This episode, Cort reports back on Not Animal by Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s and yada, yada, yada, next thing you know Brian is practically giving a TED Talk on the original makeup of the band, its founder Richard Edwards, and the band’s “break-up.” So what actually is Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s? The original members only? Or anyone Richard feels like dragging into the studio? (Shoutout to The Shins' James Mercer.)

We issue a formal apology to Carrie (the 1976 version) for the figurative bucket of pig’s blood we dumped by failing to mention it in our last episode during our roundup of “good” Stephen King adaptations. Our mea culpa leads us into a topic we have tiptoed around in the past: are King’s short stories easier to adapt to the screen than his novels? And if so, does that rule hold for all writers, or just King?

On the TV front, Cort and his wife binged We Were Liars on Amazon Prime, featuring Candice King (aka Caroline from The Vampire Diaries). And when we switch to movies, Brian reflects on the emotional trauma of seeing Jaws as a child, which led to his totally rational adult obsession with shark movies. Cort saw The Materialists recently and … didn’t leave before it ended. So that’s something.

PLUS - Next episode, we welcome our next guest: Brian’s son, Whit, who assigned us a Fugazi playlist to listen to and discuss. You can listen along too:

Whit’s Playlist on Spotify

Theme music: Cyrus Oh Cyrus by The Flying Scrub Jays