Watchmen Part 2: The Greenwood Massacre
Alienating the Audience
"Watchmen" kicks off with the Tulsa Race Massacre, which defines the central theme of the rest of the series: race. Hannibal Johnson is the author of “Black Wall Street 100–An American City Grapples With Its Historical Racial Trauma,” as well as the host of "Black Wall Street Remembered."
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Watchmen's Fake Psychic Squid Attack
Alienating the Audience
Brian Brushwood joins the show to discuss "Watchmen," the televised sequel to the film and book, "The Watchmen." Topics include: underlying tensions in the show, is Dr. Manhattan a stupid character, and was Ozymandias right?
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Are We Living in “Demolition Man”?
Alienating the Audience
"Demolition Man" is a cult classic, wherein Sylvester Stallone gets thawed out in the near future to stop Wesley Snipes from destroying Los Angeles. Society is bifurcated into infantilized virginal technocrats up top, and rat-eating, free-thinking punks beneath.
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If An Insane Asylum Was an Entire Planet
Alienating the Audience
In "Clans of the Alphane Moon" by Philip K. Dick, a planet is colonized as an insane asylum, then abandoned, so that its inmates develop their own society and cultures.
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Mad Max Has the Best Barbarians
Alienating the Audience
"Mad Max: Fury Road" is the height of post-apocalyptic wasteland glam--everyone is really getting into skulls, cars, and neo-Viking lore. Not to mention it may be the greatest feminist film in science fiction.
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Why "The Mandalorian" Works
Alienating the Audience
Why is "The Mandalorian" so popular with Star Wars fans, yet the latest films are so divisive? Where does it veer from the traditional beats and themes of Star Wars, and where does it embrace that unique George Lucas flavor? Jack Helmuth and Nick Sperdute join to unpack everyone's favorite bounty hunter.
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Deadly Sex Objects in The Stepford Wives
Alienating the Audience
“The Stepford Wives” (1975) is a satirical horror film about spunky urban wives getting replaced by their husbands with submissive, ornamental robots. Chris and Cristi Moody come on to talk about the unease captured by the movie in a time of gender roles tumult, 1950s conformity, Second Wave Feminism, and parallels to “Get Out.”
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Vagabonding: Two Santas for Life Day
Alienating the Audience
Nick and Heaton visit Kashyyyk to work as mall santas for Life Day on the Wooki homeworld.
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The Villainess from "Ex Machina"
Alienating the Audience
Is the robot in "Ex Machina" a self-aware entity or just a stack of cold, complex algorithms which appear such? If we knew super intelligent A.I. could curse cancer (but also wanted to kill us) would we even attempt to build it? Ashland Viscosi and Jay Mutzafi rejoin to discuss.
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The Future of Humanity Involves Gene Upgrades and Cyborgs
Alienating the Audience
Lord Martin Rees is a cosmologist, mathematician, and the Astronomer Royal of the United Kingdom. When he's not busy running the Centre for The Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University, he's authoring books on science and astrophysics. He joins the show to discuss his latest work, "On the Future: Prospects for Humanity."
info_outlineNick and Heaton visit Kashyyyk to work as mall santas for Life Day on the Wooki homeworld.
"Silent Night" care of "How it Should have Ended" on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd79mpzBnJ4