The Protagonist Podcast

Description

Returning guest Todd Robert Petersen joins Joe to discuss his novel Picnic in the Ruins. The novel tells the story of several people getting caught up in a web of antiquities theft and murder, with very few understanding why. We talk about the novel’s themes, how different characters’ points of view affect the storytelling, and the complicated issues of history, preservation, and ownership.

Support

Show Notes

Description

First-time guest Jerome Wetzel joins Joe to discuss a segment from the It’s All Been Done Radio Hour podcast. It’s All Been Done Radio Hour features several recurring segments that are performed live in front an audience and then later released as podcast episodes. Universe Journey started as a Star Trek parody, but after years of stories and performances has become its own world with lore, characters, and emotional weight. We’re discussion a special musical episode of Universe Journey.

Support

Show notes

Description

Returning guest Hannah Rogers joins Joe to discuss the Disney animated film Zootopia. We discuss the surprising trivia about the film’s long development and various titles around the world, the roles the characters represent, and the larger social issues that the film engages.

Support

Show Notes

Description

Joe is joined by returning guests Kjerste Christensen and Todd Petersen to play a game about Fan Theories. Each has selected some fan theories about popular media and prepared a set of clues to reveal what the fan theory is about. The others get to guess the fan theory as clues are revealed. The fewer clues needed to guess, the more points are earned. 

Support

Patreon

Description

Legendary comic book writer Chris Claremont joins Joe to talk about the character of Storm from the X-Men comic books. We’re discussing Uncanny X-Men #159, written by Chris Claremont with pencils by Bill Sienkiewicz, inks by Bob Wiacek, letters by Tom Orzechowski, and colors by Glynis Wein. In this issue, Storm is attacked by Dracula and may become a vampire. But the key takeaway here is that we have Chris Claremont as a guest to discuss Storm and the X-Men. Claremont’s run writing the X-Men is one of the most iconic in the history of American comic books. Give the episode a listen.

Support

Show Notes

“I am not a number! I am a free man!”

Description

Producer Andrew joins Joe to discuss the classic British tv show The Prisoner. Patrick McGoohan played Number Six, spy who quits his job and is then kidnapped and taken to The Village. Only referred to as Number Six, his captors question why he quit as he attempts to escape. Filled with surrealist, Orwellian, postmodern, avant-garde trippiness, The Prisoner is a fascinating time capsule of Cold War commentary in a sci-fi/spy package.

Support

Show Notes

Description

Returning guest Hannah Rogers joins Joe to discuss a classic novel by Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit tells the story of a girl who was born and raised in a debtor’s prison and her family’s struggles with poverty and then also unexpected wealth. It also tells the stories of several other characters, because Dickens writes expansive worlds filled with all types of people whose paths cross in unexpected ways.

Support

Show Notes

“Who hired this crew?”

Description

Returning guest Charly Kuecks joins Joe and Producer Andrew to talk about Muppet Treasure Island, a very loose adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel from 1883. There’s a lot of time spent singing the praises of the muppets and Tim Curry, which is the inevitable end point of every discussion about this film. 

Support

Show Notes

Discord

Description

Returning guest Chris “Mav” Maverick joins Joe to play a game about the many, many X-Men characters in Marvel comics. Producer Andrew has selected a series of scenarios the X-Men might find themselves in. Then, Mav and Joe each propose a team to send on those missions, drafting from the hundreds of characters that have populated the mutant teams in Marvel’s X-Men books. We talk about the genre tropes of X-Men comics as well as the best and strangest characters that have appeared on the comics page.

Support

Patreon

Description

First time guest Hal Lublin joins Joe and returning guest John Darowski to discuss Sparks Nevada, Croach the Tracker, Rebecca Rose Rushmore, and the Red Plains Rider from The Thrilling Adventure Hour. The Thrilling Adventure Hour, a staged production in the style of old-time radio, released the various segments from the show as a podcast. Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars is a comedic sci-fi western following the adventures of Sparks Nevada (Mark Evan Jackson) and his faithful companion Croach the Tracker (Mark Gagliardi) as they right the outlaw wrongs on Mars. Hal Lublin was a regular actor on The Thrilling Adventure Hour and lends insights from his personal experience and his understanding of storytelling to our discussion.

Support

Patreon

Show Notes

The Thrilling Adventure Hour – Wikipedia

Hal Lublin – Wikipedia

We Got This with Mark and Hal – Maximum Fun website