Michael and Us

We're in the midst of a pandemic. We're trapped indoors. We're desperately avoiding contact with the hordes that might infect us. Folks... it's time to watch George A. Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978).

"The Idle Proletariat: Dawn of the Dead, Consumer Ideology, and the Loss of Productive Labor," by Kyle William Bishop - http://www.thecyberhood.net/documents/papers/zombies_10.pdf

Get the full episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/current-affairs-35011872

Luke & Will team up with Nathan J. Robinson and Aisling McCrea for a special crossover of the Michael and Us and Current Affairs podcasts. Together, they ruminate on Louis Theroux's three-part documentary series The Most Hated Family in America, which followed the extremist Westboro Baptist Church from 2007 to 2019, and which unwittingly created a time capsule that offers insight into the liberal viewpoint on religion and dogma in the 2000s.

Coronavirus. Donald Trump. Joe Biden. Luke recovering from a cold. Yes, there's a lot ailing the world right now. So, this week we treated ourselves to a GOOD movie: Hal Ashby's BEING THERE (1979), starring Peter Sellers as a simple gardener who is mistaken for a political prophet. PLUS: we gauge the state of the Democratic Primary, and Luke goes on an epic rant about the Jumanji franchise.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/144-womb-of-ones-34659615

Our beautiful boy Luke is grounded with illness this week, but Will valiantly soldiers on! Friend-of-the-show Violet Lucca (web editor at Harper's) makes her triumphant return to the show to discuss the history of abortion on film, from 1916's eugenicist WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN to FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH to 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS to the acclaimed new film PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE. We discuss how male- and female-authored films have depicted abortion differently, and the "both sides" films of the '90s/2000s.

"A Womb of One's Own" by Violet Lucca - https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/history-abortion-film-celine-sciamma-portrait-lady-fire-termination-pregnancy

John Rambo is back, and he wants to build that wall! We watched Sylvester Stallone in the extremely Trump-era action movie RAMBO: LAST BLOOD (2019), in which the Vietnam vet wages a whole different kind of war at the U.S./Mexican border. PLUS: the agonies and ecstasies of canvassing, and the peculiar relationship between Film Twitter and Elizabeth Warren.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/34247035

It's the Toronto episode, folks! Luke and Will came of age during the 2003-2010 tenure of left-wing Toronto mayor David Miller, and saw their illusions broken by his successor, Rob Ford. Against this backdrop, they were profoundly influenced by Toronto's alternative media, particularly such alt-weeklies as NOW Magazine, Eye Weekly (R.I.P.), and The Grid (R.I.P.). With alternative media now in a state of decline and/or transformation, we reflect on this formative era through several key alt-weekly articles. We invited legendary Toronto journalist Jonathan Goldsbie (news editor at Canadaland, former staff writer at NOW Magazine, and host of the Doug Ford podcast "Wag the Doug") for a free-flowing discussion of Toronto and its media. PLUS: we remember the day the Rob Ford "crack scandal" broke, and reflect on the most important movie of the 20th century, Tim Allen's JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE.

An environmental catastrophe has hit Springfield! This week we're joined by Henry Gilbert and Bob Mackey of the TALKING SIMPSONS podcast to discuss the Simpson family's sole foray into cinema, THE SIMPSONS MOVIE (2007). We discuss the vaguely anti-authoritarian politics of the long-running show; the distinctly mid-2000s politics of the movie; and the way The Simpsons' unique perspective was eventually flattened.

Talking Simpsons free feed: https://talkingsimpsons.libsyn.com/

Talking Simpsons Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/talkingsimpsons

Follow our guests @bobservo @hEnereyG

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/33858389

Warren Beatty's 1998 satire BULWORTH defined a cinematic archetype: The Politician Who Tears Down The Artifice Of Politics And Tells It Like It Is. Beatty stars as a '60s idealist turned Third Way sellout who decides to become a fiery left-wing truth-teller... who raps. We revisit this defining document of the Clinton Era in the age of Bernie Sanders... and also brace ourselves for the ultimate Hollywood Liberal movie about race. PLUS: the Iowa caucus, the January movie releases, and Oscar Fever!

Set against the backdrop of the country music industry and a soft-populist presidential campaign, Robert Altman's masterpiece NASHVILLE (1975) seeks to encompass all of America. Luke and Will discuss what this behemoth of a movie has to say about fame, politics, and relationship between the coasts and the "Heartland." PLUS: discussion of the three most important progressive firebrands of our era, Pete Buttigieg, Alan Dershowitz, and Film Twitter personality Bob "The Moviebob" Chipman.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/33421572

Sanders v. Warren? Fuggedaboutit. On this episode, we revisit a primary season bloodfight of yore by watching the January 21, 2008 Democratic Party debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton (oh, and John Edwards is in there too). We reflect on their bitter primary battle, noting how their feud was both more vicious and less substantive than the ones dominating the current race. PLUS: Hillary's comments about Bernie, the myth of the Sanders-aligned non-voter, and a fond farewell to the great Terry Jones.