Podside Picnic

What's best in life? Can we squeeze "listening to Pete, Karlo and Emma Bowers talk Conan" between "Crush your enemies" and "hear the lamentations of their women?" Watch Emma's great video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFn7yKbylNY

Karlo and Pete try to talk about Le Guin's book about dreaming reality into being, but learn the hard way that the Dao that can be told isn't the true Dao, and instead end up talking about ten thousand (other) things.

Trevor and Kurt come back to talk up the charm of Lord of the Rings Online. Leave it to Podside to imitate Tolkien with extra Lord of the Rings material. . .

It's the Return of the Connor as he joins Karlo to discuss the final book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. We hope you enjoy how much dumb jock energy Eomer brings to the book as much as we do!

Karlo's joined by Aaron and Carlee of Hit Factory Podcast to talk about Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. We discuss when the film was released in theaters, and if in reshoots it resorts to the dreary allegory Tolkien himself disliked.

Karlo, Kurt and Connor discuss their re-read of The Two Towers. They concentrate on many of the characters and parts of the story that weren't adapted into the films (hint: it's time for some wizard shit at Isengard!)

Karlo is joined by Aaron from The Hit Factory to talk about the second Lord of the Rings films. We discuss the many moving parts of the film and Peter Jackson's weird fixations regarding orcs, but sadly never figure out which two towers the movie's talking about.

Karlo, Kurt and Connor discuss their re-read of The Fellowship of the Ring. They concentrate on many of the characters and parts of the story that weren't adapted into the films (hint: it's Bombadillo time!)

Pete and Karlo are joined by Aaron and Carlee of The Hit Factory Podcast to talk about Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. We discuss the staying power of the film, but stay tuned for which other directors would be the best (or worst) for these films!

Podside interrupts our previously programmed Lord of the Rings Month to wrap up Seth Dickinson's decidedly NOT Tolkienesque, The Traitor Baru Cormorant.

Kurt and Chris from Parents Just Don't Understand Podcast return to talk about the parts of The Hobbit that didn't make it into the Rankin Bass animated film. Enjoy going there and back again with us!

What's it gots in its pocketses? Pete and Karlo are joined by Kurt and Chris of Parents Just Don't Understand Podcast to try to answer this very question. We risk it all and go down, down, to Goblin Town to get to the bottom of this mystery!

Karlo's joined by M.K. Anderson to talk about the 2014 film Ex Machina. We discuss Turing Tests, the ethics of creating possibly sentient robots, and why casting charismatic and sexy Oscar Isaac as the Bad Guy almost doesn't work.

Podside's first book club! Listen in to our Discord community's discussions of Seth Dickinson's 2015 novel, The Traitor Baru Cormorant (Chapters 21 - 25).

Pete and Karlo are joined by none other than Connor to chat about season 2 of Netflix's anthology show, Love Death + Robots. Go watch it -- it's pretty good!

Pete and Karlo are joined by Trev and Ted from We Need to Talk About Kevin Podcast for John Carpenter's Christine (1983). If you ever fall into unrequited love with a car that was made evil, we have all sorts of advice for you.

It's time for a little anti-Italian discrimination as Rite Gud's own Sid Oozeley and I answer the age-old question: can a sad antifa pig-man fly? Check out Rite Gud: Patreon.com/RiteGud

Podside's first book club! Listen in to our Discord community's discussions of Seth Dickinson's 2015 novel, The Traitor Baru Cormorant. Podside Book Club will take a brief hiatus and return in September to discuss Walter John Williams' Metropolitan. Join us then!

Pete and Karlo are joined by Emma Berquist to talk about the 2020 horror film, The Empty Man. Listen as we talk about tulpas, the self-help tips of the Pontifex Institute and Emma's dog offers her own (grumbling and adorable) opinions.

Pete and Karlo are joined by Kurt Schiller and Chris Woodward of Parents Just Don't Understand Podcast to talk about Excalibur (1981). We discuss how this film feels like a new adaptation of the source material, which may be a dream to some. . . a nightmare to others!

A new month, a brand new beer run where Pete and Karlo talk about Brood X as a potential buffet for dogs of all sizes, the merits of small beer in the medieval ages and how we'll be covering The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in July, nbd

Pete and Karlo are joined by the most dangerous woman in speculative fiction, Raquel S. Benedict to talk about RoboCop. Spoiler alert: we all love this movie, so it's with a heavy heart we must say ACAB includes RoboCop.

Pete, Karlo and Rite Gud's own Sid Oozeley (@MagusDeluxe) talk Castle in the Sky. Listen in to find out why Miyazaki loves flying in his films, and at least one other less-than-pleasant insight.

Sad Puppies! Rabid Puppies! Join Pete and Karlo for the recent history of the Hugo Awards, and what's going on today.

Did you know Pete has a Doctorate in Barbara Hambly Studies? Well, he does, and he brings all his knowledge to bear in this discussion of the author's 1985 novel, Dragonsbane. Get the book: https://www.amazon.com/Dragonsbane-Winterlands-Book-Barbara-Hambly-ebook/dp/B004TC149G/ref=sr_1_1?

Podside's first book club! Listen in to our Discord community's discussions of Seth Dickinson's 2015 novel, The Traitor Baru Cormorant. Join us for our next discussions: Chapters 21-25 for discussion/recording 5/22/21 Chapters 26-30 (+ epilogues) for discussion/recording 6/8/21 We'll be starting discussions on the listed dates at 9 PM EST so read along and join us next time! Get the book: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765380739 We'll be starting discussions on the listed dates at 8 PM EST so read along and join us next time! Get the book: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765380739

Pete and Karlo are joined by Paul Walker-Emig of Utopian Horizons podcast to talk about 1987's The Running Man. Learn the differences between the book (one of the Bachman Books). Welcome to the 80s, baby and most important -- get ready to run! Back Paul's new book, Object Oriented: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/objectoriented/object-oriented Check out Utopian Horizons: https://www.patreon.com/utopianhorizons

Pete and Karlo are joined by Tiffany Meuret (@TMeuretBooks) to discuss the 2001 cult classic Donnie Darko. Is Donnie a superhero? Why doesn't he fire his therapist? Listen in and find out!

