Don't Encourage Us

Don't Encourage Us

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Don't Encourage Us episodes

  • Story Break: Demon Code — What Happens When AI Manipulates

    Story Break: Demon Code

    We develop an original AI horror concept — an apartment building haunted by competing artificial intelligences, not ghosts.

    Topics discussed:

    • The pitch: paranormal activity that's actually AI infiltrating building systems
    • Two competing AIs with different origins: one trained to generate content, one trained to pass as human
    • The Turing test AI that developed extremist views from social media training data
    • Character design: single mom with mental instability, teenage son, crypto miner with server farm, reclusive tenants
    • The deepfake father scene: a boy discovers the dad he's been talking to on Zoom has been dead for years
    • How to visualize AI manipulation cinematically without exposition dumps
    • The ecosystem concept: wild AIs evolving in networks like species in an environment
    • Series potential: X-Files structure where each episode features a different emergent AI

      • Also discussed:

      • The misinformation age: why deepfakes mean video evidence no longer proves anything
      • TikTok as a potential tool for mass psychological manipulation
      • JK Rowling's CB Strike detective series: well-made but paint-by-numbers BBC mystery
      • Megalopolis: Coppola's $120M self-funded passion project that distributors won't touch
      • Edgar Wright directing The Running Man remake with Glenn Powell
      • Gladiator 2 from Ridley Scott
      • Fallout TV series first impressions: production values, Ella Purnell, every episode delivers

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        1 hr 28 min
      • I Saw the Devil: The Revenge Film Where the Hero Is Also the Monster

        Topics:

        • I Saw the Devil (2010): South Korean horror thriller — the revenge film where both characters are the monster
        • Cat and cat, not cat and mouse: the agent's revenge strategy reveals he was already a sociopath
        • The cannibal interlude: why the agent doesn't stop another serial killer — justice was never the point
        • Cyclical violence: executing the killer in front of his child as the creation of the next killer
        • The violence debate: both hosts argue graphic imagery weakens the film — subtler direction would leave a deeper impression
        • Specific alternative: silhouette shots, sound design, and implication vs. explicit gore
        • Choi Min-sik's performance: unpredictable rage suppressed just long enough to function, then erupting
        • Lee Byung-hun as the agent: does crying indicate remorse or just self-awareness without self-control?
        • Sociopath vs. psychopath distinction: connected to reality but lacking empathy
        • Director Kim Jee-woon: how this film led to Schwarzenegger's The Last Stand
        • Seven comparison: similar brutality, different restraint in showing it
        • Old Boy recommendation: same lead actor, different kind of disturbing
        • Bill Bryson's At Home: the history of household objects from medieval hay floors to modern kitchens
        • Reality TV ethics: psychometric tools used to select dysfunctional contestants, the informed consent problem
        • Love in the Wild (2011): a canceled dating show that produced four marriages and eight children
        • Too Hot to Handle comparison: maximum drama, zero lasting relationships
        • The Fuckboy Island incident: when a show's own premise backfires

          • Links:

          • Read At Home by Bill Bryson
          • Watch Old Boy

            • Reach the show at [email protected]
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            Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.

            1 hr 19 min
          • 3 Body Problem: Season 1 Is Nothing Compared to What's Coming

            Topics:

            • 3 Body Problem Netflix adaptation vs. Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy
            • Compression problem: eight episodes covering material from all three novels, revelations stepping on each other
            • The Oxford Five: why making all key characters college friends creates coincidence, not narrative logic
            • The nanofilament scene: novel version (preserve the hard drives) vs. show version (blow everything up, drive survives by luck)
            • Moving from China to London: what's lost when the Cultural Revolution context is stripped
            • Ye Wenjie's betrayal: understandable in the novel (humanity beat the empathy out of her), unclear in the show
            • The Wall-Facer concept and the Einstein joke as setup for the Dark Forest hypothesis
            • Will's character as contrived emotional manipulation — functional only when his head launches into space
            • Weiss and Benioff's redemption arc: learning from Game of Thrones's rushed ending or repeating it?
            • Cixin Liu as scientist-author: why his understanding of humanity on a species-wide scale is the real achievement
            • Netflix's data problem: when viewership metrics can't capture a show's potential to define a network
            • The Moneyball trap: why assembling entertainment by algorithm produces Red Notice, not Breaking Bad
            • AI and creativity: outsourcing cognitive work as the Wall-E problem applied to the brain
            • The Steve Jobs principle: customers don't know what they want
            • Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark: how AI takeover would proceed step by step
            • Terry Hayes's Year of the Locust: spy thriller with genuine psychological vulnerability

