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PBS Idea Channel
Season 2
Episode 23

How Does Night Vale Confront Us With the Unknown?

September 25, 2013

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PBS Idea Channel - S2 - E23

Night Vale's masterful balance of mystery, humor, and horror has made it the #1 podcast in America. Night Vale employs the techniques of H.P. Lovecraft, specifically his masterful manipulation of THE UNKNOWN, but the medium chosen makes it literally impossible to visually depict its universe. And it is questionable, in our hyper visual culture, whether we are truly able to cope with the mysteries of Night Vale.

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PBS Idea Channel: Season 2 - 23 Episode s

2x1 - Is Piracy Helping Game of Thrones?
March 20, 2013
Here's an idea: Game Of Thrones owes its success to piracy. If you're like us, you LOVE Game of Thrones. But if you're also like us, you may not, technically, have... cable. So how are we seeing this amazing show on HBO, which is stuck behind a pay wall? A huge amount of viewers (not us of course, no no no) are downloading the show illegally.
2x2 - Will Kickstarter Replace Hollywood?
March 27, 2013
You may have heard about the recent overwhelming success of the Veronica Mars movie Kickstarter, or you might be a "Marshmallow" yourself and have contributed. This is a big moment for fan communities, with Kickstarter giving them the opportunity to challenge the closed gates of the Hollywood system. Although it's funding is nowhere NEAR the amount Hollywood invests in moviemaking each year, crowdfunding is a way better indicator of what the audience wants to see, the one area Hollywood has failed in time and time again.
2x3 - Is Community a Postermodern Masterpiece?
April 3, 2013
Here's an idea: Community is a postmodern masterpiece. Though the TV show Community has never achieved huge ratings, it has a passionate cult following, including us here at Idea Channel. The show plays with genre and narrative in such a creative way that it brings to mind the cultural and artistic theory of Postmodernism. Previous TV series have been self-referential and culturally reflective, but none so successfully as Community. The show flips traditional expectations so consistently that it questions their importance in the first place. And it has brought the word "meta" into the cultural vernacular, to boot.
2x4 - Is Buying Call of Duty a Moral Choice?
April 10, 2013
If you play video games, you've shot a gun. And those guns are REALISTIC. So real that many are actually LICENSED by IRL arms dealers. Which means that when you buy a video game, you're also putting money in the pockets of those gun manufacturers. That's fine and dandy if you're a fan of guns, but if you are someone who considers themselves anti-gun, this creates quite the moral quandary.
2x5 - Is a Tagged Instagram More Than Just a Photo?
April 24, 2013
Here's an idea: a tagged Instagram is more than just a photo. Sure, Instagram is pretty awesome, but it's even more #INTERESTING than you think! The hashtag, so simple and ubiquitous, raises the image from mere photo to a new complex entity. An extension of the social media aspect of the Instagram app, the hashtag enhances searchability and allows connection to a variety of communities.
2x6 - Is a DOS Attack a Weapon?
May 1, 2013
Here's an idea: a DOS attack is a weapon. Denial of Service (DOS) or Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks take down servers by distracting them with meaningless traffic until basically they can't take it any more. Scientology, Westboro Baptist Church, and others like them have been hit, and if you look at the coverage of these events, the descriptive words "attacks," "violent," and "weapons" are telling. The way we talk about the result of a software program reflects the way we view "online", and the value we place on its content, be it the FBI homepage or cat videos on YouTube.
2x7 - Is Sad Music Actually Sad?
May 8, 2013
Be it Elliott Smith or Queen, classical or dub step, there's usually a clear understanding that some songs are sad, and some songs are happy. But what is it about the music that makes us feel these feelings we're feeling? You might think it has something to do with the notes or how our brain's natural response to these sounds, but you're wrong. Or at the very least incomplete in your thinking. We've just been culturally trained to respond to music in certain ways because if you ignore the lyrics, music itself doesn't actually contain any emotion at all.
2x8 - Is Developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethical?
May 29, 2013
If you're even the slightest bit familiar with pop culture from the past 50 years, you know that we've been anxiously awaiting robots to become a part of our daily lives. From R2-D2 to the Jetsons, our future robot companions promise to be helpful and handy! But many people have their concerns: will the development of artificial intelligence end up REPLACING humans in the work force, pushing already high unemployment through the roof?!?! These new laborers will likely do not just undesirable jobs (janitorial, coal mining, etc), but also the high paying premium jobs, like surgeons and lawyers.
2x9 - Is Math a Feature of the Universe or a Feature of Human Creation?
June 3, 2013
Math is invisible. Unlike physics, chemistry, and biology we can't see it, smell it, or even directly observe it in the universe. And so that has made a lot of really smart people ask, does it actually even EXIST?!?! Similar to the tree falling in the forest, there are people who believe that if no person existed to count, math wouldn't be around . .at ALL!!!! But is this true? Do we live in a mathless universe? Or if math is a real entity that exists, are there formulas and mathematical concepts out there in the universe that are undiscovered? Or is it all fiction? Whew!! So many questions, so many theories...
2x10 - Is the Universe a Computer?
June 12, 2013
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is about everything. Life, the Universe, everything. If you've read these amazing books, you know the answer is 42, but what's the question? To find out what the question was, they built a giant computer we call Earth. And though it seems silly, perhaps Douglas Adams was correct, and that not just earth, but the WHOLE UNIVERSE is an incredibility complex computational system, processing the answer to some unknown question. The universe IS made up of information, similar to a computer, and physics (you know, the basis of the universe) certainly is based on computational principles.
