To Pimp A Butterfly | E4: Alright

To Pimp A Butterfly | E4: Alright

Author: Higher Ground July 6, 2022 Duration: 50:40
The real story behind the defining protest song of our age, and how Kendrick grappled with the post-Ferguson moment. TRANSCRIPT: HERE CREDITS: Host, Writer: Alex Pappademas Showrunner: Colin McNulty Producers: Taylor Jones and Sabrina Fang Production Assistant: Stella Hartmann Composer, Sound Designer, Mix Engineer: Alex MacInnis Theme Song: Dan Leone Fact Checker: Savannah Wright Archival Audio Provider - Joshua Mellin Executive Producer for Western Sound: Ben Adair Executive Producers for Higher Ground: Dan Fierman, Anna Holmes, Mukta Mohan, Janae Marable  Editorial Assistant for Higher Ground: Jenna Levin Executive Producers for Spotify: Daniel Ek, Dawn Ostroff, Julie McNamara and Corinne Gilliard  Special Thanks: Joe Paulsen and Eric Spiegelman See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hosted by journalist Alex Pappademas and presented by Higher Ground, The Big Hit Show digs deep into the phenomenon of cultural juggernauts. Each season of this podcast focuses on a single, earth-shaking piece of entertainment-a film, a series, an album, or a book-that transcended its medium to reshape the landscape around it. Pappademas guides listeners through a meticulously researched narrative, tracing the often improbable origins of these works, the chaotic and human process of bringing them to life, and the fascinating, sometimes unexpected ways audiences adopt and reinterpret them. You’ll hear from creators, critics, and fans, piecing together how a hit moves from a creative spark to a shared global experience. It’s less about simple nostalgia and more about understanding the complex alchemy of timing, talent, and cultural appetite that allows a story or a song to capture a moment so completely. Tune in for a thoughtful exploration that spans genres and generations, examining not just what we love, but how that love, on a massive scale, can ultimately change us.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 25

The Big Hit Show
Podcast Episodes
Fulfillingness’ First Finale, from The Wonder of Stevie [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:14
Hey Big Hit Show fans. We’re sharing a preview of a new podcast from Higher Ground called The Wonder of Stevie. It's hosted by Wesley Morris and this episode features Alex Pappademas. Host Wesley Morris is taking you on…
Pokémon | E5: Evolution [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:00
The battle is over, and Pokémon has won. Almost twenty-five years after it arrived on these shores, Pokémon hasn’t just survived— it’s become the kind of pop-cultural phenomenon that parents share with their kids. But wh…
Pokémon | E4: Sparkly Cardboard [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:32
Thanks to nostalgic fans and influential new collectors, the value of vintage Pokémon trading cards is through the roof. But you don’t have to find and flip a million-dollar Charizard to have your life changed by Pokémon…
Pokémon | E3: Satanic Consumption [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:59
At the end of the ‘90s, after blowing up in Japan, Pokémon came to America. And it became so ubiquitous so fast that critics saw it as a plot to turn U.S. children into hypnotized consumers— or even devil-worshippers. Bu…
Pokémon | E2: Red Versus Blue [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:30
In which a red-hot video game company crashes and burns, with a little help from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The decline of Atari paved the way for a gaming renaissance— think Donkey Kong, Mario and eventually Pikachu. B…
Pokémon | E1: Get Outside [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:46
There are big hits, and there are really big hits— and then there’s Pokémon, a kids’ game from Japan that evolved into the biggest multimedia entertainment franchise of all time. In this episode we’re time-traveling from…
Season 4: Pokémon [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:02
The Big Hit Show Season 4 debuts on August 17th. How did a Japanese video game from the 1990’s become the single highest grossing franchise in history - bigger than Star Wars and Harry Potter combined? This season on The…
Fight Club | E5: The Blueprint [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:04
“Masculinity is a lot like Fight Club. The first rule is that you don't talk about it.” In this episode, we’re breaking that rule, examining what Fight Club has to say about the emotional lives of men, the links between…
Fight Club | E4: DVD Extras [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:16
There were two verdicts on Fight Club: the opening-weekend box office numbers (spoiler alert: yikes) and the judgment of history. We’ll look at how Fight Club channeled the anti-consumerist politics of its moment, and ex…
Fight Club | E3: A Smoking Baby [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:03
Seriously, though— how did a movie as unashamedly anti-capitalist and absurdly homoerotic as Fight Club get made by a major studio, let alone a studio owned by Rupert Murdoch? In this episode, an unlikely piece of materi…