The Occasionalists Podcast
Examining the human condition. Sometimes. Mostly jawing about pop culture and other nerdy pursuits.
Episodes
We are jumping (or perhaps dancing?!) into a new month with one of our classic themes: it's Movie May!
HOWEVA, we have a fun twist for this month. This month will be Musical Movie May. Oh yeah, that's right, folks! We are dedicating a whole month to the scores and soundtracks of movies and diving into actual musicals.
We're even including the Movie Music Video! We are gorging on the cross-section of film and music this month, and w...
Due to a few unforeseen circumstances, we had to adjust the final episode for this month. We are doing a wrap-up minisode instead of a full-blown episode. No big deal! This episode is still chock-full of good stuff.
Including a vigorous defense of the theme song rankings, and a peek at some of the stuff we would do for the full episode.
It's good and if you don't listen, you're a bad person!
We are back with the companion piece to our Classic TV Tropes episode that covers, you guessed it, Modern TV Tropes!
As the visual language of TV has changed over the years, so too has the storytelling shorthand for the medium. Thus, we have a whole new set of tropes emerging on television, and many that are going extinct.
Tune in this week to find out more!
We are back with a piping hot, fresh new episode for Boob Tube April. This time, we are diving into the shorthand storytelling methods TV creatives have been using for decades to get a story across quickly: AKA TV Tropes!
We are starting with the classic tropes many of you might be familiar with. These tropes are still used or called out today in many cases. We dig into their origins and discuss some shows that either flip the trop...
Welcome to a brand new month, suckas!
It's Boob Tube April, a full month dedicated to all things television. What better way to start this month out than to lean directly back into our year-long music theme with an episode dedicated to TV theme songs.
But wait! What if those theme songs were all ranked?! Even better!
Disagree? Bring it on, dude!
Volume 2 of The Luigi Tapes, and our final minisode of the month, finds us tackling what the trial could be like and how the people will react to the quagmire as it unfolds in real time. Certainly, this will be a normal, non-insane trial. Right?!
We wrap up the episode by delving deep into the new media studies classes we'll be teaching this coming fall semester. Our first media subject that we analyze through film and tv? Well...t...
Our final episodes of In The March of Minisodes are here, and what better way to unwind a great month than with a totally chill and noncontroversial piece of news that concluded the tumultuous year of 2024?
Chemma rejoins the pod as we go elbow-deep into one Luigi Mangione and the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. We tackle the fallout of the murder and the ripple effect it's already having throughout America.
O...
Greg Cherry returns to talk about comedy's not-so-funny side and things that do not tickle our collective funny bones.
Also, I got a lead on a hot new family band that everyone simply MUST check out!
Greg Cherry rejoins the program as we dig into the world of standup comedy, navigating tricky subjects and what makes us laugh.
Also, Greg fills us in on this hot new act he saw out in Colorado. They sound like a talented troupe!
Our final ten-minute episode is a challenge of sorts: change my mind that you CANNOT have singular favorites of anything or let me change yours.
Good luck!
It's a day late, but our next entry for our month-long minisode extravaganza is here!
We are now in the 10-minute episodes and by golly, if we didn't get close to being appropriately brief this time. We start off this week's episodes with a discussion on the hidden complexities of being a sports fan. Or at least, another way to think about the investment and identity of being a fan.
We are back with another completely failed attempt at a 5 Minute Episode, this time on TV ratings!
We spend this nearly 20 minutes 5-minute info blast on the startling decline of TV ratings in America and note some interesting patterns in the data.
Give it a listen and learn a little something!
We are already into the third month of the year, folks! Which means, we are back to one of our classic themes, In The March of Minisodes. Unlike last year, there is no daily podcast challenge. This year, it's two short episodes each week of the month.
HOWEVA, we will start off the month with super-short episodes and gradually increase to the normal length of a minisode. For the first week, we are hitting 5-Minute Episodes. Kinda.
...
For our final episode of Franchise February, we are pulling out the big guns (perhaps a Colt Python, amirite?!) and going to one of the true juggernauts in TV history. The show that revolutionized what horror on television could be and kicked off a new wave of zombie entertainment worldwide: The Walking Dead.
Few shows have reached the heights the main series reached and dominated the pop culture landscape in such a profound manner...
Another brand-spankin' new episode for Franchise February is here! What better way to work in a little video game talk than to bring Greg Cherry back to talk about an all-time great game franchise, The Legend of Zelda!
A childhood favorite and one of Nintendo's vanguard games since the 1980s, Zelda is still at the forefront of innovative gameplay mechanics, storytelling, and good old-fashioned fun!
But it's not without some notable...
Welcome back to the next installment of Franchise February: a deep dive into the Star Trek universe.
WARNING: THIS IS FOR UBERNERDS ONLY!
Was Star Trek better back in the day? Or are we blinded by nostalgia? Is the current era of Trek too dark? Too violent? Not nerdy enough?! We answer all of these pressing questions and more.
Beam us up, Scotty!
We're officially entering our first true theme month this year as we dive head first into franchise town with....drum roll!....FRANCHISE FEBRUARY!
We are kicking off this month of critiquing massively successful works of commercial art with a deep discussion on the most profitable and popular movie franchise of all time: The Marvel Cinematic Universe.
We are also talking about one of the.....movie franchises of all time: The Detec...
One final Loose Ends episode finds us exploring the Random Thoughts of a podcasts past.
Basically, here's a bunch of stuff we thought about doing but never did for one reason or another.
Will we ever do it or will we just talk about doing it? Yes!
Cleveland sports is on the menu for the penultimate installment of Loose Ends.
Because we really don't do that much sports talk on the pod, it felt like a good time, with football season winding down and basketball season heating up, to get a little talk in about the Cavs and Browns and how each franchise is trending in different directions.
Don't worry: the Guardians and Buckeyes were not left out!
Not into the Cleveland sports ...
We are tying up another Loose End this month as a friend of the show and hockey correspondent, Rob Nugent, returns to talk about the marriage of sports and music.
Which teams are making the grade when it comes to a rocking stadium experience? Who is failing? And who is trying to hard?
Plus, what would we do if we were in charge of the playlist for our favorite teams?
Press play and find out!
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