One Thing Worth a Rant

About One Thing Worth a Rant

A personal diatribe on a single topic that’s hopefully relevant, but still surprising in a new light.

Publisher

Jeremy Pennycook

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

7 Jul 2019

Latest episode

20 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

19 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   20 Oct 2026

   When People Become Labels: Children of Men, Immigration and the Politics of Dehumanization

   Arrests every month, cameras reading licence plates, masked agents in unmarked vans. This isn't a movie or a video game; it's normal life in the United States right now. So from a media-criticism point of view, here's the question: what happens when a government persuades us to see a label instead of a person?Dehumanization is one of the oldest tools of politics. Portray a group as dangerous, criminal or simply less deserving, and they become a convenient scapegoat. You're no longer detaining a mother of two; you're detaining an "illegal." From the Trail of Tears to the incarceration of Japanese Americans, the mechanism repeats: turn people into a category, then use the category to justify how they're treated.In Part 1, I look at Children of Men. Humanity is infertile, and Britain survives as a police-state fortress that hunts, cages and deports refugees. Theo, a numb government worker, is handed responsibility for Kee, the only pregnant woman on Earth, who turns out to be a refugee. The state, the rebels and even the scientists all have a use for her baby. Theo's task is simply human: keep them safe.That irony is real. Wealthy countries with falling birth rates and ageing populations politically reject the outsiders they increasingly depend on. Japan's population is a case in point. And in the escape from Bexhill, a baby's cry stops a war for one brief moment, until both sides go back to fighting over a future their fight is destroying.Part 2 covers District 9: how ordinary people learn to accept dehumanization.Spoilers for Children of Men (2006).CHAPTERS 00:00 When people become labels 01:13 The oldest tool of politics 02:02 Children of Men: Fortress Britain 02:49 Theo 03:26 Kee carries the future 05:31 Falling birth rates and the immigration irony 06:12 The escape from Bexhill 07:04 What are we preserving? 08:13 Coming in Part 2: District 9SOURCES & FURTHER READING• ICE arrests, detention and facilities: Deportation Data Project — https://deportationdata.org• Fertility rates: World Bank, World Development Indicators — https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN• Japan's ageing population: UN World Population Prospects 2024 — https://population.un.org/wpp/• Japan's population by nationality: Statistics Bureau of Japan, Population Estimates (March 2026) — https://www.stat.go.jp/data/jinsui/pdf/202603.pdf• UK–Rwanda removal plan: UK Home Office announcement (14 April 2022); House of Commons Library briefing CBP-9568• Children of Men, from novel to film: BFI — https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/children-men-alfonso-cuaron• Art: Robert Lindneux, The Trail of Tears (1942), Woolaroc Museum

2. 

   30 Sept 2026

   Megacorp Dystopia: How Cyberpunk 2077 Models The Perils of AI and Regulatory Capture

   We may be imagining the wrong AI apocalypse. When the leaders of Anthropic and OpenAI warn that AI could end civilisation, most of us picture Terminator or The Matrix where a superintelligence taking over. But there’s another story about technology and power, and I think it’s the more useful warning: Cyberpunk.I also look at the satire of Don’t Look Up, which has tackles the messaging problem of predicting the end of the world.CHAPTERS00:00 The wrong AI apocalypse01:04 Cyberpunk: technology works, society doesn't02:58 The AI labs' contradiction05:03 Regulatory capture: Boeing and Arasaka07:49 Safety as a moat: the catch-2209:01 Don't Look Up11:37 Techno-feudalism: who is the argument for?13:50 A political choiceSources and further reading- WIRED — Isabella Ward, OpenAI Pauses Training Its Most Powerful Models After Rogue Agents Target Government (28 Sep 2026): https://www.wired.com/story/openai-pauses-training-most-powerful-models-after-rogue-agents-target-government/- George J. Stigler — The Theory of Economic Regulation (Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science, 1971)- U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure — final committee report on the design, development and certification of the Boeing 737 MAX (2020)- The Economist / YouGov — U.S. adult citizens, 28–31 Aug and 18–21 Sep 2026 (AI harm, benefits and partisan shift)- Stanford HAI — AI Index Report 2026 (source for the Arena, Cloudscene, Epoch AI, Ferracane et al., AI Incident Database, Pew, Ipsos, CHIP50 and U.S. public AI spending charts)- Artificial Analysis — Intelligence Index v4.3.2 (September 2026)- AI Release Tracker — model release timeline: https://aireleasetracker.com/- History of Market — Magnificent 7 share of the S&P 500 (CC BY 4.0): https://historyofmarket.com/- Bloomberg News — AI industry money network graphic (October 2025)- ExecutiveGov — What are the top Boeing government contracts (8 Jan 2026): https://www.executivegov.com/articles/what-are-the-top-boeing-government-contracts- IATA Sustainability and Economics / Cirium Fleets Analyzer — The Global Commercial Aircraft Fleet (June 2025): https://www.iata.org/en/publications/economics/reports/the-global-commercial-aircraft-fleet/- Yahoo Finance — Boeing (BA) weekly share price since 2000- Sensor Tower — State of AI 2026 (June 2026): https://sensortower.com/blog/state-of-ai-2026- Exponential View — AI revenue has more than tripled in a year (2026)International Energy Agency — The Oil and Gas Industry in Net Zero Transitions (2023)- NASA GISS — GISTEMP v4 global temperature anomaly: https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/- Federal Reserve — Distributional Financial Accounts via FRED (top 1% vs bottom 50% share of U.S. net worth)- World Bank — Gini index (SI.POV.GINI): https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI- Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red, 2020), Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Studio Trigger, 2022) and the Cyberpunk tabletop RPG (R. Talsorian Games)- Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay, Netflix, 2021); Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011)

