The good news is, between our hot takes on Nolan’s adaptation, we also debate progressive tax systems and whether or not Jason Statham should make any more movies.

Want to be a part of the Tertiary community? Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. 

Assigned Reading

• Buy “The Odyssey,” translated by Emily Wilson on Bookshop here.
• Explore “Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey (Different Translations of the Opening Lines)” here.
• Read Emily Wilson’s scathing review of Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey, “An Uncomplicated Man,” here.
• Read Joyce Carol Oates’ response to Wilson’s review here.

Further Reading

• Read Claudia Dreifus’s exit interview with Ben and Jerry, “Passing the Scoop,” for The New York Times here.
• Watch the entirety of Jason Statham’s filmography, duh.
• Compare Kilmartin and Cox’s translation of Stanislaw Lem’s “Solaris” (here) with an ebook version of Bill Johnston’s translation (here).
• Buy Lydia Davis’ brilliant collection of essays on translating Proust, “Essays Two,” on Bookshop here.

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

But we aren’t about vain pursuits, here at Tertiary—your favorite hosts Heaven-Leigh and Justin breakdown the complicated politics in the background of Curry Barker’s freshman film, “Obsession,” including the internet’s incel subculture, Hollywood’s Gen Z breakouts, and the scourge of toxic male entitlement. 

Want to be a part of the Tertiary community? Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. 

Assigned Reading

• Watch Curry Barker’s “Obsession,” duh.

Further Reading

• Read Emma Cieslik’s essay “‘Obsession’ and the Rise of Incel Horror: When Men’s Entitlement Becomes the Monster” here.
• Read Benjamin Lee’s interview with Barker, “‘I never thought people might feel threatened by us’: YouTuber Curry Barker on his big horror ascent,” here.
• Read “Annie Bot” by Sierra Greer, here.
• Watch “Companion” (2025).

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

Interested in continuing the conversation? Send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. 

Assigned Reading

• Read the EBSCO research starter for Either/Or by Soren Kierkegaard here.

Further Reading

• Find Kate Bowler’s Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved on ThriftBooks here.
• Read u/Boring_Net_299’s “Ranking philosophers based on their sexiness” on Reddit here.

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

We all have, in one way or another. In this episode, your Tertiary hosts Heaven-Leigh and Justin discuss how to create a healthy relationship with skepticism, when (and when not) to “trust the experts,” and why it matters that we consume information with a grain of salt. This just might be the first issue we don’t solve, but we look forward to starting this important conversation with you. 

Have follow-up questions or comments? We want to hear from you! Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com and fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. 

Assigned Reading

• Listen to “Who needs experts?” on The Grey Area with Sean Illing here. 
• Buy Tom Nichols’ The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters (Oxford University Press, 2017) on ThriftBooks here.

Further Reading

• Watch “CIA whistleblower alleges federal cover-up of COVID-19 origins” on C-SPAN’s YouTube here. 
• Listen to “A Defense of Liberal Arts Education in the Age of A.I.“ on Interesting Times with Ross Douthat here.

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

Sure, she just finished her doctorate in Clinical Psychology—and yeah, she recently published a peer-reviewed study in Integrative and Complementary Medicine observing the adverse effects of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic—but she also binge watches “Sex in the City” like the rest of us, making her the picture-perfect inaugural Tertiary guest.

Even though it’s officially Summertime (i.e., no longer S.A.D. season), the team at Tertiary still felt it appropriate to bring on an expert to help us tackle questions about mental health. After all, the kids are not alright. Together, Tertiary’s first trio laughs, cries, and explores topics like resilience and distress tolerance, collectivism vs. individualism, and the importance of loving, supportive relationships. 

Want to be a part of the Tertiary community? Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com and fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. We want to hear from you! 

Assigned Reading

• Read Shelby’s paper, “Covid 19’s Social Quarantine-Moderated Self-Reported Mental Health and Substance Use Among US Adults,” here. 

Further Reading

• Listen to “John Mulaney Radio” on Pandora here.
• Watch Jason Reitman’s “Thank You for Smoking” on Amazon Prime. If you want.

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

For a topic as gargantuan as artificial intelligence, it should come as no surprise that our conversation covered a lot of ground—from publishing industry scandals and algorithm-driven slop factories to the ineffable, untouchable thing that separates manmade art from clunker junk. While it’s clear that regulating AI is somewhat out of the question (thanks, capitalism), that doesn’t change the fact that protecting what makes art quintessentially human is important. 

Don’t worry, we also made plenty of time to debate the Alien movies and gush over Jeff

Have a follow-up question about AI? Send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com and fill out our Google Form and we promise (we really do!) to answer in a future episode. We want to hear from you! 

