Shows
Mission Creep54. Rocky II (1979) and Rambo II (1985), with Andy SmarickIs Rocky II almost as good as the first one? How much worse is Rambo II than Rambo I?
2025-04-101h 16Mission Creep53. Groundhog Day Redux, with Jay Plasman, Winston Thompson, and Andy KarlsonIf time travel gives the traveler God-like knowledge, what does that mean for the status of their relations to others in the world? Is it even possible for non-coercive relationality to exist in such a state? Andie MacDowell's slap montage wants to have it both ways. In this essay, I will...
2025-01-181h 32Mission Creep52. Joyride (2001), with Annie Schultz and Susan HaarmanPaul Walker, Steve Zahn, Leelee Sobieski, a cross-country road trip, and a CB-radio prank. What could go wrong? This movie attempts to answer that question. Or perhaps, this movie IS an answer to that question. I guess it depends on whether we know what a movie is.
2024-12-121h 02Mission Creep51. Back to the Future, Part III (1990), with Winston Thompson and Andy KarlsonOn third thought, do we even like Robert Zemeckis movies?
2024-11-271h 16
The Distractables - your ADHD friendsBeing late diagnosed with ADHD - with special guest Christal Wang (Ep. 8)Were you diagnosed with ADHD as an adult? In this episode of The Distractables, co-hosts Marie and Jesse are joined by Christal Wang, co-founder and CEO of Shimmer. The trio discusses their experiences of being diagnosed with ADHD as adults, the challenges they faced growing up undiagnosed, and the emotional journey of acceptance and adaptation. They explore the triggers that led them to seek a diagnosis, the impact of cultural upbringing, and the balance between structure and freedom. The episode wraps up with a reflection on the positive aspects of ADHD and re...
2024-11-1231 minMission Creep50. Back to the Future, Part II (1989), with Winston Thompson and Andy KarlsonGet in, loser. We're going to the future, and then the past, and then the nightmare bizarro present, and then the past again, and then -- if all goes well -- the present we can truly desire.
2024-11-011h 25
The Distractables - your ADHD friendsRSD and Relationships with ADHD - with special guest Ari Scott (Ep. 6)How does Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) affect ADHDers? What does it feel like? And how can it be managed? In this episode of The Distractables, hosts Marie and Jessie welcome The ADHD Entrepreneur Ari Scott for a deep dive into the multifaceted world of ADHD. The discussion covers Ari's late diagnosis and entrepreneurial path, emphasizing the emotional challenges such as Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) and broader emotional disregulation. How does RSD affect both personal and professional relationships? How does having a community of ADHDers help? Marie, Jesse and Ari also explore practical advice for managing AD...
2024-10-2834 min
The Distractables - your ADHD friendsManaging a household with ADHD - with special guest Ryan Mayer (Ep. 5)How does ADHD make managing a household difficult? In this episode co-hosts Marie and Jesse with guest Ryan Mayer, discuss effective strategies for managing household tasks and routines with ADHD. The conversation centers around Ryan's 'Folding with Friends' initiative, which uses body doubling to make mundane chores like folding laundry more engaging. They explore various techniques to tackle daily tasks, like using visual reminders and gamifying routine activities. They emphasize the importance of accepting one's unique methods and creating an environment that suits their ADHD needs. Ryan also shares insights from his coaching experience, advocating f...
2024-10-2238 minMission Creep49. Back to the Future (1985), with Andy Karlson and Winston ThompsonWhat does it mean to be tardy when you've got a time machine? What does it say about the nature of time and human life that the unfolding of future events really only seems to depend on a couple key moments? What kind of recursive weirdness is involved in Marty parenting his own parents?
2024-10-171h 17
The Distractables - your ADHD friendsADHD in the workplace - with special guest Meredith Carder (Ep. 4)How will your ADHD diagnosis impact your work and career? Do you have to, or, should you, tell your work about your diagnosis? What should you consider? In this episode co-hosts Marie Ng and Jesse J. Anderson discuss ADHD in the workplace with special guest Meredith Carter, an ADHD coach and author of the book 'It All Makes Sense Now'. The conversation covers Meredith's background in psychology and corporate training, as well as personal experiences with ADHD. They delve into the challenges and strategies related to disclosing ADHD in the workplace and finding effective accommodations. Em...
