Space the Nation: Recent Episodes
Space the Nation
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Ana and Dan don't turn their eyes away from the violence. They watch, stony-faced, just to prove that you can't break them. This is not as good as Fury Road, sorry. A for effort for the Hemsworth involved here and all the gold stars for young Alyla Browne, who is in the movie maybe more than Anya Taylor-Joy -- and definitely plays a bigger part than IR. There's a critique of capitalism, I guess.
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Our names are Ana and Dan and our world is fire and blood. And IR, and capitalism. This is a damn-near-perfect movie, not a scene or word wasted, though there are many of the former and very few of the latter.
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Ana and Dan had to leap so many hurdles to record this, they don't even remember the movie so much? It's like a copy of a copy of some ape that died many generations ago. I'm not even sure why anyone would have heard of Ceasar at this point. Maybe we can find someone to teach us Roman history. There's IR in this episode because Dan's good at finding it.
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Ana and Dan deliver some brand-new content! They catch up on Three-Body Problem, Dark Matter, and Fallout before checking in on the ongoing proceedings against Molly Murderkitten.
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Ana and Dan travel the world, doing good. This is a pretty good bad movie, almost entirely due to Tim Curry's completely gonzo performance as the utterly useless Herkermer Homolka (!). We liked Curry, we liked Delroy Lindo, we liked the "California Dreamin'" sing-along. There's IR in this movie and a reminder that diamonds only have invented value.
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Ana and Dan together strong! We had a touch of technical trouble with this episode so you'll be getting a Kong-sized drop of Ape-ril/May-p content this week. There's this episode, about the 2017 tri-quel, and also Congo! Monkey madness! Enjoy!
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Due to a technical error, the War of the Planet of the Apes episode is delayed but Ana and Dan couldn't get away without posting something new this week on penalty of total forfeiture of shares. So with this being the forty-fifth anniversary of Alien, we decided to re-up one of our favorite episodes about one of our favorite movies. There is IR! And a critique of capitalism!
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Ana and Dan fire up the vintage camera to take pictures with this, their latest quarry. Opening this baby up, did they find schlock or awe? Dan liked it more than Ana, but you can't deny the raw animal appeal of Charlton Heston at his Heston-est. There is IR in this movie!
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Ana and Dan digitally manipulate every single strand of their hair in post in order to talk about this strangely un-compelling movie. It has Willem Defoe, Patrick Wilson, and Jason Mamoa, yet it's hard to keep your eyes on it. There underwater IR in this film.
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Ana and Dan have never felt scared like that -- and they've never felt more alive. Our third Alex Garland or Garland-adjacent movie (after Ex Machina and 28 Days Later) prompts some grim assessments about the state of our union (not great!) and the condition of our Fourth Estate (it's not good either!). It's one of the most thought-provoking films in recent memory and we have even more to say... so we're doing a second episode about it for Patrons only and it'll be up next week. There's IR, a lot of IR, in this movie. Oh, and Ana is hyper-fixated. You can subscribe to her free, limited edition Civil War newsletter at civilwars.substack.com
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Ana and Dan get off their oblongs long enough to debate this Very Serious Book about a kind of dim Artificial Friend (ironically, a sun-worshipper!). It is also a sneak entry into our Obama or O'Bummer series, but I'm only going to put one special stamp on the cover at a time!
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Ana and Dan hack their governor modules and put down their visors to enjoy some Sanctuary Moon without dealing with humans and their annoying real-world emotions. Oh, what's that? Ana and Dan have to deal with each other. The idea was so painful I've dropped to 97 percent efficiency. This is technically part of the AI-des of March, since Murderbot is an artificial intelligence who is not a man. Can a robot be "on the spectrum"? Is terraforming as cut-throat as all that? Is there IR in this novella? I don't care.
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Dan was in Serbia this week! Enjoy this refresher course in donning your stillsuit slip-fashion.
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Ana and Dan drank the water of life... at Cosmic Coffee in Austin, TX, for our first-ever tiny desk live show. This show has a lot of ambiance (background noise) and even some audience Q&A (none of which are more like comments). We hope you love it as much as we did. Or, you know, can stand it.
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It was as if thousands of podcast listeners suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. We disappeared from Apple Podcasts, because AI. If you listen via that method, there are now literally dozen of new-to-you episodes to enjoy! Please do enjoy. If you want to avoid missing any shows, including our special episodes, consider becoming a Patron! We love you either way.
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Ana and Dan will take those noodles to go while they ponder what they'll do about that turtle on its back. The great grand-daddy of scifi noir, Blade Runner's visuals still resonate even if the script clunks more than it sings. There is IR and a critique of capitalism in this movie.
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Ana and Dan open up some Keikaku beers and ask this movie if it knows it's a movie. This gorgeous exploration of power, identity, gender, and self-awareness is a decade old but of the moment, with its sexy AI and Joe Rogan billionaire. It has IR, a critique of capitalism, and Oscar Isaac disco dancing. (This did not get posted last week; technical difficulties -- many apologies.)
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Ana and Dan accede to the superior analysis and portfolio acquisition of cats. We've been meaning to do a Scalzi book for some time -- but which one? Then the decision was taken out of our hands, because talking (typing) cats. There is IR in this book.
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Ana and Dan add some fresh motor oil to their hearts to gear up for this adventure in a post-apocalyptic science fiction gothic mutant medical horror romance set in the distantly future French Alps. Intrigued? You should be! This novel sets a high degree of difficulty for itself and... just about succeeds. Like, succeeds enough to be really interesting! There is a lot of body horror, some IR, and a wealth of critiques of capitalism.
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Ana and Dan watched a movie we did! For those unfamiliar with this off-the-radar franchise, it's a story about the adventures of wise Wookie whose sage is advice is often ignored by his lovable but misguided human friends. We hope you like it! There is IR and even a critique of capitalism.
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Ana and Dan put on their masks (the right way) and get to the script-doctoring! The Colony (2013) was so bad it birthed two new STN formats: First, we conduct a pathological exam on the movie and try to come up with ways that the patient could have been saved. Second, we sketch out Fishmas, a December-long celebration of Laurence Fishburne's scifi oeuvre. We are taking suggestions for what to cover, having already hit some highlights (Matrix, Event Horizon). There is some IR in this extremely boring movie.
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Ana and Dan ask you to notice the hum of the life-support system. If that goes silent, then you're definitely watching this movie, where someone draws attention to the hum of the life-support system so that you will notice when it goes silent. This is not a bad movie, it is a disappointing one. The wrong people sang, damnit! Also, please listen to the end because we need you all to weigh in: Is a wrap a sandwich? Oh, and yeah, there's IR in this movie.
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How's this for terror: Ana's beloved mutt got pancreatitis, thus this episode is really late. But, I did it! Here, here it is! And it's an excellent episode.
Ana and Dan haven't cut their tongues out yet, so they can use them to talk about how much they both enjoyed The Terror, one of the best TV shows ever (in Ana's opinion, Dan is not quite as enamored). Compelling performances and fascinating characters, the real terror of the show comes from the oppressive dread of the arctic environment and the unreliability of human nature. God, it's good. I'm so sorry it took me so long to post this.
