Anakin Skywalker gave sand a bad rap. David Lynch spoiled it with voiceovers. Now, Denis Villaneuve is here to give sand another chance to spawn giant drug-farting worms. Did he succeed? Will these worms pass gas? Join us as we compare and contrast the new Dune with Lynch’s Dune like we’re in 8th grade English, explore the politics and philosophy of author Frank Herbert, and dip our toes into the water of Timothee Chalomet’s thematically disparate co-release, The French Dispatch. We are not the chosen ones but we do make a great podcast. You won’t even get sand in your cracks.

From the first puff of that candy cigarette, you were hooked. No use fighting it. Think back on that golden afternoon, sitting on the stoop in the sunshine with Mitch and the other neighborhood toughs — you knew you’d never be the same. It wasn’t too long before you were hitting the Smarties 24/7. You had to stay up just a little bit later to beat the Final Boss, so you snorted some sweet Pixy Stix. And now look at you. You’re eating a Snickers right now, aren’t you. That’s right, Dave. I’m talking to you. I’m trying to record this week’s damn podcast, but you’re high on candy. Get control of yourself, man!

Okay, so Karl Marx, Robert Altman, and Tom Hanks walk into a bar. It’s a shame that I don’t have a punchline for this joke, but as a consolation prize I do have a fresh episode of Planet of the Meerkats — and this week we’ve got a real doozy on our hands. It’s volume one of our new Review Roundup series, where Dave and Neil discuss the books, music, movies, and more that have recently piqued their attention. Is Dave getting paid by author Rian Hughes to promote his new science fiction/typography mashup novel XX? Is the 1993 film Demolition Man the most important film in the history of cinema? We’ll answer these questions and more, next, on POTM.

Technically speaking it’s still summer, but those halcyon pre-Delta days have faded into our collective rear view — now we’re staring out at a world of ochre leaves and long shadows, waiting for the warm embrace of PSL escapism. That’s right, homies, pumpkin season is nigh, so strap on a cable-knit sweater and plug into the Meerkat Matrix — this week we’re bringing you all the gourd news that’s fit to print.

Things are getting better! But you wouldn’t know it when you open the newspaper or turn on the tv. People are biased to view the world negatively and pessimistically and this is reinforced by news media overwhelmingly focused on the bad. From Socrates to our parents, people have feared that kids are not all right – that the world is not all right.  And truly, we need to know about these bad things that happen, but we also need to recognize the progress we’re making. The world has consistently improved over the last century by almost every measure: people are less poor, better educated, less bigoted, less violent. Are things always good?  Not necessarily. Should we keep fighting for progress? Absolutely. But are we heading in the right direction overall? Yes! So, crack open a cold drink and join us as the Meerkats get controversial and celebrate our wins.

One afternoon while the Meerkats were strolling through Disneyland, Dave suggested they watch The Fast and The Furious. Why? Well, why not. Because this 2001 film is a meditation on family and loyalty. A story about pushing through one’s limits, both physical and mental. A tale of how greed and revenge can lead us down the darkest of streets. It’s a film that goes vroom, zoom, and occasionally, boom. In this episode Dave breaks down where each TFATF character falls on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and Neil recaps Peace, Love, and Rage, the newly released Woodstock ‘99 documentary. Cue the steel drums.

Correction: Tyrese Gibson appears in 2Fast2Furious, not Taye Diggs. Our apologies to Tyrese and Taye.

Stories provide a common language and mythology that bind society together. Broadly, across entire cultures, and intimately, at the water cooler. But stories are changing. Storytelling is changing. From broad cinematic universes to tales told by podcast, from the ethics of deepfaked performances to thorny conversations about building new art on the foundations of old, technology and global interconnectedness are changing storytelling on every level. Join us as we discuss how storytelling has evolved and where it is going. Plus, Neil rants about social media and Dave drops a billion-dollar Ghostbusters idea.

This week we interview Eric Leven, Visual Effects Supervisor on Marvel’s Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Eric has had a long career doing special effects for properties such as F&TWS, Cloverfield, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, and Starship Troopers. We discuss the evolution of VFX from stop-motion to CGI, the two camps of VFX - spaceships and lasers vs monsters and mummies - and the importance of reference material. When do you blow a car up for real? How do you best make a shield bounce? How do you start a career in VFX? Learn about that and more as we avoid the uncanny valley on Planet of the Meerkats.

During the pandemic, our kids watched a lot of children’s programming and we watched it with them. Do we have some thoughts? Yes, yes we do. From the cloying cuteness of Wonder Pets to half-assed YouTube content farms, from the incessant whining of Calliou to the obnoxiousness of Blippi, there is a lot of bullshit out there. What the hell is up with SpongeBob? Does the Cat in the Hat condition your children to be kidnapped? Join us as we praise the good, dunk on the bad, and laugh at the ugly shows that our kids love to watch. And watch. And watch...

From whence did humankind come? To where are we heading? Prior to recorded history, were we really just living in caves and banging rocks together, or was there an antediluvian period of advanced human history that has been lost to the historical record? Conversely, as humans approach the Singularity, irreversibly change the Earth’s climate, and flirt with interstellar travel, what will humankind look like in 100 years? What about a million? Will we meet extraterrestrials? Will we speciate? Will we seed other planets? Will we disburse satellites that mysteriously play Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker” as beacons to lead our distant post-human ancestors back to the fabled planet Terra™ by Terra Chips. Come, join the Meerkats as we discuss all of that and more.