#315: The Crew gushes about Encanto, touching on family systems, perfectionism, and growth.

Josué Cardona 0:11
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 through the media we care about, my name is Josué Cardona. And I’m joined by Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:22
Hey.

Josué Cardona 0:23
And Link Keller.

Link Keller 0:24
Hello.

Josué Cardona 0:27
Link. I feel like if we don’t talk about Encanto you are going to burst

Link Keller 0:32
I’m gonna lose it. We gotta talk about Encanto.

Josué Cardona 0:39
Why? Why do you want to talk about this movie?

Link Keller 0:41
I am obsessed. It’s showed up on my for you page on tik tok with a bunch of people talking about how much they loved it and things that they noticed in the background. And I was like, this is interesting and cute. And this song we don’t talk about Bruno. This is fun. I’m enjoying this. I watched the movie. I loved it. So I watched it three more times. Yeah, so I just I think Encanto is a perfect movie for talking Geek Therapy stuff. We’re gonna get into spoilers cuz we got to talk about Bruno.

Josué Cardona 1:24
We do,

Lara Taylor 1:25
and Luisa and Isabella, and Mirabel and all of them.

Link Keller 1:31
Everybody, yes.

Josué Cardona 1:32
Yeah, yes. Yeah. Not, it’s a hell of a movie. Lots to talk about. To talk about. Yeah, I mean, there’s just so many themes. I’ve been, I’ve been thinking a lot about movies like this, or I guess what movies, it’s not too hard for, like shows that just cover so many different topics. It’s like, if we do one library entry for this thing, like, how long is that thing? How helpful is it if we list 27 Different themes, and

Lara Taylor 2:04
it’ll be helpful because someone will search for one of those themes and be like, Oh, I can hit that. And that and that. And that.

Josué Cardona 2:13
That’s, that’s, that’s the plan. That’s the idea. Yeah. So where do you want to start? Link, where do you where do you want to start?

Link Keller 2:22
I, let’s, let’s start more fun and loosey goosey, and then we’ll get into the grittier stuff. So

Lara Taylor 2:30
like the movie!

Link Keller 2:31
just like the movie, wait, what? Did you guys have a favorite song, let’s start there. My favorite song is surface pressure, which is Luisa’s song, and it is a song about feeling the need to be strong to do anything that your family requires of you anything that your community needs of you. And that is what gives you value as a person, and how awful that can feel. Where if if you’re not hitting 100% of what everybody is asking of you, then you are worthless, worth less. And there is a particular line in the song where she says, Oh, God, I have it written down. I feel worthless if I can’t be of service. And that I feel that so deeply?

Josué Cardona 3:30
drip drip of pressure? Yes. Yeah, he’s

Lara Taylor 3:33
we’re watching this movie at the driving and I just yelled out that’s me. In the middle of the song.

Link Keller 3:41
it me. Yes, absolutely.

Josué Cardona 3:45
Yeah. Lara, do you have a favorite song?

Lara Taylor 3:48
That was that was going to be my favorite song. It’s interesting, because when I went into go see them after we’d watch the movie, I was like, I liked all the songs but nothing really stuck in my head at the end, like you know how Moana had. We’re all go and then frozen had of course the I’m not even gonna name off the two that everybody sings. But, um, nothing really stuck in my head. And then after it hit Disney plus, everybody started singing. We don’t talk about Bruno. And I was like, Yep, okay, that’s the one that is the one to catch. If it’s not going to be surface pressure is going to be we don’t talk about Bruno like I was on the gondola. We have the at our zoo. There’s like a gondola that brings you up to the top of the hill. And we could hear people singing as they were passing us in the window. Like, we don’t talk about Bruno. It was great.

Link Keller 4:41
that’s so cute.

Lara Taylor 4:43
And then it got stuck in my head. So yeah, we don’t talk about bruno.

Link Keller 4:47
Yeah, that one is definitely an ear worm. And, and on the first listen, you’re like this is fun. And then when you go back and you listen again, there are so many little, so many little details in there that you don’t pick up on

Lara Taylor 5:00
And they start singing really quickly, like, I’m gonna need to put on captions to, like get more look at the lyrics

Link Keller 5:06
to guess why I always have captions on because I got to see those lyrics.

Josué Cardona 5:12
It’s like, oh, Dolores told us that song that she like knew all along my favorite is Dos Oruguitas. For sure

Lara Taylor 5:23
that one’s been stuck in my head today too, and makes me cry.

Link Keller 5:27
So sweet.

Josué Cardona 5:29
I’ve listened to that song. Many, many, many, many times

Link Keller 5:33
do you listen to the Spanish version or the English version?

Josué Cardona 5:36
I started listening to the English version in preparation for podcasting about about it. But mostly in Spanish. And a big reason is because of what you just said about the details. I, I’ve started thinking, I mean, I’ve started studying this movie. This movie has layers and the symbolism is is surprising to me. And I feel like I’ve never watched a Disney movie that was like this, where I could like keep going back and finding all these different pieces to it. Like, by my third viewing, it wasn’t the same movie that I watched the first time because I realized that I connected all these different it’s almost like an M Night Shyamalan movie. Like you don’t know what you know, and at the end you’re like what?

Lara Taylor 6:30
They’ve been telling us this all along. Yeah, and it’s not as obvious as frozen two’s like the first song tells you the end of the movie.

Josué Cardona 6:38
Yeah, well, yeah, well, it’s yeah, it’s funny

Lara Taylor 6:41
like explicitly

Josué Cardona 6:42
Yeah, yeah. Cuz Dos Oruguitas I feel that way now. Like, the more I listened to it, it wasn’t until a third time that I watched the movie that I was like, I saw it completely differently. But yeah, Dos Oruguitas is my favorite. For sure.

Link Keller 6:55
I Love. I love the detail in the intro song where Mirabel is introducing the family when she introduces abuela of well as part is in tune with the Dos Oruguitas song, which I did not pick up on the first time. The second time was like, oh, oh, that’s that’s her song. That’s her song. It’s her part in the song is that’s beautiful.

Josué Cardona 7:22
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. That’s my that’s my favorite. But but the whole all of the songs were really good. Like, I think, yeah, I like it. Do like some even, like, even like, Lion King was my favorite Disney movie for a very long time. And like, I never really liked the the scar song. What’s the?

Lara Taylor 7:45
be prepared

Josué Cardona 7:46
Be prepared, like, like, every time be prepared to jump. I was like, no, like, I don’t. I don’t love be prepared. But this here’s like, every I think I think every like every time a song comes on, I’m, I’m happy that the song is on. Yeah.

Lara Taylor 8:03
And someone I was talking to this week mentioned t...

#314: Josué and Link discuss the importance of names. Specifically, how exciting it was to have Josué’s name be included in Forza Horizon 5

Josué Cardona 0:11
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’m joined by Link Keller.

Link Keller 0:20
Helloooo

Josué Cardona 0:22
Hey Link. Today I want to talk about the importance of a feeling a feeling seen. Okay, I feel like you you’re, you’ve been seeing like your we talked about representation

Link Keller 0:42
I’ve been seen,

Josué Cardona 0:43
I’ve been seen,

Link Keller 0:45
I have no, that is true. I have been seen,

Josué Cardona 0:48
you have. We’ve talked about representation a lot in different in different ways. And there’s, there’s this, there’s one thing that like, for years, I’ve had this idea that one day, I’m going to, I was going to like, either make a YouTube video, or like this really long blog post, like, you know, someday, maybe I’ll do it, but this is this is gonna end up being the first version of that. So there’s something that I do. So my name is spelled J O S U E. And on the E, there’s a there’s a tilde, right? Or an accent mark. And so that that’s, that’s correct. Spelling in Spanish, that’s the way you do it. Many languages have other characters and symbols on, on their letters, my name happens to have one. And it’s, it’s important to me, it’s very important to me, so I always spell it correctly. And I appreciate it so much. When, when people like, you know, there’s a pronunciation part of like, oh, how do i pronounce her name? And like, I appreciate that part. And I get it. It’s like how, Oh, I’ve never seen that name before. That’s kind of weird. That’s usually people’s reaction when that comes up. But the writing part, right is is also a big a big thing. So I, for years, I’ve been, you know, I put my name in, and I got a website when I sign up for something. And so for years, I’ve been taking snapshots of all the times that different systems, websites, programs, apps, have told me that’s not a real name, or it’s an error. Not only not only like, sometimes it’s like, there’s a there’s a there’s an error in your name, but it’s like this thing that you wrote in there is an error, right? It’s a and there’s there’s many different ways of that sometimes it’s just not acceptable.

