Supercontext: an autopsy of media

Christian Sager and Charlie Bennett
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Jul 5, 2019 • 1h 49min

GLOW, Season One

This 2017 Netflix television show is a critically acclaimed fictional depiction of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling that were popular in the 1980s. We discuss how the show's creators handle representation of stereotypes while also criticizing the worst of America's fears. Additional resources: Get in the Ring: How ‘GLOW’ Recreates the Golden Age of Lady-Wrestling TV Why ‘GLOW’ Creators Made Women’s Wrestling Series How the Original G.L.O.W. Wrestlers Helped Shape the Netflix Hit ‘GLOW’ Fight Coordinator Chavo Guerrero Jr. on Getting Wrestling Right Obsessed With ‘GLOW’? Meet The Real Female Wrestlers Who Inspired The Show How accurate is Netflix GLOW series? Original GLOW girl Tina Ferrari weighs in What GLOW Gets Right About Pro Wrestling “The Slow and Sudden Rise of Marc Maron,” Newsweek Global. 6/29/2018, Vol. 170 Issue 24, p26-33. Glowing Past: Netflix's "GLOW" costume designer on '80s trends and the evolution of sneakers, FN: Footwear News. 7/16/2018, Vol. 74 Issue 22, p10-1
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Jun 28, 2019 • 1h 30min

After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones

This 2014 collection of short horror stories shows a prolific author experimenting with different tropes and genres to find wonder in making sense of the world. We discuss Jones’s unique writing process to understand the importance he gives horror. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: After the People Lights Have Gone Off Additional Resources: Book Review: After the People Lights Have Gone Off – Author Stephen Graham Jones After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones Stephen Graham Jones ~ After the People Lights Have Gone Off Haunted Reading Interview: Stephen Graham Jones Stephen Graham Jones on writing horror and its inverse, romance Interview: Stephen Graham Jones on The Weird One Month of Reading Stephen Graham Jones: A Primer Consuming, Incarcerating, and "Transmoting" Misery: Border Practice in Vizenor's Bearheart and Jones's The Fast Red Road[1] We are Stephen Graham Jones, author of AFTER THE PEOPLE LIGHTS HAVE GONE OFF and Richard Thomas, Editor-in-Chief of Dark House Press—this is our AMA, so ASK US ANYTHING! In Convo With Stephen Graham Jones Senses All Turned Up: An Interview with Stephen Graham Jones Curbside Splendor Under Fire by Authors, Goes On Publishing Hiatus Native American literature’s shapeshifter
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Jun 21, 2019 • 1h 33min

Ladyhawke

This 1985 fantasy film is remembered fondly by our generation, but may not hold up under re-examination. We look at the studio process it was made under, while thinking about how it tries to subvert our expectations of fairy tales. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Ladyhawke Additional Resources: 20 Crazy Details Behind The Making Of Ladyhawke History, Fantasy, and Weird Armor: Ladyhawke Is Ladyhawke the Best Fairy Tale of Them All? The Hawk, the Wolf, and the Mouse: Tracing the Gendered other in Richard Donner’s Ladyhawke In Defense of ‘Ladyhawke’ Lessons Every Filmmaker Can Learn From Richard Donner The Wolf, the Hawk and the Avant-garde Musician: Interview with Andrew Powell
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Jun 14, 2019 • 1h 54min

Uzumaki by Junji Ito

This 1998 horror manga depicts a Japanese town that plunges into chaos in the face of the symbolic spiral. We look at how Ito conceived Uzumaki, while struggling with big philosophical ideas like nihilism, rationalism and routine, meticulous dread in the face of our cosmic insignificance. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Uzumaki Additional Resources: The Junji Ito Interview: A conversation with the creator of Uzumaki Black illumination: the unhuman world of Junji Ito The Horrific Mechanations of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Uzumaki Uzumaki: Junji Ito’s Phenomenal Art and Lackluster Storytelling Into the Spiral: A Conversation with Japanese Horror Maestro Junji Ito The Grotesque Tales of Junji Ito — Part 3: Uzumaki “Uzumaki” Is a Horror Classic That Will Leave You Spinning THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL: THOUGHTS ON LOVECRAFTIAN SPIRALITY AND ITO’S UZUMAKI INTERVIEW: THE LEGENDARY JUNJI ITO TALKS ABOUT HIS NEW ANIME COLLECTION AND MORE
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Jun 7, 2019 • 1h 45min

Killing Eve, Season 1

This 2018 spy thriller is praised for its humor and subversion by critics and audiences alike. We discuss how it represents female and queer identities without pinning down either as templates or tropes. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Killing Eve, Season 1 Additional Resources: ‘It’s anarchic’: the cast of Killing Eve on Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s killer thriller Phoebe Waller-Bridge Twists the Spy Genre With BBC America’s Thriller ‘Killing Eve’ ‘Killing Eve’ Showrunner: ‘All Obsession Is Sexual’ All About Killing Eve: The BBC spy drama that's already a US hit Killing Eve and the Riddle of Why Women Kill The Queer Ambiguity of ‘Killing Eve’ ‘Killing Eve’: TV’s Newest Assassin Subverts Storytelling Cliches, Which Makes Her Scary as Hell Feminist thriller "Killing Eve" has proven a perfect show for the #MeToo era BBC Buys Into Award-Winning U.K. Drama Producer Sid Gentle Films
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May 31, 2019 • 2h 38min

