Episode 116: Cabbages & Kings | Alice in Wonderland, Logic & Nonsense

Follow us down the rabbit hole as we wrap up a three-part miniseries on classic Disney animated features. This week, we’ll turn our gaze away from fairy tales and toward something curiouser… Alice in Wonderland. We’ll discuss the literary impact of Lewis Carroll’s beloved children’s masterpiece, the surprising logic behind the nonsense, and a philosophical outlook on Alice’s absurd adventures. What are Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum? What does the Cheshire Cat really want? And why oh why is a raven like a writing desk? Then we’ll investigate some of the key differences between the source material and Disney’s adaptation and what those differences can teach us about the historical context from which each version was born. A dash of Homer’s Odyssey and a pinch of psychedelia, and we might as well join the mad tea party.

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Episode 109: Be Excellent to Each Other

The year is 2688. The place is San Dimas, California.The air is clean, the water is clean, and even the dirt… is clean! Buckle up, friends, because we’re going back (and forward) in time for this episode, exploring the cult classic and career launch for the one and only Keanu Reeves: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. For an unassuming slacker buddy comedy, Excellent Adventure delves into its own special moral philosophy, pays tribute to its sci-fi forefathers (H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, and even Mark Twain), and asks a fundamental question: can art and music really change the world? Join us as we discuss progress toward Utopia, the themes and legacy of time travel science fiction, and the philosophical depth of your favorite metalheads. Most importantly, we’ll understand what it means to be excellent to each other (and party on, dudes!)

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Episode 104: Come What May

Love is a many splendored thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is love! Come with us to the Underworld of turn-of-the-century Paris—a nightclub, a dancehall and a bordello… the Moulin Rouge. Revisiting the 2001 modern classic by Baz Luhrmann, we’ll explore the tenets of Aristotelian tragedy, the Greek myth of Orpheus & Eurydice, and the historical period known as La Belle Epoque. The tragic love story of Christian & Satine, soundtracked with contemporary popular music, speaks to a universal catharsis and stands as one of the most dazzling cinematic experiences of the early 21st century. Won’t you join us in the Moulin Rouge tonight?

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Episode 97: Oathkeeper

In a new format of Game of Thrones analysis, this episode dives in to a relationship study of two characters from the HBO series: Ser Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth. Both raised to uphold a code of chivalry, with varying degrees of success, this pair constitutes a unique form of doubling within A Song of Ice and Fire. They represent two sides of an age-old argument—and they need one another to reach the next level in their development. With allusions to similar relationships in Dickens and Arthurian literature, Derek and Laurel dig in to the philosophies these two Westerosi knights embody. Oathkeeper or Oathbreaker, enjoy this deep dive into two fascinating characters.

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Episode 90: Pobody's Nerfect

Holy motherforking shirtballs! The Midnight Myth is finally taking on NBC’s The Good Place, one character at a time. This week, the question is: what does it mean to be an Eleanor? Following the central protagonist through the two and a half seasons of the Good Place (and through countless metaphysical realms), we’ll discover some surprising truths about morality, change, responsibility, and of course—horniness.

Episode 79: One Trick Pony

Content Warning: This weeks episode deals with themes of sexual assault.

On this weeks podcast Derek and Laurel dive into season 5 of Netflix’s original hit cartoon series, BoJack Horsemen. As we watch BoJack’s perpetual self-destructive cycle, we are left to ask if there is a reason to be moral in a post-Enlightenment world where rationality gives life little reason to behave. From Philosophy to Hollywoo cover ups of sexual assault, no topic is off the table. We must ask, Hollywoo stars and celebrities, what do they know, do they know things? Are they condemned to be free? Let’s find out in this weeks Midnight Myth. 

Episode 74: De-Mentor

Hot on the heels of the Boy Who Lived’s birthday, Derek & Laurel are revisiting the Harry Potter series for a discussion of the mentor role in storytelling. The Obi-Wan’s, Gandalfs, and Mr. Miyagi’s of the world inspire our heroes, give them strength, and hold them to a standard of morality and courage. To unpack Harry’s many mentor relationships, we’ll focus in particular on the one that develops between Harry and Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Remus Lupin in the third installment of the franchise, Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban. What makes Remus a great mentor? To answer this question, we’ll consult Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Jefferson, and more.

Episode 73: 5 by 5

Great rivalries throughout the ages: Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, Black Swan and White Swan, Black Panther and Killmonger, Batman and the Joker… but few rivalries have the intensity, longevity, or singularity as the one between Buffy Summers and Faith Lehane. Two girls in all the world, chosen to defeat the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness, when two slayers come head to head, it’s a clash of destinies. Fresh off the announcement of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, Derek and Laurel unpack one of television’s most fraught relationships. Friends, enemies, or frenemies, Buffy and Faith give us the perfect literary foils, supernatural doppelgängers, and philosophical opposites. We’ll dig into Ancient Greek Cynicism, Kantian ethics, 19th century literature and more as we unravel the ties that bind the two slayers together.