Ranked #1
Mad Max Fury Road: salt flats, parabiosis, and the Namib desert w/ Brandon Rollins
Mad Max Fury Road: salt flats, parabiosis, and the Namib desert w/ Brandon Rollins
Wow this is pretty good Chris’ varied experiences of this film over time. Color grading and the Black & Chrome editi... Read more
20 Feb 2018
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40mins
Ranked #2
Dune: spice, David Lynch is weird, and wetware technology w/ Miles Greb
Dune: spice, David Lynch is weird, and wetware technology w/ Miles Greb
This movie is weird David Lynch. Return of the Jedi. Different editions of the film. Alan Smithee. Internal monologues. ... Read more
8 Mar 2016
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41mins
Ranked #3
Arrival Part 1: superdimensionality and alien physics w/ Jolene & Adrian
Arrival Part 1: superdimensionality and alien physics w/ Jolene & Adrian
Alien Ship Technology Ship materials construction. Anti-gravity technologies. Tesseracts. Shadows looking into other dim... Read more
15 Nov 2016
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55mins
Ranked #4
Looper: Ted Chiang on causal loops, mama bears, and time travel
Looper: Ted Chiang on causal loops, mama bears, and time travel
Ted Chiang, Guest Co-Host Thanks to Ted for coming on and helping us figure out what’s going on in Looper. Rather than a... Read more
16 Feb 2016
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40mins
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Ranked #5
Blade Runner: replicant discrimination, synthetic farming, and virtual girlfriends
Blade Runner: replicant discrimination, synthetic farming, and virtual girlfriends
Replicant discrimination Is racism the right word? Hate and discrimination against replicants. Replicant slavery. Synthe... Read more
12 Dec 2017
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1hr 3mins
Ranked #6
Prometheus: yoked aliens, cave paintings, and seeding life
Prometheus: yoked aliens, cave paintings, and seeding life
Love and hate A story of love for Prometheus with recognition of its faults. Surprisingly high tomato ratings. So much s... Read more
16 May 2017
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57mins
Ranked #7
Arrival Part 2: debunking Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, alien phonology, and conlang writing w/ Nick Farmer
Arrival Part 2: debunking Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, alien phonology, and conlang writing w/ Nick Farmer
Nick Farmer He’s a linguist! And a conlanger, technically. His website: Nick Farmer Linguist His Twitter: @nfarmerlingui... Read more
29 Nov 2016
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53mins
Ranked #8
Sorry to Bother You: code switching, indie media, and the power of scifi w/ Eliot Peper
Sorry to Bother You: code switching, indie media, and the power of scifi w/ Eliot Peper
This movie It gets a bit weird! And we have a bit of a time summarizing it. Storytelling Adventure stories. Social alleg... Read more
6 Nov 2018
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43mins
Ranked #9
The Last Jedi: FTL ramming, salt geology, and real green milk
The Last Jedi: FTL ramming, salt geology, and real green milk
Space combat Naval analogies and a callback to a similar discussion in our Valerian episode. Magnetic (fused) torpedoes!... Read more
26 Dec 2017
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42mins
Ranked #10
Game of Thrones: medieval weaponry, variable winters, and final-season anxiety
Game of Thrones: medieval weaponry, variable winters, and final-season anxiety
In which we discuss Game of Thrones right before the finale The books Appreciating GRRM. And appreciating him double and... Read more
14 May 2019
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33mins
Ranked #11
Contact: SETI, Carl Sagan love, and scicomm
Contact: SETI, Carl Sagan love, and scicomm
Carl Sagan Our love for Carl. How his character and interests manifest in the characters in the film. SETI What it is. W... Read more
26 Jan 2016
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46mins
Ranked #12
The Expanse: Nick Farmer on conlanging and the intersection of language and scifi
The Expanse: Nick Farmer on conlanging and the intersection of language and scifi
Conlang What are constructed languages? Who makes them? The Expanse Designing the language for the TV show. Designing a ... Read more
12 Jul 2016
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1hr 4mins
Ranked #13
Edge of Tomorrow (Live. Die. Repeat): alien tentacle morphology and biological Von Neumann probes
Edge of Tomorrow (Live. Die. Repeat): alien tentacle morphology and biological Von Neumann probes
Names and Names and Names The light novel (All You Need is Kill) -> the movie (Edge of Tomorrow) -> the marketing ... Read more
14 Feb 2017
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49mins
Ranked #14
Cowboy Bebop: biodomes, scifi westerns, and weather control
Cowboy Bebop: biodomes, scifi westerns, and weather control
Meta Cowboy Bebop the series, Yoko Kanno, style points. Space Western Shades of Firefly. Gate Disaster Shades of Sevenev... Read more
13 Sep 2016
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39mins
Ranked #15
Interstellar Part 1: monoculture farming, robot locomotion, and Kip Thorne
Interstellar Part 1: monoculture farming, robot locomotion, and Kip Thorne
Memories of Carl Sagan’s Contact Kip Thorne does movie science again. Carl Sagan’s Contact. Mathew McConaughey plays two... Read more
17 May 2016
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50mins
Ranked #16
Ender's Game: insectoid aliens, water in space, and lightspeed communications
Ender's Game: insectoid aliens, water in space, and lightspeed communications
Alien attacks Alien attacks and death tolls. Independence Day and flying planes up the butt. Water in spaaaaaaace Liquid... Read more
24 Jan 2017
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35mins
Ranked #17
Starship Troopers: scifi satire, gender equity, and insectoid alien attack
Starship Troopers: scifi satire, gender equity, and insectoid alien attack
author: Christopher Petersonlayout: podcast_postwordpress_id: 245categories: Guest Co-Host Joe Ruppel Podcasttags: Acti... Read more
6 Oct 2015
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33mins
Ranked #18
Aliens: hyperlseep, how to terraform, and Blade Runner reconciliation w/ Josh Effengee
Aliens: hyperlseep, how to terraform, and Blade Runner reconciliation w/ Josh Effengee
Love Love! For James Cameron and Aliens. And the great utilitarian design of the spaceship interiors. Great world-buildi... Read more
14 Aug 2018
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49mins
Ranked #19
Armageddon: explosions, impactor tracking, and density of the asteroid belt w/ Daniel James Barker
Armageddon: explosions, impactor tracking, and density of the asteroid belt w/ Daniel James Barker
💥explosion noises💥 Michael Bay blows things up. Layers of subtlety. BIG AS TEXAS Just how very very large and unavoida... Read more
28 Mar 2017
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59mins
Ranked #20
Alien Covenant: neutrinos, weakly interacting massive particles, and swole Jesus aliens
Alien Covenant: neutrinos, weakly interacting massive particles, and swole Jesus aliens
Crew Selection Human pairing in space crews. Sex selection for different purposes, and in particular settlement. The Voi... Read more
22 Aug 2017
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39mins
