Nerd Culture: Let’s Talk Comic-Con

 

Wit & Reason with alex and DR. Alexis

Step into the world of Comic-Con with Dr. Alexis and Alex as they explore the surprising connections between fandom and mental health. In this special episode, they unpack how communities built around Superman, Wonder Woman, Dungeons & Dragons, and Star Wars can shape identity, reduce stigma, and support healing. With thoughtful discussion on cosplay, storytelling, representation, and sexism in nerd culture, this episode blends celebration with critical insight. Featuring personal reflections, mental health expertise, and a dash of geeky passion, it’s a must-listen for fans and therapists alike. Tune in to explore how the things we love can also help us heal.

Resources from the Show

Host

Dr. Alexis Moreno - Wit & Reason

ALEXIS MORENO, PSYD, MA, MS - SHE/HER

PSYCHOLOGIST, HEALTH CORRESPONDENT, Speaker, & Founder

Dr. Alexis (she/her) utilizes the powerful impact awareness, education, & opportunity have on mental health. She mindfully creates fun & supportive experiences for her speaking and media audience and private clients to safely explore their true values, learn new healthy practices, & take action steps toward living authentically.

She has a Doctorate in Clinical Community Psychology, a Master of Arts in Marriage & Family Therapy, & a Bachelor of Science in both Television Broadcasting & Psychology. With over 16 years of experience in media & psychology, she aims to make mental health relatable & accessible for all through her coaching, consultation, & media outreach.

Dr. Alexis provides media, speaking, & mental health consultation services.

Alex Honigman - Wit & Reason

Alex Honigman, LICSW, MA- HE/ HIM

Clinical Director, Speaker, Therapist, & Executive Coach

Alex (he/him) enjoys the relationship between the psyche and society. Having never wanted to pick a side in the nature versus nurture debate, he pursued degrees in both Psychology and Sociology and finally a Master’s of Social Work with an emphasis on clinical interventions. He has worked as an educator for non-profits and lecturer for Universities. Starting as a therapist for survivors of trauma, moving on to perpetrators, and spending significant time as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at a Forensic State Hospital. Alex continues to emphasize culture as a key component to effective therapy and the changing of systems (organizations and businesses). Whether this be through music, film, tv, art, comics, games, memes or other aspects of popular (or sometimes unpopular) culture. Utilizing an individual’s cultural values to make for a more meaningful individualized therapeutic intervention.

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Episode Transcription

Alex: Let's do this.

Alexis: Therapy or Trash. Special Edition. Special

Alex: edition.

Alexis: Do you wanna tell him

Alex: this? Welcome everybody to, , Wit and Reason with Alex and

Alexis: Dr. Alexis.

Alex: And we have a very special edition this week because I am a nerd and it is ComicCon in San Diego, California, which is the penultimate ComicCon.

There are other cons. They're all wonderful and I appreciate all the cons, but this one has a particular place in space in my heart. Yeah, it's also just the best, it's just the best.

Alexis: How many com Okay, so I'm gonna be, the person in this safe space asking all of the dumb questions. 'cause although there, there are a lot of, there are a lot of people who are really into this kind of nerd stuff.

Yeah. That's not my deal.

Alex: No,

Alexis: it's not the way I was raised. I was exposed to it until I met you. Really?

Alex: Except

Alexis: I'm trying to catch up.

Alex: Well, the thing is, except you're a nerd already, so this works out really well, right? Yeah,

Alexis: exactly. It's just, I just need more exposure to this kind of stuff.

Yeah. I'm open and willing to learn, so I'm gonna go ahead and be your representative asking all the dumb questions. I didn't realize there was multiple comic cons.

Alex: There are lots of conventions, cons all over regarding comics, sci-fi, fantasy, all sorts of dynamics there that are a lot of fun gaming, tabletop gaming, there is a con for everything there.

So, so with that being said, there, there are a lot of comic based con cons. Okay? Right. This one happens to be one of the biggest by far. Or the biggest by

Alexis: con in a good way. Like convention dot con. Like you're being conned

Alex: Yes.

Alexis: And scammed out of $700 per ticket.

Alex: Well, it did not used to cost $700 per ticket

Alexis: back in your day.

I would say back in my day.

Alex: How much did it used to cost? I think it's actually, I think it actually, when it was on sale, it was $300 for the four day pass. But as they sold out almost immediately

Now it's like $700 a day. Which rough more power to anyone who got it beforehand.

Wonderful. Fantastic.

Alex and Alexis: All right. Yeah.

Alex: So this

Alex and Alexis: is a big to-do.

Alex: This is a big to-do. Now this is a big to-do for lots of reasons. One of the ones that it's become is because all of the money, the major studios and everything else like to do reveals teasers and try to drum up commercial support and marketing.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: From this particular con.

Alex and Alexis: Okay.

Alex: Now this happened, this ha, this happened as an evolution over time. They use all of San Diego. It's down in San Diego, so it's right by their convention center. And the lovely city of San Diego has tolerated this for a while, but it also, it's tolerated. Oh man. It's epic.

But they also allow for what would be considered, I don't know, like popup flash, mob style marketing. So, okay.

Alexis: Not dances.

Alex: No. So like for example, like when the omen was coming out years ago, when I went, like the omen was coming out, there was a whole protest in around Damien. Damien.

Alex and Alexis: Oh, that's right. Oh, the blood.

Alex: It's for you Damien. And they were all like picketing, nothing. Yeah. But just holding signs that said 6, 6, 6. And shouting things from the omen. There was people reporting Shark Week. So there's people who look like they're all eating my Sharks and pro promoting Shark Week. There was all sorts of other grill marketing.

Okay.

Alexis: I like getting dressed up. Yeah. And I like being there is the whole cosplay thing too. Parties and costumes. And so that's what. That's what like, brings me into this culture here.

Alex: Well, so then they have the movies, they have tv, they've got sci-fi, they got fantasy, they have everything there.

Okay. They have anything in between. Right. Because anything that's adjacent to anything horror related. For example, people love horror because it ends up being part of it's fiction, fantasy, and all these other things. Right. I guess a lot of genres

Alexis: seems like a bit of a stretch there.

Bringing in the horror genre.

Alex: No, because vampires, all that other stuff. Oh, that's, they're all fantasy. That's true. Zombies what? Walking Dead. Walking Dead comic book.

Alexis: Oh yeah. I know. 'cause when I think of Comic-Con, I just think like pure, like comic books.

Alex: Yep. And this could be anime, manga. It could be.

Alexis: But there's more to it.

Alex: Anything.

Alexis: Yeah. I just think your typical superhero Superman. All the Marvel stuff now.

Alex: Well, yeah. You have the big ones are DC and Marvel.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: It's funny because there was actually a TikTok where the guy was walking around. One of the cons and he was like, what's DC stand for?

And people had

Alexis: no idea. Do you know the answer?

Alex: Detective Comics?

Alexis: Of course.

Alex: Yeah. It's Detective Comics. If you didn't know that well and originally and there was action comics as well. And action Comics and Detective Comics eventually combined to form what is now still DC comics.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: But because Superman was the action comics, and so

Alexis: I have an idea, but people might have the question.

Alex: Okay.

Alexis: Since this is a mental health talk show

Alex: Yes. Bring it. Do it. What is

Alexis: Comic on? Or comics or sci-fi fantasy, all these genres horror have to do with mental health.

Alex: I'm so glad you asked.

