Space the Nation

S4E07: LEECH

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan add some fresh motor oil to their hearts to gear up for this adventure in a post-apocalyptic science fiction gothic mutant medical horror ...

S4E06: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

11 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan watched a movie we did! For those unfamiliar with this off-the-radar franchise, it's a story about the adventures of wise Wookie whose sag...

S4E05: THE COLONY

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan put on their masks (the right way) and get to the script-doctoring! The Colony (2013) was so bad it birthed two new STN formats: First, we...

S4E04: I.S.S.

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan ask you to notice the hum of the life-support system. If that goes silent, then you're definitely watching this movie, where someone draws...

S4E03: THE TERROR

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How's this for terror: Ana's beloved mutt got pancreatitis, thus this episode is really late. But, I did it! Here, here it is! And it's an excellent e...

S4E02: THE SHINING

14 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan decided to check out room 237, even though that wonderful cook told them not to. What could possibly go wrong? One of the most influe...

S4E01: THE EXPANSE S3E1-6

08 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

BELTALOWDA! Ana and Dan return to their roots to discuss the first half of season three of The Expanse. IS THERE IR IN THIS SHOW? IS THERE A CRITIQUE ...

S3E52: REBEL MOON: PART ONE: A CHILD OF FIRE

01 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan take Netflix's money and light it on fire. This movie looks kind of cool, but why did we watch it? Blame squarely falls on Dan, the one wh...

S3E51: OBAMA OR O'BUMMER: LEAVE THE WORLD

25 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan sit down to binge Friends but get distracted by all those deer! That's so wild, so many deer just standing there! This is our second "Obam...

S3E50: SORRY TO BOTHER YOU

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan stick to the script and break down the candy-colored communist dream machine "Sorry to Bother You," an unsubtle condemnation of late capit...

S3E49: OBAMA OR O'BUMMER: SEA OF TRANQUILITY

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan stop their book tours to talk about Emily St. John Mandel's Sea of Tranquility for this first edition of "Obama or O'Bummer," in which we ...

S3E48: THE MARVELS

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan gesture toward a lot of exciting stuff but don't really get into it, because it's a Marvel movie, and you don't need exciting subtexts to ...

S3E47: SPACEGIVING

23 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan give thanks for the science fiction and genre efforts that they're glad they got to consume in 2023. Discussed: Loki, Wheel of Time, Scave...

S3E46: IDIOCRACY

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan got super-spicy about this because Ana hated it with the white-hot passion of a thousand burning suns! If you would like to retain any fon...

S3E45: THE ARRIVAL

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan put their baseball caps on backward and sneak up to Charlie Sheen's secret radio telescope lab for a movie, so 90s, you'll be macarena-ing...

S3E44: EVENT HORIZON (ENCORE)

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You break all the laws of physics and you seriously think there wouldn't be a price? The price is an encore episode! This is a personal favorite movie...

S3E43: THE SHINING

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan can hold entire conversations without ever opening their mouths, but for this one, they talked, because this is a podcast and you probably...

S3E42: NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan arm themselves with hot water and a curling iron to deal with the universe's quietest, if also least explicable alien invasion. It's a gre...

S3E40: THE CREATOR

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan feel like maybe AIs aren't getting a fair shake, it's just something they're thinking about now, after seeing this movie. Probably a coinc...

S3E40: THE CREATOR (PATRONS)

08 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan feel like maybe AIs aren't getting a fair shake. It's just something they're thinking about now, after seeing this movie. Probably a coinc...

S3E39:ONCE MORE WITH FEELING / SUBSPACE RHAPSODY

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan decide to put on a show! Musicals are already fantastical -- what happens when they become otherworldly? How well does Buffy's meta-commen...

S3E38: BLACK SUN

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan sit down for some corncakes and watch the skies for signs. Pre-Columbian meso-America makes a sophisticated setting for a tale of tangled ...

S3E37: THE FACULTY

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan try to relax in the teachers' lounge, but strange things are afoot at Harrington High School, and it's not just that the star football pla...

S3E37: THE FACULTY (PATRONS)

17 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan try to relax in the teachers' lounge, but strange things are afoot at Harrington High School, and it's not just that the star football pla...

