Popcorn Disabilities: The highs and lows of disabled representation in the movies

Welcome to SEASON FIVE of Braaaaains!! WHA WHA??? We're kicking things off with the fantastic Kristen Lopez, who is a freelance pop culture journalist and the author of two books: But Have You Read the Book: 52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films, published by TCM and Running Press in 2023, and Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies published by Bloomsbury Academic, which we'll be talking about today!

As a film critic and disabled person, Kristen Lopez speaks with particular authority on how disability is represented-and too often misrepresented-in movies. Popcorn Disabilities is her impassioned, yet fun and engaging, survey of how Hollywood has dealt with disability over the last century. Over the course of this episode, we talk about little-remembered gems like Tod Browning's Freaks, one of the earliest well-intentioned attempts to show disabled characters as complex, three-dimensional human beings, to a slew of contemporary films, all of which have the power to enlighten, influence, and be used as a tool for social good.  

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