Planet of the Meerkats

Santa is the fucking man, let’s just get that out the way up front. Homie’s been perpetrating the largest, most complex logistical operation the world has ever seen for centuries at this point. Mad respect. And Dave, bless his heart, still believes. That’s right…Doctor Dave is a Santa Stan. But, and I repeat — BUT — don’t get Dave started on the myth of the Arctic Fox. Because Dave AIN’T HAVIN IT....

I’m a big fan of thinking caps. In fact, I’m wearing mine right now. But hold up: For the next 32 minutes, Dave and Neil are inviting you to the brain siesta. Vamos! Tune out and turn on to the 1988 cult film, Young Einstein — the movie that thrust its budding star Yahoo Serious onto the international stage for a brief, shining moment. Is it the dumbest movie ever made about a genius? Probably. So...

Raise your hands if you’ve ever been personally victimized by the Predator? If the Predator is from outer space why does it have human-like dreadlocks? (Oh my god, Dave, you can’t just ask people why they have human-like dreadlocks.) Whether the Predator is hunting beefcakes in the South American rainforest, Danny Glover in a Los Angeles war-zone, or a Comanche princess who just wants to be a hunt...

To where did the Meerkats go? Have they been hibernating? Did they decamp to the Bermuda for tax avoidance reasons? Are they living the sweet life as anthropomorphic bagels in an alternate universe? Turns out they were just straight chilling for 5 months. But, rejoice! Our furry friends are back to talk about an odd couple of Criterion classics: the 1988 Martin Brest film “Midnight Run,” and Orson...

Do you know what hell sounds like? Is it the siren song of Sesame Street? Popular songs that have been whittled down to only the hooks? The playlist of a seven-year old? A Florida legislator reading the text of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill? One thing is for sure: this podcast is not what hell sounds like. It is quite nice. Join us as we discuss gender reveals, laugh at Francis Fukuyama, advocate for m...

In these dark days there is joy to be found. Joy…and Tes-love. We share our joy in the form of pitches for Hallmark Original romcoms centered around emergent Tesla features and advice to President Biden on how to defuse the Ukraine crisis. We also ask, are Juggalos a model for an inclusive, socially responsible society? Don’t deny the magnetism of the full-figured, polymath mouse Gadget Hackwrench...

The Super Bowl is again upon us! Our holiday of holidays, when a grip of grown-ass rich dudes in tight pants toss the old pig intestine around to see who takes home all the marbles. But Dave and Neil don’t give two hoots about what goes down on the gridiron, we’re here for purely aesthetic reasons: logos, helmets, and uniforms, baby. Who’s got the juice? Are the Rams the GOATs of branding, or can...

Kids today are beset on all sides by D.A.N.G.E.R.: Drugs, Actresses named Zendaya, Needless animal sacrifice by P.O.T.U.S., Gay rappers, Explicit lyrics, and Roving bands of karate hooligans. Join us as we discuss Spotify, S.C.O.T.U.S., unmanly cats, people named Joe, and the state of kids today. As Socrates said, “Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food, an...

One day you’re just lounging on the couch, watching the 1977 animated version of The Hobbit, eating raw mushrooms from a brown paper bag. The next, you’re renting an apartment in a literal mossy cave and your roommate is a giant African land snail that’s always late on its rent. Folks, it’s a slippery slope into the goblincore lifestyle, because that slope is muddy as fuck and if you fall down you...

Language matters. Inclusion matters. But take even a marginal step to make the language of local ordinances more inclusive? Outrageous. Dave’s community of San Diego recently passed a policy that prohibits the use of gendered pronouns in the municipal code. The response to this was big and incensed. Dave and Neil jaw about crazy gendered local and state laws around the US that are still on the boo...

Anakin Skywalker gave sand a bad rap. David Lynch spoiled it with voiceovers. Now, Denis Villaneuve is here to give sand another chance to spawn giant drug-farting worms. Did he succeed? Will these worms pass gas? Join us as we compare and contrast the new Dune with Lynch’s Dune like we’re in 8th grade English, explore the politics and philosophy of author Frank Herbert, and dip our toes into the...

use fighting it. Think back on that golden afternoon, sitting on the stoop in the sunshine with Mitch and the other neighborhood toughs — you knew you’d never be the same. It wasn’t too long before you were hitting the Smarties 24/7. You had to stay up just a little bit later to beat the Final Boss, so you snorted some sweet Pixy Stix. And now look at you. You’re eating a Snickers right now, aren’...

