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Space the Nation

Space the Nation

259 episodes

1 week ago

On Space the Nation, we take our love of science fiction (and fantasy and horror) and smash it together with our professional passions: international relations (as brought to the table by Tufts University professor and Washington Post columnist Dan Drezner) and cultural criticism (as brought to the table by political columnist Ana Marie Cox). It's a highly informed but hilarious conversation that starts with an examination of a particular text (everything from Ursula K. LeGuin to the MCU, Star Trek to Colson Whitehead) and veers into current events, mental health practices and imagined conversations between Ted Cruz and the Predator. For people who like white papers and graphic novels, Chapo Trap House and what Political Science Twitter used to be.

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Society & Culture,

All content for Space the Nation is the property of Space the Nation and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

On Space the Nation, we take our love of science fiction (and fantasy and horror) and smash it together with our professional passions: international relations (as brought to the table by Tufts University professor and Washington Post columnist Dan Drezner) and cultural criticism (as brought to the table by political columnist Ana Marie Cox). It's a highly informed but hilarious conversation that starts with an examination of a particular text (everything from Ursula K. LeGuin to the MCU, Star Trek to Colson Whitehead) and veers into current events, mental health practices and imagined conversations between Ted Cruz and the Predator. For people who like white papers and graphic novels, Chapo Trap House and what Political Science Twitter used to be.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Show more...

Society & Culture,

Episodes (20/259)

Space the Nation

Ana and Dan get the high scores on Galactic Narcissists and check out the middle entry in this middling franchise. There's some interesting stuff about non-attachment that gets promptly disregarded for Plot Reasons and also a hot program that who will later go on to direct Don't Worry Darling, a movie with exactly as much insight into video games as this one. Not much IR in this movie.

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6 days ago

1 hour 16 minutes 52 seconds

Space the Nation

EXTRA: THE ANDOR MOMENT

"I have friends everywhere." How does a quote from a Star Wars prequel wind up the unofficial slogan for a national movement? Indivisible's Ezra Levin joins Ana for a special Dan-less episode to talk about how Andor infiltrated anti-Trump protests and who he'll be cosplaying as on Halloween.

Find out about the No Kings protest near you here.

Remember this: Try.

There is IR in this podcast

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2 weeks ago

26 minutes 37 seconds

Space the Nation

Ana and Dan challenge each other to a round of Space Paranoids, the hit video game kids are into these days! It's the summer of Tron: Ares and so we're diving into the surprisingly light movie footprint of the franchise. It's the second-best Bruce Boxleitner movie you'll see all year! There's a bit of IR in this movie

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3 weeks ago

1 hour 10 minutes 44 seconds

Space the Nation

Ana and Dan look great in light-wash Levis and a varsity jacket. This well-loved movie is both an instructive artifact of a different era and a timeless classic, much like it's anchoring star. There's not much science fiction (besides Redford's magical charm) but lots of IR. RIP to a real one.

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4 weeks ago

1 hour 12 minutes 26 seconds

Space the Nation

ALIEN: COVENANT

Ana and Dan land on an Earth-like planet and don't think it's suspicious at all. Touch things! Don't wear masks! What could go wrong? Part of our comprehensive coverage of the Alien franchise (by which I mean, I made Dan watch it), Alien: Covenant is notable mainly for Ridley Scott's surface-level capitulation to audience wishes (more xenomorph, less God stuff!) while still engineering a sizeable "f--- you" into the subtext. Also, Michael Fassbender fingers his flute. There is some IR in this movie.

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4 weeks ago

1 hour 10 minutes 26 seconds

Space the Nation

Ana and Dan prefer the prison planet, thank you. Ana coaxed Dan into watching the Alien franchise entry once praised by Vox as "far from the worst Alien movie!" Now, I owe him a "Buckaroo Banzai" or something. There is not much international relations in this movie, but Weyland-Yutani ordered the inclusion of a critique of capitalism.

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1 month ago

1 hour 12 minutes 14 seconds

Space the Nation

Dan and Ana tear the slicer off a paper-cutter (which are still necessary in the year 2120) and enter into battle with a newly speedy xenomorph. There are many other creepy crawlies and just as many unwise corporate decisions. Cats beware.

Ana is just making it out of Covid.

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1 month ago

1 hour 53 seconds

Space the Nation

WE KNOW WHAT WE DID LAST SUMMER (2025)

Dan and Ana take you on a trip through their summer media consumption, including The Last of Us second season, Blindsight, Murderbot, Foundation, Strange New Worlds and many more! Just in time for a week past Labor Day!

(Ana had Covid.)

