After Lunch

Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about what they've been listening to and reading. Topics include teenage stupidity, pocket symphonies, which Enterprise we'd want to serve on, De La Soul and music licensing, annotated books, Barry Allen goes to Marvel,  Batman: White Knight ,  The Big Sleep , and Nothing.

Michael and Rob talk about JJ Abrams' contribution to the  Mission: Impossible  series, starring Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Crudup, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maggie Q, Simon Pegg, Laurence Fishburne, and Keri Russell.

Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger talk about Sean Connery's fourth adventure as James Bond in  Thunderball . Lots of music discussion in this one, praise for Paula Caplan and Fiona Volpe, and awe at Largo's impressive sense of fashion.

Michael, Pax, and guest Noel Thingvall (with input from Evan as well) recall their favorite films of 2013 and how they feel about them now. And they might get into some of the big stinkers of 2013 as well.

Michael, Rob, Evan, and guest Jody Collins imagine a reality in which Marvel Comics takes a year off from publishing superhero comics to focus on other genres. What genres should they pick? What stories should they tell? And what creators should write and draw them?

Michael wraps up his series of solo episodes about Ian Fleming's James Bond novels with his last book:  The Man With the Golden Gun . Heavily influenced by the three films that had come out by then, it's a hint at the direction the series might have taken had Fleming lived long enough to write more. Whether that's a good thing or not is up for discussion.

Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about what they've been watching and thinking about, including  Willow ,  Velma ,  The Last of U s,  She-Hulk: Attorney at Law ,  Ford v Ferrari ,  Black Adam ,  Gotham Knights ,  The Banshees of Inisherin , Pluto TV,  Shrinking , how faithful adaptations should be, sleep, where we live, and planning a Sleepy Hollow trip.

Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about Marvel's Old Man characters, Martin Short's  I Must Say , how to listen to movie review podcasts, malls, live action kids TV shows, John Carter of Mars, why our playlists are so awesome, the Fantastic Four, the UK's rudest walk, epistolary books, Greek mythology, redcaps, mystery novels vs short stories,  Star Trek comics, and other things they've been listen...

Michael and Rob get through John Woo's stylistic sequel, but is it really as bad as they remembered? There's guitars, slow motion, sunglasses, and doves, but also Anthony Hopkins, Thandiwe Newton, and Ving Rhames.

CT, Jeeg, and Pax reunite to look back at their very first Nerdstradamus episode and the predictions they made 10 years ago in Jan 2013.

Michael, Rob, and Karen don their golf togs and hit the green to talk about the film that changed the James Bond series forever. But are those changes all for the better? That's just one of the many topics under discussion, so pour yourself a glass of indifferently blended brandy and settle in.

At last! Michael, Rob, Evan, Robert Zerbe, and Kay look back at their favorite pop culture, predictions, and resolutions for 2022 and make a few predictions and resolutions for 2023 as well.

Michael and Rob get ready for this summer's  Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One  with the first in a series of episodes covering the  Mission: Impossible  movies so far. In this one, they talk about Baby Tom Cruise, the fate of Jim Phelps, the charming Max, and whether any of this makes sense. 

Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax reminisce about their favorite things they watched this year, do some thinking about the past and the future, and open some presents.

Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about their favorite things that they listened to and read from 2022. And whether they'd be willing to pay the horrible price of teleportation.

Michael, Rob, and Delaney skip ahead to the 32nd Century in their chronological  Star Trek  trek with Season 3 of  Discovery . As the crew tries to locate the remnants of the Federation and acclimate to life in the future, our panel talks about favorite characters, plot threads, and themes of the season.

Michael, Rob, Pax, and David May reboot TV shows based only on brief descriptions of their premises. 

Carlin and Robert Try to Put Right What's Going Wrong with the new Quantum Leap !  Theorizing one can get a few things off his chest, Carlin Trammel leaps into the podcast time stream. His only guide on this journey is Robert Zerbe, a fellow observer of the new  Quantum Leap  TV series airing on NBC. So both podcasters find themselves watching each episode of the new series and extensively making...

Michael continues his solo exploration of Fleming's Bond novels with the next-to-last in the series,  You Only Live Twice . Following the tragic events of  On Her Majesty's Secret Service , M sends Bond to Japan on an impossible diplomatic mission that becomes something much more bizarre and personal.

Michael and Rob and Karen Flieger board the Orient Express to speed up the frequency of their Bond movie discussions this year, starting with Sean Connery's second appearance as Bond in  From Russia with Love . The trio talks about the characters, music, quips, clothing, gadgets, and everything else that makes this one of their favorites. 

Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about what they've been watching: TV series like  Midnight Club ,  Andor ,  Stargirl ,  Wednesday ,  Mythic Quest ,  Willow ,  Perry Mason ,  Mare of Easttown , and  A-Team  "Christmas" episodes. Then there are movies like  A Christmas Story Christmas , the  Cannonball Run  sequel  Speed Zone , the  Underworld  series,  The Shop Around the Corner ,  Ernest Saves Christma...

Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about annoying Christmas Songs, Christmas mysteries and ghost stories, Lindsey Stirling music, book forewords and introductions, Mount Westmore, X-Men: Inferno , Batman: Three Jokers , and other things they've been listening to and reading.

Michael and Rob welcome Mike Westfall from the Advent Calendar House podcast to discuss a pair of the oldest adaptations of Charles Dickens'  A Christmas Carol . From 1910, it's the silent version from Thomas Edison's production company. And then we talk about the 1935 film starring Seymour Hicks. And be sure to check out Mike, Rob, and Michael's  Advent Calendar House discussion  from earlier thi...

In a completely original idea -  Nerd Lunch  definitely did  not  do this exact same topic on Episode 320 of their show - Michael and Rob welcome Evan Hanson, Paxton Holley, and Michael DiGiovanni to help a few restaurants create special menus inspired by Christmas movies.

This is the final rerun of Tangential Christmas Movie discussions from the old  Sleigh Bell Cinema  podcast and it seems appropriate to close with the poster child for these kind of movies. People love to argue about whether  Die Hard  is a Christmas movie, so we wouldn't dream of spoiling where Jeeg and Michael fall on that topic.