Insights from recent episode analysis
Audience Interest
Podcast Focus
Publishing Consistency
Platform Reach
Insights are generated by CastFox AI using publicly available data, episode content, and proprietary models.
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Total monthly reach
Estimated from 1 chart position in 1 market.
By chart position
- 🇮🇩ID · Books#182500 to 3K
- Per-Episode Audience
Est. listeners per new episode within ~30 days
250 to 1.5K🎙 Weekly cadence·111 episodes·Last published 1w ago - Monthly Reach
Unique listeners across all episodes (30 days)
500 to 3K🇮🇩100% - Active Followers
Loyal subscribers who consistently listen
150 to 900
Market Insights
Platform Distribution
Reach across major podcast platforms, updated hourly
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* Data sourced directly from platform APIs and aggregated hourly across all major podcast directories.
On the show
From 12 epsHosts
Recent guests
Recent episodes
Episode 102: “The Biggest Iceberg in Film,” or Claire Denis’ Beau Travail
Jun 15, 2026
Unknown duration
Episode 101: ‘What Thrums Below,’ or Herman Melville’s Billy Budd
May 18, 2026
58m 43s
Episode 100: “Dutiful Dreams,” or Project Hail Mary 2026 Film
May 4, 2026
53m 34s
Project Hail Mary Part I (REPOST)
Mar 12, 2026
1h 14m 08s
Episode 99: More Robot Friends!: Isaac Asimov’s ‘Robot Visions’ Part 1 with Justin Reich.
Dec 1, 2025
54m 13s
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| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/15/26 |  Episode 102: “The Biggest Iceberg in Film,” or Claire Denis’ Beau Travail | Chris and Jesse watch one of Chris' favorite films: Claire Denis' 1999 masterpiece Beau Travail, starring Denis Lavant and Colin Gregoire. The film is plot-light but significance-heavy, and the lads agree that it is beautiful and poetic and uncondescending. Can the power of imagery, sound, and implicated action balance a plot that sheds many of our usual expectations around how action unfolds in books and film? | — | ||||||
| 5/18/26 |  Episode 101: ‘What Thrums Below,’ or Herman Melville’s Billy Budd✨ | Herman MelvilleBilly Budd+3 | — | Billy Budd, Sailor | — | Herman MelvilleBilly Budd+3 | — | 58m 43s | |
| 5/4/26 |  Episode 100: “Dutiful Dreams,” or Project Hail Mary 2026 Film✨ | source materialadaptation+3 | — | Project Hail Mary | — | Project Hail Maryfilm adaptation+3 | — | 53m 34s | |
| 3/12/26 | Project Hail Mary Part I (REPOST)✨ | science fictionfriendship+3 | — | Project Hail MaryBromancing the Stone Carapace | — | Project Hail MaryAndy Weir+4 | — | 1h 14m 08s | |
| 12/1/25 |  Episode 99: More Robot Friends!: Isaac Asimov’s ‘Robot Visions’ Part 1 with Justin Reich.✨ | Isaac AsimovAI+3 | Justin Reich | TeachlabUpper Middlebrow+1 | — | Isaac AsimovRobot Visions+6 | — | 54m 13s | |
| 11/17/25 | Episode 98: ‘Minor League Stew,’ or John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name, Part II✨ | minor league baseballsports reporting+3 | — | Where Nobody Knows Your Name | — | John Feinsteinminor league baseball+3 | — | 51m 49s | |
| 11/4/25 |  Episode 97: “Baseball’s Ballast,” or John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in The Minor Leagues of Baseball✨ | baseballminor leagues+4 | — | Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in The Minor Leagues of Baseball | — | John Feinsteinbaseball+4 | — | 59m 06s | |
| 10/23/25 |  Episode 96: “The Clustercus,” or David Halberstam’s The Amateurs, Part II✨ | Olympic trialsamateur athletics+3 | — | The Amateurs | — | David HalberstamThe Amateurs+5 | — | 1h 22m 25s | |
| 10/10/25 |  Episode 95: “Don’t Catch Crabs,” or David Halbertstam’s The Amateurs, Part I✨ | sportsrowing+3 | — | The Amateurs | — | David HalberstamThe Amateurs+3 | — | 1h 13m 12s | |
| 10/1/25 |  October 6th: Live Draft Coming Soon!✨ | live draftbook selection+3 | — | — | — | live draftbooks+3 | — | 2m 00s | |
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| 9/22/25 |  Episode 94: “Chewing Glass” or Tim Krabbe’s The Rider✨ | autobiographical essayfiction vs nonfiction+3 | — | The Rider | — | Tim KrabbeThe Rider+6 | — | 1h 15m 16s | |
| 9/8/25 |  Episode 94: “A Swiftly Flattening Universe,” or Cixin Liu’s Death’s End, Part II✨ | Cixin LiuThree Body Trilogy+4 | — | Cixin Liu’s Death’s EndThree Body Trilogy | — | Cixin LiuDeath's End+4 | — | 1h 27m 36s | |
| 8/18/25 |  Episode 93: “Post Humanity Blues,” or Cixin Liu’s Death’s End Part I✨ | Cixin LiuDeath's End+5 | — | PatreonDiscord+1 | — | Cixin LiuDeath's End+7 | — | 1h 22m 39s | |
| 7/25/25 |  Episode 92: “It’s So Dark,” or Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest, Part II | The boys carve through the second half of Cixin Liu’s sprawling, imaginative, and haunting The Dark Forest. Bagg has questions about how much we can trust our author and the characters he uses to make his plot work, while Dukes identifies the fact that the most important “character” in this novel is humanity itself. Regardless of your opinion of this quixotic book, you cannot dispute the ambition of its author—and his ability to transform his imagination into an ever-expanding epic. | — | ||||||
| 7/10/25 |  Episode 91: “All Chess Pieces, No Chess,” or Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest, Part I | The premise of the Dark Forest, that Humanity must make a secret plan stored in our hidden thoughts to defeat an enemy that can spy on our every move, is wonderful. But the lads find the action in the first half a bit tepid, as Cixin Liu builds sets up the chess pieces we expect he’ll start knocking down in the second half of the book. There are some hot spots, and wonderful moments, including a depiction of the best group photo ever taken, but you have to read through a lot of narrative chaff to find htem. Here is the video of a six year old watching Star Wars for the first time with his Dad. Hint, at the end, the kid says “It’s the most amazingest thing I’ve ever saw in my whole entire, whole entire, whole entire, whole entire life.” And here is the Hildebrandt Brothers poster art for Star Wars, using models who were not actually Carrie Fisher or Mark Hamill. | — | ||||||
| 6/26/25 | Episode 90: “An Egg Slicer Through a Supertanker,” or Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, Part II | The lads host their first UMB Official Sports Update as Jesse manages to survive a weekend of ultimate frisbee before getting into the second half of Cixin Liu’s sprawling and ambitious The Three Body Problem. The UMBers revisit some of our old friends, like Neal Stephenson’s habit of setting up narrative chessboards for a long time and eventually letting the game unfold, examining if Liu’s narrative setups have plausible payoffs. They also identify some of the “hapless protagonist” effect they’ve seen before in The Diamond Age and The Arrest, and talk about Liu’s claim that his work does not allegorize IRL history and action. Despite some misgivings, Jesse is excited for his third time through the subsequent two books, and Bagg is also looking forward to discovering how the earth responds to the Trisolaran “problem.” | — | ||||||
| 6/23/25 |  Review: John Scalzi’s “When the Moon Hits Your Eye” | Jesse Dukes offers a quick review of popular science fiction writer John Scalzi's newest novel, "When the Moon Hits Your Eye". While he initially put the book down after reading the first chapter, due to frustration with the absurd premise, on a second read, Dukes found that the book has its charms. | — | ||||||
| 6/16/25 |  Episode 89: “A Creeping Awareness” or Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, Part I | The Three Body Problem begins with an inexplicable series of tragic mysteries, most notably, that physics as we know it has stopped working. Slowly, the reader is given enough clues to start to suspect various causes, although halfway through, we still don’t really know what’s going on. Dukes has read it before, and Bagg has not, so they lads compare notes as to their experience of the creeping awareness of the disturbing truth dawning on the characters. | — | ||||||
| 6/5/25 |  Episode 88: “Creation’s Folly,” or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Part II | The boys wrap up their discussion of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and come away somewhat ambivalent: this is clearly a work of importance, imagination, and invention, but it feels…unfocused. We posit that the undeserved press and social pressure clouds what is otherwise an incredible meditation on creation: what are a creator’s responsibilities to their creation, and what effect does the fulfillment (or neglect) of those responsibilities have upon the created? | — | ||||||
| 6/2/25 |  Digression: Solo Canoe Sailing on Long Lake | Friend of the show Justin shares another update, as well as his foray into what he terms Contemporary Victorian Episolary Short Travel Non-Fiction. Justin is paddling a solo canoe (and often carrying the canoe) along the 700 Mile Northern Forest canoe trail, and we are digressing from our regular programming to share his dispatches. We are pleased to include Justin's drawings of canoe sailings rigs including the standard rafted canoe rig. And the author's innovative solo canoe sailing rig. As well as the pdf of his entire account as a downloadable .pdf. BJFR Canoe Sailing NarrativeDownload | — | ||||||
| 5/22/25 |  Digression, From the North Woods with Justin Reich | We reach Upper Middlebrow education expert Justin Reich on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, at the edge of mobile phone reception. He gives us a dispatch, mid journey, from a rather literary setting. Justin is finishing his sabbatical with nothing but a canoe, a backpack, a couple of paddles, and aluminum pole (for poling up river) and a canoe portage cart. The North Woods in May bring long days, rainy weather, and if you're lucky, few black flies, and reasonable water level. From the Northern Forest Canoe Trail website: The Northern Forest Canoe Trail is a 700-mile water trail from Old Forge, New York to Fort Kent, Maine, that goes through private and public lands. The trail follows traditional travel routes used by Native American, settlers and guides. It is the longest inland water trail in the nation. | — | ||||||
| 5/19/25 |  Episode 87: “A Dude who Made a Dude,” or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Part I | Mary Shelley was 18 when she started writing Frankenstein, which many consider the first science fiction novel. Over the next twenty years, she revised the book several times, and the version she left behind remains a remarkable work of imagination. Shelley is amazingly inventive and talented, but the lads find th novel to be hard going, and a slow starter. They wonder at the use of framed narratives, and how long the book takes to give Frankenstein’s creation a voice. | — | ||||||
| 5/9/25 |  Episode 86: “A Study in Structure,” or Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet | The lads go bananas over Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes mystery, "A Study in Scarlet," published in 1887. We meet the mercurial Sherlock Holmes and his by turns skeptical then credulous biographer, Dr. John H. Watson, late of Afghanistan. The short novella or long short story wastes no time in driving towards the solving of its central mystery, but then makes a strange swerve into the American West and a bout of extended exposition. Chris and Jesse spend a rollicking hour discussing the book and excavating its odd structure. The final verdict? Two pills up. | — | ||||||
| 4/28/25 |  Ep 85, “Science vs. Evil” or Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, Part II | Bram Stoker arrays his crew of brave companions against what they've finally realized is an ancient un-dead evil. And the author seems to be elling us something about the nature of the human capacity for scientific inquiry, and love. The lads detect a bit of the old "chessboard problem", the name we've given to an author's struggle to create a compelling third act while artfully tieing up all the character arcs and loose ends established in the first acts. But Bram Stoker's inventiveness and lyrical prose keeps the novel highly readable until the thrilling ending, which manages to be poetic, moving, and suspenseful. | — | ||||||
| 4/24/25 | Save the Date: The Talented Mr. Ripley, Live Taping, with Jeph Wilkinson. | Join us Thursday, May 19th at 4pm PDT / 7 PM EDT for a live viewing and taping of Anthony Minghella's 1999 masterpiece, The Talented Mr. Ripley. Dukes and Bagg think of this as the BEST of the many excellent Tom Ripley films. It stars Matt Damon Tom Ripley, and the amazing cast includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jude Law, and Cate Blanchett. This event will be Live on Discord, which is something we've never tried before, so join us as we pioneer a new type of live podcasting event. (We will greet the audience, and then everybody will need to watch the film on their own. We can chat at eachother on Discord while we watch). We'll then broadcast the audio and video of our live taping via Discord, and give all of you the chance to comment and chat at us. | — | ||||||
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Chart Positions
1 placement across 1 market.
Chart Positions
1 placement across 1 market.