Read it and Weep

Hey friends of the Palgorithm! No episode yet, but we'll be dropping Eurovision by mid-July and it'll be edited in Europe for extra worldliness! Meanwhile, thanks so much for the plane-based media recs , no notes, would consume on a plane again. If you have any bus-based media recs , send them my way!

Like the show? Support the show! Alex and Ezra  are long-time friends who are both a mile wide and an inch. After careful research, we've determined there are exactly 1,206 things to know about the world, so we're setting out on a quest to learn one fact about everything that's ever happened BUT NOT TWO. This episode? We learn just one thing about Twist Ties and Noses. YouTube: Watch our faces and...

Season 8 is starting soon! Shape it by giving us feedback on the Patreon ! Hot Frosty 2: Hot Ice. Cool Canadian hockey phenom Shane Hollander and Brusque Russian hockey hot-shot Illya Rosanov are rivals on the skates but, surprise, lovers between the sheets. They're hot and cold as public and private lives cross-check each other, but in an uplifting, very needed example of queer joy, it's all actu...

Like the show? Support the show !  Space, the final frontier. But also time , some would say, a more final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. To go cheat at dom jot and get stabbed in the back. To get robbed by a time traveler while saving a planet. To prevent 22 years of war by killing off Tasha Yar again. And to boldly meet Kelsey Grammars like no one has met Kelsey Gram...

Vote on our next running movie! This is a special one. Not only are we talking running, we're doing it with my friends  Dru Johnston  (NipGuards episode) and  Ben Kegan . Ben made a whole incredible documentary about running. We even have NCAA indoor champion  Colby Alexander  joining us to talk about his experience in the movie. Check it out: "SECONDS AWAY follows Belgian-American runner Peter Ca...

Quick: vote on what we're watching for our Time Travel Star Trek Episode. No longer a tea pot, Angela Lansbury is mystery writer Jessica Fletcher, living in Cabot Cove, Maine, a lovely community except for all the MURDER! We watched: S4 E7- If it's Thursday, it must be Beverly S7 E10 - Murder in F Sharp S10 E5 - A Virtual Murder Some bonus recs: S2 E14 - Keep the Home Fries Burning S2 E20 - Menace...

Like the show? Support the show! Space. On a crappy mining ship in the future, everyone dies except for Dave Lister, a lowly technician, who survives for 3 million years in stasis. Joining him are the suave descendant of his cat, the hologram of his dead pompous bunkmate, a low-polygon max headroom-looking android, and the ship's computer who, depending on the episode, is a man, a woman, an idiot,...

Like the show? Support the show! Three unhoused people try to return a baby on Christmas in Tokyo. No notes. This Satoshi Kon film is just perfect. Strong recommend you watch it however/wherever you can (Tubi, Hoopla, however you can track it down). The RIAWlgorithm also recommends: Todd's shows Amphibia & Wylde Pak Porco Rosso Cruel Intentions/Dangerous Liaisons Next up, Red Dwarf with Stephen Ca...

Like the show? Support the show! Aw jeez, I'm real sorry to take up your time. Y'see I'm Lt. Columbo, and I just need to ask you a few questions. It's the early '70s and I'm a detective in Los Angeles. Every week some famous '70s star who you might not recognize, but they look kind of familiar, see, they kill someone, takes 'em about 20 minutes, then for an hour or so they try and get away with it...

Happy Thanksgiving! We're revisiting one of the only Thanksgiving movies ever in this classic Read it and Weep episode from (checks notes) wow, 2022! Enjoy, and here's wishing you a great holiday.

Like the show? Support the show ! Fan favorite Colleen Clancy ( @JumpingCeliac , Running & Blogging About It ) is back with one of her faves, Fisk ! This Aussie workplace comedy bring quirk, warmth, laughs and cultural references you won't exactly get, but will catch on. It's good for what ails you, which great news for Anthony who's battling a cold.  The RIAWlgorithm also recommends: Girls5eva  T...

Man, this is a wild one. We're talking Eagle-Eye Cherry's album Desireless EXCEPT for Save Tonight. And also NipGuards. Mostly NipGuards. I don't know who this one's for, but it's the brain-child of Dru Johnston , one of the funniest humans I know. Oh, also, we're doing a Nepo Baby Fantasy Draft. The RIAWlgorithm also recommends: 🏃‍♂️Dru's Running Substack, I've Got The Runs  🎭 David Ives plays...

