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Upper Middlebrow

@uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social
24 followers 39 following 40 posts

"My new favorite podcast." -Jonathen Lethem. Now: Dracula | Bram Stoker Next: A Study in Scarlet | Doyle A podcast about great books and movies. Hosted by Chris Bagg + Jesse Dukes.

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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Um...
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Live Draft coming next Monday October 6th 8pm.
youtube.com
October 6th Live Draft! #shorts #podcast #bookanalysis #film #bookreview #movie
YouTube video by Upper Middlebrow
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Save the Date! Live draft, October 6th.
uppermiddlebrow.com
October 6th: Live Draft Coming Soon!
On October 6th, Dukes and Bagg invite you to join us for the Season 4 Live Draft. We will tape an episode live on a video call, and you can join as our loyal live audience. Drafts are where we choo…
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
"Faced with so much gore and blood, many fainted. As Sophon walked forward, people hurried to back away. An invisible force field seemed to surround her, repelling the mob and keeping the space around her clear. She stopped after a few steps and the crowd froze. 'Form a line,' Sophon said.."
uppermiddlebrow.com
Cixin Liu's Death's End, Part I
Chris and Jesse talk about the first half of Cixin Liu's sprawling masterpiece "Death's End," discussing good and evil and what it means to be human.
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
We love the Criterion Channel's great idea to feature all the #Ripley films. In fact, we love it so much, that we did the same thing last year. uppermiddlebrow.com/2025/03/10/e...
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 79: “A Creeping Tom,” or René Clement’s Plein Soleil
Chris and Jesse charge into our next group of works, Ripley en Filmes, beginning with René Clement’s visually stunning 1960 film Plein Soleil, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The …
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
THE TITLE OF THE EP IS KIND OF A SPOILER DON'T LOOK! If you haven't finished #TheThreeBodyProblem
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 90: “An Egg Slicer Through a Supertanker,” or Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, Part II
The lads host their first UMB Official Sports Update as Jesse manages to survive a weekend of ultimate frisbee before getting into the second half of Cixin Liu’s sprawling and ambitious The Three B…
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
The UMBers espie a similarity to Neal Stephenson’s habit of "chessboard building" before letting the game unfold, examining if Liu’s narrative setups have plausible payoffs. They also identify some of the “hapless protagonist” effect they’ve seen before in The Diamond Age and The Arrest.
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 90: “An Egg Slicer Through a Supertanker,” or Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, Part II
The lads host their first UMB Official Sports Update as Jesse manages to survive a weekend of ultimate frisbee before getting into the second half of Cixin Liu’s sprawling and ambitious The Three B…
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
For a non "character driven" novel, The Three Body Problem is full of memorable characters, with Da Shi rising above.
youtube.com
Da Shi is an Amusingly Manipulative Old Bastard #shorts #threebodyproblem #cixinliu #scifi
YouTube video by Upper Middlebrow
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𝙉𝙤𝙞𝙧 𝙃𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙘𝙠 ♬ @noirbeachshack.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
#FilmNoir living room... Fred MacMurray 🎞 Double Indemnity (1944)
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Skunk Cabbage Books @skunkcabbagebooks.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Join Skunk Cabbage Books and Chicago BIPOC Birders for a bird walk through Humboldt Park. We'll look for birds (and any other more-than-human neighbors!) while discussing the importance of migration in nature and the ways that birds connect us all across borders.
A gridded background with photos of birds cut out and collaged over the top. A pink text box reads, "Birds Against Borders, A bilingual bird walk fundraiser to benefit the Midwest Immigration Bond Fund. Learn about migration in nature and how bids connect us across borders. Saturday, June 28th @ 10 am @ Humboldt Park. Tix on sale now."A gridded background mimicking the first slide, but now translated into Spanish. The text reads, "Aves contra las fronteras. Una caminata de aves bilingüe para recaudar fondos a beneficio del Midwest Immigration Bond Fund. Aprende sobre la migración.
Sábado 28 de junio, 10 a.m.; Humboldt Park.
Boletos a la venta ahora.
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 89: “A Creeping Awareness” or Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem, Part I
The Three Body Problem begins with an inexplicable series of tragic mysteries, most notably, that physics as we know it has stopped working. Slowly, the reader is given enough clues to start to sus…
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
uppermiddlebrow.com/2025/06/05/e...
