http://www.galacticwatercooler.com Each week (for three years running) GWC\'s geek hosts jump into new material, becoming fans and passing on the experience with the help of what\'s widely recognized as the friendliest community in science fiction and fantasy. Rolling Stone magazine called GWC \"the NPR of BSG,\" and Howard Stern agreed, describing GWC (and geeking in general) as a \"guilty pleasure.\" Past topics include The Guild, Alien, Eureka, Eve Online, Star Trek, Terminator, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Serenity, Dr. Horrible, Tron, War Games, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Cosmos, Batman, Transformers, X-Men, Mass Effect, SyFy and sci-fi programs, individuals such as Will Smith, Felicia Day, Joss Whedon, and many more! Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:18:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en We wrap up our high school movie arc with Superbad. Audra tells us about her McLovin' experience. Sean comes clean on some high school exploits even his family had no idea about (until now). Listeners share their crazy teen stories. And we run down the week in geek, including Jane ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/09/05/235-superbad-hs-stories/ It's all about the '90s as we offer a beat-by-beat commentary for Clueless. (Though it's not necessary to enjoy the 'cast, feel free to grab your DVD and follow along!) And we run down the week in geek, including Scott Pilgrim's disappointing box office performance and possible alternate DVD ending, ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/08/29/234-clueless/ John Hughes was the voice of a generation. The director-writer-producer captured how it felt to grow up in the 1980s – for the Generation X demographic, at least. He’s best known for teen comedies like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – a hot streak endlessly ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/08/26/john-hughes-the-movies-never-end-or-we-are-the-breakfast-club/ Long-time GWC listener and pop culture writer DX Ferris joins us to discuss the long tail of John Hughes' work. We Bender-up for some Breakfast Club talk. We hear Chuck's promised high-school story (as well as some awesome listener stories). And we run down the week in geek, including Katee ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/08/21/233-breakfast-club-john-hughes-hs-stories/ [caption id="attachment_4997" align="aligncenter" width="437" caption="20 Year High School Class Reunion"][/caption] The GWC crüe has perfect timing. The current high school arc was spot on for me. Like Chuck last year, this summer I had the opportunity to attend my 20th High School Reunion. It was sort of a pain since Mrs. ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/08/17/20-year-high-school-reunions-did-stargate-get-it-right/ This week: We party at the moon tower with Dazed & Confused (and our high school movie arc). We offer five reasons to go see the new Scott Pilgrim Movie. We present the awards for Fantasy Sci-Fi League 2.0: Black Ops Edition. And we run down the week in geek, ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/08/14/232-dazed-confused-fsl-20-awards-pilgrim/ For the next few weeks please call in with your personal high school stories! Funny, poignant, memorable, ridiculous, whatever your fancy we want to hear it. 214-296-9229. Remember to keep it under 2 minutes! http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/08/12/gwc-community-we-want-your-high-school-stories/ This week: We wrap up our Futurama arc with death by snoo-snoo in Amazon Women In The Mood. We wind down our Stargate time travel arc with O'Neill and Teal'c's personal groundhog day in Window of Opportunity. We close out Fantasy Sci-Fi League 2.0: Black Ops with a death match ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/08/08/231-futurama-stargate-time-travel-fsl-20-wrap-up/ While most GWC denizens are sci-fi/fantasy geeks, there's a healthy number of us that have fallen in love with the musical TV show Glee.  Something about awkward high school misfits belting their hearts out in the face of overwhelming unpopularity speaks to anyone who's ever sat at the wrong lunch ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/08/02/76-trombones-led-the-glee-parade/ This week: We talk religion and fate in Chronicles of Riddick. We find out what whether GWCers would opt for one $300 hookerbot or 300 $1 hookerbots. We check out our live-audience podcast segment from San Diego Comic Con. And we run down the week in geek, including the new(ish) ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/07/31/230-chronicles-of-riddick-futurama-calls-sdcc-live-audience/ Aren’t SMART phones fun? It seems the unofficial SMART phone of choice for most GWCers is the iPhone. However, for those of us that have carriers other than AT&T, there are other choices available. Personally I have the