Overthinking It Podcast

Overthinking It Podcast

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Overthinking It Podcast episodes

  • Episode 823: Man, That’s a Lot

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    Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather each bring a topic to discuss, ranging from X-Men ’97 to the social phenomenon of talking about other people’s jet lag to how we lost our love of buying electronics at Radio Shack.

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    Further Reading
    • Franz Boas (Wikipedia)
    • “Jet Lag Sends Brain Ahead A Time Zone, Leaves Kidneys In Another” (ABC News)
    • Episode 823: Man, That’s a Lot originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]

      1 hr 9 min
    • Episode 822: Learn to Knit

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      Peter Fenzel and Matthew Wrather are wondering what to do with their idle hands. Specifically, Pete has a question about what activity he could do while supervising his children which would occupy his attention un-greedily, i.e. without rendering him unavailable to parent.

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      Further Reading
      • Knitting, Crochet, Macramé, Scrimshaw, Decoupage, Papier-mâché
      • Episode 822: Learn to Knit originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]

        58 min
      • Episode 821: Tools are Not Toys

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        Peter Fenzel and Matthew Wrather talk tools, arriving at a theory that the tool is an instrument which excludes cases where it should not be used.

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        Further Reading
        • “Tool” (Online Etymology Dictionary)
        • “Tool” (Wikipedia)
        • Episode 821: Tools are Not Toys originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]

          1 hr 9 min
        • Episode 820: Your Desk is a Palimpsest

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          Peter Fenzel and Matthew Wrather try to clean up.

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          Episode 820: Your Desk is a Palimpsest originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]

          1 hr 5 min
        • Episode 819: Spoiler Alert: It’s Filmable. They Did It.

          Support Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month!

          Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather overthink Dune: Part 2, which, marvelous to tell, they all managed to see in the theaters. They discuss the film’s aesthetics, its intellectual history as an artifact of 1960s America (complete with a focus on getting high), and its themes relating to colonialism, missionaries and religious movements, and individual responsibility when you can see the future. They are left with just one question: “What is the supply chain for all those thumpers?”

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          Episode 819: Spoiler Alert: It’s Filmable. They Did It. originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]

          1 hr 13 min
        • Episode 818: How Often Do You Think about the Tokugawa Shogunate?

          Support Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month!

          Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather overthink the introductory episodes of Shogun, FX’s new, multi-lingual adaption of James Clavell’s 1975 novel. They discuss they book’s prominent place as a totem of adulthood on their fathers’ night-stands, the Downton Abbey moment (appropriate for a drama of manners and custom), and the various threads of theme, identity, and narrative which weave in and out of the production, and of the plot.

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          Further Reading
          • Shogun by James Clavell
          • Episode 818: How Often Do You Think about the Tokugawa Shogunate? originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]

            1 hr 6 min
          • Episode 817: The Tom Scott Recommendation Universe

            Support Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month!

            Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather examine the niche internet phenomenon of a game-show host being sampled and turned into dance music.

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            Further Reading
            • “‘We need jungle, I’m afraid’: how University Challenge went viral on the rave scene” from The Guardian
            • YouTube Channels
              • Technology Connections
              • Bill McClintock
              • J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
              • Episode 817: The Tom Scott Recommendation Universe originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]

                1 hr 5 min
              • Episode 816: You Poor Sack of Potatoes

                Support Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month!

                Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather watch Super Bowl LVIII, or should we say, Super Bowl T.A.Y.L.O.R., and discuss the intimate, detail-oriented halftime show and the commercials. They unveil a narrative of a being that is a non-being, and the dislocations of finding a world different than you thought or assumed.

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                Further Reading

                Episode 816: You Poor Sack of Potatoes originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]

                1 hr 11 min
              • Episode 815: Meep Meep

                Support Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month!

                Ben Adams joins Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather as they overthink the unfolding story about Warner Bros.’s decision not to release Coyote Vs. Acme, how it has been narrativized online, and how it is in some ways the perfect encapsulation of what makes the Coyote/Roadrunner stories unique.

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                Further Reading
                • “The Final Days of ‘Coyote vs. Acme’: Offers, Rejections and a Roadrunner Race Against Time | Exclusive” from The Wrap
                • The 9 Coyote Rules on Twitter
                • Virtue Ethics on Wikipedia
                • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-oHBcCRmBE

                  Episode 815: Meep Meep originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]

                  1 hr 3 min
                • Episode 814: Mission Impossible: Into Darkness

                  Support Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month!

                  Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather overthink Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning (Part One), the interminably named latest entry in the M:I franchise, now available on streaming. They discuss the metaphor of dead reckoning and how it applies to the characters in the film, and lament that the evil A.I. is really underdeveloped as a character.

                  Download (MP3)

                  Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps

                  Further Reading
                  • Dead Reckoning (Wikipedia)
                  • Episode 814: Mission Impossible: Into Darkness originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]

                    1 hr 11 min

                  About Overthinking It Podcast

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                  Overthinking It subjects the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve.

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