Therapist asked,

Alex and Alexis: so happy that you asked

Alex: these things. Storytelling is a major part of processing, right? We all like to tell stories, to process things. In fact, one of the most popular therapies right now is called E-M-D-R-E-M-D-R is retelling stories over and over again by desensitization using a light, going back and forth.

Alexis: Tell people what you're doing when you're doing it.

Alex: So this is a light going back and forth. Imagine holding a light. They don't have to hold lights. It's actually like a bar too. Okay? But the idea is that like these people retell. Their trauma over and again to desensitize themselves to this thing and reprogram their brain and body and their responses to a particular stimulus.

So even in the most popular modern day aspect of therapy, it's still present, but we've been telling stories forever.

Alex and Alexis: For

Alex: Forever

Alex and Alexis: for, and

Alex: because we have things that are part of things that resonate with us, things that are part of our childhoods, things that are like storytelling that's incorporated and all of that.

Now we have stories like that which comes from Sandlot. That quote forever comes from Sandlot. And that moment between us where we're going through sandlot has everything to do with us understanding one another just a little bit more and validating one another just a little bit more.

That

Alexis: vomit scene on the rollercoaster.

Alex: Yes. It's

Alexis: disgusting. And they

Alex: all have the chalk. All right. So anyway, but that's the idea when it comes to storytelling. Yeah. It has a lot of influence on all of our lives. It's also really useful as a process for us.

So we resonate with other stories. There are people, there are reasons why people have particular favorite superheroes.

There are people who love Star Trek. There are people who have Star Wars. Well, there's a huge difference between the two. And, one personality may align more to a Star Trek or a Star Trek episode than a Star Wars film or episode.

Alexis: Okay.

Alex: And that makes a lot of sense based on what their worlds are comprised of.

Yeah. What it means, what it looks like. The characters involved and characters are an essential part of understanding ourselves. So when it comes to superhero film, it boils down tropes into a really huge way. They're just a, it's just a hero story. Go back to Odysseus and the ID and any of those other things there for the Odyssey or the I or anything like that from Homer.

Older than that. Yeah. You want a hero and a villain. Hell, if you look at the Bible, there's heroes of villains

Alexis: since the beginning of time.

Alex: Exactly. So, well before that there's more stuff.

Alexis: But

Alex: before the Bible was more stuff because that was the after that saying. Since the beginning

Alexis: of time.

Alex: So that's the thing, comic books tell a story.

They're wonderful way of visual, medium of telling a story, creating movement, understanding, and ideas. They actually express more than a lot of books can because of the limitations of what they have in a book versus like a comic book. There's limitations for both, of course, but still it's partly an form of expression that is pretty wonderful.

Now, Comic-Con is a representation of all those things. People dress up as characters. People do all these different things that express themselves in a certain way. Because they identify with this idea. So with that in mind, all these things have to do with mental health, whether it's a table talk game, but d and D, yeah. You a d and d nerd out there there are d and d. If you create a d and d character, are you creating character that's like you or something that challenges who you are at your core to work through something for yourself?

Alex and Alexis: Ooh,

Alex: exactly. That gets deep. So if you ever want to do d and d therapy, hi, I'm Alex.

I'm licensed all over the place, and I'd have d how does DD

Alex and Alexis: therapy, how would that work? Like you would play with them or you discuss,

Alex: you work through a character sheet, you work through what that looks like for them to actually have, like what is it to activate things? What's their powers, what's their feets, what is their spells?

What is their actions? What will they do? You could do that individually. You could do that as a, even as a character in another world. There is a podcast called Join the Party podcast. They are awesome and wonderful. They do a ton of non-traditional aspects of DD and tabletop games and gaming systems.

And they do a lot of therapeutic, super inclusive stuff, and it's wonderful. Yeah. Whether it's about processing conceptions of gender, whether it's a, an identity, whether it's aging, they do some stuff, money. They do a bunch of different things there, depending on which one you look at. Yeah. Which which season they do.

If you look at critical role, which is another d and d podcast. They now have a new one out called Age of Umbra, which is part of their dagger, heart new release. But that has everything to do about hope and fear.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: The entire mechanism about hope and fear.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: So

Alexis: the, those are important concepts for us to reflect on and work through.

So

Alex: as I continue to nerd out and lose you, what I'm saying is these things in every format are important, are meaningful, and a wonderful device for a therapist to connect with somebody else who may not feel seen and heard, except for by these particular characters.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: Because if I can talk characters with you in, around, I don't know your favorite movie do you have a favorite?

What's your favorite, do you have a favorite cigarette? Do you have a favorite movie?

Alexis: I don't have favorites 'cause there's things I like about all kinds of stuff. So

Alex: what's one that you really enjoy?

Alexis: Movie? Does it have to be a, or just a

Alex: character,

Alexis: a Comic-Con

Alex: character that you really like

Alexis: In what genre?

Anything

Alex: could be anything.

Alexis: I like. I like Ron Burgundy.

Alex: So if I were to quote to you about like Ron Burgundy's philosophy of I'm in a glass case of emotion in a therapy.

Alexis: I think that all of the time

Alex: In a therapy session, not only May, that they may give you a chuckle, but it would also be like, yeah that's what that it's a glass case of emotion.

It feels like everywhere you go, like having a

Alex and Alexis: mask,

Alex: eh, and you understand the struggle of Ron Burgundy in that moment or something there. Right? The idea is that Yeah, I get that. Can we reach that, process that by different aspects of things that resonate with us.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And even if it's just rapport building, like forever in Sandlot

It's, that's rapport building. Yeah. You not know that I have the same shorthand that you do for a lot of things in life.

Alexis: Yes. Yeah. It feels really good as a mental health professional being able to know what your clients are referencing or talking about. Even up to like current film and television.

Yep.

Alex and Alexis: Yep.

Alexis: Someone was, someone wanted to reference one of the sitcoms and then they kind, they figured that I would know what it is, but they didn't wanna assume. So so do you know about. This show, and I was like, yes, of course. I love

Alex and Alexis: this show.

Alexis: Yeah. Yeah. And they're like this character right here.

The person I'm talking about is just like this character right here. Gotcha.

Alex: Yep.

Alexis: Keep on going.

Alex: And that's where it's super valuable. In what way?

Alexis: Tell me. How you connect or how that person connects with that character and what that's like for you and

Alex: Exactly. Yeah. And that's, but we get

Alexis: to move along, in, in that analogy.

Yeah. And that's the

Alex: power of storytelling, even not their own story, but other people's stories that they relate to. Yeah. So with that in mind, ComicCon is a place for everything Now. It's also an interesting place because so much of nerdy culture has a lot of shame ridden with it. It's a lot of shame.

It's a lot of jokes and garbage around it. In fact, there's a recent, like a

Alexis: stigma. A stigma about nerdy culture, about being

Alex: nerds about what that means about you, about, I don't know, living in your mother's basement.

Alexis: Are claiming the title.

Alex: Sure. Being nice to an extent. But recently, just very recently, there was a some survey that came out.

I wanna say it was like buzzfeed or something else that said, oh, things that make men specifically unattractive to women, if they have a particular hobby. The number one was collecting comics. Now it's interesting because why would somebody who can read

Alex and Alexis: Right,

Alex: understand storylines, understand other like things like investment and cost.

