Fraggle Shrugged

What suits a long, meandering chapter of Atlas Shrugged better than a long, meandering podcast episode? As the book's off-putting nonsense starts to become really repetitive, Henrik and Sigfred become desperate to talk about anything else. Sadly, this episode of Fraggle Rock (“The Lost Treasure of the Fraggles”) doesn't have all that much going on either. Throw some French cider and some bad wine into the mix, and the conversation is bound to get off track. Along the way, they dip into the obviously related topics of Star Trek, the music of Carly Rae Jepsen and the bizarre novel Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Cook up some peach pie with garlic and strap in – this time we're going all over the place.

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Fraggle Shrugged is produced by Månegal Media. Visit maanegal.dk/english to learn more about us

Part 1 of Atlas Shrugged reaches its glorious climax in chapter 8, “The John Galt Line”, when Dagny Taggart and Hank Rearden furiously rides a train for 18 hours. It's as fun as it sounds. Meanwhile in Fraggle Rock, our gang of Fraggles encounter a terrible tunnel in the episode “The Terrible Tunnel”. It's as frightening as it sounds. Listen along as Hank and Dagny have a threesome of capitalist feverdreams with Ellis Wyatt (and then a good ol' fashioned rapey sex scene), Wembley questions the line between objective reality and subjective perception, and the good dog Sprocket finally gets a little revenge on his deranged and sadistic owner.

If you like the show, please rate, review, subscribe, tell a friend, and alert the authorities. Feel free to write to us or send stuff to [email protected] or @maanegal in the Twitterspace. We'd love to hear from y'all.

Fraggle Shrugged is produced by Månegal Media. Visit maanegal.dk/english to learn more about us

Here comes a big one. Faced with the fifty page long 8th chapter of Atlas Shrugged, “The Exploiters and the Exploited”, Henrik and Sigfred are starting to break down. The icky sex stuff and the faulty logic of Rand's capitalist ranting is becoming too much to bear. And to make matters worse, it seems the writers of Fraggle Rock gave up halfways through episode 8, “I Want to Be You”, and forget to finish the script. We see no other way to respond to this than handing in a long and messy episode ourselves.

If you like the show, please rate, review, subscribe, tell a friend, and alert the authorities. Feel free to write to us or send stuff to [email protected] or @maanegal in the Twitterspace. We'd love to hear from y'all.

Fraggle Shrugged is produced by Månegal Media. Visit maanegal.dk/english to learn more about us

Guys, we need to have a talk about some basic economic concepts, because it’s becoming increasingly clear that Ms. Ayn Rand was too busy at school fantasizing about greedy and emotionally abusive boys to learn anything about how money works. In chapter six, “The Non-Commercial” she throws a party for all of her characters, and that goes about as well as you’d expect. And while she serves up some questionable views on the free market, Fraggle Rock drops some actual economic truth in the sixth episode, “The Preachification of Convincing John”.

Get ready for a rockin’ good time, full of colorful characters, serious economic discussions, a book reading tinged with latent homoeroticism, and a crazy, rabbit-hole-diving conspiracy theory. It’s a wild ride, that may or may not include viking pirates, 90s technopop, mythical nations, and a time traveling plot. All aboard the train to crazy town!

Feel free to write to us or send stuff to [email protected] or @maanegal in the Twitterverse.

Fraggle Shrugged is produced by Månegal Media. Visit maanegal.dk/english to learn more about us

Buckle up for some #RealTalk about gender and sexuality on this episode of the podcast. Because Ayn Rand tries to be romantic and erotic, and it does NOT go well. Prepare your safe spaces and emotional support animals, cuz you gon’ need ’em.

Needless to say, chapter 5 of the book (“The Climax of the D'Anconias”) weighs heavy on our minds, so its problematic aspects take up a large part of the discussion. Meanwhile in the 5th episode of Fraggle Rock (“The Thirty-Minute Work Week”), we learn that the Fraggles not only have jobs, but actually LIKE working. Since that is the case, they might like a little book called Atlas Shrugged…

Feel free to write to us or send stuff to [email protected] or @maanegal in the Twitterverse.

