to date, so as to create a faster, stronger emotional bond with them.
Even as my first reaction is Yikes, my second is suspicion. Who came up with this term? Not a Gen Zer, I bet. The whole thing reeks of older sibling who just took a psychology course and feels like they understand people now. We get it, Millennials, you don’t approve.
In the Catholic Church, you often hear about Kairos retreats, these weekend retreats run by young people for young people. Having not gone to Catholic school, I had no idea what they involved. The first and only time I attended one, it was a weekend of kids giving talks that each turned on some enormous trauma they had been through. It definitely did move some of the other young people to share, but it also felt like a cult recruitment weekend. C’mon, share your most painful experience right here and now with total strangers. You will feel SO MUCH BETTER.
Thank you for coming to my Kairos TED Talk.
MOMENT OF WOW
Mark Snow, who composed the score for X-Files, died this week. In his honor, let’s take a minute to be haunted by that weird and bouncy theme.
It’s basically the sound of a ghost whistling while aliens have you tied down nearby and are extracting your DNA.
I had hoped to write a bit more today—I finished The Bear and wow did I have feelings. But my keyboard seems to be slowly collapsing, so I’m going to stop before it gives out entirely. Thanks for reading, everybody! Have a great week!