Okay, so Karl Marx, Robert Altman, and Tom Hanks walk into a bar. It’s a shame that I don’t have a punchline for this joke, but as a consolation prize I do have a fresh episode of Planet of the Meerkats — and this week we’ve got a real doozy on our hands. It’s volume one of our new Review Roundup series, where Dave and Neil discuss the books, music, movies, and more that have recently piqued their...

Technically speaking it’s still summer, but those halcyon pre-Delta days have faded into our collective rear view — now we’re staring out at a world of ochre leaves and long shadows, waiting for the warm embrace of PSL escapism. That’s right, homies, pumpkin season is nigh, so strap on a cable-knit sweater and plug into the Meerkat Matrix — this week we’re bringing you all the gourd news that’s fi...

Things are getting better! But you wouldn’t know it when you open the newspaper or turn on the tv. People are biased to view the world negatively and pessimistically and this is reinforced by news media overwhelmingly focused on the bad. From Socrates to our parents, people have feared that kids are not all right – that the world is not all right.  And truly, we need to know about these bad t...

One afternoon while the Meerkats were strolling through Disneyland, Dave suggested they watch The Fast and The Furious . Why? Well, why not. Because this 2001 film is a meditation on family and loyalty. A story about pushing through one’s limits, both physical and mental. A tale of how greed and revenge can lead us down the darkest of streets. It’s a film that goes vroom, zoom, and occasionally, b...

Stories provide a common language and mythology that bind society together. Broadly, across entire cultures, and intimately, at the water cooler. But stories are changing. Storytelling is changing. From broad cinematic universes to tales told by podcast, from the ethics of deepfaked performances to thorny conversations about building new art on the foundations of old, technology and global interco...

This week we interview Eric Leven, Visual Effects Supervisor on Marvel’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Eric has had a long career doing special effects for properties such as F&TWS, Cloverfield, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, and Starship Troopers. We discuss the evolution of VFX from stop-motion to CGI, the two camps of VFX - spaceships and lasers vs monsters and mummies - and the importance of re...

During the pandemic, our kids watched a lot of children’s programming and we watched it with them. Do we have some thoughts? Yes, yes we do. From the cloying cuteness of Wonder Pets to half-assed YouTube content farms, from the incessant whining of Calliou to the obnoxiousness of Blippi, there is a lot of bullshit out there. What the hell is up with SpongeBob? Does the Cat in the Hat condition you...

From whence did humankind come? To where are we heading? Prior to recorded history, were we really just living in caves and banging rocks together, or was there an antediluvian period of advanced human history that has been lost to the historical record? Conversely, as humans approach the Singularity, irreversibly change the Earth’s climate, and flirt with interstellar travel, what will humankind...

We’re friends, okay? We’ve known each other forever, okay? But you, dear listener, don’t really know us. Join us as we interview each other and ask the hard questions (Part 2!), such as: what would your Purge mask look like? Astrology or aliens? What’s your go-to album when you’re down? What’s your superpower? Come, find out what makes a Meerkat tick. Come, be our friend.

Hey! Come derry dols! Lord of the Rings, the fantasy epic that birthed a genre and a thousand black light posters, has confused many a reader. Just as the story gets momentum, BAM! The narrative is stopped for three chapters with an interlude about a silly, singing, enigma who is immune to the evil of The One Ring but does nothing about it. What are we to make of this man with boots of yellow? Is...

The end is nigh, brought to you by Godzilla. Or Ragnarok. Or Calliou? There are 32 apocalypses jonesing to end it all for us, but there can be only one (because, of course). Join the Meerkats as we pit these Apocalypses against one another, March Madness-style, to see which catastrophe will be our undoing. What will be our destroyer? A super-volcano? Our housecats? Vigo the Carpathian? This is sci...

This week we chat with Australian ex-pat Christopher Burns, the musical force behind tawny.frogmouth and composer of the Planet of the Meerkats’ amazing theme song. Christopher shares about his musical and artistic process, his thoughts on Australian lollies, raccoon baseball-interference, and barely comprehensible Aussie surfer slang - some of it through song! (Seriously, you have to hear these s...

Remember when you could buy a squirt gun that looked like a Kalashnikov? When parents would set their kids free and expect them to take care of their sh*t until dinner time? When 8 year-olds were free to watch hyperviolent dramatic meditations on the Vietnam war and then play with the corresponding heavily-armed action figure? From GI Joes to Slinkys, from baseball cards to invisible dogs, toys pl...