Episode 10 - Uncle Slam

September 07, 2026 by mark coale in academia, futbol, history, popular culture, soccer

Erling Haaland (and friend) may have been the big winner at the 2026 World Cup.

We’re happy to welcome back Ken Early (@kenearly.bsky.social) from the Second Captains podcast for a futbol chat.

Ken was in North America for this summer’s World Cup, so we talk about how he found things in mainly the US and Mexico (only a stop over north of the 48th parallel). We discuss city center venues vs their suburban cousins and the commute those require, stadium concessions, being trapped in fishbowl-like enclosed press boxes and seeking relief from them and more. What were Ken’s best and worst matchday experiences?

We also chat about what Ken got up to away from the matches, including stumbling into a political convention in Houston and going to a gun club in South Florida. Also, the saturation of gambling and predictive markets in American sports and other sporting ills.

It’s early in the new Premier League season, but there was some analysis of the start of the campaign, including, Arsenal’s win over Chelsea the day before recording. Can Chelsea or a Pep-Less Manchester City thwart an Arsenal repeat?

There’s also a brief mention of the Katie Taylor fight over the weekend just past in Dublin and a brief cameo from a Second Captains listener favorite, Ken’s dog Ted. There was no time for any popular culture chat, so hopefully next time we can have some movie talk with Ken.

As with our other European guests, scheduling is always complicated, so thanks to Ken for being so patient in finally being able to record this show.

Episode 9 - The Coyote Gospel

September 05, 2026 by mark coale in film, obituary, wrestling, soccer, television, popular culture, history

Isn’t that what we all are wondering? (c) Warner Brothers,

It’s the return of the multi-guest episode, thanks to a combination of recording on consecutive days, short recordings and topic overlap.

First up, Justin Jones (@xprimuspilusx) returns for another post-movie recording, this time of the long-delayed Coyote vs. ACME. We discuss what we did and did not like about the movie, John Cena channeling Vince McMahon, missing Looney Tunes characters, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and more. We also briefly discussing some of the recent celebrity deaths, including Dolly Parton, Jaye P. Morgan and Tim Curry, all of whom had Muppet connections. We mention 9 to 5, Rocky Horror and the Gong Show, among other projects by those folks.

Next, we have the return of Beau James (@kingofkingsport) to mainly chat about Dolly Parton’s passing. Beau gives us the East Tennessee perspective on her life and career, from being on local TV as a teenager to the start of Dollywood and all her philanthropy, both local and around the world. We also talk about what wrestling connections Dolly may have had and not just her music video with Hulk Hogan. Beau also discusses the new Alabama end of his promotion, following in the footsteps of Ron Fuller.

Episode 6 - The Origin of Species

May 10, 2026 by mark coale in film, popular culture, video games, television, history

The box art for 1985’s Ultima IV computer game from Origin Systems.

In what might turn out to be Video Game Month, I’m happy to welcome the video game streamer/content creator Majuular (@majuular) to the show for some classic video game chat.

I first found his channel because of his video essay series on Origin Systems’ Ultima game series from the 1980s and 1990s. Ultima IV was one of my favorite games as a teenager, so really enjoyed his video on that game and Ultima V (which I also played back in the day).

We discuss how young Richard Garriot (aka Lord British) created his first game Akalabeth while still in high school, which was the precursor to the Ultima series and how Origin Systems came to be as a company. Although we discuss many of the games, we mainly talk about Ultima IV and V and how atypical they were for role playing games at the time, be they video game or table top, and probably still are to this day. We also discuss some of the later games and spin-offs, other games published by Origin, what you could call the “coaching tree” of people who started there who went on to make landmark games in the industry. There’s also talk about their complicated publishing history and is there any future for the Ultima brand with it being owned currently by Electronic Arts?

There’s other game chat, including Majuular’s recommendations for classic JRPGs, the greatness of Thief and the not-so-greatness of the games based on William Shatner’s TekWar books and TV show. There’s also talk about the art of reviewing “bad” pop culture, MST3K, punching up vs punching down and when does “so bad it’s good” factor into the equation?

There’s LOTS of other fun tangents and divergences in this show, including chatting about John Ford/John Wayne movies, Gene Autry’s progressive for 1949 film The Cowboys and the Indians (which we discussed years ago on the Plot Podcast), Tim Horton’s fast food chain somehow having an outlet on the East Coast and lots of other random topics.

It was fun having Majuular on the show. He’s also a James Bond guy, so maybe we can have him back once the new “James Bond Jr.” game comes out later this year. You can find his You Tube video essays at Majuular and his streaming channel at Majuularcade.