Fun Size Episode 75 – Literal Toilet Money [CLIP]

We’re back yet again with our 75th Fun Size episode, exclusive for our Patreon supporters!

This month, we’re continuing our talk with Carol Brouillette, and it may be time to crown Dave Bautista as the greatest professional-wrestler-turned-actor of all time. We look at his choices, roles and performances from Knock at the Cabin to Blade Runner 2049, and compare him to his squared circle contemporaries like Dwayne Johnson and John Cena.

Then we chat about the type of gimmicky overpriced restaurants for the uber-rich that marry pretentiousness to a giant price tag. What separates fine dining from obscene performative consumption that doesn’t taste good, isn’t filling, and costs the same as a month’s rent? Can you even feel like a good person eating something like that?

To unlock this episode in its entirety — and many episodes more! — just support us on Patreon with at least one measly dollar a month!

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Fun Size Episode 74 – That’s How You Get an Independence Day! [CLIP]

We’re back with yet another new Fun Size episode, exclusive for our Patreon supporters!

This month, we’re continuing our chat with Chelsea Rustad, and we’re looking at billionaire narcissists getting booed, and the ethics of hidden camera comedy shows.

Where is the line when it comes to comedy based on a person not knowing they’re on television? What if they know they’re on TV, but think they’re on a “serious” reality show, instead of a spoof? Who is the butt of the joke, and when does it go from funny to mean-spirited?

To unlock this episode in its entirety — and many episodes more! — just support us on Patreon with at least one measly dollar a month!

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Fun Size Episode 72 – Highway to Heaven, Except He Breaks Peoples’ Fingers [CLIP]

We’re back with a second Fun Size episode this month, exclusive for our Patreon supporters!

This time, we’re talking about our undying love for the Denzel Washington Equalizer movies, and how they can be a strangely bloody salve for our woes in these trying times.

We dive into the often-morally iffy world of middle-aged action revenge fantasies, and what the targets of those films’ righteous violence says about the people who make them. What separates a justified cathartic experience from right-wing reactionary paranoia?

Plus, we explore the messy, contradictory, and morally confused Black Adam, and try to figure out who the hell that movie wants us to root for.

Also: come out to our special movie screening on December 8th in Seattle and support the PNW Starbucks Workers United labor union relief fund!

To unlock this episode in its entirety — and many episodes more! — just support us on Patreon with at least one measly dollar a month!

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Fun Size Episode 71 – That’s Capitalism, Baby! [CLIP]

We’re back with another new Fun Size episode, exclusive for our Patreon supporters!

This month, we’re chatting about the wonder of the public domain and open source software, and how it helps make our show possible and helps create community — and how capitalism puts up walls and exploits them to seek rent.

We talk a bit about how the world’s richest douchebag tech bro finally gave us the nudge to get our show off of Twitter, just in time to watch him burn it to the ground. A billionaire narcissist and the internet’s favorite hellscape: those crazy kids deserve each other!

Who ever said that capitalism was a meritocracy? Spoiler: it’s billionaires.

Also: come out to our special movie screening on December 8th in Seattle and support the PNW Starbucks Workers United labor union relief fund!

P.S. – Mike doesn’t actually smoke. He wanted to be clear about that.

To unlock this episode in its entirety — and many episodes more! — just support us on Patreon with at least one measly dollar a month!

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Fun Size Episode 70 – Selling Diet Pills on Instagram [CLIP]

We’re back in the studio with a new Fun Size episode, now a monthly exclusive for our Patreon supporters! This month, we’re continuing our talk with Kirby Green, for a chat about reality television and the “Am I the Asshole?” sub-reddit.

So, reality television isn’t real. I mean, duh. Or is it sometimes? And does it actually matter? Aren’t we – like most scripted programs on TV – just agreeing to believe the reality we’re given for the sake of a story?

And Mike remembers The Joe Schmo Show, an accidentally wholesome faux-reality show from the ugliest decade (the aughts) on the douchiest network (Spike TV). Producers decide to play a prank on a real guy on a fake reality show, only to have to haphazardly change their mean-spirited plans when their subject turns out to be a lovably kind doofus.

To unlock this episode in its entirety — and many episodes more! — just support us on Patreon with at least one measly dollar a month!

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Fun Size Episode 69 – Two Degrees From Luke Skywalker [CLIP]

We’re back with a new Fun Size podcast, now a monthly exclusive for our Patreon supporters! This month, we’re back with Sam Mulvey to get nerdier than we have for a while.

Mike takes the rough draft of his new “Bechdel Test”-esque thought experiment about media worldbuilding for a spin and tries to punch holes in it.  Are our large shared universe worlds really as large and expansive as they appear to be, or is that just an illusion to hide something much smaller and more insular?

