Remember Shuffle?

In part three of Remember Shuffle's ongoing series on the Iraq War, the Shuffle Bois turn their investigative eyes to the CPA and the first year of the occupation. They close out by reviewing The Green Zone, a very weak attempt to fictionalize the story of Green Zone: Imperial Life in the Emerald City.Baghdad Burning Blog: https://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.  Join the patreon to support the shuffle bois and for an extra episode per month at ⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffle

The Wolfowitz of Wall Street--In part two of Remember Shuffle's ongoing series on the Iraq War, the Shuffle Bois turn their investigative eyes to whose fault this war was. After digging down into the ideological tenets of Neoconservatism and describing the prime suspects of this mass murder case, they do a deep dive into the history of the lead-up to the war from 2001-2003. En route, they describe the stifling of any substantial debate on both the grounds for the war and its grand strategy, the fabrication and misrepresentation of flawed intelligence, and the bureaucratic machinations that led to the worst possible outcome. They close out by reviewing a brilliant British satire of this period of history, Armando Ianucci's “In the Loop” (2009).Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.  Join the patreon to support the shuffle bois and for an extra episode per month at ⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffleBig thank you to S.E. Doyen for sending us the excellent episode art

Full episode can be found at: patreon.com/c/RememberShuffleIn an episode that will echo through the millenia, the Shuffle Bois return to the world of sword and sandals flicks to review a film that got Ben Troygered, “Troy” (2004). Troy is a perfect example of the "grounded and realistic" period pieces that proliferated in the 2000s that somehow were neither grounded or realistic or fun. After doing a deep dive into the source material behind the film (the Greek epic poetry of Homer), they look at the film's flat characters, first-draft quality script, and phoned-in performances before turning to themes and a short pedant's corner.

It's “Anarchy” in the UK as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of V for Vendetta by metaphorically blowing up the veneration for this very mid movie. Alan Moore himself disassociated himself from this movie after complaining that they had made the movie about “current American Neoconservatism vs current american liberalism” rather than ANARCHY VS FACISM.Totalitarianism, Reddit Guy-ness, and SYMBOLOGY–enjoy our Guy Thoughts with your favorite Guy Thots. Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. Join the patreon to support the shuffle bois and for an extra episode per month at https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffle

A fun slice-of-life indie movie from the 2000s, which teaches the exact opposite lesson to The Bear Check out our Patreon feed for the full episode: ( https://patreon.com/RememberShuffle?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink )And make sure you sign up through the browser–not through the app, to save yourself 50%

Remember Shuffle finally turns to the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 2000s, the Iraq War. On this table-setting episode, tThe Shuffle Bois trace the long history of American collaboration with Saddam Hussein's regime, the souring of that productive relationship in the 1990s, and the obsessive fixation America developped for regime change in Iraq, both on the Neoconservative and Liberal Interventionist sides of the divide. They then look at some of the Themes and Big Ideas of American Middle Eastern foreign policy through the late 20th century. They then close out with a palate-cleanser film review of 1999's “Three Kings.”Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. (soft launch) Join the free patreon (for now) at https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffleEpisodes on the Patreon will be up in the next couple weeksBooks we recommended:Steve Coll's ‘The Achilles Trap' : https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/602066/the-achilles-trap-by-steve-coll/Debriefing the President, by John Nixon:

In part two of the Shuffle Bois' two-part series on Burger, they turn to the goliath-pioneer of fast food: McDonalds. They trace the company's flailing attempts to rebrand itself in the 2000s, some of the lasting innovations that they implemented in the decade, and outline some of the reasons that McDonalds' revenue peaked in the 2000s before starting to decline. They pair this brief corpo-history with a film review of the 2000s documentary “Super Size Me,” which had some influence on the fall of McDonalds.Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. (soft launch) Join the free patreon (for now) at https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffle

I want to go to there. The Shuffle Boys are joined by Chris Wade of Chapo Trap House to discuss what might be the greatest sitcom of the 2000s, 30 Rock. After describing the viewpoints and games of this character driven show, the boys analyze the show's big ideas around the degeneration of broadcast media, the intersection of race, gender, and class, and 2000s era politics. As always, they close with the echoes in the culture of this supremely unique and self-confident show.Be sure to give Chris a follow @saywhatagain on Twitter, and check out his shows, Chapo Trap House, Infinite Cast, and And Introducing. ⁠Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

