Remember Shuffle

The fundamentals of our economy are… present. Welcome to Remember Shuffle’s ongoing multi-part series on the financial crisis of 2008 and the ensuing Great Recession. The Shuffle Bois begin with some table setting to explain the complex financial instruments and deregulation that led to the crisis - mortgage backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, and synthetic collateralized debt obligations - and introducing the rogues gallery of characters for this story. They then go beat-by-beat through the collapsing economy of 2008 and trace the decisions that were made by those running the banks as well as by those in power. They close, as always, with some themes and big ideas - including the separation of risk from incentive and the failures of neoliberal deregulation - before turning to the echoes in the culture, which are profound for this topic.Check out our website to search for episodes at: remembershuffle.comGive Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. And be sure to check out our Patreon!Bibliography:Andrew Ross Sorking, Too Big to Fail (New York: Viking), 2009Bethany McLean and Joseph Nocera, All the Devils are Here (New York: Penguin), 2011George W Bush, Decision Points (New York: Crown Publishers), 2010Michael Lewis, The Big Short (San Francisco: Hyperink), 2012Adam Tooze , Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World, 2018Here is the chart Ben describes in the episode:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis#/media/File:Subprime_crisis_-_Foreclosures_&_Bank_Instability.png

The Shuffle Bois, and returning guest Isaac, return to the well of comic book super hero fare to discuss the 2000s X-Men films. Being the pre-MCU, paleo-super hero films that they are, they can't help but be somewhat different from and more interesting than what came after. After summarizing the plots of the three main X-Men films from the decade, the Shuffle Bois talk themes - assimilation vs exclusivity, marginalization, and the LGTBQ allegory of these films, before closing out with a description of style and echoes in the culture. Huge thanks to Isaac for guesting on this episode! Check him out @coexist.inc on instagram, as well as ⁠his podcast, Coexist Inc., here⁠, and on twitter as @⁠coexistinc⁠ Check out our website to search for episodes at: ⁠remembershuffle.com⁠⁠Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

This is a demo, check out the full episode at: ⁠patreon.com/RememberShuffle⁠Remember Shuffle turns to one of their favourite kinds of film that we don't seem to get many of anymore: mid-budget, middle brow popcorn films, in the form of Steven Spielberg's 2002 film "Catch Me If You Can." The Shuffle Bois use this film as a springboard to discuss the state of Boomer Culture and Boomer Nostalgia in 2002. After describing the plot of the film, they do a mini-book review of the "source material," the lying, bragging, horny memoir of Frank Abegnale Jr, before turning to the themes and big ideas behind the film including family dynamics, the American dream, and Boomer culture.Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

With the campaign of Barack Obama in 2007-2008, the U.S. saw a resurgence in interest in Nelson Mandela, with Americans projecting a parallel with our own first black president. You can almost hear the gears turning in Clint Eastwood’s mind watching 2009’s Invictus–hoping to goad Obama towards symbolic reconciliation rather than expropriative redistribution. We look at Obama’s initial posturing and discuss whether or not he was doing the Mandela affect.Bibliographical information for the books we used on this episode:John Carlin, "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation," Penguin Books 2008.Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism," Metropolitan Books, 2007Huge thanks to Isaac for guesting on this episode! Check him out @coexist.inc on instagram, as well as his podcast, Coexist Inc., here, and on twitter as @coexistinc Check out our website to search for episodes at: remembershuffle.comGive Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

/this is a demo, check out the full episode at: patreon.com/RememberShuffleAnother listener suggestion yields beautiful, ripe fruit for the pod as we follow up our last episode on Cyberwarfare with a movie whose plot is essentially the fictionalization of the warnings in the book “This is how they tell me the world ends”.Much to ponder on this Intellectual Property reboot whose buddy cop pairing is…a Boomer and a Millenial. Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