Because there are comics that I have that are worth hundreds of dollars. Yeah. W why is that a problem? And the fact that they keep, I bought it for $5 and now it's hundreds of dollars. Like, why is it investment a problem?

Alexis: People don't believe that it's even like a thing. It's

Alex: a thing, but on top of that,

Alexis: they don't know.

Yeah.

Alex: It allows me to understand other types of complex stories. Yeah. Which makes me more relatable, more understandable. It also means that I could take care of something. It means that I maintain something. It's also something that you perpetuate, Chris. You perpetuate over time. So again, you stick to something.

So this shows somebody who has dedication, interest, investment. They can maintain a routine. Yep. They don't just they're not sporadic. They're responsible for the most part. A comic nerd is probably your best bet when it comes to being a reliable human in a lot of ways. Now, are all of them gonna be reliable humans?

Probably not. But just

Alexis: like in every culture and community, it's gonna be on a Yeah. On a spectrum. Yeah. If I,

Alex: Skipped on rent because I bought a comic, that would be a problem. But

Alexis: yeah.

Alex: For the most part, think about what this means. It just means you're morgue. It's not, you're less, it doesn't take anything away.

They talk about video games being a problem. They talk about a lot of everything as being a problem as well.

And a turnoff to people.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And so, a lot of stigma. And so for people regarding comics, I had a clip that I thought I'd play right now. All right. Talking about somebody from from the tiktoks world, talking about there we go. This one.

Alexis: And there's so much to dive into again, when we're talking about nerd culture

Alex: Yep.

Alexis: Comic-Con. So, yep. You probably have a wide variety to work.

Alex: I do. To work

Alexis: with here.

Alex: Yes, I do. Ready? All right. We're gonna talk. We're gonna, we're gonna play this guy. My least

Guest: favorite thing about meeting new people is when I talk about hobbies and things that bring me joy.

Which now that I say that out loud, it makes me sad that this elicits that kind of response. But when I tell people that I like things like video games and d and other tabletop rps. Sometimes if the person's of a particular mindset where they're like, oh you're your age and you're still playing video games and you're still playing.

It is weird. It is. It's weird. And I've tried to kill those people with kindness when that kind of thing does come up. 'cause they'll say yeah, I like playing Dungeons and Dragons and Tabletop RPGs. And they'll be like, oh, you, oh, you and your friends play. That's, it's just make, that's make believe.

Right. Make, and I'll just go. Yeah. Well, it's collaborative storytelling, right? It's a great way to have a routine date that you and the people that you care about can meet up and and hang out outside of the other things that you do. It's a creative process. It's very fun and it brings us a lot of joy and we have a great time.

And then they gotta just sit with that. 'cause they tried to sun you a little bit. They tried to, oh, You are how old and you play this. What how could you? And now they gotta sit with the idea that you have a hobby that brings together the people that you love and enjoy in your life.

And you get to routinely have time to spend with those people. And you know what? That's right. I know that hurts them because dumb motherfuckers probably don't have that kind of activity with dumb people that they care about. It sucks to suck, but yeah, bro, don't knock my hobby. 'cause you got it unfilfilled life, right?

That's on you because you have

Alexis: an unfilled.

Alex: Love that. So much. Love that ending too.

Alexis: I didn't take my notes here. Gimme that marker over there. I'll write on that. The

Alex: marker over here. Alright, cool. Now see, here's the thing. All right. So the funny thing about that, the DD when he brings this up,

Alex and Alexis: yeah.

Alex: What other thing do, for example, men get together? Like for men get together, it could just be friends. But like where do you get together and actually engage in something regularly over time? Well, you, that ends up being sports. So like your fantasy football. Why is that anything different than you telling a story?

And in fact that's less about you as a human being that's more about you looking at stats and trying to like. Adhere to something there. Now, if you love football and you wanna engage in fantasy football or fantasy baseball or fantasy, anything, I'm not too, it's still a fantasy. I'm

Alexis: not too familiar with playing fantasy sports.

Is there like a lot of thought and problem solving involved?

Alex: Is it a

Alexis: creative process? It is not intellectual. It is not

Alex: a creative process. It is an analytical process. Okay. Little bit of luck. You create a team based on a draft and you do this whole thing where you're Yeah,

Alexis: because I've been learning more and more about d and d through, through you.

He, Alex actually helped me build up. A beautiful, amazing character that I haven't been able to play with yet, but I'm really excited to. So that process is very cool. And then I've been learning about your d and d process as you've been getting more involved with that on a regular basis.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alexis: And so this creator was saying, there is a lot of creativity involved. Yeah. A lot of connecting with one another.

It's cool that it's like a scheduled, regular thing Yeah. For you all. And so there's a lot of benefits to playing make-believe

Alex: well, that's the thing. So one of the things that you do in therapy a lot is talk about what are the things you've given up along the way.

That's what I call them. There are things in which we grew up or get at, stop doing because it wouldn't, it wasn't gonna make us money. It wasn't gonna be productive. What are the things you've given up along the way to this idea of productivity? Of ca capitalism, of anything.

Alex and Alexis: Yep.

Alex: And my issue is that there's a lot of those that people lose along the way because they're not good at them.

And can't make money off it or whatever else. And I have a problem with that.

Alexis: Right.

Alex: So let's enjoy the things.

Alexis: As a kid I loved acting.

And then I like grew out of that. And I had to like, focus on school to get better grades,

Alex and Alexis: yeah.

Alexis: And now as an adult with all my degrees behind me, I'm like, I wanna get back into, I don't know about acting because I don't have to like, memorize lines, but like improv, that's gonna be like, you should do that.

My makeup make believe practice They have those for us.

Alex: Yes. Go do an improv class.

Alexis: I'm go, I've been thinking about it. So you've gone back into to d and d Well, you've never done it before. I never gotta do

Alex: it.

Alexis: But you're intentionally getting into

Alex: things that I always wanted to do.

Taking that time

Alexis: Yeah. To play.

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: And I create, and then also to connect, with the people

Alex: that Yeah. The guys that are gaming, the guys that are in the campaign. Wonderful humans. They're really interesting. They're really dynamic.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah. They're good people. Yeah.

Alex: And we like talking about life and things and their interests as well.

They share those interests and then we can talk about those things. And it's a non-judgmental space to talk about all the things you care about.

Alexis: And you meet every week.

Alex: Yeah. Every week. Chat, play, engage. Yeah.

Alexis: Yeah. And then it doesn't, find what works for you. Do you? As far as your schedule's concerned.

Concerned. Yeah. But like it's such an odd thing that, that people find it necessary to put down or shame somebody else's joy.

Alex: Yeah. Well and that go kinda goes back into the fuck do you care? Yeah. So if you go into like comic books, comic book culture, and it's really interesting how much Marvel has reestablished and DC too, but reestablished the idea that like watching these things, participating in these things is actually okay.

So you know, like kids look up. Yeah. That's the things like Thor, whatever else. And we're, they try to do better in representation. They try to do better in actually storytelling that has to do with the actual characters, which more recently Superman came out.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And Superman's getting a lot of I don't know, attention for being a particular way or thing. Okay. So people have a hard time understanding that. Superman, the these stories come from number one, they're written by immigrants.

Alexis: Are we transitioning into another video right now?

Alex: Yeah, we're gonna do this.

Alexis: Okay. So we're gonna be diving into Superman stuff.

Alex: Yeah.

