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
Episode 45: It's a Godawful Small Affair
This week we are covering the 2005 Spielberg/Cruise film War of the Worlds. Made in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the film attempts to make some kind of connection between the H.G. Wells's classic story of alien invasion and the events that had so recently shaken the foundations of America...and it fails to do so, at least in a manner that we found at all convincing or philosophically interesting. But fear not! In this episode you also get to hear the "legendary" story of Stu's IRL encounter with Mr. Spielberg, as well as how Michael once saw Dave Matthews open for Barack Obama.
We also get into a bit of the history of the story, briefly discussing Wells's novel as well as Orson Welles's famous 1938 radio adaptation, which allegedly set off a panic across the United States. What is it about this tale that causes it to return in moments of cultural uncertainty?
We open the episode with a brief conversation about the news of Joe Biden's pardoning of his son Hunter. Would we have done the same? To find out, you must listen.
This episode contains spoilers for War of the Worlds.
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