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Ana and Dan decided to check out room 237, even though that wonderful cook told them not to. What could possibly go wrong? One of the most influential and well-made horror films ever made, it also... leaves something to be desired. There is some IR in this movie.
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BELTALOWDA! Ana and Dan return to their roots to discuss the first half of season three of The Expanse. IS THERE IR IN THIS SHOW? IS THERE A CRITIQUE OF CAPITALISM? Exploring The Expanse's take on these issues is why Space the Nation exists -- but we never talked about S3 on the air. Journey with us into the past for the first time.
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Ana and Dan take Netflix's money and light it on fire. This movie looks kind of cool, but why did we watch it? Blame squarely falls on Dan, the one who suggested it! The movie features notably ineffective and reckless rebel organizing, fortunately overshadowed by the poorly designed Motherland dreadnought. There's laser-resistant wood, pay-as-you-can space pirates, and an impressively cool griffin. Amidst the chaos, there's a nod to international relations (IR), and the film's very existence is a critique of capitalism.
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Ana and Dan sit down to binge Friends but get distracted by all those deer! That's so wild, so many deer just standing there! This is our second "Obama or O'Bummer" in a month, but you all really wanted us to talk about it, and we were curious ourselves. Now I wonder why we thought yet another example of prestige-bait science fiction was gonna be much different than other Obama picks! It's gorgeous and has a lot of ~ideas~ in it, but is it very satisfying? Listen and see!
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Ana and Dan stick to the script and break down the candy-colored communist dream machine "Sorry to Bother You," an unsubtle condemnation of late capitalism and wage slavery! Filled with dynamic performances and clever imagery, Boots Riley's fantastical bits may not land as hard as the uncomfortably close-to-home portrayals of microaggressions and moral compromise. This episode contains our longest Cancelvania travelogue yet; the movie contains IR.
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Ana and Dan stop their book tours to talk about Emily St. John Mandel's Sea of Tranquility for this first edition of "Obama or O'Bummer," in which we rate our former president's science fiction recommendations on a scale from one to seven almonds. Are you ready to explore the expanded MCU (Mandel Character Universe)? Check your timeline for glitches and get on board. There is some IR in this book.
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Ana and Dan gesture toward a lot of exciting stuff but don't really get into it, because it's a Marvel movie, and you don't need exciting subtexts to love the Marvels no matter what, right? What we liked: Iman Vellani (A LOT), Samuel L. Jackson's goofy performance, and the flerkens! A flight of flerkens! What we didn't like: Character motivations are muddy, the relationships among the women don't ring true, only one great fight scene (and it's when they're practicing). There is some IR in this movie!
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Ana and Dan give thanks for the science fiction and genre efforts that they're glad they got to consume in 2023. Discussed: Loki, Wheel of Time, Scavengers' Reign, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Lower Decks, Gen V, New Rockstars. Image: A scene from the first Thanksgiving in space, fifty years ago today (11/22), celebrated by Skylab 4 astronauts Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue. Carr (right) and Gibson (left) pictured.
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Ana and Dan got super-spicy about this because Ana hated it with the white-hot passion of a thousand burning suns! If you would like to retain any fond memories of this movie (I assume because you haven't seen it lately), don't listen because I promise to do my best to ruin it for you. There's some IR and lots eugenics in this movie. CORREX:: MIKE JUDGE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH TROPIC THUNDER, SORRY, MY BAD.
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Ana and Dan put their baseball caps on backward and sneak up to Charlie Sheen's secret radio telescope lab for a movie, so 90s, you'll be macarena-ing before it's through! Mysteries abound: Global warming aliens, mysterious Arctic landmasses, why Teri Polo's character stays with Sheen's character! There is IR in this movie.
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You break all the laws of physics and you seriously think there wouldn't be a price? The price is an encore episode! This is a personal favorite movie and conversation with Dan; the gift of this not-great week is getting to introduce it you again. I'm going to re-watch the movie right now. Enjoy!
Original episode description: Ana and Dan venture down the terrifying but pointless hall of whirling blades to figure out why this Alien rip-off has all but disappeared. Sometimes a derivative movie surpasses its source material, which is not this movie. But sometimes a copy of a copy is just a hoot to watch. Watch this movie if only for the greatest line reading of Lawrence Fishburne's career. There is IR (barely) in this movie.
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Ana and Dan can hold entire conversations without ever opening their mouths, but for this one, they talked, because this is a podcast and you probably expect to hear something. King's deft study of abusive relationships disguised as a haunted hotel story has everything: alcoholism, hedge animals with a taste for human flesh, a man bashing his own face in with a mallet. Watch out for wasps. There is IR in this novel.
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Ana and Dan arm themselves with hot water and a curling iron to deal with the universe's quietest, if also least explicable alien invasion. It's a great movie with many logical flaws, like most movies; it's also 90 minutes, unlike most movies -- watch it, already! There's IR and very thorough critique of capitalism in this movie.
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Ana and Dan feel like maybe AIs aren't getting a fair shake, it's just something they're thinking about now, after seeing this movie. Probably a coincidence. Gorgeous, filled with fine performances, and a fully lived-in near future -- it's still somehow unsatisfying overall. We talk about why! There is IR in this movie.
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Ana and Dan feel like maybe AIs aren't getting a fair shake. It's just something they're thinking about now, after seeing this movie. Probably a coincidence. Gorgeous, filled with fine performances, and a fully lived-in near future -- it's still somehow unsatisfying overall. We talk about why! There is IR in this movie.
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Ana and Dan decide to put on a show! Musicals are already fantastical -- what happens when they become otherworldly? How well does Buffy's meta-commentary hold up in our post-irony age? What would Cole Porter make of Anson Mount? (He'd love that name, for sure.) There is a waltz of IR in this episode.
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Ana and Dan sit down for some corncakes and watch the skies for signs. Pre-Columbian meso-America makes a sophisticated setting for a tale of tangled allegiances, religious prejudices, and giant animals you can ride. There's a lot of IR in this book.
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Ana and Dan try to relax in the teachers' lounge, but strange things are afoot at Harrington High School, and it's not just that the star football player decided he'd rather work for those gentlemen's Cs! A time capsule of 90s fashion, music, movie trends, and heartthrobs, this Robert Rodrigez/Kevin Williamson joint stands up to the test of time and then some. (Aside from some unfortunate sexual harassment vibes.) Have you wanted to re-watch "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" lately? There is IR in this movie.
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Ana and Dan try to relax in the teachers' lounge, but strange things are afoot at Harrington High School, and it's not just that the star football player decided he'd rather work for those gentlemen's Cs! A time capsule of 90s fashion, music, movie trends, and heartthrobs, this Robert Rodrigez/Kevin Williamson joint stands up to the test of time and then some. (Aside from some unfortunate sexual harassment vibes.) Have you wanted to re-watch "Teaching Mrs. Tingle" lately? There is IR in this movie.
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Ana and Dan suspect drinking and monster-fighting may not mix as easily as Stephen King seems to think. However, we both fell under the spell of this remarkably efficient and surprisingly moving creature feature novella. The movie is slightly less than a laundry-folder, but the story is good. Really good. There is IR in this grocery store.
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Ana and Dan keep it real casual. What we liked, what we didn't like, and a problematic fave. You will need to find your IR/capitalism analysis elsewhere, we're OOO.
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Ana and Dan try to train the megalodon, because that's never a bad idea, right? This second Jason Statham adventure has a bit more sense of self-aware fun than the first outing, but is basically just exactly what it set out to be: a kind of dumb but pleasant way to escape 100-degree heat. In that way, what's it's really about is climate change, and that's a critique of capitalism. Also there's some IR. (On a personal note: This episode was delayed by some mental health stuff and also not having my laptop. These things are not actually related but everything is mostly back to normal in both regards. Take your meds, everyone! Take them!)
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Ana and Dan close the hatch on their crewmate; they were doomed, anyway! Surprisingly understated for a movie about a gigantic shark; the actors should have been munching a lot more scenery. As it is, they make the most of what you can do with a plot that consists of "Look, giant shark!" Some good-to-pleasant performances lightly elevate this fish-in-water story. There is more IR in the making of this movie than in the movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan spelunk into the conspiracy cavern of this wild genre mix-up: Blaxploitation! Mystery! Mad Scientists! Even, dare we say it, some zombie sh*t. The most fun you'll have trying to grapple with the legacy of chattel slavery all year! There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan went and did the worst crime of them all... they got civilized, which means they gave this movie the chance it didn't quite deserve after Chronicles of Riddick's decant goofiness. It's a surprisingly okay return to Pitch Black's creature feature bona fides, if marred rapey bull*** extraneous to the plot. We continue to wonder about the functionality of a merc-based economy. There is IR -- and a dog -- in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan calculate the screen time-to-fun ratio for all the characters in this movie, and you'll never guess who comes out ahead! (It is not Karl Urban. Poor Karl Urban.) Ultimately, it's kind of a dud, but you can't help but be impressed by Vin Deisel taking all the studio capital (and money) he earned with Pitch Black and Fast & Furious and making a D&D-inflected space fantasy that has about as much in common with Pitch Black as it does with Fast & Furious. There is IR in this movie. And Judi Dench! Dame Judi Dench is in this movie! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan decide to huddle together until the lights go out, because those are the ideal conditions for watching this early-aughts sci-fi horror gem that sheds exposition in favor of steely one-liners, strong characters, and meticulously-constructed shots. (Please keep this in mind if you watch the sequel. The filmmakers did not keep that in mind as they made the sequel.) There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan find out what was wrong at that silo. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan write notes to each other on the insides of eggs, on the second skin of a python, in the smoke from a funeral pyre for the last good man on Earth, in the scree of a trail forged by a herd of unicorns. This book has some lovely turns of phrase and.... well, it has some lovely turns of phrase. And some IR. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan change into their Wham! outfits and day-glow sunglasses to talk about this highly unusual Black Mirror episode: It does not make you want to sink under the waterline of a warm bath and maybe never come out. It's about two hot ladies of the 80s falling in like, then in love, and then maybe out of love and then... well, it has a happy ending! (Spoiler alert?) There is not much IR in this episode. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan don their flying rollerblades and save some galactic royalty that happens to be dropping from the sky. This is not a good movie; it's not a good bad movie; it's in the uncanny valley between. It's a project where everyone gave 110 percent and a project where no one knew what they were giving 110 percent to. Except Eddie Redmayne. Eddie Redmayne is perfect. There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan have way more questions about robot sex than you probably imagined. I mean, I don't know what you imagine, but we had a lot of questions! Annalee Newitz came by and graciously satisfied our curiosity about R4R (and cat4train) hook-ups, as well as our questions about urban planning and very, very, very late-stage capitalism, all as depicted in their latest novel, The Terraformers. There is IR in this interview. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan shapeshift into podcasters who occasionally release episodes on time, but not this time. Apologies for the delay, it is mostly Dan's fault (guess who writes these descriptions!). This week, beloved queer fantasy graphic novel, Nimona, a whimsical tale of a magical girl that is also a bleak examination of the violence bred of marginalization. Enjoy! There is IR in this book. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan sit down and let the wilderness decide: Was the second season of Yellowjackets a gruesome exploration of the limits of belief, or was it a vicious deconstruction of gender ideals? The highs were high (all hail Melanie Lynskey!), and the lows were low (Walter will fix everything!); they kept us guessing about the exact nature of the supernatural element, and the one-liners punctuated the most intense interpersonal drama we've seen since Ana went to summer camp. There is IR in this series. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan jack in and try to break through the ICE (insane cultural extrapolation) around this neo-noir heist novel, maybe you've heard of it? SPOILER ALERT: It is as good as you remember and as everyone says. There is IR in this story. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan think something is going on at that silo. We dive into the problem of genre-savviness, the "freeconomy" of the future, and how we would like to see more of Will Patton everywhere. Also, an encore presentation of Ender's Game is going up, as a treat. There is IR in this tv series and a sneaky critique of capitalism.
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There's something up at that military academy for kids. One of our first Canon Foder episodes! Enjoy!
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Ana and Dan put their redshirts on and join the crew of the Starship Enterprise for this time-hopping remix of an original series favorite and Paramount's sassy prequel. The TOS submariner plot holds up nicely; Kirk's random yeoman-cuddling does not. Strange New Worlds delivers a cautionary message about excessive caution and Anson Mount's hair continues to amaze. There is IR in these episodes.
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Ana and Dan agree that Cosmo is a good dog. The final (?) entry in the Guardians saga manages to be both the most emotionally affecting of the bunch and somehow the most forgettable. Discussed: Can we give Bradley Cooper a voice Oscar? Is the High Evolutionary a good executive? IS THERE A GOD?
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It's an intimate AUA this month, but all the more spicy for it.
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Ana and Dan don their heliotrope garb to get granular with our favorite exploration of Gen X nihilism (and Gen X music). Dan loves the idea that nothing is necessarily supernatural; Ana has counterintuitive theories about the Antler Queen. What's going on with Walter? Could Lottie be one of those rare good cult leaders? Ben, is he what's for dinner?
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Ana and Dan finally get guns -- and wet suits -- and make their way to the final stop in the Passion of the Bay, The Rock. Nic Cage is relatively toned down, Sean Connery is exquisitely arch, and there are enough great character actors in this movie to fill out multiple Law & Order seasons. It's fun and only moderately absurd and contains the least amount of product placement you'll ever see in a Michael Bay film! We break down the IR, discuss the theology of craft vs. capitalism, and determine that the real Baypril was the friends we made along the way.
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Ana and Dan ignore the boombox in the background -- is that anything but normal? What exactly is the "more" in "more than meets the eye?" Did Michael Bay know that this franchise would take up over a decade of his life? Did we know that this franchise would wind up taking up over a decade of our lives? What is John Turturro doing in this movie? Will someone tell Megan Fox she needs a pair of pants to go with that belt she's wearing around her hips? There's IR in this movie, and capitalism too, oh boy.
