Join Mark, Erica, and Brian for a special "snake draft," where we take turns picking the holiday films and TV specials that we think are (or should be) part of America's yearly viewing traditions. Compare your intuitions about what is classic or seminal or over-rated with ours!

For more, visit prettymuchpop.com. Hear bonus content for this episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life network and is curated by openculture.com.

We're posting this early and ad-free as our holiday gift to you. Snarf it all down right now like a plastic candy cane full of M&Ms!

Do you just embrace the pure sound of music or does context matter to you, i.e., the artist's intentions and body of work?

Ken Stringfellow (Posies, R.E.M., Big Star) joins Mark, Erica, and Brian to talk about what grabs us about music, how it gets to your ears, singers vs. songwriters, the concept of "genius," and how this attitude toward music translates to our intake of other media (e.g., favorite film directors).

For more, visit prettymuchpop.com. Hear bonus content for this episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life network and is curated by openculture.com.

Sponsor: Visit skillshare.com/pretty for two months of free, unlimited learning.

Continuing on Descartes’s Discourse on Method, looking closely at part 4 (his proto-Meditations) and his "provisional" Stoic ethics.

Listen to part one first or get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: "My Real Fantasy" By Joe Louis Walker, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #110.

Time travel rules in The Terminator franchise are notoriously inconsistent. Can we change the future or not?

Mark, Erica, and Brian are joined by Ken Gerber to talk through time travel rules and plots, covering the randomness of Dr. Who, being your own grandfather, time travel comedies, time loops, freezing time, historical tourism, and more. 

For more, visit prettymuchpop.com. Hear bonus content for this episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life network and is curated by openculture.com.

Sponsor: Visit mackweldon.com and enter the promo code POP for 20% off underwear, sportswear, and more.

On René Descartes’s Discourse on Method (1637), an overview of his work that distills his method, outlines his famous Meditations, presents a provisional (Stoic) ethics, and considers whether he wants to be a public intellectual. This is all meant as a preface to scientific publications on geometry, optics, and meteors.

Please support PEL!

Wes Alwan and William Sharp (psychoanalyst and professor at Northeastern) discuss the film at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. 

Why has this film done so well? It offers no spectacle, and good doesn't triumph. It is psychologically true and expertly performed. The audience can enjoy tragedy and identify deeply with a social outcast and villain. The film successfully exploits the relationship between humor and violence, and comedy and tragedy.

Listen to more (sub)Text.

What constitutes a video RPG? Is there any actual role-playing involved? Our editor Tyler Hislop rejoins Mark, Erica, and Brian to discuss those video games that are supposed to make you feel like your choices matter, with comparisons to MMO RPGs, table-top role-playing, and more.

For more, visit prettymuchpop.com. Hear bonus content for this episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life network and is curated by openculture.com.

Sponsor: Visit skillshare.com/pretty for two months of free, unlimited learning.

Continuing on Latour's We Have Never Been Modern (1993) with guest Lynda Olman.

Latour rejects the idea of objective truth totally apart from perceivers, so is he an idealist? We lay out the "Constitution" of modernity that keeps science and politics separate, how it makes it difficult for us to address issues like climate change, and what Latour thinks should replace it.

Start with part 1 or get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: "Mono No Aware" by Guy Sigsworth, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music #109.

Sponsors: $10 off at skylightframe.com (code PEL), 20% off at hempfusion.com (code PEL), learn about St. John's College at sjc.edu, and give effectively through givewell.org/PEL.

On Latour's We Have Never Been Modern (1993) with guest Lynda Olman.

What's the "modern" ideology of science, and is there something we should critique about it? Latour wants us to think about science not abstractly through the eternal truths it supposedly discovers, but through the concrete practices of scientists. He investigates the Modern Constitution by which science and politics are kept conceptually separate, a myth that he claims we've never fully bought into.

Please support PEL!

What role does improv comedy play in popular culture? It's deployed by certain film directors (e.g. Christopher Guest), in some of the TV work of Larry David, Robin Williams, et al. But only a rare show like "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" makes it obvious. Is this art form doomed to live on the fringes of entertainment?

Mark, Erica, and Brian are joined by Tim Sniffen to discuss different types of improv, how it relates to other arts, its self-help angle, Second City, and more.

For more, visit prettymuchpop.com. Hear bonus content for this episode at patreon.com/prettymuchpop.

This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life network and is curated by openculture.com.

Sponsor: Visit mackweldon.com and enter the promo code POP for 20% off underwear, sportswear, and more.