Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese recently had a few things to say about Marvel movies, and Maya and Rebecca have a few things to say about Martin Scorsese. So many that they couldn’t fit into one episode. In this first part, they break down Scorsese’s own directorial oeuvre, then pull apart his critique of superhero movies as “not cinema.”

Inspired by the (actually inspiring) Chicago teacher strike, experienced teachers Maya and Rebecca take an in-depth look at Hollywood’s version of education reform, how it compares to reality, and how it impacts public policy.

Could Tulsi Gabbard or Jill Stein actually be Russian assets, as Hillary Clinton implied last week? Maya and Rebecca are more interested in how you respond to that question than whether your answer is accurate. Because the ways Americans talk about Russia reveals more about Americans than it does about about Russia. In this episode, they investigate the changing roles Russia has played and continues to fill in the American cultural imagination.

As Dubya pals around with Ellen, Sean Spicer dances the Paso Doble, and the Joker cries inside, Maya and Rebecca see a trend: the humanizing – or even normalizing – of people who do monstrous things. What are the cultural roots of this impulse, and is it a bad thing to remember that people who do evil acts are, after all, still people?

Things are happening fast, and Maya and Rebecca definitely need a drink. Luckily that’s the whole premise of the show, so join them as they down some booze and analyze the cultural implications of the Trump impeachment.

Maya and Rebecca have mixed feelings – and a few disagreements – about Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie. Is it a love letter to Hollywood movies or an old white man’s sad grasp at continued relevance? Hear the competing analyses and form your own opinion.

Why is American popular culture so fascinated with guns? In this episode, Maya and Rebecca examine how the gun industry created a culture of fascination and romance around their products, and how the gun lobby in turn used that culture to inform pro-gun propaganda.

Lately we’ve seen an encouraging increase in diverse representation on screen. Or have we? Could apparent diversity really just be tokenizing? How can we tell the difference? Maya and Rebecca are joined by writer, filmmaker, and podcaster Kieran Scarlett to tackle these and other thorny questions about Hollywood, streaming networks, inclusivity and tokenism.

Men taken down by #MeToo are trying to come back! Should we let them? Maya and Rebecca consider Aziz Ansari’s latest stand up special, Mark Halperin’s recent book, and Al Franken’s strange New Yorker redemption narrative. We also take apart people’s very telling reactions to Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide and Nicole Hannah Jones’ #1619 project.