Recorded Tomorrow

Greetings, travelers! Here is nearly an hour of conversation from our Bill & Ted Face the Music episode with Rachel, Scott, and Spiros. I ended up cutting it from the original episode for time - and because a lot of it has nothing to do with Bill or Ted. Actually, some of it has nothing to do with time travel at all! But the conversation was great, and some of it was genuinely mind-blowing. Enjoy!

Party On, Dudes!

Now that it's available all over the world, we felt we could finally talk about the third entry in the most excellent time travel trilogy, Bill & Ted Face the Music. We have an absolutely triumphant conversation with returning guests Rachel "Quirky" Schenk & Scott Thomas (both of Infinity Podcast fame), along with quantum physicist and science consultant for the film, Spiros Michalakis. We go deep on the nature of time itself, how traversing it works (both in the film and in our own reality), whether or not this third film breaks the rules the first two set up (spoiler: it doesn't), and much more!

Our Guests:

Spiros MichalakisQuanta MagazineRachel "Quirky" SchenkScott ThomasThe Infinity Podcast

Another short story for your listening pleasure! Transcript below is the first draft of the script, there were some slight changes made during the recording, and a few more during the edit, so it doesn't line up exactly, but it's pretty close. Enjoy!

 

The Life That I Can SaveWritten & Produced by Jesse Ferguson

Cast:

Travis, George, Narrator: Jesse FergusonDarlene: Ariel Ferguson

“Have you got eyes on him?” A voice in her ear asks.

“I see him,” she says. “He’s on his way to the bar.”

“You need to be there when he gets there, Darlene.”

“Relax, Travis. Time machine, remember?” She heads to her car and looks around. No one in sight. Perfect.

“Uh huh, just be careful, don’t let anyone see you shift.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll check in once I’ve made contact.” She taps her ear to end the call, pushes a button on the dash, and she and the car are gone.

----

George was in a foul mood before he got to the bar. Three drinks in, he’s ready to beat the shit out of the next person who looks at him wrong.

“How we doin’, sir?” The bartender asks as she wipes down the counter. He’s trying to remember her name. Darcy? Darla? He supposes it doesn’t matter. “Need anything else?”

“One more and then I’m out.” 

“Out of here? Or out of cash?” She cocks one brow up and grins. Teasing, but not mocking. He should be mad, but isn’t.

He grunts. “Both, I guess.” She pours two fingers into the bottom of a fresh glass, then puts the bottle away.

“You’re in here more often lately. Something the matter?”

He winces as the whiskey goes down, and his face darkens. “An anniversary.” 

And then he’s back there, in the ambulance with his son. He can smell the blood, the bile, the shit.

He pays his tab and heads for the door.

“Be careful, okay?”

“I’m Mister Careful.”

She chuckles. “See you tomorrow, Mr. Careful.”

“Hmmm. Probably.” He shuts the door a little harder than he means to.

----

He’s staggering more than he’d like to admit. He slips on the curb, stumbles out into the street. A car honks as it swerves out of the way. As the headlights flash in his eyes, suddenly it’s nine years ago, Cameron is fifteen, and they’re out for a run, way too late. He sees the driver lose control, his reactions too slow for the weather, ill-equipped to handle a car this late at night. Too much alcohol in his blood. He can smell the tires squealing as the man behind the wheel snaps back to awareness and tries frantically to prevent what’s about to happen. 

----

He flinches instinctually, and now he’s George again, tripping on the street, falling backwards onto the sidewalk. He lands on his wrist just so, and a shockwave of pain shoots up his arm, all the way to his shoulder. He cries out, and winces as he leans against the building.

Now he’s on the floor in the hospital, leaning against that disgusting wall, while Cam is in the ICU. He can barely breathe, and he’s doing everything he can to hold his shit together. He looks over at Molly. She’s crying. He’s already tried to comfort her, but he can’t get past his own worry. The door to the ICU opens, and the look on the doctor’s face tells him everything. His vision goes blurry, and he tastes salt in his mouth.