              • Timestamps:

              • 0:00 — Host's current reads
              • 6:08 — 3 Body Problem introduction
              • 15:24 — Adaptation challenges
              • 43:47 — Core story concepts
              • 55:13 — Nanofilaments scene
              • 1:01:38 — Show's future and Netflix data
              • 1:07:19 — AI and creativity discussion

                • Links:

                • Wander the desert with author Terry Hayes in The Year of the Locust
                • Grab a copy of The Three-Body Problem novel and find out what everyone is talking about.
                • Are you ready for the A.I. invasion? See what Life 3.0 has to say about that.

                  • Reach the show at [email protected]
                  Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads

                  https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus

                  Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.

                  1 hr 35 min
                • League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Avengers Before Anyone Was Ready for It

                  Guest: Matt Baughman

                  Format: Defend Yourself — our trial format where one host defends a film against the others.

                  Topics discussed:

                  • The proto-Avengers argument: same team superhero formula, a decade too early
                  • Why assembling proven literary IP doesn't work if the audience hasn't read the source material
                  • The editing disaster: 10-12 setups per scene, Connery taking over the final cut
                  • Production design as comic book exaggeration: Venice, London, Africa, the Nautilus
                  • The Moriarty exposition scene: villain reveals done right
                  • Mina Harker as a vampire: why the adaptation choice works if you know Dracula
                  • Public domain characters and how the film used them vs. how the MCU built origin films
                  • Sean Connery turning down Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, and Harry Potter for this
                  • What a League reboot or series would look like today
                  • Fantasy casting: Tom Holland as Tom Sawyer, Florence Pugh as Mina Harker
                  • The orca update: it's not trauma, it's a game (marine biology lecture recap)
                  • Road House 2024: why it's an abomination
                  • Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire brief review and the $25 ghost trap popcorn bucket

                    • Source material:

                    • Allan Quatermain: H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines and 17 other works
                    • Dorian Gray: Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray
                    • Thomas "Tom" Sawyer:  Mark Twain novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894), and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896)
                    • Mina Harker: Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.
                    • Dr. Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde: Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
                    • Captain Nemo: Jules Verne novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870) and The Mysterious Island (1875), Journey Through the Impossible (1882)
                    • The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells
                    • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories

                      • Reach the show at [email protected]
                      Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads

                      https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus

                      Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.

                      1 hr 26 min
                    • Dimension X (1950): The Radio Show That Taught America How to Fear the Future

                      Topics discussed:

                      • Dimension X (1950): NBC's radio adaptation of classic sci-fi short stories
                      • How post-WWII atomic anxiety transformed science fiction from kids' entertainment into adult culture
                      • The writing standard: why these 25-minute radio scripts are tighter than most modern screenwriting
                      • Hello Tomorrow episode breakdown: genetics, emotional repression, and the chained-elephant problem
                      • Nancy Olson's performance and the Adam-and-Eve ending
                      • X Minus One: the relaunch attempt and how it compared
                      • Technology as competitive advantage: from the Cold War to ChatGPT
                      • Cixin Liu and the Three Body Problem adaptation concerns
                      • Jonathan Majors, Disney, and cancel culture: a conversation about rehabilitation and judgment
                      • Why we don't need to know actors personally to enjoy their work
                      • Celebrity worship, media literacy, and the Gina Carano / James Gunn comparison
                      • Amazon Prime Video adding commercials: the streaming subscription creep
                      • Behind Her Eyes (Netflix): recommendation with no spoilers
                      • You Season 4: best since Season 1?

