Have you ever received a book in the mail that you didn't order and, like a maniac, chose to inflict it on friends instead of throwing it away? Aaron has! Join us as Aaron reads bits of a sadly dull Jehovah's Witness book at Shark and Rachel and the three talk about how disappointed they are. Hey, you can't always have a well-researched episode about culture. You just can't.

Robert and Aaron talk about two amazing contributions to human civilization. Music by Daniel Griggs

The conclusion to our three-part series on Watchmen! Jonny takes the gang through various analyses of the comic and everyone is - still - amazed that anyone can walk away from it with a positive perception of Rorshach. Music by Daniel Griggs

Jonny takes the gang through a DETAILED (and yet not detailed enough) synopsis of the Watchmen novel. We talk through the characterizations a bit and start delving into what it all means, but more of that to come! Music by Daniel Griggs

Long-time listener and first-time caller Jonny Lim takes the gang on the start of their journey through Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen. I, Aaron, would like to reiterate that Welcome Back Kotter is a show that exists and I'm very glad that Jonny backs me up on this.

What?! An episode under an hour?!?!?!? Aaron brings some serious old coot energy to another """"palette cleanser."""" This one's about John Carpenter's THEY LIVE. Music by Daniel Griggs (good luck on the move, buddy!) Some extra reading: Revisiting the Dystopian L.A. of Sci-Fi Classic They Live, 30 Years Later: https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/they-live-filming-locations-30-years/John Carpenter’s ‘They Live’ Was Supposed to Be a Warning. We Didn’t Heed It. We Didn’t Even Understand It.: https://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/10/4/17933020/they-live-john-carpenter-america-donald-trump John Carpenter Looks Back on ‘They Live': 'It's Not Science Fiction. It's a Documentary' https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/john-carpenter-looks-back-on-they-live-its-174619686.htm 30 Minutes on: "They Live" https://www.rogerebert.com/mzs/30-minutes-on-they-liveInfluencers are faking brand deals https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/12/influencers-are-faking-brand-deals/578401/ TikTok is full of shady secret advertisements https://www.vox.com/recode/23197348/tiktok-ad-sponcon-influencers

The gang fails at having a relaxed conversation about the bullshit phenomenon of alpha wolves. Yet another palette cleanser that is not a palette cleanser. Ah well.

The group wraps up our journey through the internet with a long, long discussion about the gold standard, grifts, crypto, and AI. Shark and Rachel align themselves with the Machines, while Aaron yells at clouds. Music by Daniel Griggs Reading list: On Mt. Gox: https://www.wired.com/2014/03/bitcoin-exchange/“Could gold be the next Libor scandal?”What Drives Gold Prices?, Federal ReserveThe Bank War, history.comIs Gold an Inflation Hedge?, ForbesWizard of Oz and the Gold Standard, Marianne HayesRon Paul and Steve Forbes Jack Each Other Off About GoldA year on, El Salvador's bitcoin experiment is stumblingThe New York Couple Behind El Salvador’s Bitcoin ExperimentThe Electricity Costs of Bitcoin, CNETProof of Stake, Proof of WorkNo, Bitcoin isn't pumping because it's a "safe haven" from banksDunning-Kruger EffectDunning-Kruger Isn't Real, Psychology TodayA Crypto Game Promised to Lift Filipinos Out of Poverty. Here's What Happened Instead, TimeExclusive: Large bitcoin payments to right-wing activists a month before Capitol riot linked to foreign account, Yahoo NewsThe Enshittification of TikTok