Motorola DROID through Verizon. And even though I can’t wait for Verizon ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/07/30/smart-phone-autocorrect-fun/ In this bonus podcast two other San Diego Comic Con attendees, Ryan Gallagher from CriterionCast (criterioncast.com) and Stephen Johnson of New Brew Thursday (newbrewthursday.com), join me for a podcaster roundtable discussion on con experiences. Note: If this is your first GWC podcast, you might want to back up and give ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/07/29/2295-san-diego-comic-con-bonus/ This week: We enter the darkness with Dick Riddick in Pitch Black. We discuss the best way to spend 300 Big Boys with Futurama. We take some awesome listener calls. And we run down the week in geek, including the upcoming Family Guy Return of the Jedi, a re-release of ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/07/23/229-riddickpitch-black-futurama-listener-calls/ In this short bonus podcast Audra and Chuck take a few moments to discuss W00tstock (and a seriously crazy San Diego Comic Con schedule) with comic author Matt Fraction. Plus, we take some pre-SDCC listener calls. If this is your first GWC podcast, check out #228 for a full 2+ ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/07/20/2285-pre-sdcc-bonus-wmatt-fraction/ This week: We travel backwards in time with a piece of paper in the Stargate SG-1 episode 2010. We save a fast food giant in Fantasy Sci-Fi League 2.0 round four. And we run down the week in geek, including the world's first soon-to-be-deployed real Cylon raider, Pixar's new work ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/07/18/228-stargate-time-travel-2010-fsl-20-round-4/ This week: We watch and discuss a Fifth Element, a perfect example of balancing camp and sci-fi. We continue our Futurama arc with Anthology of Interest 2. We bring forth another challenger -- and another new challenge -- in Fantasy Sci-Fi League 2.0: Black Ops Edition round 3. And we ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/07/11/227-fifth-element-futurama-fsl-20-round-3/ This week: We leap into a short but sweet self-deprecating sci-fi arc with a viewing of Galaxy Quest. We return to our Stargate time travel arc, joining SG-1 for a full-circle jaunt to the past in Mobius. We tackle a new challenge in the Fantasy Sci-Fi League 2.0 round two. ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/07/03/226-galaxy-quest-sg-1-mobius-fsl-20-round-2/ Not that there is anything wrong with that. My man crush for Chris Hardwick started about a year ago. Like every geek the first thing I did when after signing up for Twitter was to follow Wil Wheaton…because really, the dude was Wesley. One of Mr. Wheaton’s first tweets was that ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/06/28/i%e2%80%99m-totally-gay-for-chris-hardwick/ This week: Special guest and voice acting legend Maurice LaMarche (Kif, Morbo, Hedonism Bot, and many more) helps us welcome Futurama back to TV. We take on a worthy challenger in fantasy sci-fi league round one. And we run down the week in geek, including Jason Momoa's role as the ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/06/28/224-futurama-returns-maurice-lamarche-fsl-20-round-1/ [caption id="attachment_4781" align="aligncenter" width="435" caption="Junior at the Spiderman Movie Opener"][/caption] I’ll be the first to admit that Shooter Jr is not really “Junior.” He’s not a mini-Shooter or a cloned version of me, and his real name has nothing close to Junior in it. Admittedly, though, the Junior tag has grown ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/06/23/passing-on-the-family-geek-card/ I've been meaning to write and recommend Sunshine for ages now, and the Big Three's discussion on the podcast about Chris Evan's casting as Captain America has prompted me to action. Danny Boyle (director of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire), doesn't like to claim himself as a sci-fi director, but with ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/06/20/captain-sunshine/ This week: We wrap up our heist arc with a look at one of our all-time favorite movies -- Sneakers. We kick off an analysis of time travel in the Stargate franchise with the SG-1 episode 1969. We choose our Fantasy Sci-Fi League 2.0 team. And we run down the ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/06/19/224-sneakers-stargate-time-travel-1969-fsl-20-team-selection/ Just came across this AP article describing how NASA Engineers are currently troubleshooting a software glitch on Voyager 2, which recently caused the probe to send its scientific data in an unreadable format. While reprogramming extraplanetary probes is nothing new (we've been doing it for years with the Mars rovers ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/06/18/patching-software-from-eight-billion-miles-away/ This week: We continue our heist arc with the Thomas