By Emma Sinai-Yunker
yunkersi@grinnell.edu
KDIC dives deep into pop culture on Tuesday evenings with Sam Brody-Boyd ’15 and his radio show, “It Came From Beneath Grinnell.” The title of the show was inspired by old monster movies that Brody-Boyd used to watch, and gives the listener a good idea of how the topic of the night tends to drag one down into the depths of analysis and interpretation surrounding pop culture. This exploration of our media today covers anything from the indie film genre to cheesy video games.
“The show is really on pop culture and movies and music and video games and the intersection of all of those things together, and my take on a lot of them. Sometimes I get pretty deep, like my discussions on the show Girls are not frivolous. I think about what are the actual gender politics going on,” Brody-Boyd said. “And then there are times when I say, ‘Guys I’m tired of arguing this with you, “Robot Rock” is the best Daft Punk song,’ and then I just play it.”
“It Came From Beneath Grinnell” melds well with many areas of study on Grinnell campus. Brody-Boyd has noticed a trend that classes will incorporate and analyze today’s media into the course work in a way that connects academia to the world outside the Grinnell bubble.
“I think it fits in well with the overall theme of Grinnell. Something Grinnell has done so well is make pop culture a part of its curriculum. You take a class and it can be so very intrinsically tied to pop culture. We can’t ignore it,” Brody-Boyd said. “It’s part of our lives as college students. What’s brilliant about Grinnell is that they bring that into the classrooms. And I think that if I can up people’s awareness of the things going on in pop culture, I get to bring all of those things together. If you broaden your awareness to anything, it increases your potential to learn new things.”
One fun thing Brody-Boyd will sometimes do on his show, because interviews with actual pop-icons can be hard to attain, is have conversations with or question people that he himself impersonates.
“I’ll do impressions. I’ll frequently do an impression of Christopher Walken. I’ll use it for when it ties in with the theme, but also sometimes when it doesn’t. It works well enough that when people listen in on the radio they think it’s funny. I have done a fake interview where I will just shift side to side in the studio with Nigel from Spinal Tap. So, I’ll do pseudo-interviews,” Brody-Boyd explained.
The overall experience has been one of enjoyment and exploration. As his first year of “It Came From Beneath Grinnell” draws to a close, the general recollection is happy.
“I couldn’t be happier on the air—I couldn’t be happier making the show. I get nothing but joy from it. Even when I’m stressed, even when I’m trying to make stuff fit, it’s still very visceral and there’s such a madness of the microphone,” Brody-Boyd said. “You feel very in control even when the pieces are completely all over the place. I love it. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
If delving into the deep dark spaces of today’s media is alluring, then “It Came From Beneath Grinnell” is the quintessential show to add to a Tuesday evening. Tune in from 5-7 p.m. to hear Brody-Boyd jump in and explore pop culture.
