Supercontext: An Autopsy Of Media

This 1988 Japanese anime film broke the bank with its high production budget, but it is still remembered for its masterful artwork and deep themes about adolescence and post-war dystopia. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Akira Additional Resources: Akira: The Story Behind The Film ‘Akira’: Looking back at the future Akira: The Tortured History of the Unmade Live-Action Adaptation 30 Years of Akira: The Triumph and Legacy of a Legendary Film ‘Akira’ Is Frequently Cited as Influential. Why Is That? How 'Akira' Has Influenced All Your Favourite TV, Film and Music

Thanks to our Co-producer Miriam Meaney for this week's topic! This 1964 collection of short science fiction stories shows a writer in conflict with his own genre in the wake of horrible family tragedy. We discuss Ballard's interest in psychological inner space and speculative fiction to better understand his role in the history of literature. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: J. G. Ballard on Amazon Additional Resources: The New Science Fiction Strange fiction A brief survey of the short story part 26: JG Ballard Four Stories: "The Drowned Giant" by J.G. Ballard | Weird Fiction Review 'The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard' - Los Angeles Times The Catastrophist The haunting science fiction of J.G. Ballard Ballard, James Graham (1930–2009) BOOKS Remembering J.G. Ballard's Science Fiction Legacy JG Ballard: Extreme Metaphor: A Crash Course In The Fiction Of JG Ballard The Corner of Lovecraft and Ballard J. G. Bal

This album from 2000 came out more than 20 years into the career of this genre fusing music group. We look at their commercial apex and their struggles with racist expectations to understand what led to this attempt at a new beginning. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Fishbone albums Additional Resources: The Red Hot Days of Fabulous, Funky Fishbone HAY, C. (2000). “Psychotic” Fishbone Goes Hollywood. Billboard, 112(9), 12. Fishbone & the Familyhood Nextperience FISHBONE "Fishbone & Fishbone Back on Its Mission FISHBONE Seminal funk game-changers in town Ska-Punk Rockers, Way Ahead of the Curve LIFSON, A. (2011). A Fish Story. Humanities, 32(1), 6. Fricke, D. (1991). Black and bruised. Rolling Stone, (614), 68. Biggs, Jimmie. “Growing Up Black in the White Punk Scene.” New York Amsterdam News. 6/30/2005, Vol. 96 Issue 27, p17-17.   

This 2017 Netflix television show is a critically acclaimed fictional depiction of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling that were popular in the 1980s. We discuss how the show's creators handle representation of stereotypes while also criticizing the worst of America's fears. Additional resources: Get in the Ring: How ‘GLOW’ Recreates the Golden Age of Lady-Wrestling TV Why ‘GLOW’ Creators Made Women’s Wrestling Series How the Original G.L.O.W. Wrestlers Helped Shape the Netflix Hit ‘GLOW’ Fight Coordinator Chavo Guerrero Jr. on Getting Wrestling Right Obsessed With ‘GLOW’? Meet The Real Female Wrestlers Who Inspired The Show How accurate is Netflix GLOW series? Original GLOW girl Tina Ferrari weighs in What GLOW Gets Right About Pro Wrestling “The Slow and Sudden Rise of Marc Maron,” Newsweek Global. 6/29/2018, Vol. 170 Issue 24, p26-33. Glowing Past: Netflix's "GLOW" costume designer on '80s trends and the evolution of sneakers, FN: Footwear News. 7/16/2018, Vol. 74 Issue 22, p10-1

This 2014 collection of short horror stories shows a prolific author experimenting with different tropes and genres to find wonder in making sense of the world. We discuss Jones’s unique writing process to understand the importance he gives horror. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: After the People Lights Have Gone Off Additional Resources: Book Review: After the People Lights Have Gone Off – Author Stephen Graham Jones After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones Stephen Graham Jones ~ After the People Lights Have Gone Off Haunted Reading Interview: Stephen Graham Jones Stephen Graham Jones on writing horror and its inverse, romance Interview: Stephen Graham Jones on The Weird One Month of Reading Stephen Graham Jones: A Primer Consuming, Incarcerating, and "Transmoting" Misery: Border Practice in Vizenor's Bearheart and Jones's The Fast Red Road[1] We are Stephen Graham Jones, author of AFTER

