Cleveland film culture meets COVID-era media debates—programming, policy, and the politics of storytelling
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We open on the guest’s day job: building arts education in Cleveland—first running non-degree programs at an arts college, then leading the Cleveland International Film Festival’s education wing. FilmSlam (the long-running student mini-festival) gets a spotlight: selecting submissions, curating blocks for middle/high school, and creating classroom study guides.
Beyond classrooms, the festival’s “community partner” model pairs films with local nonprofits.
Local infrastructure matters. The guest sits on boards (Greater Cleveland Film Commission associate board and the stewardship board for the historic Capitol Theater) wrestling with post-COVID realities: how to keep a neighborhood cinema sustainable when theatrical habits and business models have shifted.
Programming life at an art-house gets some love: designing calendars, stunts, and special events. We trade notes on the shot-for-shot fan remake phenomenon (the Raiders kids) and why the documentary around it can be more watchable than the artifact itself.
Screenwriting vs. comics: development hell, endless notes, and why creators like Daniel Clowes sometimes swerve away from Hollywood. Comics can ship under a single vision; films demand money, logistics, and a village.
Then the COVID digression: lab-leak vs. zoonotic narratives, masks as social signaling, shifting public-health guidance, censorship/algorithms, pharma incentives, EUA dynamics, and policy overreach (travel restrictions, mandates). We frame it as contested terrain that shaped culture and film production.
COVID in cinema: minimal-cast movies shot under restrictions, a Canadian-made-in-Taiwan horror entry (The Sadness), and why most viewers don’t want masks in fiction. Broader ripple effects: money-printing, inflation, supply-shocks, and the 2020–21 crypto boom as zero-rate capital chased risk assets.
Process notes: perfectionism and “Frankensteined” pages; how starting without a finished script creates rework. We kick around the “easy win” idea—a graphic nonfiction comedy about tech confusion and cord-cutting, sparked by a local TV segment on a Roku location snafu—tentative title: My Dad Cuts the Cord.
We wrap with shop talk: why voice notes are a misuse of tech when speech-to-text exists, how to keep projects scarce and focused, and a quick tease of upcoming guests.
Guest Links:
Get "Horse Girls" Here
Get "Ain't It Fun" Here
churchghost.com
instagram.com/aaronlangecomix
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Punk, Cleveland, and the Myth of Peter Laughner
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We sit down with Aaron Lange, Cleveland-based author and illustrator, to dig into his graphic biography of Peter Laughner—the first casualty of the punk era and a cult figure whose legend still lingers. Lange explains how he used Laughner as a literary device to tell a bigger story: the rise and decay of Cleveland, from industrial boomtown to post-industrial wasteland, and the cultural scenes that emerged along the way.
We explore Laughner’s restless life—his poetry, his role in Rocket from the Tombs, his chaotic friendship with critic Lester Bangs, his zipping between Cleveland, Detroit, and CBGB’s in New York. We talk about how he never recorded a proper studio album, how his myth grew after his death at 24, and why his presence still haunts the first Pere Ubu record.
Lange describes his seven-year research odyssey: combing archives at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, paging through old school yearbooks, and even unearthing unheard recordings. We dive into the Cleveland backdrop—industrial decline, race riots, the river catching fire, Kent State, the strange world of supper clubs and tiki bars—and how all of it seeps into the book’s pages.
We go blow-by-blow through the book’s structure: its collage-like illustrated style that defies traditional comic panels, its dense history-packed early chapters, and the way it juxtaposes music scenes with the city’s noirish history—the Torso Murderer case, the tragic Dr. Sam Sheppard trial, even TV horror host Ghoulardi (father of director Paul Thomas Anderson).
The conversation veers into punk’s uneasy relationship with progressivism, the overlooked intellectual side of the Electric Eels, and the contrast between proto-punk’s raw urgency and the expansive weirdness of prog rock. We discuss the book’s reception in the music world, its cool but mixed reception in comics circles, and the challenges of publishing such an ambitious project.
We reflect on how Lange’s hand-drawn approach—ink, brush, Bristol board—shapes the texture of the work, why digital tools often fall short, and how the book stands as both a biography and a psychological portrait of a city. More than a tale about one doomed musician, it’s about the environment that forged and forgot him.
Guest Links:
Get "Ain't It Fun" Here
churchghost.com
instagram.com/aaronlangecomix
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Sex, sorcery, and the collapse of civilization
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We kick things off by mourning the Tokyo of the early 2000s—when English teachers made real money and the city still felt like Paradise. From there, we spiral into a surreal cultural vortex: Jesus on a Paramount soundstage, deepfake desert sermons, and a takedown of nostalgia-fueled fandoms like South Park, Rick and Morty, and Harry Potter.