2024-10-1535 min
The Distractables - your ADHD friendsADHD Burnout - with special guest Trina Haynes (Ep. 3)What can we do to prevent burnout?In this episode of 'The Distractables,' Marie and Jesse are joined by guest Trina Haynes, founder of MyLadyADHD, to discuss their experiences with ADHD burnout. They explore the cyclical nature of overcommitment and exhaustion that people with ADHD often face, as well as Trina's personal journey dealing with burnout. The conversation includes practical tips for managing burnout, such as time management, self-awareness, and self-care strategies. They also discuss how to balance schedules, recognize warning signs of burnout, and how understanding ADHD-related challenges like rejection s...
2024-10-0836 minMission Creep48. The Craft (1996), with Annie Schultz and Susan HaarmanIt is a whole different kind of nostalgia at work here, and no one says it better than Annie: "1996: when racism is casual and suicide attempts are punk rock."
Do we accidentally deviate for a moment and discuss Catholic high schools, nuns-as-teachers, underpaid and unrecognized women's labor, and school vouchers? We sure do!
2024-10-041h 02
The Distractables - your ADHD friendsFinding your career with ADHD - Marie & Jesse's ADHD journeys - (Ep. 1)Finding your career can be tough. And it can be even tougher if you're an ADHDer. Join our co-hosts Marie Ng and Jesse J. Anderson for the very first episode of The Distractables - your ADHD friends, a casual conversation amongst ADHD friends, focusing on practical ADHD tips/tricks/hacks to get through daily life. In this episode, Marie and Jesse will introduce themselves and also discuss their personal journeys on finding and creating a career that works for their ADHD minds, and how they got to where they are. They'll explore the trials and...
2024-10-0131 minMission Creep47. Top Gun (1986) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022), with Stephen Dyson and Jeff DudasStephen Dyson and Jeff Dudas, hosts of the UConn Popcast, join us to talk about whether there is any redemption (in all the senses) for Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, whether Glen Powell's "Hangman" is supposed to be a reincarnation of Iceman or of Maverick, what Jennifer Connolly's Penny Benjamin has to teach Maverick, and -- ultimately -- whether it's possible to defeat two 5th-Gen enemy fighters in an F-14 the characters describe as "so old," a "bag of ass," and a "museum piece."
2024-08-271h 11Mission Creep46. Hit Man (2024), with Andy Karlson and Winston ThompsonWhen a new Linklater comes out, we obviously have to drop everything and talk about it. The question that really kicks off this conversation comes from Andy: Is this a Richard Linklater movie?
2024-08-021h 30Mission Creep45. Rocky (1976) and Rambo (1982), with Andy SmarickIn the first installment of a short miniseries within the pod, Andy Smarick helps us think through what the original Rocky and Rambo have in common as future icons of 80s American cinema (and beyond). Both of the titular characters are symbolic of lives irresponsibly wasted -- but by different forces, and in different ways, and with different possibilities for redemption.
2024-07-131h 40Mission Creep44. Edge of Tomorrow (2014), with Winston Thompson and Andy KarlsonWinston and Andy are back, back again, to talk about the Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt vehicle "Edge of Tomorrow." What are the ethics of consent in a time-loop situation? What does "resetting the day" mean for the one who carries the memories with them? What does it mean to be self-interested rather than selfish? Is this movie simply satisfying an audience desire to watch Cruise die over and over again?
2024-06-101h 40Mission Creep43. Slacker (1990), with Andy Karlson and Winston ThompsonWinston and Andy return to go all the way back to the Richard Linklater ur-text, in search of the sensibilities that he would elaborate across the rest of his career. Come for the aging anarchist lying about his participation in the Spanish Civil War, stay for the woman tracking trying to get her boyfriend to stop taking Nietzsche so literally!
2024-05-141h 33Mission Creep42. Everybody Wants Some!! (2016), with Andy Karlson and Winston ThompsonRichard Linklater's "spiritual successor" to Dazed and Confused struggles to inherit the mantle, we think. I can't tell what my favorite part of this episode is. Is it when Andy forgets McReynolds's name and describes him as "jacked up Weird Al with a bowl cut"? Is it when Winston strengthens the connection between Willoughby and Wooderson by noting that Matthew McConaughey also starred in Failure to Launch? Is it when Andy--quite appropriately--reads the poem "Pitcher," by Robert Francis, into the record? Listener, you decide!
