#365 Josué, Marc, and Link discuss Pokémon Sleep and other bio-tracking apps. Are they accurate? Are they helpful? Can a tracking app even be fun? What we can all agree on, is Pokémon are very cute.

Characters / Media Discussed:

Pokémon Sleep (2023)
Pokémon Go (2016)
Pokémon SoulSilver/HeartGold (2009)
Poké Walker - pedometer (2009)
Pokémon Diamond/Pearl (2006)
Poké Ball Plus - controller  (2018)
Structured.app - daily planner app (2020)
Pokémon Sword/Shield (2019)
Pokémon Sun/Moon (2016)
Pikmin Bloom (2021)
Street Fighter Duel (2023)
SuperBetter - app (2012)

Themes, Topics, and Relatable Experiences Discussed:

* Change
* Consequences
* Difficult emotions
* Shame
* Mental Health Services
* Problem Solving
* Resilience
* Clarity/Understanding
* Coming of age/Getting older
* Depression
* Disability
* Fear/Anxiety
* Health (Physical)
* Guilt
* Accessibility

Questions? Comments? Discuss this episode on the GT Forum.

—

Links / Social Media

Check out the GT Network: network.geektherapy.com

GT Forum: forum.geektherapy.org

GT Discord: geektherapy.com/discord

GT Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/geektherapy

Find us at GeekTherapy.org | @GeekTherapy | Lara: @GeekTherapist | Link: @CHICKENDINOSAUR | Josué: @JosueACardona

Ask us anything through the Question Queue and we’ll answer on the show: geektherapy.org/qq

Join the Conversation!

Have you ever used a bio-tracking app? What was your experience like?

#364: Josué, Lara, and Link discuss traditions, from singing songs at camp, to watching A Christmas Story every year. We talk about why traditions stick around-or don’t. (We didn’t talk about Fiddler on the Roof, but we all thought about it.)

Josué (00:00)
Welcome to GT Radio on the Geek Therapy Network. Here at Geek Therapy, we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about. My name is Josué Cardona and I am joined by Link Keller and Lara Taylor. Lara you’re up. What are we talking about today?

Link (00:10)
Hello?

Lara (00:12)
Hey!

I am up. I want to talk about traditions. So every year my family and I go to a YMCA family camp for Labor Day weekend. And this year and last year, some things were a little different. A lot of the traditions that had been so important to us were either not there or we had to fight to get them. And…

I think it made me appreciate when we did get to do the things like certain songs that we sing, certain programs that we run, made me appreciate those things a little more. So I wanted to talk about geeky traditions. So one of the things that I think about when I’m thinking of geeky traditions, Nina and I started watching Hamilton every 4th of July. That’s a thing that we do.

or you know my mom used to watch, we used to watch, what is it? Christmas story, every Christmas, those kinds of things. But also, I know of some other geeky traditions around here like going to Comic Con every year. And I think I’ve been missing that. And so, I don’t know, I just wanted to talk about traditions. Why we like them.

what we do when they’re not available to us, you know, and I don’t know, how we kind of pivot if we have to, or fight for things to come back. Because that’s another thing that happens in Geekdom.

Josué (02:00)
I’m curious when you talked about the family camp and how things were different this year. Did it feel like something was missing?

Lara (02:06)
Yeah, I did. I felt like, I don’t know, it felt less like community. Like we had no, there were less activities that brought everyone together to meet each other. It felt kind of bare bones. The one that really got me that we fought to get back this year was, there’s a song that we sing at the end of every campfire and have for, I think it’s like 30, 31

that a friend of mine wrote and he passed away last year. So I felt like it was really important. One of the reasons I went up to camp to volunteer last summer was to help Brink keep that tradition alive and sing the song. And so this year they weren’t gonna do it. And a bunch of our, bunch of people who had been there before were like, no, we need to sing this song, it’s really important. And so it got budged on and I got to sing the song.

and it felt really empowering to have a little bit of change and also frustrating that I had to, that I had to go through that and fight to keep something that had been around for such a long time. And was important, clearly important to a lot of people who were there.

Josué (03:22)
Yeah, yeah, for how many years was that song?

Lara (03:25)
30, like 30, 31 years, yeah. And it was written for the camp by a guy who went to the camp.

Josué (03:28)
It’s on.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, maybe we can maybe that’s a part of it too of like.

Lara (03:40)
Mm-hmm.

Josué (03:43)
How quickly? Like, why would you, how does that stop being a traditional all of a sudden so quickly? Yeah.

Lara (03:44)
Hehehe

Right? Yeah. And I think part of it is sometimes there’s like at this, it almost became a thing where it wasn’t something they did last year because they had so few people who had been there before who knew the song. But I also don’t know what’s in the minds of the people running it right now. So, who knows what’s going on and the reasons behind it. All I know is we spoke up.

and we got to sing our song again. And that was really nice.

Josué (04:27)
What does it mean to you though?

Lara (04:30)
What does it mean to me?

Josué (04:31)
Yeah, like the song, like having that.

Lara (04:34)
For me, and I think this gets into what traditions mean to people, I think that this song, one, it reminds me of home. I think of camp as my home away from home. It is a thing that connects me to it. We’ve talked before on the show about how music can bring back memories. Music can… I remember the first time I sang this song 28 years ago. So…

It’s a big thing for me. And I think more so now that my friend who wrote it passed away last year, it feels like a way of connecting to him and keeping his memory alive. But in general, like traditions, there’s like a, it depends on the tradition, but a lot of them are ways to know what’s gonna happen, to have some kind of connection and tether to structure how things are gonna be.

When somebody changes up the schedule at camp, like everybody’s like, Oh no, what’s going to happen next? I don’t know. Um, I don’t know. It’s, it gets so.

It gets to the point where I’ll even outside of camp, the drive up to camp. Um, I know this road, it’s a windy road in the Santa Cruz mountains. I know the road like the back of my hand, I can drive it really fast. But now one part of it is washed out and it’s one lane. And so it takes me a lot longer because I don’t know what to expect anymore because the road has changed. Um, but those are things that we have to kind of deal with because, you know, rainstorms wash out roads.

Um, I don’t know. It’s, um, things were different this year and it didn’t, it felt good, but not good. Like there were some cool things that got added that I liked, but also like. It was a mixed, a mixed weekend, I think. And so it got me thinking about the things that I try to connect with when I’m at home, um, to kind of tie me to the things that I love.

I don’t know.

Josué (06:47)
Yeah. Traditions are comforting, right? I think, I think that’s why we go back to them over and over again. And then that’s quite an experience to have all of those different parts of this one thing that you do every year. That for the majority of 30 years, so many pieces were the same, such and so many pieces were different. Sounds, I don’t know. Was it, I don’t know. Sounds almost like unsettling in a way.

Lara (06:48)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, it’s interesting because they even picked this year to renumber the cabins. They renumbered the cabins. And then we always stay in the same cabin, right? Well, and they, not only did this year we get moved to a different cabin, but then also the cabin that we got moved to was the same number as the cabin that we were in before, but a different cabin. So.

Josué (07:23)
Thanks for watching!

And you always stay at the same cabin. I’m assuming every year. Yeah.

Lara (07:49)
It’s the same, yeah, it’s just everybody was kind of thrown off because uh, people will show up and they’ll, oh, we’re in cabin one. I mean, uh, 12. Um, so things kind of shaken up. It, a lot of changes, good and bad. Uh, and I think, I don’t know. I have a different perspective on like, I feel like this year has given me a little perspective on how to take those things in stride, but also fight for things because

I think some of those changes might’ve broken me in past years and I’ve been like, forget this, I don’t want to be here anymore, you know?

