Upon its release, Steven Soderbergh's TRAFFIC (2000) offered something novel: a cinematic tapestry that criticized America's War on Drugs. More than 20 years later, we consider its strengths, as well as the impact that time has diminished. PLUS: Let's read a little from Prince Harry autobiography, shall we?

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Michael and Us

#394 - The View from Nowhere

Terrence Malick perfected his now-signature style with his rapturously beautiful second film, DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978). We discuss the film's depiction of hardscrabble American life in the early 20th century, and Malick's holistic view of humanity and nature. PLUS: an alarming update on the state of Canadian media, and the U.S. Congress condemnation of socialism.

"On Earth as It Is in Heaven" by Adrian Martin - https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/555-days-of-heaven-on-earth-as-it-is-in-heaven

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

#401 - Heaven and Earth

George Orwell's popularity is at a new high in the post-Trump era, and he's been claimed by both the left and right. We discuss NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1984, Michael Radford's feature-film adaptation of Orwell's most famous novel, and try to rescue a self-described socialist from the Dave Rubins of the world.

Listen to us discuss Orwell's writing in episode #190 - https://www.patreon.com/posts/190-lion-and-44728064

#408 - My Orwell Left or Right

Lucy, Theo, and Ben bring you: An ATV crash that makes you go hmm, an algae bloom that makes you go blind, badger sabotage, art traps, mind-bending ape rotation, and how to not be attacked by a zebra.
***
Support our show and get exclusive bonus episodes by subscribing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/BoontaVista
***
Email the show at mailbag@boontavista.com! Call in and leave us a question or a message on 1800-317-515 to be answered on the show!
***
Twitter: twitter.com/boontavista
Website: boontavista.com
Merchandise: shop.boontavista.com/
Twitch: twitch.tv/boontavista

EPISODE 288: Are You Blipsperienced

Bonus Episodes

Cameron Fetter (@nibiru_TRUTH) joins Charles and Alex to learn a lesson about molestation from '80s child sitcom star Webster. Fortune Kit on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fortunekit/

153 - Good Secrets! Bad Secrets! (ft. Cameron Fetter)

Charles and Alex worry that A.I. listicles may threaten the integrity of Eric Alper's prompts. Plus there is news of an 8-year-old rap god emerging in Pakistan. Fortune Kit on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fortunekit

154 - Eric Alper Cheat Sheet

With Trump's indictment in the news, we thought it might be a good time to watch the movie that has been more influential on QAnon than any other: Ridley Scott's little-loved seafaring adventure WHITE SQUALL (1996). We parse this half-forgotten film to figure out why, exactly, the QAnon people love it so much. "Where we go one, we go all!"

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

#416 - One Insular Tahiti

Artist, musician, fashion designer and Brisbane icon Phoebe Paradise joins us to talk about: The ideal British diet, salvia-induced worm behaviour, using magic to trick monkeys, and the RIPing report.
***
Get tickets to Vale Vivi here: https://thetivoli.com.au/events/vale-vivi
***
Support our show and get exclusive bonus episodes by subscribing on Patreon: www.patreon.com/BoontaVista
***
Email the show at mailbag@boontavista.com! Call in and leave us a question or a message on 1800-317-515 to be answered on the show!
***
Twitter: twitter.com/boontavista
Website: boontavista.com
Merchandise: shop.boontavista.com/
Twitch: twitch.tv/boontavista

EPISODE 291: Forget Everything You Know About Power Dropping A Monkey (with Phoebe Paradise)

As a little thank you for your hard work during the crucial month of Plapril, we thought we'd chuck you a little freebie. Enjoy your taste of what life is like behind the paywall.
***
Lucy, Andrew, and Ben bring you: A mysterious sea beast in a New Orleans park, hot dog chaos in Philadelphia, an ice disk of hitherto unseen proportion, and the monarch of a short-haul flight.
***
Get the rest of our bonus episodes by signing up at patreon.com/BoontaVista

UNLOCKED BONUS EPISODE: Rage Virus Outbreak At Dollar Dog Night

A Christian boy goes up against his sinister atheist philosophy teacher (played by Kevin Sorbo!) in GOD'S NOT DEAD (2014), one of the biggest Evangelical blockbusters of all time. Luke and guest host Alex Shephard discuss the film's tone-deaf depiction of academia and its particular streak of right-wing sadism. PLUS: What's next for Tucker Carlson? And is there any life at all in the ol' Ron DeSantis?

Watch the whole damn movie for free on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ek2LEoSut0&ab_channel=Se%C3%B1iorFroggy

"Tucker Carlson Has Already Lost His War With Fox News" by Alex Shephard - https://newrepublic.com/article/172274/tucker-carlson-twitter-video-lost-war-fox-news

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

#424 - Know Thyself (w/ Alex Shephard)

"Thank God for the hard hats!" declared Richard Nixon during his first term. "Why the construction workers holler, ‘U. S. A., all the way!,’" read a 1970 New York Times headline. "The Day the White Working Class Turned Republican," read another New York Times headline, 50 years later in 2020.

We're now more than five decades since this narrative first arose: The hardhats love America, and the hippies hate it. Whether Nixon or Trump is in the White House, news media, film, and TV tell us that the working class—good, honest blue-collar folk—are people of God, family, and country, unlike those spoiled, rich, out-of-touch lefty elites.

This binary framework is presented as organic, the result of working people and unions feeling left out by the lofty exclusivism of the Left. But, as history shows, this didn’t happen entirely naturally or spontaneously; the "hardhats vs. hippies" narrative was, in part, manufactured by right-wing political and union operatives, more concerned with a McCarthyist imperative to destroy any and all social movements in the global south than with any notion of worker justice and liberation.

On this episode, we explore this history, looking at the ways in which rightwing factions of organized labor bolstered dangerous US foreign policy throughout the Cold War, deliberately crafting the false yet persistent notion that union members, and the working class more broadly, are and should be patriotic hawks at odds with the anti-war Left.

Our guest is labor historian Jeff Schuhrke.

Ep. 182: Hardhats vs Hippies and the Cold War Curation of the Conservative Union Guy Trope

A podcast about culture, politics, and our crumbling world. Hosted by Luke Savage and Will Sloan.

Exclusive subscriber-only episodes: https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus/overview