The Shuffle Bois return to you with another fun one, taking a look at three cultural products from the 2000s centered around where our food comes from - the muckraking non-fiction book Fast Food Nation, its dramatic film adaptation by Richard Linklater, and the lib documentary Food Inc. They trace food production from factory farm to bolted-down McDonalds table and analyze how these 2000s era works identified problems and offered neoliberal, consumer-based solutions. Huge thanks to Isaac Eger for guesting on this episode. Check him out @gluten_daddy on instagram, as well as his podcast, Coexist Inc., here: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=6112951 Isaac's podcast, COEXIST INC. can be found here : ⁠Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

Remember Comedies? Remember Shuffle looks back at a now-dead art form and examines the mechanics of the 90 minute feature film comedy. Comedies typically age very poorly, but the simple grounded premise of Meet the Parents allows it to be immortal. We talk about what makes Meet the Parents funny and how it differs fundamentally from a movie like Jerry Seinfeld's Unfrosted. And because it's Remember Shuffle, we'll talk about class and the CIA. Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

Loiterers will not be prosecuted. Another ‘very special episode' from Remember Shuffle, looking at the largest disruptor of military orthodoxy in the 2000s: Predator Drones. Predators give the ability to watch targets endlessly–before, during, and after strikes from hellfire missiles or operator raids. Obama ramps up the drone program significantly after his election as drones offer a technocratic solution to war that appeals perfectly to Obama's liberal sensibilities.  Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

It's Satrap! Leonidas and 299 of his closest platonic friends make the ultimate sacrifice for western civilization by beating back Globo Homo. One of the 2000s most famous graphic novel adaptations features a not-so-implicit reference to our war in the middle east to fight for freedom. When analyzing this very dumb movie, The Shuffle Bois discuss the various binaries underlying the Clash of Civilization narrative (freedom vs slavery, democracy vs autocracy, East vs West, sexual degeneracy vs probity) and its long-lasting impact on the Alt Right and Manosphere ethos and imagery. Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.  Producer Dillan can be reached at dillancmusic@gmail.com

Let's fall into a Y2K-Hole. The Shuffle bois turn to the world of pop culture and consumer aesthetics with expert guest Colette Shade, author of “Y2K: How the 2000's Became Everything.” Colette walks us through what the defining features of the Y2K era were, the history of the dot com bubble, some of the period's most iconic styles and movements (Y2K Futurism, Frutiger Aero, Blobject, 2K1, Techno-orientalism, McBling), as well as various manifestations of the intense sexism of the time.  Follow Colette on Twitter (@MsShade) and check her website out here: https://www.coletteshade.com/. Her tour dates are as: 1/8/2025 • 7:00 PM • Baltimore, MD 1/9/25 • 6:30 PM • New York, NY 1/15/25 • 6:00 PM • New Haven, CT 1/17/25 • 7:00 PM • Cambridge, MA 1/22/25 • 7:00 PM • Los Angeles, CA 1/24/25 • 7:00 PM • San Francisco, CA 2/1/25 • 6:00 PM • Washington, DC 2/6/25 • 7:00 PM • Baltimore, MD Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ it makes it easier to book guests. 2000s Aestetics websites: https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Category:2000s https://cari.institute/

Joined once more by Sam of @Thank_u_for_shopping (Follow her here: instagram.com/thank_u_for_shopping ) Our 5th entry in our ‘type of guy' series. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype and real life people are examined in our breakdown of Elizabethtown, The Garden State, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 500 Days of Summer, and Scott Pilgrim vs the World. We break the criticism into 2 different qualities that we have opposing feelings about: A woman that helps a man not be depressed anymore by helping him feel life again (stupid). A quirky, independent free spirit that is fun and does exist in real life (good)

