Does It Fly?

De: Roddenberry Entertainment
  • Resumen

  • Putting your favorite sci-fi and pop culture to the test! Join hosts Hakeem Oluseyi (How The Universe Works, NASA's Unexplained Files, Baking Impossible) and Tamara Krinsky (Scirens, Marvel's Red Carpet, Girls Gone Greek) as they put your favorite pop culture concepts to the test and determine once and for all if they're possible in the real world.

    From Roddenberry Entertainment, the heart of fandom! Roddenberry Entertainment provides thought-provoking, quality genre entertainment that sustains the legacy of founder and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. We are devoted to producing viewer-centric properties that actively recognize the integral role that audiences and storytelling play in the betterment of society. Roddenberry's productions promote experience over observation; encouraging audiences to think, question, and challenge the status quo of the world in which we live.

    For business inquiries please contact:

    doesitfly@roddenberry.com

    All rights reserved.
    Más Menos
Episodios
  • ARRIVAL: The SECRETS of a CLASSIC Sci-Fi Movie!
    May 2 2025
    “Incomprehensible guttural noises”The HeptapodsArrival is as difficult a movie to discuss in the limited space of our show notes as it is a truly great work of modern science fiction filmmaking. It’s also virtually impossible to discuss without spoilers. Heck, we had trouble cramming our discussion of the central concepts of the film into One of director Denis Villeneuve’s crowning cinematic achievements (and almost certainly the thing that made us all realize that he might be the only director who would be able to get Dune right on screen), Arrival is an alien invasion movie unlike any other, one in which the humans don’t cope with our new and strange looking neighbors with aggression, but rather by using science and reasoning to understand and communicate with them. Imagine that!You might fancy yourself a wiseacre and suggest the very notion of science and reasoning “does not fly” given the state of the world these days, but let’s set that cynicism aside for the moment and get at the heart of this week’s topic. Because in order to understand the way these aliens (the heptapods, not to be confused with Hakeem’s ongoing Planet of the Cephalopods pitch) communicate via bizarre and smoky glyphs, humans are able to change their perception of time itself. You’ve heard of “perception determines reality” so get ready for “language affects perception which thus helps determine reality.” And if that sounds confusing, don’t worry, because you’ve got Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi and Tamara Krinsky to hold your smoky hand (limb?) and walk you through it (forwards, backwards, and perhaps both at once). All of this and more is explored on a special, extra-sized episode of Does it Fly?...https://youtu.be/K_Duabt4f1s?si=9MGhHmj22EatyFQ8SUGGESTED VIEWING You mean you haven’t seen Arrival? And you’re watching and/or listening to this show? What’s wrong with you! Go watch one of the most beautiful sci-fi movies of the last 25 years and THEN come back and hang out with us.FURTHER READING Do you want to delve a little deeper into the facts, concepts, and stories Hakeem and Tamara referenced in today’s episode? Of course you do!Story of Your LifeArrival is based on a short story by Ted Chiang, called “Story of Your Life” which won the 1999 Hugo Award for Best Novella. It’s available in a collection of Chiang’s short stories, Stories of Your Life and Others.Relativity in ArrivalAlso known as the Sapir-Worf Hypothesis, based on the work of Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, but actually first stated as such Harry Hoijer in 1954. To quote Hoijer (via the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy who have the most comprehensive explanation of this that we’ve been able to find): “language functions, not simply as a device for reporting experience, but also, and more significantly, as a way of defining experience for its speakers.” Arrival takes that to the next level by showing how it could define how we experience time itself! It also incorporates elements of the Many-Worlds theory, which we discussed in our Back to the Future episode!For extra credit, read up on Presentism, which postulates that only the current moment we live in is actual existence vs Eternalism, which states that our past AND future are equally real at all times. Then go take an Advil or something.The End of TimeNo, we’re not talking about whatever horrors have you doomscrolling at the moment. It’s Julian Barbour’s book The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, which argues that time as we know/perceive it, isn’t really a thing.Speaking of time being an illusion…PsilocybinWe aren’t endorsing anything, but…WANT MORE FROM DOES IT FLY?Speaking of some of the greatest sci-fi movies of the 21st Century, we’d like to remind you that Children of Men also exists and we dug into the disturbing real world implications of that movie right here.Andor season 2 is currently reminding people how good Star Wars can be when it actually has a conscience, so we took a look at the Star Wars franchise’s most powerful and iconic megaweapon, the Death Star in one of our best episodes ever! FOLLOW US!Stay in the loop! Follow DoesItFly? on YouTube and TikTok and let us know what you think! Subscribe to Does It Fly? Pod: https://www.youtube.com/@doesitflypod?sub_confirmation=1And don’t forget to follow Roddenberry Entertainment:Instagram: @RoddenberryOfficial Facebook: RoddenberryBluesky: @roddenberrypod.bsky.socialFor Advertising Inquiries: doesitfly@roddenberry.comCheck out the official Does it Fly? playlist, too!
