Lights, camera, action, print, distribute, queue, empty wallet, fill face, get anxious about noisy audience member, resist urge to check phone, watch film.

Steev and Nick discuss their experiences with the cinema and ask whether the magic of the place has been diminished by the way the industry has treated itself, or whether your hosts are just too jaded to take it on its own, rejigged terms. In a time where we can have a big enough screen at home, does the cinema still deserve to be the ultimate place to take in Hollywood’s finest?

There’s also way too much talk about popcorn and penises.

Download Show 26 [MP3, 29.5 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Movies
• According to Wikipedia: Movie Theatre
• According to Wikipedia: Vaudeville
• According to Wikipedia: Norman Collier
• YouTube: Norman Collier—The Faulty Microphone ↓

• Duck Duck Go
• According to Wikipedia: Supermarionation
• YouTube: Filmed in Supermarionation—Official Trailer ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Super Mario (series)
• According to Wikipedia: L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat
• IMDB.com: The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896)
• YouTube: L’arrivée d’un train à La Ciotat (1895)—frères Lumière ↓

• IMDB.com: Pete’s Dragon (1977)
• YouTube: Pete’s Dragon trailer ↓

• IMDB.com: Time Bandits (1981)
• YouTube: Time Bandits trailer ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Buster Crabbe
• According to Wikipedia: Mayflower Theatre
• According to Wikipedia: Popcorn
• Urban Dictionary: Popcorn trick
• YouTube: Diner (1982)—popcorn ↓

• IMDB.com: Diner (1982)
• According to Wikipedia: Projectionist
• Unanswered 19: Home—Nick’s “Watership Down” story in full
• Orange Wednesdays
• Picture House cinemas
• IMDB.com: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
• YouTube: Guardians of the Galaxy trailer ↓

• IMDB.com: Gravity (2013)
• YouTube: Gravity trailer ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Jalapeño
• YouTube: Anti-piracy—Market (1996, UK) ↓

• YouTube: Anti-piracy—The Last Cinema (2011, UK) ↓

• YouTube: Piracy it’s a crime ↓

• YouTube: The IT Crowd, s02 e03—Piracy warning ↓

• IMDB.com: Dredd (2012)
• YouTube: Dredd trailer ↓

Further material

• “The charts that show why Hollywood needs to forget about 3D movies” by Lauren Davidson, The Telegraph; Friday 5th September, 2014
• YouTube: Dear Censor—BBFC documentary ↓

• Bodybuilding.com: “Any guys have success with the popcorn trick?”

Details

• Recorded: 13 August 2014
• Running time: 1:04’15
• Bad language: Yes [2x f*ck; 2x sh*t; 4x c*ck; 2x d*ck; 1x w*nker]
• Feature image source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vujNcE_43Qg [Diner is © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and SLM Production Group]
  
• Archive.org page

Oxygen is in plentiful supply. There is enough to go around for everyone, and doesn’t seem to have a problem supporting even more, despite the distant threat it could all be taken away. Some people like to take up more oxygen than they really need, and one can find themselves wondering whether the hoarders are really contributing enough to make that stockpiling worthwhile. And while you’re welcome to decide for yourself whether Unanswered qualifies, why not consider comparing the analogy to money.

In our twenty-fifth show we expand our horizons beyond amateur philosophy by also trying our hands at amateur history and amateur economics, to really drive home how little we know about the stuff we try to talk about.

Gasp you will as we wonder how the idea of money started, who drew the notes, and how that person got paid. We also invent unprofitable businesses, discuss what we did with our pocket money, as well as consider the value of things when we have to work to afford them.

Download Show 25 [MP3, 26.6 MB]

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Show Notes

• YouTube: Money by Pink Floyd ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Money
• YouTube: Limmy’s Show—Guys ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Tin mine
• According to Wikipedia: Gold standard
• Parma Violets
• According to Wikipedia: Parma Violets
• According to Wikipedia: Prosciutto [Parma ham]
• YouTube: Super Nintendo UK TV commercial ↓

• YouTube: Super Metroid 1994 commercial—“game around £50” ↓

Details

• Recorded: 16 July 2014
• Running time: 0:57’56
• Bad language: Yes [1x f*ck; 3x sh*t; 1x w*nker]
• Feature image source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y3AJiY2d_Y
  
• Archive.org page

Communication breakdown on several fronts lead to this episode of Unanswered. The show was intended to be a discussion on the differences between loneliness and solitude, and the upsides to be found in the latter. Somehow the conversation stuck around an aside about introverts and extroverts. Additionally, the traditional recording set-up on Nick’s side failed, causing us to rely on the less than stellar Skype feed resulting in the occasional appearance of Robonick.

Download Show 24 [MP3, 26.7 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Loneliness
• According to Wikipedia: Solitude
• Buzzfeed tag: introvert
• Buzzfeed tag: extrovert
• According to Wikipedia: Extraversion and introversion
• MOMBcast—the podcast from MOMBcomics.com
• According to Wikipedia: Fear of missing out
• According to Wikipedia: Myspace
• Storify: James in London

Details

• Recorded: 04 June 2014
• Running time: 0:58’11
• Bad language: Yes [3x f*ck; 1x w*nk]
• Feature image source: http://www.tvperu.gob.pe/noticias/miscelanea/cine/60162-nuevo-pelicula-de-batman-protagonizada-por-ben-affleck-llegaria-a-los-cines-el-2019-.html
  
• Archive.org page

Recorded in a month all about Europe, Steev and Nick freewheel into a conversation about the UK’s political climate, and in particular the debate around immigration.