So I wanna talk about this thing because the idea is that like it's in more ways into like story tropes and things like that. But I want you guys to watch this video and around Superman. 'cause there's a lot of controversy over how woke. Whatever the hell that's supposed to, like, how that's supposed to be insulting.

I don't know. It's so,

Alexis: you're sympathetic.

Alex: Oh, you have empathy, you understand history, you

Alexis: consider others

Alex: history. How science,

Alex and Alexis: how embarrassing for you. Oh

Alex: my God, you can read. You're so, it's so bizarre.

Alexis: Use that as like a put down or something. I don't, something to be ashamed of.

So anyway, I, okay. It's interesting

Alex: that people having some reactions to this thing.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: I

Alexis: have no frame of reference really. So I want you to Superman in general. Like I, he's a journalist. Yeah. He's like a hidden superhero. I've seen He's an alien.

Alex: Oh, he's an alien. He's literally an alien that was born on another planet and shot to the shot to like Ohio in the middle of nowhere.

Why? Because his planet blown out. So his whole planet's gone.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And oddly enough, because of the nature of the world that we have and the sun that we have, he is a superhero because the sun actually, like his genetic one is enhanced by the sun.

Alex and Alexis: Oh, that's cool.

Alex: So they had a different colored sun originally.

They have a different colored sun that did not have the same effect on them.

Alexis: Oh, interesting. Is, are any of his people still?

Alex: Well, that comes up every now then.

Alexis: Yeah. That must be so lonely for him. Do you ever feel like Superman?

Alex: Yes.

Alex and Alexis: Let's get deep. Get deep. Alright.

Superman therapy.

Alex: So, so here we go. All right, so here's what I want because there's a lot of talk about this. I want y'all to see this thing this guy does a great job of, so,

Alexis: No. Since it's just released, there's no no

Alex: spoilers. Yeah,

Alexis: no spoilers from this video.

Alex: Okay. No spoilers as far as I know.

And if you don't know what two Superman is at this point.

Ready?

Guest: The call on the new Superman super woke because James Gunn said this movie embraces Superman's immigrant roots.

So I don't know, isn't that pandering to the woke agenda? Come on, you're a Superman fan. Tell me, since his creation by two immigrants in 1938, was Superman always an illegal immigrant? Yeah, but I'm sure Superman's all about doing things legally. Okay. Roll the Smallville clip.

Oh God. Was

it legal when you forged my adoption papers? I'm an illegal immigrant mom. You've been harboring me for over 17 years. Your situation was entirely different. We had to protect you and I need to protect Javier. If I don't defend him, who will?

Damn. I remember seeing this. I didn't have a problem with it then, but apparently I, I do now.

Do you have a problem with it or is the media you're watching telling you have a problem with it? Well, yeah, it's probably that. And in Superman's 87 years of existence, did he always uphold progressive values? Okay, well, you don't need to roll any clips. All right. I'm sure he does. All right.

I won't, but I've spoken to you about this before, so can you give me the examples? He fought the KKK. He supersedes government approval to help those in need. And he dropped the whole American way thing for a more inclusive better tomorrow. Exactly. Wow. You do, listen, what can I say? Man, it stuck with me.

But hey, look, why is the right wing media trying to push this narrative that Superman's woke now when he's always been woke? The culture has shifted and rage baiting content exist. The media wants to exaggerate everything so they can be the subject of a hot button topic. Yeah. But the problem with that is that they just seem super ignorant and media literate about the subject they're talking about.

Yeah, you're right. And trust me, the right have every reason to be scared about a comic accurate Superman movie. Oh, I don't know. It's a movie about an illegal immigrant that battles a selfish, corrupt billionaire. Oh, shit. The alien upholds the American values of kindness, hospitality, and self-made success better than the self-serving rich man.

The story of Superman is every immigrant story. And you know what? I know a lot of immigrants and they are superheroes. Okay. Really? And the fires hit California recently. It was immigrant workers that doused the fires and helped rescue those in need of help. Oh, wow. When the floods hit South Texas recently, Mexicans crossed the border to help aid those affected by the disaster.

While our government was saying, oh no, I'm sorry, my hands are tied, and Trump did nothing. Jesus Christ, I looked that up. That's true. Immigrants, up real or fictional, have proven time and again, that they are capable of being superheroes that not only save lives, but threaten the power of evil. And nothing scares evil more than a shining example of Good.

Okay.

Alex: Like it. Like it. Slow clap. So good. So good. So good.

Alexis: So, so far we have two, two therapeutic positive videos that you've seen

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: So far.

No trash yet.

Alex: No, no trash. This is all love and love for comics. This is all love for things and challenging some of the things here, which is what they were.

I'm using these people because they're wonderful creators who deserve credit for challenging the narrative and around this stuff.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: I think there's a lot to be said for people having difficulty with these ideas or concepts because they want to identify with it because it's part of the pop culture and lexicon, but don't actually get the message.

Which is interesting because, there's about a lot of tropes there. Like for example for Star Wars for example, the. Fascist nationalistic government is the bad guys.

Alexis: I'm not ready to get into Star Wars yet. Okay. We won't go ahead. I'm still processing Superman.

Alex: Okay.

Alexis: Okay. So I didn't realize

Alex: all of these things are interrelated though.

Everything I,

Alexis: I didn't realize that Superman was an alien who's coming. And then there's messaging around immigration and empathy Yep. And inclusivity. Yep. And how old is this tale?

Alex: It was written in 1938.

Alexis: Okay. So since the 1930s. So, so

Alex: he was written by immigrants who came in, who were fleeing the Holocaust and Germany.

Oh. And so I didn't know that either. Yeah. So originally these were written as radio plays presented to sell little mini radios for people to listen to. They then had inserted comics into them. And had like radio hours and things like that, and then it insert comics into them to print, have something else to sell, like little

Alexis: print comic books.

Alex: And so then it started getting bigger and bigger. So you had action comics, which is Superman. You had Detective Comics, which is Batman.

Alexis: Oh, okay.

Alex: But like those, that's why how long these, it's not like they're rivals, but like how long this stuff has been going on has been from the forefront of immigration into the US by people who are tired of fascism and people telling these like hardcore stories.

The, a lack of inclusivity, a lack of care, a lack of just human dignity and respect.

Alex and Alexis: Right.

Alex: So Superman has fought Nazis, captain America fought n Nazis. Everybody else fought Nazis. Come on, we all fought Nazis. Right. So, so what's the problem with them fighting Nazis?

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: There's a lot of stories around that trope and around Superman.

And I think the interesting thing about this, Superman is it is playing directly towards who Superman is at its core. Core character. Core character, not now, not pandering to times, it's who he is.

Alexis: So if you don't know

Alex: yeah,

Alexis: you're It's nothing new is the story, hasn't been twisted in any kind of way to make any kind of message.

Now. In fact, if you're gonna, if you want to

Alex: dig deeper, you could be like, he does tons of code switching because he goes from Clark Kent.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: Where he is the mild-mannered reporter wearing the glasses and pretending to be weak and feeble and clumsy, which is his view of us. Thank you. Kevin Smith. What is that?

Mallrats, or, that's exactly how I'm

Alex and Alexis: As a person who wears glasses.

Alex: Yeah. So, so yeah. So clumsy and klutzy and like scared and a

Alexis: nerdy journalist. And

Alex: Kael, who's the his alien home planet name. Okay. Right. Krypton name. Kryptonian name. He has to coach. He has to change.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah. He has

Alex: to literally physically change in order. And people don't realize that the same thing because attitude, confidence, all these other things make the entirety of the difference there.

