Episodes Witch, Please

~ This episode contains some spoilers about The X Files ~This week we dive into beloved television series, The X Files (1993-2002), with Leigh Dyrda! Leigh (she/her) is an academic whose research interests include EcoGothic, a field that probes the eerie overlap of ecocriticism and Gothic. We figured Leigh would be a perfect guest to dig into this show about alien-human hybrids, monsters that defy taxonomical definition, and cancers courtesy of government microchips.In our first segment, Marcelle explains the show was distinctly of its time. She considers its popularity in relation to the backdrop of Clinton era politics, post-Watergate government distrust, television viewing practices of the 90s and the early days of the internet. She then leads Leigh and Hannah through some theory. Drawing on Charles Soukup's 2002 article, Television Viewing as Vicarious Resistance: The X-Files and Conspiracy Discourse, Marcelle examines the way the show's mytharc and monster-of-the week narratives allowed audiences to