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Politics is power, nothing more! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This episode ain’t right. We are headed down to the home of Tom Landry Middle School, Mega Lo Mart, and Strickland Propane—that’s right, Arlen, Texas. Kat Murti and first time guest Nick Gillespie join us to decide whether Hank Hill would have voted for Donald Trump, explain the eccentricities of Texan identity, and reveal the benefits of propane and propane accessories. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Vicious vulgarity and criticism of censorship are at the heart of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s groundbreaking animated series. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dive into the depths of American psychopathy as we ask—can we get a table for two at 8 PM at Dorsia? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Uncover the mystery of ideology with 2019’s best independent video game. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It may have been less than a decade since we saw him in theaters last, but The Batman has got a new haircut, a fresh coat of eye shadow, and a lot of emotional baggage to unpack. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jessica Flanigan and Natalie Dowzicky sink their teeth into Stephanie Meyer’s tale of teenage temptation and vampiric virtue. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Are Christians a persecuted minority in America? The God’s Not Dead film series has a clear answer, but Aaron Powell and Paul Matzko are doubtful of the conclusions. We sit down to find what might be causing this division, try to find a way to bridge it, and respect religious liberty for all. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Is Snowpiercer a marxist masterpiece or a dystopian documentary? We trace Chris Evans’s path from the tail to the head n pursuit of the true meaning behind Bong Joon-ho’s 2014 caricature of capitalism. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

At the Circus, who can trust the ringmaster? Pat Eddington and Mike German join us sort who is who in Joh LeCarre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Inspired by Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and in the vein of his financial crisis origin story, “The Big Short”, Adam McKay’s 2021 Netflix film, “Don’t Look Up” posits a world where the sky is falling, politicians are too self absorbed to do anything, and the media is hellbent on distraction by any means necessary. Trevor Burrus, Matthew Feeney, and Natalie Dowzicky join us to parse the fact from fiction, and explain how successful it is in getting its strident hope across. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the spring of 1997, a teenage girl and her Scoobies started defending the town of Sunnydale and the world from previously unimaginable demons, all while being on time for chemistry class. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, has never been fully appreciated for putting the teen soap era of television on the map.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kevin McCallister was left home alone when his large family rushed to the airport to fly to their Paris Christmastime vacation. At first he was enjoying himself, staying up late, watching tv, and eating pizza until a duo of burglars, the Wet Bandits, try to ruin his holiday.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Netflix’s horror series about a small fictional island community, a mysterious visiting priest, and unexplained “miracles” is the latest Mike Flanagan horror hit. Though this show received a wide variety of praise and criticism, it certainly caused people to think about the role religion plays in their lives.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1953, under the Great Terror’s heavy cloak of state paranoia, the ever‐​watchful Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, collapses. When they discover his body the following morning, a frenetic surge of raw panic starts spreading like a virus amongst the senior members of the Politburo, as they scramble to maintain order, weed out the competition, and take power. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Matthew Feeney and Caleb Watney discuss Denis Villeneuve's 2021 film adaption of Frank Herbert's Dune. Frank Herbert’s 1965 Dune is a futuristic geopolitical allegory that was anti-corporate and pro-eco-radicalism. Villeneuve's film adaptation of the book stays pretty true to the original story, it's set in the very distant future, in which humanity has evolved in many scientific respects and mutated in a lot of spiritual ones. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jamelle Bouie and Julian Sanchez join the podcast to discuss John Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi cult classic, The Thing, a film that made our skin crawl with paranoia. Based on the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. novella Who Goes There?, The Thing, tells the story of a group of American scientists in Antarctica who encounter the eponymous "Thing", a parasitic extraterrestrial life-form that assimilates, then imitates other organisms, including humans.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The hook-handed son of a slave summoned by the chanting of his name 5 times, Candyman, was originally created by horror legend writer Clive Barker. But the legend has since been adapted for the big screen many times, first in 1992 and most recently in 2021. Peter Suderman and Jesse Walker help us dissect both films as part of a larger discussion about how horror movies tackle social issues.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Simpsons is an American adult animated sitcom created by Matt Groening that follows the Simpson family who live in Springfield. The show parodies American culture, society, and ultimately the human condition.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Hurt Locker was the first narrative feature to make full, unnerving dramatic sense of the war in Iraq, and it does so without polemics or speeches or phony melodrama. In fact, the director, Kathryn Bigelow, has been praised for making a war movie that is apolitical in nature. The film follows an Iraq War Explosive Ordnance Disposal team who are targeted by insurgents and shows their psychological reactions to the stress of combat. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.