As always there are spoilers ahead. You can buy the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book in most bookshops and you can listen to the radio play on YouTube and also on the Internet Archive.
You can follow the podcast on social media on Threads, Instagram and Bluesky.
If you would like to be a patron of the podcast you can join Patreon and for £3 or $3 a month you can get ad free version of the show and be revered amongst both the G'Gugvuntts and the Vl'Hurgs: https://www.patreon.com/everyscififilm
As mentioned elsewhere this is not an analysis of the film or any kind of review of the book but more like a chat amongst fans of what the story means to us and why.
My amazing guests are very qualified to wax lyrical about the topic at hand.
Michael Newton is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. He is a cultural historian who has written about film amongst many other topics including being the Editor of the book The Origins of Science Fiction.
Mark Steadman creative digital producer, long time podcaster and host of the Beware of the Leopard podcast which explored the A to Z of the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy. (He also has what I consider the best productivity podcast in the world as it takes into consideration that we are humans with feelings and lives. Undo – How history’s outliers got stuff done can be found here.)
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:52 When we were first exposed to H2G2
05:01The Late 70s and scifi
06:54 Mental health and the art of Zen
10: 40 Zaphod: Douglas Adams and the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster
15:31 Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect
19:53 Suburban life and bathos
21:46 Douglas Adams’ “first album”
24:41 The broad appeal
28:03 Douglas’ delightful detours
32:25 We love Douglas and his thin plot
32:58 No happy ending
36:18 Absurdism
37:31 Sirius Cybernetics Corporation and Silicon Valley
41:29 Gadgetry in H2G2
47:11 Shoutout to the super intelligent colour blue
50:25 Legacy: Tech, atheism, and imagination
54:02 Recommendations for the listener
NEXT EPISODE!
In two week’s time (if all goes well!) we shall be discussing Panic in the Year Zero (1962) and the appeal of Armageddon. The film is available to buy or rent online in many places in the USA and UK but may be tricky in certain regions.