Captured before the European Parliament elections and released after the dust had settled, this episode is as much a snapshot of a specific moment as it is a record of our own political perspectives and prejudices.

Find out what the deal is with Question Time, whether political parties have their own official dance, if suburban sprawls are our utopia, and which one of us would love to live near a cheese shop.

Download Show 23 [MP3, 28.3 MB]

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Show Notes

• Eurovision Song Contest
• According to Wikipedia: Eurovision Song Contest
• According to Wikipedia: United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest
• YouTube: Eurovision Song Contest 2014, full voting results ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Eastenders
• According to Wikipedia: Coronation Street
• According to Wikipedia: TV Quick magazine
• According to Wikipedia: Scott Mills
• According to Wikipedia: Terry Wogan
• According to Wikipedia: Graham Norton
• According to Wikipedia: UK Independence Party
• According to Wikipedia: Alan Sked
• According to Wikipedia: Nigel Farage
• According to Wikipedia: European Union
• According to Wikipedia: Maastrict Treaty
• According to Wikipedia: Sir John Major
• According to Wikipedia: John Smith (Labour Party leader)
• According to Wikipedia: Tony Blair
• According to Wikipedia: English Defence League
• According to Wikipedia: National Front (UK)
• According to Wikipedia: British National Party
• “Vandals attack Jewish Graves” by Nick Walker, The Independent; Wednesday 4th August 1993
• According to Wikipedia: Westboro Baptist Church
• According to Wikipedia: Question Time (TV series)
• YouTube: BBC Question Time, 8th May 2014 ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Hedge End
• Unanswered Show 9: Cities
• According to Wikipedia: SimCity
• According to Wikipedia: Retail parks [to which we refer as “out-of-town shopping”]
• YouTube: Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch ↓

• YouTube: Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe S02E01—media coverage of pending Bulgarian and Romanian immigration (featuring Victor, the one-man horde) ↓

• Is Nigel Farage on Question Time?—IsNigelFarageOnQuestionTime.com
• According to Wikipedia: Robert Kilroy-Silk
• According to Wikipedia: Nicky Campbell
• According to Wikipedia: Jeremy Kyle
• According to Wikipedia: Straw man
• “Nick Clegg challenges Nigel Farage to EU debate” by BBC News, Thursday 20th February 2014
• According to Wikipedia: Nick Griffin

Further material

• “Romanian and Bulgarian migration: Dip in workers coming to the UK” by Mark Easton, BBC News; Wednesday 14th May 2014
• “Ukip founder Alan Sked: ’The party has becomes a Frankenstein’s monster’” by Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian; Monday 26th May 2014
• “BBC receives almost 1,200 complaints over Ukip election coverage” by John Reynolds and Mark Sweney, The Guardian; Friday 30th May 2014
• “Nigel Farage & BBC’s UKIP election coverage: Nick Robinson on the ‘marmite’ politician” by Samira Ahmed, samiraahmed.co.uk; Friday 30th May 2014

Details

• Recorded: 14 May 2014
• Running time: 1:01’47
• Bad language: Yes [3x f*ck; 1x sh*t]
• Feature image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caerulea3_crop.jpg
  
• Archive.org page

Naked as the day you were born is the only true day you were naked as the day you were born. Before long, however, it’s clear we’ve got to cover up: first for warmth and to stop our untrained selves from defecating where we stand; and later, because as much as our egos don’t want to hear it, the rest of the world isn’t particularly interested in dealing with an unwarranted state of clotheslessness.

If there’s nothing actually wrong with the human form, and if it’s as beautiful as artists and Gok Wan insist, how come we get so bothered when even the random, non-sexual parts of it are exposed?

In an awkward episode Nick and Steev discuss the awkwardness of being born, tread a careful line while talking awkwardly about breasts, and look at a few other situations where states of nudity outside of the home are awkward at best.

Download Show 22 [MP3, 24.8 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Nudity
• NSFW Vimeo: Brass Eye—Sex (baby born wearing shorts at 00:48) ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Twerking
• YouTube: How to Twerk—Club Dance Moves, from Howcast ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Breastfeeding; Breastfeeding in public
• Unanswered Show 13: Luck—includes our first discussion of ‘peacocking’
• “The Naked Rambler: the man prepared to go to prison for nudity” by Neil Forsyth, The Guardian; Friday 23rd March 2012
• YouTube: Monty Python flasher sketch ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Nuts (magazine)
• “Farewell, then, Nuts magazine” by Ed West, The Spectator; Wednesday 2nd April 2014
• According to Wikipedia: Front (magazine)
• “Front mag closes after 16 years: ‘It’s been a lot of fun’” by Louise Ridley, MediaWeek; Friday 7th February 2014

Further material

• “‘Victorian’ BBC slammed for editing out nipples in coverage of breastfeeding health issue” by Adam Withnall, The Independent; Wednesday 9th April 2014

Details

• Recorded: 02 April 2014
• Running time: 0:53’59
• Bad language: Yes [6x c*ck; 1x d*ck, 1x p*ss]
• Sexual references: Yes [includes mentions of breasts, penis, vagina and masturbation]
• Feature image source: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/iv-drip/cover-it-up-san-francisco-passes-public-nudity-ban-8339543.html
  
• Archive.org page

Empathy in a world of sympathy must feel like an apologist in a room full of outrage, whilst sympathy in a world of empathy must feel like a narcissist in a room without a reflective surface. It’s just as well the world is much larger than a four metre squared patch of carpet otherwise the complexity of humans could get a bit noticed.

