51 – First Contact

Recorded March 13th and 20th. First contact, ship detection and landing, Zod's ultimatum, The War of the Worlds, and The Wizard of Oz.

Answers, insights, and commentary on:

* I. First Contact

* As an intended approach

* Guidelines for what counts

* Prior in-story contacts

* Detecting Kal's vessel and landing

* Military response and suppression

* Ultimatum questions

* "Are we alone in the universe?"

* Winston Churchill

* II. War of the Worlds - The Book

* H.G. Wells and Jules Verne

* Man versus the mechanized future

* Superman terraforming Earth

* Superman's arc enabling The League

* Man as animal

* Panic and fragility

* Human heroes overcoming instinct

* III. War of the Worlds - The Broadcast

* 1938 Orson Welles broadcast

* Halloween public panic

* Press exaggerated story

* Fake news, virality, and creative control

* Real public panics

* Humbling humanity

* Myopia and normalizing the extraordinary

* IV. First Impressions

* Lois Lane and handshakes

* Pete picking up the tab

* Definitions, Apologetics, and "Yucatan"

* Selling Superman

* Judgment, taste, and capacity

* Clark is more able than we see

* Superman is more human than we know

* V. Wizard of Oz

* Similarities to Superman and BvS

* Hero's Journey and circular story

* Flexible and open to interpretation

* Explicit Oz references

* As an allegory for populism

* VI. Application

* Academic scholarship

* Fandom good for empathy

* Superheroes inspire altruism

* Science fiction, escapism, and reality

To learn more:

The War of the Worlds 1938 broadcast | Orson Welles

American Experience: War of the Worlds | PBS

War of the Worlds | RadioLab

Big Picture Science | SETI Institute

Churchill Ordered UFO Cover-Up | BBC

Churchill Essay on Aliens | NY Times

Should Humans Try To Contact Alien Civilizations? | Motherboard

Don't Panic | WNYC

How the Panic Broadcast Really Went Down | Michigan Radio

American Icons: Wizard of Oz | Studio 360

The Wizard of Oz | TED Ed

Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy | Louis C.K.

God, The Universe and Everything Else (1988) | BBC

Does Smiling Make You Happier? | HowStuffWorks

Power Poses Work - Amy Cuddy | TED

Power Poses Are False (replication crisis) | Fortune

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