Josué (08:28)
I mean does it feel like those tra...

#363: The crew dives into a discussion about Babel: colonization, oppression, propaganda, and wanting to burn down the system.

Josué (00:01.444)
Welcome to GT Radio on the Geek Therapy Network. Here at Geek Therapy, we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about. My name is Josué Cardona. I am joined by Lara Taylor, Link Keller.

Lara (00:13.164)
Hey.

Link (00:14.944)
Hello.

Josué (00:16.62)
And today’s Master of Ceremony topic picker and my favorite colonizer, Marc Cuiriz

Lara (00:28.77)
Wow.

Link (00:29.349)
This is how we’re going to start? Okay.

Marc (00:29.712)
I… Wow, he just came out and straight attacked me like that. Oh my goodness. Okay.

Josué (00:36.348)
Yep, yep, yep.

Lara (00:38.046)
Now I know what kind of episode this is gonna be.

Josué (00:40.464)
Mm-hmm.

Marc (00:42.206)
You know, I actually take the time and actually read a book. And by read, I mean, listen to a book for the first time in years. And this is how he treats me. And it was a book that he was talking about reading.

Josué (00:46.62)
Yeah.

Josué (00:54.716)
Which book is that? Babel.

Marc (00:58.7)
Babel You know, I don’t even know anymore.

Josué (01:02.224)
It’s babel It’s babel. But in the book they call it babel, right? When you in the audiobook, when you heard it? No. You don’t. Okay.

Marc (01:08.837)
I think… No, I think they said Babel. No, they didn’t. They said Babel. I’m thinking about it wrong. Yep, they said Babel.

Josué (01:17.841)
Why do you want to talk about Babel

Marc (01:19.765)
Oh my goodness. So there’s quite a bit and I had thoughts about it. And there’s two big things, two big things. Yeah, two main things that I really drove from it aside from just literary critiques. One was the idea of translation and how when oftentimes work, literary works or

Josué (01:29.288)
Feelings?

Marc (01:49.673)
things are being translated from one form of media or writing to another, a lot of the times the meaning behind the original piece can get misconstrued, misinterpreted, I can’t even form words anymore. There you go. Or, like, they just, the meaning gets lost altogether and it takes on a completely different form.

Lara (02:07.705)
interpreted.

Marc (02:18.773)
And so I wanted to kind of talk, yeah, which is like the main focal point of the whole entire book. So that’s something I wanted to talk about. And then the other big thing that the book kind of talks about and addresses is good old colonialism and how it’s bad. Don’t do it. Don’t colonize things anymore.

Josué (02:19.141)
which is a big part of the book.

Josué (02:41.32)
Okay, sounds good. Who are you speaking to in particular?

Marc (02:46.045)
everybody. This is a side tangent just to just to already get out of the gate. So there was a TikTok that I came across a while ago. I think I sent it to you guys where it was this woman who talked about how the new American dream is to leave America and go to a small village in like

or in like Asia and just kind of immerse yourself into their culture, you learn their things, and you often find that, you know, how their systems are run are, at least to this particular

per TikToker that it benefited them. Like healthcare was more easily accessible, all these other things. And as I was listening to it, I was like, so the new American dream is colonization. That was my initial thought. I was like, so what you’re saying is we want to leave America because our conditions are not suitable for us because of all sorts of different factors.

and instead move to a rural town in a foreign country, utilize their resources for your own benefit.

Josué (04:15.208)
make you feel.

Marc (04:16.681)
I was like, it made me question, like, how is it that we’re not realizing that things are becoming, are coming around full circle again? Where we as a younger generation can highlight all these terrible things that have happened and how we want to put a stop to things, we want to make a change for it. And then we are essentially doing the same thing, but we’re changing. We’re…

changing the language of it. So to people, it has a different meaning.

Marc (04:54.157)
which kind of ties both themes together. But that was like one thing that like stuck out to me. And so then reading Babel, that was like that theme of like, you know, utilizing the resources of other countries for the benefit of either yourself as an individual or in Babel’s case, it’s to benefit Great Britain.

Josué (05:20.924)
Yeah. I mean, I get what you’re saying, right? The book, it’s very, it doesn’t, I mean, colonization is probably the central theme of the book. And it shows how the UK just is an oppressor of different countries. And then even though it’s kind of a, you know, it is historical fiction in this book, there’s a magic system and there’s all this other stuff.

but it’s based on a lot of truth. And there’s a difference between like going and joining a community versus going and exploiting its resources and its people. And in the case of the book, right, then using those same resources.

from those countries to train them to then continue to exploit the resources of the same countries and others. So yeah, I think there is a big difference between just like, oh, we’re coming over to join your community versus, yep, I’m just going to take advantage of everything you have. That’ll be great.

Lara (06:31.682)
Let me take that healthcare and all the food that you have in the area and all of that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Very different. It’s different if you are going to also bring something to the community.

Josué (06:38.004)
Mm-hmm. Just take it. Just take it.

Josué (06:46.64)
Yeah, I mean, but that and that’s part of the argument, right? Like the colonizer will always think that they are contributing, that they’re doing some sort of good.

Lara (06:52.063)
Oh.

Lara (06:57.73)
Mm-hmm.

Josué (06:58.96)
Yeah.

Marc (06:59.51)
Mm-hmm. And I’m sure for a lot of people, this isn’t always the case, that if they do emigrate from America and they choose to reside in a different country, I’m sure there’s plenty of people out there that are contributing, that are doing what they can to actually try to integrate themselves into the community.

and try to be productive rather than just kind of utilizing their resources simply because it’s more accessible or it’s more affordable or whatever the reason might be. But I also think that for every person that is doing it with that, with those good intentions and that are able to actually carry out those intentions, there’s also just as many people that are using that as an excuse to go and exploit.

these different communities simply just because, you know, they can. And then they kind of like, then they’re able to kind of capitalize off of it by making, you know, either Tik Toks or other forms of social media posts, becoming an influencer and trying to promote this lifestyle. So they’re capitalizing and gaining from it without really contributing or, you know, doing anything.

that’s worth of value to that community.

Josué (08:26.352)
Now, a colonizer mindset does not make necessarily a colonizer, I think, right? Like there’s, there’s a matter of like power and oppression and a whol...

#362: The crew discusses Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Dark Urge origin character, how they can be used as a metaphor for intrusive thoughts, and the severe lack of therapists and social workers in Faerûn.

Josué (00:01.95)
Welcome to GT Radio on the Geek Therapy Network. Here at Geek Therapy, we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about. My name is Josué Cardona and I am joined by Marc Cuiriz Link Keller, and Lara Taylor. Everybody, what y’all playing lately?

Marc (00:12.497)
Hello?

Link Keller (00:14.667)
Yo.

Lara (00:16.879)
Hey!

Josué (00:23.242)
Anything? Anything good? Anything near? Tears of the Kingdom? Yeah? Pardon, Marc, what are you playing?

Lara (00:24.903)
Tears of the kingdom.

Marc (00:28.428)
Kitty Collector.

Link Keller (00:28.834)
Oh, I’ve been…

Marc (00:31.581)
I’m playing kitty collector.

Josué (00:33.09)
Kitty Collector Link?

