Podcast for the New American Century

or "World on a Wire for stupid people". This is Grim Tones because Ben and Tim needed to do an emergency mini episode about "Beyond: Citadel" aka COOM (2025). Erik is back in the country and we will be back for real this time very soon <3  On the next Watching the End of History: Ghost in The Shell (1995) b/w Ghost in the Shell (2017). 

Michael Fassbender, the link between heredity and crime. 

Happy ThanKKK$giving you hogs <3. Erik is finally back and the serious stuff will be returning soon. In the meantime, here is Ben and Tim sitting down and talking out another film made by an idiosyncratic weirdo who created something incredible that speaks to our hellish current moment and were hated for telling the truth. Next on Watching the End of History: Tim and Ben return to the true muse of the pod, Michael Fassbender as we discuss Justin Kurzel's 2016 film "Assassin's Creed". Followed by: the return of Grim Tones: SOMA (2015, dev. Frictional Games)

Erik is still gone so the horrors of the past and present will be waiting a little longer! In the meantime, Ben and Tim are lucky enough to be joined by both Molly O'Brien and Chris Wade (And Introducing, Infinite Cast). We tap into their shared expertise of both music and DFW's novel for a freewheeling chat about Luca Guadagnino's tennis love triangle drama Challengers, the total banger score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, David Foster Wallace's tennis magnum opus and plenty about the beautiful game (non-team division) itself. All of that plus Honeyduces, Skyline chili, Joe Jonas, awkward Bowie needledrops, Andre Aggasi's autobiography and the trauma of child sports. Enjoy the extra dessert, vegetables will return next week. 

Join Tim and Ben during a happier time (before Israel killed Nasrallah) for the conclusion of Ridley Scott Summer. You know the drill, everyone thinks this movie sucks ass but actually we think it's good. 

Erik, Ben and Tim are all together to celebrate another 9/11 along with the less crazy but still wild three year anniversary of the podcast. Everyone made the mistake of listening to Ben and we wound up watching and talking 2006's bewildering Death of a President. We wade through an insanely twisty 96 minutes that left all us scratching our heads trying to figure out what the hell this movie is actually supposed to be about. We also talk Syria, Bush era derangement syndrome, Green Day. We marvel at James Urbaniak's show stealing bit part, do competing W impressions and end with not one but two big announcements about the future of the show. Neither involves us quitting, sorry to the haters and nothing but love for the rest of you xoxo

Welcome to the week of 9/11, and the third anniversary of PNAC pod! As a special treat this week, we're releasing a bit of a prototype episode in which Erik does a solo scene talking about Gary Berntsen's 2005 book, Jawbreaker. This is the first in a rolling series of more book report episodes to come, hopefully each successive entry more streamlined than the last. Check back next week for 1-2 episodes in this same vein that will go a bit more indepth than this one on Patrick Seale's 1991 book, Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire. 

Ben and Erik are joined all the way from Beiruit by independent journalist Séamus Malekafzali (@seamus_malek) to get a firsthand report of a week where Israel only continues to ramp up regional aggression and murder civilians (and journalists, and humanitarian aid workers). Together, we talk about the twin assassinations by Israel that sparked a response from Hezbollah while Iran continues to leave us all guessing. We also talk Sinwar hiding in women's clothes (?), Rape Rebellion vets on the Israeli talk show circuit, Judith Miller, polio, and grim future plans for Egypt & Jordan. All that, plus US CENTOM goes looking for love in all the right places. Check out Sèamus' excellent substack: https://www.seamus-malekafzali.com/ And stay tuned some more fun guests as we celebrate the build up to the 3 (!!) year anniversary of us starting the show. Thanks as always for listening, some exciting news will be coming soon!

Classico PNAC, the boys get together to spin a yarn about a very cool Saudi businessman with 9/11 ties and some very cool kids and grandkids. This story has everything from interior design to combat sports to Israel and KSA normalizing relations over their love of really bad electronic music. Remember to follow us on Triller! Dan Christensen article on Florida Bulldog: https://www.floridabulldog.org/2017/05/mysterious-saudi-businessman-in-911-puzzle-surfaces-online/

We're not exactly sure how this happened, but it seems like most of twitter decided to watch Prometheus at the same time Ben and Tim decided to do an episode about it while Erik was away. 

