The Monte Hall Effect

Tola and Tim are joined by Leigh Shocki to discuss Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's Project Hail Mary. Final score: Science 77, Fiction 87, Film 88. Up next: Sorry to Bother You Special Guest: Leigh Shocki.

Tola and Tim discuss (yet another Denis Villeneuve film) Blade Runner 2049. Tim struggles to make connections from Tola’s list of actors to Blade Runner and 2001. The guys discuss sequels, opening text, Vangelis, Ryan Gosling’s eyes, Dave Bautista’s tiny glasses, Princess Buttercup, Nabokov (thanks to Priscilla Page’s excellent essay for this connection The Poetry of Blade Runner 2049 ), miming vs...

It's the Fantastic Four! We recorded this so long ago that we don't have a helpful description to write here. Many many thanks to Paul Zastrow for audio engineering this episode. Final score: science 50%, fiction 60%, film 80% Next up: Blade Runner 2049

Tola and Tim welcome our long time collaborator Guy Ellis, composer and performer of our theme and outro songs, to discuss "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," including being homesick, Balok's All Hour Disco and Discount Delicatessen, Guy eating his dessert before dinner, Disco Versions of Theme Songs, Bob Balaban vs Wallace Shawn, saying "Present Day" in a film, the Raiders Connection, teasing...

In this episode the guys take on 2024's Denis Villeneuve's "Dune: Part Two" and ponder bitless podcast starts, sequels, the Denis Villeneuve oeuvre, telegraphing the beginning of Dune Messiah, giving a giant middle finger to Joseph Campbell (thanks to Haris Durrani's discussion of this topic on Our Opinions Are Correct ), Part 2 being Chani's movie, Ellen Ripley vs Chani haters, film faithfulness...

Tola and Tim are joined by our wonderful editor, Paul, to discuss the 1984 cult classic, "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension." Featuring an all-star cast including Jeff Goldblum as one of the least-weird characters, Robocop's Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd as John Bigbooté, Yakov Smirnoff, Ellen Barkin, Clancy Brown, and many more, this film was either a labo...

The boys talk “Call Your Boyfriend,” ABBA, The Swedish Chef, tasty pastries, the best dates to visit Minnesota, “The Rapture,” bleak (and unwatchable?) movies from Scandinavian directors, "Funny Games" (grrrrrr...), misunderstood "happy" endings, Avenue 5, Silent Spring, the cold calculus of actual human colonization, "A City on Mars" by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, the genetically perfect progeny...

In this episode the guys join the future Captain America, the former archangel Gabriel, the future Kim Ki-taek, the former Caligula, and the former Gene Kranz as they circumnavigate a frozen Earth in Bong Joon-Ho's 2013 Snowpiercer. They explore the mysteries of apex predators vs. reindeer, the merits of late- or post-capitalistic societies and meritocracies on a moving platform, the dangers of en...

In this episode the guys welcome a very special guest: their long time friend, Naval Aviator and retired NASA astronaut Jeff Ashby and talk about a FMECA gone wrong, the ISS, radios, ground communications, TDRS, schedule, crews, procedure vs cowboyism, creative plumbing solutions, clean vs clutter, the miracle of velcro, Jeff's Sleeping Pod Project, fire in space, oxygen candles, using standard at...

In a very special The Monte Hall Effect, Tim and Tola's friend and colleague Shane Malone joins them as guest judge/panelist to help them unravel the vast mysteries of Roland Emmerich's 2022 box office bomb "Moonfall" and to discuss a new TMHE feature called 'Splainin' Science, the University of Minnesota vs University of Colorado, the brilliant XKCD description of the Saturn V using only the thou...

Tola and Tim take on Tola's favorite film of all time- not just his favorite SF film, but literally the film he says "changed his life"- Steven Soderbergh's 2002 adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's classic science fiction novel "Solaris." They discuss the challenges of talking about your favorite film, bad film marketing, Tim uses the word "titular", Smoldering Clooney, the genius of Cliff Martinez, the...

Tola and Tim got together with our families this summer to watch Forbidden Planet. Join us as we discuss Leslie Nielsen vs George Pappard, the archetypes of Star Trek, robot gender, philology, Born Sexy Yesterday , creepy creepers being creepy, Powers of Ten , bourbon-generating robots, murderous tree sloths, the Wizard of Id, Dark Phoenix, The Lady and the Tiger , and how thrilled we are to be wo...

Tim and Tola return to the Denis Villeneuve ouevre to discuss his 2021 film "Dune" as well as the days when you could make a TV miniseries for $28, getting past the things that the 12 year old you thought were perfect, concubines vs spouses, swordfighting, spaceships rolling coal, reactionless propulsion, how Stellan Skarsgård will make your movie better, Harkonnens as Hashemites, Villeneuve and C...

005 - Interstellar After a long sabbatical, Tim and Tola discuss the 2014 Christopher Nolan film "Interstellar" as well as historical dramas, cocaine and hookers, the dreaded 2021 heat wave (we actually recorded this conversation quite some time ago), the awesomeness of LEGO Batman, building your movie around your cinematography, Dylan Thomas, watching dystopia movies in 2021, small-c conservatism...

Tim and Tola discuss the 2016 Denis Villeneuve film "Arrival", as well as SETI, car insurance, THE IMPORTANCE OF WATCHING THIS PARTICULAR FILM BEFORE LISTENING TO THIS PARTICULAR PODCAST, J.R.R. Tolkien, Icelandic composers, Broadchurch, remembering 9/11, professorial salaries, security clearances, Speak'n'Spells, training and executive decision making, Close Encounter's Dark Side of the Moon, dum...

Tim and Tola discuss the 2018 Alex Garland film “Annihilation,” as well as how midwesterners argue, how things fall to Earth, how high Jennifer Jason Leigh appears in this film, locating your scientific headquarters, the fact that lighthouses are invariably sited on the coast, getting tickled by giant crocodile sharks, how chemo is like being stabbed by a morgul blade, biocontainment 101, NASA Pla...

Tim and Tola discuss the 2019 film "Ad Astra." Director James Gray said that this was going to be the most accurate portrayal of spaceflight ever put in a movie. Did he succeed? No. No he did not. Yet we found this film's scientific failures were actually overshadowed by its artistic failures. But along the way we had a lot of fun discussing the fetishization of human spaceflight, historical space...

Tim and Tola talk about the 2007 Danny Boyle film "Sunshine." A bunch of people travel to the Sun with a nuclear bomb the size of Manhattan. What could possibly go wrong? Some of the things we talk about: engineers vs scientists, risk analysis, what happens if you suddenly find yourself in outer space (tl;dr: you don't explode), why you shouldn't cut holes in your heat shield, purposely dabbling w...