A Knife Taped to a Roomba (Episode 48)

Media Mavens

We invited Katherine Cross to the podcast to chat about sci-fi TV series, Black Mirror. We talk about the best episodes (and why they're the best), Katherine's article about the episode named "USS Callister", toxic fans and why we need optimistic media now.

Guest Intro: Katherine Cross (00:00:37)

Our guest today is Katherine! She is a Ph.D student in sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center, and freelance writer, columnist, and cultural critic.

What we've been up to

• (00:02:57) OrcaCon (Katherine)
• (00:04:06) Rumu (Katherine)
• (00:05:15) Cook, Serve, Delicious 2 (Riley)
• (00:08:44) Thumper, Crypt of the Necrodancer (Pam)
• (00:11:06) Doctor Who (Katherine)
• (00:13:56) Chef and My Fridge (aka Please Take Care of my Refrigerator) (Riley)
• (00:17:20) America's Next Top Model (Pam)
• (00:18:24) Shadows of the Mind (Katherine)
• (00:20:45) Overwatch League (Riley)
• (00:25:19) Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Pam/Katherine) - [Spoiler warning!] We talk about spoilers around the 29:10 mark, so skip ahead to our main segment to avoid them! Katherine's KoToR 2 article
• (00:30:47) What We Do in the Shadows (Pam)

Black Mirror

• (00:31:36) What is Black Mirror?
• (00:32:15) Opening thoughts/discussion
• (00:45:32) Themes in the show - people misusing technology
• (00:49:37) Stand out episodes - San Junipero, Black Museum, USS Callister
• (01:02:52) Katherine's USS Callister article discussion

Listener Questions

• (01:27:28) I always hear Black Mirror brought up alongside the Twilight Zone. Do you feel it is comparable to Twilight Zone in terms of them both being reflective of the anxieties of their time, or is Twilight Zone not a fair comparison? (@The_Doc_Webb)

Contact information (01:33:40)

Please consider supporting Katherine's work via her Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/KatherineCross

• Riley @kaleri_
• Pam @jasyla_
• Katherine @quinnae_moon

If you’ve got any feedback, questions, people or topics you’d like to hear on future episodes of the show, you can reach out at [e-mail] or on Twitter @_MediaMavens. We've also got a forum to discuss episode at CartridgeClub.org. If you like the show, please give us a review on iTunes or Stitcher.

Music: Vivacity by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/