Aaron brings Robert and Rachel through the horrors of venture capital, Meta's quarterly reports, and the enshittification of the web. Music by Daniel Griggs. READ THIS STUFF: A funny Tweet about how shitty the Internet is.How Venture Capital Works, Harvard Business ReviewHow Venture Capitalists Make Decisions, Harvard Business ReviewCompetition is for Losers, Peter Thiel in the Wall Street JournalFacebook's culpability in genocide NBC NewsCouncil on Foreign RelationsThe Guardian Meta's financial reportThe Supreme Court Could Destroy the Internet Next Week, Legal EagleHow to Ditch Facebook Without Losing Your Friends (or Family, Customers, or Communities), Cory Doctorow and the EFFTikTok's enshittification, Cory DoctorowContent Moderation is Infosec, Cory DoctorowA series of studies on the ease with which tech companies spread misinformation https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/22/22740703/twitter-algorithm-right-wing-amplification-studyhttps://www.businessinsider.com/transphobia-ted-kaczynski-tiktok-algorithm-right-wing-self-radicalization-2021-11?op=1https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/26/facebook-conservatives-2020-421146https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1536504218766547https://www.brookings.edu/research/echo-chambers-rabbit-holes-and-ideological-bias-how-youtube-recommends-content-to-real-users/https://www.wired.com/story/right-wing-fake-news-more-engagement-facebook/https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/facebook-twitter-don-t-censor-conservatives-they-hire-promote-them-ncna1245308https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/10/more-internal-documents-show-how-facebooks-algorithm-prioritized-anger-and-posts-that-triggered-it/  The Internet's video focus is based on a lie, SlateStop Talking to Each Other and Start Buying Things, Catherynne M. ValenteSocial Media and Algorithms, PBS Nova

Aaron leads Robert and Rachel through the early days of the Internet. The gang talks about the worst people imaginable: Corporate stooges and Grateful Dead lyricists. Music by Daniel Griggs Sources: Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software, Stallman: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.htmlCyberlibertarians’ Digital Deletion of the Left: https://jacobin.com/2013/12/cyberlibertarians-digital-deletion-of-the-left Making common sense of cyberlibertarian ideology: The journalistic consecration of John Perry Barlow: https://jstor.org/stable/community.32839336 Cyberlibertarian myths and the prospects for community: https://doi.org/10.1145/270858.270864 Cyber Libertarianism - The Case for Real Internet Freedom: https://techliberation.com/2009/08/12/cyber-libertarianism-the-case-for-real-internet-freedom/ Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace: https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence

Rachel takes Aaron and Robert through the history of drag, the unmitigated good of drag brunches and drag story hour, and how the right is trying to ruin a whole lot of good peoples' lives. This is, ostensibly, a palette cleanser episode but, well, Florida and the South in general are bummers. Music by Daniel Griggs

Robert and Aaron reminisce about their lives spent with their eyes glued to monitors while Rachel looks on in horror. By which I mean, Robert talks about how the first-person shooter genre opens people up to be anesthetized to the horrors of the world, BUT ALSO how the first-person shooter genre can be artful and allow people to explore those horrors in an artful way a la - not surprisingly - Wolfenstein: The New Order. Don't worry, we talk about the Nazis.   Music by Daniel Griggs.

The gang continues their traipse through the history of country music, this time focusing on Richard Nixon and how 9/11 broke everyone's brains. There are far too many digressions to count in this one, so I'm not even going to try.   Music by Daniel Griggs

Robert takes Aaron on a journey through the history of the politics of country music, then shatters Aaron's psyche by reminding him about Brooks & Dunn.   Music by Daniel Griggs

Aaron takes Robert and Rachel on an adventure through the glories of the Ip Man quadrilogy and RRR. Are these movies mere propaganda? Are they are? Or are they REALLY FUN ACTION MOVIES, YOU GUYS! (Question mark.) Music by Daniel Griggs.

Robert takes Aaron and Rachel on a journey between IRL George Costanza, George Santos, and best-poster-who-isn't-dril, Nick Adams. Digressions include: Highlights from Fallout: New VegasAaron takes a stand against Tibetan BuddhismMayor Pete!The gang's thoughts on Taylor Swift Music by Daniel Griggs.

