Ex Machina
April 9, 2026
We dig into Alex Garland’s tense, unsettling Ex Machina — a Thinking Machines entry about consciousness, creation, and who’s really running the test.
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We dig into Alex Garland’s tense, unsettling Ex Machina — a Thinking Machines entry about consciousness, creation, and who’s really running the test.
Steve Rogers visits Peggy Carter, who is elderly, sharp-tongued, and running out of time to remember him — a scene so emotionally efficient it does three different kinds of grief simultaneously. Then Nick Fury finds a file he can’t open and immediately decides this is everyone’s problem.
Every creative is running on at least one magnificent lie — and this week, the crew confesses theirs. Pete, Mandy, Kyle, and Ryan name the fictions that get them to the keyboard, the audience living rent-free in their heads, and the craft rules they break without remorse.
In our Thinking Machines series, we dig into Spike Jonze’s Her—AI love, a voice-only performance that works completely, and why this film feels truer every year.
According to the WHO and the CDC, roughly half of people with chronic conditions don’t take their medication as prescribed — and the reasons are weirder, sadder, and more human than you’d think. Pete and Tommy both decided to talk about pills this week, they both went completely different directions, and somehow it works.
We dig into John Badham’s WarGames for our March member bonus episode—the AI that learns, the script that sidesteps, and the film that actually changed federal law. Thinking Machines series.
Nick Fury shows Cap three orbital death machines and calls it a briefing. Cap calls it fear with a targeting system. Then he gets on his motorcycle and goes to look at his own museum exhibit, which is either deeply sad or deeply sensible depending on your read of Steve Rogers.
Chelsea Stardust leads Pete, Kynan, and Tommy in an exploration of three horror films made for almost nothing — and built to last. The Battery, Starry Eyes, and Hellbender prove that a great script and a fearless performance can outrun any budget, especially when transformation is the whole point.
What happens when “pushing through” stops working — and the version of yourself you built around that ability starts to slip away? This week Dr. Kathleen Nadeau joins us to talk about the grief that doesn’t always get named, and what’s possible on the other side of it.
What if forgetting isn’t a failure — it’s just how your brain is designed to work? Dr. Daniella Karidi returns to open our new series on ADHD and aging with a reframe that makes everything else click into place.