Podcast
Overthinking It Podcast
Hosted by Overthinking It · EN
Overthinking It subjects the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve.
33episodes
Episodes
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Episode 934: Medium, Medium, Medium, Can’t You See?
3d agoTap to summarizeSupport Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month! Pete Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matt Wrather follow their discussion of Zizek’s theories of cinema and desire to a definitive practice of cinema and desire, the late 90s teen romcom classic, Ten Things I Hate About You. Discussing a movie that not so much “holds up” as “remains excellent despite its deplorably cringe rap scene,” the three celebrate the movie’s craft along with its art, breaking down its style of iconic visual storytelling that make its comic types alongside its heartfelt leads feel resonant and effortless. Recapping the key structural expectations of 16th and 17th century theatrical moralizing and the ways Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew falls shorter than short by modern standards (mostly around gender), the three delve into how Ten Things strives to rebuild a classic the way it should be, while running into its own lampshaded moral inadequacies, also characteristic of its time (mostly around race). But even that fails to undermine legendary work by an all-star cast, led by immortal turns by Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles. Sometimes you write “iconic” more than once because it is the best word for the situation. As too are the film’s wall-to-wall needle drops. All that plus consideration of hot-tub-as-luxury, and also balcony-as-luxury, not to mention that great yonic privilege indicator: hot-tub-on-balcony-as-luxury, which may or may not have been all that expensive 27 years ago. But this podcast is not “10 things I hate about inflation.” That’s every other podcast. For your own challenge, join us on the Discord with your own version of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 141: “In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes.” And see if you can one-up a fictional 90s high schooler and write an actual sonnet. Download (MP3) Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps Further Reading 10 Things I Hate About You Written by Karen McCullah Lutz Kirsten Smith Heath Ledger Taming of the Shrew “The Taming of the Shrew – Meryl Streep – Raul Julia – Kiss Me Petruchio – 1978 Subs – Remastered 4K” (YouTube) The English Vogue of Prologues and Epilogues, by Autrey Nell Wiley, in Modern Language Notes, Volume 47, No. 4, April 1932, on JSTOR Julia Stiles List of Awards and Nominations Received by Allison Janney “Hypnotize” (YouTube) “10 Things I Hate about You” (The Poem) Shakespeare’s Sonnet 141 (Wikipedia) Episode 934: Medium, Medium, Medium, Can’t You See? originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]
Transcribe →Episode 933: Sudafed is a Powerful Drug
1w agoTap to summarizeSupport Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month! Peter Fenzel, Jordan Stokes (for his sins, an academic), and Matthew Wrather overthink The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, a film essay written by and starring Slovenina philosopher/psychoanalyst(?) Slavoj Žižek. Žižek has forgotten more about Lacanian psychoanalysis than Lacan ever knew, and that makes this film essay (and its spiritual prequel The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, also directed by Sophie Fiennes, sister of He Who Must Not Be Named) a wild ride. Someone get this man a Kleenex. At the intersection of film, politics, and culture, Žižek’s offers provocative, not to say unhinged, takes on how cinema shapes and reflects cultural ideology. But at least we get to hear directly from an academic figure whom Wrather is always name-checking. And yeah, he kinda does have a point about Titanic. Download (MP3) Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps Further Reading Slavoj Žižek – Wikipedia The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (IMDb) The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (IMDb) Lacanian Psychoanalysis – Wikipedia Post-structuralism – Wikipedia Jaws – Wikipedia Titanic – Wikipedia The Searchers – Wikipedia Taxi Driver – Wikipedia Sophie Fiennes – Wikipedia Episode 933: Sudafed is a Powerful Drug originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]
Transcribe →Episode 932: I Have a Relationship… with a TREE
2w agoTap to summarizeSupport Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month! Pete Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matt Wrather emerge from the toxic jungle to save humanity from its warmongering ways through incredible acts of bravery and self-sacrifice. Inspired by Mark’s successful family trip to the movies to watch My Neighbor Totoro, the Overthinkers turn their attention to a different Studio Ghibli film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Although it has many more stabbings and weapons of mass destruction than Totoro, both movies do feature at least one adorable woodland creature. The panel explores the many artistic and thematic elements that makes this movie such a timeless classic: Hayao Miyazaki’s mastery of the canvas, expressed in the deliberate motion of drifting clouds and the kinetic geometry of the wind itself; Joe Hisaishe’s sweeping and stylistically diverse score; the vascular horror of the God Warrior embryo; and the symbolic power of a last bastion of humanity sheltering in a wrecked vessel, under siege from all sides. Download (MP3) Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps Further Reading Watch Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind on HBO Max Steven Chow: Actor, Producer, Writer Joe Hisaish: Composer for many Studio Ghibli movies Did Hayao Miyazaki really send a katana to Harvey Weinstein as a threat? Episode 932: I Have a Relationship… with a TREE originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]