We finally turn to the Boy Who Lived and discuss the Harry Potter franchise. The shuffle bois remind you of the plot of each of these seven books/films before turning to discuss their strength (their whimsical world) and their many weaknesses (their politics, their flat characters, and their complete lack of internal logic). En route, they discuss neoliberalism, racism, the corporatization of media, and most the lasting legacy of these books, turning an entire generation of people annoying. Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.  Btw, the term ‘Foreverism' I mentioned is from Grafton Tanner

The shuffle boys return to the world of geopolitics and war with an episode on the most traumatic and devastating war of the 2000s: The War on Christmas. This label was a shorthand for a frenzy within the right wing media sphere around the changing nature of the Christmas season in the 2000s. They walk through some primary source documents from the time, explain what exactly this conflict was all about, and have some fun at the expense of the most histrionic voices of the right. Then they zoom out and look at the long history of debates around and changes to the celebration of Christmas all the way back to Early Modern Europe. Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

I hear you mon. The Shuffle Bois turn to the world of Azeroth (and their own adolescences, before their Twink Death) to discuss the one MMORPG to rule them all, World of Warcraft. They trace Blizzard's rise from a much beloved small private company that went on a historic, untouchable, Michael-Jordan-in-the-90s-style run to a much maligned publicly traded subsidiary of another videogame company. En route, they discuss the mechanics of World of Warcraft, the corporate ownership structures that do and don't lead to good art, and the massive real world impacts of World of Warcraft in the 2000s. If you want to skip the non-2000s stuff, the theme song starts at 9:30. Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.  The Rob Pardo interview I mentioned was the Designer Notes podcast here: https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/rob-pardo-part-1

The Shuffle Bois are joined by Luke Savage (https://x.com/LukewSavage) and Will Sloan (https://x.com/WillSloanEsq) of Michael and Us to describe the least important election of the 2000s. Given that it's the only presidential election since 1988 in which a Republican candidate won the popular vote, much of the episode is dedicated to the analysis of the greatest Democratic Party loser of all time, John Kerry. They also discuss some of the big themes of the election, including the pathetic loserdom of John Kerry, the rehashing of 1960s counter culture, and the increasing role of the internet in presidential campaigning. Huge shoutout to our guests for coming on the pod! Be sure to check out Michael and Us (https://x.com/MichaelandUs) and Important Cinema Club (https://x.com/ImprtCinemaClub)!

Huge shoutout to @treedar_ on IG for this listener topic suggestion! . Thank you to all those who send us recs. Remember Shuffle turns to the internet folklore and its most famous cultural output: the Slendered man. We talk about his origins, characteristics and some academic reviews of folkloric study. Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.  Liminal Space example: https://museemagazine.com/features/2020/11/1/the-cult-following-of-liminal-space

Remember Shuffle turns to the greatest dystopian film of the 2000s, and quite possibly the best film of the decade as a whole: Alfonso Cuarón's “Children of Men.” This text is so abundant that the Shuffle Bois do their first ever seven-theme episode. En route, they discuss hope and despair, capitalist realism, the treatment of migrants, the place of art in our world, what makes this film so prescient, as well as great in its own historical moment. Our apologies to Alfonso "The Fonz" Cuarón if we mispronounced his name. Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

Are you not entertained? Old faithful, we return once more to The Sopranos to discuss the best cultural product of the decade. The season has 4 serialized plots, as well as a unifying theme that ties each episode together. We do a specific deep dive on Fortunate Son, Amour Fou (A Mofo), and one of the top 2 episodes of The Sopranos: UNIVERSITY.  Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

Howdy pardners. Remember Shuffle returns to the beautiful mind of Elizabeth Gilbert to discuss Coyote Ugly - the original article that inspired the film, the rather forgettable 2000 Rom Com adaptation, and the actual business that still exists in New York City. The shuffle boys also interview a subject matter expert in tabletop dancing. En route through the history of these kinds of bars, they also discuss 2000s era lipstick feminism, gentrification, and the carnivalesque. Our SF SketchFest Application video: https://youtu.be/xK_Quj5gCbY Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to inte

