Make Me A Nerd with Mandy Kaplan - Jungle Book with Justine Huxley

Jungle Book with Justine Huxley

02/10/25 • 64 min

What makes a nerd? Is it the obsessive cataloging of obscure details? The unyielding commitment to lore? The passionate embrace of minutiae deemed trivial by the larger world? This week, Mandy the Mainstreamer welcomes back Justine Huxley, a voiceover artist of rarefied skill, a legend among the Apex Legends.

Together, they hit play on The Jungle Book, the 1967 Disney classic, to marvel at the lilting menace of Sterling Holloway’s Ka, the bombastic warmth of Phil Harris’s Baloo, and the aristocratic terror of George Sanders’s Shere Khan. They ask: Were the Beatles really supposed to lend their voices to a quartet of Liverpudlian vultures? And if they had, would it have changed history? What makes something timeless? And what makes it better left alone?

If that question is too big to ponder, don’t worry. Stick around for The Great Recasting!

Links & Notes

Join the Make Me a Nerd community: MakeMeANerd.com
Follow Mandy on Instagram: @mandi_kaplin_klavins
Follow Mandy on BlueSky: @MandyMiscast.bsky.social
Follow Justine on all platforms: @justinehuxley

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Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website to learn more.

If that question is too big to ponder, don’t worry. Stick around for The Great Recasting!

Links & Notes

Join the Make Me a Nerd community: MakeMeANerd.com
Follow Mandy on Instagram: @mandi_kaplin_klavins
Follow Mandy on BlueSky: @MandyMiscast.bsky.social
Follow Justine on all platforms: @justinehuxley

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Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website to learn more.

Previous Episode

Blade Runner with Paul J. Salamoff

What does it mean to be human? And, perhaps more importantly, what does it mean to feel human?

On today’s episode of Make Me a Nerd, host Mandy Kaplan embarks on a journey with writer, producer, and director Paul J. Salamoff—a man whose career spans makeup effects, comic books, and award-winning filmmaking. Their mission? To dissect one of the most iconic and enigmatic films in science fiction history: Blade Runner.

This is a story about contrasts—about the grit of dystopian Los Angeles and the shimmer of neon lights, about robots who just want to live and humans who’ve forgotten how.

Together, they tackle the overlooked details: Joanna Cassidy’s boots that magically swap from heels to flats mid-chase, Harrison Ford’s noodle obsession, and the strangely unsettling world of J.F. Sebastian’s creepy companions. But they also dive deep—into the philosophical core of Blade Runner, into what it means to make peace with mortality, and into the ever-debated question: Is Deckard a replicant?

Paul shares his first encounter with the film in the 1980s, when the Casio synths of Vangelis felt urgent and futuristic, not nostalgic and dated. He reflects on the shift from practical effects to CGI, the layers of Ridley Scott’s vision, and why Blade Runner is still his favorite film of all time. Mandy, for her part, asks the questions we’re all too afraid to ask—like why Rachel is dressed like Joan Crawford and whether dystopian futures really mean the end of deodorant.

And just when you think you’ve grasped the meaning of it all, Paul hints at the mysteries of the theatrical cut’s voiceover, the unicorn dream, and the controversial possibility that Rick Deckard might be... well, you’ll have to listen to find out.

PLUS: Stick around for members-only bonus content where Paul breaks down the world of the Saturn Awards, the premier honors for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror.

Links & Notes

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Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website to learn more.

Next Episode

The Exorcist with Lester Ryan Clark and Kynan Dias

Is "The Exorcist" just a scary movie, or is it a cultural artifact, a theological debate wrapped in celluloid? Mandy Kaplan confesses her way into the abyss with Lester Ryan Clark and Kynan Dias, the minds behind "The Exorcist Minute," a podcast dissecting the film minute by agonizing minute.

Why does the film open in Iraq? Is it a pro-Catholic screed, or something far more subversive? What does the film say about feminism? And what does it mean that the scariest voice in the movie comes from Mercedes McCambridge?

Prepare to have assumptions challenged as they unearth the hidden layers of a film that continues to haunt and fascinate decades after its release. Was Linda Blair robbed of an Oscar? Is Burke Dennings a secret gay icon? And could Captain Howdy be less interested in possessing a child and more in sowing discord maybe?

So join Mandy for an exploration of faith, fear, and the enduring power of a story that asks us to confront the darkness within ourselves... but you know... doing all that really nerdily.

Links & Notes

The Exorcist Minute: A podcast that examines the movie The Exorcist minute by minute with Lester Ryan Clark and Kynan Dias
MakeMeANerd.com: Come support the show!
Every Minute of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once: Same Lester and Kynan but with more Hot Dog Fingers!
The Devil's Details: A spin-off show that Lester and Kynan do, which covers the history and evolution of the devil through art and literature.

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Learn more about supporting this podcast by becoming a member. It's just $5/month or $55/year. Visit our website to learn more.