Heat Death of the Universe

QAnon is still too idiotic to live. Trump still has COVID and is in a perpetually manic state. Biden is still depressingly terrible in every way. David Brooks is still a bloviating, smug moron. The Roaring Twenties still should not be idealized. The future is still a sprawling landmine field of "unknown unknowns." General Recommendations JD's Recommendation: Hades JNM's Recomme...

We mark the horrific milestone of passing one million COVID deaths (roughly 25% in the US which has 4% of the population), briefly rehash the grotesquery of the Presidential Debate, contemplate the possibility of a Trump coup, face the fact that many other experts and politicians were just as deceitful about the reality of COVID as Trump was in the early days of the pandemic, and do a thorough rea...

Hoped for something truly unhinged and hilarious and got more bleak mediocrity instead. Again. The funniest part is that we got up early in the morning to watch this shit. Joke's on us. Again. Locationless Locations Every show-related link is corralled and available here . Heat Death of the Universe - @heatdeathpod JD Newland - @jdnewland Joshua Nomen-Mutatio - @ImbalancingAct Please send all...

We talk over and about large chunks of the 2012 HBO Original Film Game Change. Josh uses his midwestern roots to replicate Sarah Palin's Fargo-esque accent. Jason refuses to pronounce her name correctly. We give sweeping takes on the last two decades in the realm of political theater and/or circuses.  We agonized over which of the following political films to do a commentary track for: First...

Things get pretty loose on today's edition of Clickbait Roulette. We also went on to record a movie commentary for Game Change immediately after this. General Recommendations JNM's Recommendation: How It's Made JD's Recommendation: A Visit From the Goon Squad Further Reading, Viewing, Listening Read Meet Mongolia's most eligible eagle hunter We're all medieval monks n...

We glance into the fascinating and interlinked historical events of the Business Plot (to overthrow FDR's White House on behalf of a handful of wealthy industrialists), the Bonus Army's March upon Washington DC, and the figure of Major General Smedley Darlington Butler and his rallying cry against the profit motive as connected to warfare, in his book War is a Racket. General Recommendat...

In this late night edition, we talk about wishful thinking, hero-worship, myth-making, cults of personality, et cetera, within in the political realm, be it through mind-numbingly inane fanfiction, terrible Hollywood screenwriters, or the delusional cries into the chasm of twitter and reddit and the like. General Recommendations JD's Recommendation: The Boys (again, oops) & Psycho Mall Wa...

Our mid week early morning episode centers around two of the latest articles from Luke Savage ( @LukewSavage ) in the ideologically-aligned warm embrace of Jacobin. The first regarding the absolute imperative need for a Green New Deal to even possibly combat the effects of climate change. The second deals with the perpetual disappointment of the Biden campaign, which not only will never be pushed...

Round three of the adrenaline-surging, highest of high stakes endeavor of Clickbait Roulette. It's a fun one. Or it isn't. You be the judge. Our fate is in your hands while our mouths are in your ears. General Recommendations JNM's Recommendation: In Fabric JD's Recommendation: Liveship Traders Trilogy Further Reading, Viewing, Listening Read 4 insane things just happened to Te...

But seriously, of course clean water is a right and not, as some seem to believe, a privileged commodity. The Biden campaign's recent, gleeful acceptance and touting of the endorsement from former Michigan GOP Governor, and obvious angel of death, Rick Snyder—this sparked an interest in taking a closer, retrospective look at the still ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Ways to help: 6 F...

We take a much needed breather from all things psychologically-battering and ulcer-inducing (politics, climate catastrophe, pandemics, Aaron Sorkin) in order to discuss and recount the brand new (and extremely anticipated by yours truly) Charlie Kaufman film I'm Thinking of Ending Things and delve into Kaufman's magnificent filmography more generally. There will be significant spoilers—i...

Watch along with us. It's better than just watching this piece of shit without us. "The original draft of the screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing, is said to have been harder-hitting and to have ended by explicitly linking American support for the mujahideen to 9/11. Reportedly, Tom Hanks found this too "political". Instead of 9/11, then, Charlie Wilson's...

We wanted to hand over a lighthearted episode after the dark clouds of the DNC/RNC and we did! Lighthearted is a synonym for three-fourths drunk, yes? Yes. We recorded a commentary track for 2007's dull and infuriating Aaron Sorkin penned, conveniently glossed over, slice of modern US imperialist Cold War history, Charlie Wilson's War . Immediately after this we continued to celebrate ev...

We attempt to countenance the disorienting glare of the flag-draped COVID-19 vector euphemized as the "Republican National Convention." We cause vital blood vessels to explode in our brains by bearing witness to the all-sensory bombardment of a turbo-speed edit of the "highlights." Afterward, we try to supply the ballast needed for our RNC-battered minds by listening to Chris H...

Chronic sleep-deprivation collides with another early midweek recording session and a few rounds of Clickbait Roulette™. Patents were proposed. Goof-abouts were gathered. News headline veils were lifted. Typhoon "Barbie" was on its way as well. General Recommendations JD's recommendation: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin 刘慈欣 ( @liu_cixin ) JNM's recommendation: Broadcast...

After surviving the psychic gulag of watching all eight Fast & Furious movies, we jumped ship out of that frying pan into the fire of the 2020 Democratic National Convention and said our piece. Come for the livid reactions from yours truly, stay for the markedly better explanations from Briahna Joy Gray. General Recommendations JD's recommendation: Bright Eyes - Down in the Weeds, Where t...

Right before we summarized the madness glimpsed by our non-stop watching of all eight Fast & Furious movies, we watched and spoke over the trailer for the upcoming, ninth installment of the sprawling franchise, F9. Trailer: FAST 9 Super Bowl Trailer (2020) Fast And Furious 9, John Cena Send us Fan Mail Support the show Support: patreon / buzzsprout

Listen and watch along with us and our unhinged rambling, while cars become Cars, family becomes Family, Ja Rule and nü-metal triumph together, and product placement reaches into your brain, causing an insatiable thirst for Corona (cerveza, non-virulent), nitrous oxide, and a Sobe/Snapple/Pizza Hut chaser to be smashed into your face as you drive your skydiving car out of an airplane one quarter m...

Immediately after recording our previous episode, we moved the recording equipment in front of the TV, and began to watch all eight of the movies from the Fast & Furious franchise, in a single, virtually uninterrupted, sitting. We'd never seen any of these movies prior. We laughed and cried ( and cried and laughed about it all again ) through approximately 16 hours of running time. We ref...

We've returned, against the odds, with a conversation centered around the news of Kamala Harris becoming the VP candidate alongside Joe "C'mon, Man" Biden. The centerpiece of the episode was the Jacobin article "Joe Biden Has Found His Neoliberal Match in Kamala Harris" by Branko Marcetic . General Recommendations JD's Recommendation: 7 Wonders JNM's Recomme...

After pushing through the knotty chaos of equipment acquisition stumbling blocks, a self-taught crash course in sound engineering and editing, relearning how to think and speak in the context of Podcast, and the evergreen, debilitating, self-conscious states of our very minds, we offer up this inaugural episode. We blindly delve into some truncated and often misleading news headlines, predict thei...