I love sitting on the sidelines of a scientist fight

Liz has a cold, and Emily is in a cabin somewhere in the mountains of Utah, but the Verge ESP podcast must go on! This week, we're chatting about the return of The X Files to Fox — a show near to Liz's heart and dear to Emily's. Liz has seen the first episode of the miniseries reboot (you can read her spoiler-free review here) and more than anything else, it made us think about why the show was such a perfect mirror for the paranoid '90s. How that gets translated for 2016 is a whole other story. We also talk about a scuffle currently happening in the scientific community about the origins of war — and Liz's general delight anytime she hears the words "scientist fight." Humans' predilection for violence and conflict goes back a long time, but could have it gone all the way back to the supposedly chill hunter-gatherer times? There's still lots of work to be done and lots of smack to be spoken before we know for sure. Finally, Emily chats with Dilcia Barrera, a programmer at the Sundance Film Festival and at LACMA in Los Angeles. She talks about the changes she's seen in festivals over the past 10 years, how technology has changed the nature of the festival and the films it screens, and what she looks for when screening the thousands of submissions she and her team get every year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices