Grail S1E14 (6 Jul 94) vs. Playing God S2E17 (27 Feb 94)

-Matt commences his ritual of torturing Bob by reminding him of Friends: The Reunion (2021)

-Bob has been reading the Thanos v2 (2017-8) series, which has story arcs by Jeff Lemire/Mike Deodato & Donny Cates/Geoff Shaw & includes the conceit that Thanos tortures random people on earth, confident the Avengers won’t notice

-Blowback S2 (2021) about US-Cuba relations is the best podcast of the year

-Richard Poe did the audiobook for one of the great US novels, Cormac McCarthy Blood Meridian (1985)

-Diane Duane’s excellent Star Trek novels include Wounded Sky (1983), My Enemy, My Ally (1984), Spock’s World (1988), & Dark Mirror (1993)

--For a recent critique of meritocracy, see Daniel Markovits Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, & Devours the Elite (2019) & a critical interview with the author on The Genn [Loury] Show

-Christy Marx, creator of Jem & the Holograms (1985-8), wrote this B5 episode

-For some reason Bob goes to The Practice (19997-2004) as the pinnacle of 90s network tv drama, probably because he finds lawyers more interesting than doctors

-Bob feels like Tolkein is a bigger influence on B5 than Arthurian legend, but there are many overt Arthurian references in B5 & the spin-off Crusade (1999)

-Matt & Bob rhapsodize about David Warner’s long career in & out of Trek

-William Sanderson plays the hotelier Farnum on the great Deadwood (2004-6)

-The B5 novel Kathryn Drennan To Dream in the City of Sorrows (1997) is set on Minbar