So don’t you hate it when you just want to eat some pie with your grandma and a giant wolf jerk eats you? Yeah, it’s the worst. Join us as we talk about anthropomorphic animals from ancient fables to fairy tales to modernity. We talk about the boy who cried “WOOOOOOOLF,” Red Riding Hood and Disney’s Zootopia, and ask ourselves why these stories endure—and what they can teach us along the way.
Midnight Myth Time Machine | Episode 10: Punk Rock Justice
Welcome to the Midnight Myth Time Machine! We’re republishing our back catalog to make our older episodes widely available. This episode originally aired in 2017.
Derek and Laurel are back at it again, inspired by the FX series “The People vs OJ Simpson.” They contextualize justice as a story, one that evolves through time and cultural relativity. Beginning in Ancient Greece, where mythology and justice merged as one, Derek and Laurel follow the thread to Marvel Studio’s Captain America: Civil War.
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Episode 79: One Trick Pony
Listen in Apple Podcasts.
Content Warning: This weeks episode deals with themes of sexual assault.
On this weeks podcast Derek and Laurel dive into season 5 of Netflix’s original hit cartoon series, BoJack Horsemen. As we watch BoJack’s perpetual self-destructive cycle, we are left to ask if there is a reason to be moral in a post-Enlightenment world where rationality gives life little reason to behave. From Philosophy to Hollywoo cover ups of sexual assault, no topic is off the table. We must ask, Hollywoo stars and celebrities, what do they know, do they know things? Are they condemned to be free? Let’s find out in this weeks Midnight Myth.
Episode 67: Return Ye, Children of Men
Listen on Apple Podcasts.
Yes, the world may actually be going straight to hell. But what can we learn from the onslaught of inhuman behavior to the weakest of us happening at the American-Mexican border? To understand what makes immigrants enemies and how to combat the dehumanization of refugees, Derek and Laurel turn to the 2006 masterpiece of film, Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuarón. While the movie may have had lackluster box-office sales, the artistic impact of a filmic world bent on militarizing its borders while on the brink of the apocalypse can tell us much about our own dilemmas. Content warning: this episode gets heavy—we discuss the realities and atrocities taking place at the border. Join us for a no-holds-barred discussion about real life imitating art, and the cost of giving up one’s humanity to save it.
Episode 63: A Balm in Gilead
Listen on Apple Podcasts
How did we get here? Where are we going? The future may seem an abstract concept, a faraway thing, but every action we take, every word we set down in the present determines the outcomes and intricacies of our world to come. This week, we pull apart some of the religious references in Hulu’s hit series The Handmaid’s Tale to further understand the message the story is really telling. We’ll discuss Offred’s journey so far, what we’ve learned about Gileadian social structure, and the sacred texts upon which this new country is based. Under his eye.
Episode 54: The Panther is Dead, Long Live the Panther
Listen on Apple Podcasts
What makes a great king? The archetype of the king is an age-old convention in storytelling, and we can find answers to that question in Arthurian legend, Shakespeare, Disney, and Tolkien. But let’s look to the Marvel Cinematic Universe once more to try and understand how that question informs its latest installment “Black Panther.” Join Derek & Laurel on this journey from Oakland to Wakanda as we demystify the makings of great monarchs—and how the answer to that question has changed in the modern world.
Episode 18: Woman Inherits The Earth
Sloths are cute. I mean, they are really really cute. Do yourself a favor, and google cute sloth videos. This brings us to this weeks episode where the 90s classic “Jurassic Park” is discussed. We are re-imagining the blockbuster classic as an intellectual treatise on the role humanity has on biological systems, as we grapple with manmade climate change. Derek & Laurel trace the evolution of the age-old conflict between man and nature, exploring Jurassic Park’s modern man vs. nature narrative (and its parallels to Mary Shelley’s classic story, Frankenstein). The debate is palpable, and reminds us of the many false actors in today’s turbulent climate change discourse. But don’t let it bum you out, cause there will always be sloths on the internet. At least, I hope.
Episode 12: Zoo Me
So don’t you hate it when you just want to eat some pie with your grandma and a giant wolf jerk eats you? Yeah, it’s the worst. Join us as we talk about anthropomorphic animals from ancient fables to fairy tales to modernity. We talk about the boy who cried “WOOOOOOOLF,” Red Riding Hood and Disney’s Zootopia, and ask ourselves why these stories endure—and what they can teach us along the way.
