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The Worst of All Possible Worlds: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Josh Boerman, A.J. Ditty, and Brian Alford
The first and only podcast bringing you weekly case studies in the pop culture of a dying empire. Co-hosts Josh, Brian, and A.J. dissect an artifact of popular culture, breaking down how its narrative choices reflect or subvert the reactionary political project. From video games to movies to theater to an apparently infinite supply of evangelical Christian radio drama, we expose the machinations of the worst of all possible worlds in order to figure out how to build a better one. Also, we have bits.
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- 5 days ago2h 6m
258 - The Late Great Planet Earth (feat. Julian Feeld)
Julian Feeld (Super Structure, QAA Podcast) joins the lads in the end times as they cover the 1978 film adaptation of the father of all Rapture narratives: The Late Great Planet Earth. Topics include the conspiratorial thinking of dispensational millennialism, the nefarious tree-slut Hal Lindsay, and what it means when your rock solid prophecy keeps having to move the goal posts. Julian Feeld: Instagram Super Structure: Super Structure is a podcast about the many shapes of power. The power of propaganda, the power of political repression, and the power of revolutionary struggles the world over. We help you — and comedian Jon Gabrus — understand current events, history and politics. So join us as we live, laugh, and radicalize together. Patreon // Apple Podcasts QAA Podcast: Conspiracy theories, melted online communities and cursed media — we pry open the cracks in consensus reality and journey into the hidden worlds below. The QAA Podcast is a mix of reporting, comedy, and history hosted by Jake Rockatansky, Travis View, and Julian Feeld along with co-hosts Annie Kelly, Liv Agar and Brad Abrahams. Formerly known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast. Patreon // Apple Podcasts Media Referenced in this Episode: The Late Great Planet Earth. Dir. Robert Amram. 1978. “Died: ‘Late Great Planet Earth’ Author Hal Lindsey” by Daniel G. Hummel. Christianity Today. November 27th, 2024. “The late great Hal Lindsey” by Matthew Avery Sutton. Religion News Service. December 5th, 2024. “The Late Great Planet Earth Made The Apocalypse a Popular Concern” by Erin A. Smith. Humanities: Magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Winter 2017. “Ministry Spotlight: Hal Lindsey Website Ministries” by Brittany Smith. Ministry Watch. February 22nd, 2024. “Urgent Personal Message from Hal: TBN Suspends IIB” by Hal Lindsey. hallindseyoracle.com. November 20th, 2005 TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com Interstitial: “Outtakes from the Filming of The Late Great Planet Earth (featuring Orson Welles)” // Written by A.J. Ditty // featuring A.J. Ditty as “Amram/Hal” and David Armstrong as “Orson” Episode edited by Brian Alford. Interstitial edited by A.J. Ditty. Produced by Josh Boerman, A.J. Ditty, and Brian Alford. This podcast was recorded under a SAG-AFTRA Agreement.
- 1 weeks ago31 min
257 - Bangers of MASH 3: Uijeongbu Drift
THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall The lads return to the 4077 for more adventures in poker games, party planning, and saying goodbye to everyone’s favorite Charlie Brown: Walter “Radar” O’Reilly. Media Referenced in this Episode: MASH s6e1: “Fade Out, Fade In” s6e14: “The Merchant of Korea” s7e8: “They Call the Wind Korea” s7e25 “The Party” S8e4&5 Good-Bye Radar Parts 1&2 “Goodbye Radar” by Ken Levine. October 29th, 2006. Making M*A*S*H. Dir. Patterson Denny. 1981. “‘M*A*S*H’ Stars Recall the Heart and Humor of David Ogden Stiers” by Marc Freeman. The Hollywood Reporter. March 5th, 2018. “RIP David Ogden Stiers” by Ken Levine. March 3rd, 2018. TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com Interstitial: “A Third Brief Message from Alan Alda” // Written by A.J. Ditty // feat. Eleanor Philips as “Ellie” and A.J. Ditty as “Alan Alda”. Episode edited by Brian Alford. Interstitial edited by A.J. Ditty. Produced by Josh Boerman, A.J. Ditty, and Brian Alford. This podcast was recorded under a SAG-AFTRA Agreement.