Crown Affair. We wrap up our Star Trek douchebag arc with a look at one of our favorites -- Seska. And we run down the week in geek, including a possible Indy 5 movie, a sweet new Mortal Combat trailer ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/06/13/223-heist-movies-thomas-crown-affair-trek-douchebags/ This week: We check out one of Chuck and Sean's favorite heist movies, The Italian Job. We take a slew of listener calls. And we run down the week in geek, including Transformer 3's new Fox replacement, a Minnesota college's R2D2ish observatory, Michael Bay's take on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/06/06/222-heist-movies-the-italian-job-listener-calls/ This week: We talk relationships and why it's great to have friends in Ocean's 13. We ask whether that's right in Objects in Space and wrap up our Firefly arc with some discussion of Serenity. And we run down the week in geek, including more details of the upcoming movie ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/05/31/221-heist-movies-oceans-13-firefly-serenity/ This week: We break down Ocean's 12 like a fraction for 'ya. We check out one of the Trek verse's prime douchebags, Captain Jellico. And we run down the week in geek, including the concept of a Fox-free Transformers 3, MTV's upcoming Teen Wolf remake, Pac Man's 30th anniversary, and ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/05/23/220-heist-movies-oceans-12-star-trek-douchebags/ This week: We jump into our heist arc, spending some time with Ocean's 11. And we're in (IYKWIM) with Firefly's Message and Heart of Gold. Also, we run down the week in geek, including the new Spartacus prequel, an update on our anti-Ebert rant from a few weeks ago, a ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/05/15/219-heist-movies-oceans-11-firefly/ This week: Comic author and Iron Man movie consultant Matt Fraction joins us to discuss Tony Stark. We go all Galileo on Kai Winn in the first installation of our Star Trek douchebags arc. And we talk Iron Man 2, having enjoyed the premiere immensely. We also run down the ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/05/10/217-iron-man-star-trek-douchebags/ This week: We talk Iron Man in preparation for next week's Iron Man 2 premiere joined by Ultimate Guide to Iron Man author Matthew Manning. We dive into two new Firefly episodes, War Stories and Trash. And we run down the week in geek including Stephen Hawking's anti-alien sentiment, lots ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/05/03/gwc-podcast-217/ This week: It's all leather all the time here at GWC as Mr. The Destroyer opens a restaurant and Xena meets Callisto. We also run down the week in geek, including Blockbuster Video's Avatar look-a-like contest, new Avatar 2 details, Macross creator Carl Macek's untimely death, Tommy Lee Jones and ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/04/26/gwc-podcast-216/ This week: It's Conan time! Audra talks Ewok orgies. And we get down and deep on two more Firefly episodes: Out of Gas and Ariel. We also run down the week in geek, including KITT's Kwik Fit commercial debut, Felicia Day's Wolf Hunter gig, Twilight's eclipse of Potter in the ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/04/18/gwc-podcast-215/ A man named Will walks down a dim school corridor. His shoulders slightly hunched, he marks time in the same dull routine. He derives no real pleasure from what he does, even though he is exceedingly good at it. He glances absentmindedly towards a dusty trophy case overfilled with forgotten ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/04/12/glee-returns/ This week: We talk hooves and harlots in Xena and family in TNG. And we run down the week in geek including Leonard Nimoy's Twitter debut, the auction of Star Trek: The Experience props, the new Star Trek Live show at Kennedy Space Center, new Halo movie rumors, and some ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/04/11/gwc-podcast-214/ This week: Commander Shelby brings the yuppie douchiness in Best of Both Worlds Part 1 & 2. Mal talks rusty plows in a very *special* Firefly episode. We take listener calls. And we run down the week in geek including possible new sequel(s) for Independence Day, awesome new downloadable content ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/04/03/gwc-podcast-213/ This week: We get into leather-clad chicks with swords in Xena. We kick off our first Trek TNG Picard arc with Inner Light. And we run down the week in geek, including a hearty happy birthday to Leonard Nimoy (and mention of The Shat's recent anniversary and George Takei's sweet ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/03/28/gwc-podcast-212/ This week we record GWC with a live audience of the friendliest people in sci-fi at the 2010 GWC International Meetup in Frisco, TX! Besides continuing our Firefly arc, discussing Shindig and Safe (with some serious Firefly