Unnatural Selection

Take a hot air balloon ride up to Svalbard with Emma and Izze as they look into Philip Pullman’s The Golden _Compass and its 2007 adaptation of the same name. These two try to figure out the mysteries of Dust, what on Earth makes film crews completely rearrange a book’s plot beats, and the weird no-man’s-land between middle grade books and the era of YA. Content warnings fo

Take a stroll down the yellow brick road with MK and Emma to ask the wizard about one of the most famous film adaptations of all time. How did the 1900 children’s fairy tale turned populism allegory become one of the most well-known movies from 1939? What’s the true number of witches? What’s with all the slavery in Oz? Why do people think this is the first technicolor film?

Get to the underground bunkers, put on those military issue nylons and lipstick, and brace for impact as Jeff and Emma get into the tonal whiplash between Kubrick’s nightmare comedy Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb and its Cold War serious counterpart Red Alert by Peter George. How do we go from a countdown to the end in a quest for world peac

A month ago, Katharine and Emma hit the mattresses, but now that things are calming down between the Mafia families of New York they’re here to talk about cinematic masterpiece The Godfather and the extremely trashy novel that inspired it. They get into all of it, from the ten thousand story lines, to the mid-century Italian-American gender essentialism, to just how many synonyms

Happy Halloween from Unnatural Selection! This month Audrey and Emma face one of the spookiest things known to podcaster: historical fiction from the early 2010’s. Listen along as Emma’s brain full of facts short circuits as the pair tear apart Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith and its 2012 adaptation. We ask questions everyone else is too afraid to, like �

This month on a special episode of Unnatural Selection, join Emma and their partner Greg on a journey along the train tracks to find the adaptation process of Stephen King’s The Body. How did they get the film title Stand By Me? Why is this Emma’s favorite movie? Would Pokémon be the same as we know it today if the adaptation had kept more of the classic Kingian gross-outs?

Gear up for a romp through unincorporated Arkansas territory to talk about the 2010 adaptation of Charles Portis’ 1968 novel True Grit. Listen to Emma and Keifer recount their days as U.S. Marshalls and Texas Rangers to break down what makes Mattie such a good character, Matt Damon’s nincompoop era, the Coen brother’s special little bear man, and much more. Content warnings

It’s finally time to cover the adaptation that inspired this show! Set sail on the Orca with Emma and Marn for a nearly two-hour discussion about the beast known as Jaws. Bridge the brief gap between Benchley’s 1974 hit novel and Spielberg’s inaugural summer blockbuster in 1975 with these two podcasters as Marn lets Emma gush about real-life shark footage, Hooper’s affair w

Kat and Emma return to the woods for their annual trek through the Twilight series. This year, listen along to their thoughts on Stephanie Meyer’s New Moon as they muse about terrible CGI, laugh at ridiculous teen behaviors, and restart Team Jacob discourse in the year 2024. Content warnings for New Moon include: depressive episodes, suicidal behavior, abandonment, the murder

Travel to Arrakis and venture out into the desert for spice with Emma and Tom as they discuss the two-part 2021 and 2024 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965). Neither Emma nor Tom have mastered the voice, so no need to worry about any Bene Gesserit tricks. Just listen along for their takes on adapting a behemoth of a book, Jessica’s evil arc, and a firsthand account of th