Transcribe →Episode 931: Everything We Do… Little Squeeze of Lemon
3w agoTap to summarizeSupport Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month! “Let them cook,” they said. So we did, and we watched. Matt Wrather and Peter Fenzel welcome the third season of “24 in 24,” a serialized one-day reality cook-off that is both the farthest and closest distance among cooking shows from actual cooking. Inspired, they track their personal tastes and influences in cooking in life and on the screen. From the Championship Season rise of Guy Fieri’s Tournament of Champions and the era of cooking competition it has ushered in, back to the stand and stir classics of their childhoods, Matt and Pete talk about what is real about the depictions of food on TV, what is fantasy, and what comes all the way around again. They discuss their methods for making omelettes, their small-screen favorites, and at one point compare Yan Can Cook to streaming an EVO Fighting Game Tournament. They also venture into the comforting tangible world of physical cookbooks; their favorites for guidance, their favorites for storytelling, and why Shaq is smiling so much holding that enormous cheeseburger. Why wouldn’t he? Download (MP3) Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps Further Reading Watch a Sneak Peek: ‘24 in 24’ Season 3 Comes to Food Network With Major Twists: Here’s everything you need to know (for some definitions of “you need to know”) on Food Network, April 8, 2026 Guy Fieri Shares Inspiration for Food Network’s Groundbreaking Tournament of Champions, by Walter Scott on Parade, February 27, 2022 “Stand and Stir” no more: Food Network hosts are mastering the art of the short-form cooking tutorial, by Ashlie D. Stevens on Salon, November 23, 2016 How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food, by Mark Bittman on goodreads Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, by Michael Ruhlman on goodreads Shaq’s Family Style: Championship Recipes for Feeding Family and Friends, by Shaquille O’Neal, Rachel Holtzman, Michael Silverman, and Matthew Pierkarski, on goodreads Auguste Escoffier and his classic, Le guide clinarire, on Wikipedia Let her cook, on reddit Episode 931: Everything We Do… Little Squeeze of Lemon originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]
Transcribe →Episode 930: Confusing Mario Odyssey with the Actual Odyssey
May 4Tap to summarizeSupport Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month! Matt Belinkie and Peter Fenzel gather to kick off summer movie season the only way they know how: by completely failing to talk about the movies they planned to discuss and instead spending over an hour unpacking the mythological architecture of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Along the way they ask the questions no one asked them to ask: Why doesn’t Rosalina just go find Peach? What are the stars even for? And why did Bowser let his son build a universe-destroying gun without so much as a stern talking-to? The hosts argue that the Mario movies aren’t really psychological dramas but mythological ones, stories where Peach’s lost star-sister and Bowser’s tragic indulgent-dad arc operate less like character beats and more like foundational symbols of the civilization that takes its children to the movies. Bowser, it turns out, may be the antithesis of Mario and Donkey Kong’s distant fathers from the first film. He’s so desperate to be liked by Bowser Jr. that he’d let the fabric of reality unravel rather than enforce a bedtime. He doesn’t help his kid grow up, he reverts to his villainous archetype. From there, the conversation pinballs into the broader question of how Hollywood adapts things that were never designed to make sense. The 1993 Super Mario Bros. film is held up as the cautionary tale — a movie agonizing over how to justify two plumbers stomping on the heads of mutant goombas (although to be fair, a live action Mario movie was always an uphill battle). The hosts triangulate between three adaptation philosophies (the Grounded, the Sonic Hybrid, and the Full Embrace) and wonder where the upcoming live-action Legend of Zelda will land given that its audience wants more lore, not less. Finally, the conversation drifts — as these things do — into a long reverie about Saturday morning cartoons, the scarcity of media in the pre-streaming era, Turbo Teen’s Cronenbergian transformation sequence, and the surprising revelation that GoBots actually came first. Plus: a preview of Dune: Part Three and whether Dune Messiah’s deliberately unsatisfying anti-climax can survive the jump to a summer blockbuster. Download (MP3) Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps Further Reading Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore | Rotten Tomatoes Moana 2 was originally a Disney+ TV series Bowser Jr. Dry Bowser “Do the claws hurt when they come out?” Saturday Morning Cartoon Schedules Archive (Wikipedia) Turbo Teen Transformation Supercut “Phantom Pilot” | ALF: The Animated Series | FULL Episode: S1 Ep1 GoBots predated Transformers Episode 930: Confusing Mario Odyssey with the Actual Odyssey originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]