2024-04-121h 25Mission Creep41. Before Midnight (2013), with Andy Karlson and Winston ThompsonDo long-term relationships require foundational lies? Are marital fights inverted versions of Linklater's favorite time-collapse phenomena? Is it possible to look hopefully toward the future from the middle of the journey, bearing forward the burdens of the past? Is this a question about temporality or about perception?
Is it possible to enjoy a film that is an existential trial to watch?
2024-03-131h 36Mission Creep40. Legally Blonde (2001), with Susan Haarman and Annie SchultzAnnie says that this whole movie is a critique of heteronormativity. Susan: [pause] "You're going to have to sell me on that one, because..."
We're all such nerds.
2024-03-051h 00Mission Creep39. Before Sunset (2004), with Winston Thompson and Andy KarlsonIs time a lie? Is Jesse selfish? What is the weight of the past that sits between them? Is happiness even possible? Is that the question?
2024-02-221h 31Mission Creep38. Before Sunrise (1995), with Andy Karlson and Winston ThompsonJulie Delpy's Celine falls for Ethan Hawke's Jesse when Jesse relates a story of his deceased grandmother appearing to him in the mist thrown off my a summertime hose -- His parents told him that death is forever, but, he says, "I know what I saw." The question for the characters throughout the slow movement of the film is similar: What are they seeing, and how sure are they?
What a film to originally encounter in our late adolescence. What a film to revisit now.
2024-01-101h 40Mission Creep36. Dazed and Confused (1993), with Winston Thompson and Andy KarlsonThe two big questions here are: (1) Is this film an exercise in nostalgia or not? And (2) Is this film glorifying the intoxications of youth or not? When I was 15, I definitely would have said "yes" to both questions. And now?
2023-12-121h 23Mission Creep37. Cruel Intentions (1999), with Annie Schultz and Susan HaarmanThis podcast is generally about critically revisiting fondly-remembered films from our youth. There's just so little fondness to express in this episode, though. Oof.
2023-12-0559 minMission Creep35. DOUBLE FEATURE (1991), with Winston Thompson and Andy KarlsonWhich two movies, you ask? Boyz N the Hood and Point Break! Winston and Andy work very hard to make it seem as though these two movies are more or less equally worthy of attention, but it's tough sledding -- and winds up being at least as revealing of how the Hollywood of a certain era understands the connection between the moral stakes of a fictional story and return on investment.
2023-10-131h 28Mission Creep34. The Spiderverses, with Andy Karlson and Winston ThompsonIn which we discover, truly, how much I was missing by not spending enough time with comic books as a kid, and in which we learn again and again how the Spiderman character in particular allows writers and audiences to explore infinite iterations of adolescent struggles with the experiences of inheritance, responsibility, loss, and change. Do we see a spark in these films?
That's a copy.
2023-09-081h 39Mission CreepEp_33: I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), with Susan HaarmanSeriously: the killer's motives make NO SENSE. He has gotten away with avenging his daughter's death, and four teenagers in the full flower of their glorious youth think that THEY are responsible! And everyone else seems to think that David Egan accidentally drowned, or just disappeared, or something. So why would the killer want to off his own alibis?
This movie brought to you by the North Carolina State Tourism Board. Not really.
2023-08-311h 11Mission CreepEp_32: Out of Sight (1998), with Andy Karlson and Winston ThompsonIs there such a thing as a "meet-violent?" Was George Clooney simply auditioning for the Ocean's 11 franchise with this performance? How does love enmesh us in a web of vulnerabilities, to use Winston's phrase, and what does it have to do with midlife crises? All this and more in a discussion of yet another Elmore Leonard adaption.
2023-08-171h 14Mission CreepEp_31: Alien(s), with Colin HarrisonIt doesn't make sense for this show to have "seasons" at all, so please enjoy this thirty-first overall episode of the podcast, featuring substantial digressions into Star Wars and Westworld, in addition to the promised subject matter!