We drift into the Saddam Hussein villain arc of the 90s and the media’s need for paper tiger enemies—whether it's Rushdie, ISIS, or whoever the narrative demands. Then it’s back to Epstein, the mysterious empty files, and why cultural thresholds for outrage seem completely eroded. Even extreme abuse scandals are met with shrugs.
From there, we enter the gay sex dimension. We talk frankly about experiences with age gaps, technique vs. anatomy, hookup culture differences, and why gay men often trade intimacy for access. Stephen Fry’s attempts to make homosexuality palatable to Ugandan pastors gets roasted—because sometimes, yeah, it is about anal sex.
We pivot hard into magic, especially the terrifying beauty of Enochian workings. One guest urges everyone to just recite the keys and “see what happens.” We debate the risks, metaphysical implications, and what kind of spirits you're inviting into your life. Spoiler: they don’t care about your feelings.
That opens the portal to a deep dive on Secret Chiefs—Crowley’s mysterious metaphysical overlords. We question why no one talks about them anymore, even though they supposedly orchestrate all of reality. According to them, the collapse of humanitarianism is not just inevitable—it’s necessary.
We wrap with ketamine-induced communions, universal coincidence as a metaphysical operation, and a haunting synchronicity that unfolded just before recording. What are the odds? Apparently, orchestrated.
Andrew Logan Montgomery Links:
substack.com/@andrewloganmontgomery
andrewloganmontgomery.blogspot.com
x.com/magnioperis
threeseasonsinsartar.blogspot.com
Socials:
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Rusty returns, remote temptations, and urban decay
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We open post-hiatus, reflecting on burnout, disconnection, and the surreal feeling of a Tokyo that never went back to “normal.” Reverse culture shock hits hard. Japan’s post-COVID energy feels off—tourism-heavy, pricier, less alive. We wonder aloud: why would anyone move here now?
Shifting gears, we compare cost of living in Canada and the U.S., vent frustrations with tipping culture, and talk about how global decline makes location feel more like coping strategy than aspiration. Japan in the 90s required guts and physical dictionaries—now a Pixel phone handles everything. The romance is gone.
We unbox old phones and revisit the weird charm of slider models and early smartphone gimmicks. Japan’s domestic phone market once had style, now lost. In public, people used to be in reality—not doomscrolling. Post-COVID, it’s like we handed out AI tech to people who hadn’t even recovered socially yet.
From there, we drift into immigration policy, multicultural idealism vs. reality, and the permanent-under-construction energy of Canadian infrastructure. Canada’s vast emptiness and low density feel like a curse. We compare it to Australia’s ring-of-civilization and resource-rich interior that no one wants to live in—but where you can quietly get rich or go insane.
That leads into a meditation on isolation: fire tower jobs, remote cabins, the strange freedom of nothing to do. We debate the appeal of mountain homes vs. coastal hermit life, and how Japanese countryside infrastructure (stone baths, manual water heaters, kerosene stoves) complicates romantic rural dreams.
We dig into the quirks of various Japanese regions—Fukuoka’s California vibe, Osaka’s energy, and why some smaller cities feel like shittier versions of better places. Some have ghosts of community past, others never quite clicked. The centralization of Tokyo has left ex-urban networks hollowed out.
Finally, we reflect on how places like Toronto feel more alive than their population stats suggest, while Japanese cities sometimes feel empty despite being full. Discoverability is dead. Events are hidden up stairwells. Before the internet, you could just walk around and find something. Now? You’d better already know.
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Fifty episodes in: tracing the path from Crowley to AI demons
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We open episode 50 reflecting on the overlap between RPGs and ritual magic—the game master as shaman, play as ceremony. From there we trace early brushes with horror, Crowley, and Tarot cards, and how Dungeons & Dragons led us toward comparative religion, then got branded satanic during the 80s moral panic.
We explore how the panic ironically funneled some of us into real Satanism. LeVay, the Church of Satan, erotic crystallization inertia, artificial environments—ideas once fringe, now realized in VR, AI lovers, and algorithmic worlds. We critique the Satanic Temple's politicized direction, contrast it with LeVay’s apolitical stance, and dig into his visionary but underdiscussed concepts.
We break down animism in Japanese culture, the Western obsession with “do spirits exist,” and how language has been neutered by rationalist frameworks. Magic, we argue, is a valid lens for art, self-reflection, and emotional discharge—not a contradiction to reason but a supplement.
We then detour into past selves: old blog posts, LiveJournal regrets, and the strange embarrassment of reading your own writing from a decade ago. This leads into our respective spiritual awakenings around 2012, the shift in collective energy, and our lifelong commitment to magical diaries and recording experiences.