Join the gang on a journey into the grim, dark future in which there is only war. Digressions in this one mainly include a not-at-all successful attempt to get Rachel up to speed on the lore of Warhammer 40K, D&D, and Warhammer: Fantasy Battles.   Reading list: https://web.archive.org/web/20160518214822/http://cardboardsandwich.com/features/games-workshop-the-humble-origins-of-a-global-gaming-empire/ https://web.archive.org/web/20160518214819/http://cardboardsandwich.com/features/blood-dice-and-darkness-how-warhammer-defined-gaming-for-a-generation/ Bell of Lost Souls: Warhammer 40K Op-Ed: Lets Talk About The Community’s Nazi Player Problem https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2021/11/warhammer-40k-op-ed-lets-talk-about-the-communitys-nazi-player-problem.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Ri-x0RCd8Yk&feature=emb_title   Vice: The Wahammer 40K Community is Trying to Weed Out its Far Right Faction: https://www.vice.com/en/article/9358ke/the-warhammer-40k-community-is-trying-to-weed-out-its-far-right-factionHarvard Kennedy School: Research note: The spread of political misinformation on online subcultural platforms https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/research-note-the-spread-of-political-misinformation-on-online-subcultural-platforms/B2O: Containment Breach: 4chan’s /pol/ and the Failed Logic of “Safe Spaces” for Far-Right Ideology https://www.boundary2.org/2019/07/dennis-erasmus-containment-breach-4chans-pol-and-the-failed-logic-of-safe-spaces-for-far-right-ideology/The Untold Truth Of Games Workshop: https://www.looper.com/448990/the-untold-truth-of-games-workshop/Chainmail’s fantasy supplement:  Shannon Appelcline (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '70s. Silver Spring, Maryland: Evil Hat Productions, LLC

The gang talks atheism. Specifically, Aaron leads Robert and Rachel through some historical tidbits about atheism - did you know Diogenes ruled? - and then drags them down through the utter muck and sewage of Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris. Everyone has a terrible time and wishes nothing but “the best” for those three dudes. Digressions include dog training tips, more chats about how the English ruined the world, and other fun stuff.    Music by Daniel Griggs. Reading list: The Nation - The New Atheists - 2007: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/new-atheists/The Nation - Among the Disbelievers - 2007: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/among-disbelievers/Salon - Godless grifters: How the New Atheists merged with the far right - 2021: https://www.salon.com/2021/06/05/how-the-new-atheists-merged-with-the-far-right-a-story-of-intellectual-grift-and-abject-surrender/The Atlantic - Richard Dawkins Gets into a Comments War with Feminists (2011): https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/07/richard-dawkins-draws-feminist-wrath-over-sexual-harassment-comments/352530/The Guardian - Richard Dawkins loses ‘humanist of the year’ award over trans comments: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/20/richard-dawkins-loses-humanist-of-the-year-trans-comments20 Ways to Save Labour: https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2009/06/labour-government-publicSam Harris’s Islamophobia bullshit: https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1112829995167215617From the Enlightenment to the Dark Ages: How "new atheism" slid into the alt-right: https://www.salon.com/2017/07/29/from-the-enlightenment-to-the-dark-ages-how-new-atheism-slid-into-the-alt-right/Harvard Political Review - Sam Harris, Maajid Nawaz, and the Illusion of Knowledge: https://harvardpolitics.com/sam-harris-maajid-nawaz-illusion-knowledge/The Guardian - Sam Harris, the New Atheists, and anti-Muslim animus: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/03/sam-harris-muslim-animusStanford - Vasubandhu overview - disproof of a Creator God: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vasubandhu/#DisCreGodAtheism and Skepticism in Ancient Greece: https://www.learnreligions.com/atheism-and-skepticism-with-greek-philosophers-248345Hindu atheism - Mimamsas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_atheismBrief introduction to Purva Mimamsa Sutras: https://www.mimamsa.org/articles/brief_introduction.htmlWas Spinoza Actually An Atheist?: https://philosophynow.org/issues/151/Was_Spinoza_Actually_An_AtheistTablet - The Tenth Man: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/the-tenth-man-2Jewish Ideas Daily - The Trouble with Hitchens: https://www.jewishideasdaily.com/1026/features/the-trouble-with-hitchens/Sam Harris (is not a Nazi): https://idontspeakgerman.libsyn.com/episode-22-sam-harris-is-not-a-naziThe controversy around hoax studies in critical theory, explained: https://www.vox.com/2018/10/15/17951492/grievance-studies-sokal-squared-hoax Bonus reading on Hitchens: https://old.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/xnt9gq/well_youre_not_that_great_yourself_mr_hitchens_a/

Well, we talk about Shrek. Specifically, Shark spends two hours proselytizing the Word of Shrek to Aaron and Rachel. Digressions include, like, the first twenty minutes; we talk about Repo Man; we talk about Buckaroo Banzai; we talk about musicals; we talk - many times - about Smash Mouth. It’s a good time. Trust me.

