Radio vs. the Martians!
by Mike Gillis and Casey Doran
Mike Gillis and Casey Doran are joined by a rotating panel of their friends for a warts-and-all look at popular culture. We look at the highs and lows of movies, science fiction, video games, horror, comic books, and everything in between. Think of us as “the McLaughlin Group” for nerds!
Episodes
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Fun Size Episode 84 – WWE Ballet with Trucks
We’re in the studio with Carol and Dave Brouillette, who have returned with us with good tidings from Monster Jam! Yes, Monster Jam, the (surprisingly wholesome) spectacle of giant tires, animal shaped vehicles, big jumps, and plenty of dirt tracks and screaming fans. It’s one-part P.T. Barnum,...
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Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 31 – FUBAR
Heroes Don’t Retire. They Reload. This month, we’re joined in the studio by not one, but two guests, Carol and Dave Brouillette of the late Hands Free Football soccer podcast, and suffering through all eight episodes of the Arnold-helmed Netflix series, FUBAR! For decades, CIA operative Luke...
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Radio vs. the Martians! Commentary Track – Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
Every generation has a legend. Every journey has a first step. Every saga has a beginning. Now this is podcasting! This Christmas Eve, we’re back with a gift! In our first Retcon vs. the Martians!, Casey has ambushed Mike with an impromptu commentary track screening of George Lucas’ much-maligned...
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Episode 60 – Zardoz
Into a world of eternal life, he brought the gift of death This month, we’re eating green bread and refusing to go to Second Level meditation with Joe Preti of the late View from the Gutters comic book podcast to dive into the weird and psychedelic science fiction cult film, 1974’s Zardoz! In the...
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Fun Size Episode 83 – The Best Chris
We’re back in the studio with Joe Preti, and talking about Martin Scorsese’s three hour crime epic, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City. Plus, a conversation about the death of the movie star as the driver of cinema. Are there any modern stars who can transcend their...
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Fun Size Episode 82 – X-Pac Heat
We’re back with Kirby Green to talk about her favorite trash TV obsession: 90 Day Fiancé! We look at the show that throws the best and worst elements of romance, desperation, immigration law, and repulsive people, into a television blender and we look at the horrifying and endlessly addictive...
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Episode 59 – Halloween III: Season of the Witch
…and now the earth will run with blood again! We’re getting into the spirit of the spooky season with returning guest Kirby Green, and unmasking the underrated black sheep of the Halloween horror franchise: Halloween III: Season of the Witch! Dr. Daniel Challis stumbles into a mystery after a man...
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Fun Size Episode 81 – Sadness and Anxiety Being Poured on Your Naked Brain
Though conflicting schedules this month have made a regular episode impossible, we’re back in the studio to chat about the stuff we’ve been reading and watching, and of course… we’re talking about Star Trek. Plus, Mike talks about trying out some new manga series, including one that he didn’t...
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Fun Size Episode 80 – Dangerous Banned Secrets of the Hidden Masters
We continue our chat with Sam Mulvey, and tear the still-beating heart out of the world of martial arts frauds and scam artists. From manufactured biographies involving hidden temples and battles to the death, to selling mail order pamphlets through comic book ads promising access to forbidden...
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Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 30 – Twins
Only their mother can tell them apart. This month, we’re learning the first rules of a crisis situation with returning guest Sam Mulvey of KTQA 95.3 FM radio, and exploring the first installment of the Schwartzenegger/Reitman collaboration trilogy, the wholesome eugenics comedy: Twins! Genetic...
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Fun Size Episode 79 – The Assassination of Willow by the Coward Disney+
We’re back again with Joe Preti, and chatting about the emerging streaming epoch and its tremendous downsides as corporate studio overlords start making things you love disappear, making it impossible for these shows and movies to find new fans — … Continue reading →
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Episode 58 – Hudson Hawk
Catch the Excitement. Catch the Adventure. Catch the Hawk. We’re breaking into the Vatican and trying to get a good cappuccino with Joe Preti as we reappraise the much maligned — and genuinely underrated — 1991 Bruce Willis box office … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 78 – Video Game Dr. Mengele
This month, we’re joined again by Dave Brouillette, and talking about the pixelized Stanford Prison Experiment that was The Sims, and how eventual boredom can turn a gamer into a cruel capricious god tormenting their own imaginary people. We dig … Continue reading →
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Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 29 – The Villain
Vile, virile, vivacious, venomous, varied, voluptuous, versatile, venturesome, vibrant, vulgar, vast, vunniest vilm of 1979! We’re strapping on our seven shot six-shooters and stocking up on barrels of glue and giant boulders with Dave Brouillette of the Hands Free Football … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 77 – A Plague of Ricks
This month, we’re upturning the rocks of our childhoods and looking at all the bugs and worms, like the uncomfortable fact that serial bully and sexist Rick Berman still has any relationship to Star Trek media anymore, and how growing … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 76 – Make It Work.