Link Keller 2:56
unrecognized symbol

Josué Cardona 2:59
unrecognized um, I don’t, that sucks. And sometimes I get to red letters. It’s like, hey, No, try again. Don’t do that. So then I have to I have to misspell at the misspelled my name. So I have to remove the the tilde, right? It’s like, okay, fine. I get it. And I still again, I’ve been doing this for years. And I take a snapshot of it. Because I want to see what it looks like. Sometimes, systems will accept it first. But then on the back end, they change it. And it has all sorts of weird things that come up. Some of it I think is like ASCII code that that’s like, you know, like this all so many weird things. And sometimes it just doesn’t make any sense.

Link Keller 3:44
There’s just an ampersand, where it’s like anything that is not a letter or a number. We’re gonna turn it into an ampersand.

Josué Cardona 3:50
I wish it was just that. So one of the one of the most absurd ones that has ever happened was when I signed up to be a, like a contributor for for my local NPR station. Many years ago. I sign up and a member supported I’m a member now awesome. I put my name in. It accepts it. And then I get something in the mail. And my name is written. Oh, like J o su ampersand, E A C U T E. Right? It’s just like this huge Josué uhh Akuti. Right. And I’m like, what? It’s the weirdest version. Sometimes there’s like weird symbols and stuff. So I mean, it just it just, I’ve come to accept that it bothers me. I don’t like it. Every time I’ve had the opportunity. Whether whether you know, that whenever I’ve had an opportunity to like bring it up or any kind of consulting piece. I’m like, Look, names matter. Right? Let’s do something about that. So That’s that’s just, I accepted it. And again, I’m collecting it and it, it doesn’t feel good. And, and I was recently, I went on vacation, I went to a national park. And you know, like when you go to touristy places, and there’s like the souvenirs that have people’s names on them.

Link Keller 4:25
Mm hmm. The keychain wall

Josué Cardona 5:22
key chain, right stuff. Exactly. Stuff like that. So

Link Keller 5:25
the lanyard bracelets,

Josué Cardona 5:27
yeah, yeah, exactly. All that stuff. And, but to be fair Josué is not as uncommon. A name, like I used to. I mean, you’re in California. I mean, used to be in California, right? Like, you’ve probably, you know, seen it often. More often than, than, you know, people in other places. But it’s not that uncommon. And I used to, like, as part of this argument, I use it. So every year, I would go, the Social Security, his Social Security website has a list of the most common names that are given to children every year in the country. And Josué was always in like, the top 200 300 For the past, like 10 years. And I mean, I haven’t checked it recently to see like where it is, but it’s like, it’s there, like kids are being named Josué all the time. Josué is, is the Spanish equivalent of like, if you open a Spanish Bible, right, what an English would be the chapter of the book of Joshua. It’s it’s Josué, right? I mean,

Link Keller 6:24
yup

Josué Cardona 6:25
it’s just Joshua, and many countries have a different version of it. That’s the Spanish version. And in French, it’s technically spelled the same way. So it’s not it’s not super uncommon. I’m still

Link Keller 6:34
no, it’s super common. It’s a biblical name. Just because it’s not in English. It’s Oof.

Josué Cardona 6:43
I mean, look, I’m giving my my story, my perspective, my version of this, right? Like, there are there are Asian names that are so common, if you take the world and in context, right? Because Because Asia has so many people, right? So many people in India, so many people in China, who have names that once they come here, people are like, I don’t know how to spell that. What is that? Like? And it’s the same type of, I’ve never heard that before. You know, and you know, that you’re like, one of, you know, millions of people you right, in the world who has the same name. And so like, I feel that but I but I get it, right, like you don’t know another language. Maybe you don’t know, too many other people that maybe you just forgot its Okay. So this is something that that again, is important to me. It always bothers me anytime even. I have this conversation all the time. Oh, how would I say your new Oh, that’s so nice. I’ve never heard it before. And I like automatically goes like, oh, it’s the Spanish version of Joshua. Like, you know, it’s like, it’s my version of like, how to thank you. Here’s a, here’s a learning moment. And let’s move on. Right?

Link Keller 7:57
Yeah.

Josué Cardona 7:58
So in media, I’ve never, never, ever seen the name Josué. Like, I mean, I’m like, sure. Spanish mean, it’s like an English like, I don’t remember ever seeing a character name or sway, anything like that. A book like nothing, I think there’s no like main or even side characters right now named Josué I’ve never, never seen it. And, and, I mean, we’ve, we’ve talked about it not in this context, right. But lik...

#313: Josué and Lara are joined by special guest Marc Cuiriz to discuss and process Spider-Man: No Way Home, full spoilers ahead!

[PASTE TRANS

Josué Cardona 0:11
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’m joined by Lara Taylor Kester.

Lara Taylor 0:21
Hey,

Josué Cardona 0:22
hello. And a special guest, Marc Cuiriz.

Marc Cuiriz 0:26
Hello,

Lara Taylor 0:27
what is he doing here?

Josué Cardona 0:29
He’s abiding by our very strict. Once a year rule, he’s not allowed on the show more than once per year.

Lara Taylor 0:35
Okay, yeah. Cutting it close this here?

Josué Cardona 0:38
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Only at the end of the year. Is he allowed to come by maybe so.

Marc Cuiriz 0:45
So you want to know something? That’s funny. The last time I was actually on GT was last year in November, when the rise of Skywalker came out. And we did a whole Star Wars Episode. Yeah. Yeah,

Josué Cardona 0:57
I know. I know.

Marc Cuiriz 0:58
So it seems like I’m only invited on when there’s a big premiere of movies.

Josué Cardona 1:03
No, you’re actually

Lara Taylor 1:05
no

Josué Cardona 1:05
the reason why you’re on here is because you represent a different spectrum on the age continuum, than we do obviously, Lara’s At the opposite extreme.

Lara Taylor 1:24
Thanks,

Josué Cardona 1:24
among us, You’re You’re the youngest one.

Lara Taylor 1:27
I am a month older than you.

Josué Cardona 1:30
You’re still the oldest one. But but there was something about that that Star Wars Episode, right where it was, you have such a different experience than I do with Star Wars, right? Like for you, it was new. And, and so for today, we’re going to be talking about spider man, no way home. And not only is is Spider Man, super important to you. But you said something to me. The day before the movie came out. You said like, this is like my entire childhood. in like in one movie. And I thought about that. I was like, what, when? But how different is that? From from, from my experience? And I think it is. And and I know Spider Man is a super important character to you. So that’s why I really, I’m really happy that you’re here to provide a perspective. Of course, this is a super spoiler filled episode. I hope you’re here because you want to learn more about the movie. sure, get our reactions, of course, but really the different themes that we we each identified, I’m sure we saw it and thought very different things. And hopefully, this will be helpful for you, listener, as you as you think about the movie and talk about it with other people and you know, get an idea of how meaningful some of the themes in this movie can be. So so with that. No, come back later. If you haven’t watched it, if you haven’t watched Spider Man no way home if you have welcome. And let’s start with Marc, what what does the character Spider Man mean to you?

