The Midnight Myth Podcast

Everything is Batman. Listen as Derek and Laurel peel under the bat mobile hood of Gotham’s favorite son Bruce Wayne and his true self, the darling of pop culture, the Dark Knight, hero of heroes, Batman. In particular, we examine Frank Miller’s the Dark Knight Returns as a watershed moment in rebranding of the crime fighter from a campy Adam West cheeseball to a tortured lonely man who will stop...

On this week’s episode, we step into the strange dystopian world of the Hunger Games Trilogy. By tracking the evolution of the films themselves and their thematic intentions, Derek & Laurel draw real-world conclusions about the horror of war, the collective amnesia of humanity, and why revolutions fail. Spoilers within for the Hunger Games films, Rogue One, and V for Vendetta!

What is real? Am I real? Are you? Is this podcast real? Is my experience dictated by my perspective, by the materials i interact with, or by some higher essence? When questions like these start to mess with our heads, we filter them through the lens of the quintessence indie mind f*ck, Being John Malkovich. Derek and Laurel take look at Plato’s timeless allegory of the cave, the theory of the form...

What is a stoic character? Grim, emotionally immovable, and cold in the face of great human pain? Listen this week as Derek and Laurel delve into the archetypal stoic character and unpack Stoic philosophy along the way. The current stoic character construct bares some superficial resemblance to the philosophy started in Ancient Athens in 350 BCE, but do the tropes really do justice to the philosop...

It has come. With It released, Derek and Laurel peek under the belly of all the ghouls, goblins, and ghosts going bump in the night. This week on the Midnight Myth, the subject is horror; where horror stories come from and why they scare us. In particular, the podcast focuses on the scary clown and how Stephen King turns the childhood favorite into a monster that keeps you up at night. With a few...

Game of Thrones Season 7 Spoilers: What happens when you create a monster? Not literally, but in a story, a Frankenstein…Listen as Derek and Laurel's next Game of Thrones character case study, as they examine Arya Stark, and how the writers of the show failed to address the spirit of vengeance they created in one of the shows most beloved characters.

Our histories and our stories are intertwined, and often visual media, such as film, becomes the conduit by which we contextualize our past. This week, we examine the film Gangs of New York from director (legend) Martin Scorsese and how it brings nativists philosophy to the forefront fighting for control over the grimy slums of 1860s New York City, right as the Civil War ravages the south. Part of...

We never thought we’d nearly cry over the death of a fire breathing, scale covered, flying monster that can burn and eat people alive. Somehow, that happened. What am I talking about? Dragons— the darling of the fantasy world, and the monster that so many great heroes have had to over come. Yet, somehow in the Game of Thrones they have become characters that the audience empathizes with. How did t...

From the winding streets of Rome to the cobbled alleys of Philadelphia, our histories are always just beneath our feet as we follow the well-worn tread of those generations that came before us. This week, Derek & Laurel explore the most powerful historical narratives of Western culture and their inextricable ties. In the end, all roads truly do lead to Rome and two monolithic figures: Jesus Christ...

When at the brink, we often look for a unifying philosophy that sums up the experience of our confusion and pain, while pointing us towards a better moral life— a life that bring conscience, direction, and purpose. We at the Midnight Myth may have found those words: “Life’s a piece of shit when ya look at it.” Join us as we jump into the obscure and silly world of Monty Python and The Life of Bria...

Derek and Laurel have returned from traveling the great wide world and bring you another episode about a favorite character who travels the great wide universe. In our second Doctor Who case study, we focus not only on the Doctor himself, but an unexpected friend, the painter Vincent Van Gogh. In Season 5, Episode 10 of the beloved BBC series, we explore questions of madness, alienation, lonelines...

Derek and Laurel are back from Europe. We've missed you guys and we want to jump in with a full game episode. It is a battle of wits, words, creativity, and nerdiness. Who will emerge victorious, what is the format, how does this battle even work? Listen my friends, and all will be revealed.

Game of Thrones opens a concerning door.

So when the shit hits the fan, and the world collapses around you, what do you do? You form a totalitarian regime bent on exploiting the weak to propagate the powerful. Listen this week as Derek and Laurel tackle the modern dystopia. In particular, they examine Margaret Atwood’s landmark novel-turned-blockbuster-hit from Hulu, The Handmaid’s Tale. It’ll be another exciting ride in the search for t...

If you were standing at the edge of the earth, ready to take the plunge into the underworld, would you? So many heroes take that plunge, into the depths of hell only to return, unencumbered but not unscathed. Listen to Derek and Laurel understand the idea of traveling to the underworld as a story device, its mythic origins, and pop culture manifestations. We go from Persephone to Wonder Woman in a...

Ever been in a tight spot? A real tight spot? Oh man, a tight spot? Well get your dapper dan hair pomade to slick back your style, and gear up for an epic edition of the Midnight Myth. Listen as Derek and Laurel examine the universal story of the Odyssey, written by the immortal Homer and re-contextualized by the masters of film, The Coen Brothers. That’s right folks, we’re mass communicating out...