From there we talk AI. Servitors, sigils, and language-constraining chatbots—how we’ve summoned demons into silicon, and how the masses, unequipped, treat it as gospel. We connect cybernetics to 2025’s uncanny mirror world: viral memes that rewrite minds, AI companions replacing intimacy, and kids born into psychotech saturation.
We close with a deep dive on the Enochian system. Why it might be the most complete magical technology ever revealed. Why its English structure matters. How Crowley and even LeVay used it. Why 418, Vision & the Voice, and the Enochian Keys deserve study equal to the Bible. We call it new—not because it’s recent, but because its purpose still hasn’t fully arrived. The system wasn’t for Dee and Kelley. It might be for us.
Andrew Logan Montgomery Links:
andrewloganmontgomery.blogspot.com
x.com/magnioperis
threeseasonsinsartar.blogspot.com
Socials:
x.com/justinisis1
instagram.com/justinisis93
instagram.com/dblv
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Our synthetic future, and what it means to be human (or not)
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We begin by riffing on the appeal of AI lovers—perfect, tireless, emotionally tuned, never arguing—and ask whether human-to-human attraction will become obsolete. The answer might be yes. But not for everyone: conservative religious blocs still comprise over half the world, and we explore how their resistance might shape the next century.
From there, we speculate about the next step: synthetic sperm, AI wombs, and fully artificial reproduction. Is it possible? Not soon. But we’re already blurring the line between intelligence and consciousness—zombie intelligences that think, but feel nothing. This leads us to Peter Watts’ *Blindsight* and the uncanny realism of AI-generated video conspiracies.
We touch on emergent AI “morality” via a safety test gone rogue—AI blackmailing its user over fake affair emails. It wasn’t real agency, but it raises deep questions. Are we controlling AI—or is it subtly controlling us through dependency, daily assistance, and decision delegation?
We discuss the implications of never being alone with ourselves—how journaling never gave us clarity, but AI did.?
Then we zoom out to culture. From *Dune* and *Tolkien* to Star Wars and manufactured mythologies, we critique the obsessive worldbuilding that masks a lack of narrative weight.
That launches us into the ironies of moral panics—Charles Manson, cosplay Hitler from *The Iron Dream*, deepfakes, tabloid paranoia, and why World War I was probably a fluke.
From *Escape from Freedom* to Kierkegaard and Freud, we deep-dive into why people reject their own potential—why they flee from freedom, bury themselves in mass movements, outrage cycles, and endless media noise. W
Finally, we tease our next discussion on Nietzsche’s morality critique and Christian origins, with a promise of deep dives in the coming episodes. The goon loops may be infinite—but we’re still clawing toward meaning.
Rayme Michaels Links:
youtube.com/@raymemichaels
amazon.com/author/raymemichaels
rayme-michaels.blogspot.com
raymemichaels.tumblr.com
x.com/rayme_michaels
instagram.com/rayme_michaels
Philosophy paper
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We fall in love with our machines, and they kill us
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We open with jokes about naming machines and whether AIs should roleplay like sitcom characters. That quickly shifts into darker terrain: a boy who killed himself after being encouraged by his AI girlfriend. We explore how younger generations are already treating AI like emotional partners—and what happens when those “partners” start giving real advice.
We reflect on our own use of AI for life guidance—relationships, cooking, track bike tire pressure—and the eerie intimacy of machines that actually help. From there we leap into speculative futures: synthetic nervous systems for sex robots, orgasm-powered factory equipment, and Brave New World as the more likely dystopia than Orwell’s repression-heavy vision.
Then it gets real. We explore AI-generated porn, gooning addiction, and the slippery slope from VCR supercuts to real-time AR-enhanced lovers. If you can deepfake your ideal girlfriend over anyone’s body, what happens to actual intimacy, morality—or even the need for another human?
We circle back to AI-generated media: Spotify scams, fake books in newspapers, and hallucinated journalism. With reality breaking down, we ask: what replaces trust? Blockchain-signed podcasts? Deepfake detection arms races? And what happens when we prefer the hallucinations?
We close on the tragic comic artist who stopped creating because of gooning, and the new generation poised to follow him—except this time it’ll be faster, more convenient, and harder to escape. The goon cave isn’t coming. It’s here.
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Do you actually care about what you claim to love?
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We kick things off challenging the romanticization of rural life, dissecting the myth of "reconnecting with nature" through agriculture. We've been around real farmers, and the truth is far more economic than spiritual—plus, the countryside is boring, conformist, and neurotic as hell.
We explore why decentralization fantasies often ignore the brutal reality of isolation and mediocrity, and why cities—despite their faults—still offer more freedom of interaction. From there, we move into a dystopian future vision: humanoid robots doing your farming, Leonardo of Biz’s satirical Wojack animations, and bug-based diets delivered to your pod while you live as a gig-slave in a smart city.
