Keeping up with the Cardassians

FromAlienating the Audience

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Keeping up with the Cardassians

FromAlienating the Audience

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Length:

69 minutes

Released:

Nov 4, 2021

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

Cardassians include some of Star Trek's best characters and plot, from Elim Garak (the best character ever) to Dukat (single greatest villain) to Orwellian illusions and Holocaust analogies. Scottish scifi aficionados Dickie and Stone Lynch return to discuss the Cardassian oeuvre.

Released:

Nov 4, 2021

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Andrew Heaton and an army of nerds plunge deep, deep into films, books, and TV shows to ask: what's science fiction really about? What is The Twilight Zone really exploring? What are the underlying themes of Star Trek? What is the worldview of Star Wars? Also sometimes Heaton performs comedy on other planets.

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Are We Living in a Computer Simulation?: The central premise to The Matrix is that we're actually living in a computer simulation, as well as think piece episodes from Star Trek, Black Mirror, and even Rick & Morty. Jay Mutzafi, host of "The Last Turtle" philosophy podcast joins Heaton... by Alienating the Audience
118 min listen
Is Life Worth Living in a Perfect Utopia?: John Varley's novel "Steel Beach" portrays a future brimming with attractive immortals living in amusement parks on the Moon--yet the main character contemplates suicide. Absent strife, can humans find purpose? Tim Sandefur joins Heaton to discuss... by Alienating the Audience
65 min listen
The Twilight Zone's Nostalgic Cold War Bunker: Tim Sandefur joins Heaton on the podcast's kickoff episode to dissect The Twilight Zone, and how Rod Serling's fascination with nostalgia, the Cold War, collectivism, and totalitarianism made the most iconic scifi/horror show in American history. by Alienating the Audience
68 min listen
P3 Cold War Kirk vs. Picard the Moral Relativist: Tim Sandefur joins Heaton to discuss the philosophical differences between Star Trek TOS and Star Trek The Next Generation. Gene Rodenberry and his contemporaries lived through World War II and the Cold War, and believed in clear right and wrongs.... by Alienating the Audience
52 min listen
P6 Regarding Batman's Political Affiliation: Is Batman a Libertarian (wealthy, gizmos, works outside the law) or something else? Which superheroes would be Democrats? Any Republicans afoot? Comedian and Marvel aficionado Megan Sass joins Heaton to discuss. by Alienating the Audience
37 min listen
P2 The Economics of "Dune": Spice is a metaphor for oil. Arrakis is the Middle East. Ben Brockshmidt joins Heaton to discuss all things dune--the economic, political, and historical influences which shaped Frank Herbert's scifi universe. by Alienating the Audience
63 min listen
Reptoid Aliens Shouldn't Have Nipples: Dr. Erin Macdonald is an astrophysicist and science fiction consultant who advises major Hollywood productions on what they're screwing up in scripts. She joins Heaton to discuss the physics pitfalls science fiction constantly blunders into, from... by Alienating the Audience
75 min listen
The Ethics of Holodeck Sex Romps and AI in Star Trek: What's Star Trek's take on Artificial Intelligence, and how do Aristotle's virtue ethics govern Data? Also if the holodeck can summon AI's, and they are indeed sentient, is it ethical to sleep with them? John Krikorian of "Trek Profiles" and Alexandra... by Alienating the Audience
87 min listen
Robert Heinlein: Individualism and Free Love on the Moon!: Robert Heinlein, author of "Stranger in a Strange Land," "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress," "Starship Troopers," and dozens of other novels, is at the tippy top of science fiction's pantheon of writers. Andrew Mayne joins the show to discuss Heinlein and... by Alienating the Audience
78 min listen
P5 Varys is the best Game of Thrones character: Grant Carlisle joins to discuss the power dynamics and political themes underlying Game of Thrones. by Alienating the Audience
44 min listen
When Darwin Meets Star Trek: Dr. Mohamed Noor is the author of "Live Long and Evolve: What Star Trek Can Teach Us about Evolution, Genetics, and Life on Other Worlds," and is the head of Biology at Duke University. He joins the show to talk about the origins of life, and why... by Alienating the Audience
67 min listen
Vagabonding: Nick and Heaton meet the Spacehead god (Comedy): Nick and Heaton travel through an inter-dimensional portal they found, and emerge on a planet strikingly similar to the one from Star Trek: The Final Frontier Cast: Andrew Heaton, Nick Sperdute, and Andrew Young as the Spacehead god by Alienating the Audience
15 min listen
The Meaning of Spock: Mr. Spock is the most captivating character in Star Trek lore, and the embodiment of logic in popular culture. John Champion, host of "Mission Log" Star Trek podcast, joins Heaton for a deep dive into the character and meaning of Spock. by Alienating the Audience
49 min listen
Who To Kill or Not Kill if You've Got a Time Machine: Brian Dunning, host of the Skeptoid Podcast, joins Heaton to talk about all things time travel--the best films, TV shows and books, plus how to get around pesky time travel paradoxes, if we should try to go back and kill Hitler, and the most... by Alienating the Audience
