February 9, 2024
Informational Podcasts
If you’re looking for obscure knowledge to impress your friends with at the bar, look no further!
Radiolab
Radiolab consists of fun, informational deep dives into an eclectic variety of topics, from how blue horseshoe crab blood is used in pharmaceuticals to modern drone tactics used in wars like the Russo-Ukranian Conflict. The podcast sets out to explain these topics with solid, competent journalism laid out in a pleasant manner, accompanied with a stunning, dynamic soundtrack, this podcast makes learning enjoyable and easy. Consulting a healthy array of topically relevant sources, including many firsthand interviews from those deeply involved and respected within their communities, Radiolab reliably relays useful, relevant information about the world around us.
One particularly admirable aspect about Radiolab is their commitment to journalistic integrity and neutrality in covering these stories. Covering such controversial topics as the death penalty, religious fundamentalism, and politics in the Middle East, such an approach is necessary and appreciated.
With glowing reception amongst listeners and critics alike, this show has been hailed as one of the most innovative on American podcast apps (and radio, as it is also broadcast in New York). It has even won two Peabody Awards for broadcast excellence, over four years! So, in short, I highly recommend checking out this podcast.
—Logan Meek, Podcast Editor
Among free-to-play games, Warframe is the only one to have its own official convention in North America. Warframe is an immensely popular online co-op game, blending fast movement, hack ‘n’ slash, and third-person shooting into a satisfying experience. Players play as warframes, which essentially function as classes, each one with different speed, shields, health, and abilities, cooperating in groups of four to complete the chosen mission.
Creating and writing a whole unique human being is difficult. So many writers fall into the trap of writing stereotypes or tropes as opposed to something resembling people. Furthermore, too many times readers have read stories in which the main hero is too perfect. Their intentions always pure, not a bad bone in their body.
Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender is an interesting mix of ideas—ideas which at first don’t seem like they mix well but when blended together taste oddly delicious. On one hand, it’s a coming-of-age novel about a loner longing for intimacy while navigating high school. Yet on the other hand, it’s a beautiful love story and a classic horror story.
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai is a memoir that illustrates the struggles of Dazai throughout his childhood up until shortly before his early death. Dazai published this book in the form of his notebooks, like a diary, and it starts in his middle school years. He writes how his father was abusive and how the servants of his house may or may not have sexually assaulted him—it’s unclear in the writing as it can be taken in a few ways. Once he graduated high school, he moved to Tokyo for college, away from the countryside where he lived. This is where he began experimenting with drugs, alcohol, and continued dabbling in art. He became addicted. He also became addicted to the idea of death, which resulted in multiple attempted suicides, two of which were double suicides, one of them being successful.
Three bands—Wasted Pretty, Soup, and Candy Cigarette—will perform on February 24 at the Cactus, located at 40 W. Hosmer St. in Marinette. The show will start at 7:00 p.m. You must be at least 21 years old or be with a parent to enter!
Looking for a music album that can combat the groggy Wisconsin winter weather? Skiptracing (2016) can do just that. The American dream pop group Mild High Club, created in 2013 by Alexander Brettin, released their second studio album, Skiptracing, in 2016. Based out of Chicago, IL, this Midwestern group is known for their psychedelic sound and trance-like full albums.Skiptracing is a 30-minute album that starts with a light track and creates a relaxing mood so the listener can focus on closing their eyes and imagine soaking in the closest sun rays. The second song, titled “Cary Me Back,” continues the serene scene as if the listener is still mentally sun-bathing and now drifting down a lazy, slow river. The vibrant and meditative tracks rotate throughout the album, creating a full picture in only half an hour. For example, “Tessellation” is a groovy and smooth transition to the next track titled, “Head Out.”
Westerns have always been about tough gunslingers traveling frontiers and stopping villains. The protagonists of the genre are taciturn tough guys without emotion. Our protagonists either have a very famous name or no name, a righteous quest, and the adoration of the community. Christianity often finds its way into the genre, usually as a guide for the protagonist, sometimes a hindrance. Clint Eastwood’s numerous Westerns have become the default for the genre, but shows like The Mandalorian and even the 1954 Japanese movie Seven Samurai put spins on it. With the generic themes of the genre exhausted, there is nothing left to do but innovate, and that’s how we get the underrated anime Trigun.
The four-part docuseries You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment was released on Netflix on January 1, 2024. This show is based on the “Standford Twins Nutrition Study” conducted by nutrition scientist Christopher Gardner, PhD. Of the 22 pairs of twins who are taking part in this study, four are featured in this fascinatingly informative show. This eight-week experiment requires each set of siblings to consume drastically different diets: they are randomly given either a vegan or omnivorous (meat- and plant-based) diet. For the first month, they will receive a food delivery, and they are only to consume what is specifically provided. For the last four weeks, they will maintain their designated diet, and they must make and buy their own food. The purpose of this experiment is to study the impact of the two diets for various health categories, including cardiovascular health, metabolic status, etc. During the first episode, many of these topics are further discussed as the doctors weigh the pros and cons of the meat- and dairy-based diet versus the plant-based diet.
In this movie full of drama and adventure, Cage’s character Ben Gates is a historian and code breaker. He has spent his whole life searching for a treasure that is said to date back to the creation of the United States of America. He teams up with treasure hunter Ian Howe, and together they find a clue that points them toward their next step: stealing the Declaration of Independence. With the knowledge of this new clue, Howe betrays Ben with the hopes that he doesn’t have to share the treasure when he finds it. The two then race to the document and the next clue that will lead them to the find of a lifetime. Who will get to the Declaration first to get the next clue, and will the treasure ever be found? Available on Hulu and Disney+.
If you are a fan of hilariously bad movies, this one’s for you. In this film (which is quite obviously a rip-off of Five Nights at Freddy’s), Nic Cage plays an unnamed man who finds himself with a flat tire in a small town with only one auto shop that can help him out. The mechanic at this shop offers him a deal: he will fix the car for free, but the man must spend the night cleaning an abandoned Chuck E. Cheese-inspired restaurant called Willy’s Wonderland. He accepts this offer and heads over to the restaurant. It doesn’t take long before he realizes the animatronic animals that perform at Willy’s are no ordinary robots; rather, they are vicious killing machines. On this same night, a group of teenagers who know the truth about the nature of Willy’s Wonderland decide to break in and burn the place down, ending the robots once and for all. Together, the man and teenagers fight against the robots and try to survive until the morning. Will they make it out alive, or will Willy the Weasel and his band get them all? (Please note that this film does contain violence.) Available on Hulu, Amazon Prime, the Roku Channel, and Tubi.