PODCAST · tv
Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b
by Eric Johnson and Emily Jones
The good news: The internet has made it easier than ever to watch, read, play, or listen to just about anything ever made. The bad news: Same. It's easy to get buried, even for two of the biggest pop culture geeks we know: Ourselves. Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b is what happens when we try to make each other -- and everyone who wants to listen along -- discover the good stuff. Join us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
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Eric's new podcast: Call 'Em Like Museum
Call 'Em Like Museum is a weekly podcast exploring how museums really work, and why we love them. Host Eric Johnson talks with museum directors, curators, experts, and passionate fans about what drives them, from homegrown passion projects to world-famous institutions. Each episode digs into…
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Watergate Weekend, Part Two: Dick (1999)
And now for the REAL story of Watergate. This movie offers a bit of a lighter take on the scandal, as well as a guess at the identity of Woodward and Bernstein's infamous source, Deep Throat. Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams pay a pair of teenagers who couldn't be less interested in politics…
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Watergate Weekend, Part One: All the President's Men (1976)
Tomorrow will be the 46th anniversary of one of the most important political events of the 20th century: The break-in and attempted bugging of the Democratic national headquarters in Washington, D.C., at the Watergate office complex. That break-in and its historic aftermath have been rendered…
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Gossip Girl (2007)
Hey, Upper East Siders (and, you know, all listeners). I've got the biggest episode EVER. Ok, maybe not. But it is the second episode stemming from the Golden Globes bet we both lost. Today, it's time to torture Eric. And what better way than with the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite? For…
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Grand Theft Auto V Heist Videos (2014)
Way back in January, Emily and I made a bet: Whoever could predict the winners of the Golden Globes more accurately would subject the other to a Geek vs. n00b pick that they would definitely hate. And I'm just gonna say it up front: If watching a bunch of dudes play Grand Theft Auto V for two…
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A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Surprise again! Although if you listened to yesterday's bonus episode, then this will not be surprising: On this show, we talked about the new movie adaptation of "A Wrinkle in Time," directed by Ava DuVernay and starring Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon. Technically...
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A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
Surprise! We're back with a bonus episode. In honor of the movie coming out (more on that later), we're rereading A Wrinkle in Time. The book follows Meg Murry, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin on a trip through time and space to save the Murrys' missing father. Be sure...
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The Sound of Music (1965)
We're closing out the season with a pick that's somewhat surprising for a show with this premise: The Sound of Music. Yes, there is (or was until recently) someone who'd never seen this movie before. As you likely know, The Sound of Music is the Oscar-winning film adaptation of the Tony-winning...
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What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
- OK, so It's a movie about vampires. - Oh I love it! And they're terrorizing Los Angeles? - No, they just hang out in Wellington, New Zealand. - You've lost me. - They argue about household chores and have to deal with how to get dressed for a night on the town when you can't see yourself in the...
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Twin Peaks (1990)
Life in a sleepy small town is turned upside down when a teen girl - pretty, blonde, a good student, the prom queen - is found, brutally murdered. Before long, the secrets start tumbling out, and we learn she's not as innocent nor is the the town as quiet as it seemed. It's the premise of, rough...
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The Court Jester (1955)
"The Court Jester" has everything: Medieval palace drama! Implausible hypnotism! Acrobatic dwarves! ... Oh, I'm being told that "The Court Jester" is not New York's hottest nightclub, but rather a 1955 musical comedy starring Danny Kaye. It's also the subject of this week's Giant Geek vs. Mega...
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The Net (1995)
This week, we're traveling back to the 90s, when the internet was relatively new and very slow and weird, for a dated thriller that feels oddly relevant today: The Net. In it, Sandra Bullock plays an isolated computer programmer and Jeremy Northam a leader of the evil hacking syndicate that's out...
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Sports Night (1998)
With the exception of that one episode about the Tour de France, we haven't done a lot of sports here on Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b. But a TV show about a SportsCenter-like show, written by "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin? Sign us up! But wait, there's more: Joining us for our introduction to...
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Star Trek: The Next Generation
And now, it's time for round two of Star Trek: a foray into The Next Generation. Set long after the original show, this popular series returns to the Trek universe for another set of adventures aboard a later iteration of the Enterprise. Its crew of beloved characters include Patrick Stewart's...
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The Fast and the Furious (2001)
"Hurtling metal, meat and rubber through the concrete jungle at dangerous velocities." That's how, in 1998, Ken Li described New York's underground street racing scene. His article for Vibe Magazine, "Racer X," inspired the incredibly successful "Fast and Furious" movie franchise. And today, we...
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Star Trek
As we explained last week, this season we're shaking this up by bringing in guests to help fill in some gaps in our shared pop cultural knowledge. This week's is a big gap: Star Trek. Created by Gene Rodenberry and premiering in 1966, the seminal sci-fi series is famous for both its extensive...
