We kick things off with Real Life, where Devon is suspiciously chipper and ahead on billing (don't worry, it doesn't last forever). Steven recounts The Great Lice Infestation of '25, a saga that will echo through the ages—or at least the household laundry room. Ben crowns Sektori as his game of the year, describing it as the best Dreamcast game that never existed and somehow got a remaster. If that sentence alone sells you, here's the deal-tracking rabbit hole via IsThereAnyDeal

. Bennnip.

Steven also recommends Arc Raiders, a loot-em-up that caught his attention, which leads to a discussion of an AI-related controversy surrounding the game. Ben had heard about it, and we dig into what's actually going on, pulling from this breakdown over at Game Rant:
Arc Raiders Gen AI Voice Acting Controversy Explained

Back at the table, Steven ran a Mutant Crawl Classics game where a gravitational-lensing mutant plant man absolutely stole the show. As they do.

Ben brings science to the table with a discussion on tea, coffee, and bone health. He walks us through a decade-long study of older women that found tea drinkers had slightly stronger bones, while moderate coffee consumption caused no harm. Heavy coffee intake—more than five cups a day—was associated with lower bone density, especially when paired with higher alcohol consumption. Tea's benefits may come from catechins that help support bone formation, and the researchers suggest that small daily habits can add up over time. Ben even ran the ScienceDaily article through Google LM to compare it against the original paper. You can read the summary here:
Tea may strengthen bones in older women while heavy coffee weakens them

Devon tackles a much bigger question: why consciousness exists at all. The research suggests consciousness evolved in layers—starting with basic survival responses like pain and alarm, then expanding into focused awareness and self-reflection. These layers help organisms learn, avoid danger, and coordinate socially. Birds, interestingly, display many of these traits, implying that consciousness may be far older and more widespread than we once thought. The full write-up is worth your time:
Why consciousness exists at all

Steven had nothing this week, which is honestly its own kind of achievement.

This week's discussion centers on "The Red Thread" by Sofia Samatar, published in Lightspeed Magazine. The story features strong prose, an evocative world, and a compelling narrative voice. Devon respected it but didn't fully connect, while Ben loved it and Steven greatly enjoyed the ride. You can read it here:
"The Red Thread" by Sofia Samatar

Looking ahead, next week's pick is "The Janitor in Space" by Amber Sparks, which you can find at American Short Fiction:
The Janitor in Space

—

As always, thanks for listening—and remember: drink some tea, question reality, and check your kids for lice.

Thanksgiving came and went, and somehow all three of us survived… though some of us survived more deviled eggs than others. Let's jump in.

Steven kicked things off with the tale of a very boring Thanksgiving that was only made notable by the sheer volume of deviled eggs involved. When you commit to making 36 eggs—times two—you're basically catering your own side quest. After recovering, he cleansed his palate by watching Jurassic Park with his kid, which is exactly the kind of comfort cinema the holiday demands.

Ben had a more people-filled holiday: his mom visited (hi Martha!) and there were Thanksgiving dinners with Matt (hi Matt!). Somewhere in between all the leftovers he squeezed in a rewatch of The Fifth Element, because sometimes the only thing better than turkey is multi-pass nostalgia.

Devon reported the chillest Thanksgiving of the group—Friday, low-key, nothing dramatic. Except for a family friend making chicken parm the hard way, which is an important detail because Devon would absolutely like everyone to know there is an easier way. Also: the LEGO Enterprise-D has been purchased… and may or may not have arrived. We're waiting for the inaugural "swoosh test."

Steven also tossed in that Devon watched Zootopia 2, which, according to Steven, is "about WW2." Take that claim as seriously as you should.

Ben brought a blast from the productivity past with the return of Freeter—a tool for organizing workflows, command line scripts, projects, and basically your entire work brain. It's cross-platform and designed to gather everything you need into one tidy dashboard. He's excited; we're cautiously optimistic this isn't the start of another "Ben reorganizes his life using eight apps" arc.
https://freeter.io/

Devon had nothing this week, which somehow felt on-brand after his aggressively uneventful Thanksgiving.

Steven highlighted A Doggone Shame, a study looking at CBD use in over 47,000 dogs. The data shows it's mostly used on older pups with chronic conditions, and while long-term use seems linked to reduced aggression, it doesn't do much for other anxiety-related behaviors. Also interesting: owners in cannabis-friendly states were the most likely to try CBD with their dogs.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/11/251128050506.htm

We'll be reading "Dark Air" by Lincoln Michel — a speculative piece published in Granta.
https://granta.com/dark-air/

We dove into "Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station" by Caroline M. Yoachim, a choose-your-own-adventure-style story where your choices matter… except they don't. The story reminds you that in the clinic—just like real life—your decisions, your path, your careful strategizing… often end up being meaningless in the grand scheme of things. But weirdly, it's fun! We all really enjoyed it.
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/welcome-to-the-medical-clinic-at-the-interplanetary-relay-station/

We wrapped with a quick chat about Stranger Things Season 5. Steven and Devon have watched a few episodes, and the question came up:
Can a modern streaming show realistically handle actors aging when production takes years between seasons?