- 2 weeks ago2h 19m
256 - The Hurt Locker (feat. Patrick Wyman)
HEART OF DUCKNESS TICKETS Patrick Wyman (Past Lives, Master of Our Domain, Tides of History) and the lads throw on their bomb suits and chase that adrenaline high as they cover Kathryn Bigelow’s critically-acclaimed 2009 war film: The Hurt Locker. Topics include the thrill of warfare, war films as propaganda, and what it means to exist in a culture full of War Paddingtons. Patrick Wyman: Bluesky // Instagram Masters of Our Domain: A podcast that used to be about Seinfeld and is now about history, from Phoebe Roy, Milo Edwards and Patrick Wyman. Patreon // Apple Podcasts Past Lives: History is built by people like you, and Past Lives is here to bring their stories to life. Every week, we’ll focus on the lived experiences of real people in the past, from the Stone Age to the near-present. Peasants, laborers, artisans, merchants, soldiers, and the enslaved are far too often overlooked in favor of kings, generals, and politicians; not here. On Past Lives, we keep the focus where it belongs: on the real people who populate our shared past. By understanding them, we can strive to better understand ourselves. These people were us, and we are them. They mattered, and so do you. Patreon // Apple Podcasts Media Referenced in this Episode: The Hurt Locker. Dir. Kathryn Bigelow. 2009. “A House of Dynamite Visualizes the Unthinkable” by Sarah Fensom. American Cinematographer. January 20th, 2026. “Between Iraq and a Hard Place The Hurt Locker’s Editing Team – on Location in the Middle East” by Chris Innis. Women Film Editors. Princeton. March 15th, 2010. “Could The Hurt Locker Take Sound Oscars? An interview with Paul Ottosson” by Blair Jackson. Mix. March 1st, 2010. “Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd Talks The Hurt Locker” by Scott Macauley. Filmmaker Magazine. November 14th, 2011. “The Hurt Locker: A Near-Perfect War Film” by Richard Corliss. Time. September 4th, 2008. “The Hurt Locker: Cinematic Addiction, ‘Critique’, and the War on Terror” by Bruce Bennett and Bülent Diken. Cultural Politics: Volume 7, Issue 2. Pgs. 165-188. Duke University Press. 2011. “Kathryn Bigelow, Catastrophe Connoisseur” by Robert Sullivan. The New Yorker. January 5th, 2026. “The Unorthodox Relationship Between Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal” by Kim Masters. The Hollywood Reporter December 19th, 2012. TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com Interstitial: “Jeremy Renner Official Official: The Official App of the Jeremy Renner Official App” // Written and Performed by A.J. Ditty Episode edited by Brian Alford. Interstitial edited by A.J. Ditty. Produced by Josh Boerman, A.J. Ditty, and Brian Alford. This podcast was recorded under a SAG-AFTRA Agreement.
- 3 weeks ago30 min
255 - In the Oswald Heights [Whit’s Endless Summer 53]
THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall HEART OF DUCKNESS TICKETS The lads return to Odyssey for further adventures in gentrification, mini-golf, and the increasingly complicated corporate espionage of a children’s television production company. Media Referenced in this Episode: Adventures in Odyssey 468-469: Chains 470: Break a Leg 471: Fifteen Minutes 473: Breaking Point TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com Interstitial: “Helena Hotspur” // Written by A.J. Ditty // feat. Hollis Beck as “Helena Hotspur” Episode edited by Brian Alford. Interstitial edited by A.J. Ditty. Produced by Josh Boerman, A.J. Ditty, and Brian Alford. This podcast was recorded under a SAG-AFTRA Agreement.
- Aug 19, 20262h 26m
254 - UNLOCKED: Shrimp Jesus and the Death of Facebook
(originally Episode 146, aired Sept 2, 2024) HEART OF DUCKNESS TICKETS The lads made this episode with their own hands! 😊 Why do episodes like this never get likes? 😢💔 AmenAmenAmen. 🙏🇺🇸 It is our birthday and nobody wished us one. So excited to begin our cake journey. 🎂 Did you notice when it left you? Why don’t you see these anymore? Gone too soon! ✝️ The joy, the bursts of pleasure, the camaraderie? She did good work, we’re so proud of her! 🤩 This is a place of ghosts. King Charles visited Sudan to feed the hungry children! 🫅🇸🇩 And soon you will join us in the mist. Wow, made it to 100, who else can relate? 