Transcribe →Episode 929: seastatephilosopherking.com/overthinking-it-podcast-and-lithium-refinement-services
Apr 27Tap to summarizeSupport Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month! Pete Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matt Wrather 10x the company stock price by announcing a pivot to the lucrative lithium refinement services sub-industry, for which they have no expertise, equipment, or preparation, figuring the market will reward them anyway. In a week dominated by the bubbly news of former environmentally conscious shoe company allbirds announcing its quixotic and lucrative “pivot to AI,” the Overthinkers discuss pivots major and minor, personal and cultural. To ground the discussion, they consider “The City,” a new-style video from a long-running YouTube Channel Historia Civilis, better known for specific narratives of narrower historical events. Is this a pivot? Is ir more or less than one? With the memory of the History Channel not fully faded, is there something about histrotainment that lends itself especially to pivots? Inevitably the gaze turns inward, to our own beloved show, its constancies and changes, and whether or if it ought to chase some greater or lesser change. For now, it is more of the same, which we all love in a world with one foot planted, spinning in circles. Download (MP3) Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps Further Reading “Sneaker Company Allbirds Plans to Pivot to A.I. Yes, A.I.” (NY Times) “Ens***ification” (Wikipedia) “The City.” (Historia Civilis) “The Battle of the Axona (57 B.C.E.)” (Historia Civilis What Happened to the History Channel? by darknite125 (Funk’s House of Geekery) Private Equity’s Quiet Takeover of YouTube Reshapes Online Media, by Ernes Berna Killic (Türkiye Today, Jul 24, 2025) Episode 929: seastatephilosopherking.com/overthinking-it-podcast-and-lithium-refinement-services originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]
Transcribe →Episode 928: Karaoke at the End of the World
Apr 20Tap to summarizeSupport Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month! Pete Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matt Wrather woke up from a coma and started recording this podcast, not knowing who they were or how they got there. Thankfully they figured out in time to save the world from a mysterious interstellar organism, and along the way they became fast friends and learned a lot about themselves. That’s right, the podcast is back to its old form: tackling a movie that’s currently playing in theaters, because the Overthinkers managed to get out of their homes and see Project Hail Mary on the big screen! Well, at least Pete and Mark did. Like Grace and Rocky in the movie, the duo manage to overcome their differences and accomplish the mission: in this case, unpacking the religious themes, pop culture references, and character arcs of Project Hail Mary. Matt did not see the movie but contributed a solemn rendition of the Hail Mary prayer in ecclesiastical Latin and otherwise served in the interlocutory role. Be sure to join us on the Discord to discuss this great film, and to help plan a playlist for our karaoke party at the end of the world! Email podcast AT overthinkingit.com for an invitation. Download (MP3) Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps Further Reading “Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles The Hail Mary Prayer “Karaoke at the End of the World” Spotify playlist Episode 928: Karaoke at the End of the World originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]
Transcribe →Episode 927: Probabilistic Tax Documents
Apr 13Tap to summarizeSupport Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month! There are two kinds of people: those that follow the outline and those that depart a the earliest opportunity. Peter Fenzel and Matt Wrather are the second kind. They set off to do one episode, but within the first 10 seconds Matt mentions the famous handshake meme from Predator, and it’s a whole other thing. That thing includes a hypotactical discussion of parataxis, which is why the Mr. Incredible meme is different from the Galaxy Brain meme, and why the Leonardo DiCaprio at the 2026 Oscars meme is different from the Orson Welles in Citizen Kane meme. Of course this gets to a general typology of all human beings (different from the one in the first sentence of this description). Quite apart from whatever our memetic and linguistic metaphors may tell us from our future selves, it comes down to this: Some of us are adders, and some of us are subtractors. If you’re starting to purge old belongings, and you end up having a conversation with your past self, say “hi” for us. Let ’em know it’s going to be OK. Download (MP3) Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps Further Reading The Handshake (YouTube) Memes Epic Handshake Woman Yelling at a Cat Distracted Boyfriend People Who Know Galaxy Brain IQ Bell Curve Orson Welles Clapping “What is Syntaxis” (Language & Humanities) “Parataxis, Hypotaxis and other fun ways to help your writing do what you want” (Books around the Table) “Why There Are So Many Leonardo DiCaprio Drinking In Movies Memes?” (Screenrant) “A change of typeface: Microsoft’s new default font has arrived” (Microsoft.design) Episode 927: Probabilistic Tax Documents originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]