Nick Cave Double Feature

This repost of our two Nick Cave episodes is a mess of grief, awe, love, and aspiration. Part 1: Nick Cave's Lament In anticipation of the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album “Skeleton Tree” and its accompanying documentary “One More Time With Feeling,” we discuss the tragedy of losing a child and its effect on art, performance and persona. Part 2: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Skeleton Tree By becoming a more vulnerable frontman, Nick Cave has transformed after a major tragedy. To understand this better, we cover his latest album Skeleton Tree, the companion film One More Time With Feeling and the Bad Seeds' latest North American tour. Additional Resources: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Nick Cave I Am the Real Nick Cave The Love and Terror of Nick Cave Nick Cave Finally Tells His Most Painful Story Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds x Hingston Studio – Skeleton Tree All Songs +1: A Devastating New Film About Nick Cave Nick Cave Talks About Living and Writing Through Grief Nick Cave Will Never Be Forgotten THE IMMENSE GRIEF OF NICK CAVE’S ‘SKELETON TREE’ Nick Cave financed the documentary One More Time with Feeling so that he would not have to speak with journalists about the death of his son
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May 24, 2019 • 1h 12min

Repost of Game of Thrones, Season 6

THIS IS A REPOST OF A 2016 EPISODE. In an unusually giddy, slaphappy episode, Charlie & Christian try to understand how Game of Thrones' sixth season was made. When does an adaptation stop being an adaptation? What happens when it passes -- and surpasses -- its source material? Additional Resources: Last Year (Winds of Winter) post by George R.R. Martin
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May 17, 2019 • 1h 29min

Regurgitator, Unit

Thank you to our Co-Producer patron Chris Marlton for selecting this week's topic! This 1997 Australian alternative rock record was a massive success in its home country, but is something we (the hosts) were totally unfamiliar with. We look at how music subjectively builds identity for some "young people" to understand why Unit is so important to adults looking back on their outsider adolescence. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: Unit Additional Resources: Polyester genius: reflecting on the boundary-pushing perfection of Regurgitator’s 1997 classic, Unit MUSIC REVIEW | Regurgitator – Unit (1997) ! (The Song Formerly Known As) by Regurgitator – towering electronic fuzz Jade Lazarevic. (2012, September 8). The way we were. Newcastle Herald, The (Includes the Central Coast Herald), p. 12. ELIZABETH LORD. (2012). Regurgitator relive retro. Mercury, The (Hobart), 6. Regurgitator has always pleased itself — and fans are happy to tag along Andrew M c Millen. (2018, August 2). Band of outsiders. Australian, The, p. 15. Regurgitator crowd still partying like it's 1999 By: Craig Platt, Age, The (Melbourne), 03126307, Aug 13, 2018 Brain uploading, warts and elaborate subterfuge: a chat with Quan Yeomans of Regurgitator
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May 10, 2019 • 1h 31min

Supercontext: The Sheriff of Babylon

This 2015 Vertigo comic by Tom King and Mitch Gerads sets a murder mystery in the Iraq War in 2004. We discuss how the creators strived for accuracy and reverence with this complex story while struggling with our own distaste for violence, glorification, and authority. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: The Sheriff of Babylon Additional Resources: One of comics’ best writers is a former CIA agent Inside 'The Sheriff of Babylon,' DC Comics' Wartime Crime Drama Comic-Con: DC's Vertigo Imprint to Launch 12 New Series Before End of Year Why the CIA Has to Read This Comic Before You Can The Best Retelling of the Iraq War Story Is a Comic Book 15 Reasons Why You Should Be Reading The Sheriff Of Babylon https://twiststreet.tumblr.com/post/181648879026 Did Batman’s Tom King Work For the CIA? Yes, Yes He Did. PERSPECTIVES ON A CRIME: TOM KING AND MITCH GERADS ON ‘THE SHERIFF OF BABYLON’    
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May 3, 2019 • 1h 33min

HULK

Thank you to our Co-producer patron Kevin Wetter for selecting this week's topic! This 2003 superhero film adaption went through ten screenwriters during its production and suffered poor critical reception. We look back before the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we now know it and ask why the formula of Greek tragedy mixed with Cold War paranoia failed to work. Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store: HULK Additional Resources: Countdown to Hulk: Screenwriter John Turman talks about a fan's dream job U Bulks Up Hulk Hulk Makes a Monster Out of Gamma Rays Green With Anger Ang Lee Gets Inside Hulk’s Head Countdown to Hulk: Screenwriter Michael France Talks ‘Hulk,’ ‘Punisher,’ and Beyond. Countdown to 'Hulk': Producers Avi Arad and Gale Anne Hurd talk Temper, Temper Ang Lee looks back at his Hulk movie The successful failure of Ang Lee’s Hulk Credit Grab The Hulk. (2003). Millimeter, 31(6), 14.

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