

The Worst of All Possible Worlds
Josh Boerman, A.J. Ditty, and Brian Alford
The first and only podcast bringing you weekly case studies in the pop culture of a dying empire. Every Wednesday, co-hosts Josh, Brian, and A.J. dissect an artifact of popular culture, breaking down how its narrative choices reflect or subvert the reactionary political project. From video games to movies to theater to an apparently infinite supply of evangelical Christian radio drama, we expose the machinations of the worst of all possible worlds in order to figure out how to build a better one.
Also, we have bits.
Also, we have bits.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 28, 2024 • 2h 4min
127 - Death Beconnies Her [Whit’s Endless Summer #32]
The lads return to Odyssey for further adventures in disability, grief, and how to solve a love triangle when the third point is Jesus Christ. Topics include the edification of the disabled, Bill Kendall’s penchant for cruises, and how to properly mourn the loss of a loved one like a good, honest Christian.
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:
Adventures in Odyssey
#318: A Touch of Healing, Part 1
#319: A Tough of Healing, Part 2
#320: Where is Thy Sting?
#322: The Turning Point
This your first Whit’s Endless Summer? Here’s the story so far!
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com
Commercial: “Dr. Oswald Oliver, M.D.” feat. Brendan Dalton as “318".

Feb 21, 2024 • 24min
126 - Reds (feat. Jake Beckhard and Andy Boyd)
THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall
Jake Beckhard and Andy Boyd (Three Scenes in the Life of a Trotskyist) join the lads as they head on back to the U.S.S.R. to cover Warren Beatty’s 1981 communist blockbuster: Reds. Topics include the brilliance of Diane Keaton, the terrifying smoochability of Eugene O’Neill, and how to make art in a world teetering on the edge of revolution.
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!
Three Scenes in the Life of a Trotskyist - Tickets // Instagram
Jake Beckhard - Website // Twitter // Instagram
Blue Balls NYCFC: You’ve got Blue Balls! How lucky for you. Check in every week for rapturous pod talk on all things NYCFC. With NYC Hosts Jake Beckhard and Trey Fillmore. Listen on Apple Podcasts // Spotify // Podomatic
Andy Boyd: Website // NPX // Instagram // Better Than Shakespeare Podcast
Media Referenced in this Episode:
Reds. Dir. Warren Beatty. 1981.
Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981-2011) with Attendant Comments, Amplifications, Dogmas, Harangues, Digressions, Anecdotes and Miscellany by Stephen Sondheim. Penguin Random House. 2011.
O’Neill: Son and Playwright by Louis Sheaffer. Little, Brown, and Company. 1968.
“Thunder on the Left” by Peter Biskind. Vanity Fair. January 22nd, 2007.
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com
Commercial: “‘Goodbye For Now’ Demos” feat. David Armstrong as “Stephen Sondheim”.

Feb 14, 2024 • 1h 53min
125 - Airplane! (feat. Bernie Wagenblast)
The voice of the NYC Subway Bernie Wagenblast (Cranford Radio, ITE Talks Transportation) and the lads conquer their drinking problems and call each other Shirley as they cover the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker comedy blockbuster Airplane!. Topics include the film’s incredible joke variety, the brilliance of Leslie Nielsen, and what it means to like gladiator movies and have seen a grown man naked in the year of our LORD 2024.
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!
Bernie Wagenblast: Twitter // Instagram // TikTok
Cranford Radio presents the sounds and voices of Cranford, New Jersey. Hosted by Bernie Wagenblast. Available on Apple Podcasts // Spotify
ITE Talks Transportation is a collaboration between ITE and Bernie Wagenblast, founder and editor of the Transportation Communication Newsletter and host of Transportation Radio. Each month, a new podcast features a thought leader within the transportation industry. In keeping with #transportationtuesday, a new episode will be available the 4th Tuesday of every month. Available on Apple Podcasts // Spotify
The Stream by AASHTO explores environmental topics important to people involved in transportation and infrastructure programs. Available on Apple Podcasts // Spotify
The Transport Communications Newsletter
Media Referenced in this Episode:
Airplane! Dir. by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker. Paramount Pictures. 1980.
Bernie Wagenblast, the voice of NYC subways, finding her true voice after sharing her transition by CBS.
"Finger Flickin' Funny" by Rich Markey. UW Alumni Magazine, Spring 2007.
“How We Made: Airplane!” by Simon Bland. The Guardian. May 25th, 2020.
“Short Takes : Airport Announcer Is No Star” by the Los Angeles Times. Jan. 7th. 1991.
Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! by David Zuker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zuker. St. Martin’s Publishing Group. 2023.
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com

