The Incomparable

746 Ape Mismanagement

This year’s Ape Club holiday party is 1972’s “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes,” in which the people of Future 1991 use apes as slaves until there’s an uprising led by a talking ape with a familiar name: Caesar. Were the 1970s ape sequels all as bad as we were led to believe, or is “Conquest”… actually kind of good? Join us and find out!

Host Jason Snell with panelists John Moltz, David J. Loehr, Brian Warren, and Annette Wierstra.

745 Untitled Gambit Project

Surprisingly holding down the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe for 2024 is “Deadpool & Wolverine,” in which Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman desecrate “Logan” while honoring it, skewer Marvel movies while saving them, and encounter an extremely unlikely collection of Marvel movie cast-offs and has-beens. Merry X-Mas to all!

Host Jason Snell with panelists Cicero Holmes, Kelly Guimont, Lisa Schmeiser, and Moisés Chiullán.

744 Pineapple of Disappointment

Miyazaki Club morphs into Ghibli Club as we discuss 1991’s “Only Yesterday,” written and directed by Isao Takahata. It’s a story of one (childless workaholic?) woman’s search for herself in the past and the present, plus, of course, a deep dive into organic farming.

Host Jason Snell with panelists John Siracusa, Steve Lutz, Aleen Simms, Moisés Chiullán, and Lisa Schmeiser.

743 Doritos and Tequila

In honor of Thanksgiving, we review the 1987 classic “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” featuring Steve Martin and John Candy as trapped-together travelers just trying to get home, if there’s even a home to get back to. Jason comes to the realization that this is the Odyssey in the Midwest. Ben Stein has a special sign just to troll pained travelers. And that’s what Thanksgiving is all about, Charlie Brown.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Shelly Brisbin, Brian Warren, Brian Hamilton, and Andy Ihnatko.

742 Hi, Anxiety

Several panelists consider Pixar’s “Inside Out” one of their favorite films. Now it’s time to process “Inside Out 2.” Some struggle with the sequel more than others. But at least Bing Bong makes a tiny cameo.

Host Lex Friedman with panelists Brian Hamilton, David J. Loehr, and Kelly Guimont.

741 Evil Giant Cicadas

Vin Diesel, Radha Mitchell, Keith David, and a lack of bozos—it can only be 2000’s “Pitch Black,” one of the finer entries in the always-popular “‘Alien’ homage” movie genre. We enthuse about elevated filmmaking, great decisions, and low-budget effects.

Host Antony Johnston with panelists Todd Vaziri, Erika Ensign, and Tony Sindelar.

739 Above the Zeppo Level (fixed)

Do you like gladiator movies, Joey? It’s the comedy side of “Zero Hour!”, with serious actors playing ridiculous parts more or less straight. How does the comedy hold up? What’s unique about the approach? Why was it such a huge hit? We put the ZAZ boys under the microscope. Surely we’ll all have a good time! (Don’t call us Shirley.)

Host Jason Snell with panelists Shelly “don’t call me Shirley” Brisbin, Philip Michaels, Dr. Drang, and Steve Lutz.

740 The Coffin Test

Just in time for Halloween week, Old Spooky Club returns for 1985’s “Fright Night.” It’s an entirely ’80s comedy-horror movie with zero cynicism and only a single layer of meta. Chris Sarandon is the perfect vampire, even when he’s villanously chowin’ down on a topless lady as he exchanges intense stares with the neighbor kid. If you’ve never experienced it, you don’t know what you’re missing.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Steve Lutz, Kelly Guimont, Erika Ensign, and Annette Wierstra.

738 Condor to the Neck

Don’t order the fish! Old Movie Club celebrates Aviatober with 1939’s “Only Angels Have Wings” and 1957’s “Zero Hour!” One bears a striking resemblance to forgettable 1980s TV series “Tales of the Gold Monkey,” and the other is undeniably the inspiration for the more notable 1980 movie “Airplane!” (That’s foreshadowing.)

Host Jason Snell with panelists Philip Michaels, Shelly Brisbin, David J. Loehr, Monty Ashley, and Micheline Maynard.

737 The Bolthole of My Own Self-Referentiality

It was the late ’80s and comic writer Grant Morrison was fast becoming Grant Morrison. Come back with us to look at his run on Animal Man, issues 1-26, in which a has-been/never-was superhero becomes an outspoken animal rights activist, witnesses the near-undoing of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and meets his own maker—who looks strangely like Grant Morrison. Before Deadpool and She-Hulk broke the fourth wall, this was Peak Meta.

Host Chip Sudderth with panelists Lisa Schmeiser and Tony Sindelar.

736 I Have Planets for That

Dan Moren’s “The Armageddon Protocol” is now on sale. He joins Jason to discuss how to wrap up a long-running series (while leaving doors open for future adventures), juggling an increasingly complex home life with a two-book contract, the broader publishing options available to fiction writers, and (of course) sandwiches.

Host Jason Snell with panelist Dan Moren.

735 Who Took My Lady?

Miyazaki Club returns to discuss 2010’s “The Secret World of Arrietty,” a Studio Ghibli production with a screenplay by Hayao Miyazaki based on a series of children’s books. Why are we so unnerved by the linear storyline and lack of weirdness? Why does Jason have Bay Leaf head canon? And why is surface tension the true star of the show?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Moisés Chiullán, John Siracusa, Aleen Simms, and Steve Lutz.

734 Hang a Lantern on a Lantern

“Warner Brothers called and they’re demanding that we do The Matrix IV, with or without you?” So motivated, Lilly Wachowski made a movie that revisits “The Matrix” that’s about revisiting “The Matrix.” Could it be that this 19-years-later sequel… is better than the other sequels?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Chip Sudderth, Erika Ensign, and Kelly Guimont.

733 This Could Have Been an Email

The Matrix Trilogy ends with “The Matrix Revolutions.” There’s a big fight in Zion, a lot of stuff in the Matrix we didn’t actually remember, everyone becomes Agent Smith, Chip is devoured by thousands of mosquitos, and Kelly resists the bleakness.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Chip Sudderth, Erika Ensign, Kelly Guimont, and Joe Rosensteel.

731 Hate is Good Manure

We’ve reconvened Mad Max Club to come up with some word burgers about “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” the 2024 prequel to the iconic 2015 film “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Does the prequel match up to the original (aka the fourth) film in the franchise?

Host Steven Schapansky with panelists Kelly Guimont, Erika Ensign, and Brian Warren.

732 Terrible Clothes, Great Parties

Whoa. Years later, we’re back in the Matrix as we cover the sequels to the mind-blowing 1999 original. First up is “The Matrix Reloaded,” which features thrills, spills, underground orgies, and long philosophical monologues. How well does it hold up? What surprised us? Were we excited, or terrified, to see Zion and all those mech suits? Take the appropriately colored pill and join us.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign, Chip Sudderth, and Joe Rosensteel.

730 Tight Five on Gibbons

Our Ape Club returns to cover 2024’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.” Yes, it’s apes and humans again, but this is a new era with a lot to consider about how history is distorted to serve present-day politics, the value of saving or destroying past knowledge, and the best way to protect an eagle egg.

Host Jason Snell with fellow apes Annette Wierstra, John Moltz, Brian Warren, and David J. Loehr.

729 A Mean Man Made Me Rank Things

Our Book Club wraps up its 2024 walk through nine shortlisted SF/F novels with our overall rankings, some short fiction recommendations, and a quick dip into what we’ve read recently and really enjoyed.

Host Jason Snell (Mean Man) with stalwart Book Club panelists Scott McNulty, Erika Ensign, Aleen Simms, and Heather Berberet.

728 Golden Age of Quantity

We discuss the recently concluded (first?) season of the Star Wars series “The Acolyte.” The show offers a mix of stuff we like about “Star Wars”, but the panel’s split on whether it managed to do a good job executing its ambitious agenda.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Tony Sindelar, Dan Moren, Moisés Chiullán, and Chip Sudderth.

727 Ride Him Like a Horse

Have you been watching Prime Video’s “My Lady Jane?” Our panel is so sure you will like this alternate history show that there’s been a minor coup to take over the Mothership. Join us for a spoiler-free opening pitch to entice you into watching this show, then come for the full spoilery episode.

Host Annette Wierstra with panelists Kirsten Goruk and Erika Ensign.

725 Most Valuable Ape

Our Summer of the Planet of the Apes reaches its exciting conclusion with “War for the Planet of the Apes,” which starts out as a war movie but continues mutating into different genres as it goes. We really enjoyed our walk through this underrated trilogy of 2010s action movies, and we hope you did too!

Host Jason Snell with the Ape Club membership: John Moltz, Annette Wierstra, David J. Loehr, and Brian Warren.

726 Too Many Books in This Book

Our Book Club convenes for its final set of shortlisted novels, including “The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi,” “The Water Outlaws,” and the Nebula-winning “Saint of Bright Doors.” Plus: What are we reading?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign, Scott McNulty, Aleen Simms, and Heather Berberet.

724 Treacherous Bonobo

The Summer of the Planet of the Apes continues with 2014’s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.” It’s a sequel that’s superior in almost every way, but somehow seems a little less fun, since we can no longer root for the apes. Now there are bad guys on both sides, as Gary Oldman and a chimpanzee named Caesar act out a tragedy of Shakespearean levels.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Brian Warren, Annette Wierstra, David J. Loehr, and John Moltz.

723 We Bought an Ape Prison

You did it, you blew it all up! And now it’s… the Summer of the Planet of the Apes! Our own troop of hairless apes tackles the well-regarded modern “Apes” trilogy this month, beginning with 2011’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” James Franco is a scientist? Brian Cox runs a sketchy ape facility? Tom Felton thinks his dates want to see caged primates? Just when you think this movie has it all backward, that’s when you realize: we’re actually all rooting for the apes.

Host Jason Snell with panelists David J. Loehr, Annette Wierstra, John Moltz, and Brian Warren.

