Meta Station

Welcome back to Meta Station, where IT’S TIME TO CRY ABOUT MOMS! Lyra finally finds a family, we learn a lot more about daemons, some Dramatic Backstory is revealed, a show finally presents a suicide storyline responsibly, and we have a LOT of thoughts about white male patriarchy. Also, the alethiometer finally works, Ma Costa is our new favorite character, and Fleabag’s Hot Priest has joined the cast which means this show officially has everything.

_________________________________________

0:00 - Thank Goodness for the Gyptians, Adults Lyra Can Actually Trust

0:17 – How This Episode Gets Suicide-As-Plot/Character-Development Right

0:37 – Daemon Discussion Redux: Farder Coram Edition

0:41 – Lyra's Journey to Trust, Belonging, and a Working Alethiometer

0:53 – [Sidebar to Cry About Lyra and Ma Costa, the Ur-Mom]

1:11 – The Gyptians, the Magisterium, and the Value of Children

1:19 – Smash the Patriarchy, Part I: Who’s Outside the Machinery of Power, and Why It Matters That Boreal and the Master Are Black Men

1:33 – Smash the Patriarchy, Part II: Male Shame, the Complicity of White Women, and the Show’s Refreshing Decision Not to Woobify Mrs. Coulter

1:56 – No New Episode Next Week for Gay Reasons, But We’ll Be Back After American Thanksgiving!

Welcome back to Meta Station!

Sadly for you, several of our BEST jokes this week happened before we started recording, and we apologize to our longtime fans for depriving them of the newest installment of our ongoing “vases vs. botulism” debate. (You had to be there.)

Fortunately, this still ended up being one of our favorite conversations, because there is SO! MUCH! TO SAY! about Mrs. Coulter: from using femininity as a weapon to wield power over men, to the complicated relationship between women and anger, to why it matters that her (male) daemon has been silenced. We also talked Magisterium theology, Boreal’s dimension-hopping, and how relieved we are that our pure sons Roger and Billy finally found each other.

P.S. Rather predictably, we have already completely abandoned any attempt to remain spoiler-free for people who haven’t read the books, for reasons that will become very clear in the Mrs. Coulter section. If you are aggressively trying to avoid any plot details from the books, you might want to bookmark this one and come back to it after the end of the season.

--------------------------------------------------

0:00 – Lyra and the Apartment: Art Deco Design Porn, Abuse Dynamics, and Gilded Cages

0:10 – The Interior Life of Marisa Coulter: Weaponized Femininity, Suppressed Emotions, a Daemon That Doesn’t Speak, AND A COUPLE OF REALLY BIG SPOILERS

1:01 – Mrs. Coulter: Severing Ties, Emotionally and Literally

1:11 – Boreal, Other Worlds, and Novel Versus TV Plot Pacing

1:24 – Fighting for Ideas . . . of North, and Other Things

1:31 – Claire's Catholicism Corner: What Does "Oblation" Mean? And What Does It Tell Us About Mrs. Coulter?

1:42 - The Magisterium's Cold-Blooded Daemons

1:47 - The Most On-Brand Moment Ever: Claire Ships All the Parents

NOTE: We apologize for some very mild sound issues on this one; Claire’s computer, like herself, has a very flexible relationship with the concept of Time, and froze up for a second before reviving so the whole middle of one sentence just disappeared, which is mostly upsetting because it was MILF flailing and we know that’s important to you guys. Also, Erin’s sound recording software was picking up the computer mic instead of her podcasting mic, so there are handful of places where she cuts out for a split-second as well. We edited around it as best we could, but hopefully it won’t be too distracting.

Welcome to Meta Station’s first recap of “His Dark Materials,” the perfect show for a podcast hosted by an atheist English professor and a Catholic playwright. Join us for a deep dive into the transformation of the books from page to screen, with side quests into climate change, Vatican II, “Paradise Lost,” gender fluidity, and Galileo. Plus, we lay out a careful plan about avoiding spoilers and then forget it immediately, of COURSE Erin knows the Milton quote Philip Pullman got the series title from, and Claire hops in the wayback machine to reminisce about being a youth minister when these books first blew up in the U.S.