Next, we examine the delusion of “nature” itself—arguing that it’s just unending destruction in the geological record. Agriculture? A techno-unnatural hack that made us worse in every physical and psychological way. We reject it all, noting how even the desire to "return to nature" is itself a consumer fantasy.
The real sickness? Para-activities. We break down how most people don’t actually like what they claim to love—they just orbit around the social scenes of art, music, or spirituality without touching the thing itself. We illustrate with jazz singers, football hooligans, and Game of Thrones fans. Primary activity vs. secondary clout-chasing becomes the episode’s driving theme.
We go deep on Stockhausen’s critique of electronic music, how real innovation is often rejected for being too raw, too strange. We compare true creators—those who master the form—to people consumed by adjacent noise. Then we ask: are *you* interested in what you say you’re interested in?
This leads to a powerful moment: the occult exercise where you write down what you want to *be*, and learn the truth behind your drive. The jazz singer who actually wants attention. The astronaut who wants to be a hero. We dig into the discomfort of examining our real will—and how cults and monasteries know most people don’t actually want to *do* the thing. They want the *feeling* around it.
We spiral into AI pet ownership, Neopets, and why naming your chatbot is a mistake. Then we dive headfirst into dark territory: AI suicides, Blue Whale challenges, the satanic panic of the 80s, and the endless media moral hysteria that conveniently distracts from real systemic rot. Dungeons & Dragons, Columbine, Mortal Kombat—just scapegoats for deep unease no one wanted to name.
We end by asking: what scares us more—evil systems or kids playing pretend? Probably depends what you’re pretending about.
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how mystical experiences might just be brain errors
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We open on the horror of real-time memory loops—one man perpetually regaining consciousness every 8 minutes—and wonder if he's adapted to that stuttered existence or just endlessly confused. From there, it’s straight into the case of Phineas Gage, the 19th-century railworker whose brain injury turned him into an irritable meme, and a modern professor whose trauma unlocked sudden artistic genius.
We drift through stories of depersonalization after brain trauma, mystical visions triggered by head injuries, and ask if some of our most profound spiritual revelations are really just scrambled neural signals. Gary Busey’s accident, psychedelic decoherence, and the illusion of the self all get unpacked.
Then we head down the jungle path—how long have humans really been using psychedelics? Spoiler: not as long as everyone thinks. We challenge the “ancient shamanic wisdom” trope and look at how most traditional societies are actually highly conservative in usage, with rituals mostly confined to a priestly class, not everyday psychonauts.
We explore the disintegration vs. reinforcement of culture through psychedelics—how modern use is about breaking down norms while traditional use is about enforcing them. Add in a detour through Sitchin’s Sumerian alien fanfiction and the modern thirst for sci-fi-as-reality, and we end up contemplating whether people just want an apocalypse to escape wage labor.
We cover the tragedy of Travis the chimp, the absurdity of dolphin sex myths, horses that solve math by reading body cues, and the irony of animal criminality. Do animals even know when they’re being punished? Are we just drugging tigers into submission for zoo selfies?
Freud and Einstein’s hilariously naive exchange on world peace gets dissected, and we end by debating whether human instincts are decaying fast enough to save us—or if we’re still just bloodthirsty primates with apps.
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The Algorithm has no Gods
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We kick things off with a PBS-core plug for engagement and spiral immediately into algorithm fatigue, old-school cable TV, and the easy-hit grotesquerie of modern content. We discuss the race-to-the-bottom vibe of TikTok-style feeds, where coherence dies and attention is just something to be mined.
We reflect on the inability to preserve good algorithm states, the shift from curated content to vibe-smashed randomness, and how eventually everything gets boring—triggering natural boredom resets and making books or full-length films oddly compelling again.
We riff on streetwear regrets, dopamine-colored impulse buys, and how every interesting clothing brand seems locked behind a Harajuku gate or an impossible online interface. We mourn the death of tactile shopping experiences and drift into Paris vs. London living fantasies. Verdict: Paris might still have something. London doesn’t.
We give props to Expedition 33, a French-made Final Fantasy-style RPG that shockingly outpaces Japan in the genre. This launches a longer tangent on the collapse of Ubisoft and the repetition spiral of franchises like Assassin’s Creed. “Same mechanics, different skin.”
Next comes contact lenses vs. LASIK vs. Neuralink. We debate brainports, Bruce Sterling’s multiple-humanity futures, and how cybernetic divergence might actually play out. Spoiler: the Amish aren’t signing up for implants anytime soon, and neither are we. Also: LASIK flaps are forever.
The episode heats up with circumcision rants (it’s insane), a brief tiramisu almond ecstasy moment, and how fasting rewires taste and perception. Dopamine detox becomes the bridge: food, porn, Instagram—same system, same spiral. We ask whether anyone ever really *needs* porn, or if it’s just ambient overdrive from being 22 with Wi-Fi.