Link Keller (00:35.63)
I’ve just been putting just, you know, a couple of hours into a little indie game that I’m sure none of you guys have heard of. It is a sequel. It is part of a series. Just a small, small little game nobody knows about called Baldur’s Gate 3 and… Whoaaaaa!

Link Keller (01:00.748)
Yeah.

Lara (01:00.899)
I mean, that’s also what I’m playing.

Josué (01:00.994)
I thought you were going to say moving out too. Yeah, but yeah, Baldur’s Gate 3. I think, have we all been playing it? Marc, are you playing? Yeah, for sure.

Marc (01:03.156)
Yeah.

Marc (01:08.32)
I am looking at my steam right now. I have played it for a solid 84 minutes because I literally bought it two days ago.

Lara (01:15.995)
I’m sorry.

Link Keller (01:17.01)
84 minutes that’s pretty close to the amount of time that I’ve put into the game which if I pull if I pull open My steam right now it says No, it says 227.9 hours

Josué (01:17.186)
That’s a bet.

Marc (01:21.605)
Oh yeah, I-

73.1

Marc (01:30.252)
Oh wait, hold on, I’m sorry, that says 73.1 hours played recently.

Link Keller (01:35.75)
Yes, because I had already put over 100 hours into this game when it was in early access and one might suspect that maybe I would chill out about it. No, not even a little bit. I’m going harder than ever. I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m constantly thinking about it. Right now I am thinking about it. Are we actually done? Can I go play?

Lara (01:43.21)
Mm-hmm.

Josué (01:44.081)
Oh.

Link Keller (02:04.043)
My babies.

Josué (02:04.214)
Before you go, can you tell us what the game is and what it’s about?

Link Keller (02:08.658)
It is a RPG. The first one came out in, I wanna say 96, 98 maybe? Late 90s, early 2000s. And I played those games, Baldur’s Gate 1 and Baldur’s Gate 2 a shit ton in my youth. And I have been excited for more Baldur’s Gate since 2007.

Josué (02:27.822)
same.

Lara (02:28.646)
Mm-hmm.

Link Keller (02:37.494)
when they started promoting Dragon Age Origins as the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate. I’ve been craving it. It did not hit that mark for me, but Baldur’s Gate 3, it is more Baldur’s Gate. It is a different game. It plays a little bit different. It plays a little bit more similarly to Larian Studios’ other games, Divinity, Original Sin, and that sequel, but it is still in its heart.

Baldur’s Gate game and so I am having so much fun playing. You get to make your little character. It is in the Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition rule set. So most of the basic Dungeons and Dragons stuff is in the game. And yeah, I made my little character and I collect my little friends and we go on little adventures and then we do mass murder and stealing and…

Kissing? Mmm!

Lara (03:41.187)
Mass murder and stealing? I haven’t done any of that. Well, maybe mass murder. Of goblins.

Josué (03:48.142)
So many goblins.

Link Keller (03:48.248)
Just a little light murder. So anyways, I’m having an absolute blast with this game. It’s been something I’ve been excited about for years. And it’s fantastic. I’m enjoying it so much.

Josué (04:04.138)
Well, I too have been playing Baldur’s Gate 3 and that’s not really what I want to talk about today. I picked the topic, it’s not really about Baldur’s Gate 3, but there is a character in Baldur’s Gate 3 that you can choose that I want to talk about and just to kind of set off the conversation. But I will say that Baldur’s Gate 3 more than any other game that I’ve played… maybe ever?

But you can tell me what other games do this. And I recently played Divinity Originals sin two. I’ve played, I think I’ve played, you know, a variety of RPGs. But this game feels like it has, it almost feels like anything is possible in the sense that you have many different, like you meet somebody and you’re like, oh, I could befriend this person or I could kill them or I could kiss them. Like, I don’t know, like, anything feels possible.

And so I’m very hesitant at some things because there are some games where you’re like, I’m just gonna say this to see what happens, but I don’t really expect there to be a consequence. And in this game, I’m like, attack? No, I’m not gonna attack because if I attack, I’m gonna end up killing them. Or I might die, yeah, yeah. It’s gonna be a whole thing. And so the game is a lot of fun and it feels like there’s high stakes because I know an epi-

Link Keller (05:08.89)
Heheheheheheheheheheheheheh

Lara (05:13.629)
Mm-hmm. You might die or you might die. Yeah.

Josué (05:27.978)
character can die and then that’s it. Like their whole storyline, they could have been on your party, in your party for 207 hours or however many.

Link Keller (05:37.53)
Hahaha

Lara (05:38.231)
and the one wrong statement and that person dies in a battle.

Josué (05:41.006)
Or you could have killed them at the beginning. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that I find impressive about the game. And I think that’s one of the reasons why right now it is beloved and getting very, very high scores in reviews. And so you can create your own character. How many of you created your own characters? All of you? Same. So I created a character of my own.

Lara (06:00.771)
I’m excited.

Link Keller (06:02.913)
Yes.

Josué (06:08.182)
Which is almost identical to yours, Lara, not surprisingly. Hahahaha

Link Keller (06:12.193)
Wow.

Lara (06:12.907)
Look, I’ve never played a Dragonborn. I wanted to play Dragonborn. I love Rangers. I want to be a Ranger. Yeah.

Josué (06:15.99)
Mine was a Dragonborn. Yep, yep. Yeah, yep, yep. So I created a character and then I saw, it wasn’t a review, there’s this YouTube channel called Fextralife where he does a whole bunch of coverage of the games and in a very technical way. Like this is one of those games that I’ve been studying. Like I watch hour long videos on every class before I decided what I wanted to do. And he made a video on this, one of them,

Link Keller (06:17.455)
Hehehehehehe

Josué (06:44.914)
Origin characters that you can choose. I think there’s 12, right, that are actual characters in the game that you can pick. And 12, is that too many? I think there’s 12 characters throughout.

Link Keller (06:54.362)
12? That’s way too many. There’s six companions which you can pla...

#361: The crew discusses the Barbie movie!

Marc Cuiriz 0:11
Hello everybody, and welcome to this Barbie tastic episode of GT radio. Where we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about

Josué Cardona 0:26
the barbies you care about

Marc Cuiriz 0:29
the Barbies you care about. I am one of the Barbies here tonight. Marc Cuiriz, and joined with me is Josué Barbie.

Josué Cardona 0:42
Yep, yep, that’s me.

Marc Cuiriz 0:44
Lara Barbie.

Lara Taylor 0:46
Hey.

Marc Cuiriz 0:48
And Link Barbie.

Link Keller 0:51
Hey,

Marc Cuiriz 0:53
how we doing Barbies.

Link Keller 0:55
Hi Barbie

Marc Cuiriz 1:01
how’s everybody?

Link Keller 1:01
Really? Nobody’s gonna say it back? Wow betrayed immediately. I think the patriarchy is in here you guys I’m worried

Lara Taylor 1:12
it might be

Josué Cardona 1:12
Who’s a Ken in here?

Lara Taylor 1:14
listen,

Marc Cuiriz 1:14
I’m actually an Allan

Lara Taylor 1:15
I am Kenough, okay?

Marc Cuiriz 1:23
we’re all kenough

Josué Cardona 1:25
what a movie what a movie.

Link Keller 1:26
What a movie. That’s cinemaaa

Marc Cuiriz 1:32
I yeah, I was not expecting to Well, I was kind of expecting to like go into it with like, walking away with like, things to think about right? Because of like everything I saw on social media because I was kind of late to seeing the movie. But I was still thoroughly surprised as to how much this movie actually made me like, Huh. This is this is something I didn’t, like, I didn’t think about it. In in the way that it was being presented in the movie. Like, patriarchy.