And in probably more depth and exhaustive detail than necessary, Mike talks about his love and fascination with J.R.R. Tolkien and his Middle-earth legendarium, and Sam gets the opportunity to talk more about Frank Herbert’s Dune than he’s ever done before on the show.

To unlock this episode in its entirety — and many episodes more! — just support us on Patreon with at least one measly dollar a month!

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Fun Size Episode 68 – Nobody Gives a Fuck About Rutherford B. Hayes

We’re continuing our chat with Joe Preti, for a deep dive into the topics that really matter.

We perhaps spend too much time, dissecting the many pathological lies and shitty behavior of 90s action star Steven Seagal, and we explore the two qualities a person can have in combination that can precipitate a downfall (or at least make you wish that it had). We explore the new Elvis Presley biopic, and the fleeting myth of cultural immortality. Do some things and people just deserve to be forgotten? And do only the truly worst people in the world achieve true notoriety? And isn’t being totally forgotten in a way… kind of liberating?

And we share a special announcement about the future of Fun Size episodes!

Black Ops Episode 15 – What Do You Think Alan Moore Did? [DECLASSIFIED!]

[As we continue our show hiatus, it has been decided by the fine people who support us on Patreon that we are going to make public — or ‘declassify’ — one of our Patreon-exclusive Black Ops episodes every month. This month, our patrons have personally selected this episode to help fill the gap! Consider it a look back at the ‘Before Times’]

Original Patreon release date: July 9, 2019

We chat a bit with Greg Hatcher about Trek, the character of Captain Kirk and why it can be a gift when fictional characters age along with their actors.

We try to navigate the labyrinth of public domain laws to fruitlessly try to figure out what you can and cannot do with with new adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, the Lone Ranger and the Land of Oz, and whether being public domain has produced better material.

And finally, we wax nostalgic for a bygone time when “grim and gritty” was new, and when Alan Moore blew the comic industry’s collective mind by doing a post-modern adult interpretation of a British superhero aimed at children.

PATREON EXCLUSIVE: Vote for the Second Panel Episode Topic of 2020!

On our current episode schedule, we produce two full panel episodes of Radio vs. the Martians! every year. Casey moderates one of these discussions, and Mike moderates the other.

Last spring, Mike moderated a talk about Spider-Man. Later in the year, Casey did same for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine!

For our second panel episode of 2020, Casey will be moderating again. And we’re letting our supporters on Patreon choose what we’re going to talk about!

Our patrons will be able to choose from:

HANNIBAL UNIVERSE Centering on Thomas Harris’ classic ur-bad guy, Hannibal Lecter, the series stems from a quartet of novels about the infamous cannibal serial killer, and the FBI agents who pursue him. The series has spawned five films, a brilliant television adaptation and a 100 million terrible Anthony Hopkins impersonations.

 


ZATOICHI THE BLIND SWORDSMAN – A wandering masseuse in Japan’s feudal period, Zatoichi is a blind man with a big heart and extraordinary swordsmanship helping right what once went wrong among the exiles and outcasts. Zatoichi was played exclusively by a single actor through 26 films, 100 episodes of a TV series, in a career spanning almost twenty years. The Blind Swordsman became a familiar samurai trope and legendarily revered Japanese character.

SEGA – The notorious underdog in the console wars of the 1990s, Sega went head-to-head against the House of Mario for over two decades. From the early arcade days, to resurrection of console gaming in the mid-80s and into the new millennium, Sega’s inventiveness and sheer moxie won over millions of adolescents before quitting the console market. But, the legacy of Sega’s IP (Hey, kids, you remember Sonic the Hedgehog, right?), their classic hardware design and their bad boy attitude survive.

NINE INCH NAILS – A new experiment: talking about music! The band that launched Industrial into the mainstream, Nine Inch Nails. Evolving their sound from synth-drenched new wave through the grunge rock era and coming into its own highly experimental heavy pop in the mid-90s, they presaged the death of rock n roll. Constantly experimenting, the band would move to become award winning composers for film and TV.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2003) – The remake to end all remakes! Who could have guessed that adapting a middling Star Wars knockoff from the late 70s, weaving together a serialized story about a human diaspora fighting against a race of malevolent robots bent on human extinction and producing it for basic cable could have ever been so good? Borrowing from current events, it was the poster child for smart, engaging science fiction in long form. So say we all!


LOBO – DC Comics’ favorite bounty huntin’ bastich! A Villain-turned-comedic-anti-Hero, Lobo is the wise-crackin’, nigh invulnerable heavy with no time for bullshit. Traveling the galaxy on his flying motorbike, Lobo is a tracker who, once he has accepted a job, must see it through. And woe to the many, many worlds and would-be challengers that run afoul of this immovable object. Raunchy, yet heartwarming, foul yet funny, Lobo embodies a corner of the DC Universe that’s been largely untouched in the current wave of big screen  adaptations. (Thank Zod for that!)