Grab your alethiometer and your bottle of secret crypt wine, we’re going on an adventure!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

0:00 – Hello, New Listeners, and Welcome Back, Old Friends!

0:02 – Page to Screen Adaptation, Part I: Asriel, Lyra and Narrative Perspective

0:21 – We Stan a Relatable 11-Year-Old Who Is Sometimes a Butthead

0:27 – Page to Screen Adaptation, Part II: Dramatic Irony, Pacing Big Reveals for Television, and How Ruth Wilson Almost Convinced Us, Too

0:44 – The Gyptian Daemon Ceremony: Our Need for Ritual, the Magisterium’s Dehumanization of Religion, and the Return of Claire’s Catholicism Corner

1:10 – Pan-Daemonium

1:34 – Galileo, Climate Change, and Dust: The Politics of Scientific Knowledge

1:55 – The Magisterium, the Master, and the Moral Bankruptcy of Incentivizing Ignorance

2:02 – Erin Rambles On About Miltonian Cosmology, and All Is Right With Meta Station

Choose your faces wisely, because it’s time for Part II of “Good Omens,” where imagination is the greatest power of humankind, the kids are trying to figure out how to fix the world the grown-ups ruined, Madam Tracy finally gets takes center stage, Derek Jacobi pops in for a truly delightful cameo, and it turns out Crowley still thinks pretty highly of God.

This one took us to some PLACES - we went deep on climate despair, youth-led protest movements, and the Horsemen as self-fulfilling prophecies, and then unpacked the theology of Aziraphale and Gabriel and got very real about when organized religion gets in the way of God. Hop on, this one’s a fun ride.

Cheers, friends. TO THE WORLD!

----------------------------------------------

0:00 – Welcome Back to “Good Omens,” Let’s Get This Apocalypse Show on the Road!

0:02 – We Are Now Ride-or-Die Lesley x Maud Shippers

0:05 – The Horsemen vs. the Them: Personification, Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, and the Triumph of Youthful Imagination Over Adult Despair

0:32 – Pollution and Death in the Pratchett-Gaiman Extended Universe

0:40 – The Gospel of Aziraphale

0:52 – When Organized Religion Gets in the Way of God

1:13 – Imagination: The Secret Weapon of Armageddon

1:21 – Anathema: Living By the Book

1:30 – Adam vs. the Antichrist

1:39 – Love: The Other Secret Weapon of Armageddon (ft. Ineffable Husbands Flailing)

1:44 - (Madame Tracy's) Humanity Saves the Day (and Adam's Life)

1:50 – The Radical Egalitarian Skepticism of the 11-Year-Old Human from Tadfield: The Other Other Secret Weapon of Armageddon

2:03 – The Aftermath of the End of the World: Human Edition

2:10 – The Aftermath of the End of the World: The Great Crowley/Aziraphale Switcheroo

2:18 – Ten-Minute Sidebar to GUSH OVER THE AMAZING CAST

2:31 – One Last Moment of Ineffable Husbands

2:34 – COMING UP NEXT: “Russian Doll” Episodes 1-4! (Spoiler-Free, Because Claire Hasn't Watched It Yet!)

Hello, new friends! Welcome back, old friends! Meta Station is back and we've missed you, too!

Summer is truly the best time of year for binge-watching television (some people will tell you it is the time of year for Going Outside and, like, Doing Stuff, in Nature, but those people are wrong and dangerous, stay in here with us where there's air conditioning and couches and snacks). So during July and August we're going to be podcasting on three different miniseries we love which we think you will enjoy too.

First on deck is the delightful six-part Amazon Prime adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s 1991 apocalypse comedy GOOD OMENS, and we are here to tell you as fans of the book that the show gets just about everything right.

Join us for a nerdy conversation covering everything from “Paradise Lost” to “Angels In America,” from Francis of Assisi to the end of the Cold War, from the holiness of sushi chefs to the dangers of dudes getting redpilled, with a whole lot of metaphysics, nature vs. nurture, and predestination thrown in. (Plus, obviously, shippy flails, because we can’t help ourselves.)

