The Occasionalists Podcast

Salute to the Supporting Cast: Entourage

For the time being we are officially off pandemic duty and getting back to our bread and butter which of course is pop culture and entertainment!
We're kicking off our post-quarantine episodes with a new series we'll be visiting from time to time: Salute to the Supporting Cast. In this series, we'll be examining ensemble shows in depth and highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each one.
What better way to kick off this series than with a show that informed our formative tv watching years AND is focused primarily on everyone besides the lead character...Entourage!

Scenes From A Pandemic

After some serious technical difficulties, a new pandemic episode has arrived!
In this installment of The Occasionalists we give a few updates as follow up to last week but we take things down a few notches in seriousness with our first big thought exercise in awhile: we pitch our own coronavirus movies!
Which movie pitch do you like better? Which one do you see succeeding? Let us know!
We then wrap up the episode with a discussion about the way pandemics are presented on film.
Since you're at home doing nothing, might as well give this a listen!

Pandemic

The Occasionalists have reassembled to talk about the only thing that we really can talk about right now: the Coronavirus! 
Chemma and I share our separate experiences and compare what the states of California and Ohio are doing to combat the spread of the virus.
We finish off with a dive into how the federal government's response is worrisome and why the 'internet of things' might be making things worse.

Recommendation Rewind: Heroic Recs

In this episode of Recommendation Rewind, Pagel classifies a few new hero types from some properties that were previously talked about on The Occasionalists and asks you to consider whether or not one of the most notorious fictional villains was actually acting heroically. 

The Third Spin: Music for Heroes

On this episode of The 3rd Spin, it's all about the heroes.  In the follow up to our big Heroes Podcast, Adam provides a few of the jams meant for the ones who strive to be something more than themselves while discussing the definitive heroism song of our generation.  Enjoy!

The Heroes: Part Two

In part two we do a very deep dive into hero archetypes and whether or not they represent something larger than just a force for good.
We also give our key ingredients for a compelling hero, give a few examples of what template we use when creating a hero and reexamine if certain characters are heroic or not, or if they also defy classification.

The Heroes: Part One

In part one of The Heroes, Chemma and I do a little cleanup work from The Villains. We discuss the actor we'd most like to cast as a bad guy, whether or not certain characters defy classification and who is society's biggest villain.
We then switch gears and delve into the Hero's Journey and ask a few questions about the story structure and who we would want to carry the torch as our hero in a big time movie.

Recommendation Rewind: Villainous Recs

The first(ish) episode of Recommendation Rewind is here!
In this series of minisodes, I will be looking back at the topic we just covered to add a little more insight, give you some different angles to consider and of course....give you a few recommendations -- be they movies, tv shows, books, music, scholarly articles, off Broadway plays, graduate theses, literally ANYTHING -- to check out.
Enjoy!