Unreliable Narrators

T.S. Eliot's famous post-war poem, "The Waste Land", revolutionized modern poetry and represented huge shifts in modern consciousness. And yet to this day, it is still one of the most difficult to un…

In this episode, Raymond and Sophie end Anime Month with a discussion of the hit anime Mob Psycho 100. We'd like to say that we covered all our bases by discussing the nature of adolescence, Mob's so…

In this episode, Raymond learns that Sophie really, really likes the death game genre—and both of them try to figure out why. What does it mean to win a game without losing your soul? Are there any C…

Is the human heart connected to the weather? The star-crossed lovers Hodaka in Hina in Mokoto Shinkai's Weathering with You discover this to be true in more ways than one. In this episode of anime mo…

Almost twenty years after its glory days, Raymond and Sophie finally get with the times and discuss the cultural phenomenon Death Note. What is the nature of justice in this story? What makes L such …

Sophie and Raymond kick off Anime Month with a discussion of Studio Ghibli's 2001 film Spirited Away. How is Chihiro's journey a retelling of the Genesis story? What does it mean to remember your own…

In this episode, Raymond reveals that we are in APOCALYPSE SEASON! In the art piece "Right?" artist Banu Cennetoğlu asks the question of how human rights can thrive in a world where the beliefs and …

Elijah Wood (aka Trinity Klomparens) joins Sophie and Raymond to discuss the Cartoon Network TV series Over the Garden Wall. How do the characters (Wert and Greg) wind up in a mysterious wood that se…

We are FINALLY back again (so sorry) after 4 months of nail-biting, painstaking silence (we know you missed us) to talk about William Golding's harrowing novel, Lord of the Flies.

In Lord of the Flie…

One Christmas night, in the little town of Bedford Falls, a man named George Bailey contemplates throwing away God's greatest gift...but through the prayers of those who love him dearest, George lear…

In this episode, Sophie and Raymond discuss Taylor Swift's Anti-Hero LIVE at WhySpeak Speech Camp 2024. As Sophie tries to convince Raymond to become a Swiftie, our two favorite unreliable narrators…

Dive into the waters and the wild of fairies, selkies, and spirits in our pilot episode for Season 4, The Song of the Sea.

Why have the fairies departed from the human world? Why is preserving these…

In this episode, Sophie and Raymond discuss themes of suffering, loss, and death in Lulu Wang's 2019 film The Farewell. What are the differences between the western and eastern perspectives on death?…

In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", the mariner shoots an albatross...and must spend the rest of his life paying penance for his sin. What on earth does this albatross represe…

Sophie and Raymond are rejoined by special guest Anna Mason as they tackle the topic of surrealism through the lens of Salvador Dali's famous painting "The Persistence of Memory." Was Dali actually a…

In H.G. Wells' classic short story, a father and his son Gip wander into an antique shop run by a curious man who claims to be a magician. But the father feels something is not right. This magician s…

Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about? Sophie and Raymond do! In this VERY BELATED Christmas episode (listen, nobody ever said we were reliable), your hosts discuss the 1965 short …

Raymond may be doubtful about the reality of love at first sight, but it's nonetheless a story that has captured the imagination of people for generations. In this episode, Sophie and Raymond dive in…

The wind is rising!...We must try to live!

In this episode, Sophie and Raymond discuss the 2014 Studio Ghibli film The Wind Rises. Are artists and engineers really the same? Does the beauty of art ju…