The Worst of All Possible Worlds

The lads face down the dastardly Dr. Regis Blackgaard as they once again return to Odyssey for a dizzying foray into the world of forgiveness and electronic stores. Topics include Midwestern social mores, the nature of revenge, and the importance of unionizing in a world full of John Avery Whittakers. Episodes discussed: #155 & #156: Waylaid in the Windy City, Parts 1 and 2 #159 The Homecoming #16...

THIS IS A PREVIEW. Check out the full thing at patreon.com/worstofall Things get WILD as the lads, along with special guest Anne Huston (General Manager of Caveat), strap on their Gibson Flying V/EB-0 1961 Bass guitars and dive headlong into the Loony Tunes madness and shocking poignancy of Kazuya Tsurumaki and Yōji Enokido’s hit anime: FLCL. Topics include the horrific comedy of puberty, Japan’s...

The lads make their long-awaited return to Odyssey as they bring special guest Nate Lamagna (@vrunt) along for some wacky adventures in dealing with the second coming of Christ, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the realization that your best friends’ dad has debilitating alcoholism! Topics include the business of rapture-mongering, the parallels between AiO and The Simpsons, and one of the strangest epis...

THIS IS THE FIRST HALF OF OUR DISCUSSION. For the full episode, check us out on Patreon: patreon.com/WorstOfAll Special guest Trevor Beaulieu (Champagne Sharks) joins the lads as they solve a pretty boilerplate case and then dress up in fancy disguises for a negligible amount of screen-time to discuss the immensely popular and massively overlooked (by white people) Dick Wolf procedural: New York U...

The lads and special guest Trevor Strunk (No Cartridge, Story Mode) take up the mantle of the Chosen Undead as they attempt to link the fire by climbing the trap-filled Snake Fortress of video game culture that is Dark Souls. They discuss difficulty settings in video games, the pernicious gatekeeping of gitting gud, and what Dark Souls can teach us about surviving an apocalypse. Trevor Strunk: Twi...

THIS IS THE FIRST HALF OF OUR DISCUSSION. For the full episode, check out our Patreon: patreon.com/WorstOfAll The lads and special guest Josh Sawyer (Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity) go beard to beard with the mob as they face down one of Shakespeare’s most brutal and overlooked tragedies: Coriolanus. They discuss Ralph Fiennes’ excellent 2011 film adaptation, the dehumanizing weaponizatio...

The lads, along with special guest Ashleigh Stoneman (The Very Worst, The Merry Worst), venture off into the tall grass to do battle with the literal wild animal that is the Pokémon franchise. They discuss the pastoral origins of Pokémon, its literal demonization at the hands of the Christian Right, and the existential nightmare of being the very best, like no one ever was. Ashleigh Stoneman Twitt...

THIS IS A PREVIEW. Check out the full thing at  patreon.com/worstofall The lads knock back a few eggnogs and experience a true Christmas miracle as they cover the first actually good episode of Adventures in Odyssey: “Monty’s Christmas”. Topics include the power of empathy, Christmas angels, and the legacy of the late, great voice actor Will Ryan. Episodes Discussed: 87: Elijah Part 1 88: Elijah P...

The lads enlist Nate Bethea (What a Hell of a Way To Die, TRASHFUTURE) to help battle their way through some of Adventures in Odyssey’s most patriotic episodes. They discuss the cliches of war stories, the manufactured outrage around flag burning, and getting uncucked at the hands of Dr. Beanes.   Nate’s Twitter: @inthesedeserts   Nate’s Podcasts: What A Hell of a Way to Die https://open.spotify.c...

One week ago, the world lost the greatest musical theater composer of all time. This week, we brought in Graham Techler (The New Yorker, Tooning out the News) to record an episode about Stephen Sondheim’s life and legacy. What started out with sharing favorite shows and tunes turned into a broader conversation about art, commerce, and the paradox of attempting to create work that can inspire and e...

THIS IS A PREVIEW. Check out the full thing at  patreon.com/worstofall Brian's (@spocks_brian) back in town and in our first in-person episode, he, Josh (@boshj) and A.J. (@thefuzzymask) go over his favorite holiday: T-Givez. Yes, that's what he calls it. Yes, he's called it that for years. No, he won't stop. In this episode we discuss the history of thanksgiving, the value of acknowledging your c...

The boys and special guest David Armstrong (The Omni Bilateral Panic Podcast) press X to Shaun as they clumsily stagger through the wasteland of David Cage’s 2010 damp catastrophe: Heavy Rain. They discuss the creative limits of video-game-as-movie, the allegations of Quantic Dream’s toxic work environment, and the pros and cons of weapons-grade cocaine. Omni Bilateral Panic: Spotify:  https://ope...

