Tag Archives: atheism

Fun Size Episode 56 – “The Customer is Always Right”

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We continue to work the registers with Tobiah Panshin, going to places both weirdly metaphysical and painfully mundane.

First, Mike thinks it might actually be preferable to live in a hypothetical computer simulation than a “real” universe. What is real, anyways? Does that make our programmers gods?  Is the act of creation inherently selfish — and if it is, does that even matter?

Then, we look at a recently unearthed-on-YouTube reality show, Airline, about ticket agents and flight attendants weathering often-drunken customer abuse and demands. It triggers all sorts of all-too-familiar customer service flashbacks. Plus, Mike remembers that one time he almost got into a fight at the airport.

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Black Ops Episode 17 – Ask Us Anything: 2019

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In our new nearly two hour episode, we’re answering your questions in our first Ask Us Anything episode!

We start by sharing three facts about ourselves that you might not know, then we tackle your questions!

We talk about our musical obsessions, past political activism, strange retail job stories, how we met, our adventures with conspiracy theorists on public access television, our respective parenthood and non-parenthood, Al Pacino impressions, Mike’s cancer treatments, desert island selections, and how we first fell in love with our favorite pop culture fandoms. And so, so many digressions.

Included in this episode are questions by David Gutiérrez, Grant Richter, Wesley, Tim Batson, and Gem Newman.

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Mike Returns to the Film and Water Podcast!

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Mike return to Rob Kelly‘s Film and Water Podcast, to talk about one of his favorite movies, 1960’s Inherit the Wind!

Based on the play of the same name, and on the real-life Scopes Monkey Trial, Inherit the Wind tells the story of a small town schoolteacher put on trial for teaching his students Darwin’s theory of evolution to his students. With the town — and the entire country in an uproar — a former populist presidential candidate stands for the prosecution, and a famed civil right attorney for the defense, and sparks fly!

Mike gets into why this is one of his favorite films, how its a refreshing departure from the usual portrayal of atheist/agnostic characters in fiction, and why a movie made in 1960 — and based on events from the 1920s — is frighteningly still relevant today.

Check it out!

Episode 23 – Star Trek: the Next Generation

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Space…the final frontier…

Mike and Casey reserve a table in Ten Forward and share a pot of “tea, early grey, hot” with Greg Hatcher of Comic Book Resources’ Comics Should Be Good! blog and game designer Ryan Chaddock. Our continuing mission: to launch a class-5 probe into the Neutral Zone, and to discuss the classic science fiction series, Star Trek: the Next Generation.

We discuss how it added to the Trek mythos, the tug of war over the show’s themes and writing, and how the classic series stands the test of times as a piece of optimistic science fiction in a current age of popular dystopias and the “grim and gritty” storytelling in genre film and television.

Make it so!

Music: 
“End Credits” from Star Trek: First Contact by Jerry Goldsmith

Previously titled: “Oh, God. Not Another Troi Episode!”

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