Feb 7, 2024 • 26min
124 - Alan Wake II
THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall
My name is Alan Wake. I’m a writer. Two years ago, three “critics” from The Worst of All Possible Worlds podcast decided to slander my good name and drag my first game through the mud. Now, they’ve Returned from their previous Departure and have fully Initiated themselves into my torment anew. Will they dub me the Champion of Light? Or cast me off as the Herald of Darkness? Only one thing’s for sure: Stephen King once wrote “Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger.” He said this before snorting three lines of cocaine and trying to fight a bus. He would later go on to marry that bus in a private ceremony in Maine. This marriage was quickly annulled when everyone involved realized you cannot marry a bus. I married Alice, a human woman. I know this because I know the difference between a woman and a bus. That’s why I famously wrote the line: “It’s not a woman, it’s a bus.”
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:
Alan Wake II. Remedy Entertainment. 2023.
13 Minutes of Alan Wake 2 GAMEPLAY (Unreleased). Polygon. 2016.
Alan Wake 2 Announcement: World Premiere Trailer and Interview. The Game Awards, 2021.
“Sam Lake and the Remedy Team shine a light on what it takes to make games like Alan Wake 2”. BAFTA, 2024.
“Sisu: A Word that Explains Finland” by Hudson Strode Professor of English, University of Alabamapenguin (sic), Bonney-Elisofon, Solbelman and Black Star. NYTimes. Jan. 14th, 1940.
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com
Commercial: “The Hydraulic Press Channel”

Jan 31, 2024 • 1h 58min
29 UNLOCKED - Alan Wake (feat. Jack Gilbert)
My name is Alan Wake. I’m a writer. Three podcasters and their friend, Jack Horton Gilbert, played through my story and talked about it for three hours. What followed was wild and dark and weird, even by my standards. Stephen King once said, “My wife and kids won’t touch a pizza with anchovies on it. But I like anchovies.“* I think about that all the time.
Jack’s Monologue:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CbtRwqPlZKp/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
TWOAPW Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/WorstOfAll
Theme by Brendan Dalton
www.brendan-dalton.com
https://brendandalton.bandcamp.com
*Greene, Andy. “Stephen King: The Rolling Stone Interview” https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/stephen-king-the-rolling-stone-interview-191529/

Jan 24, 2024 • 24min
123 - Sleep No More (feat. Dara Swisher)
THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall
Dara Swisher (Sovereign Candle Collective) and the lads grab their masks and book a stay at the McKittrick Hotel as they dive into the deep secrets and complicated legacy of the industry-defining immersive theater piece: Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More. Topics include the history of immersive theater, the seductive appeal of tracksuits, and the eternal battle between the production of theater and the monolith of real estate.
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!
Dara Swisher: Twitter // Instagram
Media Referenced in this Episode:
Sleep No More. Punchdrunk. Dir. Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle. 2011.
The Tragedie of Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Rebecca. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock. United Artists, 1940.
On the History of Immersive Theater:
Dionysis in ‘69: Full Film by Brian de Palma. 1970.
“Drag, Disco, and the Donkey” by James Montaño. Howlround Theatre Commons. October 23rd, 2019.
“El Teatro Campesino: Our History”
Hell House. Dir. Alex Timbers. 2006.
F I N D H I M
“In 1901, you could pay 50 cents to ride an airship to the Moon” by Ron Miller. Gizmodo, May 31st, 2012.
“So Long Ago, I Can’t Remember” Review by Neil Genzlinger. NYTimes, April 20th, 2001.
Sleep No More Resources/Articles:
Sleep No More Synopsis
Sleep No More Story Chart
Felix Barrett on Sleep No More by BUILD Series.
“Meet Emursive, The Company Behind 'Sleep No More,' The Off-Broadway Production That's Been Sold Out For Three Years” by Hollie Slade. Forbes. March 19th, 2014.
“Performers and Staffers at ‘Sleep No More’ Say Audience Members Have Sexually Assaulted Them” by Amber Jamieson. Buzzfeed News. Feb 6th, 2018.
“Sleep No More: From Avant Garde Theatre To Commercial Blockbuster” by Alexis Soloski. The Guardian. March 31st, 2015.
“Sleep No More to Close in January” by Alexis Soloski. NYTimes. November 8th, 2023.
“‘Sleep No More’ Venue Gets $27M Refi From Signature” by Matt Grossman. Commercial Observer. May 8th, 2018.
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com
Commercial: “An Evening at The McKittrick Hotel with Detective Rupert Cadell”