Do you lean into it? Write around it? Pretend nothing happened? Pretend it's Zootopia 2: The WW2 Years? Hard to say.

It's a big week over here, full of visiting parents, cosmic philosophy, and at least one host wrestling with the concept of leftovers. Let's get into it.

Ben is officially in pre-Thanksgiving hype mode because his mom is coming to visit (hi Martha!). There may or may not be a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on the table—Ben is thinking about it, which is basically the same as committing, right? He's also deep into a full-spectrum Percy Jackson immersion program: watching the movie, reading the books, and watching the new show. You can check out the show's current score here:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/percy_jackson_and_the_olympians

This leads into Ben's latest tech spiral: trying to explain Valve to explain Steam to explain their new announcements. Yes, we're talking Steam Machine, Steam Frame, Steam Controller… all the greatest hits of "Valve makes hardware for some reason."

Devon is dealing with some extended-family logistics involving his sister-in-law and also took a firm stance this week: he hates Thanksgiving atmosphere. The vibes? Bad. The leftovers? Worse. Respect the honesty.

Steven stayed indoors and educated himself by way of extremely good YouTube movie documentaries. First up: a look at how Jurassic Park pulled off its groundbreaking effects:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWtlIhVDl-M

And then a deep dive into the behind-the-scenes of Interstellar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH6qRaOr8YY

Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

Devon brings us the most brain-melting story of the week: physicists have now mathematically proven that the Universe is not a simulation.

A team from UBC Okanagan used Gödel's incompleteness theorem to demonstrate that reality requires a form of "non-algorithmic understanding"—something that no computational system can replicate. In other words: if this is a simulation, it's not one any computer could run.

Read the research summary here:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/11/251110021052.htm

So the Universe might be fundamentally unsimulatable. Which is cool, unless you were really hoping to blame your life choices on a bored cosmic programmer.

We're jumping into a choose-your-own-adventure-style sci-fi story with "Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station" by Caroline M. Yoachim. It's weird, funny, sharply written, and perfect for discussion.
Read it here:
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/welcome-to-the-medical-clinic-at-the-interplanetary-relay-station/

We're covering "City Grown From Seed" by Diana Dima.
Content warning: domestic violence / domestic abuse.

This one is dense, metaphorical, unsettling, and beautifully written. It explores generational trauma, identity, and rebirth through surreal botanical imagery. Definitely one of those stories that sticks with you long after reading.
Find it here:
http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/city-grown-from-seed/

This week's episode opens with a very rainy round of real-life updates. Ben has been slammed with work and declares—formally, officially, irrevocably—that poetry is better than parades. (He is fully prepared to defend this position.) Meanwhile, Steven reports that the local parade and festival still happened despite the rain, because sometimes community spirit just refuses to check the weather. And Devon? He keeps forgetting that he's technically a Texan now, which raises several questions about residency, identity, and barbecue obligations.

But the week wasn't all jokes—Ben also shared the sad news that Orion has passed. He was a very good boy, and the pod raises a collective toast. Ben's been spending time catching up on life, trying to relearn what "rest" even means, and also casually dropping the bomb that Affinity is now free. (Yes, really—go see for yourself at affinity.studio.) And while you're browsing, you can apparently rent Ben's actual mind at Penciledin.com, which sounds like a threat but is, in fact, a service.

Steven also let us know that the Fallout Season 2 trailer is out, so it's time to emotionally prepare for more post-apocalyptic chaos.

Devon kicks off this segment with actual real science: new research shows no clear link between acetaminophen (Tylenol) and autism, which is a big deal considering how long that concern has been floating around. (Links to ScienceDaily and the BMJ included in the show notes for the skeptics and science nerds.)

Then we collectively decide: yes, we need to talk about Plur1bus. And we go deep.

This is a full-spoiler discussion, so skip ahead if you're still watching. We cover everything—from the protagonist who's also the antagonist, to the messy moral math of a hive mind, to Devon's incredibly passionate speech about wanting to understand hive-mind psychology. Steven brings up that Internet-as-proto-hivemind theory, and Ben drops several very good points as per tradition.

If you want episode breakdowns, the Wikipedia page has everything laid out neatly and also serves as a reminder that this show is way smarter than any of us expected when we hit "play."

We skipped Book Club this week because there was simply too much Plur1bus to process.

Next week:
We're reading City Grown From Seed by Diana Dima.
Content warning: domestic violence / domestic abuse.
You can read it for free on Strange Horizons.

