Hello Everyone,

We will no longer be updating Loud Murmurs. Due to some very personal changes that happened recently, we decided to pull the plug on Loud Murmurs and sincerely hope that everyone can respect our decision. 

Given the sudden nature of this announcement, we will keep our RSS feed up for another week. If you like a certain episode, feel free to download it onto your own devices within this timeframe. We ask that you respect our decision to shut down the podcast and not repost our content anywhere. 

In addition to shutting down our RSS feed, we will delete our social media presence in the coming weeks. Our Patreon and Aifadian will be closed as well. 

We want to thank you for all of your time and support in the past 4 years. We couldn’t have done it without you. While this podcast will no longer exist, our obsessions with  movies and TV shows remain. The Internet is big: in the vast universe that is millennials-making-podcasts, watch out for a similar frequency out there. When you do, catch it. 

Always, 

Loud Murmurs

In our annual holiday special, our four hosts (minus Diaodiao) and our editor Joshua look back on our favorite LMM episodes, as well as TV shows and movies that made us laugh, made us think, and got us through the year. 

• 2:47 Afra’s favorite: time travel trilogy (part I, II, III)
• 4:07 Ina’s favorite: ‘Sound of Metal’ (part I and II) and a window into the deaf and hard of hearing community (and their representation in pop culture, e.g. The Bachelor) 
• 8:20 Joshua’s favorite: ’Shang Chi’ (episode here)
• 11:57 Juan’s favorite: We are all 'Minari' 
• 21:48 Afra discusses ‘Spencer’
• 36:25 Ina discusses her favorite shows of the year: ‘Succession’ (worry not, we are making an episode on it)，HBO's ‘Sex Life of College Girls’ and the girls’ authentic friendship; wholesomeness of ‘Great British Bake-off’; ‘Ted Lasso’; ‘Hospital Playlist’ (embracing the urban friendships that have become family)
• 41:52 Joshua discusses his favorite from this year: creating characters and writing your own plot with TTRPG
• 48:15 Juan and Ina finally learn to appreciate audiobooks via: ‘How much of these hills are gold’, ‘The Cult of We’, ‘Empire of Pain’
• 55:37 Listener voice memos (thank you to those who submitted and thank you all for the support) 

[Audio editor]

Joshua Ogden-Davis

[Links & resources]

• Cathy Park Hong, “Minor Feelings”
• Michelle Zauner (singer Japanese Breakfast), “Crying in HMart”
• Jay Caspian King, “The Loneliest Americans”
• C Pam Zhang, ”How much of these hills are gold“
• Eliot Brown, Maureen Farrell“The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion ”
• Patrick Radden Keefe, “Empire of Pain”

Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/loudmurmurs. 

Reach out to us at loudmurmursfm@gmail.com for any business inquiries. 

Find Loud Murmurs in the iTunes podcast store, Google Play, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts (e.g. Pocket Casts, Overcast)! Please subscribe, enjoy, and feel free to drop us a note and leave us a review. 

• RSS feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/258327.rss 
• Itunes: https://apple.co/2VAVf0Z 
• Google play: goo.gl/KjRYPN 
• Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2IWNuRB 
• Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=544416&refid=stpr 
• Pocket Cast: http://pca.st/nLid 
• Overcast: https://bit.ly/2SL7MNJ 

[Episode theme]

Loud Murmurs is finally boarding the Dune train. We invited interpreter William White and our listener and ecology PhD Luojun Yang to join the four hosts. 

We dive into a couple of themes, like the significance of imagining a feudalistic society in the far far future, the technological developments of a post-Butlerian Jihad world, the socio-historical background of Frank Hubert’s novel, spice harvesting and our relationship with natural resources, the white savior complex and colonialism embedded in the book and movie, and last but not least, why we want to see more characters like Jessica. 

This episode is brought to you by NEIWAI, a lifestyle brand that aspires to create lingerie & loungewear that free wearers' bodies and minds. NEIWAI celebrates women everywhere and strives to be a constant companion on every adventure in their life – in every precious moment. Our hosts are users of their products and we talk about our experience in the middle of this episode. Use our code LMM20 for 20% off NEIWAI products, or shop via this link.  

[Timecode]

• 4:53 First impressions of Dune: “I’m one with the music”, “isn’t this just a trailer?”, “this is just the beginning”
• 11:05 Denis Villeneuve versus David Lynch’s version 
• 13:05 The World of Dune: feudalism in a futuristic world, the Butlerian Jihad and why there aren’t smart phones in this world
• 15:52 soft versus hard Sci-Fi
• 16:45 if this story didn’t include aliens, would we still think it’s Sci-Fi? 
• 18:10 Counter culture movement — socio-historical background of Frank Hubert’s Dune 
• 20:56 the dual meaning of spice: hallucinogen and valuable resource (not unlike fossil fuel 
• 22:26 harvesting spice and how it relates to environmental crises stemmed from exploitation of resources 
• 24:51 we want to see more narratives that explore the human-nature relationship as climate change is becoming more urgent 
• 27:34 the course of resources and how Hubert’s approach to ecology is very human-centered 
• 31:08 AD TIME: our four hosts talk about our experiences with NEIWAI products and how “one size fits all” reduces body/cup size anxiety. Use LMM20 for 20% off your purchase or shop via this link.  
• 37:34 white savior complex, colonialism, and cultural appropriation in Dune 
• 42:52 culture adaptation in the original novel
• 45:15 how the movie treated the Fremens, Lawrence of Arabia, and Paul’s fate as a white savior 
• 48:28 William White sharing his personal experience growing up in a pop culture they glorified the white savior narrative 
• 51:32 strong female characters in Dune — Jessica, and how her portrayal differs in the David Lynch version
• 55:44 David Lynch’s Dune and it’s homophobic elements 
• 57:10 the portrayal of the Baron in the two versions
• 59:02 strong female characters in Dune: Chani 
• 1:02:17 what’s the value of Dune being made into a movie in 2021  

[Host]

Diaodiao
Ina
Afra
Juan

[Guests]

白威廉 (William White)

Luojun Yang

[Audio editor]

Josh Ogden-Davis

[Be our sponsor]

Please consider supporting us on Patreon.