fans), we also run down the week in geek including new Lucasfilm action ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/03/24/gwc-podcast-211/ As I reflect on the past three days it is immediately apparent that the GWC community is still a source of constant amazement for me. Once again our tribe gathered to reflect on the past year and revel in each others company and once again everyone rose to the occasion. It’s ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/03/22/thoughts-on-the-2010-international-meetup/ This week we wrap up our Indy Jones arc with a discussion of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We also run down the week in geek, including the new Iron Man trailer, the new Tron Legacy trailer, the new Eclipse trailer, Corey Haim's sad passing, and Andy Whitfield's cancer diagnosis. ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/03/15/gwc-podcast-210/ This week: We talk father/son relationships in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. We analyze leadership in Firefly. And we run down the week in geek, including critical reactions to Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland flick, Rachel Nichols' upcoming non-green work in Conan, Comedy Central's new Futurama eps (coming ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/03/07/gwc-podcast-209/ This week: We talk Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Audra and Chuck learn to use a whip and chat with David and Will Morgan, the folks that made the original whips for Dr. Jones. We find out from listeners who's best in the sack, Indy or Sr. And ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/02/28/gwc-podcast-208/ This week: We dive into the world of every geek's hero -- Indiana Jones. We finally talk Firefly in the first of a 7-part, 14-week Firefly arc. And we judge the Harry Potter porn titles contest. We also run down the week in geek, including Michael Trucco's upcoming appearance on ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/02/20/gwc-podcast-207/ This week: We take some air time to round up some of the awesome TV we've been watching over the last couple of months including Caprica, Chuck, Big Bang Theory, and Sanctuary. We wrap up the fantasy sci-fi challenge with an awards ceremony. And we take some sweet listener calls. ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/02/13/gwc-podcast-206/ Wondering why 205 was delayed a week? It was preempted by Sean's beautiful new daughter! This week: We chat about '50s stereotypes and awesomely-wacko AI in 2001. In the final round of the fantasy sci-fi challenge we tackle the ultimate challenge: fighting our own team -- written onto super-hot Dollhouse ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/02/06/gwc-podcast-205/ Podcast 205 will be delayed one week due to Sean's new status as a Father (no, not Reverend, but a Daddy). Please join us in congratulating him here http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/02/02/podcast-205-delayed/ This week: We talk foamy boobs and pod people in this week's penultimate classic sci-fi feature, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Our fantasy sci-fi tournament takes a turn for the worse as our poor producer Solai is kidnapped by pissed-off Klingons. And we run down the week in geek, including ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/01/23/gwc-podcast-204/ Wassup all -- it’s the Operator! It’s award season! That special time of year when LA folks start name-dropping and talking incessantly about who’s who of the what's what in movies (okay, that’s year round). ANYway, the Producers Guild of America has chosen their nominees for Best Picture. Usually, this list ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/01/18/it%e2%80%99s-an-honor-to-be-nominated%e2%80%a6and-it%e2%80%99s-about-time/ This week: Bioware guru Casey Hudson clues us in on Mass Effect 2's characters, story, and awesome new gameplay features. We talk damn dirty apes in this week's classic sci-fi feature, Planet of the Apes -- including Sean's Moses run-in. And our fantasy sci-fi teams struggle to get lucky with ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/01/16/gwc-podcast-203/ This week: Leading up to tomorrow's Chuck season three premiere we talk to some Chuck cast members including Tony Hale (Emmett), Julia Ling (Anna), Josh Gomez (Morgan), and Bonita Friedericy (General Beckman). We tackle fantasy sci-fi challenge number two with another round of, um, unique solutions to an age old ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/01/09/gwc-podcast-202/ Normally action games aren’t really my style but in this case Bayonetta has more style in general than you can shake a really sexy stick at. In this world, Heaven and Hell had the out and out battle of the ages throwing hell into the loser’s bracket – which put ... http://www.galacticwatercooler.com/2010/01/09/fight-heaven-itself-with-bayonetta/