This 1985 fantasy film is remembered fondly by our generation, but may not hold up under re-examination. We look at the studio process it was made under, while thinking about how it tries to subvert our expectations of fairy tales. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Ladyhawke Additional Resources: 20 Crazy Details Behind The Making Of Ladyhawke History, Fantasy, and Weird Armor: Ladyhawke Is Ladyhawke the Best Fairy Tale of Them All? The Hawk, the Wolf, and the Mouse: Tracing the Gendered other in Richard Donner’s Ladyhawke In Defense of ‘Ladyhawke’ Lessons Every Filmmaker Can Learn From Richard Donner The Wolf, the Hawk and the Avant-garde Musician: Interview with Andrew Powell

This 1998 horror manga depicts a Japanese town that plunges into chaos in the face of the symbolic spiral. We look at how Ito conceived Uzumaki, while struggling with big philosophical ideas like nihilism, rationalism and routine, meticulous dread in the face of our cosmic insignificance. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Uzumaki Additional Resources: The Junji Ito Interview: A conversation with the creator of Uzumaki Black illumination: the unhuman world of Junji Ito The Horrific Mechanations of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Uzumaki Uzumaki: Junji Ito’s Phenomenal Art and Lackluster Storytelling Into the Spiral: A Conversation with Japanese Horror Maestro Junji Ito The Grotesque Tales of Junji Ito — Part 3: Uzumaki “Uzumaki” Is a Horror Classic That Will Leave You Spinning THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL: THOUGHTS ON LOVECRAFTIAN SPIRALITY AND ITO’S UZUMAKI INTERVIEW: THE LEGENDARY JUNJI ITO T

This 2018 spy thriller is praised for its humor and subversion by critics and audiences alike. We discuss how it represents female and queer identities without pinning down either as templates or tropes. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Killing Eve, Season 1 Additional Resources: ‘It’s anarchic’: the cast of Killing Eve on Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s killer thriller Phoebe Waller-Bridge Twists the Spy Genre With BBC America’s Thriller ‘Killing Eve’ ‘Killing Eve’ Showrunner: ‘All Obsession Is Sexual’ All About Killing Eve: The BBC spy drama that's already a US hit Killing Eve and the Riddle of Why Women Kill The Queer Ambiguity of ‘Killing Eve’ ‘Killing Eve’: TV’s Newest Assassin Subverts Storytelling Cliches, Which Makes Her Scary as Hell Feminist thriller "Killing Eve" has proven a perfect show for the #MeToo era BBC Buys Into Award-Winning U.K. Drama Producer Sid Gentle Films

This repost of our two Nick Cave episodes is a mess of grief, awe, love, and aspiration. Part 1: Nick Cave's Lament In anticipation of the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album “Skeleton Tree” and its accompanying documentary “One More Time With Feeling,” we discuss the tragedy of losing a child and its effect on art, performance and persona. Part 2: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Skeleton Tree By becoming a more vulnerable frontman, Nick Cave has transformed after a major tragedy. To understand this better, we cover his latest album Skeleton Tree, the companion film One More Time With Feeling and the Bad Seeds' latest North American tour. Additional Resources: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Nick Cave I Am the Real Nick Cave The Love and Terror of Nick Cave Nick Cave Finally Tells His Most Painful Story Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds x Hingston Studio – Skeleton Tree All Songs +1: A Devastating New Film About Nick Cave Nick Cave Talks About Living and Writing Through Grief Nick Cave Will Never Be Forgot

THIS IS A REPOST OF A 2016 EPISODE. In an unusually giddy, slaphappy episode, Charlie & Christian try to understand how Game of Thrones' sixth season was made. When does an adaptation stop being an adaptation? What happens when it passes -- and surpasses -- its source material? Additional Resources: Last Year (Winds of Winter) post by George R.R. Martin