It’s a heady mix of the silly and serious as tragedy, charity, plasters, Harvard, and privilege checking are all quickly examined, before Steev and Nick push the concept of empathy into tougher territory—asking is it possible to have empathy with the most loathed people in our society, and if so what does that say about us?

Download Show 21 [MP3, 24.1 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Sympathy
• According to Wikipedia: Empathy
• Ryan K. Lindsay
• Jon Ronson
• Amazon: “The Psycopath Test” by Jon Ronson
• “UK floods: River levels rise as rain and wind sweep in” by BBC News; 14th February 2014
• According to Wikipedia: Band Aid (band)
• According to Wikipedia: Live Aid
• YouTube: “Do They Know It’s Christmas” by Band Aid (1984)

• Band-Aid.com
• Elastoplast.co.uk
• YouTube: “Band Aid : Bono”—the bit about Bono’s infamous lyric

• “‘I, Too, Am Harvard’: Black students show they belong” by Bethonie Butler, The Washington Post; 5th March 2014
• Know Your Meme: Check Your Privilege
• Archive.org: Louis Theroux: “A Place for Paedophiles” (2009)
• According to Wikipedia: A Place for Paedophiles
• According to Wikipedia: Coalinga State Hospital
• According to Wikipedia: Kleptomania
• YouTube: “Computer Love” by Kraftwerk (Latitude 2013)

Further material

• YouTube: RSA Shorts—The Power of Empathy

• “Check your privilege! Whatever that means” by Hadley Freeman, The Guardian; Wednesday 5th June 2013
• YouTube: Brass Eye 2001 Special—Paedogeddon

• “Brass Eye’s ‘Paedogeddon!’ inflamed the U.K.—but was that the point?” by A.V. Club; 17th July 2013

Details

• Recorded: 05 March 2014
• Running time: 0:52’34
• Bad language: Yes [3x bleep; 11x f*ck; 3x sh*t; 1x ar*ehole]
• Feature image source: https://destinysfreedom.wordpress.com/tag/deanna-troi/
  
• Archive.org page

It took Steev and Nick thirteen months to record their first podcast after deciding they would make one together. Twenty episodes of Unanswered later they get around to tackling procrastination as a topic. They are well suited to discuss it.

Is procrastination a manifestation of boredom, distractibility or fear? What are the barriers procrastinators build for themselves to avoid doing the things which really matter? Can displacement activities themselves be productive? Steev and Nick ask a lot of questions of themselves in our most personal episode so far.

Download Show 20 [MP3, 30.9 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Procrastination
• According to Wikipedia: Tomb Raider 2013 (video game)
• YouTube: Tomb Raider official trailer ↓

• Loadout (video game)
• YouTube: Loadout official game trailer ↓

• ElephantWords.co.uk
• NaNoWriMo—otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month
• YouTube: Stewie on Brian’s novel (Family Guy) ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Bill Sienkiewicz
• According to Wikipedia: Walt Simonson
• Back to Work—the podcast from Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin
• Merlin Mann
• Dan Benjamin
• Amazon: “What’s Stopping You?” by Robert Kelsey
• Amazon: “The Creative Habit” by Twyla Tharpe
• MOMBcast—the podcast from MOMBcomics.com
• Thought Bubble comic art festival
• DailyMotion: Spaced—Brian, painter, loser
• Lem, maker of Bunny Comic
• Andrew Tunney, make of Girl & Boy
• According to Wikipedia: Jonathan Coulton
• Jonathan Coulton
• Jonathan Coulton’s Thing A Week
• Jonathan Mann
• Jonathan Mann’s “Song A Day” YouTube channel
• Amazon: “High Fidelity” by Nick Hornby
• IMDB: High Fidelity (2000)
• YouTube: High Fidelity (2000) trailer ↓
  

Further material

• “Why Procrastinators Procrastinate” from Wait But Why; October 2013
• “How to Beat Procrastination” from Wait But Why; November 2013

Details

• Recorded: 12 February 2014
• Running time: 1:07’24
• Bad language: Yes [4x f*ck; 5x sh*t]
• Aural erratum: It was Jonathan Mann who records a song a day; Jonathan Coulton did a “Thing A Week” for a year.
• Feature image source: http://www.donotenter.com/cool/ucgraphics/animated/page2/index.htm
  
• Archive.org page

Returning from a month’s hiatus turns out to be a tricky thing, thanks to the disruptive power of moving home. Steev’s moving moving experience is the starting point for a discussion on what home means to us.

We look at the various places we call home, and try to figure out what turns a collection of bricks and stuff, or roads and places, into an emotional connection.

Download Show 19 [MP3, 22.9 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Home
• YouTube: “Home” by Gemma Hayes ↓

• According to Wikipedia: CBeebies
• According to Wikipedia: Peterborough
• According to Wikipedia: Watership Down (film)
• YouTube: Watership Down trailer ↓

• YouTube: “Bright Eyes” by Mike Batt (2008) ↓

• YouTube: The Wombles intro ↓

Details

• Recorded: 15 January 2014
• Running time: 0:50’00
• Bad language: No
• Feature image source: http://theshoreways.com/blog/?p=328
  
• Archive.org page

We are all prone to bouts of wondering what it is we’re supposed to do with our lives, and it seems one of the most popular answers is to be happy. Our governments and corporations wish for us to be happy as much as our nearest and dearest do.

