This was originally a Patreon-exclusive episode, but we're now making it available to everyone as a sampling of what we do on our Patreon, and because we really loved this conversation! Get more content like this right now by signing up here! Before getting into our conversation on Stephen King's "Doctor Sleep," we took a few minutes to discuss "escapist fiction" as a term, how and why it's used in our society, and what we think about that.

Charlyn and Fyx are back after a spring/early summer of gardening, isolation, and depression! We apologize for having such a long gap since our last podcast, and we hope you can bear with us as we try to get back on track. In this episode, we discuss the fun and cheeky Knives Out, its relationship to the mystery stories that have gone before, and the pointed conversations about class and racism the film definitely throws right at those tense, family-filled holiday dinner tables. Can you guess which Thrombey we think is the worst of the rotten bunch? You probably can!    Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce    Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, on our website, and on YouTube by searching for “Unramblings.” Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!     Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.       Show Notes:    Paolo Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed  Fast Company - We asked an expert if that stomach-turning condition in Knives Out actually exists  TV Tropes - Madonna-Whore Complex

This week we watched and discussed Alice Wu’s acclaimed film The Half of It. We think you should watch it, too! We discuss the elegant way Wu has woven together some very relatable and sometimes uncomfortable lessons about growing up. Enjoy our discussion on the critical dividends of discomfort and taking risks, the intersectionality of characters, and why we were, ironically, originally not sure we wanted to willingly subject ourselves to the discomfort of secondhand embarrassment guaranteed by a film loosely retelling Cyrano de Bergerac.     Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce    Check out our videos at the Unramblings YouTube channel. Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Get Unramblings merch at Redbubble. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.       Show Notes:    The Origin Of Love [Hedwig and the Angry Inch] - YouTube What Alice Wu Wants To Say In 'The Half of It' - NPR In Quiverfull Movement, Birth Control is Shunned - NPR

We’re taking a break with this pre-recorded episode. In October 2020, we indulged in a re-watch and discussion of the comforting, but also emotionally complex Pixar film. Charlyn, in particular, loves this movie. We hope you enjoy our (mostly Charlyn’s) appreciative acknowledgement of the many references to real-life brain anatomy, neural processes, and childhood development, and reminiscences from our childhoods relevant to Inside Out. Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce    Check out our videos at the Unramblings YouTube channel. Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Get Unramblings merch at Redbubble. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.       Show Notes:    Inside Out's Take on the Brain: A Neuroscientist's Perspective - Dr. Blake Porter An excellent breakdown of the accuracy and artistic license regarding the brain and neuroscience in Inside Out. Universal Emotions - Paul Ekman Group  Stages of Memory -  Simply Psychology Popular Science - Your memories are less accurate than you think An extreme case of healthy insomnia [Abstract] – Study of a woman who was perfectly fine on an average of 1 hour of sleep per night The Enchanted World of Sleep - Peretz Lavie – Excellent and entertaining book on sleep Why do we dream - Very Well Mind – Breakdown of the different theories on why we dream Time to rethink teeth - Sapiens – Article on tooth enamel, tooth formation, and human diversity; references the rings in teeth that are made around birth.

We just can't wait for Season 3! For this episode, we explore the bizarre yet realistic family dynamics of The Umbrella Academy, dig into the opportunities seized by setting season two in the 1960s, and speculate on what might be coming next.     Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here:  https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce     Check out our videos at the Unramblings YouTube channel. Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Get Unramblings merch at Redbubble. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show.   Recommendations and shares are good, too.       Show Notes:    An experimental test of the Westermarck effect: sex differences in inbreeding avoidance - Behavioral Ecology  March by John Lewis  All our different types of memories - Australian Academy of Science  Purves D, Augustine GJ, Fitzpatrick D, et al., editors. Neuroscience. 2nd edition. Sunderland (MA): Sinauer Associates; 2001. Brain Systems Underlying Declarative and Procedural Memories. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10940/ (summary shown on linked page)