Josué Cardona 2:04
Please elaborate.

Marc Cuiriz 2:05
So obviously, like I understood, like a lot of the themes, I saw a lot of things on Tik Tok on Facebook and just social media in general of like, how Barbie was a really a movie that got you to like, think about things and sort of view things in a different way. And so I was like, okay, like, I get it. This movie is more catered towards adults kind of with the messages that it’s presenting things like that. And as I was sitting there watching it, and listening to kind of what was going on. I was like, Huh, that’s really interesting. I didn’t really think about it this way. And that, it almost seemed like every, I shouldn’t say almost it was in the sense, like everything was reversed in Barbie land, where Barbies ran everything. And the Kens were just like, essentially the eye candy. But we’re also like, dismissed. Like they weren’t really, they didn’t, no one really paid much attention to them. And then there’s Allan Ken’s best friend that was even more so ignored. And then they go into the real world. And then Ken sort of sort of starts learning about patriarchy, and then he’s talking to other dudes, and they’re like, No, the patriarchy still very much alive. We’re just really good at hiding it now. Like, we just have all these fancy words to kind of sprinkle things over and I’m like, Huh, that like that makes a lot of sense. Like, it’s stuff like I already knew, but to have it just kind of be outright and just kind of like spoken in that way. I was like, yeah, like, wow, that’s, that is that is nothing but hard facts that they are spitting right now.

Josué Cardona 3:56
And how Ken’s like, your whole patriarchy is awesome. Like, it really benefits us. We should, we should we should do more of that we should bring that home. We should just embrace it. It’s all about horses.

Lara Taylor 4:10
Ken is just a horse girl Ken really just wanted to be a horse girl and the patriarchy kind of ruined that. There are so many wonderful things about this movie, but we’re on the topic of the patriarchy piece. And what I think is what the movie does really well is it shows how toxic masculinity and patriarchy also doesn’t work for men either. And how it puts them in boxes. And literally puts Barbie in a box like but I thought they did that beautifully. Most of the people that I know, present company excluded are that have seen the movie are like queer people, trans people, women and so it’s nice to hear Are somebody thinking about things differently? It’s good.

Marc Cuiriz 5:06
Yeah, I was honestly thoroughly surprised to like the patriarchy isn’t about horses? you know what? Screw the patriarchy it’s not about horses. I’m not into it. Let’s let’s just get rid of it altogether

Josué Cardona 5:24
funniest thing was to me that they call that the ken called his place exactly what you call your house. Mojo Dojo Casa House. That was such a coincidence.

Marc Cuiriz 5:34
Listen, I told you that in confidence Okay. Now I gotta change the name.

Josué Cardona 5:39
Oh, sorry.

Lara Taylor 5:42
Listen, Ken is such a horse girl that he put on his Mojo Dojo Casa house, he has a saloon the saloon doors and it’s like, Ken saloon or something like that on the front?

Josué Cardona 6:00
I am interested in hearing from you, Lara, you said that some of your clients brought up the movie. Very curious, in what context

Lara Taylor 6:11
so. And it’s not just clients that have brought this up to me. But I’m friends who and these are mostly trans friends. Talking about it brought up feelings of a lost childhood, especially trans women. And this feeling these feelings of like, I wish I could have played with Barbies like this. And also feelings of like, damn, the patriarchy sucks. But I’ve known that for a really long time. And I’ve been on multiple sides of this and it sucks for everybody. But it’s led to some good conversations about well, you can you can still have these things if you want. I mean, if you feel like you’re past the Barbie stage, that’s fine. You can still play with your video games and your other things. But yeah, it’s been it’s been good to talk about toxic masculinity, patriarchy. Things that I have talked about with clients before. But through this lens, I think it may it brought things up to the forefront that just didn’t naturally come to them as often. So yeah. Plus, we talked a lot about how Ken is a horse girl, and that we are Kenough

Josué Cardona 7:45
do you really think he’s a horse girl. I’m just I just wasn’t sure if

Lara Taylor 7:47
yes, I really believe that. That’s that he wanted to be a horse girl. Yeah.

Josué Cardona 7:56
Um, the toy thing is really interesting to me, because I hadn’t thought about that. I’m, I play more with toys now than I ever have before. Also, I had a Ken doll. By the way, there’s a story I don’t know if I’m just sorry, my sister. It was her birthday. And someone came over. She didn’t know us very well. I believe this is my how I remember it. And so she had a pilot Ken and stewardess Barbie for for my sister. Once you realize that she had that my sister had a brother. She kind of split the present into and then gave me the Ken. and gave my sister the Barbie. When I was a kid, we like my action figures and my sister’s Barbies. It was kind of like in Toy Story, right where they were like, the toys are all mixed up

Link Keller 8:45
they play together.

Josué Cardona 8:47
Yeah. Yeah. Like Bruce Wayne used to ride in that pink Ferrari. Because it was cooler than whatever. Like, there wasn’t a Ferrari that you could buy for Bruce Wayne, and he needed one. You know

Lara Taylor 8:58
he did

Link Keller 8:58
plus, if you’re in th...

#360: Josué, Kayla, and Link discuss using pieces of media to explain our own lived experiences. From extremely specific details to vague emotional similarities, we’re all shouting out “It me!!”

Josué Cardona 0:12
Welcome to GT radio on the Geek Therapy network, here at Geek Therapy, we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about. My name is Josué Cardona. And I am joined by link Keller.

Link Keller 0:21
Yo! What’s up?

Josué Cardona 0:23
And for the first time ever on the show with me, I think?

Kayla Devorak 0:26
I don’t think that’s true

Josué Cardona 0:27
with us together. together really?

Kayla Devorak 0:29
been together before. Yeah,

Josué Cardona 0:31
I don’t know, Kayla Devorak

Kayla Devorak 0:35
Hello.

Josué Cardona 0:37
I think it’s just us today.

Link Keller 0:39
Yeah.

Josué Cardona 0:41
So today’s topic is something that we talk about often, like we allude to it, but we don’t, we haven’t spent time talking about it for for a long time. And that is using media, specifically to say something that you feel like you’re unable to say, we often talk about how we, you know, different ways that we can use media to identify and to relate. But there’s so many examples that I have of being able to, like my whole start with this with this concept was me feeling like I didn’t have the words to express myself. And then to be able to just point to a reference or to a show or to a game was invaluable for me. And to know that, you know, we’ve helped a whole bunch of people do that, as therapists, as teachers, just being open to that is really cool. So that’s what I want to talk about today. And I figured I would, I’d start with an example that I just just read like an hour ago. So I’m reading a novel called tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow. And it at the beginning, it has, it has a meta example of this, which is even, which I like even more, where it’s these two kids at a hospital and one of them is is sick, because he was in an accident. And the girl that he’s talking to has a sister who has cancer. But like she doesn’t want to talk about the fact that her sister has cancer. So when the kid asked her, the boy asks her how, like, why she’s there, what’s wrong with this sister? And she just says, you know, she has dysentery. And she kind of just makes that makes a gaming reference and doesn’t actually, you know, talk about what it is. And I think he gets it. It’s like, okay, you’re not, you’re not going to really tell me what it is. But I get it. And they just keep talking and playing. And that’s an example of like, oh, you know, like, it’s something serious, but maybe I don’t want to talk about it. Maybe I don’t want to say the word cancer. But here’s a reference that you would understand. People can die from this, people can die from dysentery. And it’s a good reference. So that one just came up that one’s fresh in my mind. So, curious. Kayla? what do you what comes to mind when we when we talk about this any examples that you can think of, or the you’ve you’ve experienced back in the day, or even now with your students?