2023-07-181h 20Mission CreepS2E16: Jackie Brown (1997), with Winston Thompson and Andy KarlsonIn which we tackle the really big questions, like: "Is 44 old or not that old?" "Is a body count of 4 high or low?" "Who, in this movie about seedy life in the underworld, most closely resembles Mr. Rogers?"
2023-07-071h 17Mission CreepS2E15 Now and Then (1995), with Rachel WhiteThe cast of this movie is so incredible that Hank Azaria, Brendan Fraser, and Janeane Garofalo are merely scene-stealing cameo appearances!
2023-06-171h 42Mission CreepS2E14: Get Shorty (1995), with Andy Karlson and Winston ThompsonChili Palmer, minivan connoisseur, would be on the right side of the WGA writer's strike, is all we're saying.
2023-06-091h 29Mission CreepS2E13: Jerry Maguire (1996), with Rachel WhiteWhat EXACTLY are Jerry and Dorothy on the well-lit front porch, in full view of any neighbors, before they go inside to be swept away by Chad-the-nanny's jaaaaaazzzzzz?
2023-06-061h 15Mission CreepS2E12: She's All That (1999), with Susan HaarmanCan the king of the school turn a girl who wears a one-piece to the beach into a prom queen? Find out the answer in the best-ever adaptation of Pygmalion*!
Also if I were to tell you that this movie features Gabrielle Union, Lil Kim, Usher, and Dulé Hill -- which it does! -- you would never in a million years be able to predict how white it remains.
*except for literally all the others.
2023-05-3058 minMission CreepS2E11: Billy Madison (1995), with Rachel WhiteLook. It's actually insane that one of the top-five lines in movie history -- "If peeing your pants is cool, then consider me Miles Davis" -- is barely a top-three line in this very film.
2023-05-231h 18Mission CreepS2E10: Meet Joe Black (1998), with Rachel WhiteWhat can we say about a film that has everything--love, death, a soaring score, the widest ties, a SHOCKING effort at a Jamaican accent? Plenty, as it happens! Join us!
2023-05-111h 17Mission CreepS2E9: Face/Off (1997) REDUX, with Winston ThompsonWhy would you remove a guy's face FIRST, and only then trim up his bangs??
2023-05-031h 16Mission CreepS2E8: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), with Rachel WhiteI heard that you were feeling ill: headache, fever, and a chill. I came to help restore your pluck, because I'm the nurse who likes to spend inordinate amounts of time dissecting Ed Rooney's trauma, Ferris's own sociopathic tendencies, Charlie Sheen's louche and effortless sexiness, and whether Cameron is not the actual protagonist of this movie. Won't you join us?
2023-04-231h 03Mission CreepS2E7: The Bourne Trilogy (2002-2007), with Winston Thompson & Andy KarlsonIn which it is revealed that what we had previously thought of as genre-defining artistry in the world of spy-based action films is really, basically, the Pilgrim's Progress on the levels of both the individual and the national soul.
And never has the phrase "This is not who we are" been more laughably, enragingly false.
2023-04-061h 30
Mission CreepS2E6: Demolition Man (1993), with Andy Karlson & Winston ThompsonEnhance your calm! Velvety fascism is here!
2023-03-121h 16
Mission CreepS2E5: Clueless (1995), with Susan HaarmanPop quiz, hot shot. Which movie features a college freshman reading Nietzsche by the pool, a lot of drug jokes that went over our teenaged heads, and a surprisingly underwhelming soundtrack? It's Clueless! Susan Haarman joins us LIVE and IN PERSON to talk about this classic adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma.
2023-03-0454 min
Mission CreepS2E4: Total Recall (1990), with Winston Thompson and Andy KarlsonIs this an end-of-history movie or not? Is Arnold Schwarzenegger dreaming the whole thing or not? What is the political vision, and what are the stakes, of this film?
2023-02-081h 27
Mission CreepS2E3: Wild Wild West (1999), with Sam Patterson and Brett FedorWill Smith, at the height of his powers, encounters a production that not even his voluminous charisma can salvage. He turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix to do this movie! Sam and Brett join to talk about the lazy and horrible race/gender jokes, and we debate the issue of whether Kenneth Branaugh's Arliss Loveless is the best or the worst part of this movie. Is he doing the BEST acting? He's certainly doing the MOST.
