Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch

Michael, Ethan, and special guest Karen continue to discuss Eric, by Terry Pratchett, while drinking Bowmore 12yo Islay Single Malt..

In this episode:

Ethan is always the villain

This podcast is made up of 100% “recovering” teachers’ pets

Pratchett builds layers into a silly pun

K is TWO letters before M, a fact that 100% of this podcast fully understands

This is not the “Madame Blavatsky and her insanely racist occultism” podcast

Pratchett satirizes the Faust/Mephisto relationship by making the Rincewind/Eric relationship… wholesome?

Sorry Karen’s punishment was actually everyone’s punishment (poem text if you for some reason want to know the rest)

Just like, a LOT of ratings at the end. Like, a massive number of ratings by volume.

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page. Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael, Ethan, and special guest Karen discuss Eric, by Terry Pratchett, while drinking Bowmore 12yo Islay Single Malt..

In this episode:

Michael opens with a reference to a pre-show joke the editor doesn’t remember, AND doesn’t have Michael’s audio for, so Michael is extra bad this time

Karen has the pallet of a sugar glider/hummingbird (also she’s here)

Scoptions

Ethan says he’s going to do a thing/did a thing and it’s a lie but editor Ethan knows it’s a lie so that’s okay

If you listen closely around 9:30 you can hear the foreshadowing of Sarah’s indignation

Eventually we do discuss the book

Using the Book of the New Sun to explain Discworld

Discworld fits all the reading colors

#smh/Karen as reverse bobblehead

Eric is just acts 3 and 4 of Marlowe’s Faust

Rincewind’s version of the hero’s journey: “The hero refuses the call —> The hero refuses the call —> The hero refuses the call —> etc.”

Karen is a good sport

FaustEric as end-of-history concept

Impressive of Pratchett to predict how Christopher Nolan would retell the Odyssey 36 years beforehand

Next time Michael, Ethan, and Karen will continue to discuss Eric, by Terry Pratchett! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page. Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael, Ethan, and special guest Josh discuss Justice Leage of America #10, by Gardner Fox, and Captain America #107, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, while drinking Craigellachie 13yo Speyside Single Malt..

In this episode:

Bet you didn’t know we had a full-time Silver Age Comic Books Expert!

Bet you didn’t know it was possible to read a palimpsest!

Bet you didn't know DC comics were also Lovecraftian!

Bet I can’t keep this format up any longer without going a little wacky!

The Discovery of Phosphorus, by Joseph Wright

Ths podcast brought to you by Lucky Strikes!

No one can win the podcast.

Gaslightinig Captain America???

We GOTTA talk about Faustus

The movie Nightmare Alley may be closely related to Captain America 107, or it may be completely unrelated

Is Dr. Faustus Freud? If so, is he compensating for something?

Captain America should have at least checked the website first

Three is a magic storytelling number

Captain America=one-punch man????

Cap may not be Othello, but Dr Faustus may be Iago

That said, this Dr Faustus is not Faust

This Faust is just chasing clout

Josh’s Faustian comic recs:

Mephisto (Marvel)

Aunts before pants? (No)

Underworld Unleashed (DC)

Text for the Faust Race

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss Eric, by Terry Pratchett! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page. Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss The Seven Strings of the Lyre, by George Sand (also known as A Woman’s Version of the Faust Legend), while drinking Craigellachie 13yo Speyside Single Malt..

In this episode:

Strong start claiming to do a chiasmus but APPARENTLY, ACTUALLY doing an Antimetabole.

A lot of sports talk from two guys who know nothing about sports

Inappropriately asserted man mid-life crises; unenthusiastic Masters theses

We gotta talk about the lyre, and the seven strings thereof

Alastor; or, the Spirit of Solitude, by Percy Bysshe Shelley (in case you also couldn’t/can’t help yourself)

The Divided Soul, by Heidi White (it’s literary criticism, but also life criticism)

Worry about what the Capital T “Truth“ is

We do finally talk about the Lyre and its strings

Man has to bottom out somewhere

Shakespeare references Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Sand references Shakespeare

Rockstar gnosticism

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss two comics: Justice Leage of America #10, by Gardner Fox, and Captain America #107, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss The Seven Strings of the Lyre, by George Sand (also known as A Woman’s Version of the Faust Legend), while drinking Craigellachie 13yo Speyside Single Malt..

In this episode:

The title of this play is annoying, not George Sand’s fault

A lot about fan fiction

GK Chesteron’s “A Defense of Penny Dreadfuls”

Madame de Stael, by Maria Fairweather

The point is not to win the argument, the point is to have the argument

What’s a polite way of saying “knocked around like a hockey puck”?