Alexis: Yep.

Alex: So,

Alexis: okay,

Alex: interesting.

Alexis: I'm excited to see the new Superman.

Alex: You are gonna watch it? Me to, I haven't seen it yet, but yeah.

Okay. Yeah, I'm really excited.

Alexis: We'll watch it together. There's also

Alex: another good story about Hot Girl as another character there. HAWK. I

Alexis: know, whenever anyone says that, I think they're saying Hot Girl. And I was like, no, that's an interesting,

Alex: so

Alexis: comic for the Times

Alex: Hawk Girl is actually a great character and people were complaining about it being a particularly, like too forceful, too mean to whatever.

And Hawk Girl is a really cool character in which, if you knew the character, you'd also realize how brutal and badass she is and that it is not necessarily a warm and fuzzy good character. She's not a good guy. She's a troubled good guy.

Alexis: How old is she? Her character?

Alex: Fairly old. I actually don't know that.

No, I mean like

Alexis: the character's age

Alex: twenties

Alexis: is in, but

Alex: they don't age her because she's also from another planet anyway.

Alexis: How old is Superman's character?

Alex: I'd say thirties.

Alexis: And so why is it Super man and hawk? Girl even just

Alex: even to switch around? Why is it super girl?

Alexis: Well 'cause then it's, then you say

Alex: Super woman and you have Wonder Woman. You have all these other, when do you say woman? Like that girl versus that woman

Alexis: when puberty, that is officially when someone is a woman.

Alex: I, and that's the thing like, so

Alexis: obnoxious that everyone calls grown ass women, girls.

Alex: Yeah. And when it comes to misogyny and comics Yeah. That's still a thing.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And I think it's really interesting is 'cause all of these ways in which we look at how we even cast these women is rough. And so I have another clip for you. Yeah. Talking about a little bit of a on the edge of what this really looks like for women in comics as I'm as how do we have to continue to get better at this, I dunno,

Alexis: comics, but I do know film and directing in camera work.

And the way they portray these women is. Obnoxious and

Alex and Alexis: yeah

Alexis: many times. So I don't know how they've been doing lately, but

Guest: can we please cast a tall, muscular actress As Wonder Woman like why does Hollywood insist on casting five six, one hundred and twenty pound women to play an Amazonian? Who is as of the current Cannon six foot two?

And that's not even the tallest that she's been in Cannon. It's not like Hollywood, lax, tall, muscular actresses. They just refuse to give them leading roles. And even if they did, it's not like they can't put an actress on a hypertrophy focused training program like they do with all the men who play superheroes.

And then apply the same cinematography tricks that they use to make Tom Cruise look taller than the average eighth grader to make Wonder Woman's actress appear canonically tall on screen. It is an intentional decision to make Wonder Woman appear small and dainty compared to the men around her, because God forbid we subvert traditional femininity while playing a character.

That is meant to subvert traditional femininity. God, I fucking hate it. Tell us how you really feel it. I love

Alex: how passionate our nerdy people are. A lot of passion there. Good stuff. Love it.

Alexis: At the very least,

Alex: love it very much.

Alexis: Make your casting reflect the character Yeah.

That's been developed. What are we doing here? Yeah, so, so there's this Amazonian character.

Alex: So the most recently it was played by Gal Gado.

Alexis: Okay.

Alex: So like she was in,

Alexis: but the original character that they're supposed to be playing. Who is this

Alex: Wonder Woman?

Alexis: Yeah. Who, what is this person supposed to look like?

Are they supposed to be like six something?

Alex: Six two? At least. She's Amazon. She's one of the Amazon's or Amazonians. Okay. So like basically Greek storyline and around they're basically like the. A Valkyrie of Greek myth, basically. That type of thing. They are badass warrior women.

Okay. Who are definitively larger, stronger just brutal forces of nature.

They're on average on the small side, six foot something,

Alexis: and buff

Alex: and ripped. Six

Alexis: foot.

Alex: Imagine 300, but all of women.

Alexis: Yeah. Ah, okay. I gotcha.

Alex: Spartans are different and historical in a different way, but so Yeah.

So these are build. Yeah. So they need to be ripped as all hell then and big. So,

Alexis: so then they, but they just, they casted an actor who's five, they

Alex: always cast actors wear

Alexis: 20 smaller pounds.

Alex: Yeah. Some people like her, some people don't. I doesn't irrelevant to me like the idea, the point is.

What are you doing there? Or at least make

Alexis: her look like the character she's supposed to be portraying. Yeah. Like you said they did with Tom Cruise and every other Yes. Superhero.

Alex: Yes.

Alexis: Make them look grand and big and buff the way they're supposed to.

Alex: Yes.

Alexis: And so when you

Alex: go through all of the women or currently showcased in a lot of film and TV and characters that are popular,

Alex and Alexis: right.

Alex: You do not have, or so for example, the latest one that ha challenged that trope, was she Hulk?

Alexis: Except

Alex: everyone hated she huk. Apparently all these people hated Don. She hulk constantly.

Alexis: On what Grammy On the

Alex: show, on the writing on her.

And Ana Masani was great. Yeah, she was fantastic. She played she Hulk. Now, if you know who she Hulk is, you would know that she played it pretty damn on point. Because she breaks the fourth wall constantly a little bit like Deadpool because it was supposed, it was this like eighties flighty, ridiculous comic.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And she was gigantic and buff and it wasn't all about there was occasional ridiculousness and silliness. Yeah. But it was a playful, ridiculous comic and it knew it. Even just calling it she Hulk is she mocks the, that entirely throughout all of it.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: So I really like actually touched on a lot of the weak in cell sounding guys a lot of the time too, which was great.

So, talk to them, which made me laugh 'cause the insecure alpha males out there just could not handle a woman who could kick their ass. Right. So yeah, that,

Alexis: so people are watching these latest portrayals of these old school stories and characters and they're judging it. Based off of that or you're notice you're picking up on how little they know about the actual characters Yeah.

Or the actual story. Yeah. They don't care

Alex: about Yeah. They don't care about that because

Alexis: they're talking crap about the actor, today's actor or today's writers. But you're saying like, no, actually that's an, a good close portrayal Yes. Of the original character storyline or the way it was written.

So,

Alex: but they have trouble with this idea because number one, they never read it. Number two, they don't like the, they don't like these things that actually challenged traditional tropes.

Alexis: Right.

Alex: They don't like their traditional things being,

Alexis: It's cool that these characters, especially these strong female characters were And how old was that storyline? A quiz? Do

Alex: you know? God, I don't know. No, I do not know. I'm guessing fifties, but Yeah. Sixties. But

Alexis: Were written back in the day. Yeah.

Alex: And

Alexis: Hollywood is getting its chance to showcase it today, and it could be hit or miss.

Alex: Yeah. And right now women fantastic Four is also coming out, which is interesting.

So we'll see. Okay. 'cause that has some interesting tropes as well. Yeah. But we'll see how it goes and how it takes. I, Pedro Pascal is so hot right now that we're hopefully gonna like it so hot. Hansel so hot.

Alexis: And we say right now, we mean of old time. Of course.

Alex: He's

Alexis: great.

Alex: It's always been fantastic.

