Sci Minus Fi

Who knew Galaxy Quest offered such a deep exploration on the nature of history and truth. In today's landscape, Chris and Nathan discuss the Star Trek homage and parody Galaxy Quest. With a great cast of character and funny story, they dissect what Galaxy Quest says about truth, documenting history and how bad actors take advantage of our information.

One "who controls the spice, controls the universe." You guessed it! This week we're talking about Denis Villeneuve's latest film, Dune. Chris and Nathan get on their stillsuits and share their thoughts on Part One of this political epic about young Paul Atreides and his family's time on the desert planet Arrakis. Looking at the technology of the Dune universe, Nathan remarks on its uniquely mechanical and manual nature as we discuss ornithopters, stillsuits and Holtzman shields. Note: we recorded before the announcement that Part 2 has been confirmed!

This week, Chris and Nathan watch Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly and compare its technologies to our contemporary world. From surveillance and scramblesuits to the dangerous Substance D they find current tech that is similar to what they see in the movie. You'll also learn about the merits of the interpolated rotoscoping that Linklater used to animate the film.

Today Chris sits down with guest host Veronica Sullivan to discuss Denis Villeneuve's 2016 film Arrival and how it explores linguistic relativity and another classic Sci Minus Fi topic - time. Veronica provides insight on speaking multiple languages and discusses the idea of determinism as explored in the movie. 

What does life look like on other planets? How similar would it be to life on Earth? And, as a side note, who brings a cat on a mission in space??? Nathan and Chris get into these hard hitting questions as they discuss Ridley Scott's 1979 film, Alien, starring Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt and Ian Holm. They discuss the movie's creepy aesthetic brought to you by H.R. Giger as well as the science of space ship design and extraterrestrial life.

After a brief hiatus, Chris and Nathan are back and talking about Interstellar! Christopher Nolan's 2014 film was the film that inspired this show. Now, we use it to discuss black holes, Murphy's Law and debate whether humans will actually become interstellar beings. You'll also learn about Spielberg's connection to the film and what exactly is Hawking Radiation.

After all these years, some say Michael Jordan is still the G.O.A.T. After watching Space Jam: A New Legacy Nathan would certainly give Jordan points for making a better movie. But how much better? This week Chris and Nathan discuss the basketball movie beloved by millennials everywhere, Space Jam. Chris learns about the history and politics of the sport while Nathan has some things to say about His Airness.

Spike Jonze's 2013 film Her starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson is a perfect film, if you ask Chris. This week, Chris and Nathan explore how this film has become even more relevant since its release. From digital relationships to deep fakes this film predicts the near future too well. Following this trajectory, Nathan dares to ask if one day we'll become purely digital beings. If it makes watching sex scenes with parents less awkward, then count us in.

In Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's 2019 film, a new drug brings people back in time but they don't know where they'll end up. It's an original take on the time travel genre that has lofty goals of exploring the past, relationships, racism and family. With Latin, angst ridden teens and mid-life crises, Synchronic has it all. However, Chris and Nathan discuss whether it all works. Or if any of it works for that matter. 

Nathan and Chris are here to iron out the wrinkles in the fabric of spacetime because who wants those? If you want to be sophisticated like Charles Wallace you need your spacetime looking sharp and presentable. Ava DuVernay's version of A Wrinkle in Time follows Meg Murry and friends on a quest through the galaxy. Join us as we go on our own quest to find out why numerology is attractive to people, what the differences between science fantasy and science fiction are and where the centaur went!!!