Control Room

We reflect on the show as a whole--the cost of lies, what lying exacts from us--and pivot the conversation to the authoritarian turn in contemporary US politics, covering the corrosive public habits that have shredded our social safety net, the myth-making we constantly engage in, authoritarian circles of UNaccountability, and so on.

In this episode, we talk about how various characters try to assume, deflect, and apportion responsibility; we talk about the limits of human beings and the limits of technology; we talk about processes of dehumanizing others and ourselves; we talk about cynicism and agency under authoritarian rule; we talk about gender and humiliation; and we talk about who gets to know, and who has to tell, the truth.

Jess and Derek talk about the way secrets and lies deprive people of the ability to help themselves and each other; the dystopian notion of "a circle of accountability"; what the miners represent in their cynicism and dignity; and Chormuk's qualitative quest to find out the truth of what happened that April night, and to make it make sense.

In this episode, Jess and Derek talk about official buck-passing, the gendered spaces of decision-making and scientific practices, methodological and measurement nerdery, the power and confinement of being in charge, and intense claustrophobia.

As always, Jess says the smart stuff, while Derek does plot summary.

A little note about why we're rewatching a 2019 miniseries in the year of our lord 2025.