The Worst of All Possible Worlds

THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, CHECK US OUT AT Patreon.com/worstofall   The lads hop into their ham trunks and floor it to the Great White North as they cover the trials and tribulations of the New Burbage Theater Festival in 2003’s hit Canadian TV show: Slings and Arrows. Topics include the series’ roots in the Stratford Theater Festival, magical Shakespeare harps, and the enduring legacy of one of the only successful TV shows about a life in the theater.   Want more TWOAPW? Get access to the rest of this episode, our full back catalogue of premium and bonus episodes, and add your name to the masthead of our website by subscribing for $5/month at Patreon.com/worstofall!   Media Referenced in this Episode: Slings and Arrows, Season One: Amazon // Acorn TV The Creators of Slings and Arrows Talk about Creating One of TV’s Greatest Shows by Emily St. James, AV Club, May 30th, 2013. TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com

Trevor Strunk (No Cartridge Audio) and the lads grab their whips and commit a colonialism as they return to Odyssey for some rip-roaring adventures in treasure hunting, stranger danger, and French missionary pranksters. Topics include the defense of property rights, the treachery of false uncles, and the many, many, many jobs of John Avery Whittaker.Trevor Strunk Twitter / Story Mode No Cartridge Audio: Critical but casual approaches to current, past, and future video games six times a week. In addition, guests will periodically share their own aesthetic and personal experiences with games in conversation! Available on Apple Podcasts // Spotify // Red Circle Support No Cartridge Audio on Patreon // Twitter Josh’s Episode of No Cartridge About Thief 2: The Metal AgeMedia Referenced in this Episode: Episode #102: The Treasure of LaMonde! Episode #244 and #245: The Mysterious Stranger Parts 1 and 2 Episode #171 and #172: The Cross of Cortes Parts 1 and 2 TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: brendan-dalton.com / brendandalton.bandcamp.com

THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall   The lads dive deep into the gaping hole at the heart of Noir York City as they brave the nauseating, bullet-ridden world of Remedy’s Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne. Topics include the Matrix-ization of video games, the tenets of Sam Lake’s storytelling, and the bafflingly acclaimed legacy of the pills and simile-addicted Maximilian Payne.   Want more TWOAPW? Get access to the rest of this episode, our full back catalogue of premium and bonus episodes, and add your name to the masthead of our website by subscribing for $5/month at Patreon.com/worstofall   Media Referenced in this Episode: Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne Available on Steam // Xbox // PS2 “30 best female video game characters, ranked” by Joal Ryan, CNET, Oct. 13, 2016 “LGR - Adventures of Ninja Nanny - PC Game Review” by LGR, LGR Youtube Channel, November 13, 2015 “Max Payne ‘Clones’” by Lucas Raycevik, Raycevik Youtube Channel Metacritic Reviews Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne for PC “Sam Lake: The Remedy Story So Far” by Sam Lake. Digital Dragons Speech, 2017. TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: brendan-dalton.com / brendandalton.bandcamp.co

Phone rings, door chimes, in comes Patrick Flynn (The Original Cast) as he and the lads celebrate Bobby’s infamous 35th birthday in the Stephen Sondheim/George Furth deep-dive into marriage: Company. Topics include the many revivals of the show, the superb score/uneven book, and the incomparable performance of Raúl Esparza.   Want more TWOAPW? Get access to the rest of this episode, our full back catalogue of premium and bonus episodes, and add your name to the masthead of our website by subscribing for $5/month at Patreon.com/worstofall!   Patrick Flynn: Website / Twitter / New Play Exchange   The Original Cast is a podcast about original cast albums and the people who love them. Each episode, Patrick interviews someone who’d see on-stage, backstage, or in the house of a theatre about an original cast album they love. Listen on Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts Instagram / Twitter Media Referenced in this Episode: Company, dir. John Doyle, 2006. Youtube / Cast Recording Company, dir. Hal Prince, 1970. Original Cast Recording Company, dir. Marianne Elliot, 2018. London Cast Recording “Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes” by Stephen Sondheim, Penguin Random House. 2010. Original Cast Album: Company. Dir. D.A. Pennebaker. Watch it on HBO Max / Criterion Channel Masterworks Broadway presents Stephen Sondheim: The Story so Far https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7IiisCxYN0 - This is not the episode where the Stritch interview comes from, but it's the same series. the interview has been completely offline for the last decade   TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: brendan-dalton.com / brendandalton.bandcamp.com Feat. David Armstrong as “Larry” and Eleanor Philips as “Multitudes of Amys”.

THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall   The lads grab their opals and dive deep into the Diamond District as they cover the Safdie Brothers’ masterful two-hour panic attack: Uncut Gems. Topics include the sublime pacing, the proliferation of American gambling, and the career-best performance from Mr. Deeds himself: Adam Sandler.   Want more TWOAPW? Get access to the rest of this episode, our full back catalogue of premium and bonus episodes, and add your name to the masthead of our website by subscribing for $5/month at Patreon.com/worstofall!   Media Referenced in the Episode: Uncut Gems available on Peacock / AppleTV / Amazon ‎Chapo Trap House: 386 - Brother Magic feat. Josh and Benny Safdie (1/20/20). “Good Time directors the Safdie brothers: ‘Robert Pattinson was just a guy chasing work’” by Hermione Hoby. The Guardian. November 16th, 2017. “How Colleges and Sports-Betting Companies Caeserized Campus Life” by Anna Betts, Andrew Little, Elizabeth Sander, Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly and Walt Bogdanich. NYTimes. November 23rd, 2022. “How The Safdie Brothers & Scribe Ronald Bronstein Took A Decade To Carve Out ‘Uncut Gems’” by Anthony D’Allesandro. Deadline. December 7th, 2019. “How the Sports Betting Industry Quietly Consumed America” by Wendover Productions, December 2022. “Meet Wayne Diamond, the man who made Uncut Gems unfuggedable” by Trey Taylor, The Face, December 17th, 2019. The PluggedIn Uncut Gems Review by Emily Clark. PluggedIn. January 3rd, 2020 “'This Is What Most People Go Through Here on the Block.' The Jewelers of the Diamond District on What's Real and What's Fiction in Uncut Gems” by Rachel E. Greenspan. TIME Magazine. January 8th, 2020. TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton:  brendan-dalton.com / brendandalton.bandcamp.co

The lads start 2023 off right by hopping aboard an adulterous plane and flying straight into the Rapture as they cover the disastrous Kirk Cameron vehicle: Left Behind: The Movie (2000). Topics include the origins of the Tribulation, the clientele of leather bars, and the surprising endurance of the concept that, one day, the Lord will strike Christians nude and yeet them into Heaven.   Want more TWOAPW? Get access to our full back catalogue of premium/bonus episodes and add your name to the masthead of our website by subscribing for $5/month at Patreon.com/worstofall!   Media Referenced in the Episode: Left Behind: The Movie. Available on Amazon Prime. “Fast-Selling Thrillers Predict Prophetic View of Final Days” by Laurie Goodstein, New York Times, October 4th, 1998 “Jerry B. Jenkins: The Tim LaHaye I Knew” by Jerry B. Jenkins, Christianity Today, July 25th, 2016 “Success of Christian Thriller Reflects Rising Interest in Religious Fiction” by Dinitia Smith, New York Times, June 8th, 2000 “Tim LaHaye, Evangelical Legend Behind ‘Left Behind’ Series, Dies at 90” by Camila Domonoske, NPR, July 25th, 2016. “Tim LaHaye Obituary” by Stephen Bates, The Guardian, July 28th, 2016. “Tim LaHaye Will Move to Washington to Promote Christian Political Activity" Christianity Today, December 14th, 1984. TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: brendan-dalton.com / brendandalton.bandcamp.com   Featuring Tony Ditty as “A.J. Ditty’s Actual Father”

THIS IS A PREVIEW. CHECK OUT THE FULL EPISODE AT Patreon.com/worstofall On the eve of the New Year, we wind back the clock to our favorite moments of 2022 with the help of friends old and new. Want more TWOAPW? Get access to the rest of this episode, our full back catalogue of premium and bonus episodes, and add your name to the masthead of our website by subscribing for $5/month at Patreon.com/worstofall! This episode contains audio from: 22 - Whit vs. the Fundies 24 - Richard Dichard Redemption 28 - Video Redeemed the Radio Star 29 - Alan Wake 30 - Whit Fucking Dies 34 - Kenneth Branagh’s William Shakespeare’s Hamlet 36 - Dear Evan Hansen 39 - The Screwtape Letters 42 - 1776 46 - Sid Meier’s Civilization 51 - Brevity is the Soul of Whit 52 - This Present Darkness 54 - Saturday’s Warrior 56 - Moulin Rouge 58 - Every Young Man’s Battle 59 - Chess the Musical 62 - Minions 64 - Pearl Harbor TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: brendan-dalton.com / brendandalton.bandcamp.com