Narrowcasting: when we engage specifically with the “Half-Blood Prince” who marked up Michael’s copy

That said, the notes are potentially extremely bad (or at least highly debateable)

The ur-text Ethan is thinking of is the Nag Hammadi Library, whose original English translation was published in 1978 (so Ethan was at least 12 years wrong)

Magnetism

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue to discuss The Seven Strings of the Lyre, by George Sand! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

With special guests Kelsie, Hannah, and Jessica from the Reading Revisited podcast, Michael and Ethan discuss “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen, while drinking Craigellachie 13yo Speyside Single Malt..

In this episode:

First and most important: NO SNITCHING

There’s no rule that says you can’t mock husbands

Talking about the end first

Getting what you want vs. getting something better

Devil’s Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain, by Ed Simon

Lowercase love vs. Uppercase Love

Myths and the myths behind them

Pride must suffer pain (mean)

If the deal is today-only, walk away

Potential uses for a mermaid’s tongue

If you haven’t been reading fairy tales, they’re actually very nice

Here’s one investigation into the alleged Einstein “read your children fairy tales” quote

One version of the Children of Lir

Andersen’s Fairy Tales as translated by Tiina Nunnelly

There’s still no snitching

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss The Seven Strings of the Lyre, by George Sand! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss the 1926 silent film Faust by F. W. Murnau, while drinking Tamdhu 12yo Single Malt.

In this episode:

Quintessential film bro stuff

Everything is political with a small p, but some things are political with a capital P (especially in cinema of the Weimar Republic)

Faust is saved (spoilers)

Silent film may be the only genre less subtle than the musical

Ethan absolutely garbles a reference to Christopher Isherwood, partly by thinking he might be Herman Hesse. Isherwood was associated with Vedantic Hinduism and his novel Goodbye to Berlin was the basis for the musical Cabaret.

Emil Jannings shade (deserved)

Hitler’s Monsters, by Eric Kurlander

In case it was unclear: Ethan didn’t want to be watching this film, even as he was watching this film

All things are Star Trek (annoying)

Michael makes an unacknowledged “jam” pun

If you want to read along to our recurring unlistenable segment

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss “The Little Mermaid” by Hans Christian Andersen! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss Jack Faust, by Michael Swanwick, while drinking Tamdhu 12yo Single Malt..

In this episode:

Caliban and the Witch, by Sylvia Federici

Jack Faust is Goethe’s Faust and Marlowe’s Faust and a little bit Gounod’s Faust (which is also Goethe’s Faust)

Faust goes from a disciple to Pontius Pilate in one paragraph

What’s behind the door?????? (it doesn’t matter)

The Star Trek-ification of Faust

Faust decides he is God, something that always goes super well for everybody

Interjections at random times from our special guest, Michael’s cat

A fun triumvirate of epigraphs! (Including Jack the Ripper)

Tap into Poetry

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss F.W. Murnau’s silent film, Faust! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss Jack Faust, by Michael Swanwick, while drinking Tamdhu 12yo Single Malt..

In this episode:

The End of History and the Last Man (wiki page)

A theory of threads and tatters

Spoilers for Office Space and Fight Club, I guess

Then We Came to the End… of history?

Jack Faust was published in 1997, but it makes more sense as a 2026 novel

Turns out, reducing other humans to instruments of pleasure is extremely dehumanizing

Leaf, by Niggle, by JRR Tolkien

Ethan fails to call Michael out for using Latin, but here’s the phrase he uses (nerd)

Fiction writers across the board agree: don’t try to make yourself God

Speech from The Great Dictator

Tap into Poetry

Next time Michael and Ethan will continue discuss Jack Faust, by Michael Swanwick! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)

Michael and Ethan discuss the short story “Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day,” by Jonathan Howard, while drinking Tamdhu 12yo Single Malt..

In this episode:

Shout-out to Jamie from the Chanhassen Total Wine

Very interesting Bluetooth headphone talk

A short story is somewhere between a tweet and a novel, but closer to a tweet

Putting the screws to Michael

Faust both is and is not a necromancer

Cabal both is and is not a D&D figure

What is a homunculus? or, Ethan is Frankenstein(‘s monster)ed by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Fantasy Autism Hero

Mr Spock is the Star Trek guy, not Dr Spock, a distinction you need and Ethan doesn’t

Some remarks on “chatty” prose styles and TV writing

Inevitable Lovecraft discussion, sorry

Conclusion: TV writing predates TV

A third-person narrator can have an opinion (and a D&D alignment)

Next time Michael and Ethan will discuss Jack Faust, by Michael Swanwick! Join the discussion! Go to the Contact page and put "Scotch Talk" in the Subject line. We'd love to hear from you! And submit your homework at the Michael & Ethan in a Room with Scotch page.

Join us on GoodReads!

Get on our Substack!

Donate to our Patreon!

MUSIC & SFX:

"Kessy Swings Endless - (ID 349)" by Lobo Loco. Used by permission.

"The Grim Reaper - II Presto" by Aitua. Used under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.

"Thinking It Over" by Lee Rosevere. Used under an Attribution License.

(Links to books & products are affiliate links.)