Marc Cuiriz 3:12
What a Spider Man mean to me. Oh, man, this is this is a loaded question because he means he means he means many different things to me. I mean, first and foremost, he sort of has that representation of, you know what, like what you were talking about earlier, where I kind of represent this on the younger side of this generation here. In terms of like, you know, talking about millennials, I know I’m like very at the cusp. You could call me a zillennial, or whatever you want to call it. The point is, is that, you know, he, you know, Peter Parker when he’s bitten, he’s just a teenager, and he has to figure out the whole superhero gig, basically by himself, at least in the comics. So we represent that younger, more childish side. But also, he’s probably one of the more realistic superheroes that I was exposed to as a kid. You know, growing up, you have the the, the iconic ones, you have Superman, you have Batman. And you know, Batman, I know is pretty realistic in the sense that, you know, he’s just normal human, he has no powers, but he’s also mega rich, which is also extremely unrealistic to someone like me, who’s, you know, always kind of lived in the working class or below. And so to have someone like Peter Parker, and spider man, to basically be someone like me, just with the unfortunate or fortunate accident of being bitten by a radioactive spider is is something that has always stuck out to me and has always shown me that you know what, it doesn’t matter how old you are. It doesn’t matter where you come from. You always have this potential to do great things and to help so many other people with your gifts. It doesn’t necessarily need to be something spectacular, as long as you sort of have the heart and the conviction to always kind of stand up and do what’s right. And in his case, it’s odd at the times looking out for the little guys, you know, like they have in which movie was it? It was Civil War at the end or not civil war. Oh, God, no, Marvel no Marvel knowledge is leaving me. No, I wasn’t winter soldier. No, no, it afterwards

Lara Taylor 5:34
was debuting in civil war. Yeah,

Marc Cuiriz 5:37
it was, it was, oh, it was homecoming. My apologies. So they have been homecoming. When he says, like, you know, I want to be the friendly neighborhood Spider Man, I want to look out for the little guys. So he’s not sitting here, you know, protecting government agencies. He’s not out there protecting his own corporation. It’s no, I got to protect the everyday citizens of New York from you know, muggers and burglars and things of the sort he wants to be there for them. He is the people’s hero. And you even see that with with spider with the video game with Miles Morales, you know, kind of deviating a little bit, but we still have the the moniker of spider man. And, you know, kind of spoilers for that game. You know, at the end, we have one of the you know, one of the people of Harlem saying that’s our spider man, because he represents them, and he’s fighting for them based on the actions that he’s doing and what he kind of is standing up for. So that’s kind of like, I think the biggest thing for what’s how, what Spider Man sort of means to me is that you’re there for the people, and you’re there to do whatever you can to help them to the best of your abilities with the gifts or the knowledge that you have.

Josué Cardona 6:53
I was telling my therapist today that the Spider Man is known for, you know, having storylines and or having an element to his stories where like, he has to have a job and he has to pay the rent. And, and he struggles with things that you know, people struggle with on a day to day basis in a very relatable way. He’s not the only character but he I think he’s definitely probably the first superhero, that that did that kind of thing. And it’s it’s core to to the character and of course over the years, you know, Spider Man has been many, many different things. Including, like being portrayed by different actors and different movies. Okay, so just quick reactions to to the movie Lara. What what did you? What did you think of the movie?

Lara Taylor 7:43
I cried a lot. It was very good movie. It was everything. Like Marc was talking about this is his childhood coming to life or whatever, right? This is my entire adulthood and spider man because the first Spider Man movie came out when I was in college right out of moving out of my dad. We’re not moving out of my dad’s house, but right when ...

#312: The team discusses Netflix’s Midnight Mass and find it to be full of great conversation starters – family dynamics, religious trauma, forgiveness – and some pretty good monologues!

Josué Cardona 0:04
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’m joined by Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:10
Hey

Josué Cardona 0:10
and Link Keller.

Link Keller 0:11
Hello

Josué Cardona 0:11
Right? I think it’s Lara’s turn?

Josué Cardona 0:14
It is my turn.

Josué Cardona 0:15
What are we what are we talking about?

Lara Taylor 0:16
We’re talking about Midnight Mass,

Josué Cardona 0:16
what is Midnight Mass?

Lara Taylor 0:17
It is a, I guess a limited series is what they’re calling on. Netflix. It’s by the same person that did. Haunting of Hill House and Haunting of Bly Manor. Lots of spooky, creepy things. Not exactly like. It wasn’t scary, scary. It’s one of those things that it wasn’t to me wasn’t super scary. And then you get toward the end. It’s like, oh, shit, things got things got creepy. But I think I heard a lot of buzz about this from friends. And a friend of mine who is deep in the Catholic Church was asking for his friends opinions on like, how they represented faith in the show, and most actually said, except for one person pretty accurately. And that it did a good job. And I was like, Huh, that’s interesting. So I watched a show. And there’s, there’s that’s a that’s a piece of representation. We don’t talk about too much. But there’s other things in there so many good pieces about family and mental health struggles, and I don’t know, everything gets creepier when things that are supposed to be safe supposed to be in quotes, like, you know, children, religion, family, like those things when it gets creepy. It really is scary. I don’t know.

Josué Cardona 1:06
Yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s been I mean, things like Netflix. Right. Like, it’s like a blip in time. But I think the reviews have been so good. From what I can tell that, you know, I think I think it’ll have some longevity. I think people will keep coming back to it and talk about it for a while. And people seem to like it more than then. Hill house is my, my, my take from, from what I’ve what I’ve read. But yeah, no, let’s let’s get into where do you want to start?

Lara Taylor 1:28
Where do I want to? Well, I want to I want to get your all’s impressions of what what you liked about it?

Josué Cardona 1:30
Link?

Link Keller 2:26
Um, I enjoyed it. It definitely fits in with Hill House. And Bly Manor. I think I liked Bly Manor a little bit better. And that may just be because of the queer stuff. I’m willing to admit that. I thought there’s some really cool visual elements. utilized in midnight mass. There was a couple of really cool scenes that um, if we get more into spoiler territories, like, obviously, I’m sure you guys were like, oh, links gonna like this part, because I did! I had I had some discomfort. I don’t know that it was so scary for me. But I think a big part of that is because of my relationship with religion is has always been distanced from Christianity. And so a lot of the Christianity and Catholic related stuff is like, I I’ve always had that space where it’s like, I’m aware of it, but it is not happened to me. So while I definitely find Bev to be absolutely terrifying as a character, maybe the scariest character in all three seasons, three series, but um, yeah. Oh, overall, I enjoyed it. I it was a it was enjoyable, spent spooky time.

Link Keller 3:36
And this is the first time I’m ever going to be able to use this. And one of these episodes, although it’s something I talk about whenever we do trainings and workshops that you don’t you, sometimes you it’s impossible to actually watch a whole thing, because you don’t have the time. And therefore, there are wonderful YouTubers who will give recaps of everything that happened. And there’s Wikipedia and you can read about stuff and you can still learn about it and which I wanted to do, because I wanted

Lara Taylor 4:04
context.

Josué Cardona 4:05
But it matters to you. So it matters to me. I couldn’t make the time to see the whole thing. But I but I, but I did my homework. And so

Lara Taylor 4:11
and that’s all we can ask for right?

Josué Cardona 4:14
Look. I think I think it’s a good tactic. Always remember that listeners, you can’t you can’t watch everything, you can’t read everything.

Lara Taylor 4:19
You can’t, I have a list on my desk of things that clients have suggested that I watch. And I cannot commit to watching all of them. I can watch some of all of them, like a few bits and pieces. I give me your best moments, your best, whatever. And I will I will What strikes a chord with you and I’ll watch that. But I get that.

Josué Cardona 4:37
I do that with my sister. She’s like, Oh, I’ve been watching this all day. Like you gotta you gotta just tell me the best episode like you get a watch an episode. I can’t watch the whole series from the beginning with you. I’m sorry, I just can’t do it. When I after learning about the show, I really wanted to watch it. Like I was I was kind of bummed that I didn’t actually watch it. And then we had an extra week to watch it. I still didn’t have enough time to now you know, I’m adding that to the to the other 1000 things on my backlog. But I would I would definitely like to actually watch the whole series. But yeah, there’s a lot of stuff there that I’m I’m looking forward to hearing you talk about. And yeah, yeah.

