Is there good and evil in ASOIAF, or is just a morally grey mass and mess? I take this up with Quinn the GM, who made a very instructive video essay on it that I really wanted to discuss in depth.
Today, we're taking a look at the detente between West and East Germany. What were the factors breaking the deadlock in domestic and international politics? How did it happen? And, most importantly, was it a success?
Jon's death comes as a big surprise for first-time readers, and not because it's sprung on you but because Martin is a damn good writer. We explain all the ways of why and how.
We’re talking about the Whispering Wood, and come off with one fundamental insight: GRRM is a good writer.
I’m talking to Artyom Nichipurov from Wolffdesigna Games, a Latvian firm that’s most famous for the excellent “Guards of Atlantis II”, a tabletop adaptation of the MOBA game experience. If you don’t know what any of this means, no worry, I got you covered - the first seven minutes of the episode explain what MOBAs are and how GoA2 specifically functions so you can understand the episode. If you already know, feel free to jump to minute 7.26 for the episode proper.
Today, we're talking about the period from 1966 to 1974. Witness the Grand Coalition and the coming into power of Willy Brandt, heading the first SPD government of the Federal Republic with his slogan of "daring more democracy".
Today, we’re covering the first half of the history of the Democratic Republic of Germany - or East Germany, to its friends. From the earliest days of popular insurrection to the construction of the Berlin Wall and the twilight days of Ulbricht’s reign, we have you covered.
In our ongoing series on the best moments of the series, we take apart the Bridge of Dream sequence, which provides us with some unusualy challenges - we don't really know where any of this leads, so this is more meta and speculative as usual.
Today, we're looking at why the CDU could rule for 20 years in the early German republic. There's a good combination of electoral shenanigans, foreign policy questions and old Nazis involved.
From the Berlin airlift to the Berlin wall, this episodes covers Germany’s capital (and the capital of spies) from wall to wall.
Everyone and their mother knows Dungeons&Dragons, at least in concept. But few people know the most important German roleplaying game, “The Dark Eye.” With professor Adrian Daub of Stanford, I talk about this game that’s near and dear to my heart - and maybe yours too, soon.
This is our 200th episode. Of course we wanted to do something special. George R. R. Martin asked us if he could guest host, but we were too busy, so we settled on doing the Red Wedding. We hope that’s ok.
We’re back again! With Jim McGeehin, I talk about the founding of not one but two German states. We’ll have a look at why we’re creating two states instead of one and how these two shape out. You might want to reference the following two diagrams, but it’s not essential. We keep it light on the legalese.
After 11 months, we’re back talking the history of the divided Germany! After looking at western Germany last time round, this time, we’re taking the deep dive into East Germany 1946 to 1948 and ask ourselves how to succesfully build socialism in Germany.
The season finale is here! Sean and I have a slightly different view about it, but as is our wont, we agree on a lot, and the show stays superb even though Sean left a bit disappointed.
There’s a lot of dragons this episode, and we’re comparing the show to Better Call Saul, The Americans and Halt and Catch Fire, because that makes a lot of sense - as you’ll learn listening!
Three days, and there’s good news (even earlier if you’re a Patreon!): HotD is STILL one of the best things on TV right now. This episode, characters, actors and dialogue writing are front and center, and the scenes are so damn good we cannot shut up about if for an hour.
“House of the Dragon” continues to be excellent in this laid-back but still incredibly rich and textured episode. We discuss shot compositions, nightmares, thin places and politics, all in one podcast!
The dragons danced and died, but Stefan skipped town. Yet Sean is not flying solo! Friend of the show Gretchen Felker-Martin, the acclaimed horror novelist behind Manhunt and Cuckoo, joins the Illustrious Co-host for a conversation about the most spectacular, violent, important episode of House of the Dragon yet. Join the ol’ Cut to Black team as they discuss this fantasy landmark!
This may just be the best episode of a great show yet. Sean and I discuss why in exhaustive and euphoric detail. Also, more detail than you wanted about full-frontal blowjobs, but the show started it.