In this second of two episodes on Vikings, Aaron, Robert, and Daniel discuss the horrors of Wagner; debate which composer would be a beast on social media; and who, among philosophers, is most like a child who can’t wait to tell you dinosaur facts. The gang then chats about tabletop roleplaying and Stephen McNallen.    Music by Daniel Griggs. Reading list: Who Owns the Vikings? Pagans, Neo-Nazis and Advertisers Tussle Over Symbols,” New York Times, March 17, 2018: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/world/europe/vikings-sweden-paganism-neonazis.html  "Articles of Faith": American Heathenry and Cultural Appropriation “The Viking Age as a Model of Diversity”https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/qanon-shaman-maga-capitol-riot-rune-pagan-imagery-tattoo-1111344/ No Nazis in Valhalla: Understanding the Use (and Misuse) of Nordic Cultural Markers in Third Reich Era Germany: https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1113&context=irj White Supremacists Have Weaponized an Imaginary Viking Past. It's Time to Reclaim the Real History: https://time.com/5569399/viking-history-white-nationalists/ Vikings were never the pure-bred master race white supremacists like to portray: https://theconversation.com/vikings-were-never-the-pure-bred-master-race-white-supremacists-like-to-portray-84455 What To Do When Racists Try To Hijack Your Religion: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/11/asatru-heathenry-racism/543864/ White Supremacy’s Old Gods: https://politicalresearch.org/2018/02/01/white-supremacys-old-gods-the-far-right-and-neopaganism Who was in Harold Bluetooth’s army? Strontium isotope investigation of the cemetery at the Viking Age fortress at Trelleborg, Denmark: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/EC869F4BE5A4B8C6F5125A1071687549/S0003598X00067880a.pdf/who-was-in-harold-bluetooths-army-strontium-isotope-investigation-of-the-cemetery-at-the-viking-age-fortress-at-trelleborg-denmark.pdfWorld's largest DNA sequencing of Viking skeletons reveals they weren't all Scandinavian: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/691197 The Varangian Guard: Why Did Vikings Fight For The Byzantine Empire?: https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/varangian-guard-byzantine-empire-kievan-rus-vikings-basil-ii-vladimir-great/ The Norse Mythology Blog | norsemyth.org: "Articles of Faith": American Heathenry and Cultural Appropriation: https://www.norsemyth.org/2021/09/articles-of-faith-american-heathenry.html The Viking Age as a Model of Diversity: https://wildhunt.org/2021/11/column-the-viking-age-as-a-model-of-diversity.htmlViking Private Military Contractors (In Space): Anti-Woman Mercenary Fighting Force Or One Man’s Paper Tiger?: https://www.antihate.ca/viking_private_military_contractors_space_anti_woman_mercenary_fighting_force_one_man_paper_tiger White Supremacy’s Old Gods: https://politicalresearch.org/2018/02/01/white-supremacys-old-gods-the-far-right-and-neopaganism The CPAC stage was shaped like the Othala rune…which is what?: https://forward.com/culture/465017/the-cpac-stage-was-shaped-like-the-othala-runewhich-is-what/ C. G. Jung – Essay on Wotan [w. Nietzsche]: http://www.philosopher.eu/others-writings/essay-on-wotan-w-nietzsche-c-g-jung/ Asatru’s Racist Missionary: Stephen McNallen, Defend Europe, and the Weaponization of Folkish Heathery: https://godsandradicals.org/2017/09/14/asatrus-racist-missionary-stephen-mcnallen-defend-europe-and-the-weaponization-of-folkish-heathery/