Fraggle Shrugged is produced by Månegal Media. Visit maanegal.dk/english to learn more about us

This episode goes all in on the Fifty Shades of Galt reading – the steaming hot capitalism of Atlas Shrugged simply demands it. In addition to a long and moist reading from chapter 4, "The Immovable Movers", Henrik and Sigfred watch episode 4 of Fraggle Rock, "You Can't Do That Without A Hat". Here, the fraggles learn a lesson that is completely besides the point of the story, and Doc indulges in some light animal abuse.

If you want to skip the extended reading from the book, it ends at around 41:30. But really, you should just give yourself over to the moistness. Since reading this much copyrighted material from the God of libertarians will most likely get us sued into oblivion, why not go out with a wet bang!

Feel free to write to us or send stuff to [email protected] or @maanegal in the Twitterverse.

Fraggle Shrugged is produced by Månegal Media. Visit maanegal.dk/english to learn more about us

Things are getting moist as hell in both Atlas Shrugged and Fraggle Rock. Henrik and Sigfred read the chapter "The Top and the Bottom" and watch the episode "I Can Do It On My Own", and they discover some similarities between Dagny Taggart and Red Fraggle. They also try out a stressful method for summarizing that may not return. With less than 1000 pages left to go in the book, the worst must surely be behind us now…

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Fraggle Shrugged is produced by Månegal Media. Visit maanegal.dk/english to learn more about us.

Hope you like metal (and not the genre of music), because it's about to get so metally up in here. When Ayn Rand likes something, she's not shy about it, and be warned – she really loves metal. Henrik and Sigfred read through chapter 2 of her 1000+ pages capitalist fever dream of a novel Atlas Shrugged, which is titled “The Chain” (no relation to the Fleetwood Mac song, sadly). To maintain their sanity, they also watch episode 2 of Fraggle Rock, titled “Wembley and the Gorgs”.

Turns out the two have a theme in common. On this light and humorous podcast episode, we end up having to talk about the morality of slavery (it’s bad. That’s our official stance on that) and other fun stuff. And then it gets steamy in here on a special Metal Edition of Fifty Shades of Galt.

If you want to share something with us, feel free to holler at us at [email protected] or @maanegal in the Twittersphere.

Fraggle Shrugged is produced by Månegal Media. Visit maanegal.dk/english to learn more about us.

After fumbling their way through an introductory episode, Henrik and Sigfred embark on their mad journey for real. In this episode, they read the first chapter of Atlas Shrugged, called "The Theme", and watch the first episode of Fraggle Rock, called "The Beginning".

Along the way, they try to make sense of the two strange worlds, and discover some compelling evidence that it might actually be the same world. They also do their first sexy libertarian reading in the segment "Fifty Shades of Galt", and hand out awards to some noteworthy phrases and characters.

We hope you will read and watch along — it's not required, but it sure would make us feel better about our questionable life decisions. If you want to share something with us, feel free to holler at us at [email protected] or @maanegal in the Twittersphere.

Fraggle Shrugged is produced by Månegal Media. Visit maanegal.dk/english to learn more about us

In this introductory episode of Fraggle Shrugged, the two hosts Henrik and Sigfred present the concept for the podcast: They will read through Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's very long libertarian mystery novel from 1957. For each chapter, they will also watch an episode of Fraggle Rock, a Jim Henson Muppet TV show from the 80s.

They will then analyze and compare the two, to discover the hidden connections. Will Atlas Shrugged turn out be as silly as the Fraggles? And will Fraggle Rock have anything to say about economic philosophy? Follow along on this mad journey to find out.

But before the descend into madness truly kicks off in Episode 1, we take a moment to introduce ourselves and the project in this Episode 0. It's going to be some loose and hopefully entertaining discussions, from two baffled Danes. Let's get into it!

Fraggle Shrugged is produced by Månegal Media. Visit maanegal.dk/english to learn more about us