KnockBack: The Retro and Nostalgia Podcast

They say that nothing's better than mom's home cooking (and in the Moriarty's case, that's very true). But when we're young, we seem to have an insatiable appetite for fast food. McDonald's. Burger King. Taco Bell. Whatever junk we could shove in our fat faces, we wanted. And the worst thing that could happen is hearing our parents say, "but we have food at home!" What a deathblow that was...

The 1999 sci-fi film The Matrix was released at an interesting inflection point in the history of nerd culture. It launched at a time when -- with the help of Star Wars' resurgence, the soon-to-be-released Lord of the Rings movies, and others -- dorkiness went mainstream, and The Matrix might have been the straw that broke the camel's back, in this regard...

It seems like only yesterday that we launched our retro and nostalgia podcast KnockBack, and yet it's been nearly two years since our maiden voyage. A hundred weeks on, we've naturally arrived at our 100th episode, and to celebrate, we thought we'd talk about our greatest shared love: Video games. More specifically, we thought we'd talk about 100 games we absolutely adore, 100 games any aficionado of the medium should check out...

In 2017, EA shuttered its fully-owned studio Visceral, which bummed a lot of people out, since they were developing a Star Wars game. But back in 2008, before they were called Visceral -- when the team was known by the more quaint moniker EA Redwood Shores -- the talented NorCal developer launched Dead Space, one of the most beloved survival horror adventures ever created...

Nothing pleases grandma and grandpa more than spoiling their grandchildren. Indeed, it's the key rule of Grandparenting (made up word!). The most blessed among us get four of these mystical beings from which to learn from, be fed by, and circumvent the rules with, and the rest of us make do with perhaps one, two, or three...

In 1897, a most unusual British novel was written by an at-the-time unknown author named Bram Stoker. It was simply called Dracula, and for most western readers, it was their introduction into the centuries-long mythology, mysticism, and straight-up horror stories coming from Eastern Europe and surrounding environs, tales of men and women who would feast on the blood of others, and who may even be immortal...

John Carpenter hit a bit of a home run with The Thing back in 1982, though contemporary critics didn't give him or his movie any shine. In fact, his film's reception was so bleak that it kinda-sorta destroyed Carpenter's career... at least for a while. But hindsight is 20/20, as they say, and with nearly four decades to marinate on it, many people have come around to The Thing's seminal place in horror and sci-fi history...

For many of us, going to church (or temple, or mosque, or whatever) was a part of childhood. And while some of us got something useful out of our often-weekly visits, the most lingering memories tend to revolve around everything but what we were actually supposed to be there for. The parental bribery. The coercion. The distractions. Time moving so slowly that it's as if you're stuck in one of those futuristic computers in the Black Mirror episode White Christmas...

For thousands of years, humans have been smoking, eating, and enjoying the fruits (well, buds) of the marijuana plant, also known as cannabis. Once associated with deviant behavior and long mislabeled as a gateway drug, marijuana -- like virtually any other substance, legal or illegal -- has different effects on different people, and while certainly not a positive for some, many others the world 'round enjoy smoking a joint, blunt, bowl, or bong...

Pawnee, Indiana doesn't actually exist, but after watching Parks & Rec on NBC, many of us wish that it did. That's because Pawnee is full of some of the most hilarious, charming, and ridiculous characters in modern TV history, and their antics offered more accessible and often kind-hearted takes when compared to its far more vulgar and out-of-control sister show The Office. What resulted is something truly memorable, a series full of both character and characters...