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1 month ago

1 hour 4 minutes 57 seconds

Space the Nation

WAR OF THE WORLDS (2025)

Ana and Dan settle into their computer screens for this time capsule of 2020 cinema, a "screenlife" take on H.G. Wells' public-domain IP. Gen X viewers will appreciate Ice Cube's Big Dad Energy and... it's very GIF-able? Watch the GIFs, not the movie. There's shockingly little IR in this movie.

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2 months ago

1 hour 12 minutes 25 seconds

Space the Nation

FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS

Dan and Ana are back! Perhaps you've heard a little something about the (latest) movie intended to relaunch the Marvel brand. It's worked out so well that three weeks after its release, you may have already decided not to see it! (As many people have.)

Apologies for the delay—late capitalism, travel, heat death of the universe, etc.

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2 months ago

1 hour 24 minutes 33 seconds

Space the Nation

ENCORE ENCORE: EVENT HORIZON

We've released this a couple of times; it's one of our favorite episodes about one of our favorite movies. It is now not just old enough to drink, but also to have regrets about their first serious relationship and realize they'll never be able to buy a house. Welcome to hell!

(Sam Neill, Laurence Fishburne, Jason Isaacs, and one of the wildest deleted scene stories you will hear your entire life.)

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2 months ago

45 minutes 52 seconds

Space the Nation

Ana and Dan are into Peak Mid-Aughts: Spoon, the early seasons of the Office, books that are histories of a single consumer product, political blogs, and this version of the Fantastic Four. This single movie proves that history is not over, culture keeps changing, Chris's keep evolving.

There is IR in this movie and no critique of capitalism.

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3 months ago

1 hour 18 minutes 33 seconds

Space the Nation

SUPERMAN (2025)

Ana and Dan are the real punk rock. We talk Space Lex mugs, corporate hero squads, the carceral logic of pocket universes, and why showing people evacuating with their pets could be James Gunn's greatest contribution to the genre. There is IR in this movie.

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3 months ago

1 hour 12 minutes 18 seconds

Space the Nation

SUPERMAN (1978)

Ana and Dan will never ask you to guess what color underwear they have on. They talk about Marlon Brando’s floating green bagel, the moral clarity of a Kansas upbringing, Lex Luthor as the über–rentier class supervillain, and why 1970s journalism might’ve been the last honest institution in cinema. Also: Is Superman the least traumatized superhero in the American metahuman pantheon? There is IR in this movie.

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3 months ago

1 hour 15 minutes 43 seconds

Space the Nation

Ana and Dan will not rescue you if you're not back by high tide. This is not the economical, revolutionary filmmaking of 28 Days Later; it is also not the clumsy genre exercise of 28 Weeks Later. Unlike 28 Months Later, it does exist. The politics are a little confused, the performances are excellent, and we disagreed about the overall quality. There's most definitely IR in this movie.

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4 months ago

1 hour 28 minutes 31 seconds

Space the Nation

An arthouse hit gets a safer sequel

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4 months ago

55 minutes 3 seconds

Space the Nation

ENCORE: 28 DAYS LATER

In this re-release of a patron episode for all listeners, Ana and Dan introduce their infamous 28 Days Later recording with a surprisingly lighthearted (and at times weirdly funny) conversation about personal triggers they’ve encountered while making this podcast—especially in relation to 28 Days Later—and how those flashpoints have, somehow, deepened their friendship.

Content warning: Discussion includes sexual assault and, in a way, antisemitism.

Original description:

Ana and Dan scrutinize Danny Boyle’s art-house zombie movie—one Dan could lecture on blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back. A debate: Is twenty-eight days long enough for society to give up hope and revert to a pure state of nature? How long do you have to be fighting zombies before you become like them? There is IR in this movie.

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4 months ago

1 hour 11 minutes 40 seconds

Space the Nation

Ana and Dan and Bob find their shame rooms and do the podcast from there. We liked this movie! All superhero movies are about trauma, but this one is about Trauma—a darkness leavened by the charm of its stars. There is a bit of IR in this movie.

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4 months ago

1 hour 6 minutes 54 seconds

Space the Nation

Ana and Dan will have the pickled garlic, thank you. A wildly inventive and expertly made popcorn movie, with sympathies for a few devils and more lore than you can shake a guitar at. There is IR and an implicit critique of a particular form of capitalism in this movie.

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5 months ago

1 hour 22 minutes 38 seconds

Space the Nation

ENCORE: ROGUE ONE

From the heady days of May 2022: Dan and Ana would have the pilot give the plans directly to the rebels, but decide to watch the movie anyway. Can you make a great movie entirely premised on a retcon? Does it take extremists to goad rebellions into action? How would Adorno feel about all this? There is IR in this movie.

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5 months ago

55 minutes 21 seconds