722 There Isn't a Twist at the End

Boot up the Time Window and prepare your memory palace! A full season of the new, Disneyfied version of “Doctor Who” has gone by, and we’ve convened a panel of time experts to discuss the highs and lows, and where the series goes next.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Steven Schapansky, Erika Ensign, Chip Sudderth, and Annette Wierstra.

721 It's a Triangle!

“Star Trek: Discovery” opened a new era in Star Trek TV, but now the series has reached its end. How did the new, slimmed-down season 5 storyline work? Were we happy with the series-ending payoff? How were the show’s many interesting characters served in their final go-round? We break it all down.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign, Dan Moren, Jean MacDonald, and Joe Rosensteel.

720 Law of Conservation of Boots

With “Furiosa: A Mad Max Story” in theaters, we thought we would dip back to the original (aka, the fourth) Mad Max movie, “Mad Max: Fury Road” from 2015. It’s a big car chase followed by a race, it’s two hours long, and it’s considered one of the greatest films of all time. Witness us!

Host Steven Schapansky with panelists Erika Ensign, Kelly Guimont, Brian Warren, and Merlin Mann.

719 Three Novellas in a Trench Coat

Our 2024 book club shortlist read continues with “Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon”, “The Terraformers,” and “Some Desperate Glory.” We enjoyed them all, to varying degrees! Plus: What else are we reading?

Host Jason Snell with Panelists Aleen Simms, Erika Ensign, Scott McNulty, and Heather Berberet.

718 Starfighters in Their Office Chairs

It’s been 40 years since the release of 1984’s “The Last Starfighter”, so we finally give this visually groundbreaking film its due. Did we find the early CGI effects as charming as the plot of a small town kid becoming a galactic hero in the distant reaches of space?

Host Steven Schapansky with panelists Erika Ensign, Joe Rosensteel, Cicero Holmes, and David J. Loehr.

717 Swept up in the Deadpool of It All

You just can’t kill us, unless we’re wearing something on our necks that means you can. We’re back to cover 2018’s “Deadpool 2,” which bring you… more Deadpool. Not necessarily a bad thing, but should it have tried to elevate its game? Does its ending completely invalidate the story? And what’s the serious plot element at the center of the ridiculous meta superhero action?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Kelly Guimont, Cicero Holmes, and Dan Moren.

716 The Real Villain is Trauma

With a third movie on the way, it’s time for us to tackle an R-rated “X-Men” spinoff, everyone’s favorite glutton for punishment, 2016’s “Deadpool.” Did it pass the test of skeptical first-time viewers? Does its balance of humor and ultraviolence work? And why did we find this deeply unserious movie strangely affecting?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign, Dan Moren, and Kelly Guimont.

715 Don't Let Books Make You Cry

We begin our walk through the 2024 nominees for Best Novel from the Hugo and Nebula Awards. First up: “Starter Villain” by John Scalzi, “Translation State” by Ann Leckie, and “Witch King” by Martha Wells.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Scott McNulty, Erika Ensign, Aleen Simms, and Heather Berberet.

714 You Can't Protect People From "Doctor Who"

Put on your mouse ears and step into the TARDIS! We’re discussing the return (rebirth? regeneration?) of “Doctor Who” in 2024, this time on Disney+ (and the BBC). It’s a new era with an old showrunner. How did the 2023 specials hit us, where should curious viewers start watching, and what are our hopes for the coming season?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign, Steven Schapansky, Annette Wierstra, and Kelly Guimont.

712 Arguably the Saddest Record (Brian's Version)

It’s time to celebrate the music of the first decade of this century via our 2000s album draft! From opera to show tunes, we’ve got several musical styles covered—and those are just Andy’s picks! Why do James’s picks leave us cold? What is Erika’s favorite Beat Saber band? Why does Kelly use karaoke as therapy? How does Shelly tactically use remixes? And why did Brian insist on editing this episode?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Brian Hamilton, James Thomson, Shelly Brisbin, Erika Ensign, Kelly Guimont, and Andy Ihnatko.

713 Weird Guy in the Meat Locker

Why does discussing the overlooked 1991 classic “Dead Again” feel like we’re living a past life? Maybe it’s the shock of seeing young Sir Kenneth Branagh (attempting a weird American accent) and Dame Emma Thompson. Maybe it’s Sir Derek Jacobi making us wonder if that stutter is an “I, Claudius” reference. Maybe it’s the whole romantic fantasy thing, with a Hitchcockian past intruding on a 1990s present.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign, Annette Wierstra, Dr. Drang, Shannon Sudderth, and Glenn “Berlin Alexanderplatz” Fleishman.

711 Creepy Bone Owl

Our book club reconvenes to discuss the “Shades of Magic” series by V.E. Schwab, as well as the start of a second trilogy, “The Fragile Threads of Power.” Before the spoilers begin, we’ll explain the parallel fantasy world structure and explain why it’s such a great series. Then we’ll discuss the newest book in the series.

Plus: What are we reading? And we tease the beginning of our annual shortlist tour, which will begin in our next episode with “Translation State” by Ann Leckie, “Witch King” by Martha Wells, and “Starter Villain” by John Scalzi.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Scott McNulty, Erika Ensign, Aleen Simms, and Heather Berberet.

710 Average Night at the Sicilian Opera

Just when we thought we were out, they pulled us back in! Long after we recorded our first episodes about “The Godfather,” our panelists get back together to talk about the late-sequel “The Godfather Part III,” or is it “The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone” now? Only Francis knows for sure.

Host Jason Snell with panelists John Gruber, John Siracusa, Chip Sudderth, and Moisés Chiullán.

709 Worms All the Way Down

Get on your sandworm and head south! It’s time to discuss “Dune 2,” a sequel with more sand, more Fremen, and more time spent at the super weird planet of the villainous Harkonnen family. Is Paul the hero, or… something else? Dust off the family atomics and join us, won’t you?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Jean MacDonald, Kelly Guimont, Guy English, and Brian Warren.

708 Wet Hot Mutagenic Summer

It’s the first-ever Reboot a Bad Movie draft! In which our stalwart panelists grab an intellectual-property loser off the shelf, dust it off, and re-envision it in a new way that could maybe, possibly be a hit with modern audiences.

Host Moisés Chiullán with panelists Lisa Schmeiser, Cicero Holmes, Monty Ashley, and David J. Loehr.

707 Crime is Not Cozy

Dan Moren joins Antony Johnston to discuss Antony’s “Dog Sitter Detective” mystery novel series.

706 Riff on Biff

We conclude our movie-by-movie review of the “Back to the Future” series with the western-themed third installment, which features less time travel shenanigans and more old-west shenanigans.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Lex Friedman, John Siracusa, Brian Warren, Moisés Chiullán, and Monty Ashley.

705 A Legacy of Biffs

It’s time again. Time! To go forward in time, then backward—or is it sideways?—in time, then further back in time, and then maybe even further back in time. It’s time for the bland future of 2015, the apocalyptic alt-present of 1985, and a familiar 1955. But most of all, it’s time for a Crisis on Infinite Biffs. It’s “Back to the Future Part II.”

Host Jason Snell with panelists Dan Moren, Brian Warren, John Siracusa, and Shelly Brisbin.

704 Kramer Before Kramer

Great Scott! No time to be a slacker, McFly, because we’ve gotta go back in time to 1985 so we can go back to 1955 so we can perfectly time a lightning strike. That’s right, it’s time to talk about “Back to the Future.”

Host Jason Snell with panelists Lex Friedman, Shelly Brisbin, Aleen Simms, John Siracusa, and Chip Sudderth.

703 Communists? In Berkeley?

Jason’s favorite movie of 2023 was the gray flipside to “Barbie,” Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.” And while none of us would exactly call ourselves Nolan fans, this one manages to grapple with a deep subject with great care. It’s got some spectacular scenes that will blow your mind—and a whole lot more scene of men in suits and hats standing around talking.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Shelly Brisbin, Kathy Campbell, and Cicero Holmes.

702 One Is Silly and One Is Wacky

Two nations, two sitcoms, one premise: What if one of us could see ghosts? Infusing genre complications into the world of TV situation comedies, “Ghosts” has become a hit in both the UK and the U.S.! We recommend both, compare the different versions, and try to explain why the whole idea works so well.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Annette Wierstra, Heather Berberet, Cicero Holmes, and Erika Ensign.

701 KEEP PANTYHOSE ON

KNEW THIS WAS ONE WAY TRIP
BUT YOU KNOW I HAD TO COME

At long last, “The Abyss” (Special Edition).

Host Jason Snell with panelists Todd Vaziri, John Siracusa, Erika Ensign, and Annette Wierstra.

699 Merchant Ivory Godzilla

In 2023’s “Godzilla Minus One,” the classic monster doesn’t just represent nuclear disaster, but crushing guilt on personal and societal levels. What if someone built a deeply emotional human drama that was also a movie where Godzilla destroys a whole lot of stuff? We’ve got the answer!

Host Jason Snell with Panelists Monty Ashley and Moisés Chiullán.

698 Incarnation of the System

Crack open your psychohistory textbooks and ready a new batch of imperial clones, because it’s time to discuss the Apple TV+ series “Foundation,” extremely loosely based on the classic works of Isaac Asimov. Before the spoiler horn, we talk about why this is a show worth catching up on—and also debate the merits of psychohistory. Then we discuss the first two seasons, which we really enjoyed.

Host Jason Snell with panelists John Siracusa, Dan Moren, Glenn Fleishman, and Heather Berberet.

700 A Dark Totoro

We reconvene Miyazaki Club to discuss the master animator’s latest final movie, “The Boy and the Heron.” We went in wondering, will this be lyrical and nostalgic magical realism, or will it be a barrage of super-weird fantastical imagery? The voluminous bird poop and the suit of frogs point the way.

Jason Snell with panelists John Siracusa, Steve Lutz, and Moisés Chiullán.