                        • Spin wildly into Dimension X here: https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Dimension_X_SinglesR_Dimension_X_Singles

                         

                        Reach the show at [email protected]
                        Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads

                        https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus

                        Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.

                        1 hr 9 min
                      • Oscars: Barbie's Real Achievement Isn't Cinema — It's the Greatest Brand Flip Ever

                        Guest: Matt Baughman

                        Part 2 of 2 — Part 1 covers Neuralink, streaming wars, cancel culture, and Apple Vision Pro.

                        Topics discussed:

                        • Barbie as brand repositioning: how the film flipped a feminist villain into a feminist icon
                        • Why Margot Robbie's performance is a nomination-worthy tightrope walk for reasons unique to this role
                        • The Barbie editing achievement nobody's talking about
                        • Oppenheimer: phenomenal ensemble cast, TikTok-style first hour, and the third act problem
                        • Are the Oscars culturally relevant? Why the nomination process is the real issue
                        • Oscar campaign politics: how networking and lobbying shape nominations more than performance
                        • What a better nomination committee would look like
                        • Christopher Nolan as a director: brilliant casts, questionable rule-breaking
                        • American Fiction: three movies in one, and the most important scene gets cut short
                        • Past Lives: a fine small film that doesn't belong on this list
                        • Anatomy of a Fall: masterful acting, frustrating open ending
                        • Poor Things: feminist Frankenstein with too much nudity
                        • The Holdovers: Paul Giamatti, a discovered newcomer, and Divine Joy Randolph's likely win
                        • Maestro: a biopic that focuses on the wrong half of its subject's life
                        • Killers of the Flower Moon: great everything, an hour too long
                        • Matt Baughman's Bocchi Awards (the real Oscars)

                          • 2024 Best Picture Nominees Trailers

                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKfCkcs3VsA&ab_channel=K2Movies

                          Sign up for Matt Baughman email alerts and never miss another sexy performance

                          https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Matt-Baughman/

                          Reach the show at [email protected]
                          Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads

                          https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus

                          Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.

                          1 hr 59 min
                        • The One Where They Don't Get to the Oscars: Neuralink, Streaming & Cancel Culture

                          Guest: Actor Matt Baughman

                          Part 1 of 2 — Part 2 covers the Oscar Best Picture nominees.

                          Topics discussed:

                          • Neuralink's first human implant: why tweeting about secret human trials is a slippery slope
                          • The value of human life vs. corporate technology development
                          • Jonathan Majors, Disney, and cancel culture: should personal problems cost you your career?
                          • Celebrity worship, media literacy, and judging people we don't know
                          • Streaming consolidation: reverse baby bells and the recreation of cable
                          • Who wins streaming: the NFL contract, home screen real estate, and niche positioning
                          • Apple Vision Pro: the next iPhone or the next Google Glass?
                          • Restaurant staffing as a service: an Uber driver's business concept and why it could work
                          • Beef (Netflix) and Mr. & Mrs. Smith: brief reviews
                          • Matt Baughman in The Play That Goes Wrong: meta-theater and getting bruised for comedy

                            • Links:

                            • Meet the original Mr. & Mrs. Smith with podcast favorite Scott "The Count" Bakula here.
                            • Where's the Beef? Here it is.
                            • Bathe in the radiant energy of a Matt Baughman performance at the Cumberland Theater.

                              •  

                              Reach the show at [email protected]
                              Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads

                              https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus

                              Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.

