Grounded Geeks

May 31, 2021 marked the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. In this episode, we talk about what the prosperous all-Black community of Greenwood was—and what was lost in one of the worst acts of terrorism that took place in U.S. history. And to help us process this horrific event (since clearly not enough of us learned about this in our school textbooks) we turned to some of our favorite shows, Watchmen and Lovecraft Country, both on HBO Max. SHOW NOTES: groundedgeeks.medium.com

Welcome to our new series at Grounded Geeks called Superhero Smorgasbord! This is when we'll take something that's happening in the real world and then talk about how certain characters or entities in the geek world would react to that particular situation. So on this first round, we naturally covered the COVID-19 pandemic. SHOW NOTES: groundedgeeks.medium.com.

It's the end of Ramadan so Eid Mubarak to one and all! For this episode—our Eid special—we roll back the clock and discuss (arguably) the first comic book ever created called The Hamzanama. (We don't know if it's THE first comic book ever because we're not scholars so chill). The Hamzanama came about because the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great commissioned a series of paintings to turn the epic of Hamza into a comic book back in the 1500s! So buckle up for a very casual yet thorough history lesson on comics and how they came about through oral storytelling traditions dating back to the 600s. SHOW NOTES: groundedgeeks.medium.com.

We're releasing this week's episode early just so we can say "May the Fourth be with you!" to our audience. (We literally call ourselves Grounded Geeks. Don't be surprised). So naturally, on this joyous day we wanted to discuss The Mandalorian and the surprising parallels to religious extremism that can be seen on this show. SHOW NOTES: groundedgeeks.medium.com.

Be warned: There are MAJOR SPOILERS in this episode for Marvel's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier! And also major spoilers for how much racism/fascism sucks. Aman and Lena do a deep dive on the show, what they loved about it, and the disappointing—and often horrific—truth about so many aspects of U.S. history. SHOW NOTES: groundedgeeks.medium.com.

Happy Earth Day! Take a trip down memory lane with Aman and Lena as they discuss their childhood obsession with Captain Planet and how much they wanted to be Planeteers too. And also how we—meaning countries, governments, and corporations—really need to do something about climate change...yeah. SHOW NOTES: groundedgeeks.medium.com.

Ramadan Mubarak / Happy Ramadan! In celebration of the beginning of this holy month for Muslims, Aman and Lena wanted to talk about their absolute favorite comic book character, Ms. Marvel. Her name is Kamala Khan, she's a first-generation Pakistani and Muslim-American teenager growing up in Jersey City. And in this episode, we talk about all the ways that her story has broken stereotypes, barriers, etc. and personally brought us back into the comic book world as (semi)adults. SHOW NOTES: groundedgeeks.medium.com.

Not only did we get to talk about one of our favorite TV shows (that not enough people are watching right now), but Aman and Lena also discuss how incredibly timely it is—especially considering the recent rise in anti-Asian hate and violence across the U.S. Everyone needs to watch Warrior and in our humble opinion, it should be required viewing for every American. And if you're paying attention, HBO Max, we need you to make #WarriorSeason3 happen. SHOW NOTES: groundedgeeks.medium.com.

After four long years, Zack Snyder's Justice League is finally here! So naturally Aman and Lena had to talk about it and compare it to the theatrical Justice League, which came out in 2017. There were compliments, complaints, and disagreements shared. And at one point we went on a tangent to talk about that time we used to live in Kiev, Ukraine. SHOW NOTES: groundedgeeks.medium.com.