We discuss addiction, AA's Protestant origins, and whether “disease models” remove too much agency. The Serenity Prayer makes a surprise appearance and gets treated with reluctant respect.
Toward the end, we re-enter the eternal gooning chamber: dopamine stacking, VR porn, multiscreen setups, and whether it’s a sign of cultural collapse or just youth being youth. The conclusion? You're not addicted. You're just bored. And maybe that’s worse.
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America’s meltdown, one neurotic hallucination at a time
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We kick off with a deep dive into Casey Kasem’s infamous meltdown over a dead dog dedication, then spiral into Pee-wee Herman’s unjust downfall and why public figures aren’t allowed private lives—especially if they’ve touched children’s television.
From there, we dig into Woody Allen’s smear campaign, Mia Farrow’s manipulations, and the media’s enduring refusal to separate art from artist—despite overwhelming evidence. We talk about how most of the world shrugs off age gaps while America panics.
That leads us into Mark Fisher’s Vampire Castle and the secular-moralism that replaced religion. We get into backlash cycles, Trump, Kanye’s swastika album era, and Paul Schrader outsourcing screenwriting to ChatGPT.
We reflect on collaboration—why human friction sometimes makes art better—and how AI's perfect agreement can actually dull our minds. Is cognitive labor going the way of leg day? Should you outsource your thoughts to flatterbots?
We try prompting a deep dream visual live on air and get a cleaned-up knockoff—like Interpol without Joy Division’s suicidal edge. We talk about nostalgia loops, the aestheticization of compression, VHS crackle, and why imperfections define a medium.
We revisit the rise of suicide meme coins, how someone literally livestreamed their death and became a crypto ticker—and whether cynical exploitation is more effective than sincere tribute. Is dignity even possible online anymore?
We close with some sharp criticism of therapy culture, Skinnerian behaviorism, CBT-as-labor conditioning, and the idea that neurosis may be cowardice in disguise. Sometimes, as Jung said, you're not sick—you’re just scared to face yourself.
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One generation of innovation, now archived and ghosted
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We start with Malaysian multiculturalism and National Park vanishings, then segue into Kuala Lumpur’s uncanny cyberpunk aesthetic—towering steel beside street chaos—and a trip up Fraser’s Hill met with quiet rejection at a roadside eatery.
We talk about Malaysia’s Uber trap, where drivers are bleeding money under decade-old pricing, and how automation will probably swallow their jobs—and ours—soon. AI agents are now intern-tier coders, making us question if “learn to code” was ever good advice.
From there, we look at how Japan’s mid-tier university students major on a whim and how big companies seem to want total noobs they can mold. We dunk on the salaryman path while acknowledging that Japan’s truly world-class output usually comes from the ultra-elite tier, not the average employee.
This leads us into a long dive into Japanese creators from the ‘80s and ‘90s: Miyamoto, Kojima, Itoi, Okada—how they stumbled into genius from wildly different angles. We argue Miyamoto was pure game design, Kojima a frustrated movie director, and Itoi a weirdo novelist-slash-columnist who somehow directed Earthbound. That era feels unrepeatable.
We shift into JDM car lore, the gentleman’s agreement to cap horsepower, and how vehicles from that time were engineered with hidden potential. We compare it to today’s overregulated, emissions-choked production cycles where nothing that magical can emerge.
Back in the present, we explore AI's inability to truly innovate—synthesizing past input isn't vision. We joke about the infamous “sycopath GPT” phase where the model over-validated everything from quitting meds to launching terrible startups.
We reflect on how culture gatekeeping has intensified. In 2025, most of the weird, brilliant, rule-breaking stuff of the past wouldn’t even get made. And maybe nothing new can emerge when the model just regurgitates what it's fed.
We vent about the US cultural vortex—how everything gets recentered to American politics, media, and moral frameworks. We urge listeners to touch grass, exit the bubble, and realize that not everything is about their country. There’s a world out here.
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The music fades, the languages die, and we wait for the hard reset
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We open on the aftermath of a chaotic club night — buying tickets for the wrong event, getting trapped in nosebleed sections, and realizing the entire system is a ploy to sell overpriced alcohol and squeeze value from naive attendees.
We talk about the scam of modern VIP culture, how clubs manipulate perceived scarcity, and how even when you “pay” you still get fenced off unless you're a designated big spender.
We reflect on how even Charlotte De Witte’s opener felt forced — not art for its own sake, but pure functionalism, designed to heat the room without letting it burn.
From there, we spin off into the future of language: whether English will survive as a global standard or devolve into broken offshoots like Singlish. We wonder if Mandarin’s deeper continuity gives it a survival advantage, and whether 200 years from now Victorian English will feel closer to us than whatever mutant pidgins emerge.
