Six Degrees of Star Wars

We are gathered here today to perform a spooky season autopsy on the 17 minute short film created for Disney with some of the most gifted people of the 1980s.... what HAPPENED????

Content warning for Michael Jackson.

Meredith: @merthenerd on Letterboxd

Gillian: @cutiepuppyfire on the socials

Ellie: @elessar42 on Bluesky, Letterboxd, and Medium; @football-in-tuxedos on Tumblr, Podcasting's Biggest Night available wherever Pods are Cast.

PLUGGABLES:

SPOTLIGHT: Art, Not AI (https://www.artnotai.org/about) — keep creativity human!

Support the show

Sam: @DemiSemme on YouTube, Tu...

Sam and Jas observe Hispanic Heritage Month by talking about KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, a movie that is so many things... an adaptation of the Tony-winning Kander and Ebb musical based on the Manuel Puig novel, J-Lo's most obvious attempt at an Oscar, Tonatiuh's star-making vehicle, Diego Luna's opportunity to do both suave and scrunkly, and a devastatingly beautiful queer love story!  

PLUGGABLES:

Jas: Host of In Each Retelling, @faeriviera on the socials

SPOTLIGHT: End Rape on Campus (https://endrapeoncampus.org/) -- for survivors and advocates to raise awareness, find resources, and a...

We observe Talk Like a Pirate Day by talking in a not-very-pirate-y way about the animated Disney adaption of JM Barrie's classic story, including the parentification of Wendy Darling, racist depictions of Natives, and the homoerotic barely-sub-text of Hook and Smee!

PLUGGABLES:

Nick: https://gofund.me/f753dc765

Gillian: @cutiepuppyfire on the socials

Ellie: @elessar42 on Bluesky, Letterboxd, and Medium; @football-in-tuxedos on Tumblr, Podcasting's Biggest Night available wherever Pods are Cast.

Leif: @leifbradshawsings on instagram, @leifbradshawmusic on Facebook, linktr.ee/disneyoutlands

Mutual Aid Spotlight: https://www.standupforkids...

Life is a Cabaret... partially because the plot of CABARET covers the experience of living in a rapidly weakening democracy that is quickly being overtaken by fascism and how people react to living in such circumstances.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee...

Jas: @FaeRiviera on all socials, host of In Each Retelling

Grady: @snakebitcat on the socials, recommending Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Gillian: @cutiepuppyfire on the socials, recommending the Donmar proshot

SPOTLIGHT: Hands off Our Votes by Indivisible: https://indivisible.org/campaigns/our-vote/#toolkit

Support the show

...

Dear GOD, the racism on this one... George Lucas teams back up with Steven Spielberg to give us another Indiana Jones adventure, this one featuring the film debut of future Oscar Winner Ke Huy Quan, the creation of the PG-13 rating, and an absurd amount of Orientalist tropes about Indian food, culture, and people.

Pluggables:

River: @dreamsrebel on BlueSky, @punk_skeleton on Letterboxd, blog.filmlion.online, and host of The Straights Aren't Alright

Grady: @snakebitcat on the socials, recommending Love Hurts and Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made.

Jordan Peele uses his directorial debut to introduce audiences to the talent of Daniel Kaluuya, win a Best Original Screenplay Oscar, and try to make white liberals confront their participation in systemic racism. How well did he succeed?

Pluggables: 

Shami: @theonlinemuse on tumblr

Todd: http://theguyinthe3rdrow.blogspot.com/

Spotlight: The Black TV & Film Collective (https://www.blacktvfilmcollective.org/donate/) — help provide opportunities and resources for Black filmmakers across the world!

Support the show

Sam: @DemiSemme on YouTube, Tumblr, BlueSky, and most other social media platforms (NOT eX...

We mark Disability Pride Month by talking about the Oscar-winning SOUND OF METAL, featuring Riz Ahmed's big brown owl eyes, discussions about sign language subtitles, and cochlear implants, and the importance of community for disabled folx.