Hop in your 1926 black Bentley, crank up that Velvet Underground (WHICH IS NOT BEBOP), and grab your flaming sword, because it’s time to stop the end of the world.

You know what to do, do it with style.

------------------------------------------------------------

0:00 – Welcome to Meta Station Summer Vacation!

0:02 – *Weary Sigh* No, GOOD OMENS Is Not "Anti-Religion," Calm Down Christians

0:13 – “Paradise Lost,” Angel Sex, and the Joy of Non-Canon Shipping

0:17 – Oh Right, We Should Probably Talk About the Plot

0:20 – "In the Beginning": Empathy, Ineffability, and Asking the Dangerous Questions

0:34 – Sushi Chefs, Francis of Assisi and Queen: Azirophale and Crowley's Attachment to the Human World

1:11 – A Brief Sidebar to Nerd Out About Craft: Acting, Casting, Adapting a Book for the Screen, and Why Everyone Loves Neil Gaiman

1:26 – 1991 In Cultural Context, Part I: Claire the Playwright on "Angels In America" and "Marisol"

1:36 – 1991 In Cultural Context, Part II: Erin the Academic on the End of the Cold War

1:49 – "Form Shapes Nature": Warlock, Adam and Dog

2:14 – Agnes, Anathema, and the Intersection of Prophecy and Free Will: or, FINALLY IT IS TIME TO TALK ABOUT SOME LADIES

2:33 – Shadwell, Pulsifer, and the Old Guard vs. the New

2:41 – A Brief Word on Horsemen

2:43 – Thanks For Joining Us! We’ll See You Next Week!

Welcome to META STATION SUMMER VACATION!

We're spending July and August covering some of our favorite binge-worthy miniseries of 2019, kicking off this week with a discussion on episodes 1-3 of Amazon's fantastic adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's shippy apocalypse romp "Good Omens."

To whet your appetite, if you've missed us, or to introduce ourselves to you if you're new here (welcome!!), here's a 25-minute teaser - a mini-meta, if you will - to tide you over until the full three hours of nerdery goes live Monday!

In this excerpt, we discuss the war between Heaven and Hell in the context of the original publication of "Good Omens" in 1991. Erin has thoughts on the Cold War, Claire has thoughts on "Angels In America," we're both spicy about right-wing dumbs interpreting the story as anti-religion, and Erin shamelessly promotes Claire's book for new listeners. COME HANG OUT WITH US WE'VE MISSED YOU ALL SO MUCH

Welcome back to Meta Station!

Since last we recapped you, Erin finished her book, we went to a con, Claire's had the flu like three times, and Donald Trump Jr. is probably going to jail. WHAT'S NEW WITH YOU GUYS??

We split up this week’s 4-hour podcast in two parts, so pop on over to this link - https://soundcloud.com/meta-station/unity-days-2019 - if you’re looking for our recap of Unity Days, the funnest funfest in the history of fun, and then come back here when you’re ready for our thoughts on 513!

Also, to avoid burying the lede, we wanted to announce at the beginning of the podcast that this will be the last of our regular week-to-week recaps of the show.(This episode is now a collector’s item!)

While the show is running, despite the heroic assistance of our cherished Editkru, Meta Station is basically a part-time job, and – in the words of iconic Netflix star/cleaning guru Marie Kondo – we ultimately determined that dedicating that amount of time and effort to producing a weekly podcast no longer “sparks joy.” There were a lot of factors that went into this; some of them we’ll discuss at the end of the podcast, while others are more personal, but in the end it felt like the right time for us to step away from the kind of in-depth coverage we’ve been doing.

The fact that our long, rambly, self-produced nerdfest has reached over 212,000 listens and downloads with over 750 regular subscribers remains INSANE to us, and we are overwhelmed and honored and grateful that so many of you have come along with us on this ride. We have so loved getting to spend all these nerdy hours with you, and goodbyes are always bittersweet, though we promise we aren’t quitting cold turkey; we still have a big stack of interviews on deck, we might pop back from time to time in future seasons if we find ourselves with things we just HAVE to flail about with you guys for three hours at a time, and if there’s a UD4 next year we’ll be there with bells on, we promise!