2x11 - Why Do We Love Zombies?
June 19, 2013
Zombies are EVERYWHERE!! Wait, don't panic- we mean in pop culture, not outside your window. But why is that? Bad guys and monsters seem to go through phases: one decade there's a dozen movies about aliens, ten years later it's vampires. And right now, it's zombies. And monsters don't pop up for no reason at all. There must be something that makes us fixate on one antagonist trope; some qualities they hold that echo a deeper cultural fear... So what are we afraid of now? It might just be technology.
2x12 - Can Video Games Become the Next Great Spectator Sport?
June 26, 2013
As our South Korean friends can confirm, video games can most definitely be a spectator sport. But will they ever catch on in a huge way in the good ol' U.S. of A? Well, pro leagues already exist, but to know if they'll ever reach the levels of March Madness and Superbowl Sunday, we need to take a closer look at traditional sports spectatorship to figure out the REAL reason we watch. It's more than just winning and losing: there are characters, rivalries, histories, and a host of other background information that coalesce into an AMAZING story, and we're dying to know the ending.
2x13 - Is the Discovery of Global Warming Our Greatest Scientific Achievement?
July 3, 2013
Global warming exists! But how do we know that? It may seem like a simple process of just looking at the temperature from year to year, but it is SO MUCH MORE than that! Our understanding of the global climate comes from a compendium of data including measured and tracked temperature, humidity, wind speed, and barometric pressure, spanning over 100 years of observation!! To study this massive amount of information and be able to surmise that the increasingly extreme and bizarre weather patterns are a result of human influence... it's truly an incredible accomplishment. So everyone who says during a blizzard "so much for global warming"... shut up. You're wrong.
2x14 - Does Animal Crossing Promote Otaku Citizenship?
July 10, 2013
Like us, you may not have initially realized the significance of Animal Crossing. Sure it's a simple game for kids, with cute animals and bright colors. But could it be true that it inspires otaku citizenship?! Otaku, if you don't know, means obsessive interest and collection, usually associated with Japanese culture, but it can apply to ANYTHING. In Animal Crossing, as mayor of your town, success is defined by maintaining friendships with your townspeople and collecting natural resources to cultivate the perfect town.
2x15 - Is BMO From Adventure Time Expressive of Feminism?
July 17, 2013
Yes he's a video game system, but she is so much more than that!! BMO from the fantastic show Adventure Time identifies as both male and female, and because of that expresses the ideals of Third Wave Feminism!! Third Wave Feminism questions if gender is actually binary, tied to our biological sex. Is our understanding of masculinity and femininity fair, or even ACCURATE? Of course, BMO has no biological gender, so there's no cultural expectations that anchors her (him?) down. But it all seems a non-issue in the Adventure Time world.
2x16 - How Does Glitchy Art Show Us Broken is Beautiful?
July 24, 2013
We all love broken things. WAIT WHAT?! Yes, you read that correctly. You may have noticed this thing called "glitch", where people purposely push machines to malfunction, creating fascinating "mistakes".
2x17 - How is Jurassic Park a Commentary on Capitalism?
July 31, 2013
They spared no expense!! It doesn't matter if it was intended or not, the film Jurassic Park (and book it's based on) accurately illustrate investment and risk, money as motivation, negligent management of capital, and profit as the ultimate end goal. But can anything in our culture avoid this metaphor of capitalism? By stepping back and looking at all media in our culture, we can see echoes of the capitalism theme everywhere.
2x18 - Does It Matter What Evangelion's Creator Says?
August 5, 2013
Hideaki Anno says Neon Genesis Evangelion is meaningless. For #GeekWeek we ask if we should listen to him. Neon Genesis Evangelion may be the MOST ultimate work of anime ever! More than just Mecha, NGE is dark and emotional, taking on serious topics such as depression, free will and a host of other intense stuff. But the creator, Hideaki Anno, says that we're all reading way too much into it.
2x19 - Is the Internet Cats?
August 14, 2013
We can all agree that the Internet has an intense, borderline obsessive, appreciation for cats. With felines as its spirit animal, the internet can even seem cat-like in personality. Where does all this kitteh love come from? Humans made the internet, and humans have had an affinity for cats for centuries.
2x20 - Is Google Knowledge?
August 21, 2013
"Google it" seems to be the quick and easy answer for every question we could possibly ask, but is finding facts the same thing as KNOWING? Having billions of facts at the tips of your typing fingertips may not necessarily be making us any smarter. Some people even think it's making us more stupid and lazy.
2x21 - Are There TWO Nikola Teslas?
September 11, 2013
Unless you're new to the internet, you probably know that Tesla was an incredibly popular scientist and inventor who was WAY ahead of his time. But was he really the valiant underdog against the Goliath of Edison that we've come to know and understand? Despite what you may think, there are actually TWO Teslas - the meat and bones Tesla, who was born in 1856 and died in 1943, and then there's the culturally created Tesla.
2x22 - Are the Titans from Attack on Titan Evil?
September 18, 2013
The titans, from the anime series Attack on Titan, are most definitely the bad guys. But can we call them EVIL? If you're unfamiliar, the titans are huge beings that devour humans, but their motivation is a little unclear. Is it just hunger? Do they hate humans? Are they just dumb? And with all this doubt, what's the use in the label of EVIL anyway? Nietzsche, Kant, and Jung all weigh in.
2x23 - How Does Night Vale Confront Us With the Unknown?
September 25, 2013
Night Vale's masterful balance of mystery, humor, and horror has made it the #1 podcast in America. Night Vale employs the techniques of H.P. Lovecraft, specifically his masterful manipulation of THE UNKNOWN, but the medium chosen makes it literally impossible to visually depict its universe. And it is questionable, in our hyper visual culture, whether we are truly able to cope with the mysteries of Night Vale.

