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S4E16.5: A Serious Man
🕑 Added 2025-06-20 12:06:05 +0000 UTCThis week we're joined by friend of the show, co-mayor, and all three hosts of this podcast Mattie Lubchansky (thats an S1E18 joke kids) to discuss the Coen Brothers' movie about a man faced with a lot of questions and seemingly no answers.
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FREE PALESTINE
Hey, Devon here. In our home, we talk a lot about how insane everything feels, and agonise constantly over what can be done to best help the Palestinians trapped in Gaza facing the full brunt of genocidal violence. My partner Rebecca has put together a list of four fundraisers you can contribute to- all of them are at work on the ground doing what they can.
-Palestinian Communist Youth Union, which is doing a food and water effort, and is part of the official communist party of Palestine
https://www.gofundme.com/f/to-preserve-whats-left-of-humanity-global-solidarity
-Water is Life, a water distribution project in North Gaza affiliated with an Indigenous American organization and the Freedom Flotilla
https://www.waterislifegaza.org/
-Vegetable Distribution Fund, which secures and delivers fresh veg, affiliated with Freedom Flotilla also
https://www.instagram.com/linking/fundraiser?fundraiser_id=1102739514947848
-Thamra, which distributes herb and veg seedlings, repairs and maintains water infrastructure, and distributes food produced from replanted veg patches
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-thamra-cultivating-resilience-in-gaza
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WEB DESIGN ALERT
Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here: https://www.tomallen.media/
Kill James Bond is hosted by November Kelly, Abigail Thorn, and Devon. You can find us at https://killjamesbond.com , as well as on our Bluesky and X.com the every app accounts
Comments
Ben Schwabe
There is no Alice, only November.
Gabe
1. The way Alice approaches religion always seems very in line with Judaism, so it's weird she's tried the other two major abrahamic religions but not it. 2. Disagree with Mattie, Lander #1, Mamdani #2, but I'm glad Mamdani beat Cuomo!
Elle Memory
Im not jewish, but the preview of this episode made me go and check it out from the library immediately because i was thinking "does this film want to teach me something?" and i think the answer was yes. Im not religious but im definitely one of the people seeking spiritual meaning in things-too rational (and undedicated) to attach to a faith, and too spiritual to be truly atheist. It also reminded me that, even though ive only seen one Coen brothers movie (now two), i know those guys were REALLY good at what they did. Thank you KJB team for helping me get a liiiiittle closer to finding meaning
Sophia ocker
Btw you should watch Captain Fantastic for religion season
Topper
Oh hey there was a 16.5! The RSS didn't have one between 16 and 17, I was worried. *downloads!*
a
Very important to know that the tornado is a reference to the ending of Job
Archie
The first time I heard of this movie was from a short film essay (idk if that term was common at the time yet though?) that basically concluded that the theme of the movie was "The main character is being punished for what his ancestors at the start of the movie did all those years ago, because God is a petty asshole". I like this analysis better, its got meat on its bones.
Mariana Trench
1:43:47, Seagulls in the background attempting to interrupting Devon’s flow
Ariane Signalis is the Elster Signalis Fan Club and challenges you to play SIGNALIS without pointing at any of the characters an
Abi is so real for that. If the boss is an asshole he shouldn't be the boss, I think that's a fairly central tennet of worker rights.
lousullivan.bf
Watching this movie sure was An Experience as someone also currently preparing for my bar mitzvah (in less than a month!! Fuck!!) I literally am listening to a recording of someone leyn my portion over and over although because Woke Judaism it’s a lovely blue-haired cantor instead of an old-school rabbi
Andrew Dunn
"This movie is about how we're not even supposed to be here"- so you mean it's "No Country for Serious Men"? The discussion about doing the moral duty reminded me of a viral video I saw of a doordash driver who thought she was not getting a tip, so she left an angry note saying that people who don't tip get their food tampered with. She showed up at the front door, and the customer was holding a generous cash tip. The driver looked very ashamed and had to apologize for the nasty note she had left to an innocent woman, and also turned down the cash tip out of shame/apology. So, because of her own actions in what she thought was the response to not getting a tip, had to sacrifice the tip.