I have no Pedro Pascal's fantastic. So, but really it's just, it's also then people, I don't know, paying attention, which is great. But I think there's a lot to be said for like, when we're storytelling what that looks like for us. And where, what we connect to and these larger ideas, these larger tropes good evil, everything else like that.

So then you have misogyny and sexism and all that stuff. They did.

Alexis: I think that's why I struggled to get into to comics because.

Alex: Well. 'cause then you, for example, like Birds of Prey was a, I did not love Birds of Prey. Okay. But Birds of Prey was a Harley Quinn spinoff type of thing. And it was, had a bunch of female characters that were, that are interesting characters. Hunters was in there. She's an assassin with her crossbow.

Alex and Alexis: Okay.

Alex: You had the black canary

Who is a good fighter and sings you to death. And I was never

Alexis: exposed to all these female leads. I was exposed to, that's the all the typical boy stuff.

And I was like, I go, this isn't interesting to me.

Alex: Yeah. And that's the thing. They're, and you

Alexis: have Superman and Lois Lane. And she seems like useless.

Alex: Yeah. And there's some really good portrayals of like really amazing female characters. Just,

Alexis: I get more into that. I want us to have a collection of just the strong female leads.

Alex: Yeah. You gonna get that women,

Alexis: let's get that comic book collection.

Alex: I have that. I already own that comic book collection. Show it to me. Where is it? It's all digital because we have no space. Did you see what with that? It's all digital. Do nothing but unfortunately do nothing but digital comics.

Yeah.

Alexis: We'll get the paper.

Alex: No. Come.

Alexis: That'll look cool. We have no

Alex: room didn you. I'm down for collectible. You might bend a corner. Can't bend a corner. That's true. My other ones are sitting in a box in the middle of nowhere.

Alexis: We'll build a little library. Just for our comics,

Alex: everyone, she says, I can build a library of comics.

Alexis: Yeah,

Alex: please hold her accountable.

Alexis: But stupid to me,

Alex: being able to have a library of comic books as

Alexis: long as we have our special strong female lead. That would be interesting to me. I could

Alex: only, how about I only collect the strong female leads?

Alexis: No, you can have the other ones that resonate with. I don't care.

That's

Alex: still a great comic book collection. Yeah,

Alexis: I think so too. We'll do that.

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: Okay.

Alex: Fantastic. I'm in. So, yeah. And there's a lot of times in which you look at these dynamics and they I just, the female characters fall short because Yeah. Some of the stuff, some of it's they're trying to force something that they're trying to put too much in it.

They're trying to force something that isn't like cloak and Dagger. Great show could have been really good.

But it could, could've been a fantastic show. They just didn't push it. Moonlight's gonna be coming back and that has to do with a guy who's a fractured mind and like kind of mental illness type of thing going on.

Okay. It's not quite it, but still. It's really great. It's really interesting. I think I had you watch it. It was a little dark. Yeah, but I don't

Alexis: remember.

Alex: There's a lot of people out there. Or even in peacemaker.

Alexis: Oh yeah, right.

Alex: Peacemaker. We have Hawk Girls in there too.

Hawk Girl is in there as well.

Yeah. But that's,

Alexis: can we update it?

Alex: Hawk Woman is in there as well. The

Alexis: other thing that always bothered me are their outfits. The men get to be strong and practical. In their appearance. And the women are just overly sexualized.

Yeah. I'm like, what the fuck is that about?

Alex: Hot girl? Hot Girl is also in a more of a

Alexis: why, as a woman, when even just if we're working out our sports bras squier,

Alex and Alexis: our Yeah.

Alexis: Close to our body.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah. They don't

Alexis: frame them and boost them up

Alex and Alexis: Yeah. To

Alexis: run around And then you look at our officers, our bulletproof vests, thick and pushed against our body.

Like what is, this is supposed to be like people from the future with higher, I don't know, like technology than us. Yeah. Why are the women, why are their costumes or superhero uniforms type big chested or like short. Skirted skirts and what's that? What that all about?

Alex: Why would you wear a skirt?

Why would you wear a skirt?

Alexis: Whenever I'm watching any kind of action and I'm like, she's running in heels, that's a bunch of bullshit. Or her hair is like down and done in curls. I'm like, that's a bunch of bullshit.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alexis: In film I suited a lot in comics. Yep. That's still a thing too, right?

Alex and Alexis: Yep, it is.

Alexis: Are there any female leads whose uniform and attire is like practical and makes sense for her safety and wellbeing?

Alex: No.

I can't think of any that have a really decent, practical outfit. I really can't. And if anyone does know any of them practical outfits hot girl is actually probably the closest. Aren't like, it's mostly armor.

Alexis: Version of an underwire bra? No. No. Could you imagine? It's not

Alex: that, it's not that, it's not that form fitting that way. It's more clunky. The, I'm trying to think of anything else that actually whether it's not sexualized. I really can't think of any.

Alexis: Me neither, because I don't have a frame of reference really.

Alex: Oh, okay. I'm trying to roll through like the Rolodex people. 'cause you look at say Black Widow or you look at hers is super

Alexis: tight with

Alex: Yep.

Alexis: Big perky boobs. Yep. Up in her face. You look at the

Alex: X-Men, you look at say like Storm or maybe like Jubilee because she wears a jacket.

Maybe 'cause Jubilee wears a jacket.

Alexis: Okay. I don't know what's under the jacket though, is it's still like

Alex: still a. But they all look the same. At least they all look the same.

Alexis: Tight and revealing.

Alex: Yeah. And the X-Men ones, they all look exactly like they're wearing identical uniforms for the most part.

Alexis: So when we think about I get the two confused Star Wars and Star Trek star Trek, whether in the little space thing

Alex: Yeah.

Alexis: The men and women generally wear similar outfits. Oh, that's a

Alex: great example. Yeah. They're not sexualized that much.

Alexis: Yeah. It's just it's all just

Alex: the same. They're

Alexis: all type.

Alex: Well, 'cause, but it's

Alexis: not what's that word? Where it's form fitting. Form fitting. Thank you. Yeah.

Alex: Well, star Trek is a really great one for a lot of reasons, because Star Trek has everything to do with science.

Star Trek is your science sci-fi.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: Right. It is the in sci-fi. Because the whole point of that is that they're exploring a universe to explore to be observers of things, to preserve life, to maintain things, to investigate, to learn.

They're like. Super wonderfully warm and fuzzy with an edge to it, because that does come with a cost. There are people who choose good or evil or whatever else, so they're just this neutral good out there for the world and doing things and investigating and looking at after people's.

Then you have Star Wars,

Alex and Alexis: star War,

Alex: which is a little different. Star Wars has everything to do with politics. It is all politics.

Alexis: Whenever I hear Star Wars, I hear your mom voice singing it in my head.

Alex: Thanks to SNL.

Alexis: Is that where it comes from? That's s So there is an SNL skid about Star Wars.

Alex: Star Wars, yeah.

Alexis: Yeah. Alright,

Alex: so, but all right, so Star Wars is all about intergalactic fascism. Okay. Okay. So you have a highly intense group of people who want to be organized and take over all of the things.

They want all control. They want to have a full set of, they want all of the controls there.

So you have the empire who wants all of the control.

All right. Then you have the rebels, or whatever you wanna call it. 'cause there's like the council, like it depends on what iteration of things you're talking about For sure. For this. But the idea is that you then have the republics, and then you have the Empire.

