Purely Academic with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman

This month, we’re trying something new by releasing the individual segments once a week, to spread the mountain of content we recorded out over the whole month. And that concludes with the month’s last segment, but certainly not its least: The Monthly Ten, the part of the show where Sean and Jonathan challenge each other to make increasingly ridiculous Top 10 lists. In this month’s installment, Jo...

This month, we’re trying something new by releasing the individual segments once a week, to spread the mountain of content we recorded out over the whole month. And that continues with this week’s ‘Show n’ Tell’ segment, in which Sean and Jonathan discuss what they’ve been watching and playing over the last month. Sean talks about the new Like a Dragon  game, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii,  while Jonath...

This month, we’re trying something new by releasing the individual segments once a week, to spread the mountain of content we recorded out over the whole month. And that begins with a super-sized news segment, in which we break down Nintendo’s official unveiling of the Nintendo Switch 2, an announcement met with simultaneous excitement, controversy, and uncertainty. The price, and the possibility...

For March, we’ve put together a really fun grab-bag of an episode, including a topic segment where we answer a big pile of listener mail from our amazing audience members! Sean and I respond to your questions about our favorite directors, how we analyze art when preparing for podcasts, what we would program if we owned our own movie theater, and much more! In the News segment, we discuss the revea...

It’s February, the month of love, and we’re celebrating it in style, first by talking about one of our most beloved (and oft-referenced) movies, Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane,  and then by having Sean count down the Top 10 Weirdest Anime ‘Ships he could think of, complete with original fan-fic excerpts for each and every one. We also pay tribute to David Lynch, a filmmaker both Sean...

For our first episode of 2025, we take a look back at the very best in video games from 2024, with Sean and Jonathan both presenting their picks for the 10 greatest video games of the year, a diverse collection of titles including several games we’ve never discussed on the show before! In our Show n’ Tell segment, Jonathan talks about his adventures graduating, moving, and preparing for a new job,...

In this special bonus episode, Jonathan Lack counts down the Top 10 Films of 2024!  You can read the text of this episode, and see links to full reviews of every film discussed, at  https://www.jonathanlack.com/p/the-top-10-films-of-2024 Time Chart:  Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:02:38  Honorable Mentions: 0:02:38 – 0:10:54  #10: 0:10:54 – 0:16:12 #9: 0:16:12 – 0:20:22 #8: 0:20:22 – 0:24:53  #7: 0:24:53 – 0:...

For our December episode, we go deep with Atlus’ outstanding new JRPG, Metaphor: ReFantazio.  Like Persona 5,  the team’s previous game, this is a work deeply involved in the political and existential questions of our present time, and gives us a lot to chew on as we break down what is easily one of 2024’s best games. In our Show n’ Tell segment, Sean gives his first impressions on Sony’s PS5 Pro...

It’s our busiest episode yet, with a giant six-hour extravaganza to get you through the month of November. Our main topic concerns the Gamera  Heisei trilogy from the 1990s; directed by Kaneko Shusuke with special effects by Higuchi Shinji, these movies are towering classics of the Kaiju genre, and secretly some of the greatest superhero films ever made – and they’re very fun to talk about. For th...

For the October installment of Purely Academic,  Jonathan and Sean embrace the spooky season by talking Halloween –  specifically, the recent Halloween  reboot/sequel trilogy directed by David Gordon Green and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, with the hosts debating whether these films are muddled messes or interesting revisionist takes on the slasher genre. We break down some recent News, including Son...

For the first episode of this new incarnation of the podcast, Jonathan and Sean introduce (or reintroduce) themselves to listeners by interviewing each other, with a mix of questions equal parts insightful and ridiculous. Then for our first ‘Show ‘n Tell’ segment, we discuss what we’ve been playing and watching recently, with Sean discussing HoYoverse’s Zenless Zone Zero  and his ongoing adventure...

The Weekly Stuff Podcast may be dead, but that doesn't mean we are! Sean and Jonathan are here for a quick update to remind you that we're working on the next incarnation of the show behind the scenes, and announcing its premiere in September! Jonathan also tells you all about the new subscriptions at his site, www. JonathanLack.com , where you can get weekly classic film reviews and more! There i...