697 Three Things and a Blurt

Happy new year! Some of our most prolific panelists pick some of their favorite media of the year gone by, and a few listeners send in some favorite clips from The Incomparable in this past year. Onward to 2024!

Host Jason Snell with panelists Moisés Chiullán, Chip Sudderth, Monty Ashley, Dan Moren, Shelly Brisbin, Annette Wierstra, and David J. Loehr.

696 Self-Aware and Unaware

It’s Kilmas 2023 and this is “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.” Val Kilmer’s the best thing in it, of course. The rest of the film feels unstuck in time.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Annette Wierstra, Tiff Arment, and Dan Moren.

695 Uncanny Plastic Head

In the spirit of coming downstairs and finding presents waiting under the tree, we offer the Incomparable Toy Draft. It’s not just a story about our favorite childhood toys—it’s also a story about the toys we desperately wanted and never got.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Shelly Brisbin, Lisa Schmeiser, Kelly Guimont, Moisés Chiullán, David J. Loehr, Chip Sudderth, Monty Ashley, Philip Michaels, and Annette Wierstra.

692 The Penultimate Weapon

We don’t care what the box office says! We saw “The Marvels” and thought it was a lot of fun. And we worry that Marvel may take the wrong lessons from its box-office failure.

Host Jason Snell with panelist James Thomson, Kelly Guimont, Sarah Hendrica Bickerton, Shannon Sudderth, and Chip Sudderth.

694 Don't Take the Soylent Factory Tour

50 years later, “Soylent Green” is still made of people—and its futuristic setting of 2022 is shocking relevant! But having given this film a full viewing, we think it’s also a pretty good example of ’70s eco sci-fi with a little noir detective flavoring. (Not that kind of flavoring.)

Host Jason Snell with panelists Dr. Drang, Annette Wierstra, Jean MacDonald, Monty Ashley, and Philip Michaels.

691 You See... They're Ducks

For Thanksgiving we give you a turkey of a movie about a duck. It’s “Howard the Duck.” No way to conceal it.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Annette Wierstra, David J. Loehr, Moisés Chiullán, Monty Ashley, Erika Ensign and Steve Lutz.

[This episode has been renumbered to 691.]

693 Short-Selling Magic Crystals

Almost 100 episodes later, we reconvene (most of) our original panel to discuss season two of “The Wheel of Time.” How does it fit into the current set of big fantasy TV shows? Team Didn’t-Read-the-Books seems to be in agreement with Lady Dragonmount that it helps when a fantasy saga’s book series is complete before it’s adapted for the screen.

Host Moisés Chiullán with panelists John Siracusa and Kathy Campbell.

[This episode has been renumbered to 693.]

690 Some Possibly Shady Goings-On

Dan Moren’s new novel ‘All Souls Lost’ is a departure from his previously published work, but not as much as you might think. Antony talks to him about the book, how it came to be, and why it was a long time in the making.

Antony Johnston and Dan Moren.

666 Max Von Sydow Was 44

A mother seeks help for her troubled daughter from a medical profession that’s unable to find an answer it can believe. A priest questions his faith, until he gets projectile vomited in the face by a 12-year-old girl with her head spinning around. It’s a horror classic. We celebrate the 50th anniversary of “The Exorcist”!

Host Jason Snell with guests Dr. Drang, Tiff Arment, Steve Lutz, Moisés Chiullán, and Brian Hamilton.

689 Have Phaser, Will Travel

We have some suggestions for the next round of “Star Trek” TV series.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Monty Ashley, Moisés Chiullán, Joe Rosensteel, David J. Loehr, and Heather Berberet.

688 They're All Messed Up

Grab some kindling and prepare to board up a window! Old Movie Club gets in the spirit of the spooky season with the 1969 movie that started it all—and by “all” we mean what we now think of as zombies—“Night of the Living Dead.” For a low-budget movie that features mostly amateur actors and fell out of copyright, it’s a certifiable classic. We’re certifying it right now. If you don’t like it, go back down to the basement, because we’re the boss of the upstairs.

Jason Snell with panelists Tiff Arment, Steve Lutz, Philip Michaels, and Erika Ensign.

687 Resurrected Corpse

The Book Club closes the door on this year’s awards shortlist with some lively book ranking and a tour of the nominated short fiction.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Aleen Simms, Erika Ensign, Scott McNulty, and Heather Berberet.

686 Selective Sequel

You will believe a man can fly… a seaplane! We take on the curious 2006 film “Superman Returns,” which is a sequel (sort of) to “Superman” and “Superman II” but most definitely not other movies. There’s a new cast and a new boyfriend for Lois, but Lex Luthor’s still obsessed with real estate. Also, this may be the last movie to feature a fax being sent from a yacht as a key plot point.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Cicero Holmes, Shelly Brisbin, Erika Ensign, Moisés Chiullán, and David J. Loehr.

683 It Was Okay

Our Book Club concludes its reading of the Hugo and Nebula shortlist novels with “The Daughter of Doctor Moreau” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and “The Spare Man” by Mary Robinette Kowal. One’s an homage to H.G. Wells (sort of?) and the other plays like “The Thin Man” in space. Plus: We debate the meaning of star-rating systems, and what else are we reading?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Scott McNulty, Aleen Simms, and Erika Ensign.

685.2 685.The Execution Kills Me

You will believe a man can fly again! Super September continues with a discussion of “Superman II,” a troubled production that shows all the signs of being a superhero classic… but falls short of the mark more often than we expected.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Shelly Brisbin, Erika Ensign, and David J. Loehr.

682 Heroes I Never Heard Of

Perhaps the best expression of the DC Animated Universe was its swan song: Justice League Unlimited, which improved upon its predecessor (Justice League Unadorned) with snappier pacing, a conspiracy story arc that anticipated today’s morally ambiguous super-teams, and a jumbo variety pack of DC characters. YES, we’re going to talk about Shining Knight, Bat Lash, and the Question. YES, we’re going to talk about the best-but-most-misplaced epilogue to the DCAU. YES, we’re going to talk about what happens when a super genius and a super genius gorilla tangle in the workplace.

Host Chip Sudderth with panelists Tony Sindelar, Cicero Holmes, Monty Ashley, and Shannon Sudderth.

681 Do More Harm

Arrange an assortment of home-cooked Vulcan appetizers and warm up your singing voices, because it’s time to discuss season two of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.” This season took some big swings, and some of them didn’t quite connect—but a whole lot of them did.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Jean MacDonald, Erika Ensign, Dan Moren, and Joe Rosensteel.

684 The Memory Cheats

We entered our viewing of 1978’s “Superman” with nostalgia and a sense of childlike wonder. We exited questioning everything about our fond memories of childhood.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign, Shelly Brisbin, Steve Lutz, and Chip Sudderth.

680 A Better Lando Calrissian

Is there a movie everyone else thinks is bad, which you secretly love? Maybe more than one? Then this is the episode for you! Antony resurrects his old podcast and asks a panel of guests to draft and talk about movies which are… unjustly maligned.

Host Antony Johnston with panelists Chip Sudderth, Jean MacDonald, Monty Ashley, and Sarah Bickerton.

679 Fleshy and Gross

We travel the highways and byways of space, from gross flesh space stations to the weird suburbs of Counter-Earth, all with one quest in mind: talk about Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3!”

Host Jason Snell with panelists Brian Warren, Chip Sudderth, and Kelly Guimont.

678 People Who Care About Kaiju

Our book club reads two Hugo nominees, “Nona the Ninth” and “The Kaiju Preservation Society.” Plus: What are we reading?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign, Scott McNulty, and Aleen Simms.

What are we reading?

Erika:

• The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
• Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200 by RSA Garcia
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, and Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo

Scott:

• Blood Is Blood by Will Thomas
• Fixit by Joe Ide

Aleen:

• The Vampire Knitting Club by Nancy Warren
• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Jason:

• Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey
• Witch King by Martha Wells

677 Pink Magic

When a movie is this pink and this popular, we can’t ignore it. Our panel came in with high expectations for “Barbie,” and somehow not one of them was disappointed. What is it about Barbie and Ken that made this movie the hit of Summer 2023?

Host Annette Wierstra with panelists Shelly Brisbin, Heather Berberet, Kathy Campbell, Brian Hamilton, and Moisés Chiullán.

676 Crisis on Infinite Parkers

How can “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” live up to its predecessor? It seems like a tough one, but somehow this 2023 sequel manages it. Just don’t expect an ending—it was originally called “Part One” for a reason.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Chip Sudderth, Lisa Schmeiser, Shannon Sudderth, and John Siracusa.

675 I Know a Lot of Divers

Our Indy Summer concludes with the new release, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” Ticking clocks! Antonio Banderas! Short Round II! We had a good time at the movie and we break it all down.

Host Jason Snell with panelists John McCoy, Annette Wierstra, Deb Stanish, Erika Ensign, and Steven Schapansky.

674 Too Much Monkey Business

Bad news for the haters: We watched “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and must inform you that our nerd rage of the 2000s has abated and we think it’s mostly okay now, actually. Even the refrigerator.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Annette Wierstra, Brian Warren, Erika Ensign, and Steve Lutz.

673 Ten Years or One Bullet Hole

Our revisiting of Indiana Jones movies continues with “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, a movie that may not achieve true greatness, but sure has a heck of a lot of fun, thanks to a solid job from Harrison Ford and everything Sean Connery says or does.

Host Dan Moren with panelists Aleen Simms, Kathy Campbell, Monty Ashley, and Tony Sindelar.

671 Fuches is Everyone's Dad

“Barry” is the blackest of black comedies — if it’s even a comedy at all by season four. We knew Bill Hader was funny, but now we also know he’s an impressive actor and director, too. This spoiler-laden discussion of all four seasons dives deep into what’s real and not, what’s funny and not, and whether Barry was mostly a trippy homage to “Breaking Bad.”

Host Lex Friedman with panelists Brian Warren and Brian Hamilton.

