The Matrix came out in 1999 and captured the fears and hopes of a world newly enmeshed in the (world-wide) web. In this episode, Nat and Nino discuss the recently expanded quatrology and talk about the Matrix as an artifact of 90s idealism, a trans movie, a movie about human frailty via mechs and meat suits, plus red pill right-wingers and their blue-pill desires. Do we need The One to escape the Matrix? Is escape even what we want?
Two helpful definitions for this episode! First, red-pillers are right wing conspiracy believers who use the metaphor of “getting red pilled” to talk about the idea that the world is actually controlled by women and other marginalized people (and that white men are the real victims).
Mechs or Mecha are huge creature-shaped robot suits controlled by a human fighter. You may remember them from such media as the movies Avatar and Pacific Rim, and from manga like the Gundam series.