We love you all with our entire nerdy hearts and we are so thankful for each and every listener. You guys have been the best part of this whole journey.

May we meet again!

---------------------------------------------

0:00 – Hello, It Is Us Again! We Have Returned! Sorry This Intro Is Awkward Because We Chopped Out the Whole Hour About Unity Days!

0:03 – FINALE THINGS WE LIKED: The Jasper of It All! Miller’s Arc Sticking the Landing! Diyoza Calling Octavia’s Ass Out! The Blakes Still Care About Kane! Tiny Hints of Sunshine, Maybe! Bellamy and Madi and the Breaking of Cycles!

0:45 – As Emori’s Get-a-Grip Girlfriends, We Sincerely Hope She Has Not Wiped Murphy’s Slate Clean Just Yet, Because He Was a Real Asshole All Season

0:51 – If You Compare How Many Early Storylines Took Up Time and Ultimately Went Nowhere (Kara! Ethan! Worms!), With How Many Huge Emotional Setups This Season Never Got Real Payoffs Because the Finale Was So Rushed, You Will Go Insane

1:15 – Our Oft-Mentioned McCreary Problem Explodes to Astronomical Proportions and Torpedoes the Finale Endgame

1:37 – This Show Is Kind of Pro-Dictator In Some Peculiarly Unexamined Ways

1:55 – The “Why We’re Stopping” Conversation, Part I: Erin, Bellarke, and Reframing the Relationship You Have with a Show Once You Realize You and the Writers Want Different Things

2:14 – The “Why We’re Stopping” Conversation, Part II: Claire, Kane, and the Validity of Watching a Show For an Emotional Relationship With a Character or Ship

2:32 – Sometimes Analyzing Something For Three Hours Actually Makes It Less Fun, Instead of More

2:42 – “We’re Gonna Teach ‘Em How to Say Goodbye (One Last Time)”: or, There Is No Wrong Way to Watch a Show, No Wrong Way to Be a Fan, and No Wrong Reason to Walk Away

2:46 – In Which We Have a Lot of Feelings About How Much We Love You Guys and Everything This Podcast Has Given Us

We talked for so long about Unity Days 2019 that we pulled it out of the recap podcast to post on its own. Join us as we relive the magic, glory and wonder of the third (and maybe final?? unclear??? Sachin is VERY PERSUASIVE????) Unity Days convention in Vancouver B.C.! It was hands-down our favorite yet, with brand-new guests we'd never met before (hi Paige! hi Lola! hi Erica! hi Shannon! hi Tati!), lots of deep dives into the nerdery of television craft (from props design to acting craft) and tons and tons of laughs. Most of all, it was full of those amazing special moments of irreplaceable cast magic that make this con such a unique and wonderful event - from sharing deeply heartfelt stories about what acting means to them, to doing impressions of their coworkers as Fran Drescher or Yoda. (You had to be there.) Thanks so much to everyone at Unity Events Canada for their hard work and dedication! If UD3 is the last of these cons, it went out on a high note; if Sachin gets his way and there's a UD4, we'll see you there!

She's been in the biz since she was nine, she's fluent in French, she knows how to swordfight, and she loves "Fight Club."

She's also twelve years old.

We sat down with the fantastically delightful Lola Flanery on Sunday, for a super fun interview which then got eaten by Skype Recorder (*shakes fist at ALIE*), so we gave it a second try on Wednesday and had even MORE fun. Join us as we plot a prank war against Sachin and Bob, discuss Warrior Cats and My Little Ponies, get the scoop on stunt training and Trigedasleng, hear what it's like to be the kid on set in a room full of grownups, and learn what Lola loves most about playing Madi.

TL;DR - THIS KID IS THE BEST AND WE'RE ADOPTING HER NOW

ERIN FOUND A KITTEN IN A PARKING LOT SO THAT WAS THE FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS TODAY

Yes, the Lola interview will go up tomorrow, yes, we're eventually going to recap the finale, yes, we've still got Chris Larkin and William/Ivana interviews on deck, but for now, please enjoy this outtake that is literally just twenty minutes of Claire and Erin talking about cats.

We missed you too.