    Más Menos
    54 m
  • STAR WARS: How Much Would a DEATH STAR Actually COST?!?
    Apr 25 2025
    “Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational battlestation!”Emperor Palpatine, shortly before nothing goes wrong for him whatsoever.Say it with us, “that’s no moon…that’s a space station.” One of the most quotable lines in the Star Wars saga actually tells you quite a bit about the central threat of the original film (now officially known as Episode IV: A New Hope but to anyone who grew up in the ‘80s or ‘90s, it will forever be known simply as Star Wars). The Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate planet-destroying superweapon is the size of a small moon (or a large asteroid, as we’ll get to in the episode) but is actually a mobile space station that can house and deploy thousands of troops, hundreds of small ships, and packs enough firepower to turn your home planet into multiple orders of space McNuggets.You’d probably assume that something like the Death Star would be completely out of the realm of scientific plausibility. And you might also make assumptions about the story logic or the vibes of the Death Star, especially since the entire Star Wars franchise essentially lives or dies by its vibes. Unlike, say, Star Trek (please don’t make assumptions that we are biased simply because this is a Roddenberry production), which tries to lean heavily on the “science” part of science fiction, the Star Wars brand of sci-fi has always had a healthy dose of fantasy. Fortunately, we have Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi and Tamara Krinsky to explain how it all works for you…and also how much it might cost to actually build one of these things. We took a look at the entire history of the Death Star, from what we see in Episode IV, Return of the Jedi, the “Starkiller Base” evolution in The Force Awakens, and even the gritty military realism of Andor and Rogue One to find our answers, which might just surprise you.Don’t believe us? (“That…is why you fail!”) Well, padawans, watch the latest episode of Does it Fly? right here and you might just be surprised at what we found!Watch the video version here:https://youtu.be/aE4vkGo-QfkSUGGESTED VIEWING Everything you really need to know about the Death Star (but were afraid to ask) is pretty much contained in Episode IV: A New Hope (we’re still calling it Star Wars), Return of the Jedi, and the truly great Rogue One. But it’s worth checking out The Force Awakens to see how the Death Star evolved into Starkiller Base. And while Rogue One prequel, Andor on Disney Plus has yet to tap into Death Star mythology…you really, really, really need to be watching that show.But Tamara also recommends the original The Making of Star Wars documentary which has some wonderful looks at how the movie magic of the Death Star was pulled off. Track it down!Tamara also points out a couple of classic war movies that were key inspirations for George Lucas for the assault on the Death Star: 1955’s The Dam Busters and 1964’s 633 Squadron.FURTHER READING Do you want to delve a little deeper into the facts, concepts, and stories Hakeem and Tamara referenced in today’s episode? Of course you do!MimasNo, not orange juice and prosecco! Saturn’s seventh largest moon does look suspiciously like the Death Star, doesn’t it? It’s also about 1/10th the size of The Moon, which makes it much closer in actual size to the Death Star.Asteroid PsycheGiven the absurd cost it would take to actually build a Death Star, we’re going to need to raise some capital. Fortunately, there’s an asteroid in our solar system that may be composed entirely of materials “worth more than the entire world economy.”Dyson SpheresIn case you’re wondering what it would take to power something like a Death Star, let’s start with a Dyson Sphere, which could potentially channel the power of an entire sun. Hey, if you’re looking to blow up a planet, do it right. Do they exist? Maybe!It Costs HOW Much?Never mind the price of steel and other building materials, get a load of how much firing a weapons grade laser costs. Now imagine that multiplied by how much it would take to destroy a planet!How Star Wars Almost Didn’t Happen“I believe it was said at the time that no science fiction picture grossed more than $10 million dollars, and no picture with War in the title ever grossed more than six or seven million. So the idea of a sci-fi film with War in the title was a pretty deadly combination.”The article that Tamara quotes from can be found in full here, and it’s full of fascinating info!Operation Plumbbob We can’t explain it any better than the Atomic Heritage Foundation: “Operation Plumbbob was a series of 29 nuclear tests conducted by the U.S. military between May 28 and October 7, 1957, at the Nevada Test Site. It was one of the longest and most comprehensive test series in the continental United States, and became controversial after much of the operation was declassified. There were several objectives during Operation Plumbbob, including improving...