Whilst all this goodwill is lovingly received, can we even begin to understand what our pursuit of happiness really means? Why is happiness the emotion that wins out amongst all others, and do we risk confusing it with a sense of contentment?

It’s a densely packed hour as Steev and Nick discuss emotions, the value of dogs, and share their own perspectives and experiences from their happiness pursuits.

Download Show 18 [MP3, 27.4 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Happiness
• According to Wikipedia: Emotion
• YouTube: “Happiness” by Ken Dodd ↓

• YouTube: Hamlet Cigar commercial starring Gregor Fisher ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Only When I Laugh (TV series)
• YouTube: Only When I Laugh opening titles ↓

• YouTube: “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Curb Your Enthusiasm
• YouTube: Curb Your Enthusiasm—Larry doesn’t want any pie ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Qualia
• According to Wikipedia: Entente Cordiale
• Totalwar.com
• According to Wikipedia: Timmy Mallett
• Timmy Mallett website
• According to Wikipedia: Christopher Biggins

Details

• Recorded: 06 November 2013
• Running time: 0:59’47
• Bad language: Yes
• Feature image source: http://www.45cat.com/imageview/13B8A937EE74A6FB
  
• Archive.org page

“You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression” so the infamous phrase goes, and whilst you often have it told to you before a job interview or going on a date, it also applies to a good book or this year’s must-watch box-set TV show.

Inspired in part by the fuss whipped up around the farewell of Breaking Bad, Steev and Nick delve into the dangers of time-shifting our entertainment diet, either by circumstance or by design. If everybody is talking about a thing you haven’t yet seen but want to check out at some point, is it possible to enjoy it unspoiled by others steamrolling their experiences over it? Is it your fault if you chose to do something else instead of grinding through the popular culture checklist, and do you deserve to have the kimono flashed open in your face for not keeping up with the rest of the class?

We try very hard not to spoil the TV shows and movies we cite along the way.

Download Show 17 [MP3, 27.9 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Spoiler (media)
• According to Wikipedia: Breaking Bad
• According to Wikipedia: Quantum Leap
• According to Wikipedia: Lost (TV Series)
• According to Wikipedia: Dexter (TV Series)
• According to Wikipedia: The West Wing
• The Incomparable from 5by5
• The Incomparable, episode 160: “Super-secret Sony MiniDiscs”
• According to Wikipedia: Damon Lindelof
• According to Wikipedia: Brian K Vaughn
• YouTube: Saints Row IV—War for Humanity trailer ↓

• Early Saints Row IV demo shows the Dubstep Gun: YouTube: Saints Row IV—PAX Demo ↓

• IMDB: The Sixth Sense (1999)
• YouTube: Robot Chicken: M. Night Shyamalan’s The Twist ↓

• Sight and Sound magazine
• IMDB: Twelve Monkeys (1995)
• IMDB: Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
• YouTube: Leaving Las Vegas, trailer ↓

• IMDB: Requiem For A Dream (2000)
• “BBC, Sky to share Formula 1 rights from 2012” by Kate Goodacre, Digital Spy; Friday 29th July, 2011
• MOMBcast—the podcast from MOMBcomics.com

Further material

• “Damon Lindelof on Why Breaking Bad’s Finale Let Him Say Goodbye to Lost” by Damon Lindelof, The Hollywood Reporter; Weds 2nd October 2013

Details

• Recorded: 02 October 2013
• Running time: 1:00’50
• Bad language: Yes [3x f*ck; 1x sh*t; 4x ar*ehole]
• Feature image source: http://whatculture.com/film/20-most-ridiculous-movie-twists-of-all-time.php/5
  
• Archive.org page

Despite themselves and their often inflated sense of self-importance, humans do a relatively good job of all getting along. That is, unless one of their contemporaries is proving to be an obstacle purely by performing the duties their employer has bestowed upon said ghastly hurdle.

Surely it is not too much to ask to appeal to the hurdle’s better nature and sense of fairness? Well, yes you can ask. Questions have a habit of providing unwelcome answers, however. And the wind cries Jobsworth.

Steev and Nick try and deconstruct the title of Jobsworth and the people who wield it. Learn about That’s Life!, porcelain hearts, The Great British Traffic Warden, supposed power trips, and who amongst us can genuinely claim to win at life.

Download Show 16 [MP3, 27.5 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Jobsworth
• YouTube: “Jobsworth” by Jeremy Taylor ↓

• According to Wikipedia: That’s Life!
• YouTube: Ben the Real Ale drinking dog on “That’s Life!” ↓

• YouTube: Esther Rantzen on “That’s Life!” (BBC ’70s) ↓

• YouTube: That’s Life! spoof—Not The Nine O’Clock News ↓

• “Your job’s worth more than you are” by BBC News; 10th January 2000
• According to Wikipedia: Points of View
• According to Wikipedia: The One Show
• According to Wikipedia: Traffic Warden
• The Traffic Warden Section
  • TrafficWarden.org—the Great British attitude toward the Great British Traffic Warden
  • YouTube: Parking Pataweyo (Episode 4) ↓

• YouTube: Parking Pataweyo (Episode 5) ↓

• “Traffic wardens issue ‘dodgy’ parking tickets to meet ‘targets’” by BBC News; 23rd September 2013
• “Drivers launch a war on traffic wardens” by David Paul, Daily Express; 28th July 2013
• “Confessions of a Traffic Warden” by Rob Hastings, The Independent; 7th January 2012

• According to Wikipedia: Leopoldo Galtieri
• The speculative Flora ad which stirred social media: “Flora’s social backlash spread over homophobic ad” by Stuart Lauchlan, Diginomica; 5th September 2013
• XKCD: Duty Calls
• IMDB: Glengarry Glen Ross
• YouTube: Glengarry Glen Ross—Blake’s speech ↓

Details

• Recorded: 04 September 2013
• Running time: 0:59’59
• Bad language: Yes [6x f*ck; 1x sh*t; 1x tw*t; 1x ar*ehole; 2x b*llocks]
• Feature image source: http://www.woottontalks.co.uk/pastmasters39.asp
  
• Archive.org page

Everybody’s business is their own until it becomes somebody else’s. The question is: who gets to decide to make it somebody else’s business?

