Pop & Locke

Coming soon, a brand new podcast from Libertarianism.org...

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We're back baby! After a holiday respite, Pop & Locke has returned to break down all your favorite media with today's brightest minds.

Today on the show we're talking National Treasure, and ask, is it a 21st century classic or time wasting conspiracy crock? Is it QAnon for kids? And where could they go with a next installment? Here to answer that and more are my two guests: Deputy Managing Editor at Reason, Natalie Dowzicky and returning guest and now Cato-ite, Research Fellow on Technology Policy, Jennifer Huddleston.

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Fire up your hyperdrives and pack your kyber crystals because we are headed to a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away for another edition of Pop & Locke: Star Wars edition.

This week, Pat Eddington and Aaron Ross Powell join the show to break down Disney+'s latest offering in the Star Wars saga, Andor. How does the gritty prequel series to the sneaky hit Rogue One hold up? Who is the real evil in the series? And how does the Empire adopt the language of fascism to keep it's boot on the...

“All men must serve,” as the saying goes—but whom must they serve? That’s the question posed by the new HBO series from the mind of George R. R. Martin, House of the Dragon. Set almost two centuries prior to the enormously successful Game of Thrones series, House of the Dragon sets up House Targaryen’s eventual fall from power, provides context for the fractured, feudal state of Westeros to come, and asks; who should have the right to rule?

Reason’s Natalie Dowzicky and Robby Soave join the show to point out how the series is an exampl...

“Clueless” as she may be, Cher Horowitz isn’t just a naive high school student. She’s a pro-immigration, free market friendly, drug decriminalization defender. But what about her tendency to assume what other people want or need?

Reason’s Katherine Mangu Ward and Natalie Dowzicky join the show to break down whether her well intentioned “helpfulness” is cover for more authoritarian tendencies, the possible decline of a car-centric culture’s notions of youthful freedom and agency, and the complicated legacy of the film’s depiction of gender roles.

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Should you be allowed custody of nuclear powered weapons? It’s questions that’s plagued libertarians before, and one that’s also raised by the animated cult classic The Iron Giant. Through innovative production means, Brad Bird’s box office blunder turned cinematic darling wraps a clear creative vision and Aristotelian characterization of themes up in a seemingly simple story of a boy and a giant robot. Sean Malone and Paul Meany joins us to answer questions it raises like; is Brad Bird an objectivist filmmaker? How much can we change the path we’re set upon in life? And is The Lor...

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is an epic adventure based on the novels written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story follows the young Hobbit, Frodo Baggins, as he and the Fellowship embark on a quest to destroy the One Ring, to ensure the destruction of the Dark Lord Sauron. But what is the Lord of the Rings story really about? And, why is it so popular?

Whether it's The Ring of Power, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, or the original trilogy, Tolkien's words are filled with lessons and insight all can learn...

In 1998 the Coen brothers released The Big Lebowski and the theaters were half-​empty. However, the film has since spurred a cult-​like following revolving around its protagonist, The Dude; a dopey but profound conscientious objector to all human conflict with his own special brand of zen. Part slacker manifesto, part sun-drenched noir, the film follows his quest to receive penance for a soiled rug and unravels into a wild goose chase involving all sorts of inherent vice.

In this classic episode from the Pop & Locke vault, Julian Sanchez and Akiva Malamet join us to discuss the esse...

What’s more faithful to the facts of the founders—1776 or Hamilton? Why does John Adams get the star treatment while James Wilson gets such short shrift? And what does the musical many of us had to watch in high school get wrong about American Revolutionary history? All that and more are answered this week, with the help of David Boaz, Paul Matzko, and first time guest Tim Sandefur. 

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The court of Pop & Locke is now in session! All who have cause to discuss the cult classic comedy of courtroom escapes My Cousin Vinny draw near and you shall be heard. Our honorable guests help us break down the legal fact from fiction as we search for the verdict on Vinny’s veracity and verisimilitude. Plus; would you have taken the public defender instead? And how much do they really teach you in law school?

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Revived by the spirit of Stranger Things’ Eddie Munson, today we are going to mosh our way through the music of Metallica. From Kill ‘em All to …And Justice for All and beyond, the band has evolved from rebellious, rage-fueled teenage innovators to the flag-bearers of a heavy metal ethos rooted in principles without being didactic. Returning guest and committed metalhead Chris Freiman and William Irwin, author of the new book The Meaning of Metallica: Ride the Lyrics, join the show to pick through the politics and philosophy of the kings of thrash.

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Today we take a ride into the danger zone with Brandon Valeriano and Paul Musgrave and blow Top Gun wide open. Is Tom Cruise’s action 1986 blockbuster a a redemptive reconceptualization of the post-Vietnam American military, or is it just a sports movie? Plus; does the military provide a service or a product? And either way, why are we paying so much for it?

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Socrates once said the unexamined life is not worth living—and if he were around today I’m sure he’d say that “A Bug’s Life” is totally worth examining. Join us as we dive into the 1998 Disney Pixar romp to find what we can take away with us and what we can leave on the offering stone. 

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Drug approvals were not always as rapid as they were for COVID-19.

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Politics is power, nothing more!

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This episode ain’t right.

We are headed down to the home of Tom Landry Middle School, Mega Lo Mart, and Strickland Propane—that’s right, Arlen, Texas. Kat Murti and first time guest Nick Gillespie join us to decide whether Hank Hill would have voted for Donald Trump, explain the eccentricities of Texan identity, and reveal the benefits of propane and propane accessories.

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Vicious vulgarity and criticism of censorship are at the heart of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s groundbreaking animated series.

