Space the Nation

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**Space the Nation**

On Space the Nation, we take our love of science fiction (and fantasy and horror) and smash it together with our professional passions: international relations (as brought to the table by Tufts University professor and Washington Post columnist Dan Drezner) and cultural criticism (as brought to the table by political columnist Ana Marie Cox). It’s a highly informed but hilarious conversation that starts with an examination of a particular text (everything from Ursula K. LeGuin to the MCU, Star Trek to Colson Whitehead) and veers into current events, mental health practices and imagined conversations between Ted Cruz and the Predator. For people who like white papers and graphic novels, Chapo Trap House and what Political Science Twitter used to be.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Latest Episodes:

E103: SUICIDE SQUAD Aug 27, 2021

Show notes

No one in this film is good at their job. There is hamfisted criticism of American imperialism in this movie.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E36: REIGN OF FIRE Aug 20, 2021

Show notes

Ana and Dan settle in for a nice meal of scenery and ash with two of modern cinema's most gonzo actors, going gonzo in completely different directions. Can a news magazine publish issues when the world is about to end? Is there a reason for the kids to be wearing matching blue nighties? Could a sperm-whale-sized species produce thousands of offspring with a single male? Dragons! How do they work? There is IR in this movie.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E35: THE LONG WAY TO A SMALL, ANGRY PLANET Aug 14, 2021

Show notes

Ana and Dan break out the jam cakes and settle in for a picaresque tour of the Galactic Commons. Chamber's buoyant tale dips into multiple spaceports, species, and coupling practices on the way to a disastrous end for Infrastructure Tenday. There's a lot of IR in this novel.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E34: THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION Aug 07, 2021

Show notes

Dan and Ana discover that they are there, wherever they are. So many questions! What government agency approved this experiment? How is it that Jeff Goldblum wears fuzzy chaps and still comes off as the most normally dressed person in the movie? When does appreciation become appropriation? Why *is* there a watermelon there? How come you can't get lithium on credit anymore? And, at what point does the movie go from "incomprehensible" to "cult classic"? There is IR in this movie!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E102: INTERVIEW WITH CHARLIE JANE ANDERS Aug 05, 2021

Show notes

We talked to the author of Victories Greater Than Death and she's awesome

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E33: VICTORIES GREATER THAN DEATH Jul 30, 2021

Show notes

Ana and Dan answer a beacon and board the spaceship Indomitable to join a ragtag team of rejects who rise to the occasion of subverting how you thought that sentence was going to end.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E32: LOKI (UNLOCKED) Jul 23, 2021

Show notes

Ana and Dan find their glorious purpose in the MCU's most mischievous entry. To wildly mix franchises, it turns out that red tape is Loki's kryptonite. Is dating your own variant cute or squick? In the contest between chaos and order, which choice is the most selfish? Will Alligator Loki get his own backstory? (PLEASE) There is IR in this series.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E31: BLACK WIDOW // UNLOCKED Jul 16, 2021

Show notes

Ana and Dan reject their Covid psychological conditioning and head to the *movie theater* to review the first post-pandemic MCU theatrical release. Happy fun times watching Florence Pugh show up her big sis in almost every scene but so many questions! Why was The Red Guardian arrested? Who came up with that sparkly red dust? What exactly is the point of a non-state-actor Red Room program? There is IR in this movie.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MINISODE 101: THE TOMORROW WAR Jul 13, 2021

Show notes

Ana and Dan make sure they're dead in the future and fling themselves into the Chris Pratt vehicle that the Coronavirus put on your homescreen for this SPECIAL EDITION of Space the Nation. Is it so-bad-it's-good or is it an indictment of late capitalism's culture of disposable entertainment, dumbing us down until we don't notice the plot holes? There is (very bad) IR in this movie.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

E30: FRANK HERBERT'S DUNE (UNLOCKED) Jul 09, 2021

Show notes

Ana and Dan don their stillsuits and enter into the world of Frank Herbert's 1965 novel, one of the most influential science fiction novels of all time: but is it canon, or is it fodder? On the one hand: gorgeous writing, subversive themes. On the other: Hey, did pick up that Baron Harkonnen is the villain? And that he's fat? Enjoy the completely inconsistent pronunciation of all character names and fictional vocabulary.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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