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Ana and Dan put on their dystopian-edition Pumas and charm some bacon out of the lunch lady to sit back and enjoy this particularly beautiful BAYPRIL entry about how people should take better care of their clones. (SPOILER ALERT?) How does this project make money selling clones for $5m a pop? Elon could have bought 8000 clones rather than Twitter -- and wouldn't he be happier? Wouldn't it be easier to grow replacement organs rather than a whole human? Who wants to be the official shoe of a eugenics-driven dystopia, anyway? The movie does have some IR, but the capitalist system does not get much critique.
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Ana and Dan start training to go into space because a roundtable discussion is hurtling toward Earth and you can't train astronauts to podcast! You've got to train podcasters as astronauts! Are we making a mistake by kicking off Baypril with the movie that might be the most perfect expression of Michael Bay's vision? There is IR in this movie, as well as capitalism, lots and lots of capitalism.
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Ana and Dan head into The Green for this textured and rambling indie neo-Western, starring Pedro Pascal as a reluctant father figure -- and what do you know, he's pretty good and maybe should do more of those roles. Sophie Thatcher more than holds her own as the preteen in over her head and there's not that much more to the movie. IR? Sure, there's some! Critique of capitalism? That's the Fringe, girl.
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Ana and Dan ask their graduate students to find "weird news" on the Internet and toss the scientific method aside to examine this not-quite-good bad movie. The script is as bad as the science, but the acting is... not so bad! Why were their "earth suits" on the ship, when they didn't know they'd have to leave it? What part of Professor Keyes' brain was removed so that he didn't realize he was extremely tasty? What were Hillary Swank's Oscars doing while she did not act in this film? There is IR and a critique of capitalism in this movie.
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Ana and Dan dig into some twenty-year-old Chef Boyardee and ponder what they will do for love. Personally, I'd do anything for love, but I won't do that. We liked this show, but quibbles abound! Dan lives ten miles outside Boston, to start. Our expert weighs in as to whether it's "really" a zombie show. Thirst for Pedro is real. There is IR and kind of a critique of capitalism in this show.
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Dan and Ana oppose pointless animal torture, but let's move on. Octavia Butler and Stephen King, friends of the pod, blurbed this book, so how could we not like it? And yet. A history's least competent immortal manipulates his child, abuses his wife, and commits murders as unnecessary as they are bloody. Just a really, really stupid immortal. There's some IR and I guess a critique of capitalism.
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Ana and Dan will not look it in the eye but will take a look at this gorgeous, layered, and maybe too-smart-for-its-own-good film from Jordan Peele. When a movie makes you think, "Man, I bet there are some good essays about this," while you're watching it, is that a good or bad thing? How many ways can you signal that the movie is about the making of movies? There is not a whooolllle lot of IR in this film but would it be possible to ignore its critique of capitalism? Nope.
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We're doing an encore because let time get away from us -- but at least we were not unwillingly unwittingly transported to the antebellum south like Butler's heroine. Butler uses the bones of a science fiction story to explore the reverberations of slavery through our history and Black people's bodies. Dan says of all the books we've read for the podcast, this is the one he still thinks about the most. FX's adaptation debuted this year to good reviews but scant attention and was not renewed for a second season, but the book is worth revisiting again and again. Compare and contrast to last week's discussion of The Underground Railroad! There's IR and very much a critique of capitalism in this book.
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Ana and Dan crawl into the old mica mine for this excursion into the darkest depths of American history. Very Cool Dude and MacAurthur grant winner Colson Whitehead expands on a childhood notion about the historical Underground Railroad and uses it to explore the contradictions and cruelties of slavery and white supremacy. For a such a sobering subject, there is a remarkable amount of swooning (mostly Ana). There is IR and oh boy yes a critique of capitalism.
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Ana and Dan rise and shine and aren't forgetting their booties because it's the end of Cold Sci-Fi Winter! Or... is it? It's always Groundhog Day somewhere. To discuss: How much of the movie's success is Bill Murray and how much is Harold Ramis? Just how long is Phil in the time loop? That hotel scene, kind of date rape-y! Does Phil really wind up being a good person? Does it matter? There is IR and a critique of capitalism in this movie.
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Ana and Dan protest that doing this episode is a bad idea, and they will walk out rather than do it, but then again, well, let's do this. The Predators are remarkably sympathetic; could it be because they're late-stage capitalists, just like us? There is a tight five of IR in this movie. (Apologies for the delay in posting; infrastructure issues!)
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Ana and Dan bundle up for Cold Sci-Fi Winter and venture past the Yardogger tree only to find themselves staring at the sky, their mouths filled with silver. The Gone World's plot is twisty enough that it broke Dan, people, it broke Dan. (Here's a diagram.) Thus it is with a slightly different pod structure that we discuss this beautifully written if ultimately somewhat frustrating sci-fi noir set in the past, the present, and at least two different futures. IR: 🇺🇸 Capitalism: ꩜
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Ana and Dan pour their drinks on the special chess-playing computer that was supposed to keep them entertained all through COLD SCIFI WINTER and thus have to make do with John Carpenter's 1982 cult classic, The Thing. Too gory for its time, the movie is somehow both dated and timeless, like the patriarchy. It also features one of the great animal actor performances of all time. IR: 🇳🇴 Critique of capitalism: 🛸
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COLD SCI-FI WINTER CONTINUES! Ana and Dan shrug into some old greatcoats and stomp into this children's literature classic where the beavers have thumbs and the lion dies for your sins. C.S. Lewis's cleverly-told yarn has spawned a whole genre of "kids-fall-into-another-world-and-turn-out-to-be-very-important" book series, from His Dark Materials to Harry Potter. Should we have done this for Canon Fodder? Maybe! International relations: 🧙🏻 Critique of capitalism? 🍬
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Ana and Dan inspect the special arm-freezing-off portal and decide to wait for the next train. Capitan America gets filthy in this snappy, economical thriller from Bong Joon-ho. International relations? ✅ Critique of capitalism? 🪲
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Lusting for more STN content? Tide yourself over by watching"Don't Worry Darling" now on HBOMax and then listen to this encore presentation of our talk about it, which gets way more into HOT HOLLYWOOD GOSS and the female orgasm than we usually do. Enjoy!
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Ana and Dan are taking some time off. Please enjoy this encore presentation of Alien, an almost perfect movie!
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Ana and Dan revisit their ghosts of genre past and talk about the various pop-culture offerings they're grateful for this year. Discussed: Severance, Sea of Tranquility, Shining Girls, Stephen King, Lower Decks, and Everything Everywhere All at Once.
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Ana and Dan haplessly fumble with technology they don't understand and, what do you know, the CIA bugged us! A more informal episode to usher in our Christmas slowdown (December: Winter's August!). We liked this movie, but we really miss Chadwick Boseman and the movie does, too.
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Ana and Dan make some ancestor bricks and break them over the heads of fascists! Is Andor the best Star Wars property? The best science fiction show on TV? The best show on TV in general? You will have time to debate this next year, when we begin to cover Andor episode-by-episode! That's right, Andor has entered the STN canon alongside The Expanse as worthy of a weekly breakdown. So much IR. So much critique of capitalism! (Though I was kind of downbeat on the success of that critique in this episode.)
