Implausipod

The third time is definitely charming, as we take a brief moment this Festivus for some thanks and shout-outs to those who've followed along on this journey, and a quick recap of 2025 on the Implausipod.  Thanks for visiting us along the way. :) The Newsletter and the archives are here: https://implausi.blog/newsletter/ Dr Implausible can be reached at drimplausible at implausipod dot com  Re...

With season 2 of Fallout about to arrive in New Vegas, let's have a quick roundtable with our impressions of the first season.  This is part 2, as I don't like the episodes getting too long. Season 2 awaits on December 17th, 2025. Listen to part 1 here:  Reach out to the show Support the show

With season 2 of Fallout about to arrive in New Vegas, let's have a quick roundtable with our impressions of the first season.  This is part 1, as I don't like the episodes getting too long. Reach out to the show Support the show

We continue with our look at the WYCU, stopping at the Bladerunners, and figuring out how they fit within the timeline?  Let's journey to the dark... future(?) of 2019 and find out what happened on those off-world colonies, as we look at Blade Runner (1982), iRobot (2004), Soldier (1998), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017).  (Also, a spoiler warning: we cover a lot in these 4 films).  We're do...

Welcome to Phase 1 of the WYCU, as we start our look at the Weyland-Yutani Cinematic Universe. We've been talking about this over the last few months over on the blog, but with the three new titles released in the shared universe in 2025, it's time to get caught up on one of the original CUs, one that spans at least three movie franchises: Aliens, Predator, Blade Runner, (and a few more...

Welcome to the Implausipod, where we are looking at one of the more influential franchises in both cyberpunk and science fiction, as we use the recent release of Tron:Ares (2025) to look at the impact of the franchise as a whole - including Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010) - on the ideas and development of our virtual worlds. Reach out to the show Support the show

Welcome to the Implausipod, where a wrong turn and a 20 minutes detour due to poor signage led to an inquiry into the evolution of autonomous vehicles. We'll examine how the idea has appeared in popular culture, both within and outside science fiction. Turns out when it comes to self-driving cars, we're thinking street ahead. Reach out to the show Support the show

A look into the rise of ghost artists on Spotify, both AI generated and not, and what the history of Performer's Rights Organizations mean for art and creativity in the 21st century, and how that may make us question the very nature of creativity itself. Reach out to the show Support the show

Andor concludes!  (and Rogue One awaits?)  Join us as we wrap up the second and final season of Star Wars: Andor with the fifth in our five-part series looking at the show.  We'll recap the final three episodes, released on May 13, 2025 (titled  "Make It Stop", "Who Else Knows?" and "Jedha, Khyber, Erso") and provide our overall impression of the series as well. ...

Star Wars: Andor, part 4 of 5, looking at the three episodes released on May 6th, 2025, titled  "Messenger", "Who Are You" and "Welcome to the Rebellion".  Things are heating up as the new Media Reality of the Star Wars universe begins to unfold, with more dangerous actors and actions coming to the forefront as well.  Feel free to follow along with our previous covera...

Part 3 of our 5 part look at Star Wars Andor, with week 2 of season 2 and the three episodes released on April 29, 2025  ("Ever Been to Ghorman", "I Have Friends Everywhere" and "What a Festive Evening").  We'll continue following the threads as they weave together, mirroring the first season in some ways and charting new territory in bringing the most cyberpunk...

We return to Star Wars Andor over the next 4 weeks, starting with first three episodes released on April 22, 2025, titled  "One Year Later", "Sagrona Teema" and "Harvest".  Join us for a recap of the three episodes, and commentary on the themes we see within, and that have carried over from Season 1 (which we recapped in Episode 44). Reach out to the show Support the...

What can we learn about the Star Wars universe from the lives of its regular inhabitants?  What is life like under an authoritarian Empire? How does the resistance form, and who is behind it?  And how can a show that first aired in 2022 capture the current age in 2025?  Join us for a recap of the first season of Andor as a refresher before the second one airs beginning on April 22, 2025. Reach out...

In the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, some things come to and end. Join us as we look at the impact of the Appendix W on real world events through a look at one of the most iconic blades in fiction: Severian's Terminus Est from Gene Wolfe's 1980 novel The Shadow of the Torturer .  But much like the blade, there is much, much more hidden below the surface of this episode. Bibliogra...

What happens when a change is on the horizon, one that is approaching that will force you to move but is outside your control?  When a community knows it will be disrupted, it may be facing an Incipient Diaspora.  For the US denizens of the TikTok app, facing a ban in that country on January 19, 2025, we can observe how they reacted and prepared, and what lessons can be learned from the ongoing si...

Joy to the World, the 2024 Dr Who Christmas Special, gets a deep look in this episode of the Implausipod. This is the part two of our Dr Who double header. If you haven't already, check out our discussion of the 14th series, or 1st Disney series in the previous episode.  Our cyber-series will continue in 2025.  Thanks to Dr Aiden Buckland for joining us once again. They can be reached at doct...

We welcome a special guest back to the podcast to discuss the 14th series of the new Dr Who era, which aired in May and June of 2024, and highlighted the adventures of the 15th Doctor played by Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday. This is the part one of a Dr Who double header, as we'll discuss the 2024 Christmas Special in the next episode.  Our cyber-series will continue in 202...

Twice is enough for it to be a tradition, right?  Yeah, I think we'll go with that.  Welcome to our second annual end-of-year holiday thank you episode, something to offset the Festivus celebrations you may be having on this day before the day before Christmas.   Thanks for stopping by whenever you do. :) The Newsletter and the archives are here: https://implausi.blog/newsletter/ Dr Implausib...

What do you think of when you heard the word California?  What do you think it's "ideology" might be?  If you work in or on high technology, that California ideology may be shaping the way that you work, the projects that you work on, and the business models that high technology pursues.  What does it all mean?  The thinking that is driving the pursuit of certain developments in tec...

Was the reveal of the Tesla Optimus 3 at the recent We Robot event a miss?  How can you fail when unveiling a potentially groundbreaking technology? By using it to fake the appearance of a different tech, one that you're not even close to bringing to market. Reach out to the show Support the show

Is Joker 2 "anti-content", or is it just a challenging watch?  Join us for a quick ICEBreaker to discuss our first impressions of the film, and some thoughts that have crossed my mind in the day since.  Consider this a spoiler warning. Reach out to the show Support the show

Looking back in the year since the publication of our AI Reflections episode, we take a look at the state of the AI discourse at large, where recent controversies including those surrounding NaNoWriMo and whether AI counts as art, or can assist with science, bring the challenges of studying the new medium to the forefront. Links and Referenced Episodes: ALS.org story on Casey Harrell NaNoWriMo Sta...

What is Soylent Culture?  Whether it is in the mass media, the new media, or the media consumed by the current crop of generative AI tools, it is culture that has been fed on itself.  But of course, there's more. Have a listen to find out how Soylent Culture is driving the potential for "Model Collapse" with our AI tools, and what that might mean. Bibliography McLuhan, M. (1964). Un...

Whoops!  Somehow the details of an Excession - an Unknown Unknown - got cut from Episode 36 .  Fans of Irony will be enjoying this, I'm sure.  Kick back for another Icebreaker in this bonus episode, an addendum to Nescience and Excession, with an actual explanation of the thing that was in the title. Reach out to the show Support the show

Further detail looking at The Nostalgia Curve from Episode 35, and comparing it with the Fredric Jameson's "Nostalgia for the Present" (1989) to see what the established literature says about the topic.  We go into Jameson's writing on science fiction and Philip K Dick's "Time Out of Joint" (1959), and take a deep look at the Rumsfeld Matrix in order to introduce...