3. 

   16 Sept 2026

   Better without the Jedi? How Star Wars Zero Company succeeds from a narrative perspective.

   Star Wars Zero Company feels like the Star Wars I grew up with. Not the movies—the LucasArts games, the X-Wing novels, the trading card game. The old Expanded Universe, where stories happened inside the galaxy instead of orbiting the Skywalkers. Zero Company is a tactical, turn-based game set during the Clone Wars, but the interesting part isn’t the war. It’s the crew: a scoundrel with a personal moral compass, a Separatist partisan who lectures you about Republic imperialism, a discharged clone trooper carrying the weight of the war, and a rhyming toad-bulldog prizefighter who loves opera. The game never tells you which choice is right. It just asks you to pick. In this episode of One Thing Worth A Rant, I argue that the Jedi have become the most boring part of Star Wars—not because they’re bad, but because Light vs Dark always drags the story back to a struggle we’ve exhausted. The sequels mistook the original story for what made the original world compelling. The prequels, ironically, were reaching for something more interesting: a democracy sliding into authoritarianism through ordinary choices about order, security, and obedience. Zero Company, Andor, The Bad Batch, even Galaxy’s Edge work because they point the camera down—away from the mythic, toward the everyday. History viewed from eye level. Palpatine promises order; the Rebellion creates chaos. On good vs evil we know who to root for. On order vs freedom, is it so clear cut? Star Wars isn’t literally better without the Jedi. It’s better when it doesn’t need them to carry the whole story. CHAPTERS 00:00 Star Wars and the Old Expanded Universe 01:09 Zero Company: The Crew 03:38 World Building 05:43 The Jedi Are the Boring Part 07:29 Gritty realism 09:55 Why Zero Company Works

4. 

   3 Sept 2026

   History Retold: The Odyssey, 300, and Zero Dark Thirty

   Christopher Nolan’s *The Odyssey* is the latest version of a story that's been rewritten for nearly 3,000 years. But does retelling stories actually preserve the past? Historical fiction selects, compresses, and dramatizes and with every retelling an new interpretation is layered ontop. Nolan’s *The Odyssey* is a reminder of the relationship between history, myth, and cultural memory. And why every generation ends up rewriting the past in its own image. This isn’t an argument that adaptation is bad. Stories have always changed in the telling. But when fiction becomes our primary connection to the past, it’s worth remembering the difference between the story we inherited and the history underneath it. CHAPTERS 00:00 Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey 01:58 Homer Was Already Retelling the Past 02:58 Nolan Adds Another Layer 03:40 Translation Is Interpretation 05:41 When Stories Become History 06:06 The Myth of the 300 Spartans 09:17 Hollywood Rewrites the Past 11:39 Zero Dark Thirty Makes Memory in Real Time 12:33 What Stories Actually Preserve SOURCES / FURTHER READING Harvard — What to Know Before Seeing Nolan’s “The Odyssey” (https://gsas.harvard.edu/news/what-know-seeing-nolans-odyssey) Cambridge University Press — Telling Old Stories Anew: Homer’s *Odyssey* as a Tale of Our Times (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-humanities/article/telling-old-stories-anew-homers-odyssey-as-a-tale-of-our-times/797B635D7B22CEDE856BE2B8BE079C1B) Oxford Academic — Homeric Questions: Did Homer Exist and Is the *Iliad* Accurate? (https://academic.oup.com/book/1187/chapter-abstract/139931799) The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Mycenaean Civilization (https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/mycenaean-civilization) Perseus Digital Library — Herodotus, *Histories*, Book VII (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D7)

5. 