Kayla Devorak 3:15
Um, you know, I don’t know if I use that as much now. I had been thinking about this a lot. And I was like, I don’t maybe I’ve just been removed from it for so long. But my brain goes to this. This book that I’m obsessed with. I’ve talked about it already. But there’s this like, quote, or this part in the book, where,

Josué Cardona 3:46
what’s the book?

Link Keller 3:46
What book?

Kayla Devorak 3:49
It’s the masquerade series. So I don’t know which book there’s three books currently. But basically, she’s an antihero. So if you want to learn more about that, you can listen to that episode, whatever. Whatever, it’s up on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. But there’s this quote, like she says something someone says something to her when she’s basically like, she can’t figure out what the truth is. And like has a tendency to really not see like the larger picture with everybody or like everybody else, like she thinks she’s the only one manipulating pieces, but other people have agency. And one character says to her, like, you’re gonna know it’s the truth because the truth hurts. And I think that’s useful. When we think about uncomfortable truth truths. We don’t want to know about ourselves, right? Which oftentimes, we find those things out out in therapy, or as we’re trying to unpack ourselves. That’s what came up for me.

Josué Cardona 5:09
Do you have you? Could you could you see yourself using that that phrase or that quote?

Kayla Devorak 5:15
I could? Yeah, I think I think so. Like, for myself, also, just like for myself, I think I read that. And I was like, yeah, that’s kind of true sometimes. And I think I think definitely, maybe not in those exact words. But I think as therapists you often find yourself saying something similar, right? Yeah.

Josué Cardona 5:45
Link what what does your mind go to?

Link Keller 5:48
Well, when you brought up this topic, idea, my immediate thought was the scene from Schitt’s Creek, where David tells his friends, basically, that he’s pansexual. But in not so many words, it is couched within a wine metaphor. Which for the people who haven’t seen Schitt’s Creek, highly recommend, but I will read this short section to you. So Stevie, David’s friend says, so just to be clear, I’m a red wine drinker. And David says, that’s fine. Stevie says, okay, cool. I only drink red wine. And up until last night, I was the under the impression that you too only drink red wine. But I guess it was wrong. I see where you’re going with this. I do drink red wine. But I also drink white wine. And I’ve been known to sample the occasional Rosé. And a couple of summers back, I tried to merlot that used to be Chardonnay, which kind of bit complicated. Oh, so you’re really just open to all wines. I like the wine and not the label. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. And I think

Kayla Devorak 7:06
that’s perfect

Link Keller 7:07
that scene is so good. Because the it’s not a joke about David’s sexuality. The the funny comes from the metaphor of them being in like a wine aisle in a store having this conversation. And Stevie is a little uncomfortable. And so couching it in that metaphor, but then totally understanding what he’s saying and affirming that, and it’s just really beautiful. And it’s something as I don’t identify as pansexual, I identify as bisexual, but functionally, in this instance, applies the same way. And so it felt very much where I was like, hooting and hollering and pointing at the TV going “it me! it me!!” Yeah. And so I haven’t really had to, like, Come out to anybody in that way. But like, if I was this, I would just send them this scene on YouTube. I have definitely heard from not personal acquaintances, but people online. I have heard them talk about, like, legitimately used this line, use this scene to come out to their family as a way to be all like, I hope I hope having this language will help somebody understand what I am trying to show them about myself. And when it works. It’s beautiful.

Josué Cardona 8:30
I love it. it Me. It me.

Link Keller 8:32
it me!!

Josué Cardona 8:32
That’s it. Yeah. You know, the, I don’t think I’ve ever told this story on the show before. By the way, this is the 300 and 60th episode. So 360.

Link Keller 8:42
Wow,

Josué Cardona 8:43
that’s kind of cool. So for 3...

#359: Lara, Link, and Kayla discuss anti-heroes, what they are, why we find them compelling, and provide a couple of examples of our favorites.

Link Keller 0:11
Welcome to GT radio on the Geek Therapy network, where we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media that we care about. Also, media we don’t like sometimes that’s a fun way to bond. But we’re not talking about that. Today

Link Keller 0:30
Josué is gone and link goes off the rails.

Link Keller 0:30
Today, we’re gonna be yucking all the yums every yum. No, I’m just kidding. I would never I would never do such a thing. Because I don’t want Josué to be mad at me. Please don’t be mad at me. Just kidding. We are here. Today I am joined by my dear co host, Lara.

Lara Taylor 0:49
Hello,

Link Keller 0:50
and valuable, most valuable guest host Kayla,

Kayla Devorak 0:58
hello. Most Valuable guesthost I’ll take it,

Lara Taylor 1:04
MVGH.

Link Keller 1:06
the P is silent. Today, we are going to be talking about anti heroes, I think this is going to be a fun conversation, I’m excited to talk about some examples of anti heroes that we like and resonate with. But before we do that, let’s let’s sort of suss out and get a working definition for what an antihero is because, you know, not everybody uses words the same way. Which is great, and a lovely thing about humans, but makes for conversations to be a little weird sometimes. So let’s talk about a way what does an antihero mean to you, Lara?

Lara Taylor 1:46
Some typically somebody that is put into a hero role and does not want to be. usually I mean, we’re gonna get into all the characters later. But like somebody who if you’re thinking about hero’s journey, which people have opinions about the hero’s journey, but the person really doesn’t want to hear the call really doesn’t want to they are not the kind of person that you would usually picture as a hero either. So that’s my working definition. There’s probably some more nuance on it. But I’ve been stuck in the therapy office all day.

Link Keller 2:28
You spent all your your nuance points already today. How about you Kayla, what do you think?

Kayla Devorak 2:36
Well, I think for me, when I think about anti heroes, I often think about people who just make such different choices than a traditional hero does. But still gets to kind of the same end place that a hero does. It may be a more interesting way and maybe more challenging to their own internal complexities.

Lara Taylor 3:09
Listen, listeners, Josué abandoned us to go to San Diego Comic Con, and said, You know what, you can bring Kayla on and she can talk about whatever she wants.

Kayla Devorak 3:19
this is true

Lara Taylor 3:19
And so Kayla said anti heroes, because she loves them. So

Kayla Devorak 3:25
I do they are my favorite character trope

Link Keller 3:31
Oh, yeah, so for me, the way I conceptualize an antihero is a character that fulfills the role of a hero in the actions taken within the story, but their motivations are very different. Whether that’s, you know, being greedy or having other you know, value systems that we don’t generally connect to heroism, or if it is that the choices that they make are the outcome is heroic, but the choice is not heroic, that sort of thing. Basically coming down to they are heroes but their their values and their motivations are distinct from the traditional hero. And I think that makes them more interesting.

Kayla Devorak 4:26
They are not a Steve Rogers. Yes,

Lara Taylor 4:29
I do like me some Steve Rogers, but I’ve talked about him on the show a million times one of my favorite

Kayla Devorak 4:36
you have? I am shocked

Lara Taylor 4:38
a million times. Not just but I talk about one of my favorite characters of it. I like villains but I also like villains turned heroes right so like, once upon a time, Regina is one of my favorite characters. Because there’s nuance and like I I’m my nuanced points are gone, but I I love the nuanced characters that like it’s a gray area like nobody is all. Not all good and not all bad. Yeah.

