Love Hate Relationship

Love: Hanif Abdurraqib

Alex uses his Love time to talk up poet, cultural critic, and music journalist extraordinaire, Hanif Abdurraqib. He reads a selection of his work, discusses his expertise on music ranging from Fall Out Boy and Stevie Nicks to Carly Rae Jepson and the Weeknd to Celine Dion and the Four Seasons, and the tragedy that more people haven’t heard of this quiet genius from Columbus. Andy meanwhile calls out stereotyping about names and cultures and adits to casually liking A Tribe Called Quest.

Andy takes the Hate to admit that despite having some really great memories of and generally enjoying the Olympics, they’re an absolute disaster riddled with IOC corruption, the destruction of host cities, and gross jingoism. Alex piles on to yell at Americans who only really like sports that their own country is good at (despite Weightlifting being awesome) and to tell everyone to go read Dave Zirin’s Brazil’s Dance with the Devil.

The Relationships.txt question this episode comes from a concerned mother whose ex-husband doesn’t see what’s wrong with asking out their son’s really spectacular therapist. Andy rightly calls out the abject selfishness and ridiculous nature of the entire scenario, and suggests good communication with the more level-headed parties involved, while Alex spitefully recommends planning for the worst case of all scenarios and making sure that their son knows exactly why he’s about to lose his counselor.

Love: Laura Kinney

Andy uses this episode to wax affectionately about a comic book character perhaps marginally familiar to most fans, but completely off the radar to the layperson, Laura Kinney AKA X-23 AKA Wolverine. He discusses her origins as a barely-more-than-one-off character in a lesser-known X-Men animated show to her character history in the comics, all the way to her current-ish status as Wolverine in Marvel Comics. Alex joins in to talk about cool commercials, cooler representation, and everyone agrees that it’s awesome when you can read a character’s entire history in a matter of months rather than decades.

Following his glowing review of Lewis Black last episode, Alex takes the Hate this time to talk about the dangerous idiocy of Joe Rogan. He discusses the issues with Rogan’s supposedly unique (read: unexamined) politics and the problems with giving such a huge platform and amount of grace to someone with so little care for responsibility, power dynamics, or the damage he can do (plus, platforming fascists). Andy, meanwhile, awakens depths of distaste, calling out everything he’s hated for years about the man, and everyone agrees that WTF with Marc Maron is a way better show.

This episode’s Relationships.txt question comes from someone unable to decide what to do when he finds that his wife shared their intimate videos with her sister. Andy talks about consent and creepiness, while Alex spends some time reminding everyone that gender identity plays no role whatsoever in whether or not it’s f*cked up to send nudes without all parties aware and into it.

Love: Lewis Black

For this episode’s Love, Alex takes everyone into the history and work of comedian, author, and actor Lewis Black. He relays Black’s surprisingly full life as a Yale-graduate and successful working playwright and actor before his breakthrough as a stand-up at age 50, his equally surprising turns as a writer and essayist, and just what he meant to a young, pre-anger future podcast host looking for bits to recite on a playground. Andy, meanwhile, is charmed by a story about an essay on golf, and reveals to everyone how he’s never watched The Daily Show despite being a millennial.

Andy takes his Hate to get into the wide and varied and infinitely sad world of Celebrities using their influence and power to abuse people and keep right on working. He touches on examples ranging from child porn loving anime writers to comics who just barely missed out on successful comebacks to convicted and admitted sex offenders still working on Disney Channel shows. Alex joins in to list the various sins of just so many artists and actors and musicians, and asks us all to think about where we draw our lines (looking at you, Fassbender).

For this episode’s Relationships.txt question, our asker inquires if she should say something to her friend who is having his barely legal f*ck buddy move in with him rent free in exchange for sexual favors. Andy reflects on the grossness of an age difference, Alex spends some time talking about power dynamics, and everyone agrees that no one can be described as “giddy” when discussing “trying out” BDSM for the first time has any business doing anything of the kind until they learn a whole lot more about communication.