----

Back on the street, he can’t see through the tears. He’s still sobbing when a hand lifts him up by his arm and eases him into the back seat of a car. He tries to stop crying as the figure gets in the driver’s seat and shuts the door, but a solemn, feminine voice says, “It’s okay, George.” He recognizes her voice, but can’t quite place it.

“Cry,” she says, and he cries.

----

George is on his knees now, straddling the man who took Cameron away from them. He feels each impact his fists make on the man’s skull. He thought it would feel good. Cathartic. But it doesn’t. It feels… empty. Hollow. It hurts. Why does it hurt? 

The man’s nose is broken. His eyes are swollen & caved in. Several of his teeth are on the ground. There’s blood everywhere. In the driveway. Splattered on his shirt. The man hasn’t been moving for severa

UPDATE: At the time of this recording, Bill & Ted Face the Music was still scheduled for release on September 1st. It has since been pushed up by a week, to August 28th.

This episode is most triumphant! We sit down with Scott Thomas and Rachel "Quirky" Shenk of The Infinity Podcast to discuss one of Jesse's favorite time travel movies: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, just in time for the third installment of the series. We talk about what it gets right (almost everything), where it falls short, and the impact it's had on other time travel media since. Enjoy!

Rachel

Scott

The Infinity Podcast

We sit down with Jeeyon Shim and Kevin Kulp to talk about the Kickstarter they just launched, Wait For Me. It's a time-travel journaling game, where the player jumps back and forth through their own life, writing journal entries to their past (and future) selves. As of publication, the kickstarter is still active for a little less than a week, so check it out!

WAIT FOR ME

Jeeyon ShimKevin Kulp

This is the excerpt from our Memento episode where we did our best to describe the plot in chronological order. Thanks again to our guest Greg Downing of Through the Wind Door!

Update: I fixed an editing error where a "Future Jesse" line was in the wrong spot, overlapping some other speech.

Two big things:

First, I want to apologize for the audio quality this episode, especially mine. With everyone being quarantined at home, it's more difficult to find quiet places with good acoustics to record. I think I've got it sorted now, but it was too late to salvage my audio this episode, so I'm sorry in advance.

Second, and more important: the completely avoidable death of George Floyd at the hands of white supremacists in police uniforms, like so many before him, was a terrible tragedy. The release of this episode was delayed several weeks, because Jonathan and I felt it was more important to focus what platforms we have on promoting and elevating Black voices instead of talking about our own project which, while gratifying, is inconsequential next to all this. We here at Recorded tomorrow are unequivocally on the side of protesters in this struggle. Our show doesn't bring in any revenue, but Jonathan and I have each individually made donations to organizations working for racial justice, and we encourage each of you to do the same if you can. Because Black Lives Matter, and this fight isn't over.

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

So, Memento isn't actually a time travel story, as anyone who's seen it will tell you. That said, we wanted to talk about it because it's a prime example of Narrative time travel, where the events unfold chronologically, but the audience as observer hops around from one part of the story to another, and as a result, we experience the story out-of-order, as if we were a time traveler. Memento isn't the first story to do this, it may not even be the best version of it. But it's one of the few stories where that narrative time travel is absolutely integral to the experience. 

We're joined by Greg Downing of the Through the Wind Door podcast.

Media References:

Memento (film)Memento Mori (short story)

Today we talk about what could be the perfect time loop film, 2004's Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt (and, of course, the late Bill Paxton). We're accompanied by returning guest and Psyduck Enthusiast Scott Thomas, along with DJ and Twitch streamer Justin Turner joining us for the first time. We break down the story of the film, how it exemplifies (and often subverts) common time loop tropes, we discuss its brand mismanagement, and the difficulty adapting manga to film. Enjoy!

Check out Scott

Check out Justin

We've decided we should put our money where our mouths are, so Jesse has written a short time-travel story. We hope you enjoy it!