Steev and Nick address privacy: where it exists in real life, and how online life has eroded our boundaries and highlighted the breadcrumb trail we leave, causing us to wonder what we’re left with.

Follow us on a journey around baby pictures, condoms, soul stealing databases, the lives of the rich and famous, and what terrorists keep in their pants. But keep it to yourself.

Download Show 15 [MP3, 25.8 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Inside Baseball (metaphor)
• According to Wikipedia: British bulldogs (game)
• According to Wikipedia: Bulldog
• According to Wikipedia: Privacy
• According to Wikipedia: Murder of Milly Dowler; voicemail tampering
• YouTube: “Mates Condoms—Chemist (1987, UK)” TV commercial ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Human rights; Substantive rights
• According to Wikipedia: European Convention on Human Rights
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• The European Convention on Human Rights
• “Too Much Information: Our instincts for privacy evolved in tribal societies where walls didn’t exist. No wonder we are hopeless over sharers” by Ian Leslie, Aeon Magazine; 7th August 2013
• According to Wikipedia: The Wire
• The Leveson Inquiry
• According to Wikipedia: Paul McMullan (journalist)
• According to Wikipedia: Steve Guttenberg
• According to Wikipedia: Gutenberg’s press
• EatingWell.com: Tuna Melt recipe

Further material

• YouTube: “Online Privacy: How Did We Get Here?” by PBSoffbook ↓

• “The Bugger, Bugged” by Hugh Grant; New Statesman, 12th April 2011
• “No, Google did not say that there is no privacy in Gmail” by Josh Ong, The Next Web; 14 August 2013

Details

• Recorded: 07 August 2013
• Running time: 0:56’19
• Bad language: Yes [4x f*ck; 1x d*ck; 6x sh*t; 1x t*at]
• Feature image source: dagbladet.no
  
• Archive.org page

With only days to go before the birth of his first child, Nick is in the mood to talk about some of the big changes in life and how we come to make them. Specifically, we discuss the milestones we pass in our relationships, why the decision to pass them seems like a big deal at the time, and why the weight of expectation can have a detrimental effect.

Also, learn more than you’d ever wish to know about caffeine, what would terrify the versions of us from ten years ago, and which of us gurns at a camera that isn’t there.

Download Show 14 [MP3, 27.5 MB]

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Show Notes

• “Hot Cola: How to have hot fizzy drinks”
• YouTube: Cilit Bang ↓

• YouTube: Alan Partridge, Classic Intercourse ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Getting Things Done (David Allen)
• Tumblr: Matt Berry’s Voice
• YouTube: Bananaman intro ↓

• Harry Potter Wiki: Muggle
• According to Wikipedia: Cohabitation
• YouTube: Seinfeld theme ↓

• TV Tropes: Aside Glance
• According to Wikipedia: Lalla Ward
• According to Wikipedia: Tom Baker
• According to Wikipedia: Jon Pertwee

Details

• Recorded: 03 July 2013
• Running time: 1:00’00
• Bad language: Yes [1x d*uchebag; 1x sh*t]
• ‘Delivery mechanism’ count: 3
• Feature image source: http://facultyblog.eternitybiblecollege.com/2012/02/free-yet-still-imprisoned/
  
• Archive.org page

The neighbourhood, let alone the world or the universe, is a pretty large place compared to a single solitary human being who would struggle to put a dent in anything most days. If we are so powerless to affect change wouldn’t it be more comforting to know that someone or something is making the dents for us?

Luck is the term we commonly use to give reason to the things happening in our lives which we care not to analyse. Why are we so prepared to let luck take the wrap for the wrong stuff, and take credit for those times we managed to dent our worlds for the better?

Download Show 13 [MP3, 23.1 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Luck
• “How Did the World’s Rich Get That Way? Luck” by Charles Kenny, Bloomberg Businessweek; Monday 22nd April 2013
• “I think it’s time we broke for lunch” by The Economist; Thursday 14th April 2011
• MOMBcast—the podcast from MOMBcomics.com
• Spandex—the comic from Martin Eden
• According to Wikipedia: The Flintstones
• 99% Invisible: Episode 78, “No Armed Bandit”
• National Geographic: Komodo Dragon
• YouTube: Komodo dragon hunting water buffalo, from the BBC TV series “Life” ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Final Destination (film series)
• According to Wikipedia: Rube Goldberg machine
• YouTube: “This Too Shall Pass” by OK Go, music video ↓

• Candy Crush Saga
• Peggle
• Dalai Lama XIV quote on luck at Good Reads
• YouTube: “Rat in Mi Kitchen” by UB40 ↓

Details

• Recorded: 04 June 2013
• Running time: 0:50’21
• Bad language: Yes [5x f*ck; 1x sh*t]
• Sexual references: Yes [masturbation]
• Aural errata: The komodo dragon attacked a water buffalo, not a wildebeest; the BBC wildlife series was “Life”.
• Feature image source: http://www.thesmartcookiecook.com/2011/11/05/seriously-cereal-lucky-charms-is-magically-delicious-for-all-ages/
  
• Archive.org page

When a person finds themselves offended it is described as them ‘taking offence’. We should be thankful for this grammatical distinction for offence, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder.