Support the show? Things are about to get weird! It's X-Files meets Cops meets a person with a bed sheet over their head. After 2014's What We Do in the Shadows, New Zealand cops Minogue and O'Leary get their documentary crew to lightly investigate near Wellington's most extreme paranormal activity. '70s orgy ghosts, drunk werewolves, blood bag-stealing vampires, spitting cloning plant aliens, and...

We now have a  Patreon ! Support the show–or don't! I'm probably making it either way! Do you miss Glee? Are you bummed Warm Bodies wasn't a 4-movie franchise--and a musical? Are you all about West Side Story, minus the stabbies? Then you're not just craving brains, you're also hungry for the 2018 DCOM ZOMBIES. We've got sick flips, racism allegories, a song book with a surprising number of banger...

An obscure comic book character finally gets the big screen treatment! For many of us who have never heard of him, Bruce Wayne is a rich orphan whose parents were killed. He's uncriming the city gritty dark block by gritty dark block. But no shooties, only punchies. That's his code. And hey, do you like animals? Oh man, we got rats, cats, bats! Ratas aladas, penguins, falcons–you name it, and it's...

Alex Falcone is back!  And he's brought one of his faves–Only Connect. Do you love the Great British, but could do without the Bake-Off? Is your kink being asked questions that make you wonder "am I stupid, or am I just American?" Do you want to spend 30 minutes with a furrowed brow, mumbling wrong answers to yourself? Then you might just love Only Connect. This British quiz show, hosted by Victor...

Do you wish the crypt keeper was bangable? Is your CRT desktop overflowing with Riker fan fic? Do you long for a time when fringe ideas didn't incite national chaos? Then you might just love "Beyond Belief: Fact, or Fiction." This '90s anthology lovingly preserved in its native SD, features Jonathan Frakes, dozens of visual metaphors, and acting that makes you say, "Wow. Just wow." Fan-favorite  C...

What do you get when you mix: 🤖A rogue SecUnit who was programmed to kill, but just wants to binge-watch its soaps. 🧑‍🔬 Team of scientists on an alien planet overcoming their prejudices, surviving, and making bot friends and 👾 An evil survey team here to kill anyone who gets between them and their sweet, sweet alien remnant tech? It's Martha Wells's hit novella, All Systems Red, #1 of the Murd...

Why do we slay all day? Why do we serve? Why is it giving? It's all thanks to drag ballroom culture, and drag's permeation of mainstream is in large part thanks to Paris is Burning (1990) . Across the board, we loved this legendary documentary by Jennie Livingston , with its executive realness, vintage 80s b-roll, and giant trophies. Also: 🌳 Tree fan Bri Pruett is back and saw another good tree!...

Feeling like a dive into the ultra-bleak world of politics... in 2003?  Welcome to The Thick of It! Before he saved the universe as The Doctor, Peter Capaldi starred as a foul-mouthed fixer in Armando Iannucci's proto-Veep set in the UK. Shaky cams! Old cell phones! Resignations! It's got it all! Also: The Cat in the Hat is no angel. OSHA in the Mushroom Kingdom. So if you like your escapism to be...

It's a new season of Read it and Weep! Alex  has graciously passed the hosting mic on to Ezra and it's gonna get a little weird.   This season, Ezra's trying to break out of his algorithms. He's looking for media that his friends love, but that no one's talking about these days.   First up, Sarah Hatheway brings us Gene Kelly's 1951 Technicolor musical, An American in Paris.   Dream ballets! Quest...

Cold soup for the soul.

Wake up shot out of a canon

While Best Thing Ever is on break, we checked in with Anthony about being a new dad including lack of sleep, low expectations, and declawing babies. Parenting is fun and not that hard! 

Alex Falcone and Ezra Fox accidentally became mummy romance experts when they wrote their best-selling young adult novel (http://unwrapmyheart.com). For Spooktober they're reviewing three classic pieces of mummy pop culture and analyzing how good the mummies are if they can get it. Today they dive into a young-adult romance that is close to mummies but crucially different: zombies. With Warm Bodie...