Episode 595: Let's Go Buy A Bigger Boat

This week's episode had everything: halftime show skepticism, aquatic conspiracy theories, holographic ethics, and a little too much time in the Wasteland. We may have skipped science again… but we made up for it with sharks and Starfleet. Real Life Devon: Safe Bets and Stadium Spectacles Devon kicked things off with the Super Bowl halftime show — Green Day and Bad Bunny sharing the stage. The big question: was Green Day the safe choice? Are legacy punk bands the NFL's version of comfort food? Reliable. Recognizable. Not too disruptive. Devon wrestles with whether the performance felt bold or carefully calculated — and what that says about the league's broader decision-making. It's less about music and more about cultural positioning. When the biggest stage in America picks its soundtrack, what are they really trying to say? Ben: Jaws, Mayors, and Weresharks Ben watched Jaws with his son, and instead of simply enjoying the terror of a seaside predator, he zeroed in on the real villain: The mayor. What exactly is going on with this guy? Ben proposes several theories: Is the mayor the shark? Is the shark a metaphor? Is this some kind of Ice Nine Kills-style symbolic horror? Or… is the mayor secretly a wereshark? The conversation spirals in the best way possible. Spoiler alert: they don't get a bigger boat. Ben also makes a strong case that Starfleet Academy is not for everyone — but it is for him. That leads to a deep dive into holograms in Star Trek. Some holograms are "hard light" and physically interactive. The Doctor in Voyager was designed for short-term use… and then just kept going. What does that mean philosophically? Legally? Spiritually? And somewhere in there, Ben cautiously circles around the fate of Captain Sisko. Steven: Fallout Season 2 — A Love Letter or a Stall? Steven brings us back to the Wasteland with thoughts on the Fallout Season 2 finale. Devon, generally, is not thrilled. The season lacked momentum. The pacing felt uneven. Something didn't quite land. Steven counters with a structural theory: The three main characters represent different player archetypes. Different play styles. Different moral approaches to the same broken world. He also notes something important: there were a lot of Easter eggs. A LOT. For longtime game veterans, it was a treasure hunt. For casual viewers? Probably noise. Steven's bigger hypothesis: Season 1: Establish the world and characters. Season 2: The creators indulge in their favorite corners of the setting. Season 3: (Hopefully) we move into entirely new territory not tied to a specific game. If that happens, the show might finally become its own thing. Future or Now There was, once again, too much Fallout talk. Science gets skipped. Again. We promise nothing for next week. Book Club Next Week: "Liar!" by Isaac Asimov Read it here: https://lecturia.org/en/short-stories/isaac-asimov-liar/23933/ Classic Asimov. Robots. Logic. Emotional complications. You know the drill. This Week: "The Orchard Village Catalog" by Parker Peevyhouse https://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/the-orchard-village-catalog/ Reactions were mixed — but thoughtful. Ben: Loved the realistic corporate nonsense. Found it creepy and fascinating. Devon: Felt it might be too open-ended, but still enjoyed it. Steven: Didn't fully "get it," but appreciated the quality of the writing. Which, honestly, is sometimes the best kind of sci-fi discussion — confusion paired with admiration. Between halftime show politics, aquatic conspiracies, holographic sentience, and post-apocalyptic pacing debates, this episode covered a lot of ground. If you've got thoughts on safe Super Bowl picks, weresharks, or where Fallout should go next, we want to hear them. And maybe next week… we'll finally talk about science.