Basket Traffic: History versus Hollywood

“Send us mail” Spielberg making an alien movie should feel like a guaranteed event, so why did Disclosure Day leave us both impressed and irritated? We went on a bright, sunny day, came out feeling like we’d just stepped off a red-eye flight, and immediately started picking apart what worked, what didn’t, and what we expected from a director whose films shaped our taste in the first place.  We tal...

“Send us mail” We thought we were signing up for a smart new take on Animal Farm. What we actually got was a long trek to a nearly empty theater, a pile of commercials, and a movie that made us want to bail within 20 minutes. That failure is the starting point for a bigger question: how do you adapt George Orwell’s most famous political satire without stripping out the very teeth that make it matt...

“Send us mail” A crewed return to deep space suddenly feels real again and it hits at the exact moment we’re starved for something hopeful. We start with Artemis II and that surge of shared excitement you only get when a big mission is on the line. Then we zoom out to the space race logic behind it all: Sputnik’s shock, NASA’s creation, the Mercury and Gemini stepping-stones, and Apollo proving wh...

“Send us mail” Welcome back to the show where we combine film, history and comedy.  Join Craig, Shawn, and Susie as they journey through the cinematic universe, from the vibrating D-Box seats of Project Hail Mary to the controversial moments of the recent Oscars. Discover why audiences are flocking to theaters for original stories and practical effects, and how a puppet alien is capturing hearts....

“Send us mail” Welcome back to the show where we combine film, history and comedy.  Today we’re cracking open one of the most mythologized chapters in American history: the era of Prohibition , when the country outlawed alcohol and accidentally created an underground economy that made criminals into celebrities and lawmen into legends. The 1920s were supposed to be about moral reform. Instead, the...

“Send us mail” Welcome back to the show where we combine film, history and comedy.  On the morning of May 7, 1915, the RMS Lusitania sliced through the cold waters off the coast of Ireland, just hours from its destination. She was a marvel of modern engineering—a symbol of speed, luxury, and the confidence of the early 20th century. But beneath the surface of the Atlantic, war was already waiting....

“Send us mail” A Christmas intro turns pitch black fast, and then somehow we end up planning a trip to a $1 billion Dracula theme park in Romania. That’s the vibe: a year-end hang with side quests, sharp opinions, and the kind of pop culture talk that accidentally becomes a mirror for how 2025 actually felt. We get into our holiday watching habits and settle one of the loudest seasonal arguments w...

“Send us mail” A Medal of Honor story from World War I somehow turns into a blunt question about modern entertainment: why do so many movies feel allergic to real heroes? We start with Alvin York, a poor Tennessee woodsman who cleans up his life, wrestles with faith and nonviolence, gets drafted, and walks straight into the Meuse-Argonne offensive. The stakes are brutal and immediate, and that’s t...

“Send us mail” Alien Earth is the kind of show that makes two longtime fans watch the same scenes and walk away with completely different verdicts. One of us loves how the series lingers and how it expands the Alien universe with corporate politics, new creatures, and big swings around engineered life. The other sees a franchise getting sanded down into something safer, with plot logic that collap...

“Send us mail” Welcome back to the show where we combine film, history and comedy.  Show Summary: Halloween gets weird fast when you start with a tiny Snickers and end with Vlad the Impaler. We’re back on Basket Traffic talking about the stuff we actually return to every October: candy debates, scary movies, and the stories that make the season feel like a portal to childhood, even when we pretend...

“Send us mail” Halloween didn’t start as a cute neighborhood candy run, and it definitely wasn’t always safe. We pull back the mask on the real history of Halloween, from ancient Celtic bonfires and disguises meant to confuse spirits to a very American era when Halloween “pranks” slid into vandalism, intimidation, and even pay-up-or-we-damage-your-house extortion. If you’ve ever wondered why trick...

“Send us mail” Welcome back to the show where we combine film, history and comedy.  Show Summary: 1982 hits like a tidal wave when you really look at it. One year gives us E.T. and Poltergeist a week apart, a neon computer fever dream in Tron, a franchise resurrection in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and a hard pivot in action movies with First Blood and Rocky III. Then you stack on Thriller, M...

“Send us mail” Welcome back to the show where we combine film, history and comedy.  Show Summary: Fifty years later, Jaws still has the power to make a calm ocean feel like a trap. We start in 1975, talk through why the film became the first true summer blockbuster, and then get into the craft that makes it timeless: John Williams’ two-note dread, Oscar-level editing, and Spielberg’s smartest “pro...

“Send us mail” Craig, Susie and Shawn take the time to reflect on their experience with podcasting. If you're doing a podcast or thinking about it then perhaps we can offer something of value (honestly, don’t expect much). We talk about many things: the least of which is how we avoid marketing this podcast; Craig's obsession with listenership; Susie's Stockholm syndrome, and Shawn f...

“Send us mail” Welcome back to the show where we combine film, history and comedy.  Would you sign up for a job where dying is literally part of the contract? Mickey did! In Mickey 17, Oscar‑winner Bong Joon‑ho (Parasite) delivers a bizarrely brilliant mix of sci‑fi, satire, and dark humor. Robert Pattinson stars as Mickey Barnes, a man who volunteers to be an “Expendable” for a space‑colonizing m...

“Send us mail” A teenager with a pistol is the famous face of Sarajevo 1914, but we can’t stop there. We rewind to the Balkans at the turn of the century, where the Ottoman Empire is fading, Austria-Hungary is tightening its grip, and Serbian nationalism is burning hot under the weight of long memory, faith, and identity. The result is a region primed for a spark, especially after the 1908 annexat...

“Send us mail” The fastest way to tell if a movie has a soul is simple: does it make you feel something before it explains anything? We start with that question and head straight into The Lion King legacy, from Lebo M’s spine-tingling opening to Hans Zimmer’s Oscar-winning score and the Elton John and Tim Rice songs that still live rent-free in our heads. That 1994 animated film sets a brutally hi...

“Send us mail” A kid can be upstairs in his room and still be nowhere near safe. That’s the gut-punch we can’t shake after watching Netflix’s Adolescence, the UK mini-series that follows 13-year-old Jamie Miller after he’s arrested for murdering a classmate. We go full spoiler mode, not to rubberneck the plot, but to ask what the story is really pointing at: loneliness, online identity, and the si...

“Send us mail” Welcome back to the show where we combine film, history and comedy.  Today we’re diving into one of the most pivotal moments of the 20th century: the fall of the Berlin Wall. For decades, this concrete barrier stood as the ultimate symbol of division—East versus West, communism versus freedom—cutting through the heart of Berlin and the lives of millions. But in November 1989, everyt...