Empire. Somebody's on top, they're controlling everything else. They force everybody into, so, to be subjects of this thing. And it's fascism, it's cl it's like you have to follow things. How are

Alexis: the rebels organized?

Alex: The rebels are organized. Well, originally they're organized by normal, A republic.

They're like a democracy.

Alex and Alexis: Okay.

Alex: They then have to then. They then have generals and other things like an army

Alex and Alexis: did. So do they vote for their Yeah. Authoritative or authority figures? Yeah,

Alex: they do. They promote them. They, until they become like rebel factions where they're all fighting and trying to figure out how to get back and destroy the evil empire.

That's the thing. So there's a big difference between, oh, and this brings one of the panels out there. Yes. Or one of the things that, why this was fresh in our minds. One of the panels out there is led by Dr. Alexis. Here's buddy.

Alexis: I don't know if he'd agree with that. He's been a guest on my DC radio show.

Fun. You

Alex: fast friend

Alexis: Dr. Ali Matu.

Alex: Yeah. So Dr. Ali really great, wonderful, nerdy human and also great doctor. So here I'll show you. This is a panel that's happening at ComicCon. So if you're able to go. It's the psychology of Star Trek versus Star Wars.

Alexis: Star War. How do you say it?

Friday It, am I singing it right? Star War

Alex: I, God, you'll have to I'll have to find the clip and show it to you. Friday, July 25th 8:30 PM Room 29 CDI got, I got a

Alexis: description of what this is. I read it. Read it because this is great. Apparently they've done this for a while now. This is like a comic con series. The psychology of Star Trek versus Star Wars. Yep. So this is not your typical space battle. Exclamation mark turbocharge with brain science and fun facts. I'm very excited about this battle. This discussion will explore, explain, and celebrate the si in sci-fi squaring off our pop culture.

Psychologist Dr. Dre, UCLA, Dr. Ali. He has a YouTube channel. He has been on Netflix and DC radio with me who will team up with the persuasive viewpoints of guests. Ronald D. Moore, writer, star Trek. The next Generation and Deep Space Nine. And Diana Lee Ens, Sonata, actress.

Alex: Asoka.

Alexis: A Socar. Is that a comic?

Star

Alex: Wars. Okay.

Alexis: Star Wars and then The Tales of the Empire.

And partially moderated by Brian Ward, who's the

Alex: a concessions.

Alexis: A Concessions. Do you know all that stuff?

Alex: A Concessions is a podcast with so Brian Ward and Dr. Drea what's her last name? But yeah, Dr. Drea

Alex and Alexis: Lee.

Alex: Ledi ledi.

Oh yeah. They have a podcast called Rim Sessions.

They're gonna talk about this. So you have some nerdy professionals there.

Good for them. And some people talking about the psychology of Star Trek versus Star Wars. Now, it's fairly straightforward they're all about politics of course, but yeah. Like one is definitively more science, the other one is definitively more politics.

Alexis: Oh, so Star Trek would be more science-based.

Alex: Yep. It's all about exploring, discovering, engaging in new worlds and being able to objectively look at sociologically, various world anthropologically, sociologically, the different worlds and the psychological impact of influencing said worlds. So they leave worlds that are not quite in the federation because they, and to observe them because that would then influence their development as a world and as a society.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And so they leave them be, but they're able to observe them sometimes help them out. There we go.

Alexis: How would you take that in a psychological perspective or in a therapeutic perspective?

Alex: 'cause it's all about curiosity. It's all about trying to be objective and nonjudgmental.

And Star Trek is a great place to look at. How do you see the world from a different lens? And they have different characters that see it from that different lens. 'cause if you're a Vulcan right, you have all logic. Well that's the thing. You can't have pure logic. You could try. I would love to, but you run into the problem.

So what do they do? They have a half Vulcan, a half human Spock.

You have, I

Alexis: love Spock so much.

Alex: That's a good character. I doubt

Alexis: your earlier question on who re I

Alex: Great character.

Alexis: I feel like S Spark a lot of the times.

Alex: Someone want tell her, someone want tell her I took

Alexis: a screener. I'm mildly up to say, I don't know why they didn't catch that when they diagnosed with A DHD in high school. School psychs.

Alex: So, yeah, all logic, no emotion. There you are. Yeah, that'd be great. There is a lot of different people from different planets, of course, that have different experiences, so it actually goes through what is it like to experience something from a different perspective.

So does a ton of perspective taking, it does a lot of understanding and around what another person, culture a thing is. What that means to them, how it means to them, what it means, like all the different aspects of meaning. The other part of that has a lot to do with it. And then how do you then work together as a team and what judgements are you making based on your own value sets and how does that come together under one ruling of the federation?

And do you honor all of them by the letter of the law or by the spirit of the law? And how do you engage with that?

It is a wonderful thing. Star Trek is fantastic in and of its world. Don't care if you're a Star Wars person or a Star Trek. Doesn't matter to me. They're both amazing.

They're just so different. So you can't compare that

Alexis: Star Trek question. Yeah. Which character do you. Relate to the most.

Alex: It's hard because it depends on which one you're talking about. There's a lot of different what which

Alexis: Star Trek?

Alex: There's a lot of that,

Alexis: but there's, so there's a lot of different characters.

Right. But they're, the characters are consistent.

Alex: Yeah. So I like

Alexis: this is a good therapy or date question.

And then you have to follow up with the why, obviously.

Alex: Well, we've been watching, I've been watching Strange Worlds. Like I think, there's a couple of characters I really like with that I really like ahorra in that iteration.

Because she's like finding herself. She has a lot to do with her own culture coming from Africa and like understanding like all these different languages in the bush and all these other things there. 'cause 27 languages from what she learned plus the other side. I could not relate to

Alexis: her because she was like, I don't know what I wanna do.

Yeah. And I'm just out here figuring out, trying to survive.

Alex: But I, given

Alexis: the experiences she's had, I love

Alex: the level of like, how do you have allegiance to both a place and space of one, one part and then another. And so it's hard because I love that idea. I love that dynamic.

There's something about that I find very. Wonderful. 'cause I love being a therapist. I love doing psychology and I love doing all these things. But also there's so much more to me that I love pursuing.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And how do I then still be a therapist while going off to pursue that thing?

That's really hard.

That's a really splitting feeling.

Because this is something I do and something I do, I think I'm good at. And yet it's still really hard to say, oh yeah, just stick with that. So,

Alexis: yeah. Yeah. That's cool. I like

Alex: it. But then you have Star Wars. Star Wars, very different. Star Wars being all of that.

Politics, the rebels, all the different things there. Yeah. So hopefully you don't identify with anyone from the Empire like Darth Vader.

Alexis: Darth. It's Darth or

Alex: Darth. Darth. Are

Alexis: you serious?

Alex: Darth?

Alexis: I'm 41 years old and this entire time I thought it was Darth Vader. No, I've been to Disneyland and Disney World many times.

Alex: Darth.

Alexis: Why didn't anyone cry to me?

Alex: I never heard you say dark. I would've thought that years ago,

Alexis: he's sorry. He's wearing dark He has a, isn't he like the dark spirit or energy or vibe or something? He's one side

Alex: of the force,

Alexis: isn't he? The dark force?

Alex: He's part of the dark side. There we go. Dark side. That's where he's coming. Crap. There we go. All right, cool.

Alexis: And it sound, and if dark people aren't pro pronunciate it dark people are gonna assume

Alex: no

Alexis: or are gonna hear no dark v.

