Karen Tongson is the author of the forthcoming NORMPORN: Queer Viewers and the TV That Soothes Us (November 2023), as well as Why Karen Carpenter Matters (2019), and Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries (2011). She received Lambda Literary’s Jeanne Córdova Award for Lesbian/Queer Nonfiction for her body of writing in 2019. She is Chair of gender & sexuality studies, and Professor of English and American studies & ethnicity at USC, where she also directs the Mellon-funded Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture. Tongson is co-editor of the award-winning book series, Postmillennial Pop with Henry Jenkins at NYU Press. Her writing and cultural commentary have recently appeared in Slate, NPR, The Los Angeles Review of Books, PBS NewsHour, The Los Angeles Times, The AV Club, Entertainment Weekly, and KCRW’s Good Food among other venues. She co-hosts the GenX-themed podcast Waiting to X-Hale with Wynter Mitchell-Rohrbaugh, as well as The Gaymazing Race (a queer podcast about The Amazing Race) with Nicole J. Georges.