Love: Patrick Stewart

For his Love this episode, Andy talks up one of the acting titans of the Sci-Fi, Comic, and Shakespearean Nerdoms, Sir Patrick Stewart. He discusses Stewart’s 60+ year career with everyone from the Royal Shakespeare Company to Star Trek to American Dad, and the special place that Jean-Luc Picard holds in his heart. Alex, meanwhile, mentions the sole version of Dr. Charles Xavier that doesn’t totally suck, and both of them fanboy on his activism and general adorableness.

Alex gets weedy with his Hate topic, all on the contemporary concept of “Genius.” He talks about how the term has evolved in Western culture, everything wrong with assuming some (usually well-off, privileged) people are just born smarter. Andy rightly points out how rare it is that the term gets applied to really any women, and not nearly enough time is spent shitting on Elon Musk.

This episode’s Relationships.txt question has someone asking how to deal with her husband drunkenly hitting on her somewhat estranged, potentially murderous(?) mother. Alex reminds everyone that when kids are in the picture, some things you just don’t work out, Andy concurs with some ethical musing on what else could be happening, and everyone agrees that it’s pretty ludicrous when the potentially murderous mother is the least interesting part of the story.

Love: Adam Neely

Alex’s Love this episode is Bassist, Composer, and Youtuber Adam Neely. He talks up his work, including electro-jazz covers of “Hello” and “Run Away With Me” and his instructional videos on subjects ranging from music theory to the controversial key of “Hey Joe.” Andy meanwhile learns that music theory is super racist and just where his cohost gets all these musical hot takes about the Star-Spangled Banner and Celine Dion.

Andy uses his Hate time to discuss the new Lena Waithe-produced racial drama/horror show, Them. Specifically, he discusses the marketing and its weird invocation of Jordan Peele, and the odd lack of actual black people behind the cameras and scripts. Alex, meanwhile, manages to shoehorn in some discussion of the boundaries of horror, and what constitutes good gore and bad–also, a random X-Men reference.

A Relationships.txt asker brings in a query about how to handle online hatred over naming their new kid after their Nana when the name was already used for a now deceased child. Andy dabbles in legalistic arguments while Alex tries to remind everyone that the Internet isn’t overwhelmingly real, doubly so when your time is better spent with your newborn.

Love: RA Salvatore

Andy (quite literally) takes the stage at the top of the episode, as he first of all sums up the discussion around the 20-or-son minutes of audio that were sadly lost for this recording which, douchebag buffer aside, are all about fantasy author RA Salvatore. He talks up the man’s prolific commitment to the craft, his dynamic character work, and his incredible attention to detail in fight sequences. Alex meanwhile manages to sneak in a Thundarr the Barbarian reference up top, and no one is the better for it.

Alex breaks the typical rules of politeness to discuss money, age, AND religion all by hating on perennial Boomer finance favorite, Dave Ramsey. He discusses Ramsey’s outdated, class-blind, almost folksy wisdom, and why it’s so dangerous that he’s so popular with so many of our parents. Andy, thankfully, learns everything he’s ever known about the man in this segment, and is relieved to know that the snowball method of paying down debt probably isn’t that bad.

A Relationships.txt patron writes in for advice on what to do about her socially awkward accountant boyfriend’s weird invoicing of their first trip together. Andy discusses the possibilities of and approaches to neuroatypicalities in new relationships, and Alex concurs, while reminding everyone of the importance of talking about the weird stuff early on in the dating life.

Love: King of the Hill

Alex delves back into the glory days of FOX’s Animation Domination to talk about Mike Judge’s animated sitcom, King of the Hill. He gives some history into its development (including MVP Greg Daniels), Andy asks if Hank Hill might be the greatest animated father of all time, and *POCKET SAND!*

Andy takes everyone through a tour of the phenomenon of Video Game Crunch Culture, including tales of developers who don’t see their homes or families for a month at a time, the tanking of multiple franchises, and the worst offenders in terms of cutting costs through essentially human rights abuses. Alex is uncharacteristically hopeful;, and everyone agrees the cancel culture is good.

