Fat Guy, Jacked Guy

This week, an unfortunate conversation Brendan had with his students led us to investigate this whole spreading conspiracy theories on TikTok a little further. In this episode, we're talking about the very real person Helen Keller, for sure, but we're also talking about how we're stuck in a cycle of DISinformation that is bolstering our predatory capitalist society and changing our realities as we know them. And of course, we can't help goofing about the collapse of society as we know it.

This week, we have a very special treat for you all (and for us)! We invited the cohost of one of our favorite podcasts, You Are Good, to come talk autumnal films with us and he accepted. In this episode, we break down our favorite fall movies with Alex Steed and get to listen to him talk about his, as well. This is a real treat for those of you who love to hear three brothers goofing about the magic of cinema, the splendor of the fall season, and death.

Aside from being the spookiest month of the year, October is also LGBTQ History Month and you should know by now that this is a queer and queer-adjacent podcast, so we conceived this episode in the spirit of that. In this episode, Stef gets into some of their own personal experiences at gay bars and lesbian bars (and "queer nights") over the years and also gives both a very brief history of the conception and function of the lesbian bar in the U.S. and some perspective on how and why there's only 24 of them left in the whole country. This is a topic we're sure many of you don't know a lot about, so we're positive you'll learn something from it.

Well, folks, Halloween is literally right around the corner, so we thought we'd take some time to talk about it. This week, we’re introducing you to some "Halloween" traditions from our own childhoods to those of our ancestors and of other places we care about. We get into the spooky origins of Halloween and how it differs from place to place. Along the way, we ask some questions, have some laughs, and talk about the connectedness of everything.

Since it's "spooky season" (as the kids say), we've been talking a lot about our opinions on some of the most popular horror films of all time. For this episode, we're doing something a little different. Brendan challenged us both (himself and Stef) to come up with our OWN ideas for horror movies we'd like to see on the big (or little) screen. We recorded our pitches and our discussion of them, so you get a front row seat to this horror movie think tank and writing workshop!

For this week's episode, we asked our dear patrons over at the Fat Guy, Jacked Guy Patreon to help us pick a year in horror to review together, and we ended up with 1979! So, we spent several hours together watching, taking notes on, and discussing some of the landmark horror films of that year. In this episode, we give your our thoughts, our opinions, our analyses, AND our rankings of these important pieces of terrifying art. Trust us, we get DEEP! Of course, we do goof on a couple of them, too.

Well, it's October and y'all know what that means...it's time to talk about some spooky shit. This week, we're easing into a month's worth of spooky, scary, creepy, crawly content by discussing our individual top 5 "favorite" horror films we've ever seen. We also discuss our relationships to horror films and how we came to love them. Of course, we'll get into some of the specifics of the films we chose and why we chose them. We hope you're here for the spooks and goofs because god knows we are!

Well, September is coming to a close which means it's time for us to close out this accidental Cryptozoology-themed month we've been having here at FGJG. This week, we're mostly talking about some of the lesser known, less talked about, more "indie" (if you will) cryptids from around the world. We get into some of the weirder ones, discuss what they are and their origins, and just talk very generally about what cryptozoology means to us and to the world. We know you'll find some cryptids to love here, too!

This week's episode is a little bit of a crossover because we're talking about Florida's one and only cryptid: the Skunk Ape. We're going deep into Skunk Ape lore and discussing the history of Skunk Ape sightings, along with the possible origins of this Everglades mystery. Don't worry, Florida heads, we also discuss Dave Shealy's role in what we currently know about the Skunk Ape. Even if you think you know all you need to know about the Skunk Ape, we guarantee you'll learn even more.

It's a BIG week over here at Fat Guy, Jacked Guy, folks. And that's not hyperbole! Why? Because this week we're diving headfirst into the murky depths of the cryptozoology world and exploring one of Brendan's childhood (and lifelong) passions: lake monsters! We'll get into some of the myths about lake monsters, why these myths might have popped up in the first place, and we'll talk about some lake monsters from around the world. Of course, we also get into some deeper stuff about the importance of curiosity and wonder, too.