Best Arcadia University Podcasts (2025)

1
The Last X-Files Episode* 55:14

5d ago55:14

55:14

*if you want to end the series in the best possible way... Plus One is a fun episode, possibly a little overshadowed by the sterling guest-star turn and the efforts of the make-up department. Also suspect the entire point of the episode was less doppleganger hangman game and more getting Mulder and Scully into bed together... The Lost Art of Forehe…

1
Where Do All the Calculators Go? 1:02:30

12d ago1:02:30

1:02:30

We reach Season 11 and find that the chosen way to resolve the massive, massive cliffhanger season 10 left on is.... lacking. My Struggle III spends a lot of time undoing some of Season 10 but not all of it and as a result leaves some weird debris behind. We talk retcons and wave goodbye to the nominal replacement Mulder and Scully... This is one o…

1
The Struggle for Romani Rights: Alex Otieno in Conversation with Jonathan Lee 47:30

13d ago47:30

47:30

Summary In this episode, Alex Otieno speaks with Jonathan Lee from the European Roma Rights Centre about the historical and contemporary issues faced by Romani people in Europe. They discuss the systemic discrimination, human rights violations, and the ongoing fight for justice and recognition of Romani rights. Jonathan shares insights into the adv…

1
Chris Carter Lied to Us 1:09:11

26d ago1:09:11

1:09:11

Don't promise us the Lone Gunmen being back and then do... that. Babylon was quite notorious on first broadcast and the intervening years have done little to aid the fact it feels the wrong fit for The X-Files in general and specific for Mulder and Scully. We also get into what the whole point of Einstein and Miller probably was... My Struggle II u…

1
Arcadia mk 2 57:35

1M ago57:35

57:35

We struggle to say much about Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster, broadly because the episode is an absolute delight and revisiting it has not diminished how starkly it contrasts with the rest of season 10. It is still a fantastic episode. Home, Again on the other hand is part fantastically acted Scully drama, part serious Arcadia remake and p…

1
Kharkiv, the Frontline of Europe: Angela Kachuyevski in conversation with Iryna Rabotyagova 53:09

1M ago53:09

53:09

Summary This conversation between Dr. Angela Kachuyevski and Dr. Iryna Rabotyagova explores the complex relationship between Kharkiv, Ukraine, and Europe, particularly in the context of the ongoing conflict and the historical legacy of the Soviet Union. The speakers discuss the impact of the Maidan Revolution, the cultural identity of Ukrainians, a…

1
Deja Vu The Sequel 1:09:23

2M ago1:09:23

1:09:23

Welcome to season 10! And plots we could swear we saw in Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'. And Gethesmane... Still! The X-Files is back. Skinner is back! Cancer man... is somehow back! And now we're trying to retcon seemingly 9 seasons of plot out of the backstory. We discuss how strange the apparent project to discredit Mulder is and how odd some o…

1
Catering by Alan Smithee 56:49

2M ago56:49

56:49

We reach the second The X-Files film and are beset by questions. Many of them "Why this?" and "Really?" While the acting is fine, we are not so taken with the plot or the any of the new characters. We also learned a fair amount from the synopsis we are not sure we even got hinted at in the film itself... Somehow we can even pick fault with the end …

1
Resilience and Memory - Jo Crampon On Mireille Best: Kate Bonin in Conversation with Stephanie Schechner, Part Two 46:02

2M ago46:02

46:02

Summary In this conversation, Stephanie Schechner and Kate Bonin discuss the literary contributions of Mireille Best, focusing on her exploration of themes such as education, class, and gender. The dialogue explores Schechner's journey of connecting with Jo Crampon, Best's partner, and the challenges of bringing Best's work to a broader audience. T…

1
Ready Kafka? 1:01:02

2M ago1:01:02

1:01:02

So here we are. What once was the end of The X-Files is a bit too much like how Seinfeld ended for its own good... We end up talking about Franz Kafka for hopefully good reasons as well as continuing to observe that Mulder should never be allowed in any kind of court-room. We also get to our best and worst episodes of the season. Support the show…

