This week we are discussing Edgar Wright's zombie comedy about the mundanity of day to day life under late capitalism, Shaun of the Dead. Featuring star turns for Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the movie examines the question of how to live a meaningful life through the familiar tropes of a zombie picture. We consider the ways the issues at play in this film from 20 years ago might be handled today, while comparing our own feelings about ambition and what it means to be "not a zombie" in a world marked by a relentless urgency to "get ahead."

We open the episode discussing the recent horrible flooding in Texas, as well as the potential ramifications of the just passed "Big Beautiful Bill."

This episode contains spoilers for Shaun of the Dead.

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For our 75th episode spectacular, we are discussing 28 Days Later, the 2002 film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland that reinvigorated the zombie movie for the 2000s and launched a franchise that has been back in the news lately. We go over the film's links to Stu's favorite topic, Romanticism, while also comparing it favorably to such dystopian British pictures as Shaun of the Dead and Children of Men. We also note the similarities between the situation the protagonists find themselves in with our own recent experience of the Covid-19 lockdowns. A movie about isolation, civilization, and barbarism, for once, we both really liked it.

We open the episode by briefly discussing the victory of Zohran Mamdani in the recent Democratic primary for New York City mayor, and what this moment of hope for leftist candidates bodes for the future.

This episode contains spoilers for 28 Days Later but does not discuss the recent sequel, 28 Years Later, so if you are waiting to see that one, listen away.

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This week we are talking about billionaires and what makes them different than the rest of us. Why do they put so much stock into utopian fantasies of human salvation on Mars? Who do they believe Artificial General Intelligence will solve all of Earth's problems if we just allow for it to be born (with as few regulations in place as possible)? Why do they seem to care so little about other people? Our guide on this episode is a recent article in Rolling Stone by Alex Morris that gets at some of the psychological underpinnings of these questions while also pointing out how truly ridiculous some of these ambitions are.

We open the episode by discussing the recent US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites and what this bodes for the future.

Alex Morris's What You Suspect Is True: Billionaires Are Not Like Us in Rolling Stone

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This week we are discussing the introductory miniseries of the rebooted Battlestar Galactica as a kind of "culmination" of our recent robot/AI-themed episodes. For once we both really like the show, and we dissect how it deals with the complex issues of technology and religion as well as the question of "fatherhood" with respect to both characters in the show as well as the dynamic between the Cylons and humanity.

We open the episode by going over recent events, including the escalating war between Israel and Iran, Trump's military parade, the No Kings protests, and the assassination of a Minnesota state politician by a man in a life-like mask. Dark stuff!

This episode contains spoilers for the first miniseries of Battlestar Galactica.

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This week we are continuing our suite of robot themed episodes by discussing the play that originated the word, R.U.R. by Karel Čapek which was first written in 1920. Derived from a Czech term meaning "serf" or "worker," these robots are more akin to the androids and other humanoid robots to be found in works like Blade Runner or Companion than the metallic beings to be found in Star Wars. While the play itself is perhaps not the most dramaturgically compelling work we've examined, it is incredible how many of the contemporary concerns about AI and robot labor we've been discussing lately this work anticipates. Robots are created to liberate man from his labor in this play, but in the end, what does that liberation lead to? In a world where "hard work" is held up as the ultimate good in and of itself, what is lost when the need for it vanishes?

We open the episode by discussing the recent deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles.

This episode contains spoilers for R.U.R.

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This week we are talking about robots. Where did they come from? What are they? Are they really going to replace all human workers? We get into the history of these machines, while looking at the implications for them, should they be paired with AI. We also discuss Elon Musk's fixation on humanoid robots, and where this obsession derives from.

We also get into the Ukrainian drone attacks in Russia, as well as discussing the recently aired claim that up to twenty percent of white collar jobs could be eliminated by AI in the next few years, and how absolutely zero safety net has been put in place to assure that people will be able to earn a living when this happens. Uplifting material!

This episode contains spoilers for the history of robots.

Ukraine Drone Attacks from the AP

AI Replacing White Collar Jobs from Axios

Elon Musk Interview with CNBC

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This week we are discussing E.T.A. Hoffman's short story, The Sandman, which presciently anticipates some potential psychological consequences of a too-deep dependence on artificial beings for companionship, while also pointing towards the fundamentally destabilizing possibilities a world filled with autonomous, robotic beings might bring. We go over the story, making reference to Freud's famous essay "The 'Uncanny'" which he partly based on this story, while also connecting the concerns of the tale to elements from our own contemporary experiences. It's an hilarious story, perhaps one of the greatest masterpieces we have yet covered.

We open the episode discussing the potential apocalyptic consequences of Trump's decision to fund a "golden dome" missile defense system, plus we talk about the final episode of season two of Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal.

E.T.A. Hoffman's "The Sandman"

Freud's Essay "The 'Uncanny'"

NewScientist on Trump's "Golden Dome" Missile Defense System

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This week we are talking about the growth of emotional dependency on AI as programs like ChatGPT become more ubiquitous and more sophisticated. We recognize that this has the potential to be, in a sense, a double apocalypse, as the rise of AI threatens to make human beings completely redundant while at the same time the resources used to power AI make the planet increasingly uninhabitable as climate change accelerates. We segue directly into a consideration of a film that deals with these ideas, albeit not in the most serious way, 2025's Companion, directed by Drew Hancock. This film offers a vision of the way an AI powered robotic paramour might be used and abused.

This episode contains spoilers for Companion.

TechPolicy.press on AI Emotional Dependency

Novara Media on Mark Zuckerberg's recent comments on AI replacing real friends

PS: I (Stu) realize now that Stalin's birthday is December 18 and NOT December 8. We apologize for any confusion this error caused.

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