This week we are discussing all things CANADA! Specifically, why does President Trump claim it is a "great contender" to become the 51st state? What is it about the US's northern neighbor that is so attractive to the would-be empire builder president? How is this issue playing out in Canada itself? Would a military conquest of Canada result in a brutal insurgency that might destroy the United States itself? All these questions and more are tackled in this episode.

We also discuss the recent USA vs Canada Four Nations hockey match and its attendant, immediate fights, as well as the breaking news of a plane crash in Toronto.

Articles mentioned in the episode:

The New York Times on Trump's Desire for Canada

Aisha Ahmad on what a Canadian Insurgency might look like

Financial Times on Whether Trump is Serious about annexing Canada

The CBC on the potential electoral fallout of Trump's tariff threats

Politico on what Trump "really wants" from Canada

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This week we are joined by comedian, actress and writer Maggie Crane to discuss Bo Burnham's divisive comedy special Inside from 2021. We get into some of the critiques of the special, while also noting the things about it which we really like. Is Inside "our King Lear" or are we still waiting for the definitive covid-era great work to emerge?

If you are in Los Angeles, catch Maggie's half hour standup set at the Lyric Hyperion on March 19, 2025.

This episode contains spoilers for Bo Burnham's Inside.

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This week we're talking about the first season of the hit Apple TV+ show Severance. We examine the ways the show functions as a reflection of our current, corporation-dominated world, exploring questions of work/life balance as well as the potential abuses inherent in a severance-like procedure. We also ask the all important question: what if severance could go even further? Is the severance procedure merely the first step in a Frankensteinian process moving humanity ever closer to the dreaded singularity?

We open the episode with a discussion of recent article by Seymour Hersh regarding the first Trump administration's initial response to the Covid-19 outbreak in late 2019.

This episode contains spoilers for Severance Season 1.

Link to Seymour Hersh's piece on Substack:

Trump's First Covid Mistake

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This week we are devoting a full episode to news, recapping the first week of Donald Trump's second term as president. We discuss the myriad executive orders the president has issued, ranging from his pardons, to his crackdown at the border, to his taking the United States out of the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement. What are the long term implications of these moves, and is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Is there a tunnel? Are we just now in a cave at the center of the earth? In order to find out, you must listen.

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This week we are discussing Coralie Fargeat's 2024 film The Substance, a movie that imagines what it might be like if you could recapture your youth. We get into the implications of the film for our culture, particularly as it relates to aging and finding meaning in an increasingly youth-centric, substance-less world. Making references to Oscar Wilde and Mary Shelley, we also take a look at some of the spiritual antecedents to this brilliant (if horrifying) concept-driven picture.

We open up with a somewhat extended conversation about the second inauguration of Donald J. Trump as president. How have our predictions been panning out so far? Is the new tech oligarchy really as bad as we feared? To find out...you must listen.

This episode contains spoilers for The Substance.

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This week we are discussing the "Y2K computer bug," the great potential apocalypse of the turn of the millennium that...did not live up to the hype. But rather than being another "when prophecy fails" situation, the reason this apocalypse was averted was because of concerted and organized work across many different areas. Programmers worked for years in advance to remediate the code of software used in applications from air traffic control to power grids and beyond. The Y2K problem therefore stands as one of the (few) genuine threats to our society that was successfully identified and fixed before it was able to cause real harm.

We then spend a bit of time talking about Y2K , the recent nostalgic horror film from A24.

In he first part of the episode we consider the catastrophic fires that have ravaged Los Angeles during the opening weeks of 2025, with Michael offering some first hand experience from LA. We connect this back to some apocalyptic fiction we have covered in previous episodes, in particular Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower.

Links about the LA Fires and the attendant controversies:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-wildfires-los-angeles-fire-chief-budget-cuts/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/12/who-is-kristin-crowley-la-fire-chief

Links to articles mentioned about the Y2K problem:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/insider/y2k-crisis.html?smid=tw-share

https://www.npr.org/2024/12/28/nx-s1-5116271/y2k-year-2000-preparations

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/31/millennium-bug-face-fears-y2k-it-systems

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This week we're discussing Robert Eggers' 2024 adaptation of FW Murnau's classic Nosferatu. Is it a poignant and disturbing meditation on the idea of forbidden love, recasting a classic story for our troubled times, or is it merely an empty reboot of well-loved IP for our empty and soulless era? The hosts are somewhat divided on the answer to this all-important question! We also consider the original film, as well as Werner Herzog's 1979 adaptation starring Klaus Kinski and Bruno Ganz.

We open the episode discussing the recent terror attack in New Orleans as well as the detonation of a cyber truck in front of Trump's Las Vegas Hotel and what these events augur for our conspiracy obsessed moment.

This episode contains spoilers for all versions of Nosferatu as well as Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula.

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It's our 2024 recap episode in which we go over all things apocalypse from the year we are concluding. Topics discussed include: the return of Trump, the continued disintegration of the Democratic party, the rise of a new oligarchy, the continued impotence of the media in the face of horrors at home and abroad, and the potential for AI to immiserate creative people the world over. It's a very optimistic episode!

We close out our look back by looking forward, attempting to divine what the best possible outcomes for 2025 might look like.

This episode contains spoilers for the year 2024.

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