Rachel D, Amanda Jorda Avisati, Mark Lee, Ryan Sheely, and Matthew Wrather gotta get up, gotta get out, gotta do this podcast on Netflix’s Russian Doll starring Natasha Lyonne. They discuss the characters and themes of the story—self knowledge, trauma, relationships, gentrification, spirituality, past and present, —and the unique look and feel that made the series an instant hit with critics and audiences.

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Further Reading

• Bad Bunny, Siempre
• Sneaks, Highway Hipnosos
• Bohemianism
• “The Key to ‘Russian Doll’ Might Be Tompkins Square Park” (nytimes)
• Jason Zinoman’s theory on Twitter
• TFT Podcast 182: Eat Harp Love
• Matryoshka dolls
• EMDR
• Video: Losar Cham (Lama Dance) at Namdroling Monastery

Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather usually write checks their ’cast can’t cash, when they promise over and over that they will get to listener feedback one of these days. In this episode they pay down the debt, tackling listener feedback from the past two months of the Overthinking It Podcast.

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Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather tie on their flannels and head back into the early 90s for Captain Marvel. We discuss the film’s unique feminism, why fair doesn’t mean fair for everyone, and how Captain Marvel is really a French and a German move at the same time.

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Further Reading

• Tailhook Scandal

Peter Fenzel and Matthew Wrather start with an inappropriate recommendation from Netflix and head down the rabbit hole of algorithmic recommendations, machine learning models, behavior tracking, agency, and volition. Remember: Nobody is going to take care of your brain but you.

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Further Reading

• Bayesian statistics
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather report live from the red carpet about why they’re not headed into the Kodak Theater for the Oscars. They talk about the Western Canon, problems falling asleep, and why Oscar season is different in different parts of the country, and they read some listener comments.

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Further Reading

• Oscar Winners
• The Western Canon by Harold Bloom

Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather disassemble and re-assemble the tiny plastic bricks of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, mostly highlighting the mismatch between text and meta-text, the highly inappropriate parental discipline on display, and the frankly bizarre relationship between siblings.

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Further REading

• Surprised by Sin by Stanley Fish
• Hermeneutics
• Erik Erikson and his developmental stages

Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather board the boat that never makes it to the Bahamas as Matt’s ski vacation unintentionally becomes a metaphor for the disastrous Fyre Festival.

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Further Reading

• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Peter Fenzel and Matthew Wrather watch and react to this year’s super bowl ads. We for one welcome our status as useless monkeys in the post-work economy!

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Matthew Belinkie, Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matthew Wrather find the intellectual, aesthetic, thematic, and music through-lines in the Coen Brother’s Academy Award-nominated netflix anthology film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

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Further Reading

• Love Actually (2003), dir. Richard Curtis
• Pulp Fiction (1994), dir. Quentin Tarantino
• Crash (2004), dir. Paul Haggis
• Go (1999), dir. Doug Liman
• Stagecoach (1939), dir. John Ford
• Dead man’s hand
• Old Crow Medicine Show
• Zen-Buddhist Stories

Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, Jordan Stokes, and Matthew Wrather watch Indiana Jones and the Problematic Fave as they answer the scurrilous charge by another podcaster that Raiders of the Lost Ark belongs in the dustbin of history.

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Further Reading

• Slate Political Gabfest — discussion of Raiders starts at 57:00
• “Why Fans of Hamilton Should Be Delighted It’s Finally Stirring Criticism”
• Indy Music: Theme, Love Theme, Ark Music
• Great Marches of the 1980s: Stripes, Police Academy, The Empire Strikes Back
• Walter Benjamin: “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”