Lara Taylor 6:08
It’s interesting, because I think a lot of I talked about this on another episode, I don’t know what like, this idea of existentialism, or like looking at not even just that, but like, faith in and like what we believe happens when we die. And there’s a scene that I loved there that I was like, I don’t know, if where I fall on the spectrum between the two. But both of the descriptions were beautiful as to what happens when we die. And I don’t like to think about it, I think because like most people, I am terrified of dying. But, um, I think that, and we get another scene later on that it kind of goes even in more depth about what happens and what these people believe happens. And it was really nice to see that portrayed that like, this guy’s fall from grace and fall from and separation from his faith, and then he’s still able to come up with a meaningful belief about what happens even though other people might see it as not meaningful. You know, I’ve had friends who are like, well, when you die, you die. And that’s it. That’s the end. And his description is like, Well, no, but we also become part of this. And part of that, and I can’t put good words to like they did in the scene, but like, I almost I wanted to believe both of them. As to what happens, you know, it was it was beautiful.

Josué Cardona 7:59
There’s an episode of Otaku Ryōhō that we recorded, where we talk about how the the, our beliefs around death, right can inform how we live our lives? I don’t? I don’t know. A lot of people think about that all the time. I do. Definitely. So like, what was your take on on how, you know, the people who believe different things? And like, you thought they were both cool, right? But like, how? How would they? How would the different possibilities? Maybe like how did it affect the different characters? And like, how do you think, ...

#311: Link convinced Lara and Josué to watch comedy horror movie Psycho Goreman. The family dynamics and bullying add depth to the characters and make the movie surprisingly relatable.

Josué Cardona 0:11
Welcome to GT radio on the Geek Therapy network here 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’m joined by Link Keller

Link Keller 0:22
sup freaks

Josué Cardona 0:27
and Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:29
I can’t follow that. Hi everyone.

Josué Cardona 0:33
it’s it’s it’s Halloween month. So

Link Keller 0:37
spooky season!

Josué Cardona 0:37
spooky season. So I think it’s time we start. We start visiting some some some horror movies.

Link Keller 0:45
Hahahaha

Josué Cardona 0:47
And I think I think it’s a it’s an excellent choice to pick 92% rated on Rotten Tomatoes guaranteed to be a classic shutter original PG psycho Goreman.

Link Keller 1:05
Whoo. heck yeah!

Josué Cardona 1:07
is that is that? Is that what we’re talking about today?

Link Keller 1:10
That is what we are talking about today. Psycho Goreman is streaming on shutter exclusively, though they do have physical copies you can buy to add to your collection of blu rays, which I suggest because this movie is fantastic. And I love it. For longtime listeners of the show, you may know about me is that I love horror movies. And I love spooky season. And so every year I take this opportunity to force Josué and Lara to watch something that they probably would never ever watch. Otherwise.

Lara Taylor 1:49
I do like me some spook, but you picked one that I would not watch on my own.

Josué Cardona 1:55
You you’ve converted me from it’s been I was I was I filled out a profile for something recently. I was like, Oh, do you like horror movies? I was like, Yes, I do.

Link Keller 2:05
aw!

Josué Cardona 2:05
I do actually. Yeah.

Link Keller 2:07
you came around

Josué Cardona 2:07
So yeah. Now I just now just I’m asking everybody for recommendation

Link Keller 2:12
three years later Josué loves horror.

Josué Cardona 2:15
Yeah. Yep.

Link Keller 2:17
Excellent.

Josué Cardona 2:18
Yeah.

Link Keller 2:18
Yes. So psycho Goreman. It is a very fun, silly. Gore rific horror movie. It is more silly than horror.

Lara Taylor 2:34
Oh, definitely. I had to like, I was like, I can’t watch scary things when Nina’s around. And this one she could have she could have watched this one. Most definitely.

Link Keller 2:46
I was when I mentioned it. I was gonna say like, this might be something that Nina would enjoy. But I didn’t want to gamble on it because I don’t write I don’t want to give Nina, like nightmares,

Lara Taylor 2:55
right. But she came in when I was watching it and into the office and was like, oh, and started to walk away. And this is your fine and it was just the gore. It was great. It was beautiful.

Link Keller 3:07
Yes.

Josué Cardona 3:08
One of the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes says an 80s throwback that asks the question, what if et starred pinhead? psycho Goreman is a bonkers horror comedy that lovingly sends up the cheapo genre flicks of the era. It’s a good it’s a good that convinced me. Yeah. That’s my review as well.

Link Keller 3:31
That is probably my favorite thing about psycho goreman is all of the practical effects. The writer and director Steven Kostanski who is known for doing special effects makeup stuff you might recognize his work in. It, the first Suicide Squad, hannibal.

Josué Cardona 4:02
Like the new It Movies?

Link Keller 4:03
the new the new it movies.

Josué Cardona 4:08
Hannibal

Link Keller 4:09
Hannibal? Yeah, he did some makeup work on that

Josué Cardona 4:13
the series of the movie.

Link Keller 4:14
The series, okay.

Josué Cardona 4:17
Okay, yeah, yeah.

Link Keller 4:18
And then he was the director for the void, which came out in 2016 which is a movie I also really enjoyed. Though I think psycho Goreman is more fun and more accessible to people who don’t already consume a ton of horror. Yeah, but psycho Goreman really fun. Amazing practical effects puppetry. I just I just I just love the puppets. There’s so good. This skull the brain in the jar. Love that guy. The big bucket of body parts the big metal bucket of body parts. Oh, the boy He turns into a big brain. Big wet puppet. I love it but yeah, it’s the basic story is our two main characters Mimi and Luke. They are older brother younger sister and their parents. And Mimi and Luke are playing a game called crazy ball that they made up. And after the game, they are digging in the backyard and they discover an ancient alien. prison block a box anyways, they release an ancient evil who is bent on destroying the whole worlds and the universe and all things all lights all life.

Josué Cardona 5:47
Rita Repulsa.

Link Keller 5:49
Very, very much. Yes, that is actually a major reference point is Power Rangers stuff like if you liked Power Rangers as a kid, this is for you. But yeah, so they they release this ancient evil. But it turns out that because they have this gem of power that they can control him. Then they name him they named him psycho Goreman, great, great scene where they pick out a name for him. And they do some shenanigans. And then other aliens get involved because he’s a psycho Goreman’s a real bad guy. And so then it becomes sort of a, an intergalactic war is kind of happening. And it’s just sort of their family dealing with that. And I think it is really fun movie. Obviously, I’m mostly there for the humor and the puppets and the wet Gooshie Gore stuff is very funny to me. But there’s also some some, some stuff about families and I think there’s space to talk about some things. But yeah, so what did you guys things were your initial impressions experience? Hmm. How did you how did you enjoy it?

Lara Taylor 7:07
I liked it a lot. It continues my there has to be a child I hate in every horror movie I watch. I just wanted to strangle Mimi, every time. Every time. I don’t like her. But it was it was great. I loved the humor. I personally like gore in my movies. I don’t. I don’t know. It’s um, this was beautiful. And not like, I don’t know, I could watch it without. I like the gore. But usually I have to like flinch sometimes and look away for a second. But this was just like, it was so fake and beautiful. And, you know, cars running over body parts and heads exploding. And it was so fun. And I definitely appreciated. Like it looked well done. For a like, B movie. C movie. Something is great. I loved it. And like you said, lots of family stuff to talk about in there. Definitely. But I hate the kid.

Josué Cardona 8:23
you Don’t like Mimi. Not even a little bit?

Lara Taylor 8:25
Not at all.

Josué Cardona 8:26
No. I mean, you know what about

Lara Taylor 8:28
she’s just like my best friend and in elementary school and I hated her too.

Link Keller 8:32
Well, is Mimi is Mimi worse than the kid from the babadook?

Lara Taylor 8:37
They’re different.

Josué Cardona 8:40
So so but But what about all the times that Mimi has a chance to do the right thing

Lara Taylor 8:45
and doesn’t?

Josué Cardona 8:46
how do feel about h...

#310: Josué, Lara, and Link talk about Titans and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and the complexities of getting diagnosed and medicated (in real life and in fiction).

Josué Cardona 0:11
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’m joined by link Keller.

Link Keller 0:21
Hello,

Josué Cardona 0:22
and Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:23
Hey,

Josué Cardona 0:24
welcome to episode 310. Of GT radio. Today, it’s my turn. So I want to talk explicitly about,

Lara Taylor 0:36
is this an explicit episode?

