Chris Richardson: Batman and the Joker

Chris Richardson discusses his book Batman and the Joker: Contested Sexuality in Popular Culture with Diana Richards. Richardson is (usually) the host of This Is Not A Pipe podcast. He is also Associate Professor and Chair of the Communication Studies Department and Program Coordinator for Popular Culture at Young Harris College.

He grew up in Toronto, ON, where he studied Journalism and Cultural Studies before earning his PhD in Media Studies from Western University. He has previously published Habitus of the Hood (2012), Covering Canadian Crime (2017), and Violence in American Society: An Encyclopedia of Trends, Problems and Perspectives (2020). He is now a recluse living in the Blue Ridge Mountains with his partner and their adopted dogs.

Diana Richards is a Trans Woman who has enjoyed the privilege of living full-time in her preferred gender since January of 2020. She is also a life-long reader and collector of comic books. In 2017, she donated her collection of some 8,000 books--many dating back to when she first bought them in the early 1960s and 70s--to Young Harris College. It is from this connection that she and Chris became friends, and she is thrilled to have had this conversation with him and now to share it with others...Excelsior!