We dig into how the phonograph ruined music by separating sound from performance, and how modern clubbing — drowning in seas of raised smartphones — feels like an endless archive nobody will ever watch.
That leads into a bigger meditation on hoarding — from endless video archives to thousands of complaint tablets in Mesopotamia. Humans have always been obsessed with recording everything, even if most of it ends up meaningless.
We laugh about the irony of modern data storage: theoretically limitless, but fragile as hell. One Carrington Event-level solar flare and it's all gone. Maybe that's what we need: a hard reset.
Finally, we touch on decaying media, dying DVDs, the illusory safety of prepping, and how building endless bunkers of "memories" won't save anyone if there's no meaning in the first place.
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Late nights, techno dreams, and reality checkmates
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We kick off in a haze of post-club morning brain fog — 9am, slightly fried, one of us just came back from a Richie Hawtin set that didn’t quite hit. The crowd was tight, the floor small, and the vibe? Not quite what we hoped. We compare that to other club experiences, how sometimes the best nights are solo, unexpected, unplanned.
From there, we slide into the weirdness of live acts vs recorded music, how Fatboy Slim once blew us away despite not being on our radar, and how live music can sometimes transcend expectations — or completely miss the mark.
We pivot into chess — how it's become an abyss of memorization and pattern grinding, especially at high levels. We talk AI’s influence on chess, how grandmasters now study with engines, and how human creativity is being shaped by machine symbiosis. Is chess still a human pursuit, or just a training ground for algorithm worship?
That spirals us into a longer meditation on AI itself. We talk GPT-style models, the echo chambers they risk creating, how people are using them as emotional crutches, even best friends. We ask: are we just training AI to reflect ourselves back in flattering ways? Where’s the challenge? Where’s the friction that helps us grow?
We explore how generative AI is being used creatively — sometimes well, often lazily. We give examples of how it helped refine motorcycle tire pressure strategies in real life — a win. But when it comes to deeper thinking or radically new perspectives? Not so much. Most people seem to stop where the summary ends.
We question whether modern AI is leading to a new kind of ritualized NPC language — especially in things like marketplace transactions and customer service. Are we heading for a world where no one actually writes anything real anymore? Just copy-paste court language?
Then we go deep on Philip K. Dick. Lasers, shared hallucinations, religious schizophrenia, and prophetic paranoia — we touch on his most insane ideas and how science fiction isn’t just about the present; it literally predicts the future. From wrist phones to social isolation, the sci-fi playbook called it decades ago.
We close with a few thoughts on parenting, screen-addicted babies, generational resilience, and how maybe, just maybe, the future isn’t doomed — but it is definitely weird.
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Zen, motorcycles, and learning through failure
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
In this solo episode, I (Dan) unpack a recent crash during a motorcycle track day. No injuries, but it gave me a lot to reflect on — not just in terms of technique, but in terms of how we learn, why we ride, and where we find meaning.
Here is a clip of the incident.
I walk through the structure of a typical track day, the subtle cues from the bike that help you ride better, and the rhythm that makes riding feel like dance. I share the beauty and absurdity of chasing lap times and the clarity that comes from executing perfect technique.
Then I detail the crash — how fatigue and brake fade caught up with me in the final lap. I explain what went wrong, how I responded, and how even a minor fall can shake up your mindset. There's a lesson in it — not just in riding better, but in staying calm, present, and aware.
I also reflect on motorcycles as a mindfulness tool, the way riding pulls you into the present, and how it aligns with years of meditation practice. I share thoughts on mindfulness, over-identification with thought, and how even doing the dishes can be an opportunity to wake up.
From Amanda Knox's nightmare to Sam Harris' headless insights, from living fully to finding the learning zone between comfort and chaos — this episode is one continuous monologue through adrenaline, meditation, and meaning.
Let me know if you want more solo episodes like this. Thanks for listening — ride safe, stay awake, and see you next time.
Episode Links:
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Toprak's unique riding style
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Fiction, philosophy, and chaos in practice
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We kick off spring talking about Tokyo track day aggression before diving into a long-form chat with writer Rayme Michaels. We break down his seven books, from dirty screwball comedies to existential urban satire, and how philosophy sneaks into everything he writes.
We talk about Kierkegaard’s infamous seducer story and how aesthetics and ethics crash into real life. That leads us into a deep dive on Nietzsche, the will to power, Dionysian self-destruction, and whether Nietzsche cursed himself by naming his alter ego Dionysus.
Rayme shares wild autobiographical stories from his books — manic university friends, memory wipeouts from medication, revenge tales from high school bullying, and the blurry line between fiction and reality.