Josué Cardona 0:38
They’re all explicit. But we’re gonna explicitly talk about representation of mental health in media, which we talk about all the time, but I don’t think we’ve focus solely on on that topic. And at the very least, we haven’t talked about it in a very long time as the main focus of an episode. And I’ve been wanting to talk about this for weeks. So there’s a show on HBO Max called Titans. It’s the gritty version of the Teen Titans from DC Comics. The the trailer for the show, famously showed Robin kicking some people’s ass in the in the in the alleyway. And someone says like, where’s Batman? He goes, fuck Batman. Right? Is this is?

Link Keller 1:31
are they teens?

Josué Cardona 1:31
I think they are. They are Yeah, yeah, they’re,

Lara Taylor 1:35
I mean, but they’re gritty teens.

Josué Cardona 1:36
They’re just, yeah, they’re not all teens. Some of them are adults. They’re grown ass adults, some of them. But

Lara Taylor 1:45
hanging out with teens.

Josué Cardona 1:45
But that’s what’s called Titans is not it’s not a Teen Titans. So the show is on season three. And there’s an episode called Lazarus, the fifth episode of this season. And the character of Leslie Thompkins who is a doctor that appears in Gotham City Stories. She’s a psychiatrist. And this one, I don’t know, I don’t know that she’s always been a psychiatrist. But she’s a psychiatrist in this version, and she’s talking to Jason Todd. And he, he’s talking about how he wants to be Robin. He has to be Robin. Then the psychiatrist says something. I don’t know. She psychiatrist. I don’t remember now. It doesn’t matter. The point is that she she she knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman. And so she tells Jason Todd, who is Robin currently in the show that Robin is just a projection of a man with borderline personality disorder, like Bruce Wayne, right, then she and she diagnosis and it doesn’t just like says that. And I was so upset when that when that happened. It had been it had been. I mean, Batman stories are the ones that have sparked the most conversations, I think definitely among us, but like in our circles of like, you know, geek and nerd psychology stuff, right?

Lara Taylor 3:12
What that was Travis langly first

Josué Cardona 3:14
book, obviously, we wrote a whole book, Batman and psychology. We’ve talked about this a lot. But there’s also like, one of the first things I ever posted on the on the first version of The Geek Therapy website was an article of a group of psychiatrists who were speaking up against DC Comics for always giving villains these, you know, just throw away diagnoses, you know, like the real diagnoses, but like, just completely

Lara Taylor 3:43
how you write a villain throw a dart at the DSM? Yeah,

Josué Cardona 3:46
yeah, pretty much. And so. So this bothered me on a number of levels. Okay. That Bruce Wayne would have a BPD first of all, it’s like, that’s never been a thing. First of all, right. And then you could, you could kinda, you could make an argument, maybe that this version of Batman is different. I think every version of Batman is slightly different. And you can do it in a responsible way. But of course, they didn’t do it in a responsible way. Right. They didn’t explain anything. There was there was nothing there. But it was also the way she said it. She didn’t say, you know, you know that your you know, your your caretaker, Bruce, you know, he’s he’s working through, you know, borderline personality disorder. He’s, you know, he’s been working really hard on it. And you know, sometimes he just happens and it there was no like compassion to it. There was no there was nothing about like, it was like, That guy’s got BPD like, why are you listening to him like it was just so so. It was just very negative the way that it was used, but also it doesn’t explain what BPD is, right? It just it just kind of by that connotation alone, like, if you don’t know what it is, it’s like, oh, that must be really bad. Um, I want to tell ya, that’s

Lara Taylor 5:11
very different from saying something like, he’s treating you unhealthily. Like, don’t listen to him. It’s like, throwing you out there a diagnosis

Josué Cardona 5:20
this guy, he’s got BPD you don’t you don’t wanna you don’t want it?

Lara Taylor 5:23
You can’t listen to those people.

Josué Cardona 5:24
can’t listen to those poeple. Yeah, pretty much. And I mean, like, I like this version of Batman has done things that most versions of Batman

Lara Taylor 5:33
wouldn’t do or haven’t done

Josué Cardona 5:34
haven’t done yet. Right. And I’ll leave it at that. I don’t I don’t love this version of Batman. But it’s, it’s, it’s okay. It’s a different version of Batman.

Lara Taylor 5:49
It’s also not the Batman show.

Josué Cardona 5:52
Yeah, I mean, yeah. But it’s definitely it’s definitely not crazy ex girlfriend. Let me tell you about how crazy ex girlfriend brought up a BPD diagnosis. Okay. When they did it in their season three. Okay. Rachel goes to her to her therapist, in a not great way. Right. But she doesn’t she she asked her therapist, like about this diagnosis. She doesn’t she doesn’t understand if she doesn’t like it. And the show proceeds to let the therapist go one by one through the checklist of all of the symptoms, right?

Lara Taylor 6:35
And then it flashes back to her stuff, right?

Josué Cardona 6:38
She’s going through them she’s identifying with each point, showing moments throughout the show that demonstrate that behavior. And then at the end, right, there’s this there’s, there’s that moment of where she’s like, oh, like I meet all nine criteria for that, right?

Link Keller 6:58
Yeah, Dr. Akopian, correctly specifies that for diagnosis, you have to meet five of nine. And Rebecca goes, Oh, shit, I got I got nine of nine. I am winning this one. Yeah, the champion of this one. Oh, no… yaay?

Josué Cardona 7:17
But like the fact that a show took the time to walk through actual, you know, diagnostic criteria, and not just say a word, say a thing. I have I mean, we could, we could and we probably should start a whole show on on crazy ex-girlfriend stuff that goes on there. But that that is right, these are polar opposite examples of something right. And I mean, the Batman example, the Titans example bothers me so much, because it’s Batman too. It’s not just like some obscure character that like people know, it’s like, Bruce Wayne is an archetype or they like people, even if you’ve never seen a Batman movie or, or don’t like characters

Lara Taylor 8:02
you know, Bruce Wayne is

Josué Cardona 8:03
you have a general idea. And and that idea is also because there’s so many stories, right? Like to some people Batman is a certain lik...

#309: This episode discusses Brooklyn Nine-Nine and a Vice article on burnout and resilience by Shayla Love, but it’s mostly Link, Lara, and Josué processing burnout and how they’ve been coping during the pandemic.

Josué Cardona 0:11
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’m joined by Link Keller

Link Keller 0:20
Hello

Josué Cardona 0:22
and Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:23
Hey there.

Josué Cardona 0:25
Anybody here burnt out?

Link Keller 0:28
Pick me. It’s me. I’m I am.

Josué Cardona 0:31
You burnt out? I’m pretty burnt out.

Lara Taylor 0:35
I’m less burnt out than I was six months ago.

Josué Cardona 0:39
While I’m happy for you.

Lara Taylor 0:41
I’m still exhausted

Josué Cardona 0:45
I, I burnt out harder than I think I ever have. Recently, and but it’s like, it’s obviously it’s obviously the accumulation of it. Right? Like, stuff, stuff. Filled the cup. And it way too much too many things came in at once.

Lara Taylor 1:11
It was overflowing.

Josué Cardona 1:13
It was too much it spilled over

Lara Taylor 1:15
like someone shook up the soda. And it was into your cup.

Josué Cardona 1:19
Yeah, yeah. It was not. It was surprising. Almost like how, how hard I fell. How burnt out I was. Am I’m still I’m still it. I think I think it hit people in different ways at different times. But um, yeah, and I mean, that kind of just affects everything. Which is the kind of try to keep going and um, and so link you want it you chose this this this uplifting, joyful topic today. Why exactly?