PLUGGABLES 

B: @dropsofjupiter92 on BlueSky; @bdaae on tumblr, @btargaryen on Letterboxd

Meredith: @merthenerd on Letterboxd

MUTUAL AID SPOTLIGHT: Deaf YES! (https://deafyes.org/), pioneering research, development, and training on the tools to supporting  Deaf people through their recovery.

Support the show

Sam: @DemiSemme on YouTube, Tumblr, BlueSky, and most other social me...

It's Gay Wrath Month, so let's be gay and do crimes and... wait. Wait, no, not like that, this is Alfred Hitchcock and Arthur Laurents making toxic codependent yaoi.

Be Kind Rewind's Hitchcock Blondes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjSde5Su-14

Legal Eagle's Case of the Perfect Murder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6q8I5UwcQI

PLUGGABLES

Gillian: @cutiepuppyfire on the socials

B: @dropsofjupiter92 on BlueSky; @bdaae on tumblr, @btargaryen on Letterboxd

Leif: @leifbradshawsings on instagram, @leifbradshawmusic on Facebook, linktr.ee/disneyoutlands.

M...

6 Degrees of Star Wars marks the 250th birthday of the United States by discussing a movie about the people who the United States has historically excluded, starring the incomparable Nicole Beharie, whom Hollywood tried to exclude. This is Miss Juneteenth.

The Sojourner Truth Project: https://www.thesojournertruthproject.com/the-readings

PLUGGABLES: 

Ellie: @elessar42 on Bluesky, Letterboxd, and Medium; @football-in-tuxedos on Tumblr, Podcasting's Biggest Night available wherever Pods are Cast.

Jas: @FaeRiviera on all socials, host of In Each Retelling

Shami: @theonlinemuse on tumblr

Mutual Aid Spotlight: Black Connect: h...

We decided to celebrate pride by putting a bunch of queer women enjoyers into a room to talk about the first cinematic reluctant vampire who is also giving so much lesbian. The results are exactly what you think.

PLUGGABLES:

Gillian: @cutiepuppyfire on the socials

B: @dropsofjupiter92 on BlueSky; @bdaae on tumblr, @btargaryen on Letterboxd

Shami: @theonlinemuse on tumblr

Mutual Aid: The Queer Liberation Library Pride Fundraiser: https://givebutter.com/qqlls-pride-campaign-2026-rg3yn3

Support the show

Sam: @DemiSemme on YouTube, Tumblr, BlueSky, and most other social m...

It's the movie that could never be made today... I hate that cliché!

Pluggables:

Leif: @leifbradshawsings on instagram, @leifbradshawmusic on Facebook, linktr.ee/disneyoutlands

Jas: @FaeRiviera on all socials, host of In Each Retelling

Grady: @snakebitcat on the socials

The Marsha P Johnson Institute's PAY IT campaign: https://givebutter.com/MPJI-pride

Support the show

Sam: @DemiSemme on YouTube, Tumblr, BlueSky, and most other social media platforms (NOT eX-Twitter).
Visit our Tumblrs at sixdegreesofstarwars.tumblr.com and ier-6d.tumblr.com
Theme Music provided b...

We close out AAPI month by taking a look at the modern classic class-satire brought to you by Director Bong Joon-Ho - PARASITE. I'm deadly serious.

PLUGGABLES:

Ellie: @elessar42 on Bluesky, Letterboxd, and Medium; @football-in-tuxedos on Tumblr, Podcasting's Biggest Night available wherever Pods are Cast.

Leif: @leifbradshawsings on instagram, @leifbradshawmusic on Facebook, linktr.ee/disneyoutlands

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT: Reach out to your congressional representative to express your support for the NO FAKES Act! Fight the clankers! https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-the-no-fakes-act

Support the show

Sam: @DemiSemme on YouTube...

We are joined by special guest Agatha Vile for an oceanic adventure of super proportions, taking us back to 2018, when we had no idea how much worse superhero fatigue could get and we were just happy to have a DCEU movie that was willing to have fun and be bright and colorful.