Pete and Karlo are joined by Kurt Schiller and Chris Woodward of Parents Just Don't Understand podcast to talk about the Hugo Award-winning novella, The Little Goddess by Ian McDonald. Spoiler alert: we all loved it despite some of its flaws and had a fruitful discussion about some of its themes, its prose and of course how best to cancel poor Ian today (not really).

We sat down with Michael Lichand of @fmanalists and @that2ep fame to discuss a Sci-Fi classic by Montiero Lobato, a celebrated children's author in Brazil. It's....its safe to say that it did NOT go as expected, but it was a lively and interesting discussion.

Pete and Karlo are joined by Kurt Schiller and Chris Woodward of Parents Just Don't Understand podcast to make the techno noises for the Paul W. S. Anderson's 1995 crapterpiece, Mortal Kombat. Find out who the secret characters are, how this movie is both good and bad, and why Kano's special attack is chewing scenery with his mouth open.

In this preview Struggle Session's anime correspondents, Emma Bowers and Abby Denton return to talk about Satoshi Kon's show, Paranoia Agent. Watch out -- Lil Slugger might get you, too . . .

Struggle Session's anime correspondents, Emma Bowers and Abby Denton return to talk about Satoshi Kon's show, Paranoia Agent. Watch out -- Lil Slugger might get you, too . . .

A preview of Podside's first book club episode! Listen in to our Discord community's discussions of Seth Dickinson's 2015 novel, The Traitor Baru Cormorant. Our next discussion will cover Chapters 6 - 10, on 4/13/21 starting at 9 PM EST so read along

Karlo is joined by Aaron and Carlee of Hit Factory Podcast to discuss the 2014 film, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. We discuss how Ape society is anchored to the past, how Caesar's a lib, and why Koba did nothing wrong.

Karlo's joined by the most dangerous woman in speculative fiction, R.S. Benedict to discuss the 1996 sleeper hit, The Craft. Find out why Fairuza Balk should've been the protagonist, why magic should belong to the masses and why Sarah's a blue-check witch. Check out Rite Gud: https://www.patreon.com/ritegud Read R.S. Benedict's brilliant piece in Blood Knife, Everyone's Beautiful and No One Is Horny: https://bloodknife.com/everyone-beautiful-no-one-horny/

Pete and Karlo are joined by Illimani Ferreira to talk about The Vanished Birds, Simon Jimenez' debut novel. Join us to find out how capitalism escaped containment, where the birds went, and why we think it's criminal that this book hasn't won every award possible. Buy the book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/609386/the-vanished-birds-by-simon-jimenez/ Vote for the Locus Awards: https://poll.voting.locusmag.com/

in this preview, Pete and Karlo talk about the 1983 science-fantasy film Krull. The plot doesn't make a lick of sense, the actors are too good for any of this, and we discuss what an actual glaive would be.

Pete and Karlo discuss Jorge Luis Borges' seminal story, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbius Tertius (from his collection, Labyrinths), about how an invented reality begins to seep into ours . . . but that's just a work of fiction, right?

It's not often that we do requests, but this one jumped the line. Here's a clip of our hunger games discussion, sponsored by Mrs. Kobnisky's 7th grade Literature Class. Featuring Emma Berquist, the most guest of all time.

Pete and Karlo are joined by the author of Stonefish, Scott R. Jones. Listen in to find out why the First Law of the universe is a horror show, and why Sasquatch is too. Buy Stonefish: https://wordhorde.com/books/stonefish/ Scott's website: https://scottrjoneswriter.com/ Follow Scott on Twitter: @PimpMyShoggoth

Pete and Karlo discuss the 1981 Space-Western, Outland. Find all about how best to keep your workforce motivated on the moons of Jupiter as well as creative ways to murder people using the vacuum of space.

Karlo reads As the Shore to the Tides- So Blood Calls to Blood, which is eligible for the Locus Award for novelette. Note that anyone can vote for the Locus Award. Read the story: http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/as-the-shore-to-the-tides-so-blood-calls-to-blood/

Pete and Karlo are joined by Ted and Trevor from WNTTAK podcast to talk about the 1986 John Carpenter film, Big Trouble in Little China. Join us as we talk about how good James Hong is as the evil dream, David Lo Pan and cancel Jack Burton for being a bad ally.

Pete and Karlo are joined by Kurt and Chris from Parents Just Don't Understand Podcast to talk about the 80s-tastic fantasy film, Willow. Listen to find out Evil Queen Bavmorda's tragic backstory (not really). Parents Just Don't Understand Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/parentspodcast

Pete and Karlo are joined by returning champ, Michel Lichand to discuss one of Ursula K. Le Guin's most iconic stories, The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. What would you do if presented with the price of your utopia?

Pete and Karlo are back to discuss Man-Thing, the silent nexus between worlds, Howard the Duck and grapple with how being a fan used to feel temporary

The gang's all back, and boy do they have some shit to shoot! Listen to Pete, Karlo and "special guest" Connor ramble on about COVID speakeasies, mule deer and plans for world domination . . . in D&D

In this episode, Karlo takes on the Herculean task of educating Pete on : Nausicaä, with a number of digressions along the way.

In this preview, Karlo and Pete talk about the 1993 film Fire in the Sky, what people usually do to when presented with the unexplained and the approximately 10 minutes that make watching this film worth it.