This week we are discussing Rian Johnson's 2012 film Looper, a time travel movie that (perhaps accurately) predicts a bleak future where class stratification and rampant criminality have flourished unchecked. Time travel has been invented and its primary use seems to be the elimination of hit men who are sent back in time to be murdered by their younger selves. We get into some of the problems with this premise while also praising aspects of the world building; while we didn't love the picture, we had a good time pointing out its flaws.

We open the episode by discussing the ongoing problems at Newark Liberty Airport before segueing into a discussion of Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal, which Stu is willing to defend and which Michael is willing to attack. We also make reference to the New Jersey drones phenomenon...whatever happened with all that?

Chaos at Newark Airport (from NJ.com)

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This week we are talking about global supply chains and how they might be stretched, perhaps to the breaking point, if the Trump tariffs are allowed to take effect. We revisit the moment when many of us were first introduced to the idea of a supply chain, the early days of Covid-19, and look at how the current potential supply chain disaster differs. We also revisit another cherished memory from recent years, the EVER GIVEN incident, and discuss the ways economists love to use the human body as a metaphor for the flow of global commerce.

We open up the episode talking about Trump's menacing promise to reopen Alcatraz, as well as his seeming obsession with movies; and as a prelude to our main topic, we go into his already infamous "2 instead of 30 dolls" comments as the potential for empty shelves come Christmas time already looms.

Here are links to some of our sources for the episode:

Out of Stock: Supply Chain Crisis (on MAX)

Trump staffers panic buying (Rolling Stone)

Trump on potential dolls shortage (NY Times)

Waiting for the Supply Shock (Prospect)

Cumulative Inflation (BBC)

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This week we are discussing Ridley Scott's 1982 classic sci-fi noir Blade Runner. While we praise the visual depiction of a post-nuclear-war American city, we both found the plot somewhat difficult to hook into, so to speak. While the essential examination of the question of humanity, and what it would mean for an android to achieve a fully realized humanity, we both had some issues with the way the film attempted to raise this issue. Stu contrasts this with the novel on which the film is based, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which we will be returning to for a full treatment sometime soon.

We open the episode going over the recent massive blackouts in Spain and Portugal; another omen of the impending end of the world? Perhaps!

This episode contains spoilers for Blade Runner.

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