670 I Guess I Like People?

From the sleeper hit that everyone clung to during the COVID lockdowns to a third season with Premier League-levels of hype and scrutiny, Ted Lasso was more than a breakout hit for Apple TV+. We dive into the Good, the Bad, and the Zava and make our picks (“It’s not a draft!”) for what spinoffs we want to see!

Host Chip Sudderth with panelists Aleen Simms, James Thomson, Kathy Campbell, and Shannon Sudderth.

672 Hot Pits

As an adjunct to the Summer of Spielberg, we are revisiting the Indiana Jones movies we only glossed over the last time we covered them! We begin with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” which gets credit for trying something different and demerit for failing at a lot of that.

669 Friendship & Cinnamon Rolls

Our book club tackles two Nebula-nominated novels with ampersands in their titles! Is that all they have in common? It’s “Nettle & Bone” & “Legends & Lattes.” Plus: Is Scott the monster again this time? Maybe not!

Host Jason Snell with panelists Scott McNulty, Aleen Simms, Erika Ensign, and Kelly Guimont.

668 McGuffins & Mechanics

They made a better movie about Dungeons & Dragons! Can you really go wrong with Chris Pine and Hugh Grant? Two expert DMs and a roleplaying novice break it all down!

Host Jason Snell with panelists Tony Sindelar, Scott McNulty, and Moisés Chiullán.

667 This Show Was Weird, Right?

We go 20 minutes into the future and 36 years into the past to discuss ABC’s cyberpunk drama “Max Headroom.” For a show with an 80s pop-culture icon as its title character, it’s actually a prescient satire about where our culture was (and still is?) headed. Even more than three decades later, its discussions of data security, the right to privacy in a technological age, artificial intelligence, and even deepfakes are still state of the art. (Non-American viewers who thought this was the show where Max Headroom introduced various music videos… uh, no.) Catch the wave and join us, won’t you?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Cicero Holmes, Moisés Chiullán, Monty Ashley, Warren Frey, and Austin Rich.

665 Defragment Your Data

They said that “Star Trek: Picard” wasn’t just going to be a “Star Trek: The Next Generation” reunion show, and that turned out to be true, at least about the first two seasons. We review the show’s just-completed third season, which brought us the emotional and nostalgic moments we craved, introduced an assortment of new characters we liked (or didn’t), and introduced some plot elements that we puzzled over.

Host Jason Snell with Joe Rosensteel, Moisés Chiullán, Cicero Holmes, and David J. Loehr.

664 The Book of Bo Katan

We gripe because we love! We break down the third season of “The Mandalorian.” Is burying part of the story in another show doing a disservice to this one? Why are there so may plot threads that seem to go nowhere, or get resolved in an anticlimactic fashion? And, despite all that, how did we all still have a good time?

663 A Lot of Ocean

Our Book Club begins our walk through awards shortlist reading with two Nebula Awards nominees for best novel, “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Naylor and “Spear” by Nicola Griffith. One’s a near-future thriller about sentient octopi, the other’s an Arthurian fantasy with a few twists.

Next time we’ll be reading Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher and Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree.

662 Bipedal Murder Robots

Everyone laughed at the title, and many laughed at the over-the-top violence, but 1987’s “RoboCop” turned into a sleeper hit that kickstarted a major franchise. We revisit Paul Verhoeven’s first and best big-budget sci-fi satire.

Host Antony Johnston with panelists Erika Ensign, Moisés Chiullán, and Steve Lutz.

661 Sad Banjo

Sure, she’s a human lie detector, but she’s also a murder magnet who’s running from a guy who seems to want her dead. We enter the world of Rian Johnson’s Poker Face, where Natasha Lyonne is both Columbo and The Fugitive.

Host Shelly Brisbin with Antony Johnston, Annette Wierstra, David J. Loehr, Ken Ray.

660 The Monocle Test

Old Movie Club throws itself into the turning wheels of justice with two legal films from 1957, “12 Angry Men” and “Witness for the Prosecution.”

Host Jason Snell with panelists Philip Michaels, Dr. Drang, Shelly Brisbin, and Randy Dotinga.

659 Infested With Love

Grab a backpack and get ready to siphon some gas—we’re setting out from the safe zone on a quest to find opinions about the first season of HBO’s video game adaptation, “The Last of Us.”

Host Cicero Holmes with panelists Annette Wierstra, Erika Ensign, and Guy English.

658 Nowhere In Time

Avoid stepping on butterflies, step into your time machine, and go kill your grandfather—it’s time for our Time Travel Movies Draft! We select favorite films from all corners of the time-travel genre, from time loops to historical shenanigans to nonsensical plot twists.

Host Jason Snell with panelists James Thomson, Glenn Fleishman, Erika Ensign, Moisés Chiullán, Annette Wierstra, and Monty Ashley.

657 A Cloud Atlas with 12 Monkeys

Our Book Club reads “Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St. John Mandel, a beautifully written story set in multiple timelines that—like her earlier novel “Station Eleven”—frustrated some, but not all, of our panelists. We also recommend a lot of other books to read!

Next Book Club selections: “Spear” by Nicola Griffith and “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Naylor, both Nebula Award nominees.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign, Deb Stanish, Aleen Simms, and Scott McNulty.

What we’re reading

Aleen:

• Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
• Book Lovers by Emily Henry
• Beach Read by Emily Henry
• A Million Junes by Emily Henry
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

Deb:

• Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them by Siân Evans
• The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix
• The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix

Erika:

• Rabbit Test
• Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson
• Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Scott:

• The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
• Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
• Descendant Machine by Gareth L. Powell
• The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran

Jason:

• The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings
• Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

654 Goth Girl Handbook

Wednesday Addams is not the girl of your dreams — she’s the stuff of your nightmares. Our group of outcasts gathers in our secret library to conjure our thoughts on the first season of “Wednesday”, streaming on Netflix. We discuss what we love about the show, while also trying to figure out, is it really meant for us?

653 Royalty Don't Mess Around

Put on your home-built Iron Man suit and whisper into some beads, because it’s time to discuss “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Our panel talks about how the movie leaves space to grieve Chadwick Boseman and T’Challa while also providing a platform for a bunch of black women to take the lead in a geopolitical battle involving the charismatic Namor, the U.S. government, and… the French? We drift into the shipping lanes for a moment, but it doesn’t generate any enthusiasm about the film’s big boat battle.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Cicero Holmes, Moisés Chiullán, Kelly Guimont, and Lisa Schmeiser.

655 Princesses Don't Have to Wear Pink

This week we’re drafting Disney Princesses! There are two simple rules: They must be Disney, and they must be princesses. How far will our intrepid panelists go to stretch those rules? Join us to find out.

Hosts Annette Wierstra & Kathy Campbell with panelists James Thomson, Rosemary Orchard, Moisés Chiullán, Monty Ashley, and Glenn Fleishman.

656 Endless Slumber Party

We wrap up our seven-year walkthough(!) of the seven seasons of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The show is slowly grinding to a halt, but are there gems to be discovered? Buffy’s got a speech about that. Maybe the real Big Bad was the friends we made along the way!

Watcher Jason Snell with potential Slayers Aleen Simms, Jean MacDonald, Quinn Rose, Mattie Cox, and Steve Lutz.

652 A Long Zoom

Our Book Club reconvenes to discuss R.F. Kuang’s “Babel.” It’s a story about magic and empire and revolution, and our feelings about it are similarly complicated. Plus: A whole bunch of book suggestions!

Our next Book Club selection: “Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St. John Mandel.

Your Book Club Host is Jason Snell. Attending Book Club members are Aleen Simms, Dan Moren, Glenn Fleishman, Deb Stanish, Erika Ensign, and Scott McNulty.

651 Breakfast Club for Superheroes

Get in line to order a hero sandwich—not so fast, sidekick! We’re here to talk about 2005’s thoroughly delightful Disney movie “Sky High,” featuring superhero action and teen drama that are both full to the brim—but never quite over the top.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Glenn Fleishman, Jean MacDonald, Aleen Simms, and Erika Ensign.

650 The Sum of All Tildas

This week, we’re drafting some spies, secret agents, and con artists. Con artists? Why not? They all use similar skills—sometimes, it’s impossible to tell the difference. From fiction to spoof to inspired by real life, we’ve got it all. Also, is that Cate Blanchett or Tilda Swinton? Good luck, Jim. This episode will self destruct in five seconds.

Host David J. Loehr with panelists Tom McGrath, Chris Klimek, and Nathan Alderman.

Tom:

• Archer
• Charlie Wilson’s War Scarecrow and Mrs King Spy
• Psych

Chris:

• The Avengers
• Hudson Hawk
• Tenspeed and Brownshoe The Nice Guys
• American Flagg

Nathan:

• Sandbaggers
• Hanna
• Alias
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015 film) Leverage

David:

• Mission: Impossible (TV)
• Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
• Lupin
• Maverick (TV and film)
• Parker novels / Dortmunder novels by Donald Westlake

649 I'm Gonna Marry That Robot Lady

Put on your headset and get ready to jump into a polt, because we’re going to discuss “The Peripheral,” Prime Video’s adaptation of William Gibson’s novel. What makes its approach to certain famous sci-fi tropes unique? How interesting are the accents? Why is there an invisible car? We’ll answer those questions as soon as we flee to another stub.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Dan Moren, Erika Ensign, Lisa Schmeiser, and Antony Johnston.

648 Magical NDA

Store up some mana and watch out for maleficers and maw-mouths! We’re going to discuss Naomi Novik’s “Scholomance” trilogy, which takes the familiar story of a school for teenage magicians and does some very different things with it! Before the Spoiler Horn, we talk generally about the books and why you should read them. Then we dig into some of the details of how the series changes as it comes to its end.

Our next Book Club selection is “Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution” by R.F. Kuang.

What are we reading?