This was originally a Patreon-exclusive episode, but we're now making it available to everyone as a sampling of what we do on our Patreon, and because we really loved this conversation! Get more content like this right now by signing up here! Before delving into our conversation on Warm Bodies, we took some time to discuss the movie Solo. We touch on how it was received by the fandom, how it fits into the over all Han Solo narrative, and issues with the droids in the Star Wars universe. [Originally released Oct. 18th 2020]   Guest appearance from Misty!   Thank you to our patrons for making this bonus episode possible!    Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce   Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, at Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/Unramblings, and on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Get Unramblings merch at Redbubble. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings! #Solo #Podcast

This week, Faefyx and Charlyn revisit The Mandalorian after watching Season 2. We discuss the different ways the identity of 'Mandalorian' is claimed and attributed in this season, as well as implications of those identities on what it means to be Mandalorian. We also delve into the relationship between this story and the larger Star Wars Universe and the ways that other narratives in the shared universe affect the way this story is told.   Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce    Check out our videos at the Unramblings YouTube channel. Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Get Unramblings merch at Redbubble. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.       Show Notes:    Film Theory - Star Wars, How the Mandalorian PROVES the Empire was Right! SuperCarlinBrothers - Top 7 Unanswered Questions From The Mandalorian

It’s another seasonal episode! This time we delve into a holiday classic: the slapstick-heavy, and yet surprisingly sad Macaulay Culkin vehicle, Home Alone. This one bears revisiting as an adult; we get into why this film hits us completely differently as grown-ups with its effective representation of what a child believes it’s like to be an adult.   Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce    Check out our videos at the Unramblings YouTube channel. Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, at Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/Unramblings, and on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Get Unramblings merch at Redbubble. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.       Show Notes:    Home Alone Google Assistant Parody – Macaulay Culkin recreates scenes from Home Alone as an adult using Google Assistant.

We’re getting into the holiday spirit with the record-breaking, LGBTQ-centered holiday rom-com Happiest Season! Enjoy an exploration of the nuanced depiction of the sometimes-messy coming-out process, our thoughts on some of the story elements used to bring this story to life, and what we think about this as a holiday romantic comedy.    Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce    Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Get Unramblings merch at Redbubble. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.       Show Notes:    Variety - 'Happiest Season' Director Clea Duvall Interview

In a follow-up to our episode on Avatar: The Last Airbender, we discuss Korra as a protagonist, the show’s relationship with the status quo, and the use of the spirit world as a storytelling medium. We also question whether some arcs really earn the emotional payoff they’re going for.     Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce     Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Get Unramblings merch at Redbubble. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.       Show Notes: https://xkcd.com/282/

It's been one year since the very first episode of Unramblings, where we embarked on our journey to The Overlook Hotel with Stephen King's The Shining. For this anniversary episode, we're visiting with Dan Torrance again with Stephen King's Doctor Sleep, the sequel to his classic novel.  We discuss intergenerational patterns, the role of alcohol in the story, and the final message of the book. We also take a look at the 2019 movie adaptation starring Ewan McGregor. Maybe we'll be kinder to it than we were to Kubrick's adaptation of the original. Maybe...    Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce    Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Get Unramblings merch at Redbubble. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.

Before we release our anniversary episode on Doctor Sleep, we wanted to move our first episode, The Shining, back up in the queue with a fresh intro for those who might have missed our debut. If you have the time, it's relevant for the Doctor Sleep episode, and it's a nice reminder of how far we've come, especially as far as audio quality.  In the first episode of Unramblings, Charlyn and Faefyx discuss Stephen King's novel "The Shining," the adaptation to film by Stanley Kubrick, and Hallorann's snowcat delivery service.     Thank you for joining us for this especially long first episode. If you found this tolerable, please rate and subscribe!     Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce     Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Get Unramblings merch at Redbubble. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.

Just in time for Halloween, we’ve made an Addams Family episode! We discuss the overarching Addams Family conceit and how it's been adapted for different decades and mediums, and get into why we think this kooky family continues to capture our imaginations after 90 years. Plus, our thoughts on which iterations are the best and why!  Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce    Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Get Unramblings merch at Redbubble. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.