 

RECORDED TOMORROW PRESENTS

THE PARTY

by Jesse Ferguson

Alex notes the time and takes a champagne flute from the tray, giving the server a wink as she does. 7:46PM. The server smiles in return and Alex doesn’t mind that she's patronizing her, she's in entirely too good a mood. 

Because it’s going to work.

“Hey, Alex!” Martin, the host, waves at her as he makes his way across the room. Alex has spent six years, two months and nine days working her way up the ladder in Martin's company, getting close enough to him to earn an invitation to this party. This is where she'll make it all happen.

Right now, somewhere in Seattle, there’s another version of Alex - a younger version, still using her real name - hard at work boosting cars, breaking into houses and shitty office parks in the industrial district. In four months and twelve days, that version of her will be arrested on felony burglary charges, just nine days after she turns eighteen. Her court-appointed lawyer will be too busy with a hundred other cases to put much effort into helping a poor kid everybody knows is guilty. She'll be convicted after just three days, and sentenced to ten years in prison. She’ll never be able to vote.

“Enjoying the party?” Martin's made it over to her now. He's wearing a tan suit and a slightly worried expression. “The band just got here, they’re setting up now,” he sighs, “I should have hired a DJ...”

“Relax. I’m sure they'll be worth the wait,”  Alex says. Why not give him something to be happy about? It won't last. Alex almost feels bad about that. “And it doesn’t matter. We’re not here for the band. We’re here for you. Well, you and your new trinket."

“I can't wait for you to see it, Ms. Wells,” he says as he puts a hand on her shoulder, friendly and casual, but without coming off as creepy, like a lot of men in their fifties would. Damn it, now she does feel bad. She likes Martin, and he doesn’t really deserve what’s going to happen.

Seven months, fifteen days from now, that younger Alex-with-her-real-name will find a hidden cache in her cell. Inside, there will be a stack of newspapers and a locked box. The top newspaper will be dated a day after she finds the cache, the next one a week after that. She'll compare it to the papers delivered to the prison on those days, and they'll line up perfectly. 

On the far end of this room, there’s a locked door. Beyond that, some number of other security measures unknown to Alex--for now-- then vault with a three-thousand-year-old clay statue sealed inside it. The statue was recently excavated from Nigeria and it’s worth around sixteen million dollars. Martin acquired it through what he likes to call "back channels," which Alex assumes is richspeak for "he exploited his wealth and influence to plunder it from the culture to which it belongs." On second thought, maybe he does deserve it.

“I’m impressed you’ve been able to keep the statue secure,” she says, with just a little bit of awe in her voice. Martin may be a kind man, but also a rich man, and a little ego-stroking goes a long way. “How did you manage it? A piece this old, this rare, thieves must be lining up to take a crack at it.” 

Seven months, twenty-two days from now, after the second newspaper from her cache matches the one delivered that day, her younger self will start looking through the rest of the papers. The third one will be dated a week from today, and it’ll be folded open to a story with the headline RARE NIGERIAN STATUE STOLEN OUT OF THIN AIR. The article will be circled in felt marker, along with the words THIS WAS YOU, written in her own handwriting.

“Well, that’s the secret,” Martin’s eyes twinkle with mischief. “One of the advantages of using ‘back channels’ is that there aren’t a lot of records. So nobody knows exactly what I have, except the lovely people at this party. Most of the rea

Jesse & Jonathan sit down with a packed panel of film folks to talk about the platonic ideal of smarter-than-you time travel movies: PRIMER. We discuss how it avoids most of the pitfalls we've discussed on our show, and which one it jumps into head-first. We don't all love it, but we all respect it, and we talk about the whys of both. True to form, we also go off on a number of tangents, and chase after that sweet, sweet, Audible money.

Guests:

Chris Chipman of TheChippaMadeThisSeth Decker of The Film Rescue ShowReturning guest Scott Thomas of The Infinity Podcast