Real Life:

This week's episode kicks off with Ben wondering what would happen if idioms were costumes. Imagine showing up to a party literally raining cats and dogs or dressed as the elephant in the room. (We're not sure if that's genius or horrifying.)

Steven reminds everyone to say it to our faces! — meaning, drop us a comment or suggestion. Seriously. We read them. Sometimes we even respond like civilized humans.

Devon went to a Halloween party with the Non-Religious Alliance of East Texas Facebook group (yes, that's a thing), rocking a DS9 uniform costume that probably had at least three pips too many.

Ben got a night off parenting duties for Kids Night Out and wants to shout out Butterchurn Visualizer for turning his playlist into a full-blown psychedelic light show.

Then Steven dives into a spoiler-filled review of Sinners — which Devon also saw. If you haven't watched it yet, consider this your warning: spoilers abound, and apparently so do opinions.

Future or Now

Devon takes us up to near space with the week's wildest headline: the object that struck a United Airlines plane wasn't space debris… it was a weather balloon.
Turns out, flight 1093's busted front window was courtesy of one of humanity's oldest sky spies, not falling junk from orbit.
📰 Read more here: Ars Technica

Meanwhile, Ben is fed up with the internet's ad problem — you know, those "No Adblocker Detected" pop-ups that ruin your vibe. He found a fantastic rant about how ad-driven web economics are slowly melting the internet into a soulless sludge of clickbait and autoplay. Check it out here: Maurycyz.com on Internet Ads.

As for Steven, he contributed… absolutely nothing. His words, not ours.

📚 Book Club: "Planet Lion" by Catherynne M. Valente 📚

This week, the crew explored the lush and poetic alien world of Planet Lion by Catherynne M. Valente (read it here).

• Ben didn't love the poetic style but admits he might've shortchanged the story by listening instead of reading — multitasking strikes again.

• Devon really enjoyed it, especially the layered, lyrical tone.

• Steven appreciated how alien the alien perspective felt — not just in design, but in mindset.

Next week's story: "The Game of Smash and Recovery" by Kelly Link (available here).

As always — got thoughts, theories, or strong feelings about weather balloons or weird fiction? Say it to our faces! Drop a comment or join the discussion on our socials.

Real Life

Ben was out this week, which left Devon and Steven to hold court—and as Devon reminded us, there are no kings here anyway. He showed up fresh from an event that apparently involved an axolotl costume (details were scarce, which somehow made it funnier), and immediately launched into a whirlwind of thoughts about upcoming elections, funding cuts to science, and the strange, ongoing collision between South Park and real-world politics.

Meanwhile, Steven spent his weekend in the world of The Witcher: The Old World board game with Greg, slaying monsters, collecting trophies, and occasionally remembering to play the objective. Devon also caught up on Foundation Season 3, where he's decided Brother Day now fully channels The Dude—if The Dude had an empire and a god complex.

Future or Now

Devon took us on a deep dive into the evolving shape of human unhappiness. Once upon a time, midlife was the low point—a universal "unhappiness hump." But according to new global data, that hump is flattening out. Today, mental health is worst in youth and actually improves with age. The midlife crisis may be over, but something worse has taken its place: an age of early despair. Young people are struggling more than ever before, reshaping how we think about happiness across the lifespan.
👉 Read more

Steven followed that up with a warning: don't drink the Kool-Aid—or the soda. A massive new study of over 120,000 people found that both regular and diet soft drinks are hammering our liver health. The risk of metabolic-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) jumps dramatically with more than one can a day—and "diet" drinks might actually be worse. Changes to gut bacteria and appetite regulation are the prime suspects.
👉 Check out the study

Book Club

No story discussion this week, but next time we're diving into Planet Lion by Catherynne M. Valente, a luminous piece of speculative fiction about faith, communication, and the limits of understanding alien minds.

👉 Read it on Uncanny Magazine

It's another week in real life for the gang — or at least for most of us. Devon's down sick, so it's a two-man show featuring Steven and Ben navigating the bizarre crossroads of tech, food, and VR golf.

Ben's been tethered to the job, but he still managed to escape reality long enough to join a virtual round of Walkabout Mini Golf— specifically the new Tokyo DLC — alongside Steven, some friends, and one of our lovely patrons. Turns out, there's nothing quite like bonding over missed putts in low-poly Japan.

Meanwhile, Steven's week has been aggressively autumnal. Between a pumpkin painting and apple party (new listeners, it's a thing), setting up a a pi-hole on a Raspberry Pi 4, and cracking open the Hellboy board game, he's officially living his best nerd life.

Ben, on the other hand, declared war on Microsoft. With Windows 10 heading toward its end-of-life, he's switched to Bazzite Linux to avoid the sins of Windows 11. Cue righteous fury: "How dare you do what you do, Microsoft?" Also, the ROG Ally handheld PC is on the horizon — should we be excited or just emotionally prepared?

Steven dives into a story that'll make you rethink that bag of chips: ultra-processed foods (UPFs) now dominate the American diet — and they're linked to chronic inflammation, heart disease, and cancer. According to Science Daily, people who eat the most UPFs show higher levels of hs-CRP, an inflammation marker. The takeaway? Maybe listen when Steven yells, "What's in your mouth?! DROP IT!"

Ben, ever the tech romantic, went down a rabbit hole about creating your own physical music formats — a nostalgic rebellion against the streaming void. Inspired by this Y Combinator post, he mourns the lost art of DropMix and Rock Band, both now relics of a time when music and play collided beautifully.

This week we read "Wikihistory" by Desmond Warzel — a time-travel tale told entirely through wiki edit threads. It's short, it's clever, and it'll make you question what's really editable in history.

Next week: "Planet Lion" by Catherynne M. Valente — an elegant, surreal journey through alien communication and memory.

👾 Listen now for the perfect mix of VR golf, processed snacks, Linux rebellion, and speculative fiction.
🎧 Available wherever you get your podcasts.