Space the Nation
Space the Nation
On Space the Nation, we take our love of science fiction (and fantasy and horror) and smash it together with our professional passions: international relations (as brought to the table by Tufts University professor and Washington Post columnist Dan Drezner) and cultural criticism (as brought to the table by political columnist Ana Marie Cox). It's a highly informed but hilarious conversation that starts with an examination of a particular text (everything from Ursula K. LeGuin to the MCU, Star Trek to Colson Whitehead) and veers into current events, mental health practices and imagined conversations between Ted Cruz and the Predator. For people who like white papers and graphic novels, Chapo Trap House and what Political Science Twitter used to be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jul 15, 2024 • 1h 10min
S4E28: A QUIET PLACE
Ana and Dan turn on the red lights and delve into a trad-horror* classic. It's beautiful, well-acted, and has gender roles more hardened than the carapace of the monsters from Planet Quiet Car. There's surprisingly little IR but some fun and wildly tangential critique of capitalism!*J.D. Vance as VP would be a different sort of trad-horror. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 8, 2024 • 1h 8min
S4E27: X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST
Ana and Dan don't think too hard about it, because the movie is just better that way. Another over-stuffed cast wrangles some nonsense as best they can, to perfectly adequate results! Pro: one of the franchise's best action scenes and an old/new casting face-off that delivers. Con: Professor X can't fix these plot holes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 1, 2024 • 1h 12min
S4E26: STAR TREK GENERATIONS
Ana and Dan collect rocks and talk about the least memorable meeting of the two most memorable actors ever to grace the small screen. The plot is just a lot of nonsense! It starts with an in-your-face reminder that holodecks are magic and moves on to a metaphor for drugs? Maybe? We thought about this more than the people that made it. There is not really any IR in it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 24, 2024 • 1h 3min
S4E25: ATLAS
Ana and Dan need some coffee to get through this inert mech-suit porn. It has Jennifer Lopez in it! Listen to the episode to hear how it was a last-ditch effort to keep Bennifer going, which is a more interesting story than one in the movie. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 17, 2024 • 1h
S4E24: FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA
Ana and Dan don't turn their eyes away from the violence. They watch, stony-faced, just to prove that you can't break them. This is not as good as Fury Road, sorry. A for effort for the Hemsworth involved here and all the gold stars for young Alyla Browne, who is in the movie maybe more than Anya Taylor-Joy -- and definitely plays a bigger part than IR. There's a critique of capitalism, I guess. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 10, 2024 • 1h 19min
S4E23: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
Our names are Ana and Dan and our world is fire and blood. And IR, and capitalism. This is a damn-near-perfect movie, not a scene or word wasted, though there are many of the former and very few of the latter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jun 3, 2024 • 1h 12min
S4E22: KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Ana and Dan had to leap so many hurdles to record this, they don't even remember the movie so much? It's like a copy of a copy of some ape that died many generations ago. I'm not even sure why anyone would have heard of Ceasar at this point. Maybe we can find someone to teach us Roman history. There's IR in this episode because Dan's good at finding it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 27, 2024 • 58min
S4E21: DID YOU MISS US?
Ana and Dan deliver some brand-new content! They catch up on Three-Body Problem, Dark Matter, and Fallout before checking in on the ongoing proceedings against Molly Murderkitten. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 13, 2024 • 1h 18min
S4E20: CONGO
Ana and Dan travel the world, doing good. This is a pretty good bad movie, almost entirely due to Tim Curry's completely gonzo performance as the utterly useless Herkermer Homolka (!). We liked Curry, we liked Delroy Lindo, we liked the "California Dreamin'" sing-along. There's IR in this movie and a reminder that diamonds only have invented value. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 11, 2024 • 1h 12min
S4E19: WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES
Ana and Dan together strong! We had a touch of technical trouble with this episode so you'll be getting a Kong-sized drop of Ape-ril/May-p content this week. There's this episode, about the 2017 tri-quel, and also Congo! Monkey madness! Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