    Más Menos
    47 m
  • The Terrifying Science of The Last of Us
    Apr 20 2025
    The cordyceps brain infection that turns humans into terrifying monsters in The Last of Us is something that already exists in our world. So is it time to start worrying about Clickers and other fungus zombies?We are going to cut right to the chase on this one: Cordyceps, the brain infecting fungus that causes people to mutate into increasingly grotesque zombies in The Last of Us video games and the HBO TV adaptation, is very real. Of this, there is no doubt, as you’ll see in our episode and read below. But like any good sci-fi, horror, or fantasy storytelling, the secret isn’t so much in how realistic something is, but in how it obeys its own rules in-story.After all, who the heck needs a story about a devastating pandemic that was exacerbated by global warming these days, right? It’s not like sci-fi and horror have ever been used to illustrate real world issues before. Why not just let escapism be escapism and leave all this uncomfortable real world stuff out of it?In case you couldn’t sense the sarcasm (Does it Fly? is a Roddenberry podcast after all, and it’s not like Star Trek has ever been shy about taking our present moment to task via the denizens of the 23rd, 24th, and 25th centuries), the inherent realism of The Last of Us is an integral part of what makes it work. But it’s far from the only reason we’re so enamored with this disturbing sci-fi and horror hybrid. And that’s where Hakeem and Tamara come inWatch the latest episode of Does it Fly? right here (and try not to eat any infected grain)...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8141JQ_kesSUGGESTED VIEWING One of the best things about The Last of Us is that the show is 100% accessible for folks who have never played the video games. It’s also, perhaps not coincidentally, one of the only truly great video game to screen adaptations we’ve ever seen. We based our conversation for this episode on the first season of the show, but if you’ve even watched the first two episodes, you can probably keep up. Oh, just watch the entire first season!For some additional fungus-induced “fun” we also recommend the brilliant 2016 sci-fi horror movie The Girl With All the Gifts, which mines some similarly terrifying themes as The Last of Us.And don’t forget, The Last of Us season 2 just kicked off on HBO and MAX so what are you waiting for? Go get caught up! Who knows? This could just be something in our future…FURTHER READING Do you want to delve a little deeper into the facts, concepts, and stories Hakeem and Tamara referenced in today’s episode? Of course you do! The Zombie Ants Are Already HereThe intricately orchestrated way this fungus takes over insect brains and makes them do their bidding sure does give us something to think about. Read more at National Geographic! Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like we have to worry too much about this becoming a human issue…just yet.Fungal PathogensIt even sounds gross when we put it that way. The Last of Us is so dead-on with its depiction of global-warming induced fungal infections that no less than the Yale School of Medicine wrote about it.Respiratory vs. Fungal InfectionsWe usually don’t associate the usual respiratory viruses with fungal infections. But this article asks…why not both?A Guide to Knowing and Loving Your Infected Fungus ZombiesProper care and feeding for their lifecycle is important. Not really…run! Read more here.WANT MORE FROM DOES IT FLY?Black Mirror is back with a brand new season on Netflix. Check out our episode on one of its most iconic episodes, “San Junipero” right here!Whether fungus zombies or otherwise, we do occasionally take a look at the scarier side of genre entertainment from time to time. Like our episode on werewolves, for example.FOLLOW US!Stay in the loop! Follow DoesItFly? on YouTube and TikTok and let us know what you think! Subscribe to Does It Fly? Pod: https://www.youtube.com/@doesitflypod?sub_confirmation=1And don’t forget to follow Roddenberry Entertainment:Instagram: @RoddenberryOfficial Facebook: RoddenberryBluesky: @roddenberrypod.bsky.socialFor Advertising Inquiries: doesitfly@roddenberry.comCheck out the official Does it Fly? playlist, too!
    Más Menos
    45 m
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_webcro805_stickypopup

Lo que los oyentes dicen sobre Does It Fly?

Calificaciones medias de los clientes

Reseñas - Selecciona las pestañas a continuación para cambiar el origen de las reseñas.