Alex: No. 'cause they read it. I've never

Alex and Alexis: read it to

Alex: Darth Vader

Alex and Alexis: Darth,

Alex: which is like not his original name. His original name is GaN Skywalker, and it's about his journey going from a good human, a good kind human to then a really troubled human to then how do you negotiate power and how do you negotiate these things?

How do you feel helpless? How do you work with helplessness? And then how do you get manipulated and groomed to being a shitty human and then becomes a murdering asshole?

Alexis: So I think a lot of people, if they're gonna be, if they're gonna be real with themselves, especially in therapy, can say that they can relate a lot to, of this.

You have Dar Va storyline. Well, think of this question of you have

Alex: a really old, creepy dude who's sitting around influencing a kid and a teenager and grooming him constantly and around like quiet, like little things. Whatever else the old white dude in charge is the problem. All of, if he just listened to any of the women in his life, he would've been fine.

Just saying it's a pedo story. I don't know.

Alexis: Oh.

Alex: It's not really, but it feels like it, it's creepy. He gets groomed to be evil.

Alexis: Yeah. But pedophilia, it's like a whole other

Alex: I know, but he he kills a bunch of kids.

Alexis: Well, I know, but if there's no sexual context to their relationship Oh,

Alex: he kills them all.

He's a child murderer.

Alexis: Yeah. Well that there, it's like being groomed for a gang, yeah. Or mafia or, I don't know.

Alex: It just feels creepier than that. 'cause it's like creeper than it just feels way creeper than that.

Alexis: That, that. And he supposed to be like some, Yeah. It's be some, a sexual aspect to it.

It

Alex: just feels, it feels creepier. Okay. The more you see it

Alexis: You're the exterior. The more you see in there, it

Alex: just feels real creeper.

Alexis: Okay. Anyone else who's more familiar with the storyline than Please

Alex: weigh in? How creepy is the creeper?

Alexis: Creeping around. Creeping

Alex: around. Pal.

How creepy is Palpatine?

Palpatine? Yeah.

Alexis: Okay. So then who same question for Star Wars. What character do you relate to the most? I was thinking that Ben Harry, dude, Chewbacca, that's Star Wars, right? Yeah.

Alex: I love Chewbacca. Chewbacca's actually a really great character. He's thoughtful, he's loyal, he is very emotional.

He's kind. You just like chew. He's strong, he's furry. I don't know, like it works. I like Chewbacca. Chewy's great.

Alexis: You're just like, and then sometimes you, I rip off people's arms, you mutter and I can't and I can't understand what you're saying.

Alex: Yeah. I can't do that to say my life, but that's the thing.

So I think the thing is for the nerds out there, there is a lot of place and space for everyone. There is a very nerdy quote in my head. Say it. Okay. So do you remember Pete's Dragon?

Alex and Alexis: Yes.

Alex: Old Disney film. Yeah, I guess they remade it. There's a song in there, it says there's room for everyone in this world.

So shove, scoot down and give us some room. That's what I think of. That sounds really weird, but like when you think

Alexis: of nerdy culture,

Alex: when I think of like the world, but I'm like, there's room. Especially nerd culture,

Alexis: ideally in the world. Yes. That'd be nice. But

Alex: There's room for everybody in this world.

So shove over and give us some room. It's just, it's, it does not take much to be part of a story, to be part of something. Define your story. So tell stories. I think it's the thing, right? Stories engage in stories. It's highly therapeutic. It's highly useful. It's needed. All of you people out there who feel lost or connected to some piece of material, write fan fiction, right?

Playful things. Write a version of a game, write a character based on this thing that you love, like Rainbow Bright. Do a DD character over something you like. Why? Because it's interesting thought exercise and you get passionate and insightful. And what would this person be about? You get to create an entire story.

My characters that I create for d and d, they're parts of me. They're not me at all, but they're parts of me and I do love that about them.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And I play things that challenge me and challenge how I think and how I feel about how I,

Who this person is. Wonderful.

And so whatever you're doing out there, whatever stories you're selling, whatever you're into, whatever you like, whether it's sci-fi, fantasy fiction, whether it's horror zombies and movies and things like that, great. Because, in good horror.

Alexis: They're still good guys.

Alex: They're, even if it's a bad guy, and I'm

Alexis: using that as a gender neutral term, even if it's a bad guy.

Yeah.

Alex: And so there's a lot of cool stuff out there in the world. And video games, too. Video games tell wonderful stories.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: And so

Alexis: the main message for today's show,

Alex: ComicCon, we love you. ComicCon are wonderful, and all of you nerds out in the middle of the world. You have a place. You have a place.

It's not just ComicCon, it's every day. It's anywhere. It's everywhere. Tell your stories, do your things. And if you need to talk to somebody else about that, say like a therapist, by all means, drop us a line.

Alexis: But

Alex: I think we're out.

Alexis: You got some nerdy therapists. There are plenty

Alex: of nerdy therapists.

We typically wear that. This is one of them. We typically wear that on her sleeve.

Alexis: Dr. Ali, there's this other doctor that I'm not Dr. I don't if she should Dr. I think she's at u ucla.

Alex: But I think the idea is that like we're out there. There's wonderful things to be done with that. There's a wonderful space to navigate that and explore people and yourselves.

Yeah. There are wonderful creators out there who has those boundaries and wonderful things.

Alexis: More and more writers and different voices and perspectives and experiences coming up and out. So

Alex: that's why, that's why I love Join the Party. You're amazing. You're a fantastic group of folks who do a wonderful podcast, but they do d and d in a way that is so inclusive.

Alex and Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: Non bi. Like it's non-binary. It's just, it's so inclusive.

Alexis: Yeah.

Alex: It feels like a warm hug even in those moments where it feels scary and chaotic, but it's still a warm hug of like inclusivity. There's a lot of things that people can be in this world and there's no limit to that. So yeah.

Con

Alexis: Have fun. Everybody have fun. Everybody have fun playing, make believe, schedule time, intentional time with your loved ones if they're unavailable or uninterested. Find them. Yep. Find your dirty people out there to, to play, make-believe with.

Alex: Yep. There's always a new game to play. If you've ever wanted to do it, dive in and do it.

If you, I don't know, there's always a place to find your peoples, to find something or to try something new. It's always worth it. So give it a shot.

Alexis: What a sweet episode we just did. Good. Until next time, I love

Alex and Alexis: being a nerd.

Alexis: We are live streaming our DC radio recording every Tuesday evening.

At 6:00 PM Pacific.

Alex: Yep.

Alexis: I always say West Coast, east Coast, into my brain. You say it.

Alex: 6:00 PM Pacific and 9:00 PM Eastern. There

Alexis: we go.

And then after everything's edited and broadcasted through DC radio we then make it accessible on our website as well @witandreason.com/dcradio.

And wherever you find your podcasts, just search wit and reason

Alex: and feel free to find us. Reach out, send us videos, send us questions, comments, and you can be featured on Therapy. More

Alexis: Therapy. It was such a positive show today. Everyone was therapeutic.

Alex: Well,

Alexis: because we're talking about nerd stuff.

Alex: Yeah. We also talk about things that don't work in the nerd stuff.

Alexis: Yeah, I know. But all the stuff we reviewed today was all therapeutic. Well, yeah. And not trash. So that's fun.

Alex: I needed them to support my opinions.

Alexis: See you next week.

Alex: Bye.

 
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