Ben and Erik are back to discuss a round-up of best remembered current events from the last 3 weeks as the boys have been away. We actually buckled down and did our homework to discuss the KSM et al. Gitmo trial/plea deal/reversal story starring our favorite Defense Secretary. Shouts out to Carol Rosenberg for her articles covering the trial and all the work she does from Gitmo. 

What even is time, anyway?   Apologies for the choppiness throughout, we were both experiencing connection issues while recording. Super producer Erik is of the belief that he did a good job cleaning it up.

Or "The Woman Who Was Cool". The boys sit down with good friend of the show Gus to remind you that Todd Field invented Big League Chew and also that his movie Tár absolutely rules. We dare to ask "is Cate Blanchette good at conducting?", spot ghosts, trying to enjoy Monster Hunter, playing the triangle right and "what this movie is actually about?" Watching the End of History will return next along with Hollywood Tim as we tackle another deeply weird Stephen Spielberg/Tom Cruise 00s sci-fi movie. This time though, a movie that is almost as obsessed with 9/11 as our show is: 2005's War of the Worlds.   Transition bits include: Bernstein obsessing over the triangle section in rehearsal: https://youtu.be/ebf6_7nHciw?si=4Pf9cuzYp9r7raGh Bernstein lecturing on Mahler 5 from the piano: https://youtu.be/A7O5zcQPRQQ?si=OcB-xcprNZe9I_4P Bernstein conducting Mahler 5 with Vienna Philharmonic: https://youtu.be/Bj6KLv7kv2Q?si=6C_RBoOoJdR6pcu1 Jacqueline du Pre playing the Elgar Cello Concerto under Barenboim: https://youtu.be/OPhkZW_jwc0?si=8_s1VcrFi288l03n

Oh shit. Oh no. No no no. Oh shit,  fuck fuck fuck. Holy fuck, this ain't good.   Ben also formally apologizes to our listening public for repeatedly confusing 747s and 767s. We will do better.   Atlantic article referenced: https://archive.ph/PomMR (that URL reads "P...o..m...not Po- you know what, nevermind). Anyway, this should get around any paywalls.

Tim read an ungodly amount of background material about Southland Tales, so we can consider this a followup to PNAC ep. 23 on Richard Kelly's masterpiece (https://podnac.libsyn.com/ep-23-pimps-dont-commit-suicide).

Apologies for our delay in releasing the second part of this episode, we got extradited yet again and lost wifi.

Ben is off reverse-engineering Baldur's Gate 3 to have even more girlfriends, so Erik and Tim are joined by PD to discuss John Woo's Paycheck. The PKD novel with the girl with the twin in her stomach is indeed Dr. Bloodmoney. The opening music is an excerpt from "Combat Cocktail" by Ville Kaillo from Cruelty Squad, the closing is "Starbucks, Dr. Seussism, and While Your Mac Is Sleeping" by James Ferraro

This one goes out to Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney. Two brave women who were heroes for as long as they were able to be.

We're continuing to host Super Producer Tim's show here on our feed because we want to and it rules and you should listen to him. So here we present: The first entry in Blue And White 00s Computer Movies! Spielberg and Tom Cruise team up to create the finest feature length Looney Tunes episode adapted from a Philip K. Dick story. Tune in to find out whether Fargo is a good movie. Intro Music: Only (Richard X Mix) by Nine Inch Nails. Outro Music: The Hand That Feeds (Photek Straight Mix) by Nine Inch Nails.

We recorded this one back in 2023 so I have no idea what gets covered besides a wild ass story involving Jackie Chan. Also, I was wrong in the intro and after 100 hours can say Baldur's Gate 3 owns. We will return with another PNAC after Easter and then get back to the movies after that.