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Dive into the depths of American psychopathy as we ask—can we get a table for two at 8 PM at Dorsia?

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Uncover the mystery of ideology with 2019’s best independent video game.

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It may have been less than a decade since we saw him in theaters last, but The Batman has got a new haircut, a fresh coat of eye shadow, and a lot of emotional baggage to unpack.

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Jessica Flanigan and Natalie Dowzicky sink their teeth into Stephanie Meyer’s tale of teenage temptation and vampiric virtue.

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Are Christians a persecuted minority in America? The God’s Not Dead film series has a clear answer, but Aaron Powell and Paul Matzko are doubtful of the conclusions. We sit down to find what might be causing this division, try to find a way to bridge it, and respect religious liberty for all.

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Is Snowpiercer a marxist masterpiece or a dystopian documentary? We trace Chris Evans’s path from the tail to the head n pursuit of the true meaning behind Bong Joon-ho’s 2014 caricature of capitalism.

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At the Circus, who can trust the ringmaster? Pat Eddington and Mike German join us sort who is who in Joh LeCarre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

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Inspired by Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and in the vein of his financial crisis origin story, “The Big Short”, Adam McKay’s 2021 Netflix film, “Don’t Look Up” posits a world where the sky is falling, politicians are too self absorbed to do anything, and the media is hellbent on distraction by any means necessary. Trevor Burrus, Matthew Feeney, and Natalie Dowzicky join us to parse the fact from fiction, and explain how successful it is in getting its strident hope across.

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In the spring of 1997, a teenage girl and her Scoobies started defending the town of Sunnydale and the world from previously unimaginable demons, all while being on time for chemistry class. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, has never been fully appreciated for putting the teen soap era of television on the map. 

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Kevin McCallister was left home alone when his large family rushed to the airport to fly to their Paris Christmastime vacation. At first he was enjoying himself, staying up late, watching tv, and eating pizza until a duo of burglars, the Wet Bandits, try to ruin his holiday. 

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Netflix’s horror series about a small fictional island community, a mysterious visiting priest, and unexplained “miracles” is the latest Mike Flanagan horror hit. Though this show received a wide variety of praise and criticism, it certainly caused people to think about the role religion plays in their lives. 

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In 1953, under the Great Terror’s heavy cloak of state paranoia, the ever‐​watchful Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, collapses. When they discover his body the following morning, a frenetic surge of raw panic starts spreading like a virus amongst the senior members of the Politburo, as they scramble to maintain order, weed out the competition, and take power.

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Matthew Feeney and Caleb Watney discuss Denis Villeneuve's 2021 film adaption of Frank Herbert's Dune.

Frank Herbert’s 1965 Dune is a futuristic geopolitical allegory that was anti-corporate and pro-eco-radicalism. Villeneuve's film adaptation of the book stays pretty true to the original story, it's set in the very distant future, in which humanity has evolved in many scientific respects and mutated in a lot of spiritual ones.

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Jamelle Bouie and Julian Sanchez join the podcast to discuss John Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi cult classic, The Thing, a film that made our skin crawl with paranoia. Based on the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. novella Who Goes There?, The Thing, tells the story of a group of American scientists in Antarctica who encounter the eponymous "Thing", a parasitic extraterrestrial life-form that assimilates, then imitates other organisms, including humans. 

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The hook-handed son of a slave summoned by the chanting of his name 5 times, Candyman, was originally created by horror legend writer Clive Barker. But the legend has since been adapted for the big screen many times, first in 1992 and most recently in 2021. Peter Suderman and Jesse Walker help us dissect both films as part of a larger discussion about how horror movies tackle social issues. 

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The Simpsons is an American adult animated sitcom created by Matt Groening that follows the Simpson family who live in Springfield. The show parodies American culture, society, and ultimately the human condition. 

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The Hurt Locker was the first narrative feature to make full, unnerving dramatic sense of the war in Iraq, and it does so without polemics or speeches or phony melodrama. In fact, the director, Kathryn Bigelow, has been praised for making a war movie that is apolitical in nature. The film follows an Iraq War Explosive Ordnance Disposal team who are targeted by insurgents and shows their psychological reactions to the stress of combat.

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In Pulp Fiction, two hit men, Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega work for the crime boss Marcellus Wallace. The film is really comprised of six different stories that are very loosely connected to one another. And the title refers to the pulp magazines and hardboiled crime novels popular during the mid-20th century, known for their graphic violence and punchy dialogue.

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Pan's Labyrinth is a 2006 Spanish-Mexican dark fantasy war film. The story takes place in Spain during the summer of 1944, five years after the Spanish Civil War, during the early Francoist period. The narrative intertwines this real world with a mythical world centered on an overgrown, abandoned labyrinth and a mysterious faun creature, with whom, Ofelia, interacts.

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Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel that was written by Ray Bradbury and turned into a film in 1966 and 2018. It’s a story about Guy Montag, a fireman, whose job it is to actually destroy illegal belongings, like books. Montag never questioned his job until he met his neighbor, Clarisse, who tells him about the past where everyone saw the world and its endless possibility through books.

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A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered. Julian Sanchez, Jake Laperruque, and Richard Theime join us to discuss how Coppola's The Conversation tells a story of a man caught between his own technological power and the nightmares of his personal responsibility.

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Winston Smith is a minor government employee, living in Oceania, whose job involves the rewriting of history in a manner that casts his fictional country's leaders in a charitable light. And in this closely-monitored society, there is no way to escape from Big Brother. A classic novel written by George Orwell and published in 1949 was adapted for the big screen in 1984.

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A Linguistics professor Louise Banks leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down in 12 seemingly random locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors. Hoping to unravel the mystery, she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all of mankind.

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