Alice Caldwell-Kelly (Trashfuture/Kill James Bond!/Well There’s Your Problem) inducts the lads into the World of Assassination as they do a suit-only, silent assassin run through IO Interactive’s pinnacle of video game design: Hitman. Topics include the richness of the game’s environmental storytelling, the tardiness of chandelier repairmen, and that beautiful, bald backstabber of the bourgeoisie: Agent 47.   Want more TWOAPW? Get access to our full back catalogue of premium/bonus episodes and add your name to the masthead of our website by subscribing for $5/month at Patreon.com/worstofall!   Alice Calwell-Kelly: Twitter / Instagram / Patreon   Trashfuture is a podcast about business success and making yourself smarter with the continued psychic trauma of capitalism. Website / Twitter / Patreon Listen on Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts Kill James Bond! is a comedy film review/ pop culture commentary podcast about the eponymous English spy, James Bond. Alice Caldwell-Kelly, Abigail Thorn, and Devon watch a different Bond movie every fortnight in an attempt to give 007 the socialist, feminist comeuppance he so richly deserves. Free episodes are released every fortnight on all major podcast platforms and bonus episodes are released for supporters on Patreon on the interstitial weeks. Website / Twitter / Patreon Listen on Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts Well There’s Your Problem is a podcast about engineering disasters and systemic failures, from a leftist perspective, with jokes. Youtube / Twitter / Instagram / Patreon Listen on Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts Media Referenced in this Episode: Hitman: 1-3 by IO Interactive. Available on Steam / PS5/PS4 / XBOX “How the Simulation of a Hitman Level Works” by NoClip “Why Hitman is My Favorite Trans Game: A Comic” by Carta Monir, Polygon (November 16th, 2017) TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: brendan-dalton.com / brendandalton.bandcamp.com   Featuring Eleanor Philips as Mortimer/Jacques/British Bobby/The Scotsman

LADS LADS LADS LADS LADS! As we get ready for the holiday season (or is it the arguing season?), we settle down with some treats, some drinks, and ChatGPT as we go over the events of the last month. There are laughs, there is anger, and there is absolutely no editing.   Check out Doors of Divergence, the immersive show Brian is in, here!    Want more TWOAPW? Get access to our full back catalogue of premium/bonus episodes and add your name to the masthead of our website by subscribing for $5/month at Patreon.com/worstofall!   TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: brendan-dalton.com / brendandalton.bandcamp.com

The lads hop into their fighter planes and get trapped in the world’s most boring love triangle as they are suddenly and deliberately attacked by Michael Bay’s much-maligned historical epic: Pearl Harbor. Topics include Bay’s deeply uncurious filmmaking, the interminable three-hour run time, and the responsibilities of artists when tackling historical fiction.   Want more TWOAPW? Get access to our full back catalogue of premium/bonus episodes and add your name to the masthead of our website by subscribing for $5/month at Patreon.com/worstofall!   Media Referenced in this Episode: Pearl Harbor (2001): TMDB / Amazon Prime / Disney+ / AppleTV “An Oral History of Michael Bay, the Most Explosive Director of All Time” by Sean Fennessey, GQ (June 27, 2011). “‘Pearl Harbor’ at 20: Kate Beckinsale says she didn’t make sense to Michael Bay ‘because I wasn’t blond and my boobs weren’t bigger than my head’”  by Kevin Polowy, Yahoo! Entertainment (May 22, 2021). “How Racism, Arrogance, and Incompetence Led to Pearl Harbor” by Simon Worrall, National Geographic (December 4, 2016). “Disney’s Pearl Harbor: National Memory at the Movies” by Geoffrey M. White,The Public Historian, Vol. 24, No.4, pp. 97-115. Accessed via JSTOR. TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton:  brendan-dalton.com / brendandalton.bandcamp.com Featuring Eleanor Philips as Michael Bay