It’s spooky season, so we’re immersing ourselves in appropriately weird and dark media, like the 2013 dark comedy/teen rom-com/zombie movie – yes, you read all those categories correctly – Warm Bodies! We delve into the messages of this film – but not too far, because this movie is not shy with what it wants to say. Enjoy our breakdown of how the movie conveys some of the subtler nuances of its super on-the-surface ideas about communication and hope, how the visual choices aid in the storytelling, and the effects of eating someone’s brain.   For bonus content related to this episode, check out our Patreon at Patreon.com/Unramblings!    Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce    Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.       Show Notes:    IMDB - Warm Bodies

This week, Charlyn and Fyx delve into the mind-bending TV series Legion. We examine what the narrative and the storytelling have to say about our perceptions of reality, whether “good” and “bad” are too simplistic when looking at character growth here, and speculate on whether the plot was devised merely to justify including the songs they wanted to use.    Music is by Mike Bassington. You can find more of his work here: https://www.facebook.com/Mikebassingtonmusic and on SoundCloud, here: https://rb.gy/gskbce    Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings, and on YouTube by searching for “Unramblings.” Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!     Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.       Show Notes:    Medium - The Hollywood Production Code of 1930 and LGBT Characters  New Scientist – Boléro: Beautiful Symptom of a Terrible Disease  Radiolab - Unraveling Boléro

This is a nice light episode that just deals with trauma, isolation, and issues of institutional indoctrination and conformity! Okay, so it isn’t light at all, but we throw a couple of jokes in there, and the source material makes the heaviness sort of unavoidable. Ultimately, we thought that talking about fascism and feeling isolated from everyone was important at the moment… for reasons. Join us as we make our way through Pink Floyd’s musical storytelling in The Wall, including both the standalone album and the bizarre 1982 film. Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, on our website at FaefyxCollington.com/Unramblings, and on YouTube by searching for “Unramblings.” Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings! Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.

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We get to a ‘Big Question’ in each episode, but we’re really tackling the *BIG questions* with A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. this week. This one’s heavy, folks. Even for us. Expect conversation on whether humans are doomed to bring about their own suffering, whether knowledge always leads to our destruction, and if there is a case for forgiving, and thus blaming, God for making people suck. But also, you know, what relics people would venerate if we were up for canonization, so that’s fun!  Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at MarkCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.       Show Notes:    Washington State University - Study Guide for A Canticle For Liebowitz

Since every day is exactly the same these days, we’re leaning in and talking about time loops! This episode is mostly about Palm Springs, a Lonely Island Production, but also somewhat about Groundhog Day and Russian Doll. We talk about why it feels like Palm Springs is responding to Groundhog Day in particular, and why time loops are such a thing in the first (and second, and third…) place. For extra fun, check out our live-tweeting of Charlyn’s first watch of Groundhog Day! Spoiler alert: It has not aged well!     Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at MarkCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show.  Recommendations and shares are good, too.

Charlyn and Faefyx take on the first book in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series, “The Final Empire” (originally published as “Mistborn”), in the first of an ongoing series. Tune in for discussions on classism tied to racism, the use of religions and an intriguing magic system in storytelling, and hear Faefyx make probably incorrect predictions for book 2 (they haven’t read it yet).    Find us on Facebook and Instagram at Unramblings, on Twitter at @UnramblingsPod, and on our website at MarkCollington.com/Unramblings. Email us with feedback, questions, and suggestions at unramblingspodcast@gmail.com. Continue the conversation on social media with #Unramblings!      Please rate and review wherever you listen, as it helps more people to find the show. Recommendations and shares are good, too.       Show Notes:      Paolo Freire - Pedagogy of the Oppressed Great book, and really short! One of the foundational texts of critical pedagogy; we refer to his description of how an individual oppressor achieves true solidarity with the oppressed, as well as Freire’s description of false generosity, or charity that targets the symptoms of an unjust society, which supports the oppressive system and fails to address the underlying cause of social problems – the oppressive system itself.     Snopes - LBJ Quote on Race "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." – Lyndon B. Johnson     NPR - Is a Placebo a Sham If You Know It's Fake and It Still Works?    Washington Post - Five myths about placebos    Late Thoughts: Avatar   Wikipedia - White Lotus – Apparently, the White Lotus Society was an actual secret society that inspired multiple rebellions in imperial China     Late Thoughts: Hamilton [Video] Bernadette Banner - Unpacking the Hamilton Costumes: Historical Accuracy?    Late Thoughts: Birds of Prey Tor - On the Significance of Harley Quinn's Split Lip in Birds of Prey