DENIS VILLENEUVE – French-Canadian film director almost single-handedly holding up the big budget, art house sci-fi film genre. A storytelling “wizard,” his credits include Sicario, Prisoners, Arrival, and Blade Runner 2049, his upcoming project is a two-film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune. With a unique talent for making critically lauded, idea-driven, R-rated movies, his success so far is both anomalous and inspiring.

It’s not too late to become one of our Patreon patrons and get in on this action! Join us! Even just a buck a month makes you eligible to vote!

Black Ops Episode 16 – An Infinite Loop of a Second Act [CLIP]

In our new episode, exclusive to our Patreon supporters, we talking about endings!

First, we want your opinion on a very important Patreon crowdfunding question!

We chat a bit about Henry Cavill taking on the lead role in a Netflix Witcher series, and why Disney should make one less live-action remake and do some good in the world!

And finally, we look at recent pop culture endings — Game of Thrones, Avengers: Endgame, Deadwood, the Walking Dead comic book, and the Fox X-Men franchise — and look ahead to future endings with Quentin Tarantino’s to-be-produced tenth and final film.

What stuck the landing, and what left us cold?

To unlock this episode in its entirety — and many episodes more! — just support us on Patreon with at least one measly dollar a month!

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Black Ops Episode 15 – What Do You Think Alan Moore Did? [CLIP]

In our new episode, exclusive to our Patreon supporters, Greg Hatcher rejoins us for a free range conversation.

We chat a bit about Trek, the character of Captain Kirk and why it can be a gift when fictional characters age along with their actors.

We try to navigate the labyrinth of public domain laws to fruitlessly try to figure out what you can and cannot do with with new adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, the Lone Ranger and the Land of Oz, and whether being public domain has produced better material.

And finally, we wax nostalgic for a bygone time when “grim and gritty” was new, and when Alan Moore blew the comic industry’s collective mind by doing a post-modern adult interpretation of a British superhero aimed at children.

To unlock this episode in its entirety — and many episodes more! — just support us on Patreon with at least one measly dollar a month!

Join us!

Black Ops Episode 14 – More Stuff in the Basement [CLIP]

In our new episode, exclusive to our Patreon supporters, there’s some more stuff to clean out the basement.

Casey loves science fiction, but has grown tired of the ubiquity of sci-fi that treats dystopia, calamity and apocalypse as inevitability.  What happened to looking for positive alternatives and aspirational worlds in our genre media?

Is it a symptom of our inability to imagine that we can overcome the things that make the modern world a scary place, and instead just imagine futures where our problems are exactly the same, or  just amplified?

To unlock this episode in its entirety — and many episodes more! — just support us on Patreon with at least one measly dollar a month!

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Fun Size Episode 32 – Mistakes Were Made

We continue our talk with Sam Mulvey and dig into the questions that try men’s souls. We ponder the repeated use of various firearms in movies, and why laser weapons aren’t nearly as numerous these days.

We dive into the insane and definitely-not-okay animal stunt work of movies past, and marvel at how Donald Pleasence’s pain threshold can be so impossibly high. Plus, we asked our Patreon supporters about their stupid childhood fears, and more!

Black Ops Episode 5 – What is the Zombie Version of Deep Space Nine?

In an episode exclusive to Patreon supporters, we continue to shake our canes at Hollywood blockbusters, spin offs, crossovers and shared universes, as Mike explains his rocky relationship with Fear the Walking Dead.

What motivates the creation of a spin-off? Are they doomed to be pale imitations? Is the massive blockbuster franchise bubble heading for a burst?

To hear the episode, subscribe to us on Patreon and pledge at least one measly dollar a month!

Check it out!

Black Ops Episode 4 – Death is Kinda Stupid

In a bonus “Black Ops” episode exclusive to our Patreon patrons, we sit down with Sean Duncan and Sam Mulvey to dig into the concept of immortality.

From Doctor Who to Highlander, we look at the trope of the ageless person who mourns their own lack of death and ask each other, is the trope of sad immortal nothing but bullshit?  Shouldn’t never dying actually be pretty great?

We get into armchair biology, the continuity of consciousness, loneliness, the ability (or inevitability) of change over time, theological questions, muse on transhumanism and the ability to opt out of immortality at any time.

Does death serve any useful purpose? Are we really the same person throughout our lives? Would you really want to live for thousands of years. Would you really be sad or grumpy if you had all the time in the world? Aren’t vampires really kind of stupid?

Who, truly, would want to live forever?

This and three other “Black Ops” will available to all Patreon subscribers who donate at least one dollar a month! Check it out!