The DeadEndRoad Show

As promised here's a little Spring 2024 movie and tv roundup. Basically everything Bill watched while he couldn't record for three months. Consider this our Beautiful Cinema catch up episode. We discuss Baby Reindeer , Fallout , Godzilla Minus On e, and Civil War . Have thoughts about any of these that you need to get off your chest? Think we said something really stupid? Send us an email: podcast...

Sometimes the madness really hits. This episode's Mountains of Madness  explores what it's like to be a digital hoarder when it feels like the infrastructure of the internet is crumbling a bit more each day. Also, Adobe's awful practices have led creatives (and the federal government) to take action, even if Adobe makes it as difficult as possible. Later, Shelved brings us a host of book-related d...

It's the first episode of Season 4. Don't worry, you haven't missed a thing. Feel like the end of days for anyone else? No? Just us? Well, anyway that's got us feeling a little nostalgic for simpler times. Like 2016. Bill found an old phone that's now a time-capsule. Or it was, until he wiped it clean. Later, the current media landscape has us actually miss paying out the ass for cable. Strange ti...

The DeadEndRoad Show celebrates 100 episodes the only way we know how: by getting really confused and then really sad. We've brought back Dating is Dead , and we already wish we didn't. We found the new way to post personal ads online, and calling them unhinged would be an understatement. Where does one find clip art of a uterus in the first place? Later in Shelved , Bill solves a personal publish...

It's episode 99, which we have decided is the arbitrary penultimate episode of the season. What does that mean? Not much, it turns out. Ian really needed to explain how Love is Blind works though. Our big story is an update and conclusion to last episode's Hugo Awards fiasco. We have answers, and they're not pleasant. Main source for this section comes from here . Then we decided on our next pick...

We've got some more publishing industry drama on deck this week, where we dare to ask the question: what the hell happened at the Hugo Awards? TL;DR: stop asking questions it's all fine, and if it wasn't fine, yes it was. Suspicious votes, censorship, good old xenophobia, this story has it all. In Mountains of Madness , Bill flew too close to the keyboard sun and his wings of PE foam melted before...

New year, new reasons to realize the internet was a mistake. In Dead Letters , this dude keeps emailing me his book. So I decided to finally take Levar Burton's advice. I took a look. Mountains of Madness has us discuss the doomed virtual reality dreams of Facebook/Meta, pivoting nicely into Artificial Insanity , which has perhaps our most disturbing story ever. It's an unfortunately high bar to c...

This is the back half of our final recording session of the year, which is now our final episode of 2023. We discuss David Fincher's The Killer , Oppenheimer , and Sam Esmail's Leave the World Behind  in that order. Apologies for the weird breathy audio in certain parts. The first half edit didn't have it, so I blame an Adobe Audition update. Socials: Bluesky – https://bsky.app/profile/deadendroad...

We've got a publishing industry-focused episode this week, as we take a look at the YA author who tanked their career over Goodreads sock-puppet accounts and attempted to cover for it in the goofiest manner possible. But before that, can anyone help explain this strange email? It's the weirdest Dead Letters yet. Then we cover the Internet Archive's ongoing fight against the large publishers over t...

We are in fact alive and back with another helping of watching the internet crumble all around us. Ian's down in the dumps and I don't think this week's topics will help him out much. Our main story concerns the tragic passing of hockey player Adam Johnson, who lost his life after a freak on-ice accident. We talk about the bizarre circumstances of the footage of the incident, wondering why it spre...

You've heard of the classic "red flags" for dudes: the Pulp Fiction dorm room poster, liking Fight Club a little too much, an unopened copy of Infinite Jest on the nightstand. But what about anime red flags? Is something as hyper-specific as Ergo Proxy really a red flag? We discuss in this week's Did It All For the Moogle . Later, the bulk of this episode has us discuss our latest book club pick....

We’ve got a particularly mad Mountains of Madness for you this week, as we talk about a brave landlord protecting his tenants from turning into zombies from that scary emergency alert that came and went. Then we get into why Google search is so awful now, straight from Google’s mouth. Luv 2 watch the internet crumble all around us. In Artificial Insanity , our good friends from Replika AI fed into...