Assigned Reading

• Watch The Drey Dossier’s recent YouTube episode on “The Shy Girl AI Scandal Is Way Worse Than You Think” here.
• Read Nabeel S. Qureshi’s Substack, “What Makes Art Great?” here.

Further Reading

• Read Walter Benjamin’s essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” here.
• Read Britannica’s summarization of Machiavelli’s contributions to historiography here.
• Read Jay Caspian Kang’s article for The New Yorker, “Will A.I. Make College Obsolete?” here.
• Listen to The Grey Area’s podcast discussing “Machiavelli on how democracies die,” here. 

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

Don’t worry, we also found time to touch on werewolves and queer culture, zombie movies and paranoia, and—most importantly—social media bans for minors. 

Want to be a part of the Tertiary community? Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com and fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. We want to hear from you! 

Assigned Reading

• Buy Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle on Bookshop here or watch “The Man in the High Castle” on Netflix.
• Read Slavoj Žižek’s Substack on “SINNERS: CLASS STRUGGLE, BLUES AND VAMPIRES” here.

Further Reading

• Listen to The Last Podcast on the Left’s series on Jimmy Savile here.
• Read Tiffany Hsu’s NYT article, “Hundreds of Fake Pro-Trump Avatars Emerge on Social Media,” here.
• Watch “Hegseth defends Iran War's mission, costs” on FOX 32 Chicago here. 
• Read Dana Goldstein’s NYT article, “Did School Cellphone Bans Work? New Study Finds Mixed Results,” here.
• Read Justin’s Substack on “TikTok, Hypnopedia, and the Zombification of the Public” here.

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

You’ve heard of architecture, you’ve heard of ecology … but what happens when you smoosh those words together? You get “arcology,” a concept coined by Italian-American architect Paolo Soleri, out of which sprouted his ongoing experimental town in central Arizona called “Acrosanti.” Earlier this year, your #1 Tertiary host (Heaven-Leigh, obviously) paid said town a visit and brought a fistful of questions and ideas home with her. 

For this week’s Sidequest, Justin and Heaven-Leigh finally tackle the topic they’re both secretly obsessed with: Urban design. What would it look like to build a city around the natural environment? What happens when your relationship to “work” becomes less about making money and more about building community? We get into it—and we can’t wait to hear what you think about all of it.   

Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. We want to hear from you! 

Assigned Reading:

• Explore the Acrosanti project’s website (here)
• Read Paolo Soleri’s “Arcology Concept” (here)

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

This week, your Tertiary hosts tackle issues ranging from fatalism, tribalism, tolerance vs. intolerance, and—most importantly—community building at the end of the world. Believe it or not, this episode isn’t all doom and gloom: It’s Turkey Burger’s birthday, Spring is officially here, and we’re excited both to celebrate and problem-solve with you.

Want to be a part of the Tertiary community? Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. We want to hear from you! 

Assigned Reading:

• “The Last Messiah” (Janus, 1933), by Peter Wessel Zapffe (read it here)
• “Eugenics” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) (read the definition here)

Further Reading:

• “Peter Wessel Zapffe” (Medium, 2017), by OJ (read it here)
• “Toilet Architecture: An Essay About The Most Psychosexually Charged Room in a Building” (PIN–UP, 2017/2018), by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley (read it here)

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

Want to be a part of the Tertiary community? Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. We want to hear from you! 

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

Assigned Reading:

• “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” (University of Chicago Legal Form) by Kimberlé Crenshaw (read it here)
• “Kimberlé Crenshaw on Intersectionality More Than Two Decades Later,” (Columbia Law School) interview (read it here)
• “‘2020 Never Ended:’ How Black Lives Matter Organizers Taught Minneapolis to Handle ICE Surge,” (The Guardian) by Alyssa Oursler (read it here)

In the outtakes, Heaven-Leigh and Justin rehash the reality T.V. debate for a third and final time (I swear we’re done) and broach the subject of Hello Kitty’s perplexing biography… apparently, she’s not a cat? So says the internet? Jury’s still out. 

In typical Tertiary fashion, we ask more questions than we answer, but the team is eager to hear your feedback, so send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form and let us know what you think. We want to hear from you!

Assigned Reading:

• Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race: Korean Adoptees in America (Russell Sage Foundation, 2012), by Mia Tuan and Jiannbin Lee Shiao (find it here)
• Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Bold Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life (Simon & Shuster, 2024), by Kristen R. Ghodsee (find it here), chapter 3 (“Kids as Public Goods”) and chapter 7 (“You and Me and Baby Makes Misery”)
• “Interesting Times with Ross Douthat” (NY Times) (listen here)

Further Reading / Watching 

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks; What do Women Want by Daniel Bergner; Hello Kitty is a Little Girl?? (watch here) 

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

With that in mind, this week Tertiary hosts Heaven-Leigh and Justin crack a window to let in a little fresh air and tackle questions like: How can art be a survival tool? What does speculative fiction have to teach us, not only about enduring difficult times but imagining better worlds? Winding their way through examples of dystopian action thrillers, post-apocalyptic survival films and bingeable zombie series, this episode considers the open question of humanity’s survival from a bird’s eye view. 

