This week we are returning to Stanley Kubrick, tackling his late masterpiece, Eyes Wide Shut. We discuss its resonances with the ongoing (neverending?) Jeffrey Epstein scandal, while also getting into some of its Freudian themes. We discuss the film's relationship with its source material, Arthur Schnitzler's brilliant Traumnovelle, pointing out the specific sort of dream logic that animates the movie's action.

We open the episode by tossing around the hot new conspiracy about the Earth's "actual" population which as been "taking the internet by storm."

Also, we don't mention it in the episode, but RIP Bob Weir.

Bonesawmd's post on X about the Chinese population "conspiracy"

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This week we are discussing the United State's "action" in Venezuela which led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. We go over the implications of this for US foreign policy moving forward, what this means for the future of Venezuela, while also touching briefly on the long history of that nation. Does this action imply a shift in the future of US global strategy? Is the US stepping back from its engagements in Europe and Asia to focus on "dominating" the Western Hemisphere? Whatever it means, it's not looking good!

We open the episode by discussing the plight of Scott Adams, who is apparently on death's door after following some ill-conceived medical advice.

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This week we are talking about Stanley Kubrick's 1980 masterpiece, The Shining. We get into Kubrick's famous "beef" with Stephen King, the author of the novel upon which the film is based, while also discussing the several angles of interpretation that have emerged over the forty five years since the film first premiered. Is the movie about the end of the world? You might not think so at first, but with the help of our old friend Frederic Jameson, by the end of this episode, you might just think otherwise. We also briefly discuss the brilliant psychoanalytical treatment of the picture offered by Cale Brooks.

We open the episode with an update on one of our favorites, Sam Altman, who is now seeking a "head of preparedness" for OpenAI, whatever that means!

Frederic Jameson, "Historicism in 'The Shining'"

Cale Brooks, "What We Overlook in The Shining"

Sam Altman's call for a new "Head of Preparedness" for OpenAI

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We did it. Somehow, we've made it to one hundred episodes. And this week we're going to celebrate by going over some of our favorite and least favorite movies from the first hundred, offering predictions on the future of American politics, and, most importantly, going through three of Michael's famed/hated hypotheticals. We even touch a bit on the afterlife. It's all here.

Thanks to everyone who has listened to any of these first hundred episodes, we really appreciate it, and we're looking forward to providing cutting edge end of the world content for the next hundred episodes to come and beyond!

A list of all the movies we've covered on Letterboxd

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This week we are tackling 2007's I Am Legend, a film so bad not even Stu can pretend it is a "masterpiece." Much time is spent in pointing out the many problems with the main character's behaviors in the film (it stars Will Smith at the height of his powers), applying all we have learned from 99 episodes of examining end of the world scenarios. We also tear apart both equally terrible endings of the film.

We open the episode by remembering the late, great Rob Reiner who passed away in tragic circumstances over the weekend. We also analyze the response to his passing by President Trump which was, how shall we say...deranged.

This episode contains spoilers for I Am Legend.

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This week we are revisiting a 2016 New Yorker profile of Sam Altman by Tad Friend for insight into how we got where we now are with regards to AI and its seeming inescapable ubiquity. The article is quite revelatory, as it shows us Altman in a more nascent moment in his rise to "tech superstardom." And what do we find? A monomaniacal sociopath with dreams of infinite growth and little regard for the consequences of his actions on the lives of other people. It's quite amazing and quite depressing at the same time, but we managed to have a good time exploring this portrait of a fundamentally detestable person that grants its subject, a delusional and likely evil ghoul, the patina of respectability.

We open the episode looking at a piece that suggests OpenAI, once the golden child of Silicon Valley, may have a difficult road ahead of it.

Tad Friend's 2016 profile of Sam Altman in The New Yorker

Bloomberg on OpenAI's potential fall from grace

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This week we are discussing the Heaven's Gate cult, which famously brought about its own end through mass suicide in March of 1997 as the Hale-Bopp Comet sailed past the Earth. We discuss the group's origins in the "cultic milieu" of the early 1970s and compare it to other new religious movements of the time including Peoples Temple, The Manson Family, and EST. The group's beliefs, an interesting fusion of New Age practices and Protestant Christian teachings, emphasizing individual self-transformation in order to ascend to a higher plain of existence, help us to situate them in the context of their era. We also explore connections to events in the 1990s such as the siege at Waco, the siege at Ruby Ridge, and the manifesto of the Unabomber in hopes of coming to a better understanding of the group's seemingly unthinkable decision to end their lives.

Our guide for this episode is Benjamin E. Zeller's Heaven's Gate: America's UFO Religion, which looks at Heaven's Gate from the perspective of religious studies.

The outro music this week is "Whenever You Find Me" by No Sky God.

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This week we are considering Sidney Lumet's 1976 classic Network. Written by acclaimed screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky and featuring an all-star cast, the film examines the breakdown of the supposed objectivity of the news media in an age of hyper-capitalism. A prophecy of things that would come to fruition decades after it was first released, Network remains relevant today for its extremely cynical depiction of the corporate media landscape as well as for its anticipation of the way religious values have been transposed onto media properties. We, while finding much to like, also discovered much to criticize in this ambitious but flawed film.

We open the episode with a sad note of memorial for Stu's late cat, Zimbra, who passed away over the weekend.

This episode contains spoilers for Network.

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