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First-time guest Ryan Haupt joins Joe and Producer Andrew to discuss Jurassic Park, the classic Steven Spielberg adaptation about man’s hubris. And dinosaurs. Really awesome dinosaurs. We discuss alternate universe versions of the film with different casts, what works well (everything), and Ryan Haupt helps us dig into the science of the story.

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Returning guest John Darowski joins Joe to talk about Beasts of Burden, a comic book series created by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson. It tells the story of a group of dogs (and a couple cats) that protect the town of Burden Hill from paranormal threats. And there are an awful lot of supernatural goings-on at Burden Hill.

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Returning guest Norman Mitchell joins Joe to talk about One Piece: Film Z, the twelfth film from the (very) long-running anime adaptation of the manga series. We discuss the history of the anime, the characterization of Luffy and his antagonist in this film, and the wonderful absurdity of the Straw Hat Pirates.

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Producer Andrew and Kestra Darowski join Joe to talk about storytelling at theme parks. We sometimes do special episodes where we discuss a unique style of storytelling, and the immersive experiences at theme parks certainly counts as a distinct type of story. Andrew and Kestra know far more about this world than Joe, so they guide him through this discussion and answer his questions along the way.

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Producer Andrew joins Joe to discuss Washington Irving’s class short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” We discuss the prominence of the Headless Horseman in folklore, where the whole flaming pumpkin part of the story came from, and also touch on some enduring false myths that Irving introduced into the American educational system.

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Returning guest Anna Peppard joins Joe to discuss Michael and Fiona from the tv series Burn Notice. The tv series about a spy who is cut off from his former agency and resources was a staple series on the USA Network during their Blue Sky era of programming. 

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Returning guest Anna Peppard joins Joe to discuss Jennifer Walters and her superheroic alter-ego She-Hulk. She-Hulk was co-created by Stan Lee and John Buscema in 1980 and has had several solo series in the subsequent four decades. Featuring writing by Charles Soule and art by Javier Pulido and Ron Wemberly, this 2014 series centers Jennifer Walters role as a lawyer while still highlighting her superhero adventures. 

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Protagonist Podcast co-founder Todd Mack returns for our 400th episode. Joe and Todd are talking about a Kenny Ortega directed cult classic, Newsies. Despite being a terrible flop when it was first released, Newsies found an audience on home video and airing on television. We talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the film, and discuss why it found such devoted fans.

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In this week’s special episode, returning guest Branden Ushio joins Joe for a new game. Branden used an artificial intelligence text generator to create several random names for potential stories. Branden and Joe have each written summaries based on those story titles, and Producer Andrew picks one summary to win each round. Whoever wins the most rounds wins the game. And, just for fun, we sometimes have the A.I. generate its own summary to see what it comes up with (one of the A.I. generated summaries is a must listen).

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Returning guest Kjerste Christensen joins Joe to talk about two episodes from Batman: The Animated Series: “Zatanna” and “Beware the Gray Ghost.” Batman: The Animated Series is an iconic interpretation of the classic character, and—it must be said—it absolutely holds up 30 years later.

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Batman: The Animated Series – Wikipedia