Remember Shuffle goes yap for yap with a real yapper with returning guest @Gluten_Daddy (Isaac Eger) of the Coexist Inc podcast to discuss the 9/11 Truth Movement in various forms. They start with three pieces of media from the 2000s that attempted to process the trauma of 9/11 through truther conspiracy theories. Using Michael Moore's Farhenheit 9/11, Dylan Avery's Loose Change, and Peter Joseph's Zeitgeist a jumping-off point, they then turn to some unique aspects of these conspiracies and the people who ascribe to them, the internet's role in conspiratorial thinking, and the state of conspiratorial thinking today. Isaac's podcast, COEXIST INC. can be found here : https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/coexistinc/episodes/Ep--77---Whats-the-Deal-with-Jerry-Seinfeld-e2jtqob ⁠Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

In Remember Shuffle's most experimental, least researched, and most freewheeling episode yet, we turn to the world of Chess in the 2000s. We discuss the game's international growth in the decade, some of its more colo(u)rful characters, and talk about the *meta* of the game. Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.  Disclaimer: we know this one's a little different and a little shorter. Your hosts have been busy travelling and/or hosting guests this summer. While we hope to have some really exciting stuff dropping soon, we hope this one will tide you over with a bit of that Remember Shuffle energy!

The Shuffle Boys return to the world of American military propaganda to review Ridley Scott's 2001 film “Black Hawk Down.To fully appreciate the ghoulishness of this movie's version of events, we start with a quick history lesson on late 20th century Somalia and the actual events that the film attemprs to depict. En route, they return to the well of some of the key themes of both the End of History and Post 9-11 bloodlust eras ⁠Alternate name for the episode was “Stolz der United Nations” but the reference is too obscure, but shout out to the Inglorious Basterds heads who would have liked that Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. 

My name is 2007. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair:  There Will Be Blood No Country for Old Men 3:10 to Yuma The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 2007 was a banner year for the Western genre. The Shuffle Boys get into what each of these films was offering the culture in 2007, and spend the first half hour covering the Frontier's effect on American national mythology and political culture for our overseas listeners. They then do their usual thing and do a deep analysis of the two best Western films of the decade, “There Will Be Blood” and “No Country for Old Men.” Shout out to Greg Grandin's book ‘The End of the Myth' as a source for the history of the frontier. ⁠Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. To skip ahead to each movie: 00:00:00 Intro 00:39:39 There Will Be Blood 01:02:43 No Country for Old Men 01:23:37 3;10 to Yuma

Remember Shuffle presents our Hawk Talk, or Hawk Doc--the Shuffle Boys return to the world of 2000s video gaming to swoop in on the THPS franchise. They discuss the real world impact of these videogames on the growth of skateboarding, their phenomenal soundtracks, what made the games great, how they fell off, and the place that they now hold in peoples' sense of nostalgia. They also trace the life of the birdman himself: Tony Hawk - a fascinating example of Gen Xcellence who continues to thrive online as a self-aware meme.  Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. More information on the Fredericton Bouldering CO-OP can be found here: www.fbcwall.com

I want you to listen to me as hard as you can. ⁠It's 1999 and every movie is about sitting in a cubicle feeling unfulfilled and numb to life. We delve into the 18 months of the 2000s before 9/11 and their flailing attempts to diagnose their ennui. Is it my furniture? Is that the problem? It's gotta be my coffee table, that's the problem. Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

Remember Shuffle finally turns to the presidential election that started it all (and by “it,” we mean the end of the world), the 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. With the help of returning guest @Gluten_Daddy, the Shuffle Bois first attempt to reframe this election in order to look at it without the hindsight that comes with knowing about its dramatic finish. What does an election look like in the age of the Neoliberal consensus? How did third parties affect the race? What was Donald Trump up to at the time?  They then turn to the controversial finish to this election: the recounts, the hanging chads, and the judicial coups. They ask questions like: what good is the democratic party? Could the Jan 6ers have been on to something? How is the turn of the millennium personified in this election? This episode also features a small gloating section for making it to 50 episodes. All jokes aside, thank you to all our listeners who've been with us and helped us get here. Isaac's podcast, COEXIST INC. can be found here : podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/coexistinc⁠Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. 00:00:00 Intro 00:14:25 Characters 00:28:45 Reform Primary 00:38:00 Republican Primary 00:45:13 The Campaign 01:13:55 Bush V Gore 01:47:00 Themes