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It's the rough-and-ready unedited audio from the November AUA!
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Ana and Dan plead for their lives and, what do you know, it works! We bring Butlervember to a close with what is technically the best movie of the quartet, at least in terms Rotten Tomatoes ratings. But did we enjoy it the most? Maybe? It's about one family's escape from the end of the world and is low on the Butler glowering, high on poignant swells of music. There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan were hired to fail and so maybe it's no surprise that they cannot make sense of this slowly preposterous movie, full of absurd pronouncements and improbable motivations. It should be more fun to watch than it is! However, I will never get tired of yelling, "The president is the kill code!" Folks, the president is the goddamn kill code. There is some very silly IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan grow to fourteen feet in height, just for no particular reason. Alex Proyas (Dark City) rallies a group of gorgeous humans and proceeds to surround them with Burger King-ad-level CGI. Chadwick Boseman is in this movie and somehow it makes no difference. The third movie of BUTLERVEMBER had us questioning our life choices. There is, however, som IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan replace 98% of their brains with nanites and try to understand the point of this ambitiously garish 2009 film. Is it trying to say something about gaming? About corporatism? The commodification of violence? Or, you know, did they zoom around Albuquerque on rollerblades destroying sets because it looked really cool? There are lots of good actors in this movie doing very little. There's some IR as well as an ineffectual critique of capitalism. WELCOME TO BUTLERVEMBER. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Dan and Ana promise our dogs will always, always choose to clone them no matter what. Y'all wanted us to talk about Futurama, and so we did, so please don't hate us for not really loving it? Lots of jokes, tho! And there is IR in this series! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan put some kyber crystals around their necks and celebrate getting to talk about something they actually liked! (Even though it is not, as Ana originally thought, about Ewoks.) Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, the Bourne movies) has created the best entry in the modern Star Wars canon by throwing most of the canon out the window. Good writing! Sympathetic villains! A heist that actually plays out like a heist! Do you even know how to Star War, Tony? There is a f*ck-ton of IR in this show. (We cover episodes 1-6 here, 6-12 will come after the season ends.) Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan talk about the plot of this dumb book, because that's all the character in the book talk about. They revisit the preposterousness of "psychohistory" and wonder if this is really the prequel to "Don't Worry Darling." Did you know Asimov was a terrible sex pest? He was! WARNING TO ASIMOV FANS: This episode contains the voice of a woman. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan sit down to talk about this under-the-radar project, you probably haven't heard about it. Is "Don't Worry Darling" worthy of the mishegoss stirred up by the press tour? Yes and no! It's a very silly movie, with plot holes you could push Jordan Peterson through. BUT! It's gorgeous to look at, beyond even Florence Pugh and Harry Styles (who is definitely OK as an actor!). Relatedly: We discuss the female orgasm more than usual. There is kind of IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan really meant to release this episode on time but got caught going down a Google rabbit hole instead. Netflix brings to the screen this beloved Neil Gaiman comic after two decades' worth of attempts. Is it faithful to the original? We can't say, because only one of us has read the comic and not the whole thing! But we liked it, Ana more than Dan (for Tom Sturridge reasons). Get bonus content on Patreon
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Best sci-fi dogs? Favorite subgenres? What do we think of Rings of Power? We talked about those things! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Best sci-fi dogs? Favorite subgenres? What do we think of Rings of Power? We talked about those things! Get bonus content on Patreon
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We took another week off! It's still triple digits here in Texas so it just seemed right to visit the desert planet of Arrakis. In lieu of original analysis, please enjoy Dan and Ana talking about why they haven't had time to record a full podcast. Do you enjoy stories about cat antics???? You will like this episode.
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We took another week off! It's still triple digits here in Texas so it just seemed right to visit the desert planet of Arrakis. In lieu of original analysis, please enjoy Dan and Ana talking about why they haven't had time to record a full podcast. Do you enjoy stories about cat antics???? You will like this episode.
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Ana and Dan skipped town and left you this. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan skipped town and left you this. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan discuss all the fun stuff they read or watched during their personal sci-fi summers! Discussed: Moon Knight, Spiderhead, She-Hulk, Sandman and more! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan eat the orange flowers and disappear into the woods to examine this extremely worthy prequel to Predator. Did Naru really want to be a hunter? Did Taabe really have to die? Can Sarii get an Oscar or what? There is IR in this movie Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan needlessly cut themselves across their chests and enter into the damp, bloody world of the original Predator. How many 80s action movie actors can fit into one movie? A Predator-number of actors! Surprisingly fresh and unusually economical, the film that spawned an IP armageddon is better than you remember. There is IR in this movie. NOTE: Due to reasons, the audio for this episode is not great. We apologize and it is NOT Karen's fault. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan both entered the podcast, but did they both leave? THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE! A heady mix of exuberant scene-eating and saturnine scowls, it is impossible not to respect a movie with a metallurgist heroine. Once you make Sean Connery an Egyptian, you can do anything. Come for the swords, stay for the wind-blown drapes. There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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John Carpenter has some things to say about Reagan's American, and he's going to say them loudly and repeatedly in a film that somehow transcends its didacticism. It's a fun, loopy ride grounded by the great Keith David and not ruined by Roddy Piper. There is a critique capitalism in this movie! (And a fair amount of IR!) Get bonus content on Patreon
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Cyborgs don't feel pain, but Ana and Dan do. A surprisingly great movie born of an Italian Fever Dream (not to be confused with a Mexican Writing Binge). Relive the best and worst of the 80s, from permed hair to intrusive diegetic synth music! PHONE BOOKS! Should Kyle Reese work on his pick-up lines? Making pipe bombs: ultimate date night? WHAT HAPPENED TO PUGSLEY??? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan pull over a basket of grapes and get started with Taika Waititi's second entry into the MCU, the 80s romcom to Ragnorok's 70's space opera. It's an aggressively silly movie with some real dark parts: Christian Bale and Chris Hemsworth should not be able to exist in the same space-time continuum! Yet, somehow it works. There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan don't need helmets, are you kidding???? We decided that this movie counts as science fiction because LOOK AT TOM CRUISE. JUST LOOK AT HIM. What technology is keeping him from aging? Also, this movie has FIFTH GENERATION FIGHTERS and, given how much the plot owes to Star Wars, we should probably tell you that they ARE NOT X-wings. There is IR (some pretty terrible IR) in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan don their fancy hats and get ready to take on the lament of the lonesome space cowboy in the two Firefly episodes featuring Dan-favorite Christina Hendricks. Is the series randy or Randian? Could the dialog get any quippier? How did Fox fuck this series up so badly? And, lastly, does it make sense to export horses for terraformed moons? There is IR in this show. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan breed a bunch of identical canaries and prepare to get their hands dirty. This is a fun film about some terrible people and it's best not to think too hard about the role of women in the narrative. There is IR in this movie and a surprisingly robust critique of capitalism. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan sign all the appropriate waivers and copter into the most violent tourist destination this side of Hostel. They literally don't make them like this anymore. (OR DO THEY?) Why is Alan Grant so easily bribed? How can Ian Malcolm be a genius but can't tell Ellie and Alan are a couple? Maybe it would be okay if the kids died, right? There is IR in this movie. (Also in this episode: A special guest appearance by my tiny furry baby raptor.) Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan sign all the appropriate waivers and copter into the most violent tourist destination this side of Hostel. They literally don't make them like this anymore. (OR DO THEY?) Why is Alan Grant so easily bribed? How can Ian Malcolm be a genius but can't tell Ellie and Alan are a couple? Maybe it would be okay if the kids died, right? There is IR in this movie. (Also in this episode: A special guest appearance by my tiny furry baby raptor.) Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan hitch their horses up to the station wagon and ride out to explore the rosiest post-pandemic landscape in a generation. There is self-reflection by your hosts! Find out what airports they would choose to live out the rest of their years! What skills they might barter if this whole podcasting thing doesn't survive the apocalypse! There is an argument about capitalism! (Though it turns out they don't really disagree that much.) There is, frankly, not a lot of IR in this book. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan put on their red shirts and get ready to count the Easter Eggs in the latest entry into the Star Trek Cinematic Universe. It's both backward-looking and optimistic -- faithful to the original series right down to its updated social justice values. There is IR in this series! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan can't believe you found coffee! Wait, have we had this conversation before? "Groundhog Day goes to war" turns out to be much better than any movie with seven or eight different screenwriting teams should be. What about Tom Cruise makes watching him die so delightful? Is the one kiss in this movie one kiss too many? If we designed those drop-ships, did we maybe deserve to lose? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan get distracted by how smoking hot Jude Law is in this, his American film debut. It's also a pretty good movie! It gets so much right about the future, BUT: No internet? Why are the display screens low-red green on black? SO MUCH PAPER! There is IR in this movie and not nearly as much of a critique of capitalism as Andrew Niccols probably thinks. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan bow to the Sorcerer Supreme and enter into Marvel's infinite IP loop. What kind of natsec clearance do you need to know about Thanos' defeat? How do you tell the difference between "witchcraft" and "sorcerery"? Is this a movie that we can recommend to Karen???? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan put on their p-suits and shove "Ayn Rand in space" into the airlock, because certain kinds of political hectoring should be a capital offense among decent people. Why do people love this book? No, seriously, why? There is IR but absolutely zero critiques of capitalism in this book. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Dan and Ana just have the pilot give the plans DIRECTLY TO THE REBELS, but decide to watch the movie anyway. Can you make a great movie entirely premised on a ret-con? Does it take extremists to goad rebellions into action? How would Adorno feel about all this? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan don’t have white tendrils growing out of the back of their necks, what are you talking about? NK Jemisin’s first foray into the “city as a living thing” micro-genre will delight fans of New York City but is a bit rough around the edges, like some neighborhoods we could name. There is a bit of IR in this book.
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Ana and Dan enroll in the Everett Sloan School of Broadcast Journalism and start baking biscuits. Why didn't the chipmunk make an end-credits appearance? Does Fay care more about her switchboard duties or her journalism career? How in the heck did they make this movie for less than a million dollars? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan stick googly eyes to the middle of their foreheads and verse jump into this wildly creative and simply wild family drama disguised as a many-worlds thriller. This movie has it all: Laundry! Taxes! Dildos! And, of course, IR. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan sit down for a nice meal at Taco Bell and discuss the much-quoted but less seen Sandy Bullock vehicle. Wow, it's dark! How did Dr. Cocteau come to power? Who was John Spartan's lawyer and can I get his number? Do you really want to know what the seashells are for? There is a surprisingly reactionary take on capitalism in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan tape up their forearms to fight through the living dead and talk about a movie that (SPOILER ALERT) has a critique about capitalism. How exactly is the infection spread? What's so great about the mom? Why doesn't South Korea have more zombie movies in general? There is IR in this movie.
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Ana and Dan gather at the Very Large Array to discuss a Very Earnest Movie. Why are female scientists the only ones who need tragic origin stories? How can you build a second 333B space contraption without anyone noticing? What vitamins did Jodie Foster take to avoid having chemistry with Matthew McConaughey? There is IR in this movie but not much of a critique of capitalism. Get bonus content on Patreon
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It's the end of the world and we're going to have lots of meetings about it. But also: terrorism. There is IR in this novel! A lot of it! And an incredibly heavy-handed critique of capitalism! We still hated it! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan are determined to keep broadcasting Space the Nation right up until the supervolcano blows, of course we are. We conclude Emmerichary on a minor key: This is the Emmerich movie with the most IR and this is the movie with the worst IR. Should the president refuse the chance to survive the apocalypse? Why would China agree to help out the rest of the world? Who is Jackson Curtis' editor and can we get his number? There is a critique of capitalism in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan laugh and laugh and laugh. The penultimate episode of Emmerichary, the reason Emmerichary exists: We talk about Moonfall, the greatest movie of 2022 so far. How do you fly a space shuttle "without electricity"? Would a Lexus really be the best vehicle to be driving during the apocalypse? Nuking the moon! What could go wrong? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan break some cane-backed chairs to use as snowshoes and try to avoid Chekov's wolves as they ponder the appeal of this preposterous movie. Can anti-climate-change skepticism propaganda be helpful if it engages in the exact kind of ludicrousness that skeptics accuse scientists of? Did Frank have to die? Did he have to die shouting, "Jack!"? And how old was Jake Gyllenhaal? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan traipse through a mysterious alien artifact with the capacity to revolutionize space travel with a brilliant plan: blow it up. This is a very silly movie and generated very silly arguments, including, "Is the stargate made of vibranium or unobtanium?" There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan won't be hungry much longer. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan break open the cigars to celebrate having finished watching Roland Emmerich's Independence Day: The biggest and dumbest movie of a decade that brought us some really big and dumb movies. It holds up, to the degree you can keep your standards within the margins of big and dumb. What's the real reason NASA won't make Will Smith an astronaut? Why do the aliens need to use our satellites again? What exactly constitutes a "Mexican writing binge"? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan get in their crash couches and set a course for "maybe there will be a sequel"? Listen in for thoughts on loose threads and lessons and stay tuned through the end for the first annual SPACIES! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan head toward the Ring and...... argulellkjdsfjsklfjdsafdks jfd. sadfsd.... jk! We're here! Lots of loose threads to tie up here -- not all of them knitted in by the end of the episode. Does that mean they didn't stick the landing? Spoiler alert: They stuck the landing. There is IR in this episode Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan wipe off the glitter and dab some Neosporin on those scratches and get ready to decide if this war is worth it. This episode has some inconsistencies! It's all going to be over too soon! Relationships get mended: Naomi and Drummer, Amos and Holden, Cara and her dead (?) brother Xan. Not mending: Josep's arm. At some point, we'll be told why the ships disappearing in transit matters to the plot of the show. There is IR in this episode. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan think that torpedo is still armed, omg don't touch it! Ha ha, gotcha! More man buns! Michio finds her inner steel and loses Josep's arm! Is Amos going to Amos-ize Holden? Seems like it might be justified! You should not feel bad about not killing someone, unless maybe that means lots more people get killed? There is IR in this episode. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan have great chemistry! They saw some movies last week and decided you needed to hear their opinions on them! Spoiler alert: We basically liked both of them but they're flawed in interesting ways and worth talking about as a pair! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan disarm at the last minute, do you think that was a mistake? Holden makes a big decision without checking in with anyone else, Monica embeds with UNN troops, and we get lovely cameos from Expanse characters of Christmas past. Who is "belter enough"? Which union do the sex workers on Ceres belong? Is re-animating a loved one an idea that never goes horribly wrong? There is IR in this episode. Get bonus content on Patreon
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When Ana and Dan worked in the Belt, they drank and had women but were back on the line every morning, not like Free Navy kids these days. So many questions raised in this episode, many about who pays for journalism in the middle-distant future (Substack? Spon-con? The UN? Time for a blogger ethics panel!*) and others relating to what exactly it means to be a mercenary -- versus, you know, a freedom fighter. Marco's man bun: the true big bad of the season? The show's sense of humor has returned! There is IR in this episode.