Pluggables: 

Seducing Scylla: https://www.lexloganauthor.com/products/seducing-scylla

Jas: @FaeRiviera on all socials, host of In Each Retelling

ALL THE CHARITIES

The Purple Leash Project (https://redrover.org/the-purple-leash-project/) for helping victims of domestic violence keep t...

Gillian and Bradley are subjected to the experience of trying to make Sam and River shut up about the 2008 animated film STAR WARS: The Clone Wars, wandering through the foibles of Dave Filoni, the introduction of Rotta the Hutt aka Stinky (soon to appear in the Mandalorian and Grogu), and lies about how we are NOT talking about the tv series this is technically a pilot for.

Pluggables:

Gillian: @cutiepuppyfire on the socials

River: @dreamsrebel on BlueSky, @punk_skeleton on Letterboxd, blog.filmlion.online, and host of The Straights Aren't Alright

...

Two years after covering the sequel series, we're talking about the original Willow, the star-making turn by Warwick Davis in the title role, the pure chaos of Val Kilmer as Madmartigan, and the world's BEST baby, Elora Danan.

Pluggables:

Conor: @youngmrduffy on the socials, TTRPGs at third-country-press.itch.io, and https://bff.fm/shows/third-country-radio

Jen: Jen: @TheITinFIT on YouTube, @jenseggio on instagram, Ava's Chalk releasing soon from EverImagine Press (https://everimaginebooks.com/); upontheshelfreviews.wordpress.com; Beast City @MadKitsuneProductions on Youtube

Mutual Aid Spotlight: A Luta Sigue's (https://www.alutasigue.org...

Six Degrees of Star Wars finds religion with the 2024 Oscar-winning movie, CONCLAVE, featuring tangents about statues of Pope John Paul II, dramatic readings of the screenplay directions, and bemoaning the lack of people willing to destroy their own careers for the sake of their morals.

Pluggables:

Gillian: @cutiepuppyfire on the socials

Meredith: @merthenerd on Letterboxd

Brie: https://linktr.ee/briecheddar

Mutual Aid Spotlights: Support Trans, Nonbinary, and Gender Non Conforming folx through FolxHealth's List of Funds (https://www.folxhealth.com/library/mutual-aid-funds) and TTRPGs for Trans Rights—Idaho (https://it...

Ah, Jupiter Ascending, the Wachowskis' movie about an ordinary person suddenly being awakened into the reality of an urban fantasy and learning that they are the most specialest person in said reality, except this time the protagonist is a woman and also bees can detect royalty and the love interest is a wolf-hybrid cyborg... okay, do you think if we remind Paramount this movie exists, they'll stop trying to buy Warner Bros?

Pluggables: 

Jas: @FaeRiviera on all socials, host of In Each Retelling

Mikey: LeagueOfSwords.Com and twitch.tv/VengeanceGod

B: T...

6 Degrees of Star Wars dips its toe into the MCU with a look at what should have been a fun project for Nia DaCosta, Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani, but instead got mired up in studio interference, misogyny, racism, Hollywood guild strikes, and overall exhaustion. 

Woo.

Pluggables:

River: @dreamsrebel on BlueSky, @punk_skeleton on Letterboxd, blog.filmlion.online, and host of The Straights Aren't Alright

Mer: @merthenerd on Letterboxd

Community Aid spotlight: Freedom House (freedomhouse.org), the non-profit that tracks how countries around the world are doing w...

It's a southern Gothic-vampire-horror-musical. It's a box office smash that grew from word of mouth. It's the most Oscar-nominated film of all time. It's Ryan Coogler's masterpiece. It's SINNERS. What else needs to be said?

Producer's note: this episode aired before the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, 2026, so we had to record with no idea of whether or not anyone from this movie actually won (BUT THEY ALL DESERVE TO).

Pluggables:

Jen: @TheITinFIT on YouTube, @jenseggio on instagram, Ava's Chalk releasing soon from EverImagine Press (https://everimaginebooks.com/); upontheshelfreviews.wordpress.com

...

Get in the Valentine's Day spirit with a movie that will raise your standards for romance, starring a post-first-Oscar Denzel Washington and the film debut of Sarita Choudhury, in a beautifully crafted story directed by Mira Nair.