It's another week of real life, questionable decisions, and sci-fi tangents.

Does Devon Even Like Being on the Show?
We ask the question no one dared to before—and yes, Devon does like being here. Just… maybe not for the reasons you think.

Ben's Apology Tour Continues
Ben kicks things off with an immediate apology for this podcast. Again. But he makes up for it by diving into Apple TV's The Big Door Prize (IMDb link)—a show full of mysteries, midlife crises, and a machine that tells you your true potential. He's also been watching Zen for Nothing and Piece by Piece, and we learn something shocking: Steven hates LEGO.

Steven's Space Drama
Speaking of Steven, he's wrestling with another defeat in Shatterpoint (at the hands of Christina's husband, again), and somehow this leads to him buying a Camtono. Why does he have one? No one knows. But we do get a heated debate about the LEGO Enterprise and whether Ensign Ro or Tasha Yar had the raw deal in Star Trek.

Devon's Hive-Mind Obsession
Devon's been watching Plur1bus on Apple TV and can't stop talking about how eerily well it captures collective consciousness. For a guy who insists he's an individual, he sure sounds like part of a hive.

Ben actually brings good news this time. Seriously. His pick is a hopeful piece on how Solarpunk is already happening in Africa—how communities there are skipping the outdated infrastructure of the past and heading straight into a sustainable, decentralized future. Read it here: Why Solarpunk Is Already Happening in Africa

Meanwhile, Steven turns up the heat—literally—with a wild story out of Death Valley. Scientists studying Tidestromia oblongifolia found it doesn't just survive in brutal heat—it adapts on the fly, rearranging its cells and genes to keep photosynthesizing when everything else would fry. It's a real-life lesson in evolution under pressure. (ScienceDaily link)

This Week: In the Forests of Memory by E. Lily Yu (read here) – a haunting, quiet story about memory, commerce, and humanity told through the eyes of a trader and a stranger. It's as poetic as it is unsettling.

Next Week: City Grown From Seed by Diana Dima (read here) – content warning for domestic violence and abuse. It's an eerie, metaphorical story that we'll unpack next episode.

Between Ben's apologies, Devon's hive talk, and Steven's LEGO rage, it's another week of chaos, sci-fi, and accidental enlightenment.

You can listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts—or watch our faces slowly melt under studio lights on YouTube.

Real Life

Time changed again. Why? Didn't we, as a society, vote on not doing this anymore? Every clock reset feels like an act of collective gaslighting.

Ben spent his week teaching classes at the Art-a-thon, where he also led a chaotic round of Werewolves featuring the now-immortal line: "I am a delicious villager." The kids apparently took that declaration at face value.

Steven was also at the Art-a-thon, diving into unfamiliar crafts (the kind that require more glue than dignity). Between Halloween, Disney runs, and too much coffee, his week sounded like a montage of exhaustion set to "Hakuna Matata."

Meanwhile, Devon escaped into Weapons—a new dark comedy-horror streaming on HBO. It's clever, weird, and surprisingly funny for something that involves, well, weapons. IMDb link here. Steven immediately brought up Good Boy—another horror film with an entirely different kind of twist. That one's here. Ben closed his week out by jumping into the Star Trek: Voyager – Across the Unknown demo, a roguelike that lets players reimagine Voyager's storylines with ship management and branching plots. It's on Steam. Boldly go, repeatedly die, try again.

Future or Now

Ben's been pondering the next phase of human-computer interaction. There are two paths, he says: cyborgs and rooms. The industry is obsessed with the former—wearables, implants, the dream of merging with our devices. But Ben argues the real frontier is communal computing: Dynamicland.

Dynamicland was a physical space in Oakland where people worked inside the computer. Tables, walls, and objects became part of a shared computational environment. Programs weren't hidden behind screens—they existed in the room with you. From 2017 until COVID, it was a place where anyone could walk in, code with their hands, and collaborate in the real world. It's computing as a public utility, like a library—but for imagination.

Meanwhile, Steven shared a video called "Giving a PC Program Control of My Muscles to Become the Fastest in the World," which feels like the opposite of communal computing. Instead of the room becoming the computer, you do. Devon called it cheating, but maybe it's just evolution—painful, electric evolution.

Book Club

This week's story was The Game of Smash and Recovery

by Kelly Link—an emotional, cryptic sci-fi tale that left the hosts divided.

Steven liked that the story existed at all, even if he couldn't quite parse it. Devon wasn't sure if he liked it—he wants narratives that make sense on the first read. Ben, meanwhile, appreciated how readable it was and actually liked the story, proving once again that literary comprehension may be inversely proportional to caffeine intake.

Next week's pick: In the Forests of Memory by E. Lily Yu.

Until then—reset your clocks, embrace communal computing, and remember: somewhere out there, a delicious villager is waiting.

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.