Link Keller 5:19
Okay, is there a specific antihero you would like to start with Kayla?

Kayla Devorak 5:24
I have so many. And when I made my list, I was like, Oh no, I don’t know how many of these are going to be really familiar to the rest of you. And I doubt any of you are going to read any of the books in a day. So

Lara Taylor 5:44
what?!

Kayla Devorak 5:44
But the one that actually kind of led me to being like I really want to talk about anti heroes, mostly because I was really immersed in the book is Baru Cormorant, which is from the the masquerade series, I find her and her choices so fascinating. And obviously, it can’t talk to I don’t know if you guys are going to read those books, I highly recommend them. They’re very distressing, though is,

Link Keller 6:15
is there a way to discuss the antihero-ness without spoiling the plot?

Kayla Devorak 6:22
Yeah, so basically, she got a lot of like, colonization themes. And so she’s basically taken from her home, her home, land, and brought into this larger empire. But she’s like, brilliant, and so she has decided that she’s going to basically destroy the system from within. However, the choices she makes throughout the whole thing is very, very selfish, like so selfish, and also consistently forgets that other people are also playing the game. And so she’s often like, I’ve made this really brilliant move. And then a chapter later, she’s like, Oh, no, I forgot that there’s other pieces on the board. But it makes ultimately, in the first book makes, like the ultimate sacrifice for a relatively good reason. But it really messes her up. And then she just continues to, like use that to leverage her really shitty choices of where she’s like continuing to sacrifice people for this cause, because now she’s so invested in destroying the empire in this way, that if she doesn’t keep moving forward, all of those sacrifices she has made are like for nothing. And then what was it for? And it’s to the point where like, it breaks her psyche at the end of the first book. Like, it’s such a fascinating, like in book two. It’s like she in Book Two, she literally has cannot see out of her one half of one half is completely blind. But there’s like no real connection, like, because people are like, No, you’re moving it. What’s happening here. There’s three books in the series so far. I have not read the third one, which is titled The tyrant Baru Cormorant. And then there’s a fourth book coming, but there’s no release date yet. It’s fantastic. It’s really devastating. But it’s also like a really diverse story. There’s diverse characters. There’s diverse relationships. And there are people who are way more like morally sound, but she consistently makes really fucked up choices. But you know that her ultimate goal is to save her home her homeland and destroy the group that basically destroyed her people and killed her dad. Yeah,

Link Keller 9:10
nice.

Kayla Devorak 9:10
I love her. I appreciate I like love the shit out of her. I’m like, you make such terrible choices. But I really want you to win.

Link Keller 9:19
I think there’s something really validating about reading a story where you get to watch your character. Absolutely fall for the sunk cost fallacy.

Kayla Devorak 9:28
Yes.

Link Keller 9:29
There’s, I get su...

#358: The crew discusses Indiana Jones and getting older. Happy 40th birthday to everyone!

Josué Cardona 0:12
Hit record before Lara falls asleep old lady Lara

Link Keller 0:20
[honk shoo-ing noises]

Lara Taylor 0:23
that’s not me maybe it’s all of us.

Link Keller 0:26
honk shoo honk shoo.

Lara Taylor 0:29
Because we’re all going to be old.

Link Keller 0:32
We’re all having a little midday nap.

Marc Cuiriz 0:36
midday nap sounds fantastic.

Josué Cardona 0:40
Welcome to GT radio on the Geek Therapy network here Geek Therapy. We believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves through the media we care about with you today in order of oldest to youngest, Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:55
Hi.

Josué Cardona 0:57
I’m Josué Cardona. Link Keller

Lara Taylor 1:00
he’s only a month younger than me.

Josué Cardona 1:03
Link Keller.

Link Keller 1:04
Hello.

Josué Cardona 1:06
I’m Marc Cuiriz.

Marc Cuiriz 1:08
Hello, everybody.

Josué Cardona 1:11
Age before beauty Lara, what is up? What are we doing? Today? What’s the topic?

Lara Taylor 1:17
Listen, I went to go see the new Indiana Jones movie. And without spoiling anything about the movie, I can tell you that Harrison Ford is old and he’s in the movie. And there’s this theme of like finding your place he’s he’s passing on a torch. We’ve talked about that before with some several other things. But this like, what do I do now? Is obsolescence feeling this feeling old and outdated. It’s funny that I want to bring this up. And I’m like, it’s a way of me processing how old I’m getting because I’m going to be 40 this year. But according to link, we’re all turning 40

Link Keller 2:00
We are all turning, even you dear listener, happy birthday

Lara Taylor 2:04
no matter how old are.

Link Keller 2:05
happy 40th birthday

Josué Cardona 2:07
Lara Sorry, you had to skip your nap to come record? I know.

Lara Taylor 2:10
I know. I know. Listen, listen. Most days, I do take a nap right before we record. I wake up 15 minutes before we record. Today I did not taking that because I was playing tears at the kingdom. But this idea of well, I’m getting older. And the funny thing is, according to people, I am still a young person. I am 39. And then when I hit 40, I will I will be I will no longer be a young person, but doesn’t mean unnecessarily obsolete. But I am feeling like it feels weird to have friends that are a lot younger than me. And I have some friends that are a lot younger than me. I feel like I’m keeping up with things. But you know,I don’t know

Josué Cardona 3:03
We’ll test you in a bit.

Lara Taylor 3:04
We’ll see.

Josué Cardona 3:05
Yeah.

Lara Taylor 3:08
I don’t know, Marc. Also, as our resident young person does not know all the things. I’m just throwing that out there.

Marc Cuiriz 3:16
You know, you’re right. I absolutely don’t. This when you mentioned like friends like being a lot younger than you. That brought me back to when I worked at a trampoline like Park thing. And I was the only employee aside from the the head manager that was over the age of 20. And I was like, I think I was 23. And everyone else was like 15-16. And I felt so old compared to everybody and the things these kids were saying I was like, What? What are you What, what does that mean? And they would just look at me.

Lara Taylor 4:02
Yeah, ya no, last year when I was volunteering at my summer camp, I had the realization that I was I had been going to that summer camp longer than anyone on the staff had been alive. And that was a weird sensation.

Josué Cardona 4:16
can you say that again?

Lara Taylor 4:16
I had been going to that summer camp longer than anyone on the staff had been alive. And I have some friends from who are on the staff. And one of my closest friends now is about to be 23 but this friend is very much into the idea that we’re all turning 40 Because he has a horrible back and it’s just like, You know what? I’m turning 40, too. So, there’s that

Josué Cardona 4:50
42?

Lara Taylor 4:51
40 also 40 also, T O O, not T W O um, but it’s just interesting seeing And we did get, I tried to ignore the fourth Indiana Jones movie. But seeing Indiana Jones who is this, like action hero, and he still is in this movie and the new one, but seeing him go from this younger guy to running next door to the neighbors and telling them to turn them fucking music down. I, I related to that very much, too much a little too much. And it just, it just had me thinking about where I am in my life. And like, I don’t know what it’s like getting old and changing times. And not necessarily being in my 20s anymore, because I haven’t been in my 20s for almost a decade

Josué Cardona 5:55
or more almost two decades.

Lara Taylor 5:57
No, I was in my 20s Literally 10 years ago.

Josué Cardona 6:02
Right? I forgot how

Link Keller 6:04
That’s not how math works, Josué. It’s okay, you’re turning 40.

Lara Taylor 6:07
stop trying to make me be older.

