Pillow Scream Radio

In this episode, we review an American coming-of-age movie starring Operator Jim, a rad pair of aviator sunglasses, and some of the sharpest jawlines this side of Easter Island. It's Thirteen Hours, written and directed by Michael Bay, who is frankly not notable for anything besides being the director-iest director that has ever directored. And this is his movie. It's big, it's bold, it's American, and full of all the military hero-worship, internalized misogyny, and repressed sexuality that you could ever ask for. 

We get real out there, folks. Talking the scifi book Blindsight by Peter Watts and all the empirical reasons as to why you're not as real as you think. Cotard's Delusion, blindsight, transaccadic memory, Anton's syndrome, body integrity dysphoria. It's a fun time. Maybe, just maybe, this gives us more of a reason to give a shit about each other as humans. Not all of us asked to be aware of our own existence. 

Mandy and Alex take the Army's equivalent of a "What disney princess are you?" online quiz and get caught up in the glory of 90s military advertising. Pro tip, if your PTSD-ridden Vietnam vet father begs you not to enlist in the military, you probably shouldn't do it. Take it from us. We're professionals. 

The gang makes a new friend!  Kevin joins us to talk the news, Marxism in the military, and police reform.  Brace yourself, he shares a big bucket of bubbly brain juices!  As a Coast Guard vet, former law enforcement officer, city planner, and a regular-type dude who likes guns and leftism, he is both exceedingly interesting and entirely relatable.  Come give this one a listen.

Kevin has a GoFundMe up and running to help fund the construction of a leftist-friendly shooting range, because "nobody in the LGBTQ+ or BIPOC communities should need to put up with a range that sells confederate flags or is frequented by those who believe they do not deserve their rights - or worse, their lives." Hell yeah.  Donate here: https://gofund.me/e52d9c8d

Kevin also runs a podcast "dedicated to improving the running, playing, and supporting elements...of the Delta Green role-playing game."  Check it out here! https://www.greenboxpod.com/

Given the situation in Palestine, we (Jim and Mandy) wanted to zoom out this week to discuss just and unjust uses of violence. Jim mansplains the ethical framework supporting the use of violence, then we delve into different opinions on the matter between the left and the right. We also parse through the thinly veiled fascism of Jack Donovan's "Violence is Golden." Finally, Jim waxes poetically about the dangers of adopting a nihilistic position. 

It's over Anakin, we have the moral high ground. 

Find us on Twitter and Instagram @pillowscreamradio 

In this episode we forego politics to talk through some big news in entertainment concerning the arrest of Josh Duggar and delve into the sick world of fundamentalist Christian families. Mandy gets disappointed because Jim and Alex came totally unprepared to discuss the NFL draft. Also, Bill Gates is now single and ready to mingle! 

For the main course this week, we dig in to some of our favorite brovet™ style election ads and dispute the premise that military service justifies running for political office. We reach across the aisle to mock all aspiring politicians: conservatives and democrats, men and women, parents and nonparents.      

Finally, Mandy offers us the cure to our deranged Instagram algorithms.  

Mandy abandons the show this week for something actually impactful.  Meanwhile, Alex and Jim do the news.  Topics include: Joe Rogan being an anti-vax moron, Joe Biden's big ole' American Families Plan proposal, his dem-brain means-tested attempt at tuition-free college, Bernie's College for All plan (which is, of course, a million times better), Mark Zuckerberg evicting native Hawaiians from his newly purchased beach, and India's coronavirus woes.  

Then we talk something many vets are thinking about: the War-That-Will-Not-End in Afghanistan.  While Biden blows off the May 1st troop withdrawal date, and the Taliban prepares to attack coalition bases in reprisal, veterans of Afghanistan are back home trying to make sense of it all.  Timothy Kudo captured this sentiment in a bottle with a NY Times opinion piece called "I Fought in Afghanistan. I Still Wonder, Was It Worth It?"  Though he hasn't quite figured out yet that WAR IS A RACKET, he still works through his own Hurt Locker Moment, like we all have (or will).

Link to the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/opinion/afghanistan-war-biden-veterans.html

If you want to reach out to us the best way is to send a note to [email protected].  One of us will respond.  Being frustrated together is better than being frustrated alone.  #You'reNotTheOnlyOne

-Jim & Alex

It's the Zach and Alex show now, ladies and gents! We talk Chauvin's trial (and god-awful Reddit takes), Ukraine shenanigans, and the militarization of video games. We have on our third ever guest, Zach from About Face Veterans, to talk about the history of the military entertainment complex and how Call of Duty Black Ops tries to convince us that the commies are coming to steal our toothbrushes. That's right, don't consume any media unless it's ours. That's the only way to be a good leftist. Anyways, it's a fun one, come check us out!

Jim's away! We can finally speak the truth! 

Instead, we talk about Biden's pull-out game in Afghanistan, uncover some decent takes in the America First Caucus policy platform, and discuss Texas's plan to send parents of transgender youth to prison for supporting their kids. 

Then, we set the record straight on the Army's SHARP program and why it sucks. This one gets heavy.  

Also, Mandy claims that the first Jackass movie healed the nation after 9/11. 

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Posts are coming...maybe: @pillowscreampod 

Liberals suck.  Especially neoliberals.  And especially condescending neoliberals who want us to grow up and bend the knee to Joe Biden.  So we do our best in this episode to "have a dialogue" so we can find "common ground" with our "fellow progressives".  By that I mean we ridicule the cognitively dissonant, economically privileged, and sexually frustrated middle-class boomer lib types and why their arguments for liking Biden make about a much sense as, well, Biden.

We also review another AWESOME week of American news.  Dead Royals (hell yeah), DMX died (hell nah), triggered baseball fans, cops being complete chuds to an active duty service member, and the Amazon Bessemer Warehouse Union Vote (RIP).  We also continue to explore our piss fetish and discuss the Egalitarian Philosophy of Pooping.

Hope you burn in hell Philip,

-Mandy, Jim & Alex