1
Loneliness and Belonging - On Mireille Best: Kate Bonin in Conversation with Jo Crampon as Performed by Stephanie Schechner, Part One 40:21

2M ago40:21

40:21

Summary This episode is part one of a two-part series about the French author Mireille Best. It features an interview between Jo Crampon and Dr. Kate Bonin about the astounding literary work of Mireille Best. Jo Crampon was Best’s life partner and the first eyes to read Best’s drafts. Originally an email interview in French, we have reenacted the i…

1
Fluid Margins and the Amiche: Jennifer Riggan in Conversation with Sabine Mohamed 1:05:11

2M ago1:05:11

1:05:11

Summary: This conversation explores the complexities of identity, migration, and belonging through the lens of the Amiche population, a group of Eritrean Ethiopians. Dr. Jennifer Riggan and Dr. Sabine Mohamed discuss the historical and contemporary dynamics of marginality and centrality in Europe, the role of infrastructure in shaping migration pat…

1
Exit Here to Avoid The Truth 57:36

3M ago57:36

57:36

Release wraps Doggett's running backstory up perhaps a little too fast and a little too without warning (and that's not getting into Reyes' questionable decision re: seeing people taking bribes). But. There is an answer - its bleak and awful and does not involve whatever happened to Samantha. We are however obliged to point out that supernatural fo…

1
Slice of Bread with Legs 1:03:18

3M ago1:03:18

1:03:18

A strange description of Jimmy Bond, but accurate nonetheless. After our hiatus, Nick is trying to be more positive about The X-Files. Each episode must have some positive points. Unfortunately, he is trying this on Jump the Shark and William of all things. Jump the Shark does have a lot of sharks and Morris Fletcher. We get into why concluding a s…

1
Portugal's Shifting Role in Europe: Alex Otieno in Conversation with Amélia Polónia 46:22

3M ago46:22

46:22

Summary: In this conversation, Alex Otieno and Dr. Amélia Polónia explore the evolution of Portugal's identity through its colonial history, migration trends, and the impact of the Carnation Revolution. They discuss how Portugal's geographical marginality has shaped its historical and contemporary role in Europe, the dynamics of migration and touri…

1
The Frozen Conflict of Cyprus: Warren Haffar in Conversation with Ellada Evangelou 35:45

3M ago35:45

35:45

Summary: This conversation explores the complexities of Cypriot identity, the historical context of the island's division, and the ongoing frozen conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The discussion highlights the role of public spaces and bi-communal initiatives in fostering dialogue and understanding, particularly through the arts. The spe…

1
God Plays Checkers with the Universe 1:05:29

4M ago1:05:29

1:05:29

At least, we're pretty sure guest star Burt Reynolds is God in Improbable at any rate. A rather stunning surprise from Chris Carter, this episode is tremendous fun, though unable to escape more questions about why Reyes isn't fired for this sequence of events. We talk about our own life-path numbers and how relevant they are; also how Mulder crazy …

1
The Episode We Forgot 1:02:47

5M ago1:02:47

1:02:47

One of them anyway... Audrey Pauley feels more like a Twilight Zone episode, but is an interesting contrast to Steven Maeda's previous season 9 episode of 4D. And yet, somehow we end up talking about Dark Souls and Die Hard during the course of this episode. And how familiar the villain is. Underneath is an episode we really did completely forget e…

1
Kim Manners Was Right 1:02:36

5M ago1:02:36

1:02:36

...mostly about the current state of the conspiracy here in Season 9... Providence, wait, Provenance. No, Providence. Dammit, its Provenance! Provenance has the Lone Gunmen for hilariously, almost futile inclusion and seems to want to hark back to one of the series more startling reveals - a half-buried ancient UFO off the coast of Africa. Except n…