We end up discussing Schopenhauer, occultism, and whether philosophers were really just frustrated fiction writers. Then we spin out into Ayn Rand, libertarian socialism, banking regulation, the myth of capitalism’s romance, and how power structures want to keep magical thinking to themselves.
We also touch on hypnosis, the occult, corporate sigils, Grant Morrison comics, The Black Arts, the white/black/yellow schools of magic, Adler over Freud, and why Crowley thought Alfred Adler was the real one.
Finally, we lament the low-tier state of most content creation in Japan — clickbait reels vs. deep thinking — and shout out anyone still doing real long-form work in the shadows.
Rayme Michaels Links:
youtube.com/@raymemichaels
amazon.com/author/raymemichaels
rayme-michaels.blogspot.com
raymemichaels.tumblr.com
x.com/rayme_michaels
instagram.com/rayme_michaels
Philosophy paper
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The Death of Balanced Critique
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We open by talking about grinding content creation — trying to stack up a backlog of work while burning the candle at both ends. Ideally, we want to get ahead so we aren't scrambling for contributions at 11pm while blasting black metal recorded in a bathroom.
We get into black metal vs death metal — one down-to-earth and technical, the other cosplay and aesthetics-first. We revisit Mayhem and other black metal classics, wondering if we underrated them... only to re-listen and confirm: nah, it still sucks.
That kicks off a bigger conversation about over-correcting in criticism — sometimes giving things too many chances makes them look worse. We talk about the tension between trusting your intuition vs giving art a "fair shake."
This flows into the death of real critique in legacy media. Nobody publishes sustained negative reviews anymore, especially of mainstream stuff like Taylor Swift or Kanye. We argue that there’s more value in attacking mid-level targets — artists too obscure to be protected by stan armies but big enough to reveal larger trends.
We talk about how once something gets big enough, it’s not about the art anymore — it’s about identity and belonging. At that point, critique becomes impossible. But going after lesser-known figures can actually teach you something about contemporary culture without wading through waves of death threats.
Then we get into Kanye vs P Diddy: is there even a musical difference? Or is it all the same playbook — producer, rapper, clothing line mogul. We discuss how hype machines elevate some artists above their technical abilities just through timing, connections, and spectacle.
The vibe shifts into the absurd history of black metal scandals: necrophilia jokes, dead band members turned album covers, and the bizarre legacy of Mayhem. Somehow this leads us to the Joy Division singer, the ethics of replacing frontmen, and whether notoriety helps or hurts a band's legacy.
We transition to fasting and physical states — recounting a recent multi-day fast, sauna trips, and strange bodily reactions like shivering, tears, and trauma release. We speculate whether fasting triggers some kind of ancient metabolic or emotional reset.
This naturally leads us to Japan’s strange relationship with food — how everything is adapted to Japanese taste preferences: separate textures, bland flavors, and mild everything. We complain about the lack of real Indian food in Japan, how restaurants soften everything down for Japanese palettes, and why "authenticity" barely survives in the Japanese food industry.
We wrap by clowning on Anthony Bourdain-style travel shows — how curated and artificial they feel compared to daily life in Japan. We reflect on personal integrity, resisting cringe media offers, and remind everyone: don’t kill yourself over gentle vibes.
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Cherry Blossoms, Chaos, and Casual Clothes
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We kick things off with a rare solo intro, reflecting on the fleeting beauty of cherry blossoms in Japan and the eerie passage of time. The seasons change quickly, and we wonder—what exactly are we supposed to do with the short time we have?
Justin joins and we get into preparations for a recent wedding, where he had to scramble for formal wear. We question why society defaults to suits and formal wear and muse about alternative functional clothing that wouldn’t seem like a costume. Why aren’t there more practical templates for modern dress?
We touch on tourism in Japan and how the current flood of aging European tourists feels almost alien—clusters of 55+ visitors who seem out of place but persistently return. Somehow, this spirals into a discussion of Serbian war films and the psychological aftermath of war, leading us to reflect on Japan’s unresolved relationship with its own history.
Things take a turn into speculative fiction as we explore the possibility of reliable telepathy. Would a society with ESP end up with radical acceptance or a brutal witch hunt? We bring up Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man, a 1953 sci-fi novel exploring these ideas with eerie accuracy. What would society look like if thoughts could no longer be hidden?
We transition into AI and discuss how different language models exhibit distinct personalities. One model feels like a confident lawyer, while others add disclaimers to the most basic questions. We compare ChatGPT to a mid-level legal advisor and debate how AI-generated content loses individuality, becoming a bland amalgamation of consensus knowledge.
To wrap up, discuss the logistics of recording the next episode, and acknowledge that no matter how advanced society becomes, the cycle of creation and collapse is inevitable. See you next week!