Aleen:

• “Signal Moon” by Kate Quinn
• “The Rose Code” by Kate Quinn
• World of the White Rat series by T. Kingfisher
• “Swordheart” by T. Kingfisher
• “Nettle and Bone” by T Kingfisher
• “The Nova Incident” by Dan Moren

Glenn:

• “Housebreaking” by Colleen Hubbard
• “Piranesi” by Susanna Clarke
• “Fairy Tale” by Stephen King

Erika:

• “Dead Spots” by Melissa F. Olson
• “The Necessity of Trans Joy” by Izzy Wasserstein

Dan:

• “Blitz” - Daniel O’Malley
• “Nightwatch over Windscar” by K. Eason
• “Locklands” by Robert Jackson Bennett
• “Jeeves and the King of Clubs by Ben Schott

Jason:

• “Blitz” - Daniel O’Malley
• “Fairy Tale” by Stephen King
• “A Gathering of Shadows” by V.E. Schwab

Next Book Club:”Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution” by R.F. Kuang

647 Obnoxiously Vegan

Our favorites from 2022.

Moisés Chiullán

• Pachinko
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Director’s Edition 4K Restoration
• All of Soccer, specifically Austin FC
• Shouting Down Midnight (2022)

David J. Loehr

• Corrections with Seth Meyers on YouTube
• Confess, Fletch (2022)
• Daniel Pemberton scores, including Enola Holmes 2, Slow Horses, Ocean’s 8

Dan Moren

• The Ipcress File (2022) miniseries
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings score Spotify Apple Amazon
• Marvel’s Spider-Man for PS5/)

Erika Ensign

• The Power of the Doctor
• Ghosts US and Ghosts UK
• Jann (2019)

Monty Ashley

• Reservation Dogs (2021) Season 1 & 2
• Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
• Nightflight

Shelly Brisbin

• Kevin Morby “This is a Photograph”
• INDICATOR Film Noir Limited Edition Collections
• Rachel Maddow Presents: ULTRA

Glenn Fleishman

• The Legend of Vox Machina Season 1
• The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison
• Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

Chip Sudderth

• 2022 MCU on Disney+: Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney-At-Law, Moon Knight, Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, Werewolf by Night
• Meta Quest 2
• The Sandman Season 1

Tony Sindelar

• Andor (2022) Season 1
• Turning Red (2022)
• Return to Monkey Island

Jean MacDonald

• Dalgliesh (2021) Series 1
• Licorice Pizza (2021)
• Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Cicero Holmes

• Apt. 505 by Coast Contra Spotify
• Deep-diving on everything on Apple TV+, in particular Acapulco (2021) Season 1 & 2
• High On Life

Lisa Schmeiser

• The Sandman Season 1
• The Peripheral (2022) Season 1
• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Jason Snell

• Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 1
• The Tragedy of MacBeth (2021), even though Cicero picked all of TV+, because it’s not a draft

646 A Christmas Quarrel

The Knight before Christmas this year is David Lowery’s 2021 film The Green Knight. This year’s final Mothership episode is a game inside a gift inside a game, much like the movie. Is every episode featuring Glenn secretly (or not-so-secretly) about Zardoz? What secrets of the exotic West Midlands does Antony have to reveal? Do Incomparable members get more or less Glenn this year? Find out as we champion diverging from the path as the most direct route to completing a quest.

Host Moisés Chiullán with panelists Glenn Fleishman and Antony Johnston.

645 Oh No, My Spleen!

Our annual Kilmas tradition leads us to watch the questionable 2000 sci-fi film “Red Planet,” in which Val Kimer is at his best, and several other actors are also present. Also, the main plot points of this film are so similar to “The Martian” that we’re now convinced Andy Weir must have seen this film and vowed to do it better. But if you’ve ever wanted to watch a dumber version of “The Martian,” have we found the movie for you.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Moisés Chiullán, Annette Wierstra, Erika Ensign, and David J. Loehr.

644 Spoilers for "ALF"

Star Wars gets serious with “Andor,” a show that gives us exactly what we needed (but didn’t know we wanted?) from the venerable franchise. We break down the plots, characters, and storytelling choices, live from John Siracusa’s living room!

Host Jason Snell with panelists Dan Moren, Tony Sindelar, and John Siracusa.

643 Shouty Oscar Winners

50 years later, we watch Irwin Allen’s disaster classic “The Poseidon Adventure.”

Host Jean MacDonald with panelists Steve Lutz, Shelly Brisbin, and John Chidgey.

642 Management Advice From Mobsters

Are you calling us funny? Are we like a clown? Do we amuse you? More than thirty years later, “GoodFellas” still stands up. In honor of the late Ray Liotta, we break down Martin Scorsese’s classic film about street-level gangsters.

Host Jason Snell with panelists John Siracusa, Monty Ashley, and Philip Michaels.

641 Miles Ahead of Lou Ferrigno

Put on a magic bangle and pick up your briefcase, because it’s time for us to discuss two Marvel Disney+ series that push the universe in some new and interesting directions, “Ms. Marvel” and “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.”

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign, Cicero Holmes, Moisés Chiullán, and Chip Sudderth.

640 Did He Really Date Madonna?

“Weird” is the direct-to-Roku movie that accurately chronicles every aspect of Al Yankovic’s life. This podcast accurately chronicles every aspect of the movie.

Host Lex Friedman with panelists Brian Hamilton, Quinn Rose, and Kelly Guimont.

639 Prologue: The Television Series

We watched “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and “House of the Dragon” and have thoughts.

Host Jason Snell with panelists John Siracusa, Moisés Chiullán, Erika Ensign, and Joe Rosensteel.

638 A Loose Assemblage of Goo and Blobs

Put on a jacket and charge up your flamethrower, because it’s almost halloween, and that means it’s time for Old Spooky Club to discuss 1982’s “The Thing.” It’s foul and drippy and gooey—the Thing, that is, and not the movie. The movie’s not foul. It’s the other two, though.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Steve Lutz, Philip Michaels, and Erika Ensign.

637 Sorry, Charlie, It's Chinatown

Our Old Movie Club sits down with a nice plate of fish and a large glass of water to watch 1972’s “Chinatown.” We discuss the merits of Jack Nicholson, the horror of John Huston’s character, and perhaps the perfect noir screenplay.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Steve Lutz, Philip Michaels, Shelly Brisbin, Dr. Drang, and David J. Loehr.

636 The Elephant in the Trenchcoat

Mystery and mayhem are on the menu as we draft favorite TV detectives. Thomas Magnum is off the board, but everyone else is fair game. Who will our panelists choose to figure out whodunit? Will it be the usual suspects? Surely Jim Rockford will be on the list, unless he didn’t get his voicemail…

Host David J. Loehr with panelists Katie Siegel, Tom McGrath, Shelly Brisbin, Nathan Alderman, and Chris Klimek.

635 Throw a Rock at a Reader

It’s time to reconvene our Book Club, not to talk about an awards shortlist but to recommend books from arbitrarily selected categories. So many books! And not many rocks, we promise.

Host Antony Johnston with Panelists Erika Ensign, Jason Snell, and James Thomson.

634 Addicted to Sand

Netflix’s “The Sandman.”

Host Tony Sindelar with panelists Dan Moren, Glenn Fleishman, Sarah Bickerton, Shannon Sudderth, and Chip Sudderth.

633 Thor Family

Russell Crowe! Christian Bale! Natalie Portman! Are they starring in a prestige film that we’re sure to hear about when Oscar time comes around? No, it’s “Thor: Love and Thunder!” But while this movie might not be able to live up to “Thor: Ragnarok,” there are a lot of things we appreciated about it. And also some things we didn’t. It’s all about tone.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Tony Sindelar, Chip Sudderth, and Kathy Campbell.

632 Time Bandit Titanic

Mum, Dad, it’s evil, don’t touch it! The Summer of Time Travel reaches its end—or is it the beginning?—with 1981’s “Time Bandits,” a children’s fantasy written and directed and even featuring some Monty Pythons. Does it work for adults? Does the tone still work? We fall through a time hole and give our verdict.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Annette Wierstra, David J. Loehr, Monty Ashley, and Shelly Brisbin.

631 Timecop After Timecop

What if H.G. Wells used a time machine to chase Jack the Ripper into the present day (of 1979)? It would look an awful lot like 1979’s “Time After Time,” we’re guessing. David Warner and Malcolm McDowell match wits! Mary Steenburgen is a modern lady looking for an old-fashioned man! Also Jason observes the film’s (pretty good) depiction of San Francisco geography and Jean confronts her young moviegoing trauma.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Jean MacDonald, Moisés Chiullán, Monty Ashley, and David J. Loehr.

630 Saunter in From the Future

The Summer of Time Travel turns to “Timecop.” It’s not time science, it’s kicking surgery.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Monty Ashley, Annette Wierstra, and Joe Rosensteel.

629b: Laundry and Taxes 629b: Laundry and Taxes

In the second of two panels discussing Everything Everywhere All At Once, we abandon a linear discussion of the plot in favor of jumping from place to place across the multiverse of our FEELINGS. Do we get lost, or is this the only way we could truly find ourselves?

Host Moisés Chiullán with panelists Joy Piedmont and Sarah Hendrica Bickerton.

629 Bum Bag Beatdown

We take a sideways break from the Summer of Time Travel by verse-jumping across realities to Everything Everywhere All At Once, the multiverse movie directed by The Daniels and starring Michelle Yeoh. Is empathy the superpower Doctor Strange needed all along? Too bad, because he isn’t in this movie!

Host Moisés Chiullán with panelists Brian Hamilton, Jean MacDonald, and Sandra Wong.

628 Dumbness is Timeless

The Summer of Time Travel begins/ends/continues (pick one) with 1989’s “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” in which two dumb guys collect some of history’s greatest figures and take them to the mall. Party on, dudes!

Host Jason Snell with panelists Kelly Guimont, Lisa Schmeiser, Moisés Chiullán, and Steve Lutz.