1
Flayed Corpse Specific Sheets 55:51

5M ago55:51

55:51

Vince Gilligan has failed us! And apparently only us as the critical reception to John Doe is strikingly positive. We speculate how much of this is due to snobbishness around sci-fi/fantasy/horror and how much is because we're well acquainted with Gilligan's later productions. Also a waste of a memory vampire... Hellbound is not The X-Files take on…

1
Insect Boy Biology 1:00:16

6M ago1:00:16

1:00:16

With Lord of the Flies, we wonder why The X-Files is now about a group of British school-children trapped on a desert island- Wait... We actually get curious as to whether the show's allusion to Jackass makes any sense anymore and the horror of body lice as a concept. At least we have an unscrupulous entomologist in the form of Rocky to provide ent…

1
Rubber Mask Reality 56:38

6M ago56:38

56:38

Daemonicus is Kim's most hated episode of the entire run of The X-Files. Fun times! A good start leads into an increasingly dissatisfying experience and we once again discover how different intent was to how we wound up interpreting the episode on both watch and re-watch. Inevitably we also end up talking about Hannibal and also Hannibal. Also; its…

1
Saw Trap Mobiles 1:08:22

6M ago1:08:22

1:08:22

We're not entirely sure if Scully buys Jigsaw brand mobiles for her baby or the foley-artist made a strange choice for season 9's opener, but when baby William seems to use telekinesis to make his mobile move... It does sound like something out of Saw... Welcome to Season 9! It all looks and sounds and feels a lot better than another series we've b…

1
Walk Without Rhythm... 1:23:29

6M ago1:23:29

1:23:29

...it won't attract the worm! Weapon of Choice used (for no particular reason) in All About Yves is one of the high points. We get into why even with the writers throwing every trick in the bag to get a second series, even the revelatory answers were never going to be exactly great by way of Star Wars and Twin Peaks. Plus, Kim has a far better plan…

1
Better 1:06:20

6M ago1:06:20

1:06:20

We were told these two episodes were an improvement... and that was not wrong! The Lying Game impressively avoids a gigantic pitfall that would have made the episode incredibly uncomfortable and lowered our impression of the characters still further. It also boasts a guest appearance from Mitch Pileggi who does a stellar job of impersonating Jimmy …

1
Doldrums 1:06:40

7M ago1:06:40

1:06:40

It is hard to muster energy for The Lone Gunmen at this point... Diagnosis Jimmy feels stitched together from discarded parts of other episodes and continues to call into question how Jimmy is able to exist in the real world. Meanwhile the other LGM-centric plot feels so poorly justified for its inclusion. Unprofessional nurses and weirdly ineffect…

1
Watching the Skis! 47:50

8M ago47:50

47:50

We've reached episode 100 and so... are taking a break from The Lone Gunmen for this week. Instead we have taken a trip to Springfield to witness the reasonably inexplicable crossover of The X-Files into The Simpsons. Which remains a lot of fun and is an extremely highly rated episode even now. A lot of jokes and only a little threat of fear, famin…

1
Weird Linux Joke 1:16:58

8M ago1:16:58

1:16:58

...which was probably more baffling on release, but now we have to ask why the LGM don't actively use Linux for like paranoid reasons... Back off hiatus! And despite the episode title being Planet of the Frohikes, the episode is more about Jimmy and chimpanzees and not really about Frohike at all. We get into the episode tipping its hand way too ea…

1
Pixellated Wife 1:12:16

9M ago1:12:16

1:12:16

Stuff happened between watching Three Men and a Smoking Diaper and when we recorded this episode and made it somehow even less fun than the first time around when we were merely severely annoyed by every little thing in it. Quite apart from the Lone Gunmen apparently getting into Gonzo Journalism rather than their normal style, the continued relian…