💯 Amen. OTHER ZUCK EPISODES The Social Network Meta Horizon Worlds and the Death of the Metaverse INTERVIEWS Jason Koebler on the origins of Shrimp Jesus Mike Isaac on Mark Zuckerberg and the Future of Meta Media Referenced in this Episode: Facebook blog posts September 5, 2006 - Facebook deprecates the original Wall in favor of the News Feed. A post made to someone else’s profile can now show up on the home page of anyone who is friends with that person September 5, 2006 - Mark Zuckerberg makes a highly defensive and condescending post responding to negative feedback about the shift to the news feed September 8, 2006 - Zucc makes a considerably more measured follow-up post introducing new privacy settings but doubling down on his commitment to “free flow of information on the internet” November 6, 2007 - Facebook introduces its new social ad platform in tandem with Pages, implementing the final piece of its core user monetization strategy February 12, 2009 - Facebook introduces the Like button February 24, 2016 - Facebook rolls out Reactions (love, haha, wow, sad, angery) globally News articles: “Ted Cruz using firm that harvested data on millions of unwitting Facebook users” by Harry Davies. The Guardian. December 11th, 2015. “A timeline of Facebook's privacy issues — and its responses” by Alyssa Newcomb. NBC News. March 24, 2018 “Five Points for Anger, One for a ‘Like’: How Facebook’s Formula Fostered Rage and Misinformation” by Jeremy B. Merrill and Will Oremus. Washington Post. October 26th, 2021 How Spammers, Scammers and Creators Leverage AI-Generated Images on Facebook for Audience Growth by Renee DiResta and Josh A. Goldstein. Pre-print paper, Stanford University. Facebook’s Algorithm Is Boosting AI Spam That Links to AI-Generated, Ad-Laden Click Farms by Jason Koebler. 404 Media, March 19, 2024 Facebook’s AI Spam Isn’t the ‘Dead Internet’: It’s the Zombie Internet by Jason Koebler. 404 Media, May 2, 2024 Misc. ”AI is Ruining the Internet” by Drew
- Aug 12, 202630 min
253 - Bee Movie
THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Media Referenced in this Episode: Bee Movie. Dir. Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner. 2007. “A Complete History of Bee Movie’s Many, Many Memes" by Paris Martineau. New York Magazine. November 2nd, 2017. “Bee Movie: A Seinfeldian Society” by Joe Strike. Animation World. November 2nd, 2007. “How Bee Movie Won 2016” by Laura Bradley. Vanity Fair. December 30th, 2016. TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com Interstitial: “A Series of Voicemails Left on Jerry Seinfeld’s Answering Machine by one Stephen Sondheim, Composer of Musical Theater and Lover of Bees” // Written by A.J. Ditty and Brian Alford // feat. David Armstrong as “Stephen Sondheim” and Brian Alford as “Jerry” Episode edited by Brian Alford. Interstitial edited by A.J. Ditty. Produced by Josh Boerman, A.J. Ditty, and Brian Alford. This podcast was recorded under a SAG-AFTRA Agreement. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Yellow, black. Ooh, black and yellow! Let’s shake it up a little. Barry! Breakfast is ready! Coming! Hang on a second. Hello? - Barry? - Adam? - Can you believe this is happening? - I can’t. I’ll pick you up. Looking sharp. Use the stairs. Your father paid good money for those. Sorry. I’m excited. Here’s the graduate. We’re very proud of you, son. A perfect report card, all B’s. Very proud. Ma! I got a thing going here. - You got lint on your fuzz. - Ow! That’s me! - Wave to us! We’ll be in row 118,000. - Bye! Barry, I told you, stop flying in the house! - Hey, Adam. - Hey, Barry. - Is that fuzz gel? - A little. Special day, graduation. Never thought I’d make it. Three days grade school, three days high school. Those were awkward. Three days college. I’m glad I took a day and hitchhiked around the hive. You did come back different. - Hi, Barry. - Artie, growing a mustache? Looks good. - Hear about Frankie? - Yeah. - You going to the funeral? - No, I’m not going. Everybody knows, sting someone, you die. Don’t waste it on a squirrel. Such a hothead. I guess he could have just gotten out of the way. I love this incorporating an amusement park into our day. That’s why we don’t need vacations. Boy, quite a bit of pomp… under the circumstances. - Well, Adam, today we are men. - We are! - Bee-men. - Amen! Hallelujah! Students, faculty, distinguished bees, please welcome Dean Buzzwell. Welcome, New Hive City graduating class of… …9:15. That concludes our ceremonies. And begins your career at Honex Industries! Will we pick our job today? I heard it’s just orientation. Heads up! Here we go. Keep your hands and antennas inside the tram at all times. - Wonder what it’ll be like? - A little scary. Welcome to Honex, a division of Honesco and a part of the Hexagon Group. This is it! Wow. Wow. We know that you, as a bee, have worked your whole life to get to the point where you can work for your whole life. Honey begins when our valiant Pollen Jocks bring the nectar to the hive. Our top-secret formula is automatically color-corrected, scent-adjusted and bubble-contoured into this soothing sweet syrup with its distinctive golden glow you know as… Honey! - That girl was