Michael and Us Luke Savage and Will Sloan, Jacobin

It's a jumbo-sized helping of Aaron Sorkin as we continue our descent into madness/journey through STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP. In this instalment, we consider Sorkin's views on race, the Greatest Generation, and Abbott & Costello. PLUS: We probe further into the dark heart of Jerry Seinfeld.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/526-studio-sucky-104631151

Maybe it's a fool's errand to look for politics in the Marx Brothers' DUCK SOUP (1933), but nevertheless, many have tried. We discuss the philosophy of the Brothers' tomfoolery, and the way that movies and literature imagine countries like Freedonia.

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After inhabiting the White House but before examining the Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin created a show that sought nothing less than to fix the most important American institution of them all: Saturday Night Live. We launch what will eventually become a multi-episode discussion of STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP (2006-7).

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

You've seen Air, you've seen Blackberry, and are you ready for the Corporate I.P. genre to reach its baroque period? We discuss Jerry Seinfeld's UNFROSTED (2024), a comedy about the invention of the pop-tart, and attempt an ideological reading of a comedian who has stubbornly resisted ideology.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/523-from-freezer-103971720

A new campaign to boycott Canada's biggest grocery chain raises a plethora of issues about how monopolies work in Canada, and what role governments and consumers should play in combatting them. On this special episode, Luke welcomes writers David Moscrop and Mitchell Thompson to discuss the Loblaws boycott and Canada's grocery-store oligarchs, the Weston Family.

PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/103770757

In the election year of 2004, an ultraviolent subtitled right-wing Christian movie became a genuine cultural phenomenon and political lightning-rod. We finally discuss THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (2004) and theology according to Mel Gibson. PLUS: the White House Correspondents Dinner, the Columbia encampment, and the one optimistic takeaway of a discouraging week.

Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

"This Is How Power Protects Itself" by Jack Mirkinson - https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/columbia-ccny-cuny-protest-nypd-police-brutality/

"Mel Gibson's Martyrdom Complex" by Frank Rich - https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/movies/mel-gibson-s-martyrdom-complex.html

"The Gospel According to Mel" by Christopher Hitchens - https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/03/hitchens-201102

The Mel Gibson/Diane Sawyer interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ecnfe530IE