Thank you to our Co-Producer patron Chris Marlton for selecting this week's topic! This 1997 Australian alternative rock record was a massive success in its home country, but is something we (the hosts) were totally unfamiliar with. We look at how music subjectively builds identity for some "young people" to understand why Unit is so important to adults looking back on their outsider adolescence. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Unit Additional Resources: Polyester genius: reflecting on the boundary-pushing perfection of Regurgitator’s 1997 classic, Unit MUSIC REVIEW | Regurgitator – Unit (1997) ! (The Song Formerly Known As) by Regurgitator – towering electronic fuzz Jade Lazarevic. (2012, September 8). The way we were. Newcastle Herald, The (Includes the Central Coast Herald), p. 12. ELIZABETH LORD. (2012). Regurgitator relive retro. Mercury, The (Hobart), 6. Regurgitator has always pleased itself — and fans are h

This 2015 Vertigo comic by Tom King and Mitch Gerads sets a murder mystery in the Iraq War in 2004. We discuss how the creators strived for accuracy and reverence with this complex story while struggling with our own distaste for violence, glorification, and authority. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: The Sheriff of Babylon Additional Resources: One of comics’ best writers is a former CIA agent Inside 'The Sheriff of Babylon,' DC Comics' Wartime Crime Drama Comic-Con: DC's Vertigo Imprint to Launch 12 New Series Before End of Year Why the CIA Has to Read This Comic Before You Can The Best Retelling of the Iraq War Story Is a Comic Book 15 Reasons Why You Should Be Reading The Sheriff Of Babylon https://twiststreet.tumblr.com/post/181648879026 Did Batman’s Tom King Work For the CIA? Yes, Yes He Did. PERSPECTIVES ON A CRIME: TOM KING AND MITCH GERADS ON ‘THE SHERIFF OF BABYLON’    

Thank you to our Co-producer patron Kevin Wetter for selecting this week's topic! This 2003 superhero film adaption went through ten screenwriters during its production and suffered poor critical reception. We look back before the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we now know it and ask why the formula of Greek tragedy mixed with Cold War paranoia failed to work. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: HULK Additional Resources: Countdown to Hulk: Screenwriter John Turman talks about a fan's dream job U Bulks Up Hulk Hulk Makes a Monster Out of Gamma Rays Green With Anger Ang Lee Gets Inside Hulk’s Head Countdown to Hulk: Screenwriter Michael France Talks ‘Hulk,’ ‘Punisher,’ and Beyond. Countdown to 'Hulk': Producers Avi Arad and Gale Anne Hurd talk Temper, Temper Ang Lee looks back at his Hulk movie The successful failure of Ang Lee’s Hulk Credit Grab The Hulk. (2003). Millimeter, 31(6), 14.

This HBO series remake about artificial intelligence, violence and consciousness was made with expert care by everyone involved in its production. But we ask, why then wasn't its depiction of its big themes ultimately satisfying? Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Westworld Additional Resources: Abrams and Nolan Team Up for Westworld HBO Pilot The Long, Weird History of the Westworld Franchise HBO’s Westworld Extras Have to Sign a Consent Form Agreeing to ‘Genital-to-Genital Touching’ Ed Brubaker on Westworld, The Fade Out, and his immersion into Hollywood Your Westworld Logistical Questions Answered On the Ranch with the Creators of “Westworld” How the Creators of Westworld Built a Violent World of Robot Cowboys Why the Westworld Costumes Were So Complicated to Create The Secrets Behind Westworld’s Opening Title Sequence Westworld’s Showrunner Hint at Season 2, Discuss Show’s Video-Game Influences Why the Bica

This 1996 novel is infamous for its length and complex narrative structure, while being critically lauded for its themes and style. We discuss how Wallace approached the project, while grappling with revelations about how he treated women both on-and-off the page. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Infinite Jest Additional Resources: The Afterlife of David Foster Wallace Infinite Proofs: The Effects of Mathematics on David Foster Wallace! David Foster Wallace at 50: Why he still matters and always will MICHAEL PIETSCH: EDITING INFINITE JEST A BRIEF (CROWD-SOURCED) INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL PIETSCH 'Infinite Jest' celebrates 20th anniversary God, Mary Karr and Ronald Reagan: D.T. Max on David Foster Wallace Mary Karr Speaks Out About David Foster Wallace Amid Literature's #MeToo Movement 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Infinite Jest Why Insufferable People Love Infinite Jest Men Recommend David Foster Wallac