This month, we’re going boldly with Michael Warbington into the deep, inconsistent, and often-confusing world of Star Trek uniform design! Why did Starfleet have the exact same red naval uniform for nearly 70 years before they started to update their … Continue reading →
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Episode 57 – Sorcerer (1977)
WANTED. Four men willing to drive a cargo of death to escape a life in hell. This month, we’re going on a jungle suicide mission with Camp Director and President of Camp Quest NorthWest, Michael Warbington, and plunging into the … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 75 – Literal Toilet Money
This month, we’re continuing our talk with Carol Brouillette, and it may be time to crown Dave Bautista as the greatest professional-wrestler-turned-actor of all time. We look at his choices, roles and performances from Knock at the Cabin to Blade … Continue reading →
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Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 28 – Terminator: Dark Fate
Choose Your Fate. This month, we’re joined by Carol Brouillette of the Hands Free Football podcast, and returning (one last time?) to the franchise that made Arnold Schwarzenegger the king of Hollywood in the legacy sequel, Terminator: Dark Fate! Twenty … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 74 – That’s How You Get an Independence Day!
This month, we’re continuing our chat with Chelsea Rustad, and we’re looking at billionaire narcissists getting booed, and the ethics of hidden camera comedy shows. Where is the line when it comes to comedy based on a person not knowing … Continue reading →
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Episode 56 – Vengeance (2022)
Find the story before it finds you. This month, we’re joined by Chelsea Rustad chair of the Puget Sound Socialist Party and the author of Inherited Secrets: Memoir of America’s Groundbreaking Genetic Witness to draw thematic connections between seemingly disparate … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 73 – But, She Has a New Hat!
This month, we’re continuing our chat with Kayleigh Casterline, and digging into the intersection of sports, video games and capitalist rent-seeking. The new wrestling game, AEW: Fight Forever, is claiming that it won’t ask you to buy an entirely new … Continue reading →
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Episode 55 – The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” This month, we’re riddling in the dark and escaping the goblin caves with Kayleigh Casterline and revisiting J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic 1937 fantasy book that introduced readers to the world of … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 72 – Highway to Heaven, Except He Breaks Peoples’ Fingers
This time, we’re talking about our undying love for the Denzel Washington Equalizer movies, and how they can be a strangely bloody salve for our woes in these trying times. We dive into the often-morally iffy world of middle-aged action … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 71 – That’s Capitalism, Baby!
This month, we’re chatting about the wonder of the public domain and open source software, and how it helps make our show possible and helps create community — and how capitalism puts up walls and exploits them to seek rent. … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 70 – Selling Diet Pills on Instagram
This month, we’re continuing our talk with Kirby Green, for a chat about reality television and the “Am I the Asshole?” sub-reddit. So, reality television isn’t real. I mean, duh. Or is it sometimes? And does it actually matter? Aren’t … Continue reading →
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Episode 54 – Shiver: Selected Stories by Junji Ito
“I am a horror maniac who prefers to stay at home.” This Halloween, we’re chugging down salad oil and hiding from our balloon dopplegangers with returning friend of the show, Kirby Green, and see if our sanity can can survive … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 69 – Two Degrees From Luke Skywalker
This month, we’re back with Sam Mulvey to get nerdier than we have for a while. Mike takes the rough draft of his new “Bechdel Test”-esque thought experiment about media worldbuilding for a spin and tries to punch holes in … Continue reading →
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Episode 53 – The Blues Brothers
“It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.” This month, we’re getting the band back together with the Station Manager of KTQA 95.3 FM in … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 68 – Nobody Gives a Fuck About Rutherford B. Hayes
We’re continuing our chat with Joe Preti, for a deep dive into the topics that really matter. We perhaps spend too much time, dissecting the many pathological lies and shitty behavior of 90s action star Steven Seagal, and we explore … Continue reading →
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Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 27 – Raw Deal
The system gave him a raw deal. Nobody gives him a raw deal. We’re back! This month, we’re slicking back our hair and dodging cakes with Joe Preti, and infiltrating the inner circle of the mostly-forgotten organized crime action flick: … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 67 – When Did I Become an Old Man?