1
Wilhelm (Doesn't) Scream 1:11:28

9M ago1:11:28

1:11:28

Somehow the third episode of the series is Eine Kleine Frohike, an episode of The Lone Gunmen which feels like it should come from a hypothetical season 4 when the writers have well and truly run out of ideas. That it's also taking inspiration from The Ladykillers is just an additional bizarre twist to the whole mess. We return to wondering if this…

1
Bertram's Blood 1:17:31

9M ago1:17:31

1:17:31

We swap from the bureaucratic FBI to a low-circulation newspaper office run by three familiar characters. Welcome to The Lone Gunmen. The one series spin-off of the popular trio into their own show! Second time we're discussing an episode titled Pilot... For the most part the series starts strong with a plot more Lone Gunmen like than The X-Files p…

1
Could Have Ended Here... 45:40

10M ago45:40

45:40

The X-Files could genuinely have ended with Existence. There's room for a future version of the series, but a lot of plot is resolved and the current alien threat is so nebulous. But Season 9 looms. But before that: The Lone Gunmen. And before that: We get hung up on all the Biblical imagery in this episode, none of it subtle. Including the UFO/gui…

1
Billy Miles: Weakness: Doors 1:16:11

10M ago1:16:11

1:16:11

Not to The Doors slightly sadly. That would be a bit too surreal. But certainly, closing and not even locking a door is enough to deter the new villainous version of that kid from the pilot episode of the series from attacking Doggett or killing Mulder. Useful stuff. But before that Essence stuff, there's Alone: Scully leaves the X-Files (the depar…

1
Passing the Time as the Black Oil 1:02:18

10M ago1:02:18

1:02:18

Its never bad to have an episode where Reyes shows up. Though Empedocles does stress this attitude. For the main plot, Reyes herself prompts all kinds of questions about her existence within the FBI and her complete non-crossing paths with the X-Files. For the subplots, we do have to increasingly stress the question no one wants to ask: just who is…

1
Punching Krycek in the Face 1:09:27

10M ago1:09:27

1:09:27

So Krycek's back in Deadalive. What has he been doing? Did he tell anyone he killed CSM off last season? Why does he want Skinner to prevent Scully from giving birth? We get no answers. But Mulder is definitely dead. Totally. 100%. Just pay no attention to him being first in the opening credits again. We get very confused about why Theresa (the oth…

1
Alien in Nikes 1:07:58

11M ago1:07:58

1:07:58

It is hard not to question Scully's decision-making ability in Per Manum. Not least because she figures the best place to hide out while conspiratorial stuff is going on is with the army. Who have never, ever been involved with anything shady and conspiratorial. We discuss how ultrasounds tend to look a tad on the alien-side of things no matter wha…

1
Worse Than the Mayor from Jaws 48:13

11M ago48:13

48:13

We're back! After injury and illness, we return to watch Doggett die in The Gift! It is perhaps not as big a spoiler as you might imagine given he's perfectly fine and in the rest of this season despite this slight complication. This is a weird episode though and features an entity which we are repeatedly told is a soul eater despite not acting any…

1
The Tetsuo in the Room 1:11:15

12M ago1:11:15

1:11:15

We watched Tetsuo the Iron Man ahead of Salvage this week. Mostly because Salvage is an admitted version of the film. The experience was illuminating but did underscore how strange the idea of doing this idea as an X-Files episode and all the parts Salvage left out. At least we got to see all the things that inspired Tetsuo and all the things it se…

1
Skinman Does Some Muldering 1:03:55

12M ago1:03:55

1:03:55

The premise and intent behind Via Negativa is really neat and interesting! The actual episode starts really strongly and then loses its way somewhat spectacularly and is found exceptionally wanting. Very confusing and not in a fun what is reality kind of way the episode is probably going for. We talk about Event Horizon a bit and how the episode se…

1
Hey Tristan 1:05:16

1y ago1:05:16

1:05:16

That Doggett can go through the events of Invocation and come out the other side to dismiss anything happening in Redrum is nothing short of astonishing. Never did Scully get handed something so ardently impossible as the dark tale of child kidnap and apparent manifestation from beyond the grave. Fresh Bones was not this concrete with its impossibl…