Scarface is the ultimate, right? THE ULTIMATE. ⁠Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

** I have fixed the audio issue at 1:08--if you do hear nothing, skip ahead 30s, you have a local copy stored. thank you to the listener who messaged us about this** Once again we are getting Italian pilled in this return to our series on The Sopranos. David Chase has said he wanted to make a show about trying to find happiness in an American context and Season 2 has a clear through-line of themes of American Existentialism. Tony's adventures with ennui, religion, and consumerism as a gangster at the End of History. No worries if you haven't seen in a while, Season 2's plot arcs are summarized: Sibling issues with Janice and Richie, Big Pussy is a big rat, and a lot of money making schemes. Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠ And on Instagram ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. Andrea is @andreapozzana on instagram Link to Elvis Country map and Bust Out Math: https://remembershufflepod.wordpress.com/2024/04/20/the-sopranos-season-2-e48-pod-is-dead/

Chris Wade, of the excellent Hell on Earth and goated pod Chapo Trap House podcasts brings his expertise in the field of early 200s adult animation to Remember Shuffle. On this episode, the Shuffle Bois and Chris discuss the history of niche cable networks, the comic geniuses Mike Lazzo and Adam Reed, and the highly scientific field of generationology (Gen X content for the millennial baby boom echo).  They then turn to reviewing four iconic Adult Swim shows from the time - Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Sealab 2021, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, and the Venture Bros.

Holy Colab it's a Craporation. Those Good Old Fashioned Values join us to help sum up the hundreds of hours of Seth MacFarlane content that exists.  We take a wide angle, 40,000 foot view of Family Guy - its structure and style of comedy, cancellation and revival in the 2000s, and how it changed over time - before turning to three themes that we feel define Family Guy: postmodernism, media technology, and transgressiveness.  Follow those Good Old Fashion Values: Ty's instagram: @Seltzer_Flower , and twitter @bobo_circus Andy's Twitch Link is AnonKaiju Spencer is bugman_spencer on Discord if you have an alto saxophone Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠ And on Instagram ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠ to interact with the show between episodes  Please leave a rating for our show wherever you listen (especially Spotify, it's incredible the impact it has)

The 2nd part of our 3 part series on the Lord of the Rings–one of the 2000s most beloved franchises. We get into the themes of the movie including Tokien's own politics on Anarchy, Environmentalism and Class Politics.  Give us a follow on Twitter And on Instagram @RememberShufflePod to interact with the show between episodes

Do you believe in spells? In our 3rd “Type of Guy” episode, we look into one of the 2000s most annoying villains: The Pickup Artist. We give a synopsis of the book ‘The Game', try in vain to defend their techniques, and explain why this particular villain emerged at this point in history. We are joined by dating coach and podcaster Sabrina Zohar of the ‘Do The Work Podcast', which you can find on instagram @do.the.work.podcast  And the Do The Work Podcast here TIMESTAMPS 51:30 Shift to traditional Remember Shuffle episode format 1:04:35 The Cube

*Vocal fry* this is hot. @ThankUforShopping joins the Shuffle Bois and turn to a major figure of 2000s pop culture: the socialite, reality TV star, and boss business bitch Paris Hilton. They trace her early life and experiences in the troubled teen industry, her reality TV stint in Arkansas, and her metamorphosis into the first instagram influencer. Along with tracing the ark of Paris' life, they also discuss influencer culture, it girls, loud 2000s fashion, and Paris Hilton's role as pop culture heel. Follow @ThankUforShopping here:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/thank_u_for_shopping⁠ 

This is a bonus episode. We will be returning with a regular episode 1 week from now We are joined by filmmaker Christopher James Bell (@UpdateTheGrids) to discuss the George W Bush presidency as well as Chris' documentary on Means TV, “Miss Me Yet.”. We go a little rapid-fire, scatter-shot of the major events, wars, and crimes of the GeorgE W. Bush administration before asking Chris some questions about what it was like to make his excellent documentary about politics, war, finance, consumerism, marketing, and culture.   You can find Chris on Twitter/X at https://twitter.com/UpdateTheGrids, as well as his link tree here with links to all his projects, https://linktr.ee/christopherjasonbell Link to Chris's doc on Means TV: https://means.tv/programs/missmeyet?cid=3337806&permalink=miss-me-yet-ep1