It’s spooky season, and that means our Horror Harvest is back again to bring you the scares and movie takes you’ve come to know. Which are worse for your health? This time we’ve got Evil Dead (2013), and it’s hard not to compare it to the original The Evil Dead , especially if you watch them back to back. Later we have a Dead Letter that makes Bill question everything he’s ever done in his life, s...

We’ve got some bookish stories for you in this one. First up, what the hell is going on with these scammy ebook apps on the Google Play Store? Our SEO/AI-driven hellscape continues unabated. Then we discuss the Seattle Kraken BookTok incident. When fandom becomes harassment in an arena of overlapping niche interests. Timestamps Bootleg eBooks 0:00-7:06 Kraken BookTok 7:07-26:18 Outro 26:19-28:25 U...

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Clear Channel (now iHeartMedia) circulated a list of songs to all of its radio stations that were suggested to not be broadcast. Some of the picks make sense, others absolutely do not. We go through the list, a time capsule of the thought process following a national tragedy whose consequences are still being felt. Alien Ant Farm is also here. Timestamps: Pickle...

In our first Book Club episode we discuss Paul Tremblay’s The Pallbearers Club , the pseudo-memoir novel filled with New England dread, medical anxiety, vampire orbs, and 80s punk. What did we think of the unique formatting and hyper-focused interiority of the narration? Give it a listen to find out. Check out The Pallbearers Club at an indie bookshop near you: https://bookshop.org/a/96206/9780063...

Here with a solo pod, because I have some stuff I want to talk about. Like the new Ari Aster movie, Beau is Afraid , and how it’s a 3 hour long nightmare for the paranoid among us. Specifically me. Later I’ve got an anime check in, as a bout of insomnia created the perfect conditions to check out a couple newer shows in Oshi no Ko and fittingly, Insomniacs After School . I round out with some asso...

We’ve got a packed show for you this week. In Mountains of Madness we talk about Twitter clones and where we’re all supposed to go now that our 20s are over. We can’t keep making accounts forever. In Worst Beats in the World we discover the song of the summer. And in the latter half of the show we’ve got a spoiler-free discussion of Final Fantasy XVI . We talk about the context of the game, its pl...

Sometimes we just shouldn’t record. But once we press that shiny red button, all bets are off, for better or worse. In any event we’ve got the latest Persona 3 Reloaded updates after the game’s official unveiling. And Atlus had still had one more trick up their sleeves that the leaks couldn’t let slip. We discuss the surprise reveal. Socials: Twitter – https://twitter.com/DeadEndRoad​ Facebook – h...

All the rumors and leaks were true. The Persona 3 remake is real, and in this episode I give my first impressions and reactions to the news, as well as some in-depth analysis of the trailer and what we know so far about Persona 3: Reloaded. I have some concerns. But before that I do get a little personal and talk about my current creative process, what my writing routine has been, and where I am t...

Sometimes we never learn from our mistakes. Toddlers learn not to touch the hot stove, but we didn’t remember why we stopped doing tarot readings in the opening of the show. Oops. Later, we discuss the children’s author who sought a little too much real world experience, the “hallucinations” of AI, and dive back into the dating apps to find some very unfortunate syntax. We round out with some upda...

The AI storm rages on, and we hear a lot about these large datasets these large language models and supposedly advanced AIs are trained with. But what exactly is in those datasets, and why are these “open” AI companies not exactly forthright with the data they’re using? We uncover the reality in Artificial Insanity. Later, […] ★ Support this podcast ★

We’ve got a deep dive for you this week, and I needed to call in some backup. We’re taking a look at some controversy surrounding emo/punk band Say Anything, its lead Max Bemis, and his and his family’s patterns of behavior over the last several years. From Kanye to grifting, has this been a downward […] ★ Support this podcast ★

I’ve got a short one for you as I recover from another wisdom tooth surgery. It’s just been so much fun behind the scenes. Sunshine and rainbows. So let me tell you about some anime I’ve seen lately. As usual we’ve got some good, some bad, and some weird. Thanks for putting up with a […] ★ Support this podcast ★

Can we talk about the Persona 3 Remake leaks? I need to talk about the Persona 3 Remake leaks. I’ve been dying to talk to you about the Persona Remake 3 leaks. But first: a new Dating is Dead has me joining a new dating site, but I don’t think I’m supposed to be there. […] ★ Support this podcast ★