This episode explores the modern malaise of militant indignation where the simple act of getting the hump somehow means this poor, fictional victim awards themselves the ability to force the rest of the world to adapt. Several examples from the world of comedy are brought into play, as well as racism, some bigoted woman, trigger warnings, and the Boyle family Christmas.

Trigger warning: this episode contains words that can offend. It is not the intention of this show to cause offence, but the hosts recognise words are used that are not theirs to use. The show remains unedited.

Download Show 12 [MP3, 30.2 MB]

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Show Notes

Details

• Recorded: 01 May 2013
• Running time: 1:05’53
• Bad language: Yes [4x ni**er; 2x p*ki; 3x f*ck; 2x sh*t; 1x w*nker]
• ‘Confirmation bias’ count: 2
• Feature image source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7653864/General-Election-2010-Gillian-Duffy-snubbed-Gordon-Brown-photo-op-after-bigot-gaffe.html
  
• Archive.org page

When a like turns into a devotion and becomes a part of your emotional well-being, it’s possible you have become a fan.

You enjoy, support and loyally follow an individual or group making something entertaining, or succeeding or failing in a sport. And that’s OK because you’re allowed to enjoy the fruits of another’s hard work. The person who worked hard to make it wants you to enjoy it. It’s a simple relationship.

However, how much devotion is unhealthy and where can the relationship break down? Can one’s investment grow to create hopes that can never be met? Does our fanaticism threaten to spoil our fancy?

Nick and Steev use a few of their own examples to consider the faults in being a fan.

Steev yet again struggles with his sinuses. Apologies.

Download Show 11 [MP3, 26.3 MB]

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Show Notes

Details

• Recorded: 03 April 2013
• Running time: 0:57’17
• Bad language: Yes [2x sh*t; 1x b*llocks]
• ‘Confirmation bias’ count: 3
• Feature image source: http://thesuperslice.com/2011/10/07/duck-tron-by-ryactive/
  
• Tron Guy: Jay Maynard
• Archive.org page

Nick has taken a look through his many swanky notebooks full of ideas, thoughts and observations. Starting along the path of youthful exuberance, and whilst the tenth episode started with the intention to be a bit of a round robin, we ended up focusing on affairs of the heart.

We dissect the hopeless romantic; deconstruct the honeymoon period; and decide what defines an actual relationship from a schoolyard fling. We also talk crushes and crazy attention-grabbing schemes, and peek behind the curtain of marriage.

And Steev says “you know” a lot.

Download Show 10 [MP3, 22.7 MB]

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Show Notes

• Moleskine notebooks
• Twitter: #comicmarket
• uniformdating.com
• IMDB: High Fidelity (2000)
• YouTube: High Fidelity (2000) trailer

• IMDB: Alife (1966)
• YouTube: Alfie (1966) trailer

• According to Wikipedia: Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine
• Spotify: “Second to Last Will and Testament” by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine

Details

• Recorded: 06 March 2013
• Running time: 0:49’23
• Bad language: Yes [2x f*ck; 2x sh*t]
• ‘Damning indictment’ count: 3
• Feature image source: http://andrewsidea.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/high-fidelity/
  
• Archive.org page

Cities: Hulking great machines keeping its populace in sportswear and takeaway coffees, hiring people to sell sportswear and takeaway coffees. With our attention so divided between threats, opportunities and more bus stop ads than you could shake Adam Sandler at, are we able to focus on anything but the next few minutes?

Steev and Nick are your tour guides of a ramshackle conversation covering African tribes; cherry bakewells; suburban sprawl; Hitler’s legacy, and The Wow Factor.

Curiously, Hitler’s Legacy and The Wow Factor are on tour to your city later in the year.

Download Show 9 [MP3, 28.6 MB]

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Show Notes

Details

• Recorded: 20 February 2013
• Running time: 0:49’48
• Bad language: Yes [1x f*ck; 1x bullsh*t]
• Feature image source: http://www.businessinsider.com/amazing-pictures-north-korea-2011-7?op=1
  
• Archive.org page

Once only residing in Nordic legend, trolls have rampantly multiplied and found new, fertile ground along the Information Superhighway. As the world started to connect, and as technologies and services grew to house it, the human race re-encountered behaviours that the rigours of meatspace had started regulating years before.

What’s troubling is, as more significant and influential people are thrust into online confrontations they weren’t expecting, we’re all struggling for a term to describe it. Steev and Nick aren’t so sure putting it under the umbrella of largely innocuous attempts to derail discussion threads for a cheap and easy, angry reaction is really that suitable.

Has the term evolved or is it being hijacked where other, existing descriptions already exist?