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Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
You've been waiting patiently for it for months, and now it's finally here: Season 6 of Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b. This season, we're shaking things up by bringing in friends and colleagues to school us on the pop culture that Emily and I have both missed. And first out of the gate are the Kill…
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The Thin Man (1934)
And now for the second part of our after-Christmas discussion of movies that are not exactly about Christmas. Much of this one, fittingly, takes place in the time between Christmas and New Year's Eve. The movie is The Thin Man (1934), based on the Dashiell Hammett novel of the same name and...
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Gremlins (1984)
After a slightly longer-than-expected break (several months instead of several weeks), we're back! Last year — when we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas and Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town — we pitted two Christmas movies against each other. This year, we're doing the same thing. Well, sort…
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30 Rock (2006)
It's no secret that we both love 30 Rock. A lot. Tina Fey's seven-season comedy for NBC is, in our opinion, one of the best ever, and we've both watched it countless times. But that's no fun for this podcast! So we've brought in a guest n00b to the world of TGS, night cheese, and Dr. Spaceman:...
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This Is Us (2016)
We're nearly at the end of the fifth season of Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b, but there's still a lot we haven't done (just you wait). This week, we talked about the super-zeitgeisty new TV show "This Is Us," and — unlike most weeks, when the n00b enters with very little knowledge — that…
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Into the Woods (1986)
We all know what happens when Cinderella goes to the ball, and when Jack climbs the beanstalk, and when Little Red Riding Hood gets to Granny's house. ...but not in this version. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Broadway musical Into the Woods turns all of these stories (and more) on their...
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The Social Network (2010)
Technology doesn't materialize out of thin air; it's made by people. And those people aren't necessarily good people. This week's movie, "The Social Network," is a heavily dramatized telling of how Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg disrupted Harvard University, then colleges everywhere and then…
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Beauty and the Beast (2017)
"Beauty and the Beast," the first animated movie ever to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, is now ... a live-action movie, too! But how does it stack up to the original? On this bonus episode of Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b, we did the same thing that we did with La La Land last month…
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Velvet Goldmine (1998)
After exploring the line between public and private - and the notion of faking your death - with "Man on the Moon" last week, there was only one direction we could go in: "Velvet Goldmine." This one isn't actually a biopic, but it DOES star Jonathan Rhys Myers as a glam rocker inspired by David...
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Man on the Moon (1999)
We've all been there: 40 million people love watching you perform, and you hate it, so you decide to start wrestling women. OK, actually one person has been there: Andy Kaufman, the subject of the 1999 biopic "Man on the Moon," directed by Milos Forman and starring Jim Carrey as Kaufman. This…
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Gaslight (1944)
You've heard the term on the news, you've seen it thrown around on Twitter, and now it's time to go to the source. We're talking about gaslighting, the practice of manipulating someone into doubting their own experience and sanity. It comes from a 1944 film starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer,...
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The Stanley Parable (2013)
This week, Emily and I played a video game with several great features, including offices, hallways, doors, a broom closet and existential dread. And as if that's not enticing enough, then try this on for size: "The Stanley Parable" is a hilarious interactive ride that answers a question no one…
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La La Land (2016)
Two lovers, both alike in artistic yearning, in fair Los Angeles where we ... ok, you know what, I'm not going to try and do the Shakespeare thing. "La La Land" is a story about two white people in L.A. who want to be famous and/or artistically respected, and it tied the record for most Oscar...
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When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Does When Harry Met Sally really need an introduction? It isn't just a classic romantic comedy; it is THE romcom. Though far from the first, it's the ultimate and quintessential romcom, the movie that defines the genre, the movie that launched the romcom boom of the 1990s and 2000s, the movie…
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The Twilight Zone (1959)
Imagine, if you will: A seemingly ordinary podcast suddenly re-emerges after more than a month of silence. Except this is no ordinary season premiere. The two hosts of this podcast have just made a life-changing visit ... to the Twilight Zone. We're back! And to kick off Season 5, we watched five...
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Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (1970)
Instead of a beloved and critically-acclaimed feature, today we're watching a cheesy-as-hell TV special by Rankin and Bass. They're the same folks that brought us the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer we've all seen a million times - but this is better (in my humble opinion). Santa Claus is Comin'…
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The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
What's this? Why, it's another bonus episode of Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b! Most of the time, people who say "Happy Holidays" aren't thinking of Halloween, but that might change once you see "The Nightmare Before Christmas," a 1993 stop-motion classic directed by Henry Selick and inspired by a poem...
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Bob's Burgers (2011) VS. WKRP in Cincinnati (1978)
Surprise! Just in time for Thanksgiving, have an extra serving of Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b! While you're recovering from your food coma this week, join us for six delightful episodes of turkey-flavored TV: Three from "Bob's Burgers," which Eric has seen relatively little of, and three from "WKRP…
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Hamilton (2015)
How did a bastard orphan immigrant become one of America's founding fathers? How did the country forget about him? And how — and why? — did he become the subject of a wildly popular hip-hop musical 200 years after his death? In trying to answer these tricky questions, we quickly struck a…
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The West Wing (1999)
Topic: The West Wing Geek(s): Emily and Eric We've got American politics on the brain (can't imagine why that would be), so it seems high time we get to a particularly stellar bit of political fantasy we're both more than a little obsessed with - the West Wing. Since we need a n00b to...