For our 500th episode, we’ve prepared one of the biggest and best podcasts we’ve ever made. Following up on episode 499, where we counted down our favorite anime opening themes, our main topic today is our Top 10 Favorite Anime Ending Themes, and this one is even more exciting, with endings from shows like Dragon Ball, Haruhi Suzumiya,  multiple Gundam  shows, Clannad,  and more tugging at our hea...

This month, The Weekly Stuff Podcast is reaching its 500th episode, and we’re celebrating with two massive episodes counting down our Top 10 Favorite Anime Opening & Ending Themes. The former is the main topic of today’s show, as Sean and Jonathan share their respective 10 favorite Anime Openings, from obvious favorites like Dragon Ball Z  and Neon Genesis Evangelion,  to deeper cuts including Mai...

After many months and hundreds of hours of play, Sean and Jonathan have finally both finished Final Fantasy VII Rebirth,  the second installment in Square Enix’s remake trilogy, and … we didn’t really like it. So today, we’re going to tell you why, diving into a game that starts out promising but turns out to be a very flat, frequently frustrating, extraordinarily long experience that ends with an...

Doctor Who  returned this week for its new season (Series 14, Season 1, or Season 40, depending on who you ask), the first full run starring Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor and Millie Gibson as companion Ruby Sunday. And the first two episodes were a ton of fun, particularly the formally off-the-wall “The Devil’s Chord,” which proves returning showrunner Russell T Davies is taking the show in a ver...

Jonathan had a very exciting week  as The Criterion Collection published an essay he wrote on Makoto Shinkai , thus checking off a major bucket list item, while Sean had an extremely boring week administering standardized tests to high schoolers and showing them the 2011 animated not-a-classic, Gnomeo & Juliet.  We talk about both of those experiences, share some more thoughts on Final Fantasy VII...

In one of the grab-baggiest grab bag episodes we’ve ever recorded, Sean reviews a bunch of anime including Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Solo Leveling,  and The Dangers in My Heart,  and talks about playing through all the DLC for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot;  Jonathan gives his thoughts on Netflix’s outstanding new drama Ripley  and talks about finally getting his hands on the premium Game Boy device...

We’re back with a jam-packed episode covering lots of games, anime, and more! Sean and Jonathan have finally finished the massive 100-hour JRPGs both have been playing – Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and Persona 3 Reload – and give final reports on both of those. But we also discuss the leaked specs for Sony’s upcoming PS5 Pro, discuss the new Sand Land anime based on the manga by Akira Toriyama,...

Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball  and Dr. Slump,  and illustrator of the Dragon Quest  franchise, passed away this week at the age of 68. His influence on our lives, like those of millions around the world, has been incalculable, so we’re devoting today’s entire show to discussing his incredible body of work and the way it changed anime, manga, video games, and global popular culture. We dis...

After weeks of breathless speculation, Xbox unveiled some relatively minor details about the multiplatform future vision of the brand, which prompts us to have an in-depth conversation about where Xbox is going and why the current strategy feels at odds with their oft-stated long-term goals. We also discuss Marvel’s unveiling of their new Fantastic Four  cast, Jonathan talks about watching Solo Le...

Superhero movies are quickly becoming a dead genre in Hollywood, as evidenced by this weekend’s coldly-unanticipated release of Madame Web,  so we thought we’d bid the genre the farewell it deserves by recycling a segment from our 10th Anniversary Podcast in 2022, where we counted down each of our 10 favorite superhero movies of all time! Though this was recorded a year-and-a-half ago, almost noth...

Today’s episode is wall-to-wall packed with exciting stuff, as we give first impressions on Persona 3 Reload  and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth,  Jonathan explains why you should avoid Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown,  Sean dips his toes in Palworld,  and we discuss some anime we caught up on over winter break including Spy x Family  and One Piece.  We also dive into recent news including the ca...

This Friday sees the release of Persona 3 Reload,  the remake of one of our very favorite video games ever made, and to celebrate, we’re resurrecting a segment from our 10th Anniversary Podcast in 2022, where Sean, Jonathan, and special guest star Occasional Thomas watched and reviewed the first part of Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade,  the stage play adaptation of the game from 2014. “Weird” is d...

The time has come, once again: Sean and Jonathan are here to count down the Top 10 Video Games of 2023, in what was one of the most densely packed years for great games we’ve experienced in a long time. Both hosts present their own Top 10 lists, recapping some games we’ve sung the praises of before – like Resident Evil 4, Street Fighter 6,  and Final Fantasy XVI  – and discussing some surprise ent...