Episodes

2021 was an interesting year for pop culture. We take a look at the movies we saw and some of the other pop culture items (TV and books) we took in during the past year. We used Letterboxd as a partial guide for this, taking Evan’s movie diary list for our outline for most of […]

We moved to a new server, which resulted in the loss of this post . . . we apologize for any inconvenience. DUNE hit screens big and small, and it made a huge impact on us! Ben and Steve discuss the movie, and its story, music, history, and style.

Ben and Evan take a road trip to see the latest MCU movie, ETERNALS!!! It’s a movie that tries hard to go big, but does it succeed? PART ONE: The Trip There – talking about expectations and other random thingsPART TWO: The Parking Lot – spoiler free review of the filmPART THREE: The Trip Back […]

To celebrate 10 years of the Strangers and Aliens podcast, we’re reposting our first episode! In this episode, Dr. Jayce, Steve, and Ben talk about the question: “Why Sci-Fi?” This is the episode that started it all. Well, started it all in this corner of the woods, anyway. This is the first time Ben ends […]

The CUBE franchise consists of three movies from the 90s and early 2000s. Each of these movies features strangers . . . moving through a strange setting consisting of rooms that are CUBES . . . and some of those room will KILL YOU!!! Who lives? Who dies? Does it even matter? This franchise hits […]

Steve and Ben explore Venus via the second book in C.S. Lewis’ celebrated “Space Trilogy,” Perelandra. Published in 1943, Perelandra is the story of a man, Ransom, who is transported to Venus and thrust into a battle he feels ill-equipped to handle. In the process, he becomes part of a cosmic war far bigger than […]

A road trip to see Shang-Chi, featuring Ben, Evan, and Evan’s sister-in-law! Road trips include three segments: spoiler free discussion on the trip to the theater about what we’re expecting; a spoiler free reaction after the movie in the parking lot; and then a spoiler filled discussion on the ride home. In this episode:Ben does […]

Ben and Evan reunite for a good ol’ fashioned ROAD TRIP EPISODE!!! The movie this time? FREE GUY! An original concept, science fiction movie? In the summer? More importantly . . . is it any good?

Ben wants to talk. Ben wants to talk about M. Night Shyamalan. He wants to talk about M. Night’s style. M. Night’s risk taking. M. Night’s filmography. M. Night’s twist endings. And he wants to talk about OLD. Which features M. Night’s style. M. Night’s risk taking. M. Night’s filmography. M. Night’s twist endings. He […]

John Harju is back and that means we’re talking about horror . . . or at least suspense thriller . . . and for this episode that means we’re talking about the “not-quite-Saw-but almost” franchise, or at least the “higher-budget-Cube” franchise: Escape Room, consisting of Escape Room and Escape Room: Tournament of Champions.

A few years back, Ben had the chance to write an essay for the book “Tarantino And Theology” (edited by Jonathan and Jerry Walls). The result was a chance for Ben to dive into his favorite Tarantino movie, Jackie Brown, and dive into a book by his favorite author, C.S. Lewis. Now, in 2021, with […]

We continue our series about THE TWILIGHT ZONE (that started in 2013 . . . and only has one other episode in the series) by covering two season five episodes of the show: “Probe 7 Over and Out” and “The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross”. These episodes were chosen by Steve and Evan and one of […]

This episode is why we created Strangers and Aliens! In this episode we: Explore a classic sci-fi story (“The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin)! Review a new sci-fi movie (STOWAWAY, on Netflix now – don’t worry, we’re spoiler free about the movie . . . although the movie’s inspirations may spoil the movie . . […]

Evan, Steve, and Ben take a look at some of their favorite stories that should be big budget motion pictures, and in the process explore some of their favorite stories . . . and there just may be a couple new projects that come out of this . . .

Ben and Steve are joined by frequent guest host Nathan Marchand to battle each other about how good Godzilla Vs. Kong was! Where did they watch it? (At the BOX OFFICE, or the HOME Box Office???) Did they like it? Which one are they: team Godzilla or team Kong? And what did Evan think? He […]

Ben, Steve, and Even take on Zack Snyder’s Justice League! Is it different? Is it better? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it Whedon? One thing’s for sure: it’s LONG!!!

Last year, Ben and Evan ALMOST embarked on a project: to explore the Zach Snyder DC film universe in preparation for the four hour Justice League Snyder Cut. This project never happened. But an episode was recorded. This is that episode . . . “Welcome to the Snyder Cut” . . . the podcast that […]

In this episode, we dive into the show that got many people’s hopes up that mutants were coming to the MCU . . . or if not mutants, Reed Richards . . . or at least a multiverse connection to the X-Men . . . and instead was a simple story about a person dealing […]

Ben plays through the SNES inspired “Noah and the Flood”, a game Evan designed in Dreams on PS4! As he plays, they discuss: how the game came to be, artistic choices in art based on the Bible, the story of Noah, and many other things!

The “What If?” question has been a comic book mainstay for decades, from the “imaginary stories” that would pop up in old Superman comics to the actual “What If?” comic series from Marvel to “Elseworlds” and other series more recently. For this episode, we explore some “what if”s of our own – focusing in on […]

This is the Way . . . And this is the episode we talk about the way. Ben and Steve dig into the second season of The Mandalorian, from the theological ramifications behind rebellion to the meaning of removing the helmet to the geek out moments to the fan service. It’s a fun series and […]

This episode is divisive! It’s divided between two movies that hit streaming services on Christmas. It’s divided by the opinions about the movies . . . Evan likes one and not the other, Ben likes one and not the other, and Steve sort of likes both but kind of doesn’t like either. It’s divided between […]

In a sequel to the first Hobbit Tales from the Green Dragon Inn episode that we played back in May, Ben, Steve, and Evan play Hobbit Tales from the Green Dragon Inn once again! This episode was actually recorded back in May, but was put on the proverbial back burner — or on the literal […]

Christmas time is here! And the Strangers and Aliens were given a request: could we cover the Rankin Bass Christmas specials? And if you send us a request for something we love? We do it! So for our Christmas episode this year, we take a dive into some of the best Christmas specials of the […]