Download Show 8 [MP3, 28.6 MB]

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Show Notes

• “What an Academic Who Wrote Her Dissertation on Trolls Thinks of Violentacrez” by Whitney Phillips, The Atlantic; October 15th 2012
• “Comedians using their fans for co-ordinated, safety-in-numbers bullying” by Neil, Cook’d and Bomb’d Comedy Chat; September 5th 2012
• “Trolling: Who does it and why?” by Tom de Castella and Virginia Brown, BBC News Magazine; 14th September 2012
• XKCD: Trolling
• According to Wikipedia: Troll (Internet)
• Urban Dictionary: Trolling
• According to Wikipedia: Flaming (Internet)
• According to Wikipedia: Three Billy Goats Gruff
• IMDB: Upworld/ A Gnome Named Gnorm (1990)
• YouTube: Upworld/ A Gnome Named Gnorm (1990) trailer ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Warren Ellis
• WarrenEllis.com
• SomethingAwful.com
• According to Wikipedia: Delphi (online service)
• According to Wikipedia: Usenet newsgroup
• According to Wikipedia: Agent provocateur

Details

• Recorded: 06 February 2013
• Running time: 1:02’25
• Bad language: Yes [1x f*ck; 2x d*ckhead; 3x sh*t]
• Feature image source: http://whynne.deviantart.com/art/Comic-Trolls-98357844
  
• Credit for Trollface: Whynne
• Archive.org page

Nick takes us back to his formative years to share a story about a llama, and relates it to the type of true stories told on The Moth podcast. This leads us to examine whether his tale could cut the mustard on the stage.

We also ponder whether anecdotes or verbal vignettes, which don’t always guarantee a tidy resolution or lesson learned, really fit in anywhere without the context of already knowing the storyteller.

No testicles were harmed during the making of this podcast.

Download Show 7 [MP3, 23.2 MB]

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Show Notes

• The Moth—True stories told live
• According to Wikipedia: The Moth
• Elephant Words
• MOMBcast
• According to Wikipedia: Anecdote
• Whipsnade Zoo
• National Geographic: Llama
• According to Wikipedia: Peter Mayhew (actor)
• According to Wikipedia: Testicular trauma
• Do You Remember?: Raleigh Lizard
• Do You Remember?: Raleigh Tomahawk
• IMDB: The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)

Details

• Recorded: 23 January 2013
• Running time: 0:50’37
• Bad language: Yes [2x sh*t; 1x d*uche]
• Feature image source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1395418
  
• Archive.org page

Sometimes we can be wrong without even knowing we’re wrong, because the meaning we thought we knew turns out not the be the meaning at all. Whilst this could lead to potentially disastrous effects, Nick and Steev instead prefer to focus mainly on songs.

That is when they do actually focus on the topic and don’t find themselves distracted by social awkwardness; learning to drive; the movie Innerspace; or interruptions from a flaky broadband connection.

The makers of this podcast also wish to warn you there may be evidence of singing within this recording.

Download Show 6 [MP3, 23.8 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Irony
• Lyrics to “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette
• According to Wikipedia: Malapropism
• YouTube: An Inconceivable montage ↓

• Google Image search: John Travolta hair
• IMDB: Innerspace (1987)
• YouTube: Innerspace (1987) trailer ↓

• YouTube: “Take Me Back” by Babybird ↓

• YouTube: “Baby, Now That I Found You” by The Foundations ↓

• YouTube: “Baby, Now That I Found You” by Alison Krauss and Union Station ↓

• YouTube: “It’s A Heartache” by Bonnie Tyler ↓

• YouTube: “Pub With No Beer” by Slim Dusty ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Aphorism
• YouTube: Peter Kay recalls things that have happened that other people may also have experienced ↓

• Google Maps: Ruislip

Details

• Recorded: 09 January 2013
• Running time: 0:51’54
• Bad language: Yes [5x f*ck; 1x sh*t; 2x a*sehole; 1x c*ck]
• Feature image source: http://www.sho.com/sho/homeland/cast/16474/saul-berenson
  
• Archive.org page

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day, Nick and Steev are back; and this time it’s time to talk about time.

Predictable chunks of time such as minutes, evenings and weeks can find a way of either running away from us or conversely wear out their welcome. For example: the long and possibly rose-tinted summer holidays of childhood stretched out ahead of us back then in a rather similar way to being trapped at a boring party now. Or worse still, a meeting.

The cud is chewed until the flavour has all gone and gets repackaged as supermarket value brand tea. We also manage to keep the language clean and Steev lets slip his billion-dollar vision for meetings of the future.

Download Show 5 [MP3, 23.3 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Time
• YouTube: Everything’s coming up Milhouse ↓

• The Beano
• According to Wikipedia: Maya calendar
• According to Wikipedia: 2012 phenomenon
• According to Wikipedia: Gregorian calendar
• According to Wikipedia: Quantum mechanics
• YouTube: Twister commercial (1992) ↓

• Archer (TV series) official site
• Archer Wikia: Malory Archer
• NaNoWriMo, otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month
• MOMBcast—the podcast from MOMBcomics
• According to Wikipedia: Rapture
• 2011 Census for England and Wales
• “No, the end of the world isn’t near! An explanation of the Maya calendar” by Sven Gronemeyer, Independent Voices; Thursday 20th December 2012

Details

• Recorded: 19 December 2012
• Running time: 0:50’42
• Bad language: None
• Feature image source: www.ajaxload.info
  
• Archive.org page

Who we are as a person can depend on where we are, both in time and location. While we are busy adapting to our ever-changing environment is it possible to ever really be our true self?

We look at the times and places that influence us and try to discover why we have subsets of our personality. We successfully fail at not focusing on the workplace.

Also Steev has a cold.