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Machine of Death (2010)
What if you could put your finger in a machine and find out how you were going to die? What if that machine were always right? And what if that machine was also kind of a jerk, dispensing cryptic predictions that often came true in cruelly ironic ways? That is the delightful-slash-terrifying...
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Steely Dan (1976)
Topic: Steely Dan Geek: Emily Steely Dan is a 1970s band that gets knocked a lot for being stereotypical dad music. But have you ever really listened to them? Eric never has. But even if you think you know them, I'd encourage you to pay closer attention this time. There's a lot going on there,...
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Rick and Morty (2013)
On one of the first episodes of this podcast, I made Emily watch Doctor Who. On a later episode, which sadly never saw the light of day because we lost the audio, I made her watch Back to the Future. Today, we complete the trifecta with "Rick and Morty," the irreverent animated Adult Swim show…
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Gilmore Girls (2000)
Topic: Gilmore Girls Geek: Emily If you're out on the road, feeling lonely and so cold, all you have to do is call on Gilmore Girls and they'll be there on the next train. I've tortured this so that it doesn't actually rhyme, but you see, this is more or less how I feel about this beloved TV…
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Zombieland (2009)
The last time we visited the zombie apocalypse, when we watched "The Walking Dead," most everything was bleak: People were fighting, some of them got killed, and there was little hope for the future. What if, instead, we all decided to have fun? That's part of the appeal of this week's movie,...
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Le Tour de France
Topic: The Tour de France Geek: Emily And now for a sport that's a bit off the beaten track (or well-ridden road, as the case may be): cycling. I've been watching the Tour de France religiously for many years, and back in July I made Eric take the Tour plunge - albeit on a somewhat limited basis....
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Ex Machina (2015)
You might use Siri, or Cortana, or Alexa — but you would never think of them as real people. But what if you did? What if you could have a conversation with an artificially intelligent person that felt real and human? And what if that person looked like a beautiful woman? Those are just the...
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The Music Man (1962)
Topic: The Music Man Geek: Emily Welcome to season four! Let's watch a musical. As you might recall, last season we watched Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and - spoiler alert - Eric loved it and immediately embarked on a binge. While this warms my little geek heart, it also poses a problem: CXG is packed…
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UHF (1989)
"Weird Al" Yankovic has been writing and performing song parodies since 1976. But he only made one feature-length movie — for good reason. "UHF" did not do well at the box office when it was released in 1989. It made $6.1 million on a $5 million budget. But in the years since, it has become a...
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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015)
Topic: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Geek: Emily This week's topic hasn't been around for very long, but oh boy has it made a splash. It won a Golden Globe. Vulture named it best show on TV. I am madly in love with it. We're talking, of course, about the CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. It's an hour-long comedy...
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Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)
The Mario games are full of important life lessons for kids: Get regular exercise! Help your friends! Do mushrooms and kill turtles! But will those messages resonate for someone (Emily) who has never played one of the official Mario games? Will that someone, who has barely played any video games,...
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Stick It (2006)
Topic: Stick It Geek: Emily Today we venture into the world of elite gymnastics - but we're not going to take it too seriously. Stick It is part snarky teen comedy and part inspirational sports movie, part send-up of the gymnastics world and part homage to the sport. I've been a fan of this...
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The Big Lebowski (1998)
Sometimes, there's a podcast... And I'm talkin' about the Giant Geek versus the Mega n00b here... Sometimes there's a podcast and, well, it's the podcast for its time and place. It fits right in there. OK, just imagine how much better this description would sound if Sam Elliott were reading it.…
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The Big Sleep (1946)
Topic: The Big Sleep Geek: Emily Bogart is back on the podcast! This time with his real-life wife and frequent on-screen partner Lauren Bacall. The Big Sleep is quintessential noir: a private eye, an array of untrustworthy dames and sketchy suits, and enough blackmail and dead bodies to turn a...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The good news: The internet has made it easier than ever to watch, read, play, or listen to just about anything ever made. The bad news: Same. It's easy to get buried, even for two of the biggest pop culture geeks we know: Ourselves. Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b is what happens when we try to make each other -- and everyone who wants to listen along -- discover the good stuff. Join us!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
HOSTED BY
Eric Johnson and Emily Jones
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b have?
Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b currently has 92 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b about?
The good news: The internet has made it easier than ever to watch, read, play, or listen to just about anything ever made. The bad news: Same. It's easy to get buried, even for two of the biggest pop culture geeks we know: Ourselves. Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b is what happens when we try to make each...
How often does Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b release new episodes?
Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b has 92 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b?
You can listen to Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b?
Giant Geek vs. Mega n00b is created and hosted by Eric Johnson and Emily Jones.
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