*A blogger ethics panel joke? I haven't heard that punchline in years...
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Ana and Dan feed the strange bird things some human food, I mean what could go wrong? It's six months into the war with the Free Navy: the Roci crew looks haggard, Avasarala has a zero-gravity kink and Marco is sporting a man bun. Is it wise to use a mercenary force when you're doing a mission to boost morale? Can we expect more West Wingian walk-and-talks from Monica and Avasarala? Was Jared Harris too busy spouting psychohistory nonsense to get killed onscreen as would be fair and decent? There is IR in this episode. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan punch in for work even though, I mean, really, what's the point? Ben Winter's "existential detective story" explores the meaning of morality and law and work if we're all going to die anyway. I mean, on the earlier side. What's the difference between "work" and "craft"? What's on your Bucket List? Would Ana drink if she knew the world was ending??? There is IR in this novel. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan sit down to feast on a table laden with the books and movies of their past. Hear what movie helped Dan survive writing his last couple books! What book helped Ana survive the early Trump Era! There isn't much IR in this episode, but there is a special surprise if you listen through the end. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan venture down the terrifying but pointless hall of whirling blades to figure out why this Alien rip-off has all but disappeared. Sometimes a derivative movie surpasses its source material, which is not this movie. But sometimes a copy of a copy is just a hoot to watch. Watch this movie if only for the greatest line reading of Lawrence Fishburne's career. There is IR (barely) in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan raise the sails on the trimaran and attempt to cut their way through this terrible, terrible movie. It's as bad as you've heard it is! But it's a target-rich environment for various barbs and harps and prompts yet more musings on what separates "good bad" movies from "bad bad" movies. There is IR in this film! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan put on their boots slip-fashion and walk into the desert for the much-anticipated Dune re-make. Perhaps you've heard of it? Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan wake from hypersleep to find the universe just as oppressed under capitalism as it was when they pushed the alien out of the airlock. Speaking of aliens: What is a joke about undocumented immigrants doing in this movie? Is Paul Riser's corporate lackey the original tech bro? And, finally, is this movie as good as the original? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Dan and Ana crunch the numbers on this AppleTV adaptation of the Isaac Asimov classic. Actually, we explain why crunching numbers does not work the way that Asimov or David S. Goyer thinks it does! On the other hand, any show with Lee Pace and Jared Harris in it axiomatically cannot be al bad. Also, more Ted Lasso commentary! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan take the world's nastiest-looking syringes and inject themselves with this 1998 film that some people -- NOT US, BUT SOME PEOPLE - claim is the earlier, superior "we're living in a simulation" film to The Matrix. Ana and Dan had many questions, such as: why would aliens afraid of water choose to come to Earth? And why is it always nighttime beyond the logic of film noir? Also, we talk Ted Lasso. Shockingly, there is no IR in this film, but there's a lot of bad social science! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Dan and Ana take the red pill. There is no spoon, but there is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan don their positive pressure personnel suits and enter Lawrence Wright's surprisingly textured pandemic novel. There's LOTS of IR in this novel! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan dust the sand off their feet and settle in to have a least wild dream come true: FX's re-imagining of Fantasy Island has all the (unexplained) sumptuous luxury of the original and none of the menace -- unless you consider the "mommy trap" menacing, which, you know...true. Content warning for eating disorders and also Ana getting really ranty about this particular portrayal of eating disorders. There is IR in this series. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan hunker down during the hot daylight hours to contemplate the missed opportunities of a movie that can't commit to the cynicism of "noir." Memory is a river but there are so few twists! There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Dan and Ana grab their pugs and venture into David Lynch's least weird film about fucked up families. Dune is a movie in which lots of interesting things are gestured at but nothing quite completed, including the script. (Interior voice: There's lots of interior voices.) There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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No one in this film is good at their job. There is hamfisted criticism of American imperialism in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan settle in for a nice meal of scenery and ash with two of modern cinema's most gonzo actors, going gonzo in completely different directions. Can a news magazine publish issues when the world is about to end? Is there a reason for the kids to be wearing matching blue nighties? Could a sperm-whale-sized species produce thousands of offspring with a single male? Dragons! How do they work? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan break out the jam cakes and settle in for a picaresque tour of the Galactic Commons. Chamber's buoyant tale dips into multiple spaceports, species, and coupling practices on the way to a disastrous end for Infrastructure Tenday. There's a lot of IR in this novel. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Dan and Ana discover that they are there, wherever they are. So many questions! What government agency approved this experiment? How is it that Jeff Goldblum wears fuzzy chaps and still comes off as the most normally dressed person in the movie? When does appreciation become appropriation? Why is there a watermelon there? How come you can't get lithium on credit anymore? And, at what point does the movie go from "incomprehensible" to "cult classic"? There is IR in this movie! Get bonus content on Patreon
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We talked to the author of Victories Greater Than Death and she's awesome Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan answer a beacon and board the spaceship Indomitable to join a ragtag team of rejects who rise to the occasion of subverting how you thought that sentence was going to end. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan find their glorious purpose in the MCU's most mischievous entry. To wildly mix franchises, it turns out that red tape is Loki's kryptonite. Is dating your own variant cute or squick? In the contest between chaos and order, which choice is the most selfish? Will Alligator Loki get his own backstory? (PLEASE) There is IR in this series. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan reject their Covid psychological conditioning and head to the movie theater to review the first post-pandemic MCU theatrical release. Happy fun times watching Florence Pugh show up her big sis in almost every scene but so many questions! Why was The Red Guardian arrested? Who came up with that sparkly red dust? What exactly is the point of a non-state-actor Red Room program? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan make sure they're dead in the future and fling themselves into the Chris Pratt vehicle that the Coronavirus put on your homescreen for this SPECIAL EDITION of Space the Nation. Is it so-bad-it's-good or is it an indictment of late capitalism's culture of disposable entertainment, dumbing us down until we don't notice the plot holes? There is (very bad) IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan don their stillsuits and enter into the world of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel, one of the most influential science fiction novels of all time: but is it canon, or is it fodder? On the one hand: gorgeous writing, subversive themes. On the other: Hey, did pick up that Baron Harkonnen is the villain? And that he's fat? Enjoy the completely inconsistent pronunciation of all character names and fictional vocabulary. