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Beowulf is an epic poem from 6th c. southern Scandinavia, recorded in Anglo-Saxon a few centuries later. The poem recalls a time when brutal warriors in small kingdoms dominated the North Sea coasts as the transition from paganism to Christianity was unfolding. In this episode, Gil and Rutger review three films based on the plot of the poem: Beowulf (2007), Beowulf & Grendel (2005), and Outlander (2008).

Electronic dance music took Europe by storm in the years following 1989. The music became the soundtrack across the unifying continent for the post-Cold War euphoria of the decade when the world went online. In this episode, Rutger reviews five films that depict events from the "second Summer of Love" in Manchester in the late eighties to the early noughties in Berlin: 24 Hour Party People (2002), Trainspotting (1996), Wasted (1996), It's All Gone Pete Tong (2004) and Berlin Calling (2008). For this episode, there exists a 45-minute mix of some of the songs featured in the films and discussed in the review. This can be found at https://www.ourpodacademy.com/post/techno-on-film

It is somewhat perplexing how the basic premise of so many different films across genres have one recurring theme when it comes to men wanting to get back with their exes: male performance, female castration, male domination, female submission. Our films for this episode are: Outbreak (1994), Die Hard (1988), 2012 (2009), War of the Worlds (2005), Crazy Stupid Love (2011), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) and The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).

The story of the flood and Noah's ark has been a staple of human storytelling for 2500 years, with the latest version being the avant-garde Darren Aronofsky 2014 Noah film, with its distinct gravitas, starring Russel Crowe, Jennifer Connely, Emma Watson, Ron Winstone, and Anthony Hopkins. How is this 21st-century version of this tale different and what does it tell us about the evolution of storytelling? What makes this biblical adventure still relevant today? A collaboration with Garry Stevens from History in the Bible Podcast https://www.historyinthebible.com/

Time travel is an awesome power that, apparently, is wielded by manchildren in order to groom and gaslight women. Gil and Rutger review the highly similar films, The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) and About Time (2013). As a palate cleanser, the shockingly oedipal Back To The Future (1985).

In our series on time travel, we treat ourselves to one of the greatest film franchises of all time: Back to the Future. Gil and Rutger explore the evolution of our morals from the depicted 1950s (and 1880s and 2010s) through the time the films were made, and on to our present day. Are time machines just tools for manipulating the world into getting what you want - especially from women - or can we aim higher? 

How do South African Films portray post-Apartheid crime? Why is there crime? Who are the criminals? What is their life like? Is race more important than class? Gil has South African-raised Jessina Marenga again to look at how South Africans are telling their own stories about crime.

Wall Street and its flaws are a common theme in movies, which emphasize the excesses, the risk-taking, and the societal fallout. But once upon a time, banking and finance were boring, steady occupations - and even before that, they were the domain of Florentine family businesses and Venetian Jews. What changed, and why? Gil and Rutger discuss Hollywood portrays the world of finance capitalism over 50 years: Merry Poppins (1964), Wall Street (1980), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and The Big Short (2015)

The 2020 thriller dark comedy Promising Young Woman breaks new ground on the feminist film continuum, parodying former female revenge movies, narratives about rape as an awesome origin story, and eviscerates the trope of the "nice guy". Lireza Elezaj joins Gil to discuss.

Since the pandemic, the world of sports has changed. We see it all over the world, across athletic fields, across populations, languages, cultures and whatnot: feelings of empathy and collectiveness are on the rise, while the haters have quarantined themselves into a corner. Gil and Rutger discuss Simone Biles and many other cases of extreme global feelings of thankfulness and appreciation.

What would happen if time didn't simply move forward linearly, but instead the same trajectory could be taken multiple times? What would the experience be like emotionally, or philosophically? What would the paradoxes be? In this episode, Gil and Rutger explore this scenario through sci-fi films.

How do American movies portray Africans? Has that view changed over time? Special guest Jessina, an African studying politics in the U.S. joins Gil to break it down via Coming to America (1988), Concussion (2015), Black Panther (2019) and Coming 2 America (2021).

With so many films about Ancient Rome, it's easy to find those that follow the timeline of the Roman rise and fall in the Mediterranean, with a prequel of Alexander (2004): Hannibal (2006) for the Roman destruction of Carthage, the post-war American epic of Cleopatra (1963) for the end of Hellenistic Egypt and North Africa, we then go to the Common Era with some Jesus films, visit Roman Spain and Tunisia in the immortal Gladiator (2000), and cap things off with the magnificent Agora (2009) that chronicles the transition into the Chritian-heavy Middle Ages.

Since Rutger and Gil are on a short vacation (separately), here is an episode from Gil's other podcast, A Podcast of Biblical Proportions. After listening, head to that podcast to get all the episodes!

With record heat waves in Canada, and a few weeks ago in Northern Russia, climate change is manifesting more and more clearly. In this episode, we look at how Hollywood depicts it. Gil and Rutger review three films: The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Snowpiercer (2013), and Interstellar (2014).

To better understand the geopolitics of China, we need to dive into the painful historical memories of this proud all-time global power. Between 1839 and 1949 China found itself divided and ransacked by European powers and Japan, which resulted in the fall of the 2000-year-old Chinese system of government, civil wars and then the rise of the communists. We look at this period through The Opium War (1997), Warlords (2007), 55 Days at Peking (1963), The Last Emperor (1987), Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and Farewell My Concubine (1993).

The Biden administration is investigating a lab leak as a possible origin story for the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Meanwhile, Jon Stewart has gone all-in on the scenario in the Late Show. All of a sudden, it has become thinkable among liberals that nearly 4 million people (and counting) have died from what might have been an accident in a research lab. Gil and Rutger rank the main hypotheses and the arguments for and against them.

After 12 years, Benjamin Netanyahu has been ousted as Israeli prime minister by a motley crew of far right, center, and leftist parties, who partnered with a Muslim conservative party to form an unprecedented coalition. How did this happen? And what's next? Omri Harel joins Gil Kidron to break it down and maybe celebrate.

What the hell could that be? A hoax? A Chinese futuristic technology? Space aliens? Gil and evolutionary biologist Dr. Rutger Vos discuss.

The Dutch have maintained a colonial presence in what is now Indonesia for over three centuries. What started out as swashbuckling adventures that are still sometimes viewed with chest-puffing pride gradually evolved into increasingly pervasive domination. The final chapters were only written in the mid-twentieth century and still cause lingering trauma. In this podcast, Gil and Rutger review three films that span the full period from the "Golden Age" spice trade beginnings propagandized in Admiral (2015), through the cash crop exploitation poignantly depicted in Max Havelaar (1976, after a highly influential novel from 1860), culminating in the bloody decolonization and war of independence in the current film De Oost (2021).