S3E36: THE MIST

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan suspect drinking and monster-fighting may not mix as easily as Stephen King seems to think. However, we both fell under the spell of this ...

S3E35: WHAT WE DID ON OUR SUMMER VACATION

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan keep it real casual. What we liked, what we didn't like, and a problematic fave. You will need to find your IR/capitalism analysis elsewhe...

S3E34: THE MEG 2

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan try to train the megalodon, because that's never a bad idea, right? This second Jason Statham adventure has a bit more sense of self-aware...

S3E32: THE MEG

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan close the hatch on their crewmate; they were doomed, anyway! Surprisingly understated for a movie about a gigantic shark; the actors shoul...

S3E31: THEY CLONED TYRONE

13 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan spelunk into the conspiracy cavern of this wild genre mix-up: Blaxploitation! Mystery! Mad Scientists! Even, dare we say it, some zombie s...

S3E30: RIDDICK

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan went and did the worst crime of them all... they got civilized, which means they gave this movie the chance it didn't quite deserve after ...

S3E29: CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan calculate the screen time-to-fun ratio for all the characters in this movie, and you'll never guess who comes out ahead! (It is not Karl U...

S3E28: PITCH BLACK

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan decide to huddle together until the lights go out, because those are the ideal conditions for watching this early-aughts sci-fi horror gem...

S3 SPECIAL EPISODE: SILO (5-10)

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan find out what was wrong at that silo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

S3E27: THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan write notes to each other on the insides of eggs, on the second skin of a python, in the smoke from a funeral pyre for the last good man o...

S3E26: SAN JUNIPERO

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan change into their Wham! outfits and day-glow sunglasses to talk about this highly unusual Black Mirror episode: It does not make you want ...

S3E25: JUPITER ASCENDING

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan don their flying rollerblades and save some galactic royalty that happens to be dropping from the sky. This is not a good movie; it's not ...

S3E24: ANNALEE NEWITZ & THE TERRAFORMERS

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan have way more questions about robot sex than you probably imagined. I mean, I don't know what you imagine, but we had a lot of questions! ...

S3E23: NIMONA

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan shapeshift into podcasters who occasionally release episodes on time, but not this time. Apologies for the delay, it is mostly Dan's fault...

S3E22: YELLOWJACKETS: S2 E5-9

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan sit down and let the wilderness decide: Was the second season of Yellowjackets a gruesome exploration of the limits of belief, or was it a...

S3E21: CANON FODDER: NEUROMANCER

04 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan jack in and try to break through the ICE (insane cultural extrapolation) around this neo-noir heist novel, maybe you've heard of it? SPOIL...

S3E20: SILO (E1-4) WITH BONUS ENCORE: ENDER'S GAME

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan think something is going on at that silo. We dive into the problem of genre-savviness, the "freeconomy" of the future, and how we would li...

ENCORE: ENDER'S GAME

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There's something up at that military academy for kids. One of our first Canon Foder episodes! Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more ...

S3S19: STAR TREK TOS/STRANGE NEW WORLDS CROSSOVER

21 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan put their redshirts on and join the crew of the Starship Enterprise for this time-hopping remix of an original series favorite and Paramou...

S3E18: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. III

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan agree that Cosmo is a good dog. The final (?) entry in the Guardians saga manages to be both the most emotionally affecting of the bunch a...

BAYPRIL/MAY 2023 AUA

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's an intimate AUA this month, but all the more spicy for it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

S3E17: YELLOWJACKETS (S2 E1-4)

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan don their heliotrope garb to get granular with our favorite exploration of Gen X nihilism (and Gen X music). Dan loves the idea that nothi...

S3E16: THE ROCK

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan finally get guns -- and wet suits -- and make their way to the final stop in the Passion of the Bay, The Rock. Nic Cage is relatively tone...

S3E15: TRANSFORMERS

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan ignore the boombox in the background -- is that anything but normal? What exactly is the "more" in "more than meets the eye?" Did Michael ...

S3E14: THE ISLAND

16 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan put on their dystopian-edition Pumas and charm some bacon out of the lunch lady to sit back and enjoy this particularly beautiful BAYPRIL ...

