65: Across the Great Divide
Explicit content warning
04/22/25 • 54 min
This week we are discussing psychics, specifically psychic medium John Edward of Crossing Over with John Edward. This program which ran from 2001 to 2004 purported to connect living people to their dead relatives by means of Edward's psychic mediumship. We go over a brief history of psychics from ancient times to the present before digging into Edward's methods and claims; does he really offer a genuine line of communication between the living and the dead, or is he merely a mediocre practitioner of cold reading who is taking advantage of grieving people in order to acquire wealth and fame? We also get into the century old antagonism between mediums and stage magicians.
We open the program by noting the recent passing of Pope Francis I by revisiting a tweet from an old friend, the legendary poster Louise Mensch.
Episodes of Crossing Over on Archive.org
John Edward's appearance on Larry King Live
John Oliver's takedown of psychics from 2019
https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/
https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B
https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu
This week we are discussing psychics, specifically psychic medium John Edward of Crossing Over with John Edward. This program which ran from 2001 to 2004 purported to connect living people to their dead relatives by means of Edward's psychic mediumship. We go over a brief history of psychics from ancient times to the present before digging into Edward's methods and claims; does he really offer a genuine line of communication between the living and the dead, or is he merely a mediocre practitioner of cold reading who is taking advantage of grieving people in order to acquire wealth and fame? We also get into the century old antagonism between mediums and stage magicians.
We open the program by noting the recent passing of Pope Francis I by revisiting a tweet from an old friend, the legendary poster Louise Mensch.
Episodes of Crossing Over on Archive.org
John Edward's appearance on Larry King Live
John Oliver's takedown of psychics from 2019
https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/
https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B
https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu
Previous Episode
64: A Cyclops Walks Across the Sky
This week we are discussing two recent albums by mainstays of 2000s era indie rock that deal directly and obliquely with climate change, namely Mount Eerie's 2024 release Night Palace and Dirty Projectors/David Longstreth/s t a r g a z e's 2025 record Song of the Earth. We talk a bit about the history of both artists and why it might be that they are turning to considering the question of climate at this perilous moment in our world's history. We also get into topics like Romanticism and Modernism, the role of ambition and fame in undertaking a music career, and the question of didacticism in art.
The episode opens with a conversation about Bernie Sanders' recent rally in Los Angeles (at which Dirty Projectors performed) and what future progressive leadership in the United States might have as the second Trump era dawns.
Links to the music discussed in this episode can be found below:
Mount Eerie/the Microphones
the Glow pt. 2 by the Microphones
A Crow Looked at Me by Mount Eerie
the Microphones in 2020 by the Microphones
Dirty Projectors
Slaves' Graves & Ballads by Dirty Projectors
The Getty Address by Dirty Projectors
Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors
Song of the Earth by David Longstreth/Dirty Projectors/s t a r g a z e
New Yorker profile of David Longstreth
https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/
https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B
https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu
Next Episode
66: I Cursed the Gloom that Set Upon Us
This week we are discussing Ridley Scott's 1982 classic sci-fi noir Blade Runner. While we praise the visual depiction of a post-nuclear-war American city, we both found the plot somewhat difficult to hook into, so to speak. While the essential examination of the question of humanity, and what it would mean for an android to achieve a fully realized humanity, we both had some issues with the way the film attempted to raise this issue. Stu contrasts this with the novel on which the film is based, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which we will be returning to for a full treatment sometime soon.
We open the episode going over the recent massive blackouts in Spain and Portugal; another omen of the impending end of the world? Perhaps!
This episode contains spoilers for Blade Runner.
https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheworldwms/
https://youtube.com/@TheEndoftheWorldwMS?si=xmj-2e0s58JdN8-B
https://linktr.ee/endoftheworldwithmichaelandstu
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