The Protagonist Podcast

Description

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.

Show Notes

Description

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).

Description

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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Show Notes

Batman: The Animated Series – Wikipedia

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Joe is joined by first-time guest Brice Peterson to discuss Christopher Marlowe’s classic play The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. It has been well-established that on The Protagonist Podcast we love a good Faustus story, so it only makes sense of us to talk about the Faustus story. We discuss Marlowe’s fascinating life, the play’s origins, its themes, and also its long impact on popular culture.

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First-time guest Ravynn Stringfield joins Joe to discuss the Marvel comic book character Riri Williams who goes by the superhero name Ironheart. Ironheart is a fairly new character—having been co-created by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato in 2016—but will soon be appearing in the Black Panther sequel film and as the protagonist of a Disney+ series. We’re discussing a 12-issue series written by Eve L. Ewing with art by Luciano Vecchio, G. Geoffo, and Kevin Libranda.

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Description

Returning guest Jon Bell joins Joe to discuss the trippy time-travel film Primer. This very low-budget film seems straightforward at the beginning, but throws multiple curveballs at the audience as the plot progresses. This is an example of a film that immediately makes you want to go watch it again once you’ve finished the viewing.

Show Notes

Description

Returning guest Branden Ushio joins Joe for a game about tv shows that were canceled too soon. We each draft a team of tv shows that we feel should have had a longer life, and then Producer Andrew gets to choose which team of shows he would prefer to see get new seasons. This is a chance to reminisce about some shows that were gone too soon while still playing a sort-of competitive game against each other.

Description

Returning guest John Darowski joins Joe to talk about the Netflix action-adventure-steampunk-fantasy animated series that is based on the League of Legends video game. We know, there is not a great track record for “based on video game” tv shows and movies, but this one is pretty amazing. 

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Show Notes

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Returning guest Jon Bell joins Joe to discuss a short story by Glen Cook titled “Sunrise.” Set on a world with a slow orbital rotation, the story explores what happens as a city is about to cross onto the searing sunside of the planet. 

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Show Notes

Glen Cook – WIkipedia

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Joe and Producer Andrew are talking about one of the greatest films about fathers and sons that has ever been made: A Goofy Movie. We talk about the unique production history for the film, why the story works so well, and (of course) the soundtrack. 

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Show Notes