2023-01-301h 04
Mission CreepS2E2: Jurassic Park (1993), with Andy Karlson and Winston ThompsonAndy describes the end of this movie as a "Deus rex machina" and I have not stopped chuckling about it since.
2023-01-161h 26
Mission CreepS2E1: Independence Day (1996), with Andy SmarickWelcome to Earth! Andy and I get together to remember a time when Will Smith wasn't yet a huge star, when Harry Connick, Jr. was just a crooner, and when Jeff Goldblum was still playing characters rather than "Jeff Goldblum."
And we talk about the 90s geopolitics that made this movie possible, including Vietnam War memory, Clinton-era cosmopolitanism, and the role of aliens as an external and existential threat to unified humanity.
2023-01-041h 04
Mission CreepS1E14: You’ve Got Mail (1998), with Annie SchultzThere is a huge question that runs throughout our conversation here: Should we understand romantic comedies as parables of a certain kind, or should we hold the characters in romantic comedies to a standard of psychological realism? But that's far from the only question on which Dr. Schultz and I find ourselves divided.
Is Nora Ephron an object-oriented ontologist? Is the city of New York the true romantic lead in this film? Does Greg Kinnear's character just utterly indict all of us nerds? Is this movie suffused with economic anxiety and yet bereft of class politics? Wasn't the late-90s...
2022-12-271h 21
Mission CreepS1E13: Die Hard (1988), with Emily HarrellThe holidays are upon us! Family members are heading to airports all across the country in order to reunite with their loved ones -- potentially even to rekindle marriages under strain. That means it's time for us to revisit everyone's favorite Christmas movie, 1988's Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Reginald VelJohnson and Bonnie Bedelia.We spend a lot of time talking about Ellis. Great character.
2022-12-211h 17
Mission CreepS1E12: 12 Monkeys (1995), with Andy KarlsonThis episode is kind of bananas. In a good way, of course.
What would it be like if Sisyphus could take a smoke break once in a while? Historically speaking, what pedagogical purpose did repeated Christological imagery serve for the church? What did this movie get right and wrong in its (then) fully hypothetical imagining of pandemic life? And what was the name of that two-person fighter arcade game that they had for a couple of years in the lobby of University Square Four cinemas in Madison, Wisconsin?
(It was "Killer Instinct," it turns out)
2022-12-151h 14
Mission CreepS1E11: Groundhog Day (1993), with Jay PlasmanWhen Bill Murray's character wakes up in the same bed day after day, with the same song playing on the radio, what happens to the other townspeople with whom he's interacted? Does the day just reset for them, too? Or are there massively multiversal timelines spinning off in every direction?
Groundhog Day doesn't have the guts to ask these questions, but we do!
Also: What kind of allegory or parable is this, exactly, and how religious is it supposed to be? Does the romance in a romantic comedy need to be good in order for a romantic comedy to be...
2022-11-2255 min
Mission CreepS1E10: My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997), with Annie SchultzIn which we try to make sense of so many things! This is a rom-com that is also an un-love story, featuring an anti-heroine. This is a film at least a little bit about how wealth is wasted on the wealthy. Is it good or an absolute aesthetic disaster that Julia Roberts's look in this movie is coming back? Is "cosmopolitan bliss" -- Dr. Schultz's wonderful phrase -- the happy ending that Julia Roberts's character ought to desire, or is it a consolation prize? Or both? Whatever else it is, the film is a love letter to the city of...
2022-11-111h 18
Mission CreepS1E9: The Terminators, with Winston Thompson and Andy KarlsonIn which we talk about the original Terminator and T2 together. NO discussion of posthumanism or cyborg ethics or the late 20th century depiction of AI, but quite a lot about motherhood, the apocalyptic possibility of the death of a child, the ethos of friendship and care in opposition to authoritarian and genocidal forces. And above all, an answer to this question: To which particular piece of contemporary military hardware might we compare a literal angel descended to bestow an annunciation on Sarah Connor?
