Beam me up, Scotty! Pop culture references in literature

Last week between segments we ended up talking about whether you should use pop culture references in your work. There’s a slew of reasons not to and we’ll get into that. But suffice it to say that most MFA programs and literary types will tell you a pop culture reference dates your work and may not be relatable for all readers. So using them is risky at best and against the rules at worst.