Get it now before the episode is inevitably taken down out of cowardice. A movie episode (in name only!) in which we use Kathryn Bigelow's “Zero Dark Thirty” as a springboard to discuss the Bush administration's torture program during the global War on Terror, the attempt to use both girl-bossing and identity politics to whitewash the crimes of empire, and the rise of the contemptible and irritating “bearded operator” subculture.  While this movie might not be as popular or well-remembered as some of the other films we have done, it perfectly encapsulates the brain-melting feeling you got when you first saw the woke CIA ad.

To make someone a martyr is to strip them of their humanity. Yet sometimes Pat Tillman is more than human, and becomes the greatest personification of the Global War on Terror. In Remember Shuffle's first “very special episode” we cover “The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,” in biographer John Krakauer's words. We trace his life from his childhood in California, through his enlistment, to his eventual death in a friendly fire incident and the ensuing cover-up. En route, we discuss the conflict between cynicism and idealism, the U.S. military as Kafkaesque bureaucracy run by Armando Ianucci-style incompetents, and the parallels between Pat's value system and those of another group of warriors in Afghanistan.   Trigger Warning: this episode will make you sad and make your tummy hurt.

It's our Holiday bonus episode. Christmas is the time to tell podcasters the truth. A time to show up outside their window with criticisms of how their voices sound the same. We look at some of the cultural trends of Christmas in the 2000s, including The War on Christmas, Elf, Love Actually, and some TV episodes. 

Hello there! Welcome to The Shuffle Galaxy and our exploration of one of the worst franchise trilogies from the 2000s. Forget everything you know about storytelling fundamentals: characters, acts, arcs, emotions, and nuance—throw it right in the trash compactor– because in the child-like mind of George Lucas, what makes a movie great is an over-the-top third act CGI battle scene on whatever backdrop most resembles your childhood living room floor. George Lucas's nine-hour monstrosity has so much wrong with it and we do our best to add to the  immense collection of existing criticism. En route, we discuss the trilogy's lack of real characters, the films' idiosyncratic style, and the total lack of any interesting themes. We also discuss the trilogy's Pandora's Box-like effect on movie making for the next twenty years and the toy and video-game tie-in products that were, honestly, pretty sick.

As a follow up the 2008 election, we return to late 2000s, early 2010s political culture to discuss the 2008 financial crisis, the government's intervention in the economy, and the mass movement against it: The Tea Party Movement. A Mass Movement of Free Market ideologue's who believe that the financial crash didn't happen because of deregulation–but because we actually didn't do the free market enough. A reading series of Glenn Beck explores their monstrous, dogmatic worldview, followed by the real world impacts of this mass movement. Shout out to Thomas Frank's ‘Pity the Billionaire' as it was used often as a source. Alternate titles for this episode included: ‘Spend it like Beck-am', ‘A Promised Rand', and ‘Ayn't Life Rand'

Welcome to the program, we got a great show for you today, Isaac Eger (@gluten_daddy) is joining us to discuss The Daily Show with Jon Stewart! Remember Shuffle takes a look at one of the most influential TV shows from the 2000s, responsible (for good and ill) for the current state of desk comedy. The Shuffle Bois break down the four distinct eras of the daily show: the leather jacket, 90s alt-comic era, the righteous anger era, the lecture series era, and everyone's favourite: the dogshit era. En route, they discuss the historical moments in which the show aired - the late 90s, Gen X end of history; the right wing war fervor cancel culture of the Bush years; the smarmy lib media navel gazing atmosphere of the Obama years; and the Trump Derangement Syndrome era. They close with discussions on satire, civility, and class politics. Isaac's podcast, Cheeseburger in Babylon can be found here : https://linktr.ee/cheeseburgerbabylon

Remember Shuffle goes indie this week for its obligatory “Spooky Season” episode and takes a look at 2001's Donnie Darko. This indie film became a cult classic, spawning countless hours of internet sleuthing analysis, and is probably the biggest “cult” film of the decade. We break down the incredibly straightforward and simple plot of the film, discuss its themes of teen angst, alienation, fate vs predeterminism, madness, and creative destruction, and finally close with a discussion of the place of the 80s in 2000s cultural memory. 