S3E13: ARMAGEDDON

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan start training to go into space because a roundtable discussion is hurtling toward Earth and you can't train astronauts to podcast! You've...

S3E12: PROSPECT

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan head into The Green for this textured and rambling indie neo-Western, starring Pedro Pascal as a reluctant father figure -- and what do yo...

S3E11: THE CORE

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan ask their graduate students to find "weird news" on the Internet and toss the scientific method aside to examine this not-quite-good bad m...

S3E10: THE LAST OF US

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan dig into some twenty-year-old Chef Boyardee and ponder what they will do for love. Personally, I'd do anything for love, but I won't do th...

S3E10: MY SOUL TO KEEP

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dan and Ana oppose pointless animal torture, but let's move on. Octavia Butler and Stephen King, friends of the pod, blurbed this book, so how could w...

S3E9: NOPE

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan will not look it in the eye but will take a look at this gorgeous, layered, and maybe too-smart-for-its-own-good film from Jordan Peele. W...

S3E8: KINDRED (ENCORE)

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We're doing an encore because let time get away from us -- but at least we were not unwillingly unwittingly transported to the antebellum south like B...

S3E7: THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan crawl into the old mica mine for this excursion into the darkest depths of American history. Very Cool Dude and MacAurthur grant winner Co...

S3E6: GROUNDHOG DAY

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan rise and shine and aren't forgetting their booties because it's the end of Cold Sci-Fi Winter! Or... is it? It's always Groundhog Day some...

S3E5: ALIEN V. PREDATOR

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan protest that doing this episode is a bad idea, and they will walk out rather than do it, but then again, well, let's do this. The Predator...

S3E4: THE GONE WORLD

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan bundle up for Cold Sci-Fi Winter and venture past the Yardogger tree only to find themselves staring at the sky, their mouths filled with ...

S3E3: THE THING

23 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan pour their drinks on the special chess-playing computer that was supposed to keep them entertained all through COLD SCIFI WINTER and thus ...

S3E2: THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE

16 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

COLD SCI-FI WINTER CONTINUES! Ana and Dan shrug into some old greatcoats and stomp into this children's literature classic where the beavers have thum...

S3E1: SNOWPIERCER

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan inspect the special arm-freezing-off portal and decide to wait for the next train. Capitan America gets filthy in this snappy, economical ...

ENCORE: DON'T WORRY DARLING

02 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lusting for more STN content? Tide yourself over by watching"Don't Worry Darling" now on HBOMax and then listen to this encore presentation of our tal...

ENCORE: ALIEN

23 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan are taking some time off. Please enjoy this encore presentation of Alien, an almost perfect movie! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy ...

S2E46: HAPPY SPACEMAS

19 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan revisit their ghosts of genre past and talk about the various pop-culture offerings they're grateful for this year. Discussed: Severance, ...

S2E45: WAKANDA FOREVER

11 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan haplessly fumble with technology they don't understand and, what do you know, the CIA bugged us! A more informal episode to usher in our C...

S2E44: ANDOR (EPISODES 7-12)

05 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan make some ancestor bricks and break them over the heads of fascists! Is Andor the best Star Wars property? The best science fiction show o...

NOVEMBER AUA

05 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's the rough-and-ready unedited audio from the November AUA! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

S2E43: GREENLAND

28 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan plead for their lives and, what do you know, it works! We bring Butlervember to a close with what is technically the best movie of the qua...

S2E42: GEOSTORM

20 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan were hired to fail and so maybe it's no surprise that they cannot make sense of this slowly preposterous movie, full of absurd pronounceme...

S2E41: GODS OF EGYPT

14 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan grow to fourteen feet in height, just for no particular reason. Alex Proyas (Dark City) rallies a group of gorgeous humans and proceeds to...

S2E40: GAMER

07 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan replace 98% of their brains with nanites and try to understand the point of this ambitiously garish 2009 film. Is it trying to say somethi...

S2E39: FUTURAMA

31 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dan and Ana promise our dogs will always, always choose to clone them no matter what. Y'all wanted us to talk about Futurama, and so we did, so please...

S2E38: ANDOR (EPISODES 1-6)

23 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan put some kyber crystals around their necks and celebrate getting to talk about something they actually liked! (Even though it is not, as A...