79 min listen
Turns Out, We're All Probably Martians: Robert Zubrin is the head of the Mars Society and author of "The Case for Mars." He joins Heaton along with special guest co-host Andrew Mayne to discuss how to get to the Red Planet using existing technology, and the implications of finding life once... by Alienating the Audience
104 min listen
Isaac Asimov's Robots are Smarter than Whales: What do we learn about humanity when gazing through the optical sensors of a robot? Did Isaac Asimov write a novel where the end of humanity begins on a planet full of Libertarians? Ryan McGary joins for a full-throttle Isaac Asimov discussion, from... by Alienating the Audience
72 min listen
P4 The Politics of Star Wars: Stephen Kent is the host of "Beltway Banthas" and joins Heaton to discuss the politics of Star Wars. by Alienating the Audience
49 min listen
Let's Argue About "The Rise of Skywalker": Alright, it's been a month--let's discuss "The Rise of Skywalker"! Is it the franchise-busting wompa scat critics panned it as, or just a situation of haters gonna hate? Nick Sperdute joins to analyze the film. by Alienating the Audience
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P1 What Bladerunner Is Actually About: Ben Domenech joins Heaton to discuss "Bladerunner," "Bladerunner: 2049" and the book which inspired both, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick. by Alienating the Audience
48 min listen
Battlestar Galactica & The War On Terror: Battlestar Galactica kicked off just three years after the 9/11 attacks, and tackles everything from theocratic warfare to stem cell research and waterboarding. Comedian Andrew Young joins Heaton to discuss the series, it's relentless tension and fear... by Alienating the Audience
74 min listen
Stop What You're Doing and Watch "Picard": The long-awaited "Picard" series is out now, starring Patrick Stewart and following the exploits of Jean-Luc Picard two decades after we last saw him in "Nemesis." Nicholas Sperdute comes on to analyze the pilot, predict where the plot will take us,... by Alienating the Audience
53 min listen
How to Build a Colony Ship: If we had to send a spaceship to start a colony on another planet, how many humans would we need to get the party started? How do you avoid inbreeding, and what's a stable amount of people to maintain purpose on a multi-generational mission? Rob... by Alienating the Audience
86 min listen
The Tarkin Doctrine and Imperial Apologists: How would Emperor Palpatine's Press Secretary describe the Galactic Empire? How would Grand Moff Tarkin spin the destruction of Alderaan? Jonathan Last of "The Bulwark" joins Heaton to describe why he believes the Empire was a good thing--an imperfect... by Alienating the Audience
75 min listen
P7 Star Trek vs. The Orville: Former Congressman Dan Maffei joins Heaton to discuss: Is the "The Orville" more Star Trek than Star Trek, or just a knockoff? by Alienating the Audience
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Star Trek Conspiracy Theories include "The Transporter is a Murder Box": Picard never left the Nexus. We caught the wrong Khan. Star Trek fandom is full of theories casting doubt on characters and plots as we know them. Brilliant or ridiculous, fan theories at least make us look at the franchise in a different light. John... by Alienating the Audience
88 min listen
If We Met Aliens Could We Even Communicate?: What would first contact with an alien civilization look like? Could we handle it? If we could, would it even be possible to communicate with a vastly different (or superior) intelligence? Peter Boghossian, Professor of Philosophy at Portland State... by Alienating the Audience
78 min listen
The Time-Backwards Robot Monster: "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons projects Chaucer's Canterbury Tales onto a distant scifi future. Katherine Mangu-Ward joins to discuss the multiple characters who make their away on a deadly pilgrimage to meet the Shrike—a robot monster who moves... by Alienating the Audience
49 min listen
Religion's Two Treatments in Science Fiction: Science fiction has a more complex analysis of religion than either "good" or "bad." Yonatan Huber and Josh Jennings join Heaton to discuss how scifi authors tackle it, and how the nature of religious critique has changed between centuries. by Alienating the Audience
72 min listen
A Million Steve Jobs and the Future of AI: Robin Hanson is an economist and the author of "The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life when Robots Rule the Earth." He joins the show to discuss his theory that in the future the most intelligence and productive people in society will be uploaded to... by Alienating the Audience
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How to Build a Giant Robot: Today we speak with physicist Stephen Granade about robots! How to build giant arm-swingin' robots, how we can automate them, and where we stand on Mind Machine Interface technology in case we want to pilot said robots ourselves. by Alienating the Audience
58 min listen

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Keeping up with the Cardassians

Keeping up with the Cardassians

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Alienating the Audience

Related podcast episodes