Aug 13, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 34 segments
What happens after first contact—when the ships have landed, the shooting has stopped, and the aliens aren’t going anywhere? Bryce Zabel and Brent Friedman explore the surprisingly complicated futures…
Bryce ZabelHost
Brent FriedmanHost
But this whole thing, this episode, Life After Contact, has been really fun because to try to imagine what actually might happen, because we've done a lot where we're talking about are there movies that actually reflect something that's really going on right now? But-
... contact has occurred and some result, and they're here with us on Earth right now.
some of them, but I don't actually see evidence that we are having the boot of aliens on us on a daily basis.
And so really the question we're answering today is once the ships stop arriving and these aliens settle in, there's a lot of different ways to go.
And I hadn't actually thought of this until we started looking into all these movies.
We've got a bunch of them today, freedom fighter and collaborator, obviously the ones, the big choices.
But w- we found places where there's refugees, and certainly there's bureaucrats out there, and neighbors, and even romantic partners in a few of them-
But mostly, I think a lot of people would just turn out to be the guy that's trying to keep his lights on without getting vaporized.
Although, I do notice that most of the time Hollywood casts the heroes as rebels, that the people-
... that you're usually following in these stories, if there is some sort of resistance or rebellion, those are the characters you'll be following.
But this whole thing, this episode, Life After Contact, has been really fun because to try to imagine what actually might happen, because we've done a lot where we're talking about are there movies that actually reflect something that's really going on right now? But-
... contact has occurred and some result, and they're here with us on Earth right now.
some of them, but I don't actually see evidence that we are having the boot of aliens on us on a daily basis.
And so really the question we're answering today is once the ships stop arriving and these aliens settle in, there's a lot of different ways to go.
And I hadn't actually thought of this until we started looking into all these movies.
We've got a bunch of them today, freedom fighter and collaborator, obviously the ones, the big choices.
But w- we found places where there's refugees, and certainly there's bureaucrats out there, and neighbors, and even romantic partners in a few of them-
But mostly, I think a lot of people would just turn out to be the guy that's trying to keep his lights on without getting vaporized.
Although, I do notice that most of the time Hollywood casts the heroes as rebels, that the people-
... that you're usually following in these stories, if there is some sort of resistance or rebellion, those are the characters you'll be following.
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