THIS IS A PREVIEW. Check out the full thing at  patreon.com/worstofall Everybody’s gone to the rapture as Josh (@boshj), Brian (@spocks_brian), and A.J. (@TheFuzzyMask) go on the slow helicopter ride into the apocalypse that is the 1972 evangelical fear-mongering classic: A Thief in the Night. They discuss the cult of rapture-pilling, California Christians, and the sexual magnetism of Chester A. A...

The Sinister Sisters, Felicia Lobo (@girlygorehorror) and Lauren Harris, join Josh (@boshj), Brian (@spocks_brian), A.J. (@TheFuzzyMask) to battle the forces of darkness, goths, and spiders (mostly spiders) as they face the 2003 movie adaptation of Frank Peretti’s evangelical horror disaster Hangman’s Curse. They discuss the power of spooky fonts, the demonic consequences of prayer in schools, and...

Grab your swords and belts and other things you need as Josh (@boshj), Brian (@spocks_brian), A.J. (@TheFuzzyMask) and former Christian ska artist/Night in the Woods co-creator Scott Benson (@bombsfall) kick off the Halloween season by larping their way through Adventures in Odyssey’s most scarring episodes. They discuss the insidiousness of the Satanic Panic, the perils of young Christian love, a...

Strap on your long tails and ears for hats, because Brian (@spocks_brian), A.J. (@TheFuzzyMask), Josh (@boshj), and special guests Jessie Cannizzaro (Puffs, @JessCannizzaro) and Eleanor Philips (Puffs, @ecphilips) are literally climbing up the Billboard Charts to talk about the 2001 cult classic Josie and the Pussycats. They discuss the legacy of the seminal soundtrack, the rampant sexism of film...

Unless you're a pinball enthusiast or keep an extremely close eye on SEC litigation, you've probably never heard the name Deeproot. But just a couple weeks ago, this fledgling startup got slapped with a massive civil lawsuit that sent shockwaves throughout the pinball collector community. Join Josh (@boshj) and Brian (@spocks_brian) as "Crazy" Levi Nayman regales us with a truly bizarre story that...

THIS IS A PREVIEW. Check out the full thing at  patreon.com/worstofall There’s something rotten in the CORPORATION of Denmark??? Josh (@boshj), Brian (@spocks_brian), and A.J. (@TheFuzzyMask) whip out their bodkins and throw themselves headlong into the morose, brooding world of literal corporate backstabbing that is Michael Almereyda's Hamlet (2000). They dissect the cultural significance of Mr....

Rob Mobley (@VillainologyPod) joins Josh (@boshj), Brian (@spocks_brian), and A.J. (@TheFuzzyMask) on their slow descent into the depths of evil as they face Adventure in Odyssey’s Biggest Bad: Dr. Regis Blackgaard, Child Psychologist. They discuss the nature of evil, the surprising careers of the voice cast, and the tragic story of a man whose wife leaves him for a horse. Patreon: https://www.pat...

THIS IS A PREVIEW. Check out the full thing at  patreon.com/worstofall Josh (@boshj), Brian (@spocks_brian), and A.J. (@TheFuzzyMask) get thrown headlong into Imagination Station as they continue their journey through Adventures in Odyssey as part of their Whit’s Endless Summer. They discuss the insidiousness of Evangelical brainwashing, the merits of the musical Godspell, and the unending glory o...

Join Josh (@boshj) and Brian (@spocks_brian) as they dive into the ambitious 2017 space-station spoop-fest Prey! They talk the joys of fake-out openings, the pitfalls of immersive combat, and the sticky beauty of a good ole fashioned GLOO cannon. They also delve into the depths of the infamous Bethesda/Kotaku brouhaha of the mid 2010s and the enduring push/pull between developers and game journali...

THIS IS A PREVIEW. Check out the full thing at  patreon.com/worstofall For our second premium episode, the boys (@boshj, @thefuzzymask, @spocks_brian) dive a little deeper into Odyssey. Maybe a little too deep.

A.J. and Brian take a relaxed trip through the walking simulator Gone Home, its influences and its legacy, which stretches beyond the medium of video games. We also discuss how the game gets used as a virtue signal among gaming's reactionary wing. For more listening, check out Steve Gaynor's GDC talk: https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020376/Why-Is-Gone-Home-a

This is the inaugural episode of Whit's Endless Summer, a sub-series where we explore Adventures in Odyssey, Focus on the Family, and the history of evangelical entertainment. This time, we subjected A.J. to some of the first and worst episodes of Adventures in Odyssey, introducing him to Whit, Tom, Connie and everyone's favorite denizen of Campbell County: Patriotism. The episodes we listened to...

In December of 1993, a congressional hearing takes place. The subject: violence in video games. The culprit: Night Trap. How did such a silly little game get so much negative attention? Who was behind this? What is Joe Lieberman's, like, deal? That's what A.J. and Brian try to solve as we dig into the morass of politics in the 90s.