It’s June so you know what that means! Kat and Emma return to the woods for their annual trek through the Twilight series. Listen along as Emma has an existential crisis realizing that Eclipse might actually be good, Kat gets into the lore of it all, and we realize that everyone, even Stephanie Meyer, might agree that polyamory could be the answer to this love triangle. Content warnings for Eclipse include: references to domestic violence, controlling behavior, vague confederate sympathies, self-harm, weird racism towards werewolves, an unfortunate introduction to the concept of imprinting, and insensitive depictions of the Quileute people.

The article Emma promised to find and video essay Kat referenced can be found here: https://www.slashfilm.com/1700668/why-bryce-dallas-howard-replaced-rachelle-lefevre-twilight-victoria/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT5unKXnSUk For more information on the Quileute people, visit https://www.burkemuseum.org/static/truth_vs_twilight/

You can find Emma on twitter @ematsca, Kat @StrawberrySiren, and the show @UnselectPod. Emma is also on bluesky at crabmoney.bsky.social. Kat can be found on Instagram @swordsandsirens and her dog Walter is @WalterWednesdays. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard and want to support them, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork

The music for this show was commissioned from and composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com/

It’s that time of year when our good friend Jonathan Harker takes a trip to Transylvania, and in honor of such it’s time for Jeff and Emma to break down what surely has to be the most accurate Dracula adaptation—Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). It’s even got the author’s name! The cowboy is there! Wait, what? What do you mean they make Dracula a brooding antihero? What do you mean Mina wants to fuck him like her life depends on it? What do you mean Jonathan is played by Keanu Reeves? Oh boy, sounds like the creatures of the night have sure made some… strange... music with this one. Content warnings for Dracula include: sexual assault, gaslighting, death of a loved one, death of a family member, medical horror, racism and xenophobia towards the Romani people, some weird Victorian values, and the consuming of one baby. Content warnings for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) include: all of the above content warnings PLUS a frankly ridiculous level of horniness. The articles and interviews Emma references in this episode can be found here: https://people.com/movies/francis-ford-coppola-denies-winona-ryder-verbal-abuse-dracula/ https://ew.com/article/2015/10/06/francis-ford-coppola-remembers-dracula/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WwF6vRG3FE https://ew.com/article/2015/08/03/bram-stokers-dracula-francis-ford-coppola-bluray/ https://www.thedigitalfix.com/dracula/cary-elwes-interview-francis-ford-coppola https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/nov/20/bram-stokers-dracula-francis-ford-coppolas-very-horny-vampire-epic https://www.polygon.com/horror/507232/bram-stokers-dracula-1992-nosferatu-horny-vampire-sex https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/06/style/the-new-blood-culture.html You can find Emma on twitter @ematsca and the show @UnselectPod. Emma is also on bluesky now @crabmoney.bsky.social. You can find Jeff @jeffstormer.gobirds.online. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard from Emma and Jeff and want to support the network, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork. The music for this podcast was composed by Jake Loranger. You can find more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

The first rule of Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk is don’t talk about it. The second rule of Fight Club (1999 dir. David Fincher) is don’t talk about it. The fourth rule is two men (gender neutral) to a podcast. Emma and August dissect this cult classic, how gay it is, and how the actors actually learned to make soap! With a special appearance from the Alexandrite System to dig into the notorious plot twist. Content warnings for Fight Club include: graphic violence, terrorism, just kind of being gross, suicide, and a questionable depiction of DID. The articles Emma references in this episode can be found here: https://lithub.com/behind-the-scenes-of-david-finchers-fight-club/ https://cinephiliabeyond.org/fight-club-david-finchers-stylish-exploration-modern-day-mans-estrangement-disillusionment/ https://collider.com/fight-club-alternate-ending-china/ https://ew.com/article/1999/10/15/blood-sweat-fears-fight-club/ https://www.theringer.com/2019/03/26/movies/fight-club-davis-fincher-making-of-brad-pitt-edward-norton You can find Emma on twitter @ematsca and the show @UnselectPod. August can be found on bluesky at harpydora.bsky.social and their podcast Follow the Leader at ftlcast.bsky.social. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard and want to support the network, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork The music for this podcast was composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Take a hot air balloon ride up to Svalbard with Emma and Izze as they look into Philip Pullman’s The Golden _Compass and its 2007 adaptation of the same name. These two try to figure out the mysteries of Dust, what on Earth makes film crews completely rearrange a book’s plot beats, and the weird no-man’s-land between middle grade books and the era of YA. Content warnings for _The Golden Compass include: child abuse, kidnapping, child death, animal cruelty, brainwashing, oppressive theocracy, very British racism, and graphic depictions of polar bear violence. The articles Emma references in this episode can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/movies/02mcgr.html?_r=1&oref=slogin http://newsweek.com/director-confronts-some-dark-material-96599 https://ew.com/movies/2017/11/14/golden-compass-movie-why-didnt-it-work/ https://www.vulture.com/2007/12/golden_compass_scripts.html https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/movies/30comp.html?ex=1346126400&en=d3b0308eab7b0de2&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&mtrref=en.wikipedia.org&gwh=B33C31BB2C0829CC17EAAF8F5CA4100F&gwt=pay&assetType=REGIWALL https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/the-golden-compass-movie-review-2007-adaptation You can find Emma on twitter @ematsca and the show @UnselectPod. You can find Izze on bluesky and tumblr @lotsadeer. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard and want to support them, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork. If you want to hear more from Izze, you can listen to seers shows Abbey Archives, Hope’s Hearth, and SCP Research Archives. The music for this show was composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.co

