This 2015 Indian romantic comedy uses a meta-narrative to deconstruct expectations about identity and everyday life. We question the assumptions writer/director Imtiaz Ali makes about gender roles, while wondering how much the real infidelity between the lead actors complicated the film's big theme.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Tamasha

Additional Resources:

• ‘Tamasha’ not autobiographical, says Imtiaz Ali
• Anushka Sharma Rejected 'Tamasha' Because The Role Wasn't 'Meaty' Enough For Her
• 'Tamasha' is about choosing your own story: Imtiaz Ali
• An inspiration, a formula, a discovery— filmmaker Imtiaz Ali breaks down ‘love’
• Love aaj kal
• Watch Imtiaz Ali Talk about This Iconic Tamasha Scene Where Deepika Cried for Real
• Ranbir, Deepika break down on sets of 'Tamasha'
• Ranbir, Deepika's Personal History Doesn't Bother Tamasha Director
• Censor Board beeps saali in Imtiaz’s film
• 2 years of Tamasha: I meet people who tell me that the film changed their life, says Imtiaz Ali
• Here's why Imtiaz Ali's Tamasha is more than just a movie
• Why Imtiaz Ali Movies Are Beautiful And Most Of All Tamasha
• Tamasha Was Made With a View the Audience is Not Stupid, Says Imtiaz Ali

 

This 2012 experimental noise record was heralded as an important moment in musical evolution. We look at how the band approaches their process while unpacking their relationship with major label Epic Records. And we ask, how do noise, magick, and defecation contribute to the future of music?

 

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Money Store

Additional Resources:

• Suspicious Minds - The Resolute Mission Of Death Grips
• Death Grips Implode Punk and Rap Borders on New LP
• Band of the Year: Death Grips
• Death Grips: “There's a lot of recycling and destruction in the making of our music”
• Who Are…Death Grips

This collected comic is about a victim of child abuse, while also serving as an homage to the work of storyteller Beatrix Potter. We discuss Talbot's approach to representing such difficult subject matter, while also crafting a book that was more user friendly to non-comics readers.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Tale of One Bad Rat

Additional Resources:

• The Tale of One Bad Rat homepage
• The Rat's Whiskers
• The Tale of One Bad Rat (Graphic Medicine)
• The Tale of One Bad Rat, or, thoughts on teaching adults to read comics
• Still Relevant Today: The Tale of One Bad Rat
• #metoo stories. Library Journal; 4/1/2018, Vol. 143 Issue 6, p53-53, 1/3p
• Donna R. White (2018) Finding Beatrix Potter: Bryan Talbot’s The Tale of One Bad Rat, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2018.1533484

This HBO television show about a standup comedian going through divorce attempts to tackle three big themes: sex, religion and the importance of comedy. We look into Pete Holmes and Judd Apatow's motivations behind-the-scenes, while also asking, "What is its point of view beyond self absorption?"

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Crashing, Season One

Additional Resources:

• How Pete Holmes Morphed His Despair Into Comedy With Crashing
• The Tao of Pete Holmes: HBO’s ‘Crashing’ Creator on Comedy, Sex and God
• How HBO’s ‘Crashing’ Star Pete Holmes Found Salvation — And Judd Apatow
• ‘Crashing’: Pete Holmes and Judd Apatow on Their HBO Stand-Up Comedy Series
• Pete Holmes Opens Old Wounds in HBO’s ‘Crashing’
• Pete Holmes on Crashing and Finding God in Filthy Jokes
• Small Screen: Apatow, Holmes offer raw look at HBO’s Crashing
• Finally, somebody is updating Crashing for current day
• I'm Sorry But HBO's Crashing Sucks

This 1996 novella is about the dark history of Chilé, merged with a detective story about poets. We look at Bolaño's career, while taking into account criticisms of his authenticity and his representation of Chileans from the vantage of his security in Europe.   Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Distant Star

Additional Resources:

• A Chilean Writer’s Fictions Might Include His Own Colorful Past
• Valdes, M. (2008). His Stupid Heart: Robert Bolaño’s Novels Were a Love Letter to His Generation, But What He Had to Say Many Chileans Didn’t Want to Hear. Virginia Quarterly Review, 84(1),
• Corral, W. H. (2006). Roberto Bolaño. World Literature Today, 80(6), 50–54.
• The Best Bolaño Book is 'Distant Star'
• What Roberto Bolaño Can Teach Us About Making Art Under Fascism