hot. - She’s my cousin! - She is? - Yes, we’re all cousins. - Right. You’re right. - At Honex, we constantly strive to improve every aspect of bee existence. These bees are stress-testing a new helmet technology. - What do you think he makes? - Not enough. Here we have our latest advancement, the Krelman. - What does that do? - Oatches that little strand of honey that hangs after you pour it. Saves us millions. Oan anyone work on the Krelman? Of course. Most bee jobs are small ones. But bees know that every small job, if it’s done well, means a lot. But choose carefully because you’ll stay in the job you pick for the rest of your life. The same job the rest of your life? I didn’t know that. What’s the difference? You’ll be happy to know that bees, as a species, haven’t had one day off in 27 million years. So you’ll just work us to death? We’ll sure tr
- Aug 5, 20261h 53m
252 - Shrek (feat. Memoria)
Memoria (@memoriamatters) and the lads grab their tiny vests and make for Duloc as they cover the movie that launched a thousand memes: Shrek. Topics include William Steig’s original book, the politics of Disney in the 90s, and what it means to discover the truth buried deep in the heart of Shrek. Memoria: YouTube // Twitch gl;hf podcast: the world’s first podcast in video games Media Referenced in this Episode: Shrek. Dir. Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson. 2001. Shrek! by William Steig. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. 1990. “The Agony and Shrekstasy: The Unlikely Legacy of America’s Favorite Ogre” by Jonathan Parks Ramage. Vice. April 22nd, 2016. “The Epic Disney Blow-Up of 1994: Eisner, Katzenberg and Ovitz 20 Years Later” by Kim Masters. The Hollywood Reporter. April 9th, 2014. Fairy Tales Transformed? Twenty-First Century Adaptations & the Politics of Wonder by Cristina Bacchilega. Wayne State University Press. 2013. Shrek Retold TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com Interstitial: “The Exclusive Access Hollywood Interview of Shrek” // Written by Brian Alford and A.J. Ditty // feat. A.J. Ditty as “Billy Bush” and Brian Alford as “Shrek” Credits: Episode and Interstitial Edited by: Brian Alford Produced by Josh Boerman, A.J. Ditty, and Brian Alford. This podcast was recorded under a SAG-AFTRA Agreement.
- Jul 29, 202631 min
251 - The Amazing Digital Circus (feat. Radio Free Tote Bag)
THIS IS A PREVIEW. FOR THE FULL EPISODE, GO TO Patreon.com/worstofall Audrey and Dono (Radio Free Tote Bag, No I’m Listening) join the lads on some wacky adventures with Pomni and Co. as they cover Gooseworx’s indie animation megahit: The Amazing Digital Circus. Topics include the origins of Gooseworx, the hugbox of Tumblr, and what it means to find meaning in a world where a sentient mouth can absolutely ruin your life. Donovan Eyre: Twitch // Bluesky // Instagram // SoundCloud Audrey: Twitch // Bluesky Radio Free Tote Bag: A weekly relationship advice podcast hosted by Audrey and Donovan. Patreon // Spotify // Apple Podcasts // Instagram Media Referenced in this Episode: The Amazing Digital Circus. Dir. Gooseworx. 2023-2026 How to Attract the Wrong Audience by The Ludo Mancer Is this LOST? By Door Monster I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Elison “‘The Amazing Digital Circus’ Team Talk the Making of a Viral Hit” by Dani Di Placido. Forbes. December 22nd, 2023. TWOAPW theme by Brendan Dalton: Patreon // brendan-dalton.com // brendandalton.bandcamp.com Interstitial: “The Disappearing Guy Presents: ‘Here for a Good Time, Not a Long Time!‘: A Treatise on the Ephemeral Nature of Being and The Unknowability of a Finite Universe Speeding Hastily towards its Demise: A Rootin’-Tootin’ Fantasia on Mannequin Themes Featuring Text from William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’” // Written by A.J. Ditty // feat. A.J. Ditty as “Announcer” and Donovan Eyre as “Disappearing Guy” Credits: Episode Edited by: Brian Alford Interstitial Edited by: A.J. Ditty Produced by Josh Boerman, A.J. Ditty, and Brian Alford. This podcast was recorded under a SAG-AFTRA Agreement.
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About The Worst of All Possible Worlds
The first and only podcast bringing you weekly case studies in the pop culture of a dying empire. Co-hosts Josh, Brian, and A.J. dissect an artifact of popular culture, breaking down how its narrative choices reflect or subvert the reactionary political project. From video games to movies to theater to an apparently infinite supply of evangelical Christian radio drama, we expose the machinations of the worst of all possible worlds in order to figure out how to build a better one. Also, we have bits.
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