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What's your favorite IRREVERENT podcast so far?
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The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)
Ever wonder what would happen if the U.S. Government bankrolled a hippie to figure out how the Army could take advantage of psychics? Probably not, if you're like most Americans, but nevertheless someone went ahead and made a movie about it anyway.
Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is your typical Ann Arbor newspaper reporter. His wife's just left him for a guy with one arm and he feels a burning need to do something important. So it's off to Iraq (this is 2004 or so) via Kuwait, where he meets a very strange guy named Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) at a bar. It turns out Bob (McGregor) has heard the name before. See before he trundled off to the war zone, he interviewed a local whack-job named Gus (Stephen Root) who told him all about Lyn, psychic stuff, and how he learned to kill a hamster "with his mind."
When it comes to paranoid ravings, it doesn't get much better than Stephen Root.
Episode 11: Why Can't America Get Sh*t Done?
Orig. recorded June 24th. Episode 11's News Rodeo offers a uniquely IRREVERENT look at American ingenuity in general with Stone's guests Tad Wilcox, the Val Kilmer Chair of American Technological History at Harvard University and John Jackobmeyer Smith, a research fellow at the American Progress Alliance, and author of "We Used To Make Shit Work: An Annotated History of American Invention."
On the Slaughterhouse, Meadow hatches his most wildly ambitious scam yet while Stone and Mercer both get to travel out of the country -- all expenses paid -- on mysterious assignments.
NOTE: The episode contains strong language.
Inception (2010)
How hard is it to make someone form an idea that you suggest? That's the subject of Inception, Christopher Nolan's latest foray into semi-confusing jump-cuts, flashbacks, and asynchronous story telling ala Memento.
It's sometime in the near future, and mankind, for some reason that's not entirely clear, has developed the technology for people to jump into the dreams of other people. Unlike 1984's Dreamscape, however, this time nobody has to be a tortured psychic longing for redemption to do it: now you just hook up some electronic gizmos and you're off. You can even do it sitting next to a guy on an airplane.
Like most new technologies -- especially those that are perfect for hardcore abuse like this one is -- a shadow economy has developed. In this one, trained dream invaders hire themselves out to the highest bidder. Enter Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a dream ronin looking for redemption. Desperate to see his estranged kids again, Cobb takes a conspicuously dangerous final assignment for a rich corporate clod (Ken Watanabe), who wants Cobb to plant an idea in the mind of a business rival (Cillian Murphy).
No, that's not the same guy from Sixteen Candles. That's Gedde, this is Ken. Yes, I looked it up.
Episode 10: BP's Latest Upskirt!
TV-14: Originally recorded June 17. In this special News Slaughterhouse, Ty REALLY reports from New Orleans on BP's latest PR push to get their screw up off the front page, using more folksy idioms than a Southern Belle in a 1930s Hollywood epic. Meadow, meanwhile, snaps up more BP stock, much to the chagrin of Stone, who didn't read her contract carefully enough....
Episode 9: Nolan to the Reboot!
(Originally recorded on June 10)
TV-MA: In Episode 9, Stone interviews Batman, the Dark Knight himself, and fellow DC Comic icon Superman over Christopher Nolan's recent announcement that he will attempt to reboot Superman. The two share their unique perspectives on Nolan's abilities... and their personal feelings about each other.
In Slaughterhouse, Mercer reports on a surprising new development in the BP oil cleanup, Meadow announces he's just purchased a stake in Stark Industries, and Stone shares some shocking new information on the Al and Tipper Gore breakup.
NOTE: This episode contains strong language.
