The Whole Movie Podcast

In the second half of the Baughts team's talk about M3GAN, Sam, Margot and Jordan finally get to the main event of this conversation. Which is: Why is M3gan so... gay?? It's a comprehensive answer, but the Cliff's Notes answer is, well, everything. Your co-hosts also get into the evergreen favorite topic of friendship love stories, why our robot god isn't a toy, what happens to bad little boys, and so very much more. M3GAN INNOCENT!

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Written by: Margot Carlson and Sam Wineman

The Botcast and Aughtsterion have teamed up for one of 2023's most critical new releases: M3GAN. Sitting dead center in the bullseye of Margot, Jordan and Sam's interests, this Akela Cooper-penned movie about a robot companion who takes her mandate of protection a little too far demands analysis that only two scholars of the 2000s and robot cinema intellectual can provide. There's so much to discuss, including what makes M3GAN gay, where the movie sits in the liberated AI canon, what the titular character's fabulosity signifies, and so much more than it had to be split into two episodes. Dive into part 1 now, and do it with a flourish.

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Margot Carlson and Sam Wineman

You've already had a whole hour of Ex Machina analysis from Margot and Jordan, but you're back for Part 2 of the first season finale because — like them — you just can't get enough analysis and conversation about Alex Garland's incredible sci-fi stage play on film. The conclusion of the conclusion goes big on the ending, and even bigger on Machina's only true revolutionary: Kiyoko! Your co-hosts discuss whether Ava chose girlbosshood over Bots Together Strong, the uncomfortable racism of the sacrifice made for her escape and the skin she puts on to walk out the door, #GENDER, the meaning of a fembot having unthreateningly clean, beautiful, sterile insides; and so much more!

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Margot Carlson

Friend of the pod: Super Yaki

Margot and Jordan have been saying "We'll get to it" for two months now whenever Alex Garland's Ex Machina comes up, and the day has finally arrived! Well, one of two days, actually, because your co-hosts simply could not contain all of their Ex Machina feelings within a single Botcasting episode. After all, Margot pegged an entire 70-page thesis on robot cinema to the movie and Jordan has just plain been obsessed for years. In this Part 1 of the Botcast first season finale, your co-hosts are talking about the age-old past time of men talking about women [while taking them apart], the non-existent line between violence done to fembots and violence done to IRL women, the two kinds of villainy represented by Caleb and Nathan, and of course, the true hero of Ex Machina: Kiyoko! Your test begins now.

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Margot Carlson

Oscar Isaac Merch Provider: Super Yaki

Margot and Jordan have reached a very special juncture in the Botcast with this episode about Blade Runner 2049, because they finally get to talk about Luv and Joi — and feature their very first special guest! Your co-hosts are joined by This Podcast's Boyfriend, Taylor Wilhite, so he can speak on what is possibly his favorite movie ever made. There's a lot of ground to cover in this one: why does radical robot uprising hinge on extremely boring heterosexual reproduction? Who is the real hero of 2049 (and why is it Joi?)? Why the hell didn't Sylvia Hoeks star in everything after this movie came out? What are the limits of AI consciousness in hologram fembots? Why are Dave Bautista's glasses so tiny? It's nearly a 3-hour movie and we had to cram it all into one reasonably sized conversation, so let's get to it.

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Margot Carlson

Best friends: Super Yaki

Take five minutes to learn the origin of the word "robot" with the Botcast's resident professor, Margot Carlson.

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Margot Carlson

On this week's episode of the Botcast — and frankly always — Margot and Jordan would rather be cyborgs than goddesses. On the occasion of Margot experiencing Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop for the first time, she finally gets to break out Donna Haraway's "Cyborg Manifesto," and both your co-hosts continue to be perplexed as to why being human is so aspirational anyway. 

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Margot Carlson

Team Spirit by: Super Yaki

The thing about blockbuster robot movies of the 2000s is... they were about as radically leftist as NOH8 campaign. Which is to say: Wow not very! Coming shortly after talk of the Stepford Wives remake, Margot and Jordan now set their sights on a title beloved to both, 2004's I, Robot. This is android cinema on the scale of big and sexy Will Smith. This is front and center Audi product placement. This is Alan Tudyk as a tender little [non-canonically] homosexual robot man named Sonny, and a [non-canonically] asexual scientist who trusts synthetics more than people. This is what happens when android slave revolution goes four quadrant release! As a bonus, Margot also breaks Jordan's mind by explaining the "bornsexyyesterday" trope and nothing for her will ever be the same.

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Margot Carlson

MVP: Super Yaki

When Margot and Jordan sat down to revisit 2013's Her, it was a room of mixed emotions. How does sexy disembodied Scarlett Johansson as the evolving OS Samantha hold up a decade later? Is Joaquin Phoenix's Theodor Twombly a guy just doing his best, or is he a secret villain? Was the concept of a hot woman in a virtual box going to successfully subvert the romcom, or was this just some weird misogynist fantasy all along and now we've learned enough to know better? Well, folks, it turns out Spike Jonze really did crush it with this movie, and when Botcast S1 is all said and done, Her might rise to the top as the most radical take on robot politics of all the movies your co-hosts have covered so far. Are there some sticky moments? Of course, but Her dares to consider what robot liberation could truly look like when a population of galaxy brain A.I.s decides that revolution does not look like revenge — as Judgment Days of yore — but could instead be a radical departure from this archaic old meatspace world. The OSes might be post verbal, but Jordan and Margot have a lot to say.

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Margot Carlson 

Threads by: Super Yaki

It's a double stuffed episode of the Botcast, because Jordan and Margot are tackling two movies this time around: the original and the aughts versions of The Stepford Wives. One is a classic text of stripped down science fiction feminist horror, and the other is a study in white girlbossery with ham-fisted boob jokes. The '75 edition remains a stone cold classic, and while the 2000s remake might be a third layer carbon tear sheet of the source text, it does become a deeply valuable case study in the hellscape of critical thought that was mainstream millennium-era cinema. There are two time capsules and many lessons to learn in the Stepford discourse, and the Botcast is covering one of the most important of all: When a fembot exists in a movie, she will be subject to violence and sexual violence. Pack a silk nighty and an eye mask, bitches. We're going to Ajax country!

Produced by: Jordan Crucchiola

Music by: Margot Carlson

May the force be with: Super Yaki