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 88: “Creation’s Folly,” or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Part II
The boys wrap up their discussion of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and come away somewhat ambivalent: this is clearly a work of importance, imagination, and invention, but it feels…unfocused. We pos…
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
As far as we can tell, Frankenstein's chief complaint with his creation is ugliness.
youtube.com
Frankenstein's Creationg is Really [deleted] Ugly #shorts
YouTube video by Upper Middlebrow
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Friend of the Show Justin Reich called us from the North Woods, to give us an update on his 700 mile canoe trip. Bald eagles, river otters, and rustic hotels. uppermiddlebrow.com/2025/05/22/d...
uppermiddlebrow.com
Digression, From the North Woods with Justin Reich
We reach Upper Middlebrow education expert Justin Reich on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, at the edge of mobile phone reception. He gives us a dispatch, mid journey, from a rather literary settin…
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Wanna hang out with us and Jeph from @bigcampaignpodcast.bsky.social tonight? Join us for a live watch party of the Talented Mr. Ripley. 4pm PT 7pm ET On our Discord: discord.gg/h734EZ3hBU
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
OG cinematic universe continues, with a story about a wounded soldier getting a new roommate.
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 86: “A Study in Structure,” or Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet
The lads go bananas over Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes mystery, “A Study in Scarlet,” published in 1887. We meet the mercurial Sherlock Holmes and his by turns skepti…
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Rolf Oldejans @rolfoldejans.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Edward Hopper's sketchbook.
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
The fellowship of the stake travels to the Carpathians armed with science, Catholicism, and friendship.
uppermiddlebrow.com
Ep 85, “Science vs. Evil” or Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, Part II
Bram Stoker arrays his crew of brave companions against what they’ve finally realized is an ancient un-dead evil. And the author seems to be elling us something about the nature of the human …
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
Save the date! Ripley watch party, May 19th.
uppermiddlebrow.com
Save the Date: The Talented Mr. Ripley, Live Taping, with Jeph Wilkinson.
Join us Thursday, May 19th at 4pm PDT / 7 PM EDT for a live viewing and taping of Anthony Minghella’s 1999 masterpiece, The Talented Mr. Ripley. Dukes and Bagg think of this as the BEST of th…
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
#Dracula is great, but Victorians could get a bit whingey.
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
"I'm so overwhelmed by the horrific horror of the horrorness of the horriciness" Dukes' exxagerated take on 19th century Gothic horror melodramatic prose.
youtube.com
Horrified by the Horrific Horrorness of Dracula #shorts #podcast #dracula #bramstoker #Gothic
YouTube video by Upper Middlebrow
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Now playing, Dracula. Not a movie, the 1897 book.
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 84: “Unnatural Intimacy,” or Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Part I
Neither of the lads had read Stoker’s classic gothic novel, published in 1897, and they suspect that many readers are in the same boat. Over 100 years of vampiric pop culture have made Stoker’s mas…
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𝙉𝙤𝙞𝙧 𝙃𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙘𝙠 ♬ @noirbeachshack.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
📽 Joseph Cotten in #FilmNoir The Third Man 🎡
Actor Joseph Cotten in a hat and over coat with a ferris wheel behind him.
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
New ep: I Made a Friend and Now He's Dead Liliana Calvani's Ripley's Game
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 83: “I Made a Friend, and Now He’s Dead” or Liliana Calvani’s Ripley’s Game
Chris and Jesse watched this movie together nearly 20 years ago, and it made an impression, due to John Malkovich’s memorable, creepy, and charming take on Tom Ripley. Director Calvani seems …
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Coming soon: Ripley's Game (2002). We don't think Breaking Bad would exist without this film.
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Ripley Underground (2005) might be only the 5th best Tom Ripley Film, but that doesn't mean it's bad. We enjoy the early oughties crime romp with art forgeries, impersonation, and Willem Dafoe defending the honor of Dayton.
bit.ly
Episode 82: “Cocaine was Invented for Times Like These,” or Roger Spotiswoode’s Ripley, Underground
The lads get all aughty with Roger Spotiswoode’s charming and unthreatening Ripley, Underground, where Tom Ripley is a glib opportunist instead of the darker, unpredictable Ripleys. The result is a…
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
LA Light, LA Darkness. bit.ly/4hKgYgP
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Dennis Hopper's Tom Ripley is... memorable. We think he'd be a good choice for the long lost comedic Ripley movie "Weekend at Ripleys". www.youtube.com/shorts/eC1Lz...
youtube.com
Denis Hopper "Hoppering it up" in The American Friend #shorts
YouTube video by Upper Middlebrow
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Ohtani and Imanaga went head to head in Tokyo earlier today. Are you feeling baseball fever? Why not get psyched up by checking out our Baseball Films episode, with special guest @herberthistory.bsky.social from #HATM (link in comments)
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
The second of the Ripley Films.
