EPISODE 45: The DMV of the Afterlife

PROMPTS: Bath, Copper, 949

This week, Neal and Lauren step into two seemingly very different worlds—one of foster kids, foul balls, and 90s baseball magic, the other of copper plates, religious politics, and some seriously metal Renaissance art. It’s an episode about faith, fandom, and just how much you can say with a single image (or a single angel).

Neal revisits Angels in the Outfield (1994), a feel-good Disney sports fantasy that came out just as Major League Baseball faced one of its darkest real-life chapters. From Christopher Lloyd’s mischievous angel to Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s hopeful foster kid, Neal dives into the film’s quirky backstory—including its origins in a Jesuit radio play, why Disney picked the California Angels, and how four Oscar winners somehow ended up in this kids’ movie. Plus: Tony Danza’s arm bath, major Major League references, and life lessons on and off the field.

Then Lauren gives us a crash course on the art, politics, and religious drama behind the prints of Albrecht Dürer, the Renaissance engraving genius whose copper-plate works helped define the German Reformation era. From The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to Melencolia I to an eerily accurate rhino he never saw in person, Dürer’s art was moralizing, mathematical, and meticulously beautiful. Learn why his prints spread across Europe (and schoolbooks), how they avoided the wrath of Protestant iconoclasts, and why his self-portrait was basically Renaissance Instagram thirst-trap energy.

Neal's Topic: Angels in the Outfield (1994)

Lauren's Topic: Albrecht Dürer

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