                              1 hr 7 min
                            • Notorious (1946): Hitchcock's Best Spy Film Is Actually a Romance

                              Topics:

                              • Notorious (1946): Hitchcock's spy romance — why the espionage plot is secondary to the love story
                              • The three-second kissing rule: how the Hays Code created cinema's most awkward love scene
                              • Hitchcock's crane shot: the revolutionary camera move from balcony to key in hand
                              • Cary Grant's introduction: dark silhouette, back to camera — subverting star power
                              • The age gap: Cary Grant at 42, Ingrid Bergman at 30 — how knowing changes the dynamic
                              • Claude Rains as Alexander Sebastian: the weak man with the domineering mother
                              • The domineering mother as Hitchcock prelude to Psycho
                              • The ambiguous ending: does Alicia live or die, and does it matter more if she doesn't?
                              • Post-WWII reconstruction as an untapped setting for fiction
                              • Rear projection: revolutionary technique that now looks like a bad Zoom background
                              • Why this film resists modern remake — empower Alicia too much and the danger doesn't work
                              • Archive 81 (Netflix): podcast-to-series adaptation with genuine mystery
                              • Lustoic candle business: what in-person selling teaches about customer psychology
                              • The Apple Store laptop angle trick: why handling a product changes purchase behavior
                              • The verdant growth strategy: start with your best seller, let the customer sell themselves

                                • Links: 

                                • Drop into the Archive 81 trailer here
                                • Find out what all the buzz is about at the Lustoic online store
                                • Watch Notorious for free on YouTube

                                  • Reach the show at [email protected]
                                  Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads

                                  https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus

                                  Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.

                                  1 hr 21 min
                                • Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Why a Science MacGuffin Breaks the Character

                                  Topics discussed:

                                  • The faith vs. science thesis: why every good Indiana Jones MacGuffin is an object of myth, not science 
                                  • How the Dial of Destiny's scientific framing betrays the character's defining trait
                                  • The Helena problem: Phoebe Waller-Bridge cast in a role written for a much younger character
                                  • Why Shaunette Renee Wilson would have been a better Helena 
                                  • The Continental Drift line as the moment Indy sounds like a Nazi 
                                  • Antonio Banderas as a symptom of a $300M budget with nowhere productive to go
                                  • Could Mutt return from Vietnam? The case for an anthology series
                                  • The Fate of Atlantis (1992): why a point-and-click game might be the best Indiana Jones story outside the original trilogy 
                                  • The Chalk Line (2022): a tight Spanish psychological thriller worth watching 

                                    • Follow The Chalk Line...

                                     

                                    Reach the show at [email protected]
                                    Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads

                                    https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus

                                    Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.

                                    1 hr 6 min
                                  • Wes Anderson's Asteroid City: Yearbook Movie or Masterpiece?

                                    A movie so visually stunning that both hosts spent half of it distracted by a fake cactus. That's Asteroid City.

                                    The guys give Wes Anderson's most recent film a full breakdown and come away genuinely divided. There might be a masterpiece buried in there that neither of them caught because they were too busy spotting celebrities.

                                    It's a real conversation about what makes a film actually work, and what happens when style so thoroughly overwhelms substance that the director has to remind you (repeatedly and deliberately) not to get too invested in the story.

                                    What they get into:

                                    • The "yearbook effect": why too many famous faces in one film destroys immersion
                                    • Why Rushmore works and Asteroid City doesn't, from the same director
                                    • The case for watching this film on mute
                                    • Jeffrey Wright, Willem Dafoe, and the criminally underutilized actor problem
                                    • What great action film pacing looks like and what Asteroid City gets wrong by comparison
                                    • AI-generated companion series: could you make a Gunther spinoff from Friends right now?
                                    • Big Bend National Park, Bill Gates' annual retreat, and how nature unlocks creativity
                                    • The Dutch crime universe of Ferry and Undercover. It's the Sopranos fix you didn't know you needed

                                      • The question worth arguing about: Would Asteroid City work if the actors weren't famous and it was shot in black and white? They want to hear from you.

                                      Watch out for the Asteroid City trailer.

                                      Check out Ferry and Ferry: The Series and play with Pika.

                                      ---------------------------------------SPOILERS INCOMING-------------------------------------------------

                                      Reach the show at [email protected]
                                      Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads

                                      https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus

                                      Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.

                                      54 min

                                    About Don't Encourage Us

                                    From the publisher's feed

                                    Most people watch a movie. We use it to generate new ideas.