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 is a comedy podcast hosted by Michael, with 136 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Michael hosts The End of the World with Michael and Stu, a comedy show with 136 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #137

  137: I Can't Seem to Face Up to the Facts

  Sep 8, 202654 minS1

  This week we are discussing Mary Harron's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' novel American Psycho in light of Stu's recent article on the film's resonance with a cybernetic conception of the environment. We discuss whether the crimes depicted in the film should be understood literally or as hallucinations, and how regardless of their reality they offer us telling insights on the nature of the neoliberal turn in American life and the commodification of everything. Check out Stu's article on his substack, Cybernetic Observations . This episode contains spoilers for American Psycho . Send us Fan Mail https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/ https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu

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  Episode #136

  136: Blinded by the Light

  Sep 1, 202650 minS1

  This week we are discussing José Saramago's 1995 novel Blindness . We consider what the central theme of the novel, a world in which virtually everyone suddenly goes blind, says about the way society is set up and how quickly it might descend into chaos were such an event to occur. We also compare Saramago's style with that of Thomas Bernhard, whose prose we determine to be "even more exhausting" than that of Saramago. Michael also offers up one of his patented hypotheticals about a key moment in the book. It's all here! This episode contains spoilers for Blindness . Send us Fan Mail https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/ https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu

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  Episode #135

  135: Over the Hill or Underland

  Aug 25, 202650 minS1

  This week we're finally talking about The Matrix , which is arguably the most culturally influential film of the last 30 years. We discuss the various ways the "red pill/blue pill" moment has been ingested by the culture, and we also get into the film's undeniable influence on the now widespread belief in "simulation theory." Despite the heavy handedness of some of the metaphors here, we both agree that the film is still, after 27 years, completely awesome. This episode contains spoilers for The Matrix . Send us Fan Mail https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/ https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu

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  Episode #134

  134: A Palazzo of Some Fantastic Proportion

  Aug 18, 202654 minS1

  This week we are delving into Stu's new article on Ray Kurzweil and the Singularity. What are some of the consequences of the potential merger of our brains with superintelligent AI? Are they good? Are there any downsides? What about immortality? Should we want to live forever? We get into all this, while also making a comparison to a vision of a kind of immortality expressed in Mark Frost's and David Lynch's brilliant series, Twin Peaks . Subscribe to Stu's new substack, Cybernetic Observations . "Ray Kurzweil's Intimations of Immortality" by Stu Watson Send us Fan Mail https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/ https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu

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  Episode #133

  133: Now I Can't See, I Just Stare

  Aug 11, 202652 minS1

  This week we are covering the 1993 film, Alive , directed by Frank Marshall and starring Ethan Hawke and Josh Hamilton. A sort of apocalypse in miniature, the movie depicts the miraculous survival of sixteen members of a Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the middle of the Andes mountains in 1972. We talk about the film's reputation, which perhaps surpasses its dramatic merits, while also considering the choices one would be forced to consider making were one to find oneself in such a scenario, specifically, cannibalism. We make comparisons to the situation the crew members of the famous whaling ship Essex made in a somewhat similar scenario, oddly also while en route to Chile. The episode opens with a conversation about another, more recent plane crash, this one seemingly caused by a test of a newly developed GPS jammer. This film contains spoilers for Alive. Futurism on the New Mexico plane crash caused by a GPS jammer Send us Fan Mail https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/ https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu

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