I am very sorry but I have been unwell this past week. (But I am on the mend!)

Multiple visits to the hospital mean that although I have the next episode recorded I have not been able to edit it.

I've heard many podcasts serve up older episodes in this circumstance. Maybe an annoyance to those who have already heard all the episodes but for those who haven't since it is 2026 it's probably a good opportunity to watch Metropolis (1927) as this year is the year it was set. I have two remarkable and engaging academics speak about it.

Sonja Fritzsche is a professor of German Studies and an author/editor for many books about science fiction. She has taught courses on science fiction, utopia and Metropolis.

Noah Isenberg is a film historian and best-selling author. He is a professor at the University of Texas and editor of the book Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era.

This episode was originally released in April 2024 and was episode 5 of the podcast.

I will hopefully be back in great health soon and the new episode on First Men in the Moon will be edited for release in two weeks.

As always there are spoilers ahead!

You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.

If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm

In 1958 the Peter George novel Red Alert was published about the dangers of nuclear war. A few years later when Stanley Kubrick was looking to make a (serious) film about the topic he was recommended the book.

Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was the resulting film. The film takes aim at military strategy, rhetoric and the people involved to give us one of the most famous satires in cinema.

It would be quite easy to double the length of this episode, but we've tried to fit as much as we can into the hour with my two remarkable guests.

Mark Bould is a professor of Film and Literature at the University of West England, Bristol. He has written/edited extensively about science fiction cinema.

Rodney F Hill is a Professor of Film at the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication at Hofstra University and has written extensively about film.

This is the article I mention by Eric Schlosser: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/almost-everything-in-dr-strangelove-was-true

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:12 Source material

03:12 The threat of Lumet's Fail Safe

05:35 Herman Kahn, winnable nuclear war and the doomsday machine

08:25 Nazi scientist Wernher von Braun and Operation Paperclip

13:55 Nuclear policy and the Cold War

17:23 Doomsday comedy

25:51 Masculinity, techno-eroticism and bodily fluids

33:21 Peter Sellers

38:04 1960s satire boom

40:11 Production design of Ken Adam

41:25 Music

43:27 The changes to the film

46:32 Legacy

54:34 Recommendations

Recommendations: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Fail Safe (1964).

NEXT EPISODE!

Next episode we will be talking about First Men on the Moon (1964). The film is based on the HG Wells novel and features stop motion animation by Ray Harryhausen.

It is is available to stream and rent from Apple. The Just Watch website can give you a list of where the film is available in your region.

Time for another detour! An introduction to Afrofuturism with two magnificent guests.

You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.

If you would like to be a patron of the podcast it would be greatly appreciated! You can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show. https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm

The symbol mentioned in the podcast a few times is the Sankofa symbol which is a recurring symbol in Afrofuturism. It represents the idea that there are things that you go back for (and things you leave behind). You can read more about it on this wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankofa

Julian Chambliss is a scholar and a professor at Michigan State University. He is the author of multiple books including Mapping Afrofuturism: Understanding Black Speculative Practice

Ytasha Womack is a filmmaker, cultural critic and author of the books Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture and The Afro Futurist Evolution: Creative Paths of Self Discovery.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:18 Afrofuturism origin story

08:04 Afrofuturism and science fiction

11:44 Retro Afrofuturism: Of One Blood by Pauline Hopkinson

16:37 The diaspora and Afrofuturism

19:53 Dance and the individual as a nexus of time and space

23:24 Ancestry in Afrofuturism

25:32 Moving away from dystopia: Slavery as apocalypse

29:55 Optimism for the future

33:03 Holistic utopias and protopia.

35:43 Mystical frameworks

38:15 Alternative realities and the multiverse

41:38 Theory, practice and interconnectedness

46:21 Recommendations

Recommendations:

The Afro Futurist Evolution: Creative Paths of Self Discovery by Ytasha Womack

(I would also thoroughly recommend her book Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture.)

Agharta by Miles Davis

Blake; or The Huts of America: A Tale of the Mississippi Valley, the Southern United States, and Cuba by Martin Delany

Space is the Place by Sun Ra

Lee "Scratch" Perry

George Clinton

Mothership Connection by Parliament

Pedro Bell and Overton Loyd

Beyond the Black Panther exhibition at MSU

Rise podcast by Julian

Infinitum by Tim Fielder

NEXT EPISODE!

Next time we'll be talking about Dr Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and love the Bomb (1964)! You can watch the film pretty much anywhere and it is readily available to buy or rent online from many platforms. I would also recommend watching Fail Safe from the same year because it is excellent, affected the production of Dr Strangelove and due to their similarities.