Bryan Quinby of Street Fight Radio and Guys joins to cover one of the ultimate types of 'Guy': Guy Ritchie--and specifically his 2000s masterpieces Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. We cover the type of guy who loves this movie, petty criminals, and how none of the crimes in these movies are even illegal anymore. check out more Bryan at patreon.com/murderxbryan

We turn, finally, to the greatest pop-cultural artefact of the 2000s—77 minutes of laying out exactly why Googling “what is the greatest show of all time” will return “The Sopranos”. We go over the Sopranos' greatest features, including the internal continuity that each episode has with its small details and imagery, like Curb Your Enthusiasm's interweaving plots, but for drama. The episode is a first pass at explaining why the Sopranos is a 6 tool player at: plot, setting, characters, style, technique and themes–specifically of American decline, generational divide, toxic masculinity and class in The Sopranos.

This week we are once again joined by Mike Duncan as we turn to our favourite all-frills movie from the 2000s, Sophia Coppola's “Marie Antoinette.” We review this film that had mixed reviews at the time, but in retrospect is a masterpiece of ennui, decadence, and style. En route, we discuss different approaches to the historical biopic, malign the double standard of “style-over-substance” discourse, and muse on what different countries' dogs say about them.  Listen to Mike Duncan's podcasts here: https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/revolutions_podcast/

We came, we saw, we podcasted. Huge thanks to @Mike Duncan for coming on the pod to review HBO's Rome with us. The most expensive TV show ever made at its time, and a beautiful show which actually put its budget to good use (unlike, a certain LoTR series). The show gets the Julius Cesar story so right (with a few funny anachronisms), and adds on a Forrest Gump like historical fiction. It immerses you in the values and morals of classical Rome and we love the voodoo magic of day-to-day Roman life. Find Mike's podcasts at: https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/revolutions_podcast/ And get check out 'A Hero of Two Worlds' the story of Lafayette, and 'The Storm Before the Storm' for more classical history https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34184069-the-storm-before-the-storm Ben's show notes: https://remembershufflepod.wordpress.com/2023/08/19/hbos-rome-with-mike-duncan-e31-lend-us-your-ears/

The Remember Shuffle crew turns the nostalgia dial up to 11 and talks about the rise and fall of Blockbuster. Every millennial's favourite corporate monopoly, they talk about how Blockbuster's business morons killed it in the 2000s, by white knuckling the company through 25 years of unprecedented American growth. They examine how Netflix supplanting Blockbuster is a fitting allegory for the ways the world has changed since the 2000s. Specifically, with respect to the almighty Algorithm, the loss of physical media, and how tech companies make our art now.

Ahoy hoy, shuffleheads! Today Remember Shuffle takes a look and 2003's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, the first entry in the best franchise that never was. To help us analyze this film, we are joined by Everett Rummage of the Age of Napoleon podcast. We discuss the uniqueness and out-of-place nature the film in the decade, how this film runs on vibes, the historical authenticity of the film, and why its failure to generate more than 200 million dollars in revenue doomed it to irrelevancy.  We also discuss the a whole host of Napoleonic age topics ranging from the alcoholism of its political and military leaders, the contrast between wonder and enlightenment and the destruction of near-total war, and its totally alien views on masculinity--alright lads, Ship shape and Bristol Fashion! Listen to the Age of Napoleon podcast here: https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/ADL5280986787?selected=ADL7401113285  Follow Everett on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/AgeofNapoleon   See the gimbal here: https://wordpress.com/post/remembershufflepod.wordpress.com/87

Remember the Iraq War? It's back, in prestige cable miniseries form. To discuss Generation Kill, Ben and Jordano are joined by two experts in the David Simon cinematic universe: Matt Lieb and Vince Mancini from Pod Yourself a Gun. They review the show's realism, its “fuck the bosses” ideology, its ability to emphasize the total asymmetry of the Iraq War, and the general lack of Iraq War media in the years since 2003. Check out Vince Mancini's substack page here: https://substack.com/@vincemancini.