Six Degrees of Star Wars is not responsible for any relationships that end as a result of someone watching this movie and realizing that they deserve better than their current partner. 

Pluggables:

Jas: @FaeRiviera on all socials, host of In Each Retelling

Gillian: @cutiepuppyfire on the socials

Shami: @theonlinemuse on Tumblr

Ah, yes, the medieval coming of age film starring future Oscar Winner Heath Ledger (RIP), directed by Oscar Winner Brian Helgeland, adapted from the works of Geoffrey Chaucer! Surely, this will be a very dignified and romantic adventure that will take itself completely seriously!

Pluggables:

Mikey: LeagueOfSwords.Com and twitch.tv/VengeanceGod

Émile: The Not Even Podcast (https://www.youtube.com/@notevencomedy), and Malaika, coming soon from Hear Me Out Productions (hearmeoutproductions.com)

B: THE SUN EATER series by Christopher Ruocchio, available at highmatterbooks.com

Mutual Aid Spotlights:

Opening the year with a three-way podcast crossover, and one of the most celebrated movie musicals of all time, we're taking a trip to Chicago, with skidoo, hotcha, whoopee, and all that jazz!

Also, we did nothing wrong, your honor, the only thing we're guilty of is being theatre kids.

Pluggables:

Nick: The Chicago Foundation for Women (https://www.cfw.org/);  https://linktr.ee/reallynick

Jas: @FaeRiviera on all socials, host of In Each Retelling

Ellie: @elessar42 on Bluesky, Letterboxd, and Medium; @football-in-tuxedos on Tumblr, Podcasting's Biggest Night available w...

It's time to bring 2025 to a close with our holiday episode — and what are the holidays without a healthy helping of chaos?

Featuring the 6D Glee Club: Gillian Quigley, Shamila Karunakaran and Harley Quinn (Jasmine Garcia)

PLUGGABLES: 

Grady: @snakebitcat on the socials, recommending Mask of the Phantasm

Gillian: @cutiepuppyfire on the socials

Shami: @theonlinemuse on Tumblr

River: @dreamsrebel on BlueSky, @punk_skeleton on Letterboxd, blog.filmlion.online, and host of The Straights Aren't Alright

MUTUAL AID SPOTLIGHT: Warm the Children (https://warmthechildren.org/), dedicated to mak...

The schedule didn't shake out quite the way we wanted, but we weren't going to let the 10th anniversary of THE FORCE AWAKENS pass by without any acknowledgment! So, a few of us gathered for a very giggly and surprisingly thirsty celebration of the actors who joined the Galaxy Far Far Away one decade ago.

PLUGGABLES:

Ellie: @elessar42 on Bluesky, Letterboxd, and Medium; @football-in-tuxedos on Tumblr, Podcasting's Biggest Night available wherever Pods are Cast.

Jas: @FaeRiviera on all socials, host of In Each Retelling.

Gillian: @cutiepuppyfire on the socials

...

Aka, we are NOT talking about The Clone Wars! Happy 20th year of existing, Revenge of the Sith, final installment of the prequel trilogy. To celebrate, have a voice actor, a swordsman, a gremlin, and a scholar all losing their minds over you in different ways.

Featuring Grady Smithey as the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

PLUGGABLES:

Rhaps: @RhapsodyBlueVA on Twitter, BlueSky, and Letterboxd.

River: @dreamsrebel on BlueSky, @punk_skeleton on Letterboxd, blog.filmlion.online, and host of The Straights Aren't Alright; "Jedi's Guide to Love, Loss, and Desperation" on Ao3

Join us for a movie that will definitely mess up your algorithms and most likely put you on a watch list if you search it online without including the words "movie" or "in fiction" afterwards. Look, the Swedish journalist who wrote the original book named it, if you've got a problem with that, take it up with him.

Pluggables:

Conor: @youngmrduffy on the socials, TTRPGs at third-country-press.itch.io, and https://bff.fm/shows/third-country-radio

Jake: database-ranger.bsky.social, @DatabaseRanger on X and Youtube, and @DBRangersPowerReviews on Facebook.

