If you've listened to an episode of ICONography where any films come up, it probably won't surprise you to know that I am passionate about the craft of film criticism. I spent years, prior to the start of ICONography, hosting a film review podcast and writing film reviews, and as much time as I dedicated to that, I dedicated way more time to gobbling all the film criticism I could. In whatever form it came in - newspaper, magazine, blog, vlog, podcast feed. My first two podcast subscriptions were Filmspotting and Pop Culture Happy Hour.

So yeah, critics are great. Criticism is great. Even when - especially when - it's critical, when it dives past being a recommendation engine and really digs into the juicy stuff that goes beyond "good" or "bad."

So it gives me great honor to point you to a new review of ICONography from one of the most prominent voices in the outstanding and growing universe of podcast criticism, Elena Fernandez-Collins. In their review, Fernandez-Collins highlights the mirror episodes from early in Season 1, John Smith: Admiral of New England and Squanto.

'John Smith, Admiral of New England' contains the incisive statement woven throughout all of the podcast: “History is collective memory, and memory is not fact.” And Gustine never shies away from clearly stating that Smith’s work in what he called 'New England; were works of destruction. Every city and country name bestowed onto a map by Smith, every instance of claiming 'founding' of New England, was part of building the colonizer myth of settling peacefully into an empty, blank slate of a land.

I am Gustine! How crazy is that?!

Head one over to Elena's website to check out the full review, which is so thorough it includes a Works Cited section (yes please!), and while you're there, check out all the work they're doing, especially in the realm of fiction podcasts.