S2E37: CANON FODDER: FOUNDATION

17 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan talk about the plot of this dumb book, because that's all the character in the book talk about. They revisit the preposterousness of "psyc...

S2E36: DON'T WORRY DARLING

10 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan sit down to talk about this under-the-radar project, you probably haven't heard about it. Is "Don't Worry Darling" worthy of the mishegoss...

S2E35: SANDMAN

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan really meant to release this episode on time but got caught going down a Google rabbit hole instead. Netflix brings to the screen this bel...

E32: MAILBAG

26 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

You had questions, we kind of answered! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SEPTEMBER AUA

26 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Best sci-fi dogs? Favorite subgenres? What do we think of Rings of Power? We talked about those things! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy fo...

S2 E34: DUNE REDUX

24 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We took another week off! It's still triple digits here in Texas so it just seemed right to visit the desert planet of Arrakis. In lieu of original an...

S2E33: MOONFALL REDUX

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan skipped town and left you this. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E31: What We Did on Our Summer Vacation

02 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan discuss all the fun stuff they read or watched during their personal sci-fi summers! Discussed: Moon Knight, Spiderhead, She-Hulk, Sandman...

S2E30: PREY

22 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan eat the orange flowers and disappear into the woods to examine this extremely worthy prequel to Predator. Did Naru really want to be a hun...

S2E29: PREDATOR

15 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan needlessly cut themselves across their chests and enter into the damp, bloody world of the original Predator. How many 80s action movie ac...

S2E28: HIGHLANDER

08 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan both entered the podcast, but did they both leave? THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE! A heady mix of exuberant scene-eating and saturnine scowls, it i...

S2S27: THEY LIVE

01 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

John Carpenter has some things to say about Reagan's American, and he's going to say them loudly and repeatedly in a film that somehow transcends its ...

S2S26: THE TERMINATOR

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cyborgs don't feel pain, but Ana and Dan do. A surprisingly great movie born of an Italian Fever Dream (not to be confused with a Mexican Writing Bing...

S2E25: THOR: LOVE & THUNDER

18 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan pull over a basket of grapes and get started with Taika Waititi's second entry into the MCU, the 80s romcom to Ragnorok's 70's space opera...

S2E24: TOP GUN: MAVERICK

11 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan don't need helmets, are you kidding???? We decided that this movie counts as science fiction because LOOK AT TOM CRUISE. JUST LOOK AT HIM....

S2E23: FIREFLY

04 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan don their fancy hats and get ready to take on the lament of the lonesome space cowboy in the two Firefly episodes featuring Dan-favorite C...

S2E22: The Prestige

27 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan breed a bunch of identical canaries and prepare to get their hands dirty. This is a fun film about some terrible people and it's best not ...

S2E21: JURASSIC PARK

20 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan sign all the appropriate waivers and copter into the most violent tourist destination this side of Hostel. They literally don't make them ...

S2E21: JURASSIC PARK (PATRONS)

18 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan sign all the appropriate waivers and copter into the most violent tourist destination this side of Hostel. They literally don't make them ...

S2E20: STATION ELEVEN

13 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan hitch their horses up to the station wagon and ride out to explore the rosiest post-pandemic landscape in a generation. There is self-refl...

S2E19: STRANGE NEW WORLDS

06 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan put on their red shirts and get ready to count the Easter Eggs in the latest entry into the Star Trek Cinematic Universe. It's both backwa...

S2E18: EDGE OF TOMORROW

30 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan can't believe you found coffee! Wait, have we had this conversation before? "Groundhog Day goes to war" turns out to be much better than a...

S2E17: GATTACA

23 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan get distracted by how smoking hot Jude Law is in this, his American film debut. It's also a pretty good movie! It gets so much right about...

S2E16: DR. STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS

16 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan bow to the Sorcerer Supreme and enter into Marvel's infinite IP loop. What kind of natsec clearance do you need to know about Thanos' defe...

S2E15: CANON FODDER: THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS

09 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ana and Dan put on their p-suits and shove "Ayn Rand in space" into the airlock, because certain kinds of political hectoring should be a capital offe...