Geeks Without God

This week, we discuss the Netflix Original film “The Wonder” starring Florence Pugh. The film is about a young girl in Ireland who may be a miracle and the woman who is sent to help determine if that is the case. Aside from a really weird framing structure that begins and ends the film, it is a good movie but more importantly, it provides some fertile ground for discussion of how fanaticism can poison people to the point of doing real harm. We do spoil the movie so you may want to watch it first but if you are just interested in atheists talking about religious themes, that’s what we are talking about for the most part!

It may be a couple days after Christmas but we are atheists so who cares about such things? Windy Bowlsby, a HUGE Christmas movie fan, joins us to talk about the newest crop of Holiday movies and specials. We spent a lot of time discussing the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday special (with KEVIN BACOON), Spirited (A new take on “A Christmas Carol”) and Violent Night (which is AMAZEBALLS). We also touch on a new holiday rom-com called Hollywood Christmas and the Santa Claus themed slasher “Christmas Bloody Christmas.” Happy whatever you celebrate!

This week, we talk about the newest Knives Out Mystery: Glass Onion! Rian Johnson’s newest installment featuring Daniel Craig as Beniot Blanc, the world’s greatest detective, is pretty amazing but it is also super easy to spoil. So don’t listen until you’ve watched the movie. Trust us. You’ll be happy to you watched it.

This week we are joined by our friend and Editor of Tor.com, Lee Harris! Lee is from England and talking to us from England because we live in the future! Lee is also raising his kids in a secular household so Lee and Tim talk about the challenges and rewards of trying to teach their kids about a world without god while living in a world where god is everywhere.

This week, we are recording at Omegacon Fall 2022. As is our custom, we spend the weekend in Siren, Wisconsin playing games and we get together at the end of the weekend to discuss the games we played and enjoyed. We played a few games together, enjoyed some new Kickstarter finds, and Tim really enjoyed Phantom Ink, which is sort of Mysterious crossed with Codenames. Listen to the episode and maybe get some ideas about games you’d like to try!

This week, we discuss “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” a brand new biopic about the comedy icon that is available for free on Roku. Daniel Radcliffe stars as Al Yankovic and Rainn Wilson is Dr. Demento in this film that has almost nothing to do with the real Weird Al Yankovic. We’d spoil it for you but if you know anything about Al’s actual life, you will be completely unprepared for this film. Don’t dare to be stupid and miss this film!

This week, we are joined by our friend Schramm to discuss Kusoge. For those not in the know, Kusoge literally translates as “shitty games” and Schramm is a huge fan of the…um…genre? Of course the classic example is the E.T. video game, which gets brought up for the second time in as many months but we learn about other equally bad games and the people, like Shramm, who play tournaments dedicated to them.

This week, we take a spoiler filled look at She-Hulk on Disney Plus! The newest Marvel series takes aim at toxic masculinity, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and fandom in general. It’s the first Marvel series that feels more like a sitcom than an “event.” We all loved the show. We also read the FINAL FIVE ANSWERS we currently have! Who will answer our questions next?

This week, we are joined by guest Nels Lennes, who is a founding member of HUGE improv theater in Minneapolis. Nels joins us to talk about infinity. Specifically, we are talking about the concept of infinity and how finite beings such as ourselves make assumptions about how we can understand it. Obviously, as non believers, we have some thoughts about those who may suggest they do understand the infinite. Nels also gets to answer our five questions!