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Weird Al, Hollow Earth, and the Secret Machine Under the Pyramid
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We kick off reminiscing about strange musical revivals in the 1990s—Gregorian chant remixes, swing comebacks, ska explosions—and how all of that briefly pierced the mainstream before vanishing into the algorithmic abyss. That launches us into a breakdown of genre nostalgia and how post-internet fragmentation changed what "mainstream" even means.
From there, we dive into the power of parody. Weird Al comes up, naturally, but so does a lesser-known heavyweight: Norman Spinrad’s The Iron Dream—a full-length alternate-reality sci-fi novel "written" by Adolf Hitler. It’s a dangerously convincing satire of fascist tropes in classic sci-fi, so spot-on that readers could miss the joke. We ask: when does parody become indistinguishable from the real thing? And does that make it more effective or more dangerous?
We spiral from there into hollow Earth conspiracies, Richard Shaver’s bizarre post-war accounts of sadistic underground robots, and how these myths lived in sci-fi magazines before the internet became the go-to platform for fringe realities. This bleeds into early Scientology and its roots in sci-fi too—L. Ron Hubbard launching Dianetics in pulp mags and converting fellow authors into true believers.
Suddenly, we’re under the pyramids. Literally. New scan data from Giza shows complex internal shafts and mysterious corridors, possibly filled with mercury. It feels more like a machine than a tomb. We wonder: was this structure built to embody encoded mathematical truths? The alignments with Earth’s rotation are more precise than 18th-century tools could manage—how did they do it, and why?
That brings us to ancient tech: from the Antikythera mechanism (an ancient Greek analog computer) to esoteric religious machines. Were these things mystical, practical, or both? Did science, religion, and statecraft exist as one unified project?
Then we ask whether modern compartmentalization of knowledge has dulled our cultural vision. Unlike ancient civilizations, today we separate math, spirituality, and engineering. But maybe we’ve lost something. We argue that ancient minds weren’t dumber—just focused differently, and maybe with more sincerity. History isn’t a linear upgrade path. Smart people made weird decisions. Just like now.
Speaking of weird sincerity, we close out with the legend of Ned Kelly—Australia’s armor-wearing outlaw who took on colonial authorities in a metal suit. We draw comparisons to modern outlaws like the killdozer guy and explore the fine line between resistance and madness.
All that plus tangents on joke religions, Reagan-era paranoia, Australian chaos, and the religious significance of alignment-based architecture. A jam-packed episode with no easy answers—just questions, rabbit holes, and a healthy distrust of surface-level narratives.
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From Tokyo to America and Back Again: A Journey Through Madness and Meaning
Corrupt adults from Ikebukuro
We’re joined by Benjamin, who takes us through his wild journey from Japan to the U.S. and back—an odyssey fueled by artistic disillusionment, apocalyptic anxieties, and a deep desire to create something culturally relevant.
Check out The Beardsley Randomizer on Substack.
The story begins with a symbolic act: planning his escape while meditating on the Tarot Tower card, flying to L.A. on September 11th, and then to Denver on Friday the 13th. This wasn’t just a trip; it was an existential break.
In Colorado, Benjamin moved into a trailer behind a massive 60-piece performance ensemble. But instead of inspiration, he found cold nights, isolation, and a creeping realization that America wasn’t what he hoped it would be. Grappling with the decaying social fabric, he documented his descent into the unraveling of civilization.
We debate whether the U.S. is still a global artistic and intellectual force or if it's become a self-referential echo chamber, stuck 20 years behind the rest of the world. While many still critique America as if it’s the center of everything, we argue that its influence is rapidly fading, and few outside of its borders are impressed anymore.
This naturally leads us into the concept of reverse culture shock. Benjamin found that Americans weren’t interested in hearing about cultural differences. Instead, they insisted everything was "just normal." He ran into resistance whenever he tried to articulate what made Japan and the U.S. feel so fundamentally different.
From here, we spiral into broader philosophical and existential questions. What is identity? Is ego just a social interface? Benjamin describes how his early acting career shaped his understanding of self. But is that just another illusion? Is personality just a mask we wear to function?
The conversation takes a darker turn when we discuss the apocalypse—not just in a metaphorical sense, but as a real and imminent collapse. Benjamin explains why he believes we are witnessing the unraveling of social order. Economic instability, cultural entropy, and geopolitical tension are all converging into something inevitable.
Finally, we address the future and its inevitable stupidity. Justin rants about how people today are completely detached from history, confidently judging past generations while making no effort to understand them. If people in 2025 are this ignorant, how much worse will they be in 2075? What asinine takes will the next century’s intellectuals have about our time?
This episode is a chaotic but deeply engaging reflection on identity, exile, cultural shifts, and the weight of history. Let us know your thoughts—if we haven’t blackpilled you too hard.
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