Download Show 4 [MP3, 21.7 MB]

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Show Notes

• Elephant Words
• YouTube: The Real Ghostbusters promo ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Cartoon physics
• DailyMotion: The Cartoon Laws of Physics, by Chris Signore ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Andy Capp
• Andy Capp at Creators.com
• According to Wikipedia: Dissocial personality disorder
• YouTube: The Armando Iannucci Shows—Football ↓

• YouTube: The Armando Iannucci Shows—Inadequacy ↓

• YouTube: The Armando Iannucci Shows—Prompt ↓

• Google Image Search: Be the person your dog thinks you are

Details

• Recorded: 12 December 2012
• Running time: 0:47’15
• Bad language: Yes [2x f*ck; 1x t*at]
• Feature image source: Screen cap from episode one of The Armando Iannucci Shows
  
• Archive.org page

Christmas is coming and for those who choose to observe the seasonal celebrations, there’s a lot to do. There are lists to write, gifts to buy, cards to send, people to please and white lies to tell—so it’s just as well it happens but once a year.

Everything and everyone is telling us what a happy time it is, so why can it end up feeling like work?

We take a look at some of the obligations to fulfil during this most seasonal of seasons and share several personal stories. Hopefully for context and comfort, but you are also welcome to enjoy our misfortune and mild misanthropy.

Download Show 3 [MP3, 27.8 MB]

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Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Christmas
• YouTube: John Lewis Christmas commercial 2010 ↓

• YouTube: John Lewis Christmas commercial 2011 ↓

• YouTube: John Lewis Christmas commercial 2012 ↓

• YouTube: That Coca-Cola Christmas commercial ↓

• According to Wikipedia: Santa Claus
• Thought Bubble Comic Arts Festival, Leeds
• Threadless
• According to Wikipedia: Atari 2600
• YouTube: Atari 2600 commercial ↓

• YouTube: Commercial for Pitfall on the Atari 2600 starring Baby Jack Black ↓

• YouTube: The music video for the Avril Lavigne opus “Complicated” ↓

• “How to reduce Christmas obligations” by David DeWitt, Yahoo! Voices; 13 December 2009
• According to Wikipedia: Thompson Local Directory
• Snopes: Did Coca-Cola invent the modern image of Santa Claus?

Details

• Recorded: 28 November 2012
• Running time: 1:00’37
• Bad language: Yes [4x f*ck; 2x sh*t; 6x arsehole]
• Feature image source: http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2012/12/01/the-bad-santa-gallery/
  
• Archive.org page

Nick recalls his first experience flying on a small aeroplane, noting it can be quite different from long-haul journeys on much larger jets. This kicks off a conversation about the fear of flying or, more to the point, the myriad fears and issues captured within.

In addition we discuss dreams, other tales of disaster, and we entirely resist the issue of airline food.

Download Show 2 [MP3, 25 MB]

Subscribe to the show via iTunes or Feedburner

Show Notes

• According to Wikipedia: Fear of flying
• According to Wikipedia: Flight
• According to Wikipedia: Air Safety
• According to Wikipedia: List of phobias
• “Why fear of flying is just plane stupid” by Tim Walker, The Independent; Tues 11 August 2009
• Do You Remember?: Spokey Dokeys
• YouTube: Trailer for Channel 4 documentary The Plane Crash ↓

• The Plane Crash website
• IMDB: The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
• IMDB: Airport (1970)
• YouTube: Theatrical trailer for Airport (1970) ↓

• IMDB: Threads (1984, BBC TV feature)
• YouTube: From the Fear episode of How TV Ruined Your Life, Charlie Brooker talks about Threads [at 10:59] ↓

Details

• Recorded: 24 October 2012
• Bad language: Yes [3x f*ck; 1x sh*t; 1x bullsh*t]
• Aural errata: “airport meal” where “airline meal” was intended
• Feature image source: http://uk.screengeeks.com/2011/07/loco-film-festival-jerry-zucker-interview/
• Archive.org page

In the debut episode, we tackle the slippery subject of opinions in a rip-roaring display of low self-awareness as if Unanswered is in any way qualified to define what opinions are and who gets permission to express them.

Marvel at our abuse of science and religion. Gasp as we wrangle Godwin’s Law. Restrain the urge to faint as we decide who is responsible for policing all of this thinking.

Also learn how we like our tea.

Download Show 1 [MP3, 25.5 MB]

Subscribe to the show via iTunes or Feedburner

Show Notes

• “No, you’re not entitled to your opinion” by Patrick Stokes, Lecturer in Philosophy at Deakin University
• According to Wikipedia: Godwin’s Law
• According to Wikipedia: Alan Turing
• IMDB: Dan Harmon
• According to Wikipedia: Cerne Abbas Giant
• According to Wikipedia: MMR vaccine controversy

Details

• Recorded: 10 October 2012
• Bad language: Yes [1x f*ck; 2x sh*t]
• Sexual references: Yes [masturbation; penis, the; semen]
• Feature image source: The judgemental face of Jan Moir
• Archive.org page

In our pilot episode we talk about how objects that are owned have a curious way of becoming far more than objects, representing and reflecting aspects of our personality, and digging in their hooks way beyond the point of their usefulness.

Mugs, comic books, VHS cassettes, vinyl records and other seemingly harmless objects have their inherent evils revealed.

Download Show 0 [MP3, 26 MB]

Subscribe to the show via iTunes or Feedburner

Show Notes

• Quote Garden: Quotes from Chuck Palanuick’s Fight Club
• IMDB: Dan Harmon
• Teapigs.co.uk

Details

• Recorded: 26 September 2012
• Bad language: Yes
• Feature image source: http://trcs.wikispaces.com/Hoarding08
• Archive.org page