Link Keller 1:58
Well so um, we we take turns picking topics on GT radio, there’s three of us we take turns is rotating. That gives you a couple of weeks to plan your next topic of choice. And, you know, sometimes we keep it loosey goosey and go for, you know, current events and sometimes returning to old favorites. But generally speaking, we’re trying to do you know, the Geek Therapy method, we’re talking about media we care about and celebrating how it helps us better understand ourselves and other people. And to be entirely honest, I have not felt celebratory in a long time. And every time it has been my turn to pick a topic, I have struggled to pick something. Because I’ll have ideas, you know, as I’m scrolling through Twitter, or watching Tik toks, or whatever, I see things all the time media that I have a strong emotional response to and I want to talk about a be something interesting to talk about it, but it is frequently upsetting. rage inducing, extremely depressing. And that is that’s not the vibe, that’s not the vibe that we’re going for here. Not, you know, not that we’re always 100% positivity, because that can be pretty toxic, too. But that’s not that’s not what I want to bring. But it has been really hard lately, I feel. not lately, this past two years, honestly, I was having, you know, a series of unfortunate events before COVID happened. So I never really got opportunity to sit down and reflect and process all of the series of shit that was happening. And then COVID And individually there, there have been, you know, moments where I’ve been okay, and I’ve felt fine. But overwhelmingly, it has been awful, and traumatizing. And I feel like I’ve not gotten the chance to I keep seeing these these jokes on on Twitter people posting memes about like, Haha, you know, we’re three months away from 2022. And I’m still processing March 2020. And it’s like, Haha, a joke, but I’m like, I feel that way sometimes. Like, when it’s like, oh, yeah, that was, you know, a year and six months ago that we went into our first lockdown. And at the time it was, you know, scary and we didn’t know what to expect and we didn’t know how long it would last and now Many things have changed but many things are still the same. We don’t know how long it’s gonna last. There’s so much uncertainty about it. It’s awful. And I’m, I am burnt out, I I’m burnt out, I’m I’m exhausted. And I tried to come up with another idea for a topic this week. But I think I was speaking with Josué and had the realization that I think that we just we need to talk about it avoiding it isn’t going to make it any easier for me. So yeah. I’m burned the fuck out

Josué Cardona 5:37
Remember two weeks ago when I had an idea, and then when we showed up, I was like, Yeah, I’m just angry. And I wanted to talk about how angry I am. And I think we better not record because I’m angry about my job. I’m angry about the world. And I don’t think I don’t think this is going to end up as something that I would, I would, uh, would be beneficial to anybody. It was. And so we didn’t even record that night. Um, one thing, one thing you just said, makes me I hadn’t thought about. I hadn’t thought about how hard it is to be optimistic right now. And, like, we just did the 10th anniversary a couple months ago. And there was like, momentum. And I’ve been thinking about, like, why it was so hard to keep celebrating and like, keep moving forward. And I think I think this, this is probably a big part of it. I think it’s, it’s a combination of things, right? I have media examples that I’ll bring up. I will start with Brooklyn, nine, nine. Y’all remember when we talked about Brooklyn nine, nine last year. And it was like, I wonder how they’re going to come back? What are they going to do? Brooklyn nine, nine came back. And it’s weird

Link Keller 7:07
that seems so fucking long ago.

Josué Cardona 7:09
It was a long time ago. My mind is back. And it is so weird. I remember saying in light of George Floyd’s murder, there’s no way like, what are they gonna do? Are they just gonna come back and just pretend like nothing happened? Are they going to come back and like all quit and be social workers.

Link Keller 7:27
I still I still wish. If I could if I could do a genie wish is Undo Brooklyn nine nine from being a show about cops to being a show about post office workers. You can have the same characters, nearly the same situations. Perfect. You can even use a lot of the same sets like it’s right there. And it’s not cops.

Josué Cardona 7:51
So So Have either of you seen the new then the new season?

Lara Taylor 7:56
I haven’t watched any brooklyn nine nine.

Josué Cardona 7:57
So so so. So the show so

Lara Taylor 8:00
so I don’t have to be disappointed.

Josué Cardona 8:02
No, but this is just an example of how weird it is. Right? Because it’s pretending it’s trying to be what it was before. But also it can’t be. And so in the first episode, Rosa quits, Rosa, Rosa is no longer a cop. And they’re definitely moving towards way more roadtrip episodes and private life stuff. They’re moving away from that and the police, it’s in the in the police officers themselves. They’re like, they’re trying to run a program to you know, reform police policing throughout the city. But they, they’re still cops, and they’re still policing. And there’s

Link Keller 8:43
and it’s still a comedy show. So like trying to grapple with those ideas and be funny??

Josué Cardona 8:49
There was one episode where they had a moment where like it, they have a speech where they’re like speaking against police brutality, and then they had to follow it up with a joke because it’s a sitcom. And it feels like this, the show cannot survive after the season, because it just feels too weird. You kno...

#308: What starts as a conversation about The Suicide Squad quickly derails into a larger conversation about what makes heroes unexpected, and why we don’t see many older heroes.

Josué Cardona 0:11
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’m joined by Link Keller

Link Keller 0:20
hello.

Josué Cardona 0:22
and Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:23
Hey,

Josué Cardona 0:24
Lara it’s your turn you’re up.

Lara Taylor 0:28
Our pre show shenanigans made me forget what I’m talking about today. Um, but not really. Uh, so Nina and I were watching the Suicide Squad.

Josué Cardona 0:40
just Suicide Squad or the ?

Lara Taylor 0:42
The Suicide Squad. Okay, the Suicide Squad, the new one

Link Keller 0:46
2021

Lara Taylor 0:47
So this is a wonderful topic that we’re going to talk about, but um big spoilers for how The Suicide Squad ends. So, um, yeah, you might not want to listen if you haven’t watched it yet. Um, so we’re watching the Suicide Squad. And there’s a whole thing about unexpected heroes like we got some badasses is right. The Rats!

Josué Cardona 1:14
do we?

Lara Taylor 1:16
We do. I mean, Harley is pretty badass.

Josué Cardona 1:19
True, true.

Lara Taylor 1:20
Harley is pretty badass. And so is Bloodsport? Yeah. But, and then there’s some others that are not so badass. But the most badass of them all is not just the one controlling the rats. What is it ratcatcher 2. But, but But Sebastian and the rest of the rats are the true heroes of this movie. I loved it so much that it was like a simple little animal that was the hero of the movie. And when Josué, when you and I were talking about this, like a week ago or so I had forgotten exactly what the ratcatcher says to ratcatcher 2. But saying something along the lines of like, they’re the lowliest of creatures, but they still have purpose. And I think that that’s something that I can get behind. Like, maybe I’m not the greatest X y&z I don’t know, I’m not the greatest speaker right now, apparently. But I have purpose and I can come up with a good topic. Um, and I thought it made me think of other examples in media of unexpected heroes, but I think it was just cool to know like, the rats are gonna save us in the future. That’s all.

Josué Cardona 2:47
Yeah, the the line from the father was, it surprised me when my father after watching the movie said that, that part stuck with him?

Lara Taylor 2:57
yeah cuz your dad is the like, I only want to watch the action parts.

Josué Cardona 3:02
Yeah.

Link Keller 3:04
of which there were several great ones.

Lara Taylor 3:06
Absolutely. Even including the rats.

Josué Cardona 3:10
I thought it was a very fun movie. And so which is what surprised me that he would give to that. Oh, yeah. No, I enjoyed it. You know, what part I really liked. He talks about, he talks about that, quote,

Link Keller 3:21
Papa Taika Waititi?

Lara Taylor 3:26
He’s, he’s our father.

Josué Cardona 3:28
Yeah. And he was telling me in Spanish, and he’s, you know, and he’s like, saying the part in Spanish and he’s, he was, I think, really, really resonated with him. And I was, I was, so I was very happy to hear that you want us to talk about, you know, that, that idea? Because I wonder how many people it does resonate with, it’s a good reminder. Sometimes you you may feel hopeless or worthless or undervalued, or, you know, through comparing yourself to other people. And yeah, and and you may think, oh, like, I’m not like other people, or I’m not capable of this or that, but that that doesn’t. that’s not helpful

Lara Taylor 4:10
or other people. Like even if you’re thinking about that about yourself, but like other people’s opinion of you like this whole thing with the rats like they are the lowliest of creatures, right? But they’re also not. I think it made me think of Rocket Raccoon and how people treat him and he is my favorite of the Guardians of the Galaxy. And just like, everyone treats him like just trash and like a Rodent and a trash panda. And he’s the best and he’s a badass with his giant gun, destroying everything. And his dirty mouth.