Thank you to our Co-Producer patron Miriam Meaney for selecting this week's topic! This 2016 film by Nicolas Winding Refn is about beauty, jealousy and the entertainment industry. We look at Refn's thematic intentions and the myriad of arguments about his "misogyny" or "feminism," to try to understand how the glamour industry portrays women.   Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: The Neon Demon Additional Resources: ‘Movie blood tastes so good’ – on The Neon Demon set with Nicolas Winding Refn A HORROR FILM ABOUT BEAUTY: NICOLAS WINDING REFN & ELLE FANNING ON “THE NEON DEMON” Nicolas Winding Refn Readies Danish/French Horror Tale Nicolas Winding Refn on The Neon Demon's Female-Dominated Cast The Neon Demon is the most offensive film of the year - and not because of the necrophilia MOVIES‘The Neon Demon’ Is ‘Valley of the Dolls’ Meets ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’?! Birth. Movies. Interview: Nicolas Winding Refn An

This 2007 manga serial by Inio Asano seems like a simple story about a middle-school boy growing up in Japan. But we find that using symbolic simplicity together with the detailed, weird world of adults, Asano has been described as the voice of his generation. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Goodnight PunPun, Volume 1 Additional Resources: INIO ASANO INTERVIEW — “REALITY IS TOUGH, SO READ THIS MANGA ABOUT CUTE GIRLS AND FEEL BETTER” The disaffected world of Inio Asano GOODNIGHT PUNPUN Is A Horrifying Glance In The Mirror Preview: Inio Asano’s Goodnight Punpun is an ode to life’s awkwardness ‘GOODNIGHT PUNPUN’ IS THE STRANGEST MANGA OF THE YEAR (AND ONE OF THE BEST) Saying Goodbye to Childhood in Goodnight Punpun Interview: Goodnight Punpun Creator Inio Asano

This 1992 album is celebrated as one of the best of the era but we look at the dysfunctional, toxic relationships between the five band members, and we find that the pressures of the music business, touring, and getting older, led to internal conflicts that made it harder for Faith No More to just be a group of goofy weirdos. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Angel Dust Additional Resources: THE POWER OF NEGATIVE THINKING Talking music and zoning with Roddy Bottom of Faith No More Faith No More - Making Of Angel Dust (Full) Faith No More: 'We’ve made bad decisions our whole career. That’s why the English champion us' 26 YEARS AGO: FAITH NO MORE RELEASE ‘ANGEL DUST’ 10 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT FAITH NO MORE’S ‘ANGEL DUST’ HEAVY METAL HOMO

This 1967 British TV show is revered as a cult classic that was radical and countercultural, while symbolizing philosophical arguments about individualism vs. collectivism. We take a deeper look at star Patrick McGoohan and the commercial interests behind the show to ask if it's ultimately more conservative than pop culture likes to remember. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: The Prisoner Additional Resources: A Spy Trapped in a Nightmare of Psychedelia GEORGE MARKSTEIN interviewed by Chris Rodley Number Six At 50: The 50th Anniversary Of 'The Prisoner' How did The Prisoner ever get made? Patrick McGoohan Explains The Meaning Of The Prisoner, A TV Cult Classic Alan Moore Remembers Patrick McGoohan’s “The Prisoner”: Part 1 What on earth was The Prisoner all about? McGuire, J. T. (2014). A Mentor-Protégé Relationship?: Orson Welles, Patrick McGoohan, and The Prisoner Television Series. Quarterly Review of Film &

This 1979 collection of essays attempts to reveal the 1960s and California as stories without narratives. We discuss how Didion's work was branded because of her gender, class, and lack of politics, despite her insistence that writing was only an attempt to make sense out of chaos. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: The White Album Additional Resources: The Top 10 Essays Since 1950 Joan Didion’s Style Joan Didion: Staking Out California There's a reason Joan Didion's work endures: she changed the way we wrote We Tell Ourselves Stories: Didion’s “White Album” Takes to the Stage From literary heavyweight to lifestyle brand: exploring the cult of Joan Didion The White Album, by Joan Didion