   14 Aug 2026

   Ted Lasso: The Antidote to the Loneliness Epidemic

   Ted Lasso was never really about football. It was about what happens when people stop performing, let their guard down, and allow themselves to be known. Spoilers warning including the opening episodes of Season 4. The show has always been less interested in sports than in the power of connection. As Ted returns to Richmond to coach a women’s team, this episode looks at the show’s real playbook: creating spaces where people can be seen without the performance. Through Ted’s panic attacks, Roy’s anger, Jamie’s bravado, Nate’s fear of rejection, the Diamond Dogs, and the friendship between Rebecca and Keeley, the series offers a different idea of resilience. One built on vulnerability, accountability, forgiveness, and belonging. That message lands in the middle of a real public-health crisis. The former U.S. Surgeon General warned that lacking social connection can carry a mortality risk comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. Pew Research, meanwhile, found that men and women report loneliness at roughly equal rates, but women are more likely to draw on a wider network for emotional support. Ted is not a cure for the loneliness epidemic. It cannot replace friendship, family, therapy, or the difficult work of reaching out when we would rather hide. But it may be a remarkably good reminder of the cure’s ingredients.Sources and further reading U.S. Surgeon General — Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation (2023): https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf (https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf) HHS — Social Connection advisory and action framework: https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/reports-and-publications/connection/index.html (https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/reports-and-publications/connection/index.html) Pew Research Center — Men, Women and Social Connections: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2025/01/16/men-women-and-social-connections/ (https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2025/01/16/men-women-and-social-connections/) Holt-Lunstad, Smith and Layton — Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review (PLOS Medicine, 2010): https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316 (https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316) Tirkkonen and Tietjen — Loneliness and Radicalization (Philosophy & Social Criticism, 2025): https://doi.org/10.1177/01914537251334550 (https://doi.org/10.1177/01914537251334550) Sparks and Papandreou — The Manosphere and Men’s Wellbeing (The BMJ, 2023): https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p2947 (https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p2947) Apple TV — Ted Lasso Season 4 announcement and premise: https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2026/04/apple-tvs-emmy-award-winning-global-smash-hit-series-ted-lasso-returns-for-season-four-on-wednesday-august-5/ (https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2026/04/apple-tvs-emmy-award-winning-global-smash-hit-series-ted-lasso-returns-for-season-four-on-wednesday-august-5/)

6. 

   14 Jul 2026

   Can You Buy a World Cup? How Economics, Geography, and History Shape Football Prowess

   Why can the US, China, and India dominate almost everything except football? Using player ratings, population, wealth, and Olympic data, this episode argues that World Cup success cannot be bought or brute-forced. It is grown through generations of culture, institutions, and squad depth.

7. 

   23 Jun 2026

   Optimism is the answer? Artemis & Hail Mary

   A couple months ago, I stood on a beach looking towards Cape Canaveral, as we sent humans back around the moon for the first time in 50 years. And yet, I couldn't help thinking about a fictional alien made of rocks. Build your own tailored stories for children. Join the waitlist at https://lully.me Need expertise in generative AI and audio? Visit https://podgen.dev

8. 

   4 May 2026

   The Holodeck: Star Trek's Generative Content Engine

   Star Trek promised immersion, but the real breakthrough might be dynamic stories you co-create with AI. Build your own tailored stories for children. Join the waitlist at lully.me (https://lully.me) Need expertise in generative AI and audio? Visit podgen.dev (https://podgen.dev)

9. 

   1 Jan 2022

   Lord of the Rings Christmas

   Join the conversation or make your own show. (https://beams.fm/invite/XBBXHQYkSryAqoAePFWNmw?ct=otwr) Behind the wizards, orcs, and hobbits, the themes of compassion and mercy in Lord of the Rings make it a perfect reminder of the holiday spirit. Made with Beams.fm.

10. 

    23 Dec 2021

    Dune

    Join the conversation or make your own show. (https://beams.fm/invite/XBBXHQYkSryAqoAePFWNmw?ct=otwr) The book tells us to beware the charismatic leader. Do we see the film as a cautionary tale about populism or a more superficial, if gorgoues telling of the story of Paul Atreides? Should it have been a series? Made with Beams.fm.

11. 

    15 Nov 2020

    Swing States

    Is the electoral college a dumpster fire impeding democracy or a well-designed system designed to balance power?

12. 

    6 Sept 2020

    Fair Compensation

    Of all the major sports, tennis might have the least equitable distribution of financial success amongst its professional players.

13. 

    3 May 2020

    Microphone Etiquette

    I think we can all agree one thing would improve this time of COVID is fewer clicks, pops, and hisses in every conversation we have.

14. 

    12 Apr 2020

    Osterhase

    Is the Easter Bunny another invention of modern consumerism or a folkloric icon of fertility?

15. 

    4 Apr 2020

    Loo Roll in a Time of Crisis

    No one is going to survive the apocalypse based on how much toilet paper they've stocked up on.

16. 

    26 Jan 2020

    The British Monarchy

    There are few things people more stereo-typically associated with the United Kingdom then the royal family. But has the institution become yet another toxic battle line for the polarization plaguing us?

17. 

    14 Jan 2020

    Wag the Dog

    Political masterstrokes or just plain idiocy?

18. 

    27 Dec 2019

    Rise of Skywalker

    The end of the Star Wars saga is more than just the final film in the series.

19. 

    7 Jul 2019

    Women's World Cup

    One thing that’s worth caring about is the women’s world cup final. Not into football? Not into sports? That’s okay, because there’s more than a game at stake.

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