PBS Idea Channel: All seasons

S0: Specials
8 Episode s
S1: Season 1
46 Episode s
S2: Season 2
23 Episode s

2x1 - Is Piracy Helping Game of Thrones?

2x2 - Will Kickstarter Replace Hollywood?

2x3 - Is Community a Postermodern Masterpiece?

2x4 - Is Buying Call of Duty a Moral Choice?

2x5 - Is a Tagged Instagram More Than Just a Photo?

2x6 - Is a DOS Attack a Weapon?

2x7 - Is Sad Music Actually Sad?

2x8 - Is Developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethical?

2x9 - Is Math a Feature of the Universe or a Feature of Human Creation?

2x10 - Is the Universe a Computer?

2x11 - Why Do We Love Zombies?

2x12 - Can Video Games Become the Next Great Spectator Sport?

2x13 - Is the Discovery of Global Warming Our Greatest Scientific Achievement?

2x14 - Does Animal Crossing Promote Otaku Citizenship?

2x15 - Is BMO From Adventure Time Expressive of Feminism?

2x16 - How Does Glitchy Art Show Us Broken is Beautiful?

2x17 - How is Jurassic Park a Commentary on Capitalism?

2x18 - Does It Matter What Evangelion's Creator Says?

2x19 - Is the Internet Cats?

2x20 - Is Google Knowledge?

2x21 - Are There TWO Nikola Teslas?

2x22 - Are the Titans from Attack on Titan Evil?

2x23 - How Does Night Vale Confront Us With the Unknown?

S0: Specials

S1: Season 1

S2: Season 2