Take a stroll down the yellow brick road with MK and Emma to ask the wizard about one of the most famous film adaptations of all time. How did the 1900 children’s fairy tale turned populism allegory become one of the most well-known movies from 1939? What’s the true number of witches? What’s with all the slavery in Oz? Why do people think this is the first technicolor film? All these questions discussed an more as Unnatural Selection unpacks The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Content warnings for The Wizard of Oz include: fairytale-typical violence, unsettling creatures, and the Tin Man’s backstory. The sources Emma mentions in this episode can be found here: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/12/15/musical-month-production-history-1903-oz https://ahcwyo.org/2024/08/05/behind-the-curtain-a-look-at-the-wizard-of-ozs-difficult-production-85-years-later/ https://ahcwyo.org/2021/11/15/the-wizard-of-oz-the-story-behind-the-film/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxR3fFv3dBU You can find Emma on twitter @ematsca and the podcast @UnselectPod. MK can be found on bluesky and tumblr at citadelofswords. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard and want to support the network, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork. The music for this show was composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Get to the underground bunkers, put on those military issue nylons and lipstick, and brace for impact as Jeff and Emma get into the tonal whiplash between Kubrick’s nightmare comedy Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb and its Cold War serious counterpart Red Alert by Peter George. How do we go from a countdown to the end in a quest for world peace to protecting our fluids from Russians and women? Why is Peter Sellers so many guys? Are you just as capable of being as sorry as I am, Dmitri? Content warnings for Red Alert include: violence, bombings, suicide, death, threat of doom, 60’s-standard outlooks on the world. Content warnings for Dr. Strangelove include: violence, bombings, suicide, death, threat of doom, so much horniness, one goofy Nazi, and a Tim Robinson lookalike. The articles Emma references in this episode can be found here: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240129-dr-strangelove-at-60-the-mystery-behind-kubricks-cold-war-masterpiece https://collider.com/stanley-kubrick-dr-strangelove-original-story/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/dr-strangelove-stanley-kubrick-making-of-1235808181/ You can find Emma on twitter @ematsca and the show @UnselectPod. You can find Jeff most places @PartyofOnePod. Jeff’s book The Ultimate Fantasy Character Creator is available now. Unnatural Selection and Jeff’s show All My Fantasy Children are both a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard and want to support them, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork The music for this show was composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

A month ago, Katharine and Emma hit the mattresses, but now that things are calming down between the Mafia families of New York they’re here to talk about cinematic masterpiece The Godfather and the extremely trashy novel that inspired it. They get into all of it, from the ten thousand story lines, to the mid-century Italian-American gender essentialism, to just how many synonyms there are for penis used in this novel. And yet somehow, the movie is still (spoiler) a 10/10. Content warnings for The Godfather novel include: Mob violence, domestic violence, racism, sexism, death of a loved one, lots of death in general, death of an animal, and an extremely detailed description of vaginal reconstructive surgery. Content warning for The Godfather film include: Mob violence, domestic violence, racism, sexism, death of a loved one, once again it’s a mob movie lots of death and violence in general, death of an animal, and Al Pacino looking so so hot. The article Emma references in this episode can be found here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1997/03/24/godfatherhood You can find Emma on twitter @ematsca and the show @UnselectPod. You can find Katharine on twitter or letterboxd @ferrifrigida and her website at https://kcoldiron.com/ . If you want to hear more of Katharine’s takes on film you can listen to The Take-Up on your podcatcher of choice or read her book Junk Film. Unnatural Selection is a part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard and want to support the network, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork The music for this show was composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com

Happy Halloween from Unnatural Selection! This month Audrey and Emma face one of the spookiest things known to podcaster: historical fiction from the early 2010’s. Listen along as Emma’s brain full of facts short circuits as the pair tear apart Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith and its 2012 adaptation. We ask questions everyone else is too afraid to, like “Did this even need to be Abraham Lincoln?” and “Was there a single sensitivity reader looking at the slavery plot?” as well as “Hey is that the guy from Mama Mia?” and many more! Content warnings for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter include: vampire-standard gore, racism, slavery, death of a child, death of a family member, death of a loved one, politics, and a shocking amount of actual Lincoln facts. The articles and book Emma references in this episode can be found here: https://ew.com/article/2012/06/29/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-2/ https://www.fangoria.com/qa-seth-grahame-smith-vampire-scripter/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/562046/shakespeare-in-a-divided-america-by-james-shapiro/ You can find Emma on twitter @ematsca and the show @UnselectPod. Audrey doesn’t vibe with social media, but you can find their podcast Alone at the Table on your podcatcher of choice. Unnatural Selection and Alone at the Table are part of the Moonshot Podcast Network. If you like what you’ve heard from either of them and want to hear more, you can become a patron at patreon.com/moonshotnetwork The music for this show was commissioned from and composed by Jake Loranger. You can check out more of his work at https://amaranthine.bandcamp.com/