1
Worm Emperor 57:57

1y ago57:57

57:57

A decidedly odd start to Doggett's time on the X-Files. And we can't ignore that it would be more effective if Patience and Roadrunners was swapped in the episode order. And also that Patience feels a lot like a re-do of Squeeze just without actually re-watching Squeeze and apparently just working off the vague memories of the classic. We compare t…

1
Whatever Happened to Strughold? 56:25

1y ago56:25

56:25

New season and new character! With Within we welcome John Doggett to The X-Files and indeed, the X-Files. Our new hardened skeptic to Scully's abruptly much more open-minded version of herself. Which does feel a little odd as it feels like seeing the UFO at the end of Requiem would be more of a trigger for this, but here we are. Also Kersh is back!…

1
Teens with Giger Counters 1:15:16

1y ago1:15:16

1:15:16

Is it ever possible to have a story wherein a character is granted three wishes and for them to not screw up immediately? Je Souhaite certainly paints none of the would be wishees in especially good light. Despite the inherent issues with humanity, the episode is a lot of fun. Scully gets to be giddy about autopsying an invisible man, while Mulder …

1
The Second Rule 55:45

1y ago55:45

55:45

Not sure if the first episode to receive the treatment, but it turns out Mythbusters specifically took down one of the central premises of this episode as being effectively impossible. So, no you can't listen to the Aramaic version of I am the Walrus on that pot your aunt made... Hollywood AD is a weird episode. Part religious struggle and part Hol…

1
Sinister Buddhas 1:01:53

1y ago1:01:53

1:01:53

The enduring question we were left with all things was what happened? The answer seemingly was Carter and Spotnitz who did things to the episode and fundamentally changed a few things about the directorial debut of Gillian Anderson. It is a shame as we would really like to like this episode but even now the details drift away. Except for a ship-bai…

1
Water Skiing Lessons 1:06:38

1y ago1:06:38

1:06:38

We are very much ignoring the future of En Ami. We know and we will get to it. Later. For now, we have questions about extraneous other angels and the complete lack of Lord Kinbote. And that man really does not live up to the code-name 'Cobra'. Still, the CSM and Scully road-trip has its moments though we are bewildered by the end as to what the po…

1
The Sexy Lamp Test 1:24:02

1y ago1:24:02

1:24:02

If you are at all convinced by the advertising, the promotional gimmicks, the press interviews for First Person Shooter, we are here to tell you in no uncertain terms how bad this game is. That said, you likely already played it during the press embargo and know of its absurd difficulty spike, its complete lack of cohesion and rumoured risk of perm…

1
Nice Episode, Shame About the Plot 1:01:31

1y ago1:01:31

1:01:31

And thus we learn the final fate of Samantha Mulder! Is it satisfying? No. Closure is very touching and quite beautiful and well acted. But as a capstone to a question that first appeared in the very first episode this is not what anyone wanted. We get into how this fails to make much sense with seven years of other conspiracy (we know the aliens h…

1
Use the Snackle Remover on Paper Hearts 2.0 1:07:15

1y ago1:07:15

1:07:15

Content warning: mentions of animal abuse, implied incest, child death Signs and Wonders is somewhat diminished when we learned about the various animal cruelties on set during the filming of this episode. Getting past that, we are left with a succession of questions about what and why this episode happened. Its pretty fun though and we learn about…

1
Episode Hijack 53:14

1y ago53:14

53:14

It is hard to watch Orison without immediately concluding that Scully is totally getting fired right after the climax of the episode. And yet - based on The Amazing Maleeni - somehow shooting an unarmed man, pointblank while he is being arrested by her partner is not enough. Weird how it was Scully who'd finally wind up killing someone like this. M…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Arcadia University Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Quick Reference Guide