The Broski Report with Brittany Broski - 116: I’m Sorry Jacob Elordi

Episode Date: November 5, 2025

This week on The Broski Report, Fearless Leader Brittany Broski discusses Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein and immortality.  Watch The Broski Report AD FREE: https://patreon.com/broskireport  The OFFICIAL Songs of The Week Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ULrcEqO2JafGZPeonyuje?si=061c5c0dd4664f01  👕 Get your merch here: https://broski.shop/  Follow The Broski Report: https://www.linktr.ee/broskireport https://www.tiktok.com/@broskireport https://instagram.com/broskireport  Follow Royal Court: https://www.youtube.com/@royalcourt  https://www.tiktok.com/@bbroyalcourt https://www.instagram.com/