Speaking of birds, Justin and Heaven-Leigh also find time to settle the Pigeon versus Crow debate, speculate whether the Last Supper was the first murder mystery, and—as appears to be a recurring topic—discuss the importance of reality TV, “white noise” television, and other forms of mindless entertainment. 

Want to be a part of the Tertiary community? Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. We want to hear from you! 

Assigned Reading

• The Left Hand of Darkness, 50th Anniversary Edition (Ace, 1987), by Ursula K Le Guin, “Author’s Note” (find the edition referenced here)
• The Road (Vintage, 2007), by Cormac McCarthy (find it here)
• “Doomsday Preppers and the Architecture of Dread” (Geoforum, December 2021), by Bradley Garrett (read it here)

Further Reading / Watching

The Once and Future King by T. H. White; Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements edited by Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha; The Road, narrated by Tom Stechschulte, and the film; Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin; Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler; Solaris by Stanisław Lem.

And as promised, ”A Bird Hit My Window and Now I’m a Lesbian.”

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

This week, Tertiary co-hosts Heaven-Leigh and Justin discuss the latest installment in Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” series of films, Wake Up Dead Man (2025). Along the way, they break down their personal experiences with religion through the lens of William James’ theory that if a religion produces positive “fruits” (i.e., if a religion makes an individual more courageous, charitable, and better functioning in life) then it is both valuable and true. 

What is true? What does it mean to believe in something? What value does religion offer society? Big questions guide the conversation this week—Christian nationalism, religious extremism, fear mongering alike—and, while we don’t pretend to have any of the answers, we’re excited to dive into the grey area with you.

Want to be a part of the Tertiary community? Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. We want to hear from you! 

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

Assigned Reading:

• Find William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience (Penguin Classics, 1982) here or on Project Gutenberg
• Read Richard Brody’s “The Best Movies of 2025” here

Well, our first episode (“Decolonization is Not a Metaphor”) sparked so much debate, we decided to introduce an entirely new series to respond to listener feedback, circle back to particularly hot topics, and reserve for other special occasions. 

We’re calling them “Side Quests.” (Don’t worry, Episode 2 is still coming out tomorrow!)

To kick things off, we revisit the timeless “Dumbledore versus Gandalf” debate, featuring a surprise guest … who shall not be named. Then we spiral into a conversation about cancel culture and censorship, inspired by the controversy surrounding HBO’s revived Harry Potter series. We consider the ways nostalgia and wishful thinking can conflict with where we “draw the line,” á la Amazon, Trump, and J.K. Rowling. We also started bleeping occasional profanity so Justin’s mom will finally listen. 

Want to be a part of the Tertiary community? Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. We want to hear from you! 

If you noticed a brief clip of Bennett Wyler (@bennettwyler) on guitar, riffing the LOTR theme song, you heard right. Don’t miss his brand new album, “More Human,” wherever you listen to music. 

Assigned Reading:

• Read J.K. Rowling’s article, “J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues,” here
• Read u/Nestramutat-’s Reddit rant here
• Watch Stephen Colbert’s interview with James Talarico here

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

This week, Tertiary hosts Heaven-Leigh and Justin break down the shortcomings of left wing rhetoric, through the lens of Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang’s essay, “Decolonization is not a metaphor” (link below). Buckle up, because we leapfrog from hot topics like performative activism and white fragility to unpacking the MAGA critique of anti-racism and the Democrat’s half-steps toward actionable solutions. 

If you’ve ever wrestled with the question, “What can I do?” this is definitely a podcast for you.

If you’re just here for the hot takes (no shame in that), Heaven-Leigh and Justin tackle questions like: Is Timothee Chalamet a frat guy or a sexy thespian? Who would win in a fight between Gandalf and Dumbledore? Should an American Ratatouille (i.e., Glock-atouille) exist? 

Assigned Reading:

• Check out Brett’s Letterboxd (here)
• “Decolonization is not a metaphor” (Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 2012) by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang (read the PDF here)
• Orientalism (Vintage, 1979) by Edward Said (buy the book here)
• Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film (University of Georgia Press, 2018) by Meredith McCarroll (buy the book here) (Incorrectly named as “Whiteish”, sorry)

Our intro and outro music comes from "Cloud Dancer" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

Our intro and outro music comes from "Cloud Dancer" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.