We’re back with Dave Brouillette to speak in defense of cinema’s great unsung wet blankets. The long-suffering adults left to pick up the pieces when the reckless hot shot protagonist with a disregard for human life blows up half of … Continue reading →
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Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 26 – Pumping Iron
“Blood is rushing into your muscles and that’s what we call The Pump. Your muscles get a really tight feeling, like your skin is going to explode any minute, and it’s really tight – it’s like somebody blowing air into … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 66 – The Word for That Is “Extortion”
We continue our chat with Michael Warbington and dig into a rich vein we usually leave unmined: video games. With different levels of skill, engagement and knowledge, we look at the experience of gaming in 2022, the intersection of art … Continue reading →
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Episode 52 – Django (1966)
He killed for gold… He killed for his woman… He killed for himself! After a month off, we’re back! And this time, we’re dragging a coffin through the desert with the Camp Director and President of Camp Quest NorthWest, Michael … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 65 – From Sublime to Disgusting (And Everything in Between)
We’re back with Kirby Green and talking about the strange and surprising wholesomeness of Jackass Forever, the history of “caught-on-video” media, and the opportunistic moral panics they often inspire. While we talk about how a franchise famous for dangerous stunts … Continue reading →
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Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 25 – Junior
Nothing is inconceivable. This month, we’re enjoying some franks in a blanket with longtime friend of the show, Kirby Green, and re-examining the much-maligned and universally-panned Arnold Schwarzenegger pregnancy comedy: Junior! After his miracle fertility drug, Expectane, is rejected by …...
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Fun Size Episode 64 – A Real Lesson in Imagined Power
We’re back in the studio with Patrick Johnson for one of our weirdest conversations yet. First, what are the consequences of having a perfect memory? On our emotions, our morality, or our sanity? What does it mean to forget, is … Continue reading →
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Episode 51 – Phantasm
Beware the ball, beware the tall man, beware the never dead. We return this month to break into Morningside Mortuary and get some fuckin’ answers with returning guest Todd Maxfield-Matsumoto, because we’re digging up the 1979 psychedelic cult horror classic: … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 63 – I Want Willem Dafoe in Every Movie
Has the world gone mad? Well, yes. But we’re also looking back on 2021 as a remarkably great year at the movies! We’re still talking to Tobiah Panshin for an uncharacteristically positive and optimistic discussion about the current state of … Continue reading →
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Episode 50 – The Green Knight
“Honor. That is why a knight does what he does.” With the New Year, we’re on a knightly quest to the Green Chapel to trade blows with returning guest Tobiah Panshin of the View from the Gutters podcast, to dive … Continue reading →
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Episode 49 – Santa Claus: The Movie
The legend comes to life. This Christmas Eve, we’re back in the studio to celebrate the season with Rebecca Friedman of KTQA-LP 95.3 FM, and dive into the 1985 holiday movie where Alexander and Ilya Salkind, the father and son … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 62 – Spokój
In the first of two episodes this month, we’re talking with Rebecca Friedman about the low-stakes things that give us the warm fuzzies. We chat about the phenomenon of ASMR and the YouTube videos that endeavor to trigger that pleasurable … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 61 – Artisanal Trash
We’re back with a quick bite of conversation from last month with Chelsea Rustad. We’re talking about the profound disappointment that was Halloween Kills, particularly in how it was a direct sequel to an inventive and surprising 2018 relaunch that … Continue reading →
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Episode 48 – Sin City
“I grab myself one last lungful of night air. Then I trade it in for a smoky soup spiced with sweat and vomit and booze and blood. I know the flavor well.” After more than two years, we’re back with … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 60 – George Lucas Martyrs
We’re back with Chelsea Rustad to dig into the big questions. Have we hit the barrier when technological advances on video quality, frame rate and sound are butting up against the point where human senses can no longer perceive the … Continue reading →
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Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 24 – Maggie
A father’s duty is to protect his daughter. This month, we’re joined by author and chair of the Puget Sound Socialist Party, Chelsea Rustad to explore perhaps the most unexpected and interesting departure from the expected Schwarzenegger oeuvre, an independent … Continue reading →
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Black Ops Episode 21 – Hunter Biden and the Holy Grail
This month, we’re back with Kit Laika to continue the conversation into the cinematic! Movie theaters are back! And in a dystopian world ravaged by doomsday viruses, we have been inside of them! For the first time in almost two … Continue reading →
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Fun Size Episode 59 – Don’t Back Dun’, Double Dun’
In the soft glow of our most recent discussion, we continue our conversation with Kit Laika, and explore the imperfections of language as a communication tool, and the linguistic similarities between Germans and chimpanzees that have been taught sign language. … Continue reading →
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Episode 47 – F for Fake
“Do you think I should confess? To what? Committing masterpieces?” In our latest Single Serving Selection, we’re joining librarian and artist, Kit Laika to turn our critical eyes to the final film directed by auteur Orson Welles, a conventions-defying documentary … Continue reading →
About this show
Mike Gillis and Casey Doran are joined by a rotating panel of their friends for a warts-and-all look at popular culture. We look at the highs and lows of movies, science fiction, video games, horror, comic books, and everything in between. Think of us as “the McLaughlin Group” for nerds!
Hosted by
Mike Gillis and Casey Doran
Categories