Space the Nation

What better way to end our celebration of mothers with this meditation on generational trauma—as well as the grit and grace it takes to survive. This is not Octavia Butler's novel with the most transparent commentary on the Current Troubles, it goes deeper than that: It raises questions about repair from trauma, what it is possible to heal, and when wounds have to be honored rather than salved. A perfect accompaniment to preparations for our country's 250th birthday!

The George Clooney Rule of competence porn ("If the movie contains Clooney, it contains competence.") overwhelms the argument that Gravity may not, at its core, really be competence porn so much as "barely-made-it-out-and-needed-a-male-presence-to-survive porn." Your space mileage may vary!

More moms in space for May! Arrival may be the movie that split your hosts the most deeply: Dan loves it, Ana can't forgive the movie for confusing linguists with translators, among other things. This movie has a gorgeous soundtrack, a luminous performance from Amy Adams, and a lot of international relations.

We continue with encore presentations of mothers in space for May. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert use slapstick, sci-fi, and hotdog fingers in this hallucinatory exploration of agency and commitment and the everything bagel. There's IR and a critique of capitalism in this movie.

The minds behind The Expanse are back with a novel about academic infighting and enormous space bugs. Dan identifies with one of the characters! It's a brutal look at how humanity does and doesn't survive contact with utter cruelty. There is lots of IR (and academic intrigue!) in this book.

Mothers: Can't live with them, can't have existed without them. Science fiction is dominated my male voices, some of them have mommy issues. Here are some of our mommy issues. (Octavia Butler, author of one of encores, is the only creator to be exploring the issue from the inside.)First up is Aliens, the ultimate not-without-my-daughter text.

Presenting the Schlock or Awe collection, encore presentations of the best worst movies we've seen. Patrons get episodes ad-free.Fourth wave: Urine for a treat.

We are forced, once again, to ponder the power of charisma in creating the illusion of perfection. Of course things never go wrong for George Clooney. Unless he portraying a small-time legal fixer (see: Michael Clayton), in which case we just know we're watching a fantasy.Steven Soderberg, also at the top of his game, makes this a movie that's about criminal enterprise but goes down like a spa day at a luxury Vegas hotel.There is IR, kinda, in this movie.

Presenting the Schlock or Awe collection, encore presentations of the best worst movies we've seen. Patrons get episodes ad-free.Third in the roster: three shells.