Josué Cardona 4:24
I wonder how many people have told them that he’s no good and survived? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, thats a good point, the the idea of them being the lowliest creatures is the Oh society says, or like, like, it’s, this is this is, this is your position in the world as as it has been established, this is what you were born into. And not letting that define you

Lara Taylor 5:23
that doesn’t mean you don’t have purpose and you don’t have meaning and you don’t have value of your own.

Josué Cardona 5:30
Or that you can’t save the day it

Lara Taylor 5:31
or that you can’t save the day and save us from a giant starfish.

Josué Cardona 5:36
Yeah.

Lara Taylor 5:38
Or Thanos. Or, you know, another idea. Another concept I thought of was the the T Rex at the end of Jurassic Park. How like, there’s all these humans and like, Oh, we got to escape. Nope, the T rex is the hero and saves everybody from getting eaten by velociraptors. And that doesn’t mean that no one thinks that T rex is the lowliest of the but no one expected the T Rex to save the humans. So

Josué Cardona 6:07
T Rex has had a lot. We’re much more respected in the 90s, though, than they are than they are today.

Lara Taylor 6:13
Yeah, you’re right. You’re right.

Josué Cardona 6:18
Yeah, yeah, I don’t I don’t know. I don’t know what the T Rex. I get where you’re going. But

Lara Taylor 6:26
it’s a little different. But it’s still like, you can also be an unexpected hero for yourself, for others, whatever. There’s like that cheesy quote. That’s like, what is it to? To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you might be the world, kind of thing. Rats. You are the rat.

Josué Cardona 6:52
I mean, we’ve talked about this a lot. tons of stories, right. It’s the it’s the underdog. It’s this person who and in and I think in the context that we’ve talked about before is how it’s it is very often a young, white male figure who’s like not cool, or you know, it’s like a nerd. And then like,

Josué Cardona 7:23
neville longbottom.

Josué Cardona 7:25
Yeah. You know, and think oh, yeah, then, you know, they’re there. They’re the Chosen One somehow and, etc. But a lot of those stories, this is this is kind of where my I often I often get upset when we talk about the hero’s journey. It’s this kind of stuff where it’s like, what stories are you basing that on? Right? Like, like, what exactly is that is that trope is that is that a story that you keep retelling? There’s a video on on that’s like a TEDx talk. Where this guy is, hates the hero’s journey, but he’s talking about it as from the point of view of being a father. You know, he has a daughter, he like, that sucks. It sucks. Because one of the stories that we’re looking at were the stories from my daughter to to feel like she can be the hero of a story. And while some of the elements are relatable, taking people completely out of it. And using examples like rats and Rocket Raccoon, I think are helpful because you can you can see yourself in. In any of these characters. Yeah, but it’s easier if it’s not a person that you can...

#307: The team gushes about their love of dinosaurs and dinosaur related content. Including why dinosaurs have been so popular in media, and how they serve as a cultural touchstone.

Transcript
 
 
Josué Cardona 0:10
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 media we care about, my name is Josué Cardona. And I’m joined by link Keller. 
Link Keller 0:19
What’s up? 
Josué Cardona 0:20
and Lara Taylor 
Lara Taylor 0:22
Hey, 
Josué Cardona 0:23
hey, 
Lara Taylor 0:24
hey, 
Josué Cardona 0:25
Link, you’re up. What do you what are we talking about today? 
Link Keller 0:29
I want to talk about Jurassic Park. But in sort of a circuitous route, I have been watching lots of Docu series on Disney plus, and Netflix, and I have been watching the Netflix series that is titled The movies that made us and the second season came out recently, just a couple of weeks ago, and one of the episodes is about Jurassic Park. And so they talk about how Jurassic Park got made and how Jurassic Park sort of influenced the film industry after it got made. And it’s very cool. And I love Jurassic Park, and I love dinosaurs. And so that’s what I wanted to talk about with you guys. 
Josué Cardona 1:17
Why do you love Jurassic Park? 
Link Keller 1:19
Um, I saw it as a kid and I thought it was really really fucking cool. And I don’t remember if I was already into dinosaurs before that. Or if that movie got me into dinosaurs, um, I feel like I was already into dinosaurs because I was. I definitely didn’t see Jurassic Park. When it came out in 1993. I don’t think I was quite old enough. I saw it later on VHS tape, 
Lara Taylor 1:51
I’m trying to remember how old I was. 
Josué Cardona 1:54
I did see it in theaters. 
Josué Cardona 1:55
Yeah? I definitely saw the third one in theaters. And I remember it like very much like, I remember. Like the the stupid phone sound that they played and then the dinosaur ate the phone then you could hear anyways, I remember that phone noise like jiggling my whole body in the theater seats. That’s very stuck in my head. But yeah, no, I, I thought dinosaurs were cool. As a kid. It was something I was into. I thought they were so neat. And it was always fun to talk about dinosaurs with other people and like, what are your favorite dinosaurs and I watched Land Before Time as a kid. 
Josué Cardona 2:33
I thought this was gonna be a Jurassic Park conversation. 
Link Keller 2:38
It’s dinosaurs kind of dinosaurs it I am going to keep circling back to Jurassic Park. Because I do feel like Jurassic Park is like, a headliner as far as dinosaur stuff and importance to me, 
Josué Cardona 2:51
S-tier dinosaurs content 
Link Keller 2:53
S-tier dinosaurs. Yeah, yeah. So I remember being really into Jurassic Park as a kid I read Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park and the lost world as a as a teen I watched the new the New Jurassic World movies when they came out they’re not new now. But when when they were new, I went and saw them. I was not as into them, but I still enjoyed them because it was still dinosaurs. 
Link Keller 2:56
So, why do you like dinosaurs? 
Link Keller 3:26
They’re cool dude. 
Josué Cardona 3:28
I need more. 
Link Keller 3:29
They’re they’re. 
Lara Taylor 3:30
Who doesn’t like dinosaurs? 
Link Keller 3:32
they ride the they ride the line between being like, regular ass animals on regular ass Planet Earth planet Earth animals. Every we see animals all the time. It’s not a big deal. They’re animals. But then also, they’re kind of like mysterious magical monsters because we only experience them through little pieces of fossils and guesses from paleontologist and archaeologist. And and, you know, if theorizing, like what makes sense based on the tiny little pieces of data we have from millions of years ago and it’s just it’s really cool. It’s it’s somewhere in between, like, very real and also very fantasy. And that feels good to me. I love that. I love that space. That and ambiguity, mmmm dinos. 
Josué Cardona 4:25
I, I I’ve only ever had one imaginary friend my entire life. And it was a dinosaur. And 
Lara Taylor 4:38
people can’t see his face, but it’s great. 
Josué Cardona 4:43
That it was um, no, I believe it was a brontosaurus and it was so large but I but it was because it was so large. It my imaginary friend was able to move through walls and stuff. So basically it was like I would be like Like the head would come through the wall. You know, like it was so large it would like it didn’t fit completely in the room. It was able to do stuff like that. Only only imaginary friend. I remember ever having a big old dinosaur. I think I brought this up before and we tried to connect it to Land Before Time and little foot and all that. But it wasn’t though. Wasn’t Yeah, 
Lara Taylor 5:27
it wasn’t little foot. 
Josué Cardona 5:29
No, there was a lot of dinosaur content. In the 90s 
Lara Taylor 5:35
Absolutely. the last dinosaur a there’s a whole bunch of them for dinosaurs. 
Josué Cardona 5:42
Dinosaurs. 
Lara Taylor 5:43
I have that on? I have that on DVD. 
Josué Cardona 5:46
You have dinosaurs 
Lara Taylor 5:48
on DVD 
Link Keller 5:48
wow 
Lara Taylor 5:50
Yeah, yeah. 
Josué Cardona 5:52
The family 
Lara Taylor 5:53
not the mama and my friends and I would play that at school. Like, not the mama and not the mama. That whole thing we would play Land Before Time as well. And Jurassic Park? 
Josué Cardona 6:05
Yeah. 
Lara Taylor 6:06
I used to have like most of Land Before Time memorized and I’m feel a little sad that I don’t have like I have my Disney movies all memorized. 
Josué Cardona 6:15
Yeah 
Lara Taylor 6:16
but I haven’t watched Land Before Time and and Land Before Time went on and on and on. And we dinosaurs might have gone extinct but Land Before Time certainly did not. 
Josué Cardona 6:28
Humans will go extinct. Like whatever it replaces. Humans will still be making land before time movies. 
Link Keller 6:33
I hope so. 
Josué Cardona 6:35
I really like what you said think about it being like, like I like to joke that my favorite animal is dragons. But I know dragons aren’t real. But the closer they 
Lara Taylor 6:47
but are they? 
Link Keller 6:48
but are they? 
Josué Cardona 6:49
Yeah, yeah, like yeah 
Lara Taylor 6:52
Pterodactyl or whatever they’re called now 
Link Keller 6:56
based on what I’ve learned about dinosaurs in the 90s to what I know about dinosaurs now which I’m regularly learning new things because so it turns out 
Josué Cardona 7:06
the dinosaur experts Yeah, exactly. Turns out 
Link Keller 7:09
a lot of that stuff was like we don’t know and we make guesses and it’s being updated regularly 
Lara Taylor 7:15
like now feathers and bird sounds 
Josué Cardona 7:18
that’s old stuff like 
Link Keller 7:20
It’s like from the 90s to now is like they’ve only gotten more Dragon like in my opinion so like dragons maybe 
Josué Cardona 7:28
I love the like the the critique of the New Jurassic Park movies. It’s like, why don’t they have feathers? We know better now. You don’t have to keep making I but the continuity and stuff and they don’t look as cool. It’s like get out here. So there’s the largest remains that have been found of a dinosaur called a titanosaur is that they call it I went to the display in in New York. A...