This 1957 Japanese samurai film is a postwar adaptation of Shakespeare's MacBeth, but we learned that it's also tapping into historical theatrical techniques and criticisms of nationalistic self-destruction. We turn to other writers and scholars for help unpacking these symbols we don't know much about, while learning just how universal this critically acclaimed movie actually is.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Throne of Blood

Additional Resources:

• 1957: When Akira Kurosawa's 'Throne of Blood' Was Ahead of Its Time
• Parker, B. (1997). Nature and Society in Akira Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood.” University of Toronto Quarterly, 66(3), 508.
• Catherine Russell. “Men with swords and men with suits: The cinema of Akira Kurosawa” Cineaste. Winter2002, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p4. 10p. 9
• The Chilling Effect of Noh Theater on Akira Kurosawa's 'Throne of Blood'
• ‘Throne of Blood’: The Value and Meaning of Kurosawa’s Fog-Drenched Masterpiece

This 2006 comic by Brian K. Vaughn and Niko Henrichon is about lions escaping the Baghdad Zoo during the Iraq War. We look at how the creators approached this subject matter, why it's been challenged in libraries and how it represents people in the Middle East.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Pride of Baghdad

Additional Resources:

• US troops kill Baghdad lions
• 15 YEARS AGO, A LION PRIDE ROAMED THE STREETS OF BAGHDAD
• Revisiting ‘Pride of Baghdad’s’ Haunting Iraq War Allegory
• The Joy of Pride: Vaughan talks "Pride of Baghdad"
• BANNED BOOKS WEEK: PRIDE OF BAGHDAD
• The Pride of Baghdad
• CBLDF Discussion Guide: Pride of Baghdad

This 1977 record seems to mythologize a certain version of New York, so we look at how it was made to get to the core beneath its poetry, guitar solos and critical success.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Marquee Moon

Additional Resources:

• Television's Principles
• How Television Made ‘Marquee Moon,’ the Best Punk Guitar Album Ever
• Television’s Punk Epic “Marquee Moon,” 40 Years Later
• Invisible Hits: When Eno Met Television
• https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/punks-founding-father-richard-hell-306738.html
• Waterman, B. (2011). Television’s Marquee Moon. New York: Continuum.
• Rolling Stone. 1/7/93, Issue 647, p22.
• Lloyd, R. (2018). Everything is Combustible. Mount Desert, ME: Beech Hill Publishing Company.

This 1996 comic-book-based-cartoon aired on MTV in 10-minute bursts of weirdness. We discuss its themes of tragedy and trauma, together with how it represents feminism, while still objectifying the female body.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Maxx

Additional Resources:

• The Maxx -- The Only Thing MTV Never Screwed Up
• The Maxx messed up afterschool MTV viewers with its dark surrealism
• FEMINIST REPLAY: MTV'S THE MAXX
• Why The Maxx Was the Perfect Comic for '90s MTV
• Shaping The Maxx: Adapting the Comic Book Frame to Television
• MTV’s Oddities Part 2: The Maxx: Julie’s Pangea, Laura’s Ghostwood

 

This book attempts to redefine the novel by combining narrative with an imagined anthropological record. We discuss Le Guin's background and mission, as well as larger questions about cultural misappropriation and utopianism.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Always Coming Home

Additional Resources:

• Future Ethnography of the Inhabitants of the Valley of the Na, and The unBible of Ursula K. Le Guin
• PAPERBACKS; THE KESH IN SONG AND STORY
• Always coming home…
• Ursula K. Le Guin‘s Folk/Electronica Album Can Teach Us a Lot About Storytelling
• The Journeys of Ursula K. Le Guin. By: CARPENTER, ZOË, Nation, 00278378, 10/24/2016, Vol. 303, Issue 17
• Taking Politics to Another World. By: Pilon, Dennis, Canadian Dimension, 00083402, Sep/Oct2007, Vol. 41, Issue 5
• Le Guin, Urusula K. “On the Frontier,” in The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination, edited by Le Guin. Boston: Shambhala Press, 2004.