Decode Podcast

  The boys are back with a two chapter banger. 

We see some leadership from both Gurney and the smuggler Tuek (we previously met at the dinner party) when Tuek saves Gurney and his men. 

In the next chapter we’re still out in the desert camping with Paul and Jessica. They misuse the thumper from the fremkit and we run into 

Next episode is likely a review of the DUNE MOVIE!

Again apologies for releasing 2 Foundation eps in a row. Now you're going to get 2 Dune episodes in a row. 

Harkonnens gonna "woo" Thufir to serve the Harkonnens but also poison him. Seems foolish to think he'd ever truly be loyal to Harkonnens. Dated writing and plotting. 

Next chapter: Paul and Jessica still camping. Paul makes a mistake and they need to do some McGuyver shit to solve it. Jeff proposes it's quicksand fetishry at work here. 

Jessica reasserts herself as needing to train Paul in prana bindu showing he's not totally independent.

Random talk:

Mike used to go to clubs but had to stop cuz djs cuz they played late 

Jeff was punk til he had kids 

Jeff doesnt understand the appeal of step mom/sister porn. Mike, who has never had a step anything claims any woman who isnt blood relative is just another woman. 

So Apple done released the first two episodes of Foundation on AppleTV and we're here to dive in. 

The show may pull items from books later in the series but the show is VERY different than Foundation the book; Kleon of the Entun clones, a Gaal Dornick backstory, a space bridge instead of an elevator to the surface, a massive terrorist attack and more! 

We talk about it all.  

Hot Takes: making Gaal’s home planet “exotic” by comparison to the center of the empire, and less “hayseed” as described in the book with an actor of color on the role is a form of bigotry

The terrorist attack in the very first episode to make everyone care about the story is kind of lame.  

The boys discuss part 2 of Foundation in its entirety starting from the end and working their way back: The Foundation encyclopedia project is fugazi and Hari Seldon sent 100k people to Terminus to start a new empire. Terminus has nuclear power and the warlike neighboring kingdom of anacreon does not, giving them a great advantage.  

In the ep the boys wax philosophical on entropy and the relation of prescience in both Foundation and Dune.  Jeff recommends a tv show.  Mike says he wishes the entirety of Foundation were a 10 page prologue like LOTR because he doesn’t care for a revolving cast of characters in this manner.  

Show links: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG4MKtgeFyc 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-1FkBFgiJM 

The boys are back on Dune and this is a big, meaty chapter and episode: 

Paul speaks as Duke for the first time to someone beneath him (Kynes) and flexes his new power and abilities, Kynes and Paul make a “cool de la” deal to black mail the emperor, thus beginning the Atreides “desert power”,  bells for Duncan RIP.  

The boys also get a little philosophical and talk about artificial intelligence. 

For the anti-fanboys: This chapter is a good example of some of the misogynistic critique Herbert occasionally receives and deserves. Here are 3 bonkers examples of him downplaying Jessica after building her up:  1. She wonders if they're caught up in others’ machinations even though she has known this from the beginning 2. She asks why Kynes separates himself from them when they escape even though she would know this  3. Her inability to control her clattering teeth despite all that prana bindhu training we talked about quite a bit back in episode 7.  

Note: We keep referring to our last Foundation episode in this episode but that Foundation episode will actually be released next week, we recorded out of order lol

Ep links:

Born again hard: https://youtu.be/8gC_PhXOFXE

Age or aries, age of picses: https://www.ohotto.com/the-ages-of-aries-pisces/ 

jubbas : https://www.jubbas.com/products/black-hooded-jubbah  

“Cool de la”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud-L36fOkU8

The boys are back to finish part 1 of Foundation. Seldon predicts the fall of the empire within 300 years and a 30k dark age. If he can do his encyclopedia project he can shorten it to 1k. He and crew are exiled to exactly where he wanted to go.

In the latter part we discuss covering this book differently than Dune and the reasons behind it. We think we can knock out Foundation in abour 6 episodes. Are you a Dune fan that has joined us for this? Let us know what you think. If you came here directly for Foundation let us know as well!

We’re now in Dune Book 2: Muad Dib! 

It’s a rare 2 chapter episode: in Chapter 1 of Book 2, Paul and Jessica are still out in the stilltent recovering from the attack on their home, the death of Leto and Paul’s early onset prescience, including the revelation that Jessica is the Baron Harkonnen’s daughter and consequently, Paul is “half Harkonnen, Half Atreides”.  

The boys discuss nature vs nurture and that the idea here is sure they both have Harkonnen genes, but they are “culturally Atreides”.

In the next chapter, Thufir is with his wounded men and encounters a Fremen.  In this chapter we learn about “water decisions”, we see the first glimpse of the fremen’s elite fighting capabilities and some big differences between the fremen and the Atreides.  

The boys dive into Foundation and talk about the people, sights, sounds, and smells of Trantor the capital of the Galactic Empire as well as meet some important fellows: Hari Seldond and Gaal 

Show notes: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Ya_Gonna_Keep_%27em_Down_on_the_Farm_(After_They%27ve_Seen_Paree)%3F

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaywalking  

Please note: if you listened to episode 000 the first ten minutes of this episode is the same.

The boys are super excited to start their reading of isaac Asimov’s seminal work “Foundation”.  This 10 min snippet is a nice state of the union of where Decode Podcast is going -  that we’re going to cover Foundation and Dune every other episode.  Worry not Dune fans, we already have Dune Book 2 episodes in the can!  This is also the first ten minutes of Decode: Foundation Episode 001, coming out soon!  

Same with Dune, spoilers are on, but as we haven’t read the book or series in its entirety as we had with Dune, we don’t have a lot to spoil.  Looking forward to recording Foundation episodes in near real time with our read of it. We may circle back someday and cover nook 1 of Foundation with an awareness of where it goes but for now, join us for Decode: Foundation!

In light of the Dune movie's official trailer being released a few weeks back, the boys embark on an intended two part discussion of the trailer. 

In part 1, we cover our takes on the cast according to their characters. You might be surprised by our takes.  

Teaser hot take: Jason Mamoa as Duncan is "fine" if Denis Villeneuve only wants to cover Dune, and Dune Messiah but his casting is going to really be a problem if they make it to God Emperor of Dune and beyond...