#306: Lara, Josué, and Link talk about Loki, self-love, survival, and if it’s even possible to make time loops in multiverses make sense.

Josué Cardona 0:11
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’m joined by Link Keller.

Link Keller 0:19
Hello,

Josué Cardona 0:20
Lara Taylor.

Lara Taylor 0:21
Hey,

Josué Cardona 0:23
Lara. Let’s talk Loki What’s up?

Lara Taylor 0:26
Let’s talk Loki. Loki wonderful show. Amazing Show.

Josué Cardona 0:31
I’m a fan. I like it.

Lara Taylor 0:33
I’m big fan. That’s why I want to talk about it. There’s a lot of things that come up in it.

Josué Cardona 0:38
I hope it’s more than just that. We like it. Yeah, yeah.

Lara Taylor 0:41
That’s it the podcasts over

Josué Cardona 0:43
okay. We can do that too

Lara Taylor 0:44
i like loki. Um, I don’t know about you, but I had a lot of like, existential crises like watching this show.

Josué Cardona 0:53
Whoa, okay.

Link Keller 0:55
Explain.

Josué Cardona 0:56
Yeah, please

Link Keller 0:57
elaborate.

Josué Cardona 0:57
The floor is yours.

Lara Taylor 0:59
I mean, this whole concept of like, determinism, and like, everything is planned out. I think I’ve also been playing, playing and watching a lot of I finished watching Watch. Wow, I can speak today. I finished watching, watching Damn, I can’t come up with words. I finished watching Vikings. And I think the theme of the gods planned things out.

Josué Cardona 1:29
The same gods,

Lara Taylor 1:30
the same gods. In fact, one of those Gods is the main character of the show. Um, but a lot. This idea of everything is planned out everything you can’t, like, in some of the final episodes of Vikings too. It was like you can’t go down the wrong path. Right. Like it’s dead. This is how it was designed to be you can’t make the wrong decision. Well, same kind of thing with with Loki except if you do make the wrong decision. You get pruned.

Josué Cardona 2:06
you Die. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, there’s a it’s like every possibility is possible. Except that

Lara Taylor 2:14
it’s not.

Josué Cardona 2:15
If you if you do it, we won’t let that stand. That’s not allowed. It’s it is It was so I don’t know the feeling from hopefully I’ll figure it out by the end of this, of knowing that this, that all of these things that were happening to this Loki were in a way like, potential right that was that was not allowed to, to happen. And Sylvie, Sylvie is even is way way, way more sad, because she was taken as a child.

Lara Taylor 2:50
And then she’s just existed. She didn’t like try to do anything.

Josué Cardona 2:54
When we I mean, I don’t think anything like that. You could argue that for all of them. But she was a kid and she survived long enough to like, we don’t know how old she is. Right? We have no idea how long she was traveling, and surviving. And not to mention, like the the trauma that I’m sure it comes from simply existing in world ending event apocalyptic and apocalyptic events. Yeah, over and over again. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So So what’s so you had an existential crisis? Because just like this idea, yeah.

Lara Taylor 3:30
Well, the idea of like, Are things planned out? And I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t think they are, but there’s like, what is it? But is it right? Like the matrix, right, like, are we simulation are we guys??

Josué Cardona 3:45
I don’t know. I kind of go into a very deep conversation.

Lara Taylor 3:48
I know.

Josué Cardona 3:50
But um, so So I had a Lyft driver the other day, and she was like, No, no, I just I believe that everything happens for a reason and you know, like boba and I’m extremely resistant to that. So so you know, I wanted to blow up the the TVA as well. Um Yeah,

Lara Taylor 4:09
are you a slyvie or a Loki

Josué Cardona 4:11
Oh, what’s what’s the difference? Exactly?

Lara Taylor 4:14
Not much.

Josué Cardona 4:19
Yeah, I Ah,

Lara Taylor 4:22
not all Loki’s are Sylvie’s but all slyvies are Loki’s.

Josué Cardona 4:26
Yeah, this is true. So so. So I mean, you know that that’s how I feel about it like so you don’t? Do you believe that? Fate and things like that?

Lara Taylor 4:35
I don’t, but it’s one of those things where like the thought gets in my head and so many things. We’ve talked about time travel, and things like that before on this show, and like, we can’t go and we and we can’t go back and fix things. And I think this is just a different version of that right? Like there is one way to be there is only one course I don’t I don’t know if I like i don’t i don’t think that things are are meant to be or whatever. But there’s there’s something along the lines of like, well, it happened. And we can’t go back and change it literally here. They can go back and change it.

Josué Cardona 5:19
Yes and No, no, actually I say no, I can’t go back and change it actually, you can’t

Lara Taylor 5:24
right it just becomes another branch.

Josué Cardona 5:26
It just, it just branches off. So you can’t you can’t actually undo anything. Um, they explained this in endgame. Right, right. Right. Right. Back to the Future is wrong. That’s right. Yeah. How do you how do you feel about these ideas? Link, trying to take a guess? But

Link Keller 5:45
how do I feel about these ideas?

Josué Cardona 5:48
The idea of,

Link Keller 5:49
i think they’re interesting ideas, and it’s fun to explore them through visual medium.

Josué Cardona 5:54
Know that the idea that things are either happen for a reason, or pre determined, etc. No

Lara Taylor 6:00
meant to be.

Josué Cardona 6:03
Because God let it happen. You know, God allowed it, because

Lara Taylor 6:07
the tva let it happen.

Link Keller 6:08
You’re asking if I believe that in real life?

Josué Cardona 6:11
No, no, I’m asking what do I believe, period?

Link Keller 6:14
What do I do? See, these

Lara Taylor 6:17
are the questions. These are the existential question,

Link Keller 6:20
I believe, in freewill, I believe in the multiverse, I’m very confused as to why they introduced the concept of the multiverse and then completely abandoned that to instead focus on the concept of a time loop.

Josué Cardona 6:42
What

Link Keller 6:44
right, the What do they call it the holy? The sacred timeline is a ring a circle. There’s around

Lara Taylor 6:55
No, because there’s the end of time.

Link Keller 6:59
except that they explained beforehand that there is a loop that there is the loop and that that Mobius describes like we’ve watched, you know, we know what your path is supposed to be. We’ve watched you do it 100 times like that is how it is that’s how it’s always been. It’s how it’s always going to be. But then they backpedal on that idea very quickly to be like, Oh, yeah, the end, the end of time is a place that exists. physical space. I don’t know it felt it felt very confusing. So I don’t know.

Josué Cardona 7:33
That’s that’s I didn’t ask you that. That wasn’t the question like, what

Link Keller 7:37
i answered your quest...