Disco! Drama! Divorce! Nothing brings these things together like Swedish pop icons ABBA. Like many musicians, the band used their music as an outlet to express the turmoils and triumphs of their real lives. Unlike many musicians, however, ABBA’s medium was pop. Come with us on a journey into the storied history of the making of the 1980 album Super Troupers.

From Gilgamesh to Frodo and Odysseus to Harry Potter, there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to the narrative journey great heroes must take. Pop cinema revolutionary George Lucas knew this well when creating 1977's A New Hope. Join us as we take a shallow dip into the bottomless waters of exploring Star Wars to find out just how deeply ingrained the Hero’s Journey is into this story.

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Episode Sources:

• The Closer Look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDTOD94YRpY
• Han's Realization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ami5FpSWcho
• Comparison of Obi Wan's Screams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-Fdf2-8Z4
• Hollywood Reporter Article: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/star-wars-mark-hamill-unaware-carrie-fisher-harrison-ford-affair-953831/

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Stephanie's Further Readings:

• The World According to Star Wars by Cass R. Sunstein
• Light and Magic - A documentary about ILM on Disney+

Sierra's Further Readings:

• George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones
• 12 Stages of the Hero's Journey - Christopher Vogler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNNaMuBOxv4
• QUEEN Carrie Fisher's Writings: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/627235-anyway-george-comes-up-to-me-the-first-day-of

From CW dialogue and illogical world building to interesting perspectives on history and genuine disability representation, it’s time to explore Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. We seek to scratch the surface of one question: Can this booktok famous, romantasy bestseller objectively be considered good? Find out in our most chaotic and sleep deprived episode yet!

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Recommended Reading Soundtrack:

• Forgotten Odes by Eternal Eclipse

Stephanie's Further Reading:

• Prince and the Pauper
• Oliver Twist
• Little Dorrit
• Tale of Two Cities
• Lord of the Rings (specifically the audiobooks read by Andy Serkis)
• Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
• Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Si's Further Reading:

• FANTOMINA: Or, Love in a Maze by Eliza Haywood
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (specifically the audible original read by Thandiwe Newton
• The short stories of Katherine Anne Porter
• Save me the Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald

Little Women and Jo's Boys, one and all, welcome! Today in the octagon, we will be listening as two adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, 1994 and 2019, compare and contrast narrative framing, color grading, and character work. Stay tuned to see who comes out on top!

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” - John 15:13. No one embodied this verse more than Desmond T. Doss. In this sixth exploration, we will be diving into the film Hacksaw Ridge, depicting the life and actions of this Medal of Honor recipient. We’ll be examining the nature of his heroism as a conscientious objector who served on the frontline during WWII and what this topic means to Stephanie.

To understand Bastille’s All this Bad Blood, we must first enter the dark depths of an early 2010s Hot Topic teen’s mind and crawl back through the tunnels of literature into classical antiquity and Elizabethan England. Join us as we explore how this incredible concept album weaves so many themes from the vast repertoire of Western Civilization together into one cohesive narrative. Are you ready to brave songs, sonnets, and scores?

Iconic! Is there any other way to describe a cinematic scoring legend like John Williams? In today’s exploration of 1981’s Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, we will be diving into this exciting narrative and how Williams’ score recalls the sound of Hollywood’s Golden Age. And what kind of episode would it be without a few soapboxes, a few score corners, and finding out who among us shares a birthday with the legend himself?

In our Valentine's Day special, we will be exploring the depths of a quintessential Cinderella story with Japanese twists and supernatural turns in Netflix’s My Happy Marriage. Alongside a dive into the story itself, we’ll be getting up onto the soap box of why Valentine’s Day is Sierra’s second favorite holiday, why Stephanie begrudgingly enjoyed a romance story, and why this is a realistic depiction of trauma.