Dune with Jake Cohen: Deep Thoughts About Recreating Social Hierarchies and Biases in Sci Fi Worldbuilding

Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. Fear is the mind-killer…On this week’s episode of Deep Thoughts, Tracie and Emily welcome their cousin Jake Cohen to talk all things Dune, from Frank Herbert’s influential series of sci fi novels to the 1984 David Lynch film adaptation to the recent Denis Villeneuve movies. The conversation ranges from the intricate and well-thought out worldbuilding to the political implications of an extra-planetary messiah leading the Fremen of Arrakis with the promise of sandworm-killing water. While Herbert’s grand vision inspired countless sci fi writers and filmmakers, Dune still retains some outdated fatphobia, homophobia, gender essentialism, and sexism that were more typical of the 1960s, when the book was written, which proves even forward-thinking sci fi can't escape the social expectations and biases embedded in our culture.The spice (and the podcast episode) must flow!Content warning: Discussion of child SAOur theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thoughts by visiting us on Patreon. We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls.We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find. We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!