Geeks Without God

This week we talk about the latest Disney Plus Marvel series, Ms Marvel. Obviously there are spoilers a-plenty as we discuss all six episodes. Jenni Klumpp and her daughter Rowan join us to discuss the show as Jenni has been a big fan of Mx Marvel for a long time and Rowan is a brand new fan because of the show. They also both get the chance to answer our five questions!

It’s hard to believe we’ve been recording this podcast for ten years but CONvergence 2022 marks our ten year aniverssary! Not really because it’s a month later than usual but that’s being super pedantic. The convention happens this week and it’s going to be – well – we have no idea what it’s going to be like. But we’ll be there and you can listen to this episode to find out what we’ll be doing!

This week, we return to the movie theater (socially distanced and masked) to check out the latest entry in the MCU – Thor: Love and Thunder! We are joined by our friend Kirky Traylor-Thorson, a longtime fan of Thor and we assume, love and thunder. We spoil the shit out of the movie so if you don’t want to know what Natalie Portman is doing with Mjoilnir, watch the movie first! It’ll be on Disney + in no time!

This week, we return to Disney Plus and Star Wars for Obi Wan Kenobi! What happened to Obi Wan between Episode III and Episode IV? This series fills in some of the blanks. We talk about the series and some of the new texture it adds to the Star Wars Universe.We also read a listener’s answers to our new five questions!

This week, we take a look at The Black Phone! The new horror film created by Scott Derrickson and friend of the show C. Robert Cargill is a creepy delight. We talk about the movie and the original story by Joe Hill, who looks a lot more like Stephen King than Tim does. Why could that be? Oh – we spoil the shit out of it!

This week, we have a real live politician on our show! Minnesota State Representative Mike Freiberg who represents district 45B but is currently running to represent district 43B because of redistricting is our guest! Mike joins us to talk about non believers in politics, the process of being a state representative, and whether or not the Minnesota Legislature accidentally legalized chewables. And hey – we aren’t a non profit organization so we can totally say he’s great and we aren’t giving equal time to his opponent (spoiler: He doesn’t have one).

This week we bring you our latest boners because we are all, apparently, still twelve. Tim is headed on a road trip and he’s going to tell you what that has him super excited. Molly is excited about going outside and Nick is excited about a video game. Learn about why by listening!

This week we are joined by Travis Peterson, President of Minnesota Skeptics! He tells us about the potential for meetups if there is ever a time after the end times when we do things again. He also talks about helping flat earthers understand why what they believe is total bullshit. Only he’s a lot more polite than that and it actually works! He also answers our new set of five questions!

This week, we discuss the film “Everything, Everywhere All at Once” starting Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan. It’s a mind bender of a movie that is very easy to spoil so we recommend you watch the film before you listen. The movie is great and has a very nice atheist perspective that was fun to see in something approaching mainstream entertainment.

This week’s episode was recorded on the same day twenty one people were murdered in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The details of that event have continued to unfold since we recorded and we have learned of much more beyond the simple statistics of the dead. Still, this episode was recorded when the three of us were raw with emotion over another shooting in America and found ourselves asking “when will this all stop?”

This week, we are joined by the Reverend Matt Kessen to discuss The Velocipastor. We though it was going to be a fun little romp through a ridiculous dinosaur themed religious movie. Oh boy were we wrong. We are unable to discuss bad dinosaur science or even bad Christianity because the movie is just bad. The kind of bad that makes you hide your face when you say you’ve watched it. So don’t watch it. Just listen to this episode and you will have done enough.

Mark Sherman returns and that means we are discussing a new Marvel Series on Disney Plus! This week, our topic is Moon Knight, one of Marvel’s less known characters. Oscar Issac stars as the lead in this show that combines mental illness, action, comedy, and Egyptian mythology! Listen in as we discuss what we enjoyed about the series and places we felt it could have been a little better. Mark also gets to answer our new five questions!

A new Marvel movie is in theaters and, as is our custom, we watched it. Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is our topic for this week and we talk about what we liked and didn’t like and where it falls in the growing pantheon of MCU films and series.

This week, we watched a bunch of short films as part of the online Midwest Sci-Fi short film festival. We review most of the films in the festival for their April weekend. It was a lot of fun and we encourage folks to check out their next online festival, which will be in June. Link!

This week, we watched “An Interview with God” starring David Straithairn. Straithairn has also appeared in the Bourne Ultimatum, which is a good movie. Unlike this Christian apologist film in which a journalist sits down with someone who claims to be god and interviews him. That’s all the movie is about. At least the title is accurate.

Welcome to our latest boner episode! This week, we have some conversations about organizing because Nick is into that, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine because it’s a really great Star Trek series, and Needle Felting! Don’t know what Needle Felting is? That’s fair, Tim didn’t either. Fortunately, Molly fills everyone on her latest crafty hobby.

This week, we are joined by our resident Bridgerton expert, Pat Wick! She reviews season 2 with us and as an expert on the books, tells us all the differences between the story of Anthony and Kate from the books and the story in the Netflix series! Bosoms will heave!

With the recent release of “Death on the Nile,” we got to thinking about murder mysteries. We all enjoy a good murder mystery and we talk ab bit about why we find them appealing, what first got us interested, and some books, movies and TV shows that are some of our favorites. Please be warned, we spoil the solution to some Encyclopedia Brown stories!

This week, we have our friend Amanda Greenhart who is a treasurer with her union (AFSCME) on to talk with us about organizing and unions. The Minneapolis Teachers recently resolved their strike and we wanted to take a broader look at what unions do, why they are important, and what is being done to blunt the effectiveness of unions. Amanda provides a really great overview of why unions are good thing and also is the first guest to answer our newest five questions!  

This week, we are talking about Easter. It’s one of those religious holidays we all experience but after 500 episodes, we’ve never talked about. We talk about our memories of how we celebrated Easter when we were young and Tim talks a bit about what he did with his kids. Can we still eat chocolate bunnies even though we don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead?