The movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe set records with their popularity. But are they any good?

My feelings about the movies have always been lukewarm. They’re fun, competently made, and consistent. But none of them have wowed me, and while I’ve enjoyed every Marvel movie I’ve seen, I haven’t felt a desire to watch any of them a second time.

My friend Lee Herridge disagrees and offered to come on the show to explain to me how I’ve gone wrong in evaluating the MCU. We talked about the quality of the films, the scope of the project Marvel undertook, how these movies compare to others in the genre, and were the MCU should go from here.

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I didn’t much like the Last Jedi. And I rather love the Rise of Skywalker. Which puts me at odds with a lot of Star Wars fans, including my guest today.

Paul Crider is an editor at Liberal Currents, with interests in political philosophy and social justice, as well as Star Wars. He lives with his family in Silicon Valley and daylights as a semiconductor engineer.

On today’s episode, we discuss all things a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, including our assessments of the new films, Disney’s stumbles with the franchise, and the evolving politics of Star Wars.

And, as always, if you enjoy this show, please take a moment to rate and review it on Apple Podcasts.

You can make a strong case that Batman is the most famous western fictional character of all time. He's also pretty clearly the coolest.

On today's episode, I'm joined by Cory Massimino. He's the Students for Liberty Academics Coordinator and a fellow at the Center for a Stateless Society. But what matters most for our purposes here is that he's thought a lot about Batman, and has a ton of interesting things to say about him.

If you enjoyed our conversation, or any of the conversations I've had on this podcast, and want to hear more from me, take a moment to sign up for my very infrequent newsletter, where I talk about what I'm working on, reading, and thinking about. You can find it at http://aaronrosspowell.com/newsletter