This week, we dive into a differential diagnosis of the insomnia plague in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Gabriel García Márquez’s fictional disease is a classic example of magical realism, but it also shares some interesting, wild, and frightening characteristics with real-world diseases that affect us today.

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Resources:

Rascovsky, K. (2009) “‘The quicksand of forgetfulness’: semantic dementia in One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

Velásquez-Torres, A. (2020) “The Insomnia Plague in Fictional Macondo.”

Koch, C. (2016). “What a Long-Ago Epidemic Teaches Us about Sleep.”

Music: "Dance Robot ACTIVATE" by Loyalty Freak Music.

[All views expressed are our own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which we are affiliated.]

In an uncharacteristically serious episode, we discuss Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, magical realism as resistance to oppressive forces, and the United Fruit Company’s destructive power in Central and South American history.

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Resources:

Henry, A. (2018) “Struggling Against the Injustice: The Historical Context and Social Justice in Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

Oberhausen, L. (2014) “Empowering the Oppressed in 20th Century Literature through Magical Realism.”

Sahraei, M. and Deiri, M. (2014) “Reflection of magical realism in Marquez‘s One hundred years of solitude and Moniru Ravanipur‘s Ahl-e Ghargh (The Drowned)."

Rozak, R. (2017) “The Truth Behind Banana Republic.”

Baltimore County History Labs Program, “Background on the Guatemalan Coup of 1954.”

Music: "Dance Robot ACTIVATE" by Loyalty Freak Music.

[All views expressed are our own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which we are affiliated.]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer takes place on a hellmouth, so this week we dive into the historical and religious origins of hellmouths, as well as their representation in art and theater. This one gets wild—we’d like to officially apologize to our moms.

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Resources:

Schmidt, G. (1985) The Mouth of Hell in Medieval Art and Thought.

Schapiro, M. (1942) “Cain’s Jaw-Bone that Did the First Murder.”

Rust, K. (2018) “Welcome to the Medieval Hellmouth: Hellmouth Illuminations and their Correlation to Fantasy and Pop Culture.”

Konstantinova, I. (2013) “Borgesian libraries and librarians in television popular culture.”

Music: "Dance Robot ACTIVATE" by Loyalty Freak Music.

[All views expressed are our own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which we are affiliated.]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer has its own vampire lore, but there are folklore traditions for vampires and vampire-like creatures around the world, from demonic women to shapeshifting fireflies to vampire controversies. And if you're feeling inspired, send us your own Dracula fanfic after the show.

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Resources:

Barber, P. (1988). Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality.

Music: "Dance Robot ACTIVATE" by Loyalty Freak Music.

[All views expressed are our own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which we are affiliated.]

In our first Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, we talk about the science of vampires, including possible medical origins for the myths and what biologists would have to do to make a real-life vamp. There’s a lot of blood in this one, folks.

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Resources:

Schwarcz, J. (2018) "Chemistry catches up with the myth of vampires."

Laine, V. (2017) "Making a vampire."

American Chemical Society Reactions. (2019) "Are Vampires Real? Of Course Not, But . . . "

Music: "Dance Robot ACTIVATE" by Loyalty Freak Music.

[All views expressed are our own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which we are affiliated.]

Tolkien’s philological pursuits were a cornerstone of his writing, and The Hobbit is no exception. In this episode we discuss Old English linguistics and the story of Beowulf, which Tolkien cites as one of his primary inspirations for The Hobbit. Don’t play this episode too loud—you’ll anger the neighbors.

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Resources:

Risden, E. (1998) "Beowulf, Tolkien, and Epic Epiphanies."

Music: "Dance Robot ACTIVATE" by Loyalty Freak Music.

[All views expressed are our own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which we are affiliated.]

This week, we hop into The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, and the origins of dragons. Tolkien might've had a pretty clear idea of where his dragons came from, but the story isn't so simple in our world. From fossil records to rain and drought, people have a lot of theories on how and why humans came up with these mythical beasts.

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Resources:

Mayor, A. (2000) The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times.

Jones, D. (2001) An Instinct for Dragons.

Campbell, J. (1988) "The Hero's Adventure" (Episode 1).

Blust, R. (2000) "The Origins of Dragons."

Blust, R. (2019) "Why Dragons Are Bisexual."

Music: "Dance Robot ACTIVATE" by Loyalty Freak Music.

[All views expressed are our own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which we are affiliated.]

This episode is about the seven deadly sins and how they manifest as bad guys in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. From classical philosophers to grimy monks to the Pope himself, all sorts of people have weighed in on what things will get you sent to hell (or to a demi-plane inside a monster’s stomach).

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Music: "Dance Robot ACTIVATE" by Loyalty Freak Music.

[All views expressed are our own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which we are affiliated.]

In this episode we dive into the history of alchemy and how it influenced Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Our real-world alchemists were a lot less powerful than the ones in the show, but they definitely had no shortage of...let’s say, creative solutions. All science has to start somewhere!

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Music: "Dance Robot ACTIVATE" by Loyalty Freak Music.

[All views expressed are our own and do not represent the opinions of any entity with which we are affiliated.]