627 The Czech Office

The days of appointment television are long gone, but what if you could create a streaming service broadcasting the best that TV had to offer in the 21st century? What shows would be on your marquee? We’ve got you covered, with our very first Peak TV draft (patent pending)! Will your favorite shows get drafted? Tune in to find out!

Host Cicero Holmes with David J. Loehr, Jean MacDonald, Monty Ashley, Shareef Jackson, and Moisés Chiullán.

626 Don't Copy That Chip 'n Dale Floppy

The release of the super-meta “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers” with John Mulaney and Andy Samberg on Disney+ put us in mind of a movie from which it borrowed a hunk of its DNA: “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” We first toon, er, tune our dial to that classic, groundbreaking 1988 Robert Zemeckis-directed film, then look at its 2022 chip off the old block. Forget it, Dale, it’s Toontown.

Host Glenn Fleishman with David J. Loehr, Moisés Chiullán, and Shelly Brisbin.

625 Frisky Vulcans

We wrap up three seasons of new live-action Star Trek with some tough love for “Discovery” and “Picard”, and some unabashed love for “Strange New Worlds.”

Host Jason Snell with Jean MacDonald, Tony Sindelar, Joe Rosensteel, and David J. Loehr.

623 Sand Tuna Thief

Hello there! We discuss “Obi-Wan Kenobi” on Disney+, including Ewan MacGregor’s delight in the role, the return of Hayden Christensen, and balancing the needs of superfans with movies-only fans.

Host Dan Moren with panelists Kathy Campbell, Tony Sindelar, James Thomson, and Chip Sudderth.

621 They Built the Halos

Let’s face it, there’s not a lot of evidence to support the cause of adapting video games for movies or TV. And yet we tried the “Halo” TV series from Paramount+ and… liked it? We discuss making the Master Chief a real character with a strong supporting cast, why the UNSC is not trustworthy, the origin of Cortana, and the show’s connections to Star Wars, Firefly, and… 2001?!

Host Jason Snell with panelists Moisés Chiullán, Dan Moren and James Thomson.

622 The MacGuffin Twins

Put on your flying cloak and load up on pizza balls, because we’re here to talk about “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” This is an interesting one, because most of us agree that the movie is fun and inventive in a lot of enjoyable ways—but also entirely mishandles its villain. Can you love a movie that also make you angry? We try! Some of us fail.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Sarah Hendrica Bickerton, Erika Ensign, Lisa Schmeiser, Monty Ashley, and Glenn Fleishman.

624 You Got Ludlumed

On the occasion of the publication of “The Nova Incident,” Jason asks Dan a bunch of questions from readers (and listeners) about his writing career, techniques, tools, and more.

Host Jason Snell with very special author-panelist Dan Moren.

620 Alien Donut Lady

2022 Awards Book Club concludes with three Hugo-nominated novels: Andy Weir’s deep-space problem-solver “Project Hail Mary”; Shelley Parker Chan’s historical epic “She Who Became the Sun”; and Ryka Aoki’s alien-and-demon-packed “Light from Uncommon Stars.” Also, Erika and Jason highlight some of their favorite short-fiction Hugo nominees.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign, Aleen Simms, Scott McNulty, and Dan Moren.

Collective rankings:

1. “The Galaxy and the Ground Within” (4 first-place votes, 1.2 average)
2. “A Desolation Called Peace” (1, 2.2)
3. Light from Uncommon Stars (0, 3.5)
4. “Project Hail Mary” (0, 4)
5. “A Master of Djinn” (0, 4.4)
6. “She Who Became the Sun” (0, 5.2)

619 Who Will Speak For Fish Police?

From Duckman to Dicktown, this week we’re covering cartoons… for grown-ups. These animated series have an adult sensibility, and they don’t all feature obscenity, graphic violence, or sexual acts… though some do! Shows like The Legend of Vox Machina, Harley Quinn, Hit Monkey, and Invincible have an adult audience clearly or primarily in mind, while others, like Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law or The Tick require a deep well of cultural references that might leave children (and many adults) baffled. We discuss the overall trend, highlight shows past and present we love, and puzzle out how some shows (good and inexplicable) even came to be.

Host Glenn Fleishman with panelists David J. Loehr, John McCoy, Moisés Chiullán, Lisa Schmeiser, and Tony Sindelar.

Show Notes

Notes: Undone season two is already out; we may have called the animated series Disenchantment by the name Disenchanted (an upcoming movie sequel to the Enchanted film); and it’s not clear yet if Hit Monkey has shot its only season.

In this episode, we talked about a hundred or more series, but the following are ones a panelist called out in particular in a very rough order. Links to watch the show may largely work only in the United States.

• Duckman (watch)
• Beavis and Butt-Head (watch) (remastered episodes coming)
• Daria (watch)
• King of the Hill (watch)
• Space Ghost Coast to Coast (watch)
• Sealab 2020 (watch)
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law (watch)
• Tuca and Bertie (watch season 1 on Netflix, season 2 on Adult Swim)
• Invincible (watch)
• Hit Monkey) (watch)
• The Legend of Vox Machina (watch)
• Masters of the Universe: Revelation (watch)
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (watch)
• Tear Along the Dotted Line (watch)
• BoJack Horseman (watch)
• Disenchantment (watch)
• Saturday Morning All Star Hits (watch)
• Futurama (watch)
• Centaurworld (watch)
• Castlevania (watch)
• Batman: The Animated Series (watch)
• Love, Death, and Robots (watch)
• Fish Police (watch)
• Bob’s Burgers (watch)
• Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (watch)
• Home Movies (watch)
• Adventure Time (watch)
• Steven Universe (watch)
• Regular Show (watch)
• Chowder (watch)
• Primal (watch)
• Arcane (watch)
• Poorly Drawn Lines (watch)
• Robot Chicken (watch)
• Gravity Falls (watch)
• The Venture Brothers (watch)
• The Tick: 1994 (watch), 2001 (watch), 2016 (watch)
• Harley Quinn on HBO (watch)
• Undone (watch)
• Apollo 10 1/2 (watch)
• The Critic (watch)
• Infinity Train (watch)
• The Flintstones
• Dicktown (watch)

617 Group Therapy for One Guy

Moon Knight—the butt of a thousand jokes on this very network who improbably made the Sweet Sixteen of our infamous Summer Superhero Spectacular—got his own limited series on Disney+. We talk about the Oscar Isaac of it all, the loving attention to modern Egypt, whether the show is well served by its near-total disconnection to the MCU, and how it might have held up as a ’90s syndicated actioner. (Think “Relic Hunter” production values. You can see it, can’t you?

Host Chip Sudderth with Erika Ensign, Moisés Chiullán, Dan Moren, and Glenn Fleishman.

618 Mars Monkey Dance Number

Rocket Surgery takes a time machine back to 1930 for “Just Imagine,” a visionary view of the far future of 1980 that’s three movies in one—and feels like it. Then we jump to the real 1980 where, instead of evil martian twins, we find “Flash Gordon,” quarterback, New York Jets.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Steve Lutz, Moisés Chiullán, David J. Loehr, Shelly Brisbin, and Monty Ashley.

616 Bad Decision Theater

Awards Book Club returns for its second 2022 installment! This time it’s “The Galaxy and the Ground Within” by Becky Chambers, A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark, and The Unbroken by C.L. Clark.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign, Scott McNulty, Dan Moren, and Aleen Simms.

Dan:

• The Thursday Murder Club
• Amongst Our Weapons

Scott:

• Under Lock & Skeleton Key

Erika:

• Winter’s Orbit
• Rosebud
• Your Eyes, My Beacon
• You Perfect, Broken Thing

Aleen:

• Jade City (The Green Bone Saga series)
• Minor Mage
• The Wolf and the Woodsman

Jason:

• How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It
• Rethinking Fandom: How to Beat the Sports-Industrial Complex at Its Own Game
• All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told

615 People-Positive Management Style

What do you get when you blend historical fiction, pirates, and Taika Waititi? You get “Our Flag Means Death,” an ensemble romantic comedy featuring both ship battles and biting insults.

It only makes sense that Cicero Holmes brought the most loquacious of panelists: Annette Wierstra, Moisés Chuillan, Joe Rosenteel, and David J. Loehr.

614 Eternal Spotlight of the Sunless Mind

Step through the door and leave your personal biographical memories behind. Welcome. You’re now part of Lumen, a Very Friendly Company that always has your best interests at heart. We discuss the Apple TV+ series “Severance,” and try to explain why you should watch it, what shows it resembles, and just how much we liked the twists and turns of its first season.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Lex F., Glenn F., Dr. D., and Erika E.

613 Kaiju Panda

Put on your toque and be sure you’ve got your 4*Town tickets—we’re here to discuss Pixar’s “Turning Red,” a delightful coming-of-age movie about a Chinese-Canadian girl whose body is undergoing some telltale adolescent changes—you know, becoming interested in boys, rebelling against her parents, and transforming into a giant fuzzy red panda. The usual.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Moisés Chiullán, Sandra Wong, Monty Ashley, and Joy Piedmont.

612 YABM: Yet Another Batman Movie

Our panel of caped crusaders assemble to dissect 2022’s “The Batman.” The last thing we may have needed was another Batman movie, especially the grimmest, darkest, and longest one ever… but what if we actually liked it? We take apart the new approaches to classic batman stories, Robert Pattinson’s performance, souped-up batmobiles, and Gotham’s weather patterns.

Host Tony Sindelar with panelists Cicero Holmes, Dan Moren, Guy English, and Lisa Schmeiser.

611 Distributed Disinterested Dystopia

Our annual shortlist book club is back! We read two novels that were nominated for Best Novel in the Nebula Awards! SB Divya’s “Machinehood” is a near-future story of gig workers, weak AI servants, and rebellious space stations. Jason Sanford’s “Plague Birds” is a post-apocalyptic story about strong AIs and gene-altered people that’s so far in the future that it feels almost like fantasy. Plus: We recommend other books we’ve enjoyed recently!

