What's the Obsession With....?

In this episode, Adri and Brie discuss why folks are flocking and going feral about Our Flag Means Death. What has us all singing the praises of a jaunty pirate show? Is it the amazing and diverse cast? The joyful representation of queerness? Main characters who look like real people? Or a showrunner who outright refuses to follow a long standing Hollywood tradition of queerbaiting? Go to our website BasicStuffMagazine.com/podcast to read more about this episode and see links to cast and crew interviews.

In this episode, Adri and Brie try to get to the bottom of WHY everyone has lost their collective minds about Inside. Is it just because it's really good? Are we emotionally invested in him as a person? We take a deep dive into the Bo Burnham Expanded Universe. We discuss Schrödinger Mental Breakdown, spicy Bo and Hozier parallels, "Bo Burnham coming out of the well to shame mankind," and the good ole authenticity-in-art debate. As always, head on over to our website at www.basicstuffmagazine.com/podcast for our notes and episode extras.

Celebrity obsession is nothing new, but what do we get from the act of idolizing others? From the days of Marie Antoinette to YouTube personalities, we talk about our parasocial relationships with absolute strangers. Do celebrities get anything from our adoration or is all a big drag for them? Are human beings just hardwired to be fans? Let’s find out!

For our first episode since quarantine swallowed us whole, we open the much awaited Spooky Season with a classic human obsession -- ghosts. We ask the big questions like: do you believe in ghosts? Why are some places haunted? Why do we want to make very very sure that the dead stay dead? Join us as your hosts recount tales of childhood ghost summoning and assurances that the one industry Millenials will not be killing is the Ghost Tourism Industry.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled learning journey for some weird chatting. Join Adri and Brie on this Let’s Get Weird bonus episode: some good old irregular, barely edited, chatty time! Our Let’s Get Weird episodes let us get wildly, wonky, and weird about what’s on our minds. This time we’re going on a bit about our experiences during COVID-19 self-isolation: the good, the bad, and the hobbies. We’ve stared at our walls, we’ve taken up gardening, and cooked up some dubious food. Check it out!

From Hannibal to Ted Bundy, we (along with special guest, writer Zoe Broad) try to unpack the obsession with serial killers, and end up instead ruminating on the animal within us all that is capable of murder. AKA: the episode where we assure you that you are statistically more likely to be eaten by a serial killer than a zombie. Take that as you will.

Given the current state of things, we felt it was a good time to explore humanity's obsession with The End. Doomsday prophecies span across countless religions, and (at times) intersects with science. For millennia, we've been coming up with inventive ways our civilizations and societies might cease to exist. So what is it that drives us to predict (and sometimes prepare for) the end of the world? And is there some kind of comfort in the simplicity of a post-apocalyptic world? And, more importantly, was Jesus a zombie? We set out to answer this, and other questions.

In this episode, we try to unpack the cultural juggernaut that is Star Wars. We are joined by our friend Stephen Schreffler, who is a writer, musician, AND a huge Star Wars fan with some unique perspectives on what is at the heart of this epic space opera. We compare Star Wars to Pride and Prejudice, try to unpack why the music went so hard, and debate the merits of the SLCU (Spielberg-Lucas Cinematic Universe).

In this horror-themed episode, TV-writer Pete Binswanger gives us insight into some of the gorier scenes on the show Shadowhunters, we refer to Edgar Allan Poe as a "spooky bitch", and all relive the trauma of the scary movies that really messed us up.

From UFO sightings to the earliest alien stories (way earlier than you'd think), Brie and Adri take a closer look at humankind's obsession with creatures from above.