Jan 17, 2024 • 2h 19min
122 - Far Cry 5 (feat. Alice Caldwell-Kelly)
Alice Caldwell-Kelly (Trashfuture, Kill James Bond!, WTYP) books the lads a helicopter ride straight to the heart of Hope County as they bring about the Collapse of Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft Toronto’s Far Cry 5. Topics include the game’s divisive ending, the art of AAA game writing, and the rotten politics seeping out of one of the most morally compromised games ever made.
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 Caldwell-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: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Youtube
Media Referenced in this Episode:
Far Cry 5 by Ubisoft Monstreal and Ubisoft Toronto
“Far Cry 5 Is a Game About Resisting An American Militia, Will Be Out in February” by Stephen Totilo. Kotaku, May 26th 2017.
“Far Cry 5 First Look: A Montana Uprising” by Ryan McCaffrey. IGN. May 16th, 2017.
“Far Cry 5 Director on Social commentary, cults, and bull testicles” by Thomas McMullan. Alphr. March 19th, 2018.
“Far Cry 5: The Kotaku Review” by Ethan Gach. Kotaku, March 26th, 2018.
“Far Cry 5 review” by Ben Kuchera. Polygon. March 28th, 2018.
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com
Commercial: “The Project at Eden’s Gate feat. Melvin Abercrombie of the Hope County Abercrombies”

Jan 10, 2024 • 22min
121 - Donkey Kong Country: The Animated Series
THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall
The lads hop on Funky Kong’s biplane bound straight for Kongo Bongo as they banana slamma their way through the nightmarish musical that is Donkey Kong Country: The Animated Series. Topics include the origins of televised 3D animation, the staying power of the hit-or-miss songs, and the innate memeability of Eddie the Mean Old Yeti.
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:
Donkey Kong Country: The Animated Series
#1: Bad Hair Day
#4: Barrel, Barrel, Who’s Got the Barrel?
#6: Raiders of the Lost Banana
#38: It’s A Wonderful Life
Computer Animation: A Whole New World by Rita Street. Rockport Publishers, 1998.
Culte : La planète de Donkey Kong (1996-2001)
“DKC: Return to Krocodile Isle”. Alex Henderson Animation. 2023.
“Inside Nintendo’s weird attempts at making movies and TV shows” by Matt Paprocki. Polygon. June 5th, 2020.
A Note About the Development Process of Donkey Kong the Animated Series by one of its writers
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com
Commercial: “A Message from the Kongo Bongo Tourism Board” feat. David Armstrong as “Bluster Kong”.

Jan 3, 2024 • 2h 20min
120 - 2 Left 2 Behind: 2 Tribulation 2 Force
The lads kick the new year off with fire-breathing prophets and lengthy discussions about world currencies as they cover the second movie in the Kirk Cameron faith-based trilogy: Left Behind II: Tribulation Force. Topics include the facts and logic of Rapture-based apocrypha, the void romantic chemistry that is Kirk Cameron, and what it means to live your life thinking that God will one day yeet you into the sky.
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:
Left Behind II: Tribulation Force. Dir. Bill Corcoran. Cloud Ten Productions, 2002.
Fruitless: PREVIEW: How America Got Obsessed With Israel (feat. Keanu Heydari)
Ray Comfort on the Banana
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com
Commercial: “Kirkr: The Kirk Cameron Dating App”

Dec 27, 2023 • 23min
119 - 2023: A Year in Review
THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall
In what has now become an annual tradition, we took a couple dozen calls from our Patreon subscribers, reheated some bits from the past year in the microwave, and stitched it all together for your enjoyment. Thanks for being part of our 2023.
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 features clips from:
68 - Left Behind The Movie 2000
70 - Company feat. Patrick Flynn
72 - John Whittaker: Tomb Raider feat. Trevor Strunk
73 - Slings & Arrows Season 1
77 - Who’s Afraid of Mr. Beast?
79 - Sunday in the Park with George
81 - Ease On Down Gilead Lane
84 - Everything’s Coming Up Meltsner! feat. Josiah Sutton
85 - The Worst of All Possible Worlds Presents: Brian is Back! The 85th Episode Live Spectacular feat. Michael Kupperman
88 - Shark Tank
94 - God’s Not Dead feat. Greg Foster
97 - Whit Fucking Dies (For Real This Time) feat. The Socialist Shelf
99 - Sorry/Not Sorry: Apology Videos and the Toxic Gossip Train
100 - Deus Ex
102 - We Didn’t Start the Fireproof feat. Radio Free Tote Bag
GRUBESCAST
105 - Assassins
108 - DC Talk’s Jesus Freak feat. Tarence Ray
111 - Marble Hornets feat. Anne Huston
113 - NEOM: The Line feat. Riley Quinn
114 - The Grapes of Rathbone feat. Max Graves
116 - Tora! Tora! Tora!
117 - A Christmas Story
TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com