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.
Episodes
118 episodes
118: A Brief History of the Afterlife Eight
This week we travel to the Americas to consider the Aztec conception of the afterlife. Unlike many of the cultures we have covered, the Aztecs put a great weight on the manner of your death in determining the location of your eternal (or not so...
117: A Brief History of the Afterlife Seven
This week we are going to Ancient Greece and exploring their vision of the afterlife. We talk about the judges in hell, about Hades, about all of our favorite denizens of Hades, such as Sisyphus, Tantalus, and Ixion, and we even relate the stor...
116: A Brief History of the Afterlife Six
Our occasional series, "A Brief History of the Afterlife," is BACK. This week we are covering the Zoroastrian vision of the afterlife, including the Chinvat Bridge, the four layers of heaven, the four layers of hell, Ahura Mazda, Angra Mainyu, ...
115: A Motion and a Spirit, that Impels All Thinking Things
It is finally here: the cybernetics episode! We go over the origins and basic concepts of the 20th century science of cybernetics, looking specifically at the work of Norbert Wiener and Gregory Bateson. We draw on Stu's 2025 article
114: It Starts with an Earthquake
This week we are discussing The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell. We go over the film's approach to the utopian and apocalyptic potential posed by AI, getting into some of the ...
113: I Foresee Terrible Trouble
This week we are talking about the recently anointed best picture of 2025, that's right, it's Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another. We discuss the film's "message" regarding revolutionary politics, while also delving in...
112: And the Big Wheel Keep on Turning Neon Burning Up Above
We're talking about the Iran War again, with a special focus on President Trump's incoherent statements regarding the war's status and aims.We open the episode talking about the Oscars and the recent Clavicular "phenomenon." Finally, som...
111: Goodbye, Blue Sky
This week we are talking about the first ten days of the Iran War. We go over some of the horrific consequences we've already seen unfold across the region and attempt to suss out what the more long term impacts of this catastrophic event might...
110: Return to Forever
This week we are talking about the alleged plan on the part of Meta to enable profiles to remain active after death, powered by AI. Of course Meta says this is just a "hypothetical" patent they have filed that they have "no intention of impleme...
109: There's Something Here from Somewhere Else
This week we are finally tackling Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan''s 2023 portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb. We get into the dramaturgical choices made by Nolan in the film, we analyze the questi...
108: My Words Fly Up, My Thoughts Remain Below
This week we are talking about Claude, the AI agent developed by Anthropic. Our window into this world is the recently published piece in The New Yorker by Gideon Lewis-Kraus, who spent a lot of time over the last few years t...
107: Some Things Take Forever
This week we are talking about information glut, particularly in the case of the recently released Epstein Files. How are we to deal with such a massive tranche of completely disorganized information? How do we sort the real from the fake, the ...
106: And I'll Hear You Scream Again
This week we are discussing 90s failed blockbuster sci-fi Alien meets Hellraiser movie Event Horizon, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. This is, I believe, our shortest episode to date, and we s...
105: It could be an Illusion but I Might as well Try
This week we are considering Yorgos Lanthimos's 2025 film, Bugonia. This picture ties into several of our interests: environmental collapse, societal collapse, aliens, Atlantis, it really is a smorgasbord of topics near and d...
104: I'm Living in the ICE Age
This week we are doing a roundup of the world's news; we touch on the ICE incursion in Minneapolis and the various ways that has been interpreted, before moving on to discuss Iran and the protest movement there. We then consider Donald Trump's ...
103: You are the Eyes of the World
This week we are returning to Stanley Kubrick, tackling his late masterpiece, Eyes Wide Shut. We discuss its resonances with the ongoing (neverending?) Jeffrey Epstein scandal, while also getting into some of its Freudian themes. We di...
102: God in His Wisdom Took you by the Hand
This week we are discussing the United State's "action" in Venezuela which led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. We go over the implications of this for US foreign policy moving forward, what this means for the future of Venezuela, wh...
101: You Crazy Diamond
This week we are talking about Stanley Kubrick's 1980 masterpiece, The Shining. We get into Kubrick's famous "beef" with Stephen King, the author of the novel upon which the film is based, while also discussing the several angles ...
100: Hundredth Episode Bonanza Spectacular
We did it. Somehow, we've made it to one hundred episodes. And this week we're going to celebrate by going over some of our favorite and least favorite movies from the first hundred, offering predictions on the future of American politics, and,...
99: Concrete Jungle
This week we are tackling 2007's I Am Legend, a film so bad not even Stu can pretend it is a "masterpiece." Much time is spent in pointing out the many problems with the main character's behaviors in the film (it stars Will Smith ...
98: With Arms Wide Open
This week we are revisiting a 2016 New Yorker profile of Sam Altman by Tad Friend for insight into how we got where we now are with regards to AI and its seeming inescapable ubiquity. The article is quite revelatory, as it shows u...
97: Interstellar Grace
This week we are discussing the Heaven's Gate cult, which famously brought about its own end through mass suicide in March of 1997 as the Hale-Bopp Comet sailed past the Earth. We discuss the group's origins in the "cultic milieu" of the early ...
96: I'm as Mad as Hell and I'm not Going to Take This Anymore
This week we are considering Sidney Lumet's 1976 classic Network. Written by acclaimed screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky and featuring an all-star cast, the film examines the breakdown of the supposed objectivity of the news media in a...
95: In a Silk Suit Tryin' not to Sweat
This week we are tackling Kathryn Bigelow's 2025 film A House of Dynamite which deals with one of our "favorite" nightmare scenarios, namely, a nuclear missile of unknown origin being fired at a major American city. We analyze the...