This is a Patreon demo. Join to hear us do a deep dive into the end of the Cold War in Germany, Ostalgie, and the most internationally famous film in the artistic movement, Good Bye, Lenin!Sometimes, you need to gaslight your sick mother for the greater good. Remember Shuffle is joined by Nick of the Corner Späti podcast for their first foray into foreign film, 2003's Good Bye Lenin, the best known instance of Ostalgie in film internationally. After recapping the plot of this halfway-zany, sitcom-style tragicomedy, the Shuffle Bois discuss what role nostalgia plays in contemporary Germany, the wild historical moment that was reunification and its disastrous consequences for the East, and how people react in the face of massive historical change. Listen for some fun tidbits on contemporary Germany, including: the prevalence of tanning bed guys, FKK (nude beach culture), Western Europeans' fixation with Native Americans, and East German ghost towns.Be sure to check out Corner Späti here:https://www.operationglad.io/corner-spati/As well as their patreon here:https://www.patreon.com/cornerspaetiAnd, as always, give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

"We have to go back! (?)" Remember Shuffle turns to one of the premiere network TV dramas of the 2000s, ABC's "Lost," proof that you can't quite fit the round peg of creator-driven, prestige-style drama into the square hole of a traditional TV network. After introducing the ensemble cast of melodramatically tragic characters, the Shuffle Bois + Sam do season-long plot recaps of a show that became increasingly unhinged as it went on, going from a survival drama to an alternate-universe, time-travelling, metaphysical quest between good and evil. They then analyze the very obvious themes of this show - faith, fate, leadership, and morality - before describing the unique style of this particular cultural artifact. Give Sam a follow at @Thank_u_for_shopping (Follow her here: ⁠instagram.com/thank_u_for_shopping⁠ )⁠Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.And don't forget to check out our ⁠Patreon⁠!Use ⁠remembershuffle.com⁠ to find episodes

This is a Patreon demo. Join to hear us close out our Lord of the Rings series with our Return of the King episode!Get in loser, we’re going to Elf Heaven. Remember Shuffle closes out its review of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy with a Return of the King Review. The Shuffle Bois do a quick plot recap of this sprawling entry to the trilogy before discussing the film’s style and themes - including sacrifice, decadence, and feminism in Tolkein’s world. They then close out with a more freeform conversation that includes a discussion on WWI, the history of archaeology and the British Museum, a review of the state of the city of London, and holding George RR Martin accountable for yet another unfinished product. Thank you as always for being a Patreon subscriber!⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffle ⁠⁠⁠And make sure you sign up through the browser–not through the app, to save yourself 50%!Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

Part 1 of our 2 part series on Mark Burnett. Survivor took over American culture by storm, becoming a dominant fixture of TV that changed the economics of TV production for the worse. We dig into themes of the desert island as ideal, orientalism, and labor bargaining. The Apprentice coming next week for episode 100!Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests.

Join the patreon to listen to part 2 of our 2006 Victorian stage magician series. The Shuffle Boys talk about the Hapsburg Empire. Unlike the Prestige, the change in setting to the Austro-Hungarian Empire offers a new lens for discussing magic, more in terms of politics and empire: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffle

This is a Patreon Demo. Join to hear our full thoughts on the 2000s dumbest Bond movie. We talk space lasers, lairs, race swapping, puns, and surfing mechanics in our review of Pierce Brosnan's swan song to 007.⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffle And make sure you sign up through the browser–not through the app, to save yourself 50%!

Join the patreon to listen to the 2nd part of our Sopranos Season 4 episode on the season finale, Whitecaps! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffleWe break down one of the Soprano’s masterpiece episode, in which Tony and Carmela’s marriage becomes the biggest whacking of the season. We discuss how all the details this season have built to this point, and themes of class with his lawyer neighbor, Alan Sapinsly.Huge thanks to Isaac for guesting on this episode! Check him out @gluten_daddy on instagram, as well as his podcast, Coexist Inc., here:

We finally did it. We lib out for 90 minutes to the first two seasons of Aaron Sorkin’s most successful project: The West Wing. A centrist liberal projection of an idealized America in the year 2000. We break out our characters, and do a deep dive on Somebody’s going to emergency, somebody’s going to Jail, In Excelsis Dio, and Shiboleth. And then wrap up by trying to identify the very difficult question of “just what exactly does the Bartlett administration stand for anyway?”Give Remember Shuffle a follow on Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And on Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠@RememberShufflePod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to interact with the show between episodes. It also makes it easier to book guests. Join the patreon to support the shuffle bois and for an extra episode per month at⁠ ⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/RememberShuffle