Link Keller 6:10
Math is hard when you become forty, everyone. look out.

Josué Cardona 6:15
Yeah. What was it that you related the most to in the movie? Like that, that part of?

Lara Taylor 6:19
I think, like right now I’m not at the age that he’s at. I’m not at retirement age. I’m not thinking about like, what do I do after my career? Although sometimes I get into this existential brain where I’m like, What am I gonna do after? Am I ever gonna get to retire? Absolutely not, because that’s not how the world works anymore. Um, but I did relate to, like, oh, things are changing. New generations are thinking about things differently. And I’m trying to keep my brain flexible and able to, like, at least see their perspectives. I’m trying to think of a good example of that, and it has escaped me. But I don’t know. I don’t know. I work with a lot of young people. They seem to think I’m young. Literally, I had a client tell me this week, she thought I was 28. So, I don’t know.

Josué Cardona 7:20
But do you how do you feel?

Lara Taylor 7:23
Old? I am tired.

Link Keller 7:24
69!!! NICE!! But really, no, I’m so tired. And my bones hurt

Lara Taylor 7:32
very tired. And my bones hurt. And I work on my house all the time. That feels like an old person thing. Like I’m working on my house all the time. Although, you know, I have

Link Keller 7:47
have your little projects and your HGTV H G TV.

Lara Taylor 7:52
And I sit in front of the TV crocheting,

Link Keller 7:55
and you have your own recliner. That’s your spot.

Lara Taylor 7:58
I do. It’s on the couch

Josué Cardona 8:00
that’s not true, right?

Lara Taylor 8:01
It’s all these things are true.

Marc Cuiriz 8:04
I wish i had a recliner

Lara Taylor 8:05
HGTV is on. Listen, Nina has the recliner. I’ve got the recliner in the couch. But we’ve had those for quite some time now.

Marc Cuiriz 8:18
I will say my, my mother in law, she had a rocking chair. And the rocking chair was my wife’s. But whenever we would go over there, that was my chair. I always sat in that chair. So now it’s with us. And even though it’s in our bedroom, like when we bring it downstairs really when we need extra chairs or whatever. T...

#357: Marc, Lara, and Josué discuss Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, what canon events are and how we can use them to talk about our own life experiences.

Marc Cuiriz 0:11
Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of Geek Therapy radio where we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about. I am one of your wonderful co hosts Marc Cuiriz and joined with me tonight is Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:30
Hey

Marc Cuiriz 0:32
and Josué Cardona.

Josué Cardona 0:34
What’s up?

Marc Cuiriz 0:35
Hello guys.

Josué Cardona 0:36
Hello.

Marc Cuiriz 0:37
The time has finally come. We we got to we got to talk about across a spider verse. We already knew Spider Man was going to be coming up I talked about it a couple episodes ago briefly. tried really hard to not go too much into it. But now we got to go into it.

Josué Cardona 0:58
i It was my fault. I it took me a while to watch it. Finally. I hadn’t gone to the theater since the last Spider Man movie that came out. That was actually the last time I went to the movies was for no way out. No way. Oh, no way home.

Lara Taylor 1:14
Spider Spider Man book ends on your movie theater experience.

Josué Cardona 1:18
Yep.

Marc Cuiriz 1:21
So I think I just want to know what what were your initial thoughts, feelings, reactions, emotions. All the good stuff. Lara, what do you think of the movie?

Lara Taylor 1:34
It’s been longer since I’ve seen the movie since? Well, since Josué at least cuz I saw it opening weekend. I loved it. I thought there was a lot of good, good meaty, juicy Geek Therapy stuff in there. I cried a lot during the movie. And I have been talking with clients about it a lot. There’s a lot of cool stuff in there. I have a friend who is obsessed, watched it like last week and is like texting me constantly like novels about what his thoughts on this movie are. But again, did not disappoint. My only complaint is that it’s a two parter. And I have to wait for all the things.

Josué Cardona 2:20
spoilers. It’s a part one. I’m glad that they they decided not to call it the cross a spider as part one and two, which was the original.

Lara Taylor 2:32
I liked like into a cross and beyond, like, I like that.

Josué Cardona 2:36
Yeah, it’s cool. I love the first one. So of course, like I had to. I wanted to see this one as soon as possible. There’s a lot of things that I like about this movie. But my overall impression was that I found it overwhelming. Like,

Lara Taylor 2:56
there’s a lot like you have pause to be able to see.

Josué Cardona 3:01
Yeah,

Lara Taylor 3:01
hundreds of hundreds of Spider Men’s

Josué Cardona 3:04
like, like I was telling someone the other day about this. I was like, yeah, if you just want to focus on like, no, like, there’s a lot there’s a lot going on, and then everything that makes it so cool visually, which are the different styles again, like I don’t know why I just came out of theater, like, exhausted. Like, I think part of it is to that for the last few years. I I rarely sit down to watch a movie from beginning to end. At that day, I did a double feature like I went to two movies. And this one

Lara Taylor 3:38
two multiverse movies. Yeah, I think are exhausting too.

Josué Cardona 3:43
Yeah, yeah. But But yeah, by the end of it, I was like, I felt like I like my brain had gotten beat up. It was it was it was a lot. A lot a lot. But did I like it? Oh yeah. Love it. I can’t wait to get into the the be the best reasons why.

Marc Cuiriz 4:05
Yeah, I I’m like Lara, I saw it opening night and I I walked away from that movie. One, just completely taken away. I loved the movie so much. I loved all the different art styles. I really liked how they did like Gwen’s like perspective of things and like how that a lot of it was focused on her development as well. And I also walked away surprised because I know like at the end when they you know, do like, oh, the return or whatever. It’s a 2024 I was like, wow, okay, next year, I’m here for it. And then of course, you know, you hear the news later, they’re like, no, no, we have to push it back to like 2026 which I’m like, okay, that’s totally fine. But

Josué Cardona 4:59
is that true

Marc Cuiriz 4:59
also

Lara Taylor 5:00
That one actually might not be true.

Marc Cuiriz 5:02
Yeah, I mean, either way, I think it’s going to be delayed to

Lara Taylor 5:07
writers strike and all of that can also move things

Marc Cuiriz 5:09
Exactly.

Lara Taylor 5:10
Yeah.

Marc Cuiriz 5:11
But I know they were talking about potentially delaying it to 2026 to make sure everything is flushed out and is the best, you know, and there are words the best it can be. Because if they were to try to pump that movie out by 2024, I have a feeling a lot of people would be disappointed. But,

Lara Taylor 5:33
yeah, I saw I saw the same kind of thing online that said that it was going to be delayed till 2026. And then somebody was like, this is fake and showed like details on why that post was fake. But other people are saying that, that are in that are like animators are saying there’s no way it’s going to be in 2024. But it’s still scheduled to come out March 2024.

Josué Cardona 5:59
Yeah, that’s what that’s what that’s what I still see. Anyway, that’s not what the show is about.

Lara Taylor 6:05
That’s how excited we are about it, we want the next one right now.

Josué Cardona 6:08
So disappointed. Oh, I can’t wait that long.

Lara Taylor 6:13
Yeah.

