The End of the World with Michael and Stu
The Apocalypse is Everywhere. The End of the World with Michael and Stu is a (hopefully) insightful and (hopefully) humorous exploration of the rise of apocalyptic news, apocalyptic thinking and apocalyptic culture. Each week, we’ll be looking at a work of art, a piece of media, or an historical event related to the (hopefully not) impending End of the World.
The End of the World with Michael and Stu
Latest Episodes
137: I Can't Seem to Face Up to the Facts
This week we are discussing Mary Harron's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel American Psycho in light of Stu's recent article on the film's resonance with a cybernetic conception of the environment. We discuss whether the crim...
136: Blinded by the Light
This week we are discussing José Saramago's 1995 novel Blindness. We consider what the central theme of the novel, a world in which virtually everyone suddenly goes blind, says about the way society is set up and how quickly it might d...
135: Over the Hill or Underland
This week we're finally talking about The Matrix, which is arguably the most culturally influential film of the last 30 years. We discuss the various ways the "red pill/blue pill" moment has been ingested by the culture, and we also ge...
134: A Palazzo of Some Fantastic Proportion
This week we are delving into Stu's new article on Ray Kurzweil and the Singularity. What are some of the consequences of the potential merger of our brains with superintelligent AI? Are they good? Are there any downsides? What about immortalit...
133: Now I Can't See, I Just Stare
This week we are covering the 1993 film, Alive, directed by Frank Marshall and starring Ethan Hawke and Josh Hamilton. A sort of apocalypse in miniature, the movie depicts the miraculous survival of sixteen members of a Uruguayan rugby...
