We open Season 8 with one of the best sci-movies of all time:  Return of the Jedi!  Celebrating it’s 40th anniversary this year, this movie was a game changer.  It had gigantic slug aliens, Boba Fett getting launched into a gigantic mouth, and more force power than you can shake a lightsaber at.  We here at FGGGbT LOVE Star Wars, but wanted to cover the untraveled road, talk about novel things that have escape the eye of academic scrutiny.  And I think we did it.  We cover some of the weirder biology in Star Wars Universe, including The Hutts humongous bodies, tingly head tentacles, and the emergence of Droid culture.

How many of us have sliced a few mushrooms on our salad, or paid extra for a little truffle oil? It is true, fungus can be delicious, but what if you were delicious to a fungus? The Cordyceps fungus has evolved as a predator to certain insects, and when infected, They eat these insects from the inside out. Luckily for us humans, we have nothing to fear…or do we? In The Last of Us, the Cordyceps has evolved to infect humans, and which would be quite a problem. This week, we try to mentally prepare you for the eventuality of becoming a mushroom yourself.

Like most people, we love a good murder mystery.  One of the often overlooked elements to creating an excellent experience is the invitation.  How do you get everyone together in a memorable way?  Well in the movie Glass Onion, they nailed it by creating the most elaborate puzzle box ever made.  We take a look at all the elements, including Magic Eye, a Japanese Sliding box, the music of Sebastian Bach, and the impossible to complete “Golf Tee Jumping Game”.  We also consider the rise of the “Tech Bro Supervillain”, and the relationship between madness and genius.  Do you need to be eccentric to be considered brilliant?  Listen to find out!

The awesome art for this episode was borrowed from a New Yorker article, and was illustrated by Kristian Hammerstad.

Prison is a place you definitely don’t want to find yourself, but if you do, I can guarantee you will want to get out.  This would especially be true if the prison was the size of Manhattan Island, like we see in the 1980’s classic “Escape From New York”.  Here, anti-hero Snake Plissken has to rescue the President from the very Prison Industrial Complex that he helped create.  We will also talk about the famous Alcatraz escape, which maybe be the best prison story of all time.  Not only do we discuss escaping, but we will also help you be better equipped for prison, including introductions to Jolly Rancher based weapons and make-shift crossbows.  And make sure to listen to the end for an award-winning recipe for Pruno, the classic prison wine.

We have all seen Jurassic Park, and despite the obvious flaws and clear security risks, I think we all want to see real dinosaurs.  This will probably never happen BUT what if we could bring something back that was a bit smaller, cuddlier, and way more possible?  In this episode, the Brain Trust contemplates opening up a park occupied by woolly mammoths.  There may be a scientific path to this, given that there is a real mummified mammoth in Siberia.  It is much easier to extract DNA from something preserved rather than taking your chances on amber encrusted with mosquitoes.  Plus we talk about other possible park residents, including the dodo, the black rhinoceros, and the thylacine.