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 80: “Frames, Trains, and Burning Automobiles” or Wim Wenders The American Friend
The American Friend is loosely based on Patricia Highsmith’s third Tom Ripley novel Ripley’s Game. But Wim Wenders plays fast and loose with the source material, borrowing elements of another novel…
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Robert Loerzel @robertloerzel.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Here's a story I wrote for the history page in today's Chicago Tribune: Decades before Irish were Chicago political royalty, they lived in a ramshackle slum called Kilgubbin www.chicagotribune.com/2025/03/16/i...
chicagotribune.com
Decades before Irish were Chicago political royalty, they lived in a ramshackle slum called Kilgubbin
Nineteenth century Irish arrivals in Chicago lived in a ramshackle slice of the city dubbed Kilgubbin.
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Dukes enjoys the pacing of #PurpleNoon, the first Tom Ripley movie, made in 1960. Bagg finds it ponderous, and we discuss why.
youtube.com
Purple Noon is Languid #shorts #film #ripley
YouTube video by Upper Middlebrow
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
We begin our six part "Ripley En Filmes" series with the lush and sensual #PurpleNoon aka #PleinSoleil by #ReneClement starring the great #AlainDelon in his first major picture.
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 79: “A Creeping Tom,” or René Clement’s Plein Soleil
Chris and Jesse charge into our next group of works, Ripley en Filmes, beginning with René Clement’s visually stunning 1960 film Plein Soleil, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The …
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
Justin Reich joins us to talk about what #TedChiang's #Exhalation tells us about childhood development.
youtube.com
Digients and Child Development #shorts #podcast
YouTube video by Upper Middlebrow
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
WE believe these were created by Francois Sanchez, in Grenoble France, but I'm not sure. But more, please.
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Justin Reich joins us to talk about the artificial intelligences in @tedchiang.bsky.social 's Exhalation.
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 78: “Our Robot Friends, Part II,” or Ted Chiang’s Exhalation
Our favorite education researcher joins us to talk about Ted Chiang’s collection Exhalation, which includes the story “The Life Cycle of Software Objects” which Chris read from in our earlier Robot…
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Downloads by state heat map (darker green = more). Get on board North Dakota!!
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Can you marry noir and space opera? We discuss.
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 77: “A Soup of Dreams,” or James S.A. Corey’s Leviathan Wakes, Part II
The Lads finish out James S.A. Corey’s 2011 novel Leviathan Wakes, a huge success that powered The Expanse, the SyFy and then Amazon Prime space opera. Bagg and Dukes talk about whether or no…
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Jesse Dukes @curiousdukes.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Vince Gilligan: "I have a proposal; it certainly won’t fix everything but I think it’s a start. I say we write more good guys... In 2025, it’s time to say that out loud, because we are living in an era where bad guys, the real-life kind, are running amuck."
hollywoodreporter.com
Vince Gilligan Calls for Writers to Cut Back on Villain Stories Amid Current Political Climate: “They’ve Become Aspirational”
The 'Breaking Bad' creator said in now looking back at Walter White, "I think I'd rather be celebrated for creating someone a bit more inspiring."
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Jesse Dukes @curiousdukes.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Asking a salty #raven about the surf. #OceanBeach, San Francisco. (Big, cold, and a little scary)
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Nick Ulivieri @nuphoto.com · 08/02/2025
This is a very cool map that shows an overlay of the Chicago River as it was before the city expanded eastward via land reclamation
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Jason Herbert @herberthistory.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
Every day all month long, I’ll be posting not just pictures but links to my favorite books on Black history, along with Blue Sky links if possible. Today is Day 9 with @agr.bsky.social. Get this for $16 and read it with a Dr. Pepper. www.amazon.com/dp/039333776...
amazon.com
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family [Gordon-Reed, Annette] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
"Philip Marlowe in Space" Or Leviathan Wakes, part 1. bit.ly/4aXOY7G
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Big Campaign Stories @bigcampaignpodcast.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
If you're looking too add new podcasts to your list check out Podmash by @maninjumpsuit.com We are stoked to have Jesse Dukes from @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social suggest us. Check it out - open.spotify.com/episode/0kEs... #podcast
open.spotify.com
Big Campaign Stories
Podmash · Episode
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Upper Middlebrow @uppermiddlebrow.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
It was capitalism all along...
uppermiddlebrow.com
Episode 75: “It Was Capitalism All Along!” or China Miéville’s The City and The City, Part II
The lads continue to admire China Miéville’s genius premise for this novel, but will the second half of the book escape the issues we’ve seen in the noir and noir-adjacent works the UMB…
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