Marc Cuiriz 6:15
But no, this movie, this, I think this movie was definitely though, is, is very overwhelming. And it’s definitely one where I’m gonna want to watch it back and like, pause it at certain points or like, try to slow it down at certain points, just so that way I can try to take in everything. And because I feel like especially in the moments where it didn’t show like all the Spider Men, I was like, looking around the entire screen trying to find ones that I recognized, but also ones that like I felt like should be in there. Like a one in particular that is just would have just been a funny little like, gag, to me, was the Spooder Man meme. Or it’s like the poorly drawn Spider Man, I was looking all over for it just so I can say like, Yes, I saw it. It’s there. It’s confirmed,

Josué Cardona 7:04
there’s a whole other movie.

Marc Cuiriz 7:06
I know.

Josué Cardona 7:07
Three hours for you.

Marc Cuiriz 7:10
It may or may not make its appearance. But like I just remember I was like looking around everywhere. Just trying to take it all in and like the sequences especially are going by so fast. That it’s it’s impossible without having to like pause it and like taking a look around and like giving yourself a moment to process everything that’s going on. In short scenes.

Lara Taylor 7:33
One of my clients told me, I feel bad for whoever is going to have to do the easter egg videos for for this movie. and I agree.

Josué Cardona 7:44
The easter egg video is coming out in 2026.

Lara Taylor 7:47
That’s the one that’s gonna be delayed

Josué Cardona 7:48
that’s the one delayed yeah yeah, no, no, it was it was a lot. And I think maybe because we’re fans like it was more overwhelming for me, because it wasn’t just noise. I was l...

#356: Link, Lara, and Josué discuss Netflix’s The Ultimatum: Queer Love and the particular enjoyment and disgust of watching reality TV.

Link Keller 0:11
Welcome to GT radio on the Geek Therapy network, where we believe that the best way to understand ourselves and each other is through the media we care about. I am one of your co hosts, link, and I’m joined by Lara.

Lara Taylor 0:29
Hey,

Link Keller 0:30
and Josué.

Josué Cardona 0:32
Hello.

Link Keller 0:33
Hi, guys.

Josué Cardona 0:35
Hi, Link.

Link Keller 0:36
I’m so excited to talk about this topic today. I recently watched Netflix’s new season of the ultimatum, colon queer love. It is a reality TV show about relationships. The premise is a couple comes in where one couple, one member of the couple has given a marriage ultimatum to the other proposed to me or I’m leaving. And they go on this show. And they date other couples and pretend to be married for a couple of weeks and then reunite with their original partner who they gave the ultimatum to have a pretend marriage with them for a couple of weeks. And then at the end, they decide if they’re actually going to get married to each other, or breakup, or potentially date one of the other people that they dated. It is as I would academically refer to it as a hot dumpster fire. And I love it. And it was I watched the first season of the ultimatum which was straight couples, but this season is about sapphic couples, so women and non binary people. truly a joy. All of the drama, you’re looking for

Lara Taylor 2:06
the whole first episode, I was screaming like who thinks this is a good idea to solve your fucking problems? who??

Link Keller 2:13
It is truly antithetical to building a healthy relationship to put yourself into a eight to 10 week filming production, that you’re still having to live your regular life. But also, you’re going on extravagant dates and drinking a lot and trying to maybe fall in love or figure out what you’re missing from your relationship and all this introspective work and

Lara Taylor 2:44
and they can’t talk to anybody about what happened on the show for at least a year.

Link Keller 2:49
Yes, the I think that is an important thing to touch on right at the beginning, this show was filmed in the beginning of 2021. And it didn’t come out until two months ago. So there is a fair gap there. They did also record a reunion episode in January of this year. So like two years out from when they did it. They did the reunion episode and then several, six months out from that is when the episode started coming out. So I imagine that was quite the experience for the people who actually were on the show. But yeah, I wanted to talk about reality TV sort of in general. Focusing more on like the romance, love and relationship reality TVs shows not so much the like Survivor ones but or other competition ones but also more specifically on this particular show. One because there is not a lot of queer rep in reality TV. I did watch another show on I think I watched it on Hulu, and it was called Love trip colon Paris. And that one was four American women who were straight bi pansexual and lesbian. And they went to France and moved into a beautiful apartment building and then all these hot French singles moved in and they dated each other. truly wild. The height of that one was one woman got another woman’s name tattooed on her knuckles, and I truly thought I would never recover from that. But then I watched the queer ultimatum reunion episode and I was like no, actually, this is the craziest thing I have ever seen. So yeah, what, let’s start with like, what are your guys’s familiarity with watching like relations Ship reality TV. Have you watched other shows before? Is this absolutely not your bag? Like, where are you guys coming from?

Lara Taylor 5:07
I love reality TV, or I used to watch a lot of it. Nina doesn’t like it. So I don’t watch a lot of it unless she’s not around to watch it. Because it stresses her out. I love it. I’m focusing on other people’s problems, not my own. At least it’s not that bad, like. But I was hooked on the real world, which it’s even though that one is like people living together, it’s all about relationships and who’s hooking up with who and who people are hooking up with outside the house and bring into the house. I watched a lot of the real world back in the day. And mostly a lot of MTV like and VH1 one reality shows like, shot at love with tila tequila.

Link Keller 5:57
Just gonna say I think that was like one of my first ones that I ever watched I was truly sets the scene.

Lara Taylor 6:04
I was obsessed with Danny Campbell, I was obsessed. I have met her twice at different clubs, that she came to do appearances that have a curve magazine, which is a lesbian own magazine, signed by her in it. I have a T shirt. This is Team Danny on it. Still, it’s a relic of the early 2000s. And there was a joke that like with my friends that you know, she was a firefighter in Florida. Still is a firefighter in Florida. We were like let’s find out which firehouse she’s at. And I will just leave a trail of fires from there to California, so that she would meet me. Yeah, so obsessed with reality TV shows. And that was the first time I had someone like me on a reality show. I mean, there were other queer people on the real world. But like, this was like, the focus of the show. Was Was her so and then of course, I watched this. And I am obsessed now with the ultimatum queer love. Yeah, I binged. Like, I rewatched a few episodes, because I had to I miss parts of it, but I binge, like six episodes Monday night, so yeah. I love it. It’s great.

Link Keller 7:33
What about you Josué?

Josué Cardona 7:36
I also watched, like the MTV stuff, right? And like survivor and real world and road rules. He was like, Oh, what’s this? After that I’ve never really watched anything. And I don’t know when this happened. But I also don’t watch sports anymore. Because I don’t like watching people live their lives. Like for me, sports isn’t. For me. Sports is like, Oh, this principle of just doing their job. Plus, you’re getting paid so much money. I mean, whether they’re paying getting paid a lot or not. I’m like, I’m just watching somebody do their job. I love a good what is it? Like slam dunk competition. I like highlight reels. I like admiring superhuman acts of physical activity, but reality TV is very much more like just people living their lives. And I know how produced it is. I know how unrealistic it can be because of how think things are set up. Like, like the setup for the ultimatum is so So absurd, it’s um, I was like you, Lara When I was watching the first time I was like,

Link Keller 8:52
in what way? Does this make sense? What Wait, what? To this?

Lara Taylor 8:57
I can get giving someone an ultimatum. Like there are plenty people on the show in their 30s that want to have kids. Like I get it you it’s the whole thing shit or get off the pot like okay, that makes sense. But like this experience what what is it gonna do?

Josué Cardona 9:13
I even understand that there was like a group of people in a room who you know, with a random number generator came up with an idea for a show or thought that it was a good idea. But the fact that people sign up for it right like I have so many questions like it’s

Link Keller 9:28
a spin off of Netflix’s Love is blind. I don’t know if that

Josué Cardona 9:32
I never watched it

Link Keller 9:33
clarifies anything to y...