Let's Be Superheroes...

Stealing a page out of the book belonging to In Each Retelling, we mark the release of Wicked For Good by doing the closest thing Lucasfilm ever made to The Wizard of Oz -- a coming of age fantasy musical that features a singularly famous pop star in as one of the two leads in a very... intense relationship.

Maybe there's more to this than we realized.

MUTUAL AID SPOTLIGHT: Desert Bus for Hope (https://desertbus.org/2025/), currently live on twitch.tv/desertbus

PLUGGABLES:

B recommends THE SUN EATER series by C...

We channel the power of the very first Simpsons Halloween Special, TREEHOUSE OF HORROR, to stave off the onset of a different holiday season for just a little bit longer... Happy Halloween/All Saints' Day, everyone!

PLUGGABLES:

Ellie: @elessar42 on Bluesky, Letterboxd, and Medium; @football-in-tuxedos on Tumblr, Podcasting's Biggest Night available wherever Pods are Cast.

Shami: @theonlinemuse on Tumblr

Todd: http://theguyinthe3rdrow.blogspot.com/2025/10/new-year-new-october-new-spin-on-horror.html

MUTUAL AID SPOTLIGHT: Support people who are losing SNAP benefits by checking out FoodRescue.Us (https://foodrescue.us/), as well as your...

It codified the tropes while subverting the tropes, spawned a legion of sequels while mocking endless sequels, and gave a lot of my friends the answer to a very important question. But as a SCREAM neophyte, am I going to end up the final girl, or the first victim?

Scream is rated R for strong graphic horror violence and gore, and for language, with mild depictions of sex and nudity. Please proceed according to your needs and comfort.

Featuring Jasmine Garcia (@FaeRiviera) as Ghost-fae-ce.

I'm going to pay for that pun, I just...

Is it ever really worth remaking a movie that's generally considered a classic? Most people would say no, but most people are not Steven Spielberg deciding he wants to bring the musical New York street gang Romeo and Juliet better known as West Side Story to the big screen again, sixty years after the original. Who's going to say no to STEVEN SPIELBERG?

The subject of this episode is a movie that depicts various forms of racial and ethnic discrimination, most notably anti-latine racism, as well as acts of sexual assault, gang violence and police violence, and...

Hey, kids, want to see what kind of movie gets made when the entire cast and crew has access to a lot of schedule II narcotics, some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, and a script that was originally the size of the yellow pages? You're in luck, because this puppy (slaps the Bluesmobile) has it al!

The subject of this episode is a movie from the 1980s that is rated R for depictions of sex, violence, profanity, smoking, and drug use, much of which also went into the process of making the movie. Please...

Whodunnit? Was it the 80s comedy icon? The maid? The other 80s comedy icon? The singer trying to act? The OTHER 80s comedy icon? The cook? The all around icon? One of three more 80s comedy icons? I haven't got a Clue (1985)!

The subject of this episode is a movie from the 1980s depicting the 1950s and includes comedic material surrounding sexuality and non-white cultures typical of both those time periods.

PLUGGABLES:

Gillian: @cutiepuppyfire on the socials

Charlotte Driftwood's Update Discord: https://discord.gg/Wc75RQ8Yrz

Kyle: https...

We finish out OOPS ALL TV Month by looking at the Phineas and Ferb Star Wars episode that features such delightful moments as Perry the Rebel-pus making a birthday cake for a Tusken Raider, Isabella Garcia-Shapiro beefing with Han Solo, and Candace Flynn singing imperial propaganda that's way too much of a bop for its own good.

PLUGGABLES:

River: @dreamsrebel on BlueSky, @punk_skeleton on Letterboxd, blog.filmlion.online, and host of The Straights Aren't Alright

Nick: https://linktr.ee/reallynick

Gillian: @cutiepuppyfire on the socials

MUTUAL AID SPOTLIGHT...

We start off our "Oops! All TV" episodes with a look at that time George Lucas made a prequel to one of his beloved franchises with a child actor yelling things like "yippee" and a lot of really racist stereotypes that were bad even in the 90s. No, not Phantom Menace, we already did that one! This is Young Indiana Jones.

