We honestly planned for this to be a lighthearted episode.

The goal was simple: talk about the movies and video games that we love. But as we started talking, we realized something profound: Sometimes, a "made-up" story teaches you more about real life than a lecture ever could.

In this episode, Nate and Tony are joined by Elijah Evans to discuss the specific pieces of media that bypassed their brains and went straight to their hearts. What started as a pop-culture chat turned into a raw conversation about war, ambition, grief, and how to keep going when your world falls apart.

We discuss:

• The "Trojan Horse" Effect: Why fiction can disarm us and teach us lessons we aren't ready to hear from a pastor or a textbook.

• Studio Ghibli’s Grave of the Fireflies: Elijah shares how a devastating animated film about WWII taught him a lifelong lesson on depravity and the cost of war.

• Final Fantasy Tactics: Tony breaks down how a video game shaped his view of integrity, ambition, and why "winning" isn't worth losing your soul.

• Jojo Rabbit & The Choice to Dance: Nate opens up about how a tragicomedy about a Nazi boy became a lifeline of hope during his family’s navigation of a brain cancer diagnosis.

If you love storytelling, or if you’ve ever felt like a movie understood you better than your friends did, this episode is for you.

Mentions:

• Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

• Final Fantasy Tactics (1997)

• Jojo Rabbit (2019)

• Quote: Rilke ("Let everything happen to you. Beauty and terror.")