A real-life listener emails in for advice on how to bounce back following the traumatic, gas-lit ending of a long-term relationship. Alex emphasizes the importance of owning your story, even when it’s troubled and may scare off lesser possibilities for future partners, Andy validates feelings and emotions with the best of them, and everyone agrees that f*ck-bois will be f*ck-bois.

For the latest in the Triple Love Special series, Alex and Andy spend an episode talking up movie director/writer, composer, satirist, and all-around awesome dude, John Carpenter

They begin with a primer on Carpenter’s early years, from his time as a two time college drop-out) once for music, once for film) to his first couple of film effort, which included an Oscar-winning short, a sci-fi comedy with a sentient bomb, and a classic all-in-one-location thriller.

Alex then launches into a discussion of his favorite Carpenter film, and one of his favorites of all time, Halloween. He talks up how it defined the slasher genre with only four deaths and a miniscule budget, how Carpenter largely improvised the score with a few days in a studio and synths he didn’t know how to work, the contributions of the great Debra Hill, and why it’s more than a little misinterpreted.

Andy then takes some time to talk up his cornerstone Carpenter film, The Thing. He talks about its magnificent effects (due in large part to collaborator Rob Bottin), its ambiguous and tension-riddled structure and story, and why he’s come back to it so many times.

They conclude with a rundown of later Carpenter works and his influence as a composer and satirist. They give the man his due as an anti-auteur, gleefully collaborating with so many other figures, how much he accomplished with only a handful of works, his political leanings (and why They Live is a lot more than kicking ass and chewing bubble gum).

Love: The Muppets

Andy finally pulls the trigger on one he’s had back-burnered for a while and talks all things Muppets. He and Alex delve into some fond childhood moments, what makes these characters as universal as they’ve been, even decades onward from the original show, the surprising origins of “The Rainbow Connection,” and all of why Jim Henson was such a good, awesome dude.

Alex takes his Hate time to talk about the pride of Cleveland, Ohio, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He talks its cash-in origins, its wishy-washy, meaningless entrance criteria, and makes probably the Internet’s only comparison between Tom Waits and Weird Al. Andy meanwhile, asks questions about Hip-Hop artists, and admits to the world that he doesn’t know Bill Withers.

This Relationships.txt question takes a surprising turn as the asker looks for how to deal with her married-but-separated boyfriend of two years, who largely hides her and only lives at home half of the week. Andy reminds her that two years still really isn’t that long in the broad scheme of a life, and Alex emphasizes that even in the unlikely event that all parties have good intentions and are doing the best that they can, situations can still be terrible and need to be ended.

Alex’s Love this episode is onscreen and voice actor extraordinaire, Phil Lamarr. He talks Lamarr’s minute career in movies, his prolific career in onscreen TV, and his absolutely incredible career voicing iconic characters in animation (and only to of them involve Chris Rock impersonations). Andy gets to spend a little time playing Death Battle with a couple of Lamarr’s best characters, and gives some added perspective on video game voiceover.

Andy’s Hate goes international, as he tackles the troubling trend of fascist themes in contemporary anime. He spends a significant amount of time discussing the recent controversies surrounding Attack on Titan, the longstanding problem of fans and creators of Japanese animation not considering the implications of fascist imagery, and why it may not be cool to make cutesy, anthropomorphized characters out of the Axis powers. Alex, meanwhile, offers some historical perspective on post-World War II education in different nations, and reminds everyone that it’s always a good idea to have POC in your writers room, if only to remind you why blackface isn’t okay.

This episode’s Relationships.txt question comes from someone wondering if she should dump her boyfriend after learning that he believes in some particular conspiracy theories. Andy emphasizes making judgments about how far is too far and assessing harmlessness. Alex, meanwhile, admits to his own experiences in what some might call the conspiracy sphere, and would like to remind everyone reading this to look into the King Family civil suit against the FBI.