Host Jason Snell with panelists Erika Ensign and Scott McNulty.

What have we been reading?

Scott

• Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford
• Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson

Erika

• The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein
• City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett
• Short fiction from Uncanny Magazine: Ina’s Spark by Mary Robinette Kowal and Ribbons by Natalia Theodoridou and The Clockwork Penguin Dreamed of Stars by Caroline Yoachim and Lily, the Immortal by Kylie Lee Baker

Jason

• Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
• One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

610 No, Mr. Blond, I Expect You to Die

Cue the electric bass and the full brass section, we’re talking Bond, James Bond this week. We make time for “No Time to Die,” of course, and the rest of the Daniel Craig era. How does it hold up, where does it go from here, what would we like to see? How does the latest movie reset the table? Were we shaken, stirred, or something in between?

Host David J. Loehr with panelists Kelly Guimont, Nathan Alderman, and Tom McGrath.

609 Chekhov's Toy Store

Old Movie Club returns with two films that imagine attempts to disrupt the United States government. In 1954’s “Suddenly,” Frank Sinatra’s going to try to kill the President. In 1964’s “Seven Days In May,” Burt Lancaster is plotting a military coup. Both films are in black and white from more than 50 years ago, and yet for some reason Phil thinks their themes may resonate even today…

Host Jason Snell with panelists Philip Michaels, Shelly Brisbin, Moisés Chiullán, and David J. Loehr.

608 A Centaur, Only for Cars

Fire up your Bernoulli Conversionator and check your trunk for stowaways, because we’re entering the Wachowski sisters’ candy-colored 2008 road rally through the Uncanny Valley, “Speed Racer.” It’s an eye-searing acid trip of a movie, with groundbreaking storytelling, an earnest heart, and a curious void at its center. (There is also a chimp.) We’ll discuss how this film fits into the Wachowskis’ canon, the supporting character whose story is way more interesting than the lead‚ and the only other big-budget film since that has dared to get this stylistically weird.

Host Nathan Alderman with Lisa Schmeiser and Shelly Brisbin.

607 I Regret So Many Great Movies

We’re back with our third Incomparable Film Festival! Nine of us are programming a day’s worth of films, all with secret themes which will be revealed as the podcast progresses! And while we are currently unable to pull off the Incomparable Film Festival in an actual movie theater, we encourage you to watch these great movies in the comfort of your own home.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Monty Ashley, Moisés Chiullán, Shelly Brisbin, Erika Ensign, David J. Loehr, Cicero Holmes, Steven Schapansky, and Dan Moren.

Picks:

• Monty: The Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Ace in the Hole (1951), Tabloid (2010), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) (Bad Journalism)
• Moisés: Fashions of 1934 (1934), The Red Shoes (1948), In the Mood for Love (2000), Moulin Rouge (2001) (Changed the visual language)
• Shelly: Harold and Maude (1971), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Nashville (1975), The Station Agent (2003) (Brooding introverts with a heart)
• Erika: Top Hat (1935), The Awful Truth (1937), My Favorite Wife (1940), Funny Face (1957) (Pajama day)
• David: Knives Out (2019), The Last of Sheila (1973), Out of Sight (1998), Ocean’s Eleven (2001) (Intricately plotted)
• Cicero: The Sandlot (1993), Swingers (1996), This is 40 (2012), Last Vegas (2013) (Diamonds are Forever-phases of life)
• Steven: Star Wars (1977), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) (Alternate Oscars)
• Dan: L.A. Confidential (1997), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), The Nice Guys (2016), Logan Lucky (2017) (Neo-noir crime)
• Jason: My Neighbor Totoro (1988), The Iron Giant (1999), Labyrinth (1986), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) (friendly monsters)

Extras

• Monty: His Girl Friday (also The Front Page and Switching Channels)
• Moisés: Public Domain (all Horror), Nosferatu (1922), House on Haunted Hill (1959), Manos The Hands of Fate (1966), Night of the Living Dead (1968); Public Domain (one horror), short film intro: Popeye the Sailor Man Meets Sindbad The Sailor (1936), His Girl Friday (1940), Carnival of Souls (1962), Charade (1963), Just Imagine (1930); Nicolas Cage plus Paddington 2 Because Why Not, Wild at Heart (1992), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022), Paddington 2 (2017)
• Shelly: Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Christopher Strong (1933), Diary of a Lost Girl (1929), The Color Purple (1985)
• Erika: Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, Goonies, Willow
• David: Backups for the theme: Logan Lucky, The Brothers Bloom, The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, Sleuth (1972), The Sting; Modern Musicals: Encanto, In the Heights, West Side Story (2021), All That Jazz; Political Science: Manchurian Candidate, Good Night, and Good Luck, Fail-Safe, Dr. Strangelove
• Steven: All the President’s Men (1976), The China Syndrome (1979), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Snatch (2000), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), United 93 (2006)
• Dan: Knives Out (sniped), Zero Effect (ineligible), North by Northwest, Bridge over the River Kwai, The Sting, The Fugitive
• Jason: Monsters Inc. (2001), ET, Ponyo, Gremlins (1984), Time Loops: Groundhog Day, Source Code, Edge of Tomorrow, Palm Springs, Looper, Primer

606 The Bears Did It

We’ve drafted many things on many episodes of this podcast, but we’ve never drafted podcasts! You get it: Panelists share (and draft!) their favorite podcasts, in categories like Comedy, Narrative, Fiction, Entertainment, and more.

Host Lex Friedman with panelists David J. Loehr, Monty Ashley, Shelly Brisbin, and Brian Hamilton.

Comedy:
* Shelly: ICYMI
* Brian: The Flophouse
* David: No Such Thing As A Fish
* Lex: Judge John Hodgman
* Monty: Comedy Bang Bang

Narrative:
* Shelly: Ear Hustle
* Brian: The Dream
* David: If I Go Missing: The Witches Did It
* Lex: Over My Dead Body
* Monty: Cocaine and Rhinestones

Fiction:
* Shelly: Bronzeville
* Brian: Alice Isn’t Dead
* David: Give Me Away
* Lex: Hello From The Magic Tavern
* Monty: Off Book: The Improvised Musical Podcast

Entertainment:
* Shelly: Gates McFadden Investigates
* Brian: The Besties
* David: Films To Be Buried With
* Lex: Smartless (not Conan, HDTGM, or WTF)
* Monty: Blank Check

Wildcard:
* Shelly: NitrateVille Radio [You Must Remember This, Crimetown, NYT Book Review, Hit Parade]
* Brian: My Brother, My Brother, and Me [You’re Wrong About, We Have Concerns]
* David: The Memory Palace [99% Invisible, Twenty Thousand Hertz, Infinite Monkey Cage, A Degree Absolute ]
* Lex: Threedom [Missing Richard Simmons, The West Wing Weekly, Reply All]
* Monty: Bonusnanas for Bonusnanza [Bonanas for Bonanza, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Podcast: The Ride, Good Christian Fun]

605 Apocalypse Doctoring

Get out your pocket knife and stick to the Wheel—we’re a traveling band of podcasters who move from town to town to re-enact conversations from before the apocalypse! Or at least that’s who we’d be in our version of the HBO Max miniseries, “Station Eleven.” We discuss the moving, optimistic post-apocalyptic tale that is told in a fractured time sequence and features lots of Shakespeare and a suspiciously powerful self-published graphic novel. And though there’s definitely no “Station Twelve” on the horizon, we can’t help but imagine what other stories are there just waiting to never be told.

Host Jason Snell with panelists John Siracusa, Aleen Simms, Jean MacDonald, and Annette Wierstra.

604 Team Creepy

Let’s hold hands and sneak through some eerie city ruins. Video game club is back in session to discuss “Little Nightmares II”, the creepy prequel to the beloved spooky platformer, Little Nightmares. We play as Mono, a bag-faced boy, as he and his companion navigate a world of puzzles and monsters lurking in the dark, only to be led to his own nightmare.

Host Tiff Arment with panelists Brian Hamilton and James Thomson.

• Little Nightmares: Recently Played
• Little Nightmares II Wikipedia
• Tarsier Studio

603 Witness for the Airship

This episode features a book with fantasy zombies and a book with alien hive minds. Talk about range! Our Book Club reconvenes to discuss the fantasy mystery “Witness for the Dead,” a standalone book set in the world of “The Goblin Emperor”, and “A Desolation Called Peace,” the conclusion of the duology begun in the award-winning “A Memory Called Empire.” Plus: What are we reading?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Dan Moren, Scott McNulty, Glenn Fleishman, and Erika Ensign.

What are we reading?

Scott:

• A Practical Guide to Conquering the World - KJ Parker
• Jade Legacy - Fonda Lee
• Light From Uncommon Stars - Ryka Aoki

Erika:

• Across the Green Grass Fields - Seanan Maguire
• City of Stairs - Robert Jackson Bennett

Glenn:

• Palatino: The Natural History of a Typeface - Robert Bringhurst
• Index, A History of the - Dennis Duncan
• The Glass Key - Dashiell Hammett

Dan

• The Liar’s Knot (Rook and Rose) - M.A. Carrick
• Braking Day - Adam Oyebanji
• The Steerswoman - Rosemary Kirstein

Jason:

• A Master of Djinn - P. Djeli Clark
• The Last Graduate - Naomi Novik
• The Shattered Skies - John Birmingham
• Family Trade / Merchant Princes series - Charles Stross

Time codes for skippers:

00:06:53 - Discussion of “Witness for the Dead”

00:35:43 - Discussion for “A Desolation Called Peace”

01:02:51 - “What Are we Reading?”

602 The Show You Think You Saw

Remember that cool bounty hunter from The Empire Strikes Back? What happens when you give him his own show? “The Book of Boba Fett” is the answer—or is it? After all, parts of this show are really episodes of a different, arguably better show. Our panel discusses the seven-episode season and tries to figure out if this mess is hot or cold.