The subject of this episode contains depictions of racist caricatures of Middle Eastern and African people, child abduction and enslavement,  the use of brown face, and general islamaphobia, orientalism, and british imperialism, and our discussion of t...

Let's take a look at an Oscar winning movie that involves a famous instance of an actor being dubbed when they weren't expecting to be... only let's make it extra ironic because we're doing an entire movie about language and speech. It's the romantic (against the wishes of George Bernard Shaw) comedy classic, MY FAIR LADY!

Pluggables:

MUTUAL AID SPOTLIGHT Poor People's Human Economic Rights Campaign https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-poor-peoples-army

WORLDS ELSEWHERE'S PYGMALION: https://www.youtube.com/live/JTjWdIC4p3Q

Callie: https://linktr.ee/calliecastle10

Grady...

We return to your regularly scheduled program with American Pyscho. Before this bloody satire of the ideal man of the 1980s gets its inevitable remake, let's remember our roots... (puts on a raincoat and grabs an axe) and that it is hip to be square.

American Psycho is rated R for graphic depictions of Language, Sex, and Violence, and this episode will cover such depictions. please proceed according to your needs and comfort. Also, we’re gonna get political and existential, so… you’ve been warned.

Pluggables:

Mutual Aid Spotlight: Central Texas Flash Flood...

In honor of the 50th episode of 6 Degrees of Star Wars, we cracked open William Shakespeare's Star Wars and bring you selection from all nine installments of the Skywalker Saga.

Our players are Jasmine Garcia (In Each Retelling), Kyle Kallgren (Brows Held High), River Lane (The Straights Aren't Alright), Ellie McConnaughy (The Biggest Night in Podcasting), Jacob Brode (Let's Be Superheroes & Database Ranger's Power Reviews), Mike Fatum (Ace of Geeks), Billie Roddie (OK Zoomer), Shamila Karunakaran, Jordan Sickrey, Justin Frankly, Callie Castle, Addie Greenberg-Sud, Grady W Smithey III (Snakebitcat) , Émile Lewis, RhapsodyBlueVA, Luke Herr (DohMance Dawn), Simon E...

It's very timely, but it's also badly aged.  It's been adapted for the film and for the stage. And now we're looking at this tentpole of queer cinema, La Cage Aux Folles!

Happy Pride.

Pluggables:

Émile: Stay tuned for the Not Even Podcast and for Malaika at Hear Me Out Productions (https://www.hearmeoutproductions.com/)

River: @dreamsrebel on BlueSky, @punk_skeleton on Letterboxd, blog.filmlion.online, and host of The Straights Aren't Alright

Mutual Aid Spotlights:

Gender Justice LA (https://gjla.nationbuilder.com/)

Where to do...

From Academy Award winner Domee Shi comes Turning Red a beautifully personal and messy coming of age story that will bring you to tears. Or at least send some grown neurodivergent queer adults into an impromptu therapy session.

PLUGGABLES

River: @dreamsrebel on BlueSky, @punk_skeleton on Letterboxd, blog.filmlion.online, and host of The Straights Aren't Alright

Jordan: Requesting good vibes for a masters' thesis.

Shami: @theonlinemuse on Tumblr, recommending " Turning Red's Black Problem by Harriyanna Hook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcRSi7-R86s"

Xiran Jay Zhao's...

Truth can be stranger than fiction as we dive into the Lucasfilm co-production directed by Paul Schrader (yes, Martin Scorsese's Paul Schrader) covering a uniquely important figure in Japanese history, Yukio Mishima.

CONTENT WARNING FOR DEPICTIONS AND DISCUSSIONS OF SUICIDE.

Jas: @FaeRiviera on the socials, host of In Each Retelling

Grady: @snakebitcat on the socials, recommending that you see this movie

Shami: @theonlinemuse on Tumblr, recommending "11/25 The Day Mishima Chose His Own Fate"

Mutual Aid Spotlight: The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (https://www.nqapia.org/), working to...