The morning starts on black ice and ends in a blistering debate about the stories we love, the ones we’re tired of, and the culture that keeps reshaping both. We talk near‑misses on winter roads, why late starts still count when you show up, and how a scrappy DIY studio can become a classroom when you treat every session like a screen test.

From there we wander—on purpose. Monk life fantasies and diet myths collide with snake lore, salamanders, and the way fear gets exaggerated by memory and movies. That opens a vault of nostalgia: Mr. Ed, Looney Tunes, the WB frog, and why classic catalogs vanish when media giants change hands. We connect that to the decline of the theater trip, the sticker shock of popcorn, and the churn of “straight to streaming” titles that barely touch the marquee. Convenience rewires habits; it also flattens taste if you let algorithms do all the choosing.

Then we get to the heart of it: why twists beat explosions. Parasite and Squid Game come up as proof that tension, stakes, and moral surprise stick longer than CGI. We revisit The Iron Giant—yes, Vin Diesel made us emotional—and laugh at the discovery that three words can carry a whole character. On the flip side, we dissect a book‑to‑film miss with Ender’s Game: when a director trims the story’s moral spine and tactical rigor, the spectacle can’t save it. Dune and Mad Max get shout‑outs for building worlds where resources and ruin feel frighteningly plausible, blurring sci‑fi and post‑apocalyptic grit without losing their core question.

We wrap with travel rules, budget honesty, and our four‑day cap to dodge homesickness. We set a simple show plan—tighten the audio, test video as backup, celebrate milestones with a bottle of Lagavulin—and hand the mic to you. What should we watch next? Which adaptation got it right? And can you finally convince one of us to give Stranger Things or Squid Game a fair shot?

If you enjoyed the ride, tap follow, share this with a friend who argues about movies, and leave a quick review. Your comments guide the next watchlist and help us keep building this weird, warm corner of the internet.

Please leave a comment, or don't. Whatevs Clevs.

Support the show