Hosted by Dan Moren with panelists Kathy Campbell, Erika Ensign, and Chip Sudderth.

601 The Most Holden Move

In this episode we break down the final season of Prime Video’s “The Expanse.” Was it too abrupt? What was all that Laconia stuff? Then, after a brief intermission for TV viewers to depart, we discuss “Leviathan Falls” and the end of the Expanse book series. One story, so many endings!

Host Jason Snell with panelists Chip Sudderth, Jen Burt, Dan Moren, and Aleen Simms.

600 The Machine Was a Vampire

In this six-hundredth episode of The Incomparable, recorded across two separate sessions, we talk about a whole bunch of novels—namely, our picks for the best SF/F novels of the first decade of The Incomparable, the 2010s! For our purposes, we’re designating the “decade” as 2010-2019. Along the way, we may ponder the most important question a reader should ask: Are there Zeppelins?

Host Jason Snell with panelists Scott McNulty, Dan Moren, Glenn Fleishman. And also Host Jason Snell with panelists Aleen Simms, Erika Ensign, and David J. Loehr.

Round One:

• Scott - The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer
• Dan - The Rook - Daniel O’Malley
• Glenn - This Is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
• Jason - Among Others - Jo Walton
• Aleen - The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - Becky Chambers
• Erika - A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers
• David - The Human Division - John Scalzi

Round Two:

• Scott - My Real Children - Jo Walton
• Dan - Caliban’s War - James S.A. Corey
• Glenn - The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstein
• Jason - 11/22/63 - Stephen King
• Aleen - The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal
• Erika - The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
• David - The Haunting of Tram Car 015 - P. Djeli Clark

Round Three:

• Scott - Luna: New Moon - Ian McDonald
• Dan - Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
• Glenn - The Magician’s Land - Lev Grossman
• Jason - A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine
• Aleen - The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin
• Erika - Borderline - Mishell Baker
• David - The Quantum Thief - Hannu Rajaniemi

Round Four:

• Scott - Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - KJ Parker
• Dan - Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance - Lois McMaster Bujold
• Glenn - The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker
• Jason - Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
• Aleen - Strange Practice - Vivian Shaw
• Erika - Libriomancer - Jim C. Hines
• David - Day of the Doctor - Steven Moffat

Round Five:

• Scott - New York 2140 - Kim Stanley Robinson
• Dan - City of Miracles - Robert Jackson Bennett
• Glenn - The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N.K. Jemisin
• Jason - Gnomon - Nick Harkaway
• Aleen - Hollow Kingdom - Kyra Jane Buxton
• Erika - Delia’s Shadow - Jamie Lee Moyer
• David - Noir - Christopher Moore

Also Mentioned/Not Picked (Compiled by Listener AJ):

Glenn:

• Uprooted - Naomi Novik (also Jason, Erika)
• Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik
• How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe - Charles Yu
• Exhalation: Stories (including The Lifecycle of Software Objects) - Ted Chiang

Scott:

• Ninefox Gambit - Yoon Ha Lee
• Barsk - Lawrence M. Schoen (also Jason)
• Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
• Three Parts Dead - Max Gladstone

Dan:

• Gideon the Ninth (but not so much Harrow the Ninth) - Tamsyn Muir
• The Martian - Andy Weir
• The “Penric and Desdemona” series of novellas, starting with Penric’s Demon - Lois McMaster Bujold
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman (also Aleen)
• The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton
• Foundryside - Robert Jackson Bennett

Jason:

• The Galaxy and the Ground Within - Becky Chambers (also Dan)
• The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter - Theodora Goss
• Tiamat’s Wrath - James S A Corey
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers (2020s)

Aleen:

• The Ghost Bride - Yangsze Choo (also the Netflix series)
• The Caledonian Gambit - Dan Moren

Erika: - The Midnight Bargain - C. L. Polk (bonus 2020s pick!) - Summer in Orcus - T Kingfisher - Terminal Alliance - Jim C. Hines - School for Sidekicks - Kelly McCullough

David:

• Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang (also kind of Glenn, on his blog)
• The Paper Menagerie - Ken Liu
• Blackout (but maybe not All Clear, which is the second half of the same book?) - Connie Willis
• Six Wakes - Mur Lafferty
• Trail of Lightning - Rebecca Roanhorse
• Alif the Unseen - G Willow Wilson
• The Ballad of Black Tom - Victor LaValle
• The Light Brigade - Kameron Hurley

599 Have You Tried This Arrow?

It’s time to channel that Tired Dad Energy, because we’re going to discuss Marvel’s “Hawkeye,” bro. Kate Bishop! Yelena! Echo! Surprise cameos, including one by an owl! It’s a TV series nobody watching “The Avengers” would have ever wanted, yet a worn and exasperated Jeremy Renner as the mentor to a young woman with strong archery skills ends up being a delightful holiday adventure.

Host Jason Snell with guests Cicero Holmes, Dan Moren, Lisa Schmeiser, and Chip Sudderth.

598 Tropiest of Spaghetti Westerns

We’ve rounded up a posse and are saddling up to discuss the Netflix original film “The Harder They Fall,” a revisionist western starring Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, and Regina King. This movie is more ornery than a pole cat with a hangnail! We ride at noon!

Host Cicero Holmes with panelists Nathan Alderman and Shareef Jackson.

Link: The Resurrection of Bass Reeves

597 Get Me Pictures of Seven Spider-Men!

Get your college applications ready and prepare to gross out about organic web shooters—it’s time for us to discuss “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the conclusion of Tom Holland’s origin trilogy as the web-slinging hero… and a surprisingly substantial follow-up to five other Spider-Man movies, too. It’s “Spider-Man: Endgame,” and with great podcasts, there must also come great responsibility… to talk about Spider-Man.

Host Jason Snell with panelists Dan Moren, Kelly Guimont, and Chip Sudderth.

596 Tom Bombadilification

More than three decades since the Wheel of Time book series began, it’s arrived as a TV series on Prime Video. We discuss the first season with the help of our resident Wheel of Time book expert and three non-book-readers. How much is or isn’t it the “next Game of Thrones?” Why would it need to be be? And how does a book series that was wildly progressive for the 1990s approach a modern audience?

Guest Host Moisés Chiullán with panelists Glenn Fleishman, Kathy Campbell, and John Siracusa.

595 I Didn't Have a Tab - The Best of 2021

Hot dog! It’s time for our annual look back at the year gone by. And it was certainly a year! Some of us caught up on stuff, while others who usually abandon their lists as winter turns to spring decided not to bother making lists at all! As is traditional, our panelists and listeners pick favorite Incomparable episodes and moments in this episode. Did the best moment of the year happen in last year’s clip show? Are there multiple clip loops running now? Has The Incomparable finally ground Jason down into mush? The answers are within!

Our picks:

• Steve - Ted Lasso (TV), One Cut of the Dead (Film), Persona 4 Golden (VG)
• Erika - Covert Affairs (TV), Local Podcasts
• Jean - Dune (Film), WandaVision (TV), Vera Stanhope series (audiobooks)
• Dan - No Time To Die (Film), Leverage: Redemption (TV), The Mask of Mirrors (book), Learned League (game)
• David - In The Heights (Film), Only Murders in the Building (TV), Murder Under Her Skin (Books)
• Monty - RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars S6E3 (TV), Malignant (Movie), Cyberpunk 2077 (VG)
• Moisés - Metroid Dread (VG), The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened (documentary), What We Do in the Shadows (TV), For All Mankind (TV), Killing Eve (TV), Search Party, The Other Two
• Jason - Piranesi (Book), For All Mankind/Hacks (TV), Promising Young Woman (Film)

594 Money in His Underwear

Merry Kilmas to all who celebrate the works of Val Kilmer! This year, our Kilmas selection is “The Saint,” a very 90s spy movie featuring surprise sweater reveals, tension-free water pipe escapes, and a wide collection of accents, wigs, and pseudonyms—all from Val Kilmer, of course.

Host Jason Snell with Aleen Simms, Dan Moren, David J. Loehr, Jean MacDonald, and Moisés Chiullán.

593 The Beatles Need Me!

We watched all eight hours of the Disney+ documentary “The Beatles: Get Back” and now we’re going to talk about it. Toast, vests, London Bobbies sucking on their chin straps, Debbie the receptionist, Paul as “second boss”, Yoko’s knitting, George Harrison’s pinstripes, and most importantly, the amazing view of a bunch of musical geniuses having a very difficult time creating anything at all.

Extras: Podcast app features we could use, and jazz gummies are legal in Canada.

Host Jason Snell with guests Amy Gruber, Guy English, Monty Ashley, and Steven Schapansky.

592 A Glorious Mess

Grab your Tamagotchi Baby Monitor, because it’s time to discuss “Doctor Who: Flux,” a six-episode season that had a lot of plot, a lot of characters, and a lot of questions, many of them unanswered! We discuss what worked this season and what didn’t, anticipate the 2022 run of specials to end Jodie Whitaker’s era, and ponder what Modern Doctor Who looks like when Russell T Davies takes over the show (again) in 2023.

591 That Poor Pie

We discuss Marvel’s weird and epic “Eternals,” which breaks a lot of Marvel-movie conventions while attempting to tell a different kind of story with a whole lot of new characters. It’s full of interesting choices, some of which pay off, while others end up amounting to not very much.

173 Santa-Based Christmas

‘Tis the season for holiday music! Unfortunately, while we unabashedly love the holidays, some holiday music is also very bad. There’s a Christmas Mouse and also some Christmas Shoes and (unfortunately for most) some Christmas Wrapping. We talk about what makes a good holiday song and complain about some of the worst the season has to offer.

[This version of a 2013 classic episode has been completely re-processed and re-edited from the original files. It is the latest in a long line of definitive re-issues of the original episode 173, “Santa-Based Christmas.” This might be the final one, but never say never.]