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan scrutinize Danny Boyle's art-house zombie movie, which Dan could lecture on blindfolded and hands tied behind his back. A debate: Is twenty-eight days long enough that everyone would have given up all hope and regressed to a pure state of nature? How long do you have to be fighting zombies to become like them? There is IR in this movie. all Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan beam down to Deep Space Station K7 to examine the intricacies of quadrotriticale-based foreign policy, in both of the Star Trek series where the grain appears: TOS and DS9. Also: I SING. There is IR in these episodes Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan turn their blinded eyes to the much-heralded gender swap-out parable. Surprise: Ana did not like it as much as Dan's wife did! And, for real: CW for rape. There is IR in this novel. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan talk about Apple TV+’s best show that is not Ted Lasso, and wonder if the showrunners have really grappled with the radical changes they’ve made, maybe women fully participating in the Space Race would be an even bigger deal? That said! Great show. Also discussed: Is FAMK “Mad Men in space” or “West Wing in space”? There is IR in this series. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan dive into one of the least-pleasant best movies of the modern era, a gorgeous and captivating tale of a world slowly winding down into violent nihilism and numb decadence. Except, what if life isn't over? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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A time-travel novel that shares the same premise as "Back to the Future," but is really about the moral gray areas within the institution of slavery. Surprisingly, there is IR in this book. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan take on Paul Verhoeven's misunderstood and mismarketed military romp. Can you make such a faithful parody of fascist propaganda that it becomes... fascist propaganda? Do you want to know more? There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan stumble through a drizzly, neon-lit cityscape, beset by hard-as-nails dames and colorful assassins -- in the future. Join us for a slight detour through Ana's favorite micro-genre. There is IR in this book. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan talk about the hunkiest entry into the next Marvel phase and its ham-fisted but sincere investigation of this country's whiteness protection program. There is IR in this television series. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan turn a roving red eye on what's schlocky, what's serviceable, and what's genuinely scary about 1978's Mormon science fiction masterpiece. There is IR in this television pilot. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan bundle up for a trip way down South. We ask the questions: Is it possible to be racist without ever mentioning race? Can you really use paper to mark your path through a Cyclopean maze? And why won't anyone listen to the dogs? Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan tick through this time-warp gothic romance (so much mist!) and find lots to disagree about. There is IR in this movie. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan discuss the relative value of an endorsement by Barack Obama. Is this actually a good book or just an interesting idea explored at overly exhaustive length? There is IR in this book. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan break into regularly scheduled programming to discuss the four-hour festival of heroic posing that lots of people asked for but no one really expected. Dan reveals his joy that The Flash is a member of The Tribe (it's canon now!). Ana can't stop giggling whenever someone says "motherbox." Get bonus content on Patreon
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By Grabthar's hammer, we tried to form a rudimentary lathe but Dan was never really serious about the craft. Still, we swore to never give up, never surrender! And I have one job on this podcast. It's stupid, but I'm going to do it. You may think "that's not right," but it's the little things in life and it's all real!
Please enjoy.
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Ana and Dan discuss the Le Guin's foundational feminist text -- and discover that its reputation as a book "about gender" doesn't quite do justice to a story that's also about bias, identity, and acceptance. You will laugh, you will cry. When you read the book. Hopefully the pod leaves you dry-eyed but mirthful! Get bonus content on Patreon
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A goddamn perfect movie. Economical yet lush. Sophisticated themes about class and alienation, but straightforward in every respect. Superb cast. Thoughtful in everything from character to sound design. Get ready for fan-personing. CW: Brief discussion of rape. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ender's Game has one of literature's greatest twists and greatest heroes, brought to us by one of the genre's most unpleasant authors. Dan and Ana discuss: Is it canon or is it fodder? Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan recap alllllll the IR! There is a lot of IR! Most prominent: persistent echoes of the Peloponnesian War! (Dan teaches from this translation of Thucydides if you're interested, and if you are reading this, you are!) But, ultimately, The Expanse is about choices and the ways they reverberate through systems (including family systems). Have a nit to pick? If you're an All-Access Patron or above, come to our AMA next weekend! (March 6, 10am CT/ 11am ET)
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In which Ana and Dan actually recap the entire jam-packed final episode of the season AND discuss applicable IR in under and hour. Even though they frequently mention that this seems impossible! They mourn the loss of Martian Mata Hari and embrace the fan theory that Bull will be drinking from Alex's coffee cup a lot more next season. Also: Is it possible The Expanse is really about nothing but familial bonds? Get bonus content on Patreon
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Can you teach an old Inner new tricks? Can you take the boy out of Baltimore but not the Baltimore out of the boy? PINKWATER? GET IT? GET IT? Ana and Dan discuss whether or not it's a good idea to grow your tribe or not. There is IR in this episode! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan discuss the lies we tell ourselves, and the lies we tell each other. Are our faves progressing or regressing in their travels around the known worlds? There is IR in this episode, oh boy oh boy, perhaps you'd like to revisit the Iraq War? No? Neither would we. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan discuss modes of leadership and toxic masculinity (related!) and the lessons Expanse offers in nuclear safety (think: Pakistan). Get bonus content on Patreon
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There is IR in this episode! Dan discusses "bandwagoning" and "balancing" and neither of those things has to do with what you might do if you played the French horn! Ana has malignant narcissism on her mind, for some reason. Also: Maybe Marco and Amos have more in common than you think. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Is biology destiny? Does blood relation make you family, or is it something else? Ana and Dan discuss Belter alliances, Amos' continued emotional evolution, and Marco's general dickishness. There is IR in this episode! Get bonus content on Patreon
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Welp, that escalated quickly. Dan goes deep on international relations theories about how third-party nation-states respond to larger conflicts; Ana recalls everything she ever learned about post-modernism in order to deconstruct the Expanse's argument about nature versus nurture. Oh, and extended sidebar on the actual historical battle referenced in the title. But it's interesting, really! Also: thoughts on the prison industrial complex and how it might or might not change and wondering if Monica will write "The Looming Tower" of the attack on Earth. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Ana and Dan ponder the ties between people: Are they based on blood and DNA? Class? Identity? Can you buy loyalty? Dan squees over Drummer. Ana deconstructs the cringe fest that is Alex's date with the Martian Mata Hari. Extended detour into QWERTY keyboards in space and "path dependence." Get bonus content on Patreon
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Do you love War College lectures? This is the episode for you. Do you love extended discourse on the normalization of sex work and trauma recovery? ALSO FOR YOU. What about awkwardly inserted pull quotes? We'll get better, promise. Get bonus content on Patreon
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Starting off the whole thing with everyone going their own ways, but is this an exodus, or is it a series of returns to their origins? Get bonus content on Patreon
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Want to listen to our voices before making a time or financial commitment to your next favorite podcast? This mp3 will allow you to do that! Get bonus content on Patreon
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