Transcribe →Episode 926: Historical Society for the Re-Enactment of “Who’s On First”
Apr 6Tap to summarizeSupport Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month! Jordan Stokes, Matt Wrather, and Pete Fenzel take on Fackham Hall, a 2025 comedy inspired by one of OTI’s favorite shows: Downton Abbey. Written by the the British sketch writing team the Dawson Bros. in collaboration with comedian Jimmy Carr and his brother Patrick, Fackham is a romp of dirty jokes, harmless puns, upscale production design, scathing invective about traditional British social order delivered from a literal pulpit, vaudeville-esque farcical sequences, forbidden romance, and foreboding bassoon solos. Stokes, Wrather and Fenzel muse on who the movie is for; its comedic style as it relates to the style of its creators; the stooping-to-conquer character performances of Katherine Waterston, Damian Lewis, and Draco Malfoy himself: Tom Felton; and where and how it resembles or differs from Downton Abbey, the touchstone of so much of its aesthetics. The trio particularly press on the notion of the work as a satire, and what teeth it may have, or if it intends to bite. The people it seems to lampoon seem to have already seen their day come and gone – or have they? Is it a takedown of the glorification of the aristocracy, or a dress-up game cavorting to the fictional echoes of an era receding from living memory? Discussion proceeds concerning Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster as an exemplar of the aristocrats as they remain; Parliament’s recent vote to abolish hereditary peerage in the House of Lords and whether it means what it says it means; and which generation’s slang words related to manual self-pleasure (a frequent subject of Fackam Hall’s off-color gags) are relatively more or less obscene to say on a podcast. Download (MP3) Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps Further Reading Watch Fackham Hall on HBO Max Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster, on Wikipedia My Blackberry is Not Working, by the Dawson Bros., on the BBC YouTube Channel Knowsley Hall: A Historic Jewel in Merseyside, from Heritage Explore (which played the eponymous Fackam Hall in the movie) Lee Boardman Loved being Karl, landlord of The Dog & Drake in Fackham Hall, on Instagram Episode 926: Historical Society for the Re-Enactment of “Who’s On First” originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]
Transcribe →Episode 925: Air Bud Meets Karate Kid Meets the Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Mar 30Tap to summarizeSupport Overthinking It by becoming a member for $5/month! Jordan Stokes and Pete Fenzel slam the revolving door on the life and works of Chuck Norris, the six-time world karate champion who became a legend, again, for completely different things. They track his trademark emotional self-possession back from his troubled childhood, through his rise as a karate master, expressed in the code of ethics of his martial art, Chun Kuk Do, and into his oeuvre of roundhouse-kick-related spectacles and tall tales. Jordan and Pete rewatch and break down two of his films: Good Guys Wear Black, his first starring role from 1978, and Sidekicks, his rare self-referential meta-text, from 1992. They also map his other works, from modern frontier heroic tales like Lone Wolf McQuaid and Walker Texas Ranger to battles of might against prejudicial violence, like Delta Force and Top Dog, where he teams up with a sheepdog to fight Neo-Nazis. Through the discussion, a central question emerges: if Chuck Norris’s artistic raison d’être is to portray a simple, straightforward moral and physical unity of thought, intention, preparation, and action in the context of morally fraught situations that fail to yield to it, does he make the case more for reconciling his methods to the world, or expressing a poetry of their irreconcilability? In the struggle of the unstoppable force versus the immoveable object, which breaks first? It’s a trick question: they’re both Chuck Norris. Download (MP3) Subscribe: iTunes Other Apps Further Reading Chun Kuk Do and the Chuck Norris System Code of Honor, on Kung Fu For All 102 Chuck Norris Jokes to Celebrate the Ultimate Badass, on Men’s Health Lone Wolf McQuade, as of this recording, free on YouTube Movies and TV Chuck Norris describes his classic fight with Bruce Lee on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, from Conan O’Brien’s YouTube Channel Top Dog, as of this recording, also free on YouTube Movies and TV The theatrical release poster for Top Dog, on Wikipedia Episode 925: Air Bud Meets Karate Kid Meets the Secret Life of Walter Mitty originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]
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