2022-11-031h 15
Mission CreepS1E8: Can’t Hardly Wait (1998), with Susan HaarmanThis film is classic of the late-90s teen rom-com resurgence, and anyone who enjoyed filmic and TV comedies at any point over the past 20 years will recognize the murderer's row of screen talent assembled here. Talking to friends after seeing it in theaters, I distinctly recall declaring it "Shakespearean." Does that hold up?It is hard to see the anxieties around burgeoning identities, threats to masculinity, and teenage relations of domination and bullying in the innocent way it may once have been possible to do.
But wow: Susan and I start off complaining about how Jennifer Love Hewitt's character...
2022-10-231h 06
Mission CreepS1E7: The Matrix (1999), with Winston Thompson & Andy KarlsonIs it weird to think of The Matrix as agreeing with Leo Strauss's Plato on the moral worth of truth? Is the matrix itself -- and particularly the way that normies are subject to demonic possession by "agents" at any moment -- a metaphor for complicity in systems of oppression? How is keeping the faith in right relation with others involved in struggles for collective liberation?
None of that was on our minds, perhaps, when we first saw the film, as you'll hear.
2022-10-131h 12
Mission CreepS1E6: Lethal Weapon (1987), with Mike ToceHow much coke could $100,000 buy in the mid-80s? Is Turner and Hooch the second-best buddy cop movie of all time? Can we describe this film as a neo-noir, grappling (literally, in the climactic scene) with the dueling ways that foreign wars return home -- through nihilistic crime facilitated by the deadly arts learned in the military and the true-believer heroic violence in defense of a good and pure nation?
Bet your sweet bippy we can.
2022-10-061h 04
Mission CreepGrosse Pointe Blank (1997), with Jay PlasmanWhat does it mean when the protagonist of a 90s rom-com (or, as Jay calls it, a "romactionedy") is a Gen-X hitman whose efforts to woo the one who got away (or really, the one whom he foolishly got away from) are crucial to what he clearly understands as his own redemption? Are the movie's final 10 minutes -- in which John Cusack's character is simultaneously professing his love for Minnie Driver's character and asking for her hand in marriage while also engaged in a firefight -- intended as a comedic take on action tropes? Or is it just a very...
2022-09-141h 06
Mission CreepS1E4: Face/Off (1997), with Jack SchneiderWhat does education policy have to do with a self-serious vengeance flick like Face/Off? Almost nothing, which makes it an ideal break from our day jobs! In this episode, Jack and I talk about what moviegoing used to be like, the way that writers and directors imagined high-flying criminal masterminds in a world before the antiheroes of prestige television, and the rock-solid science behind face transplants.
2022-08-2358 min
Mission CreepS1E3: Swingers (1996), with Jay PlasmanThis is the film that made Vince Vaughn a household name, that predestined major directorial futures for Doug Liman and Jon Favreau, that launched Ron Livingston into his cult-classic role in Office Space. Before everyone involved here was rich and famous, they were dumb guys muddling through dumb stuff in a dumb period of life. And they made a really well-crafted, really insightful film about it. Revisit the movie behind the movie behind the movie.
Music credit: Mr Smith, "Hellafunk"
2022-08-0559 min
Mission CreepS1E2: The Rock (1996), with Ethan HuttCelebrate Michael Bay's coming out party as Hollywood's preeminent pyrotechnical stylist as Ethan Hutt helps us remember the epic car chase that we had both forgotten, as well as all the great lines that we had not. More seriously, we wonder why the moral demand that Ed Harris's character makes on his national security bosses -- for recognition of the mortal sacrifices his covert operatives have made on the nation's behalf over the decades -- is both understood to be reasonable and legitimate, and also needs to be obliterated. The only real question is whether to bomb the threat out...
2022-07-171h 08
Mission CreepS1E1 Intro: Movies Maketh Man, with Penny von Eschen and Libby AnkerGuests: Penny von Eschen and Elisabeth Anker
What are we doing, exactly, rewatching the awesome movies of our childhoods, and why bother?
This introductory episode lays out the point of a project like this, which is mostly nerdy and nostalgic fun, a chance to spend time with people and movies we like. But it's an oddly worthwhile thing to be thoughtful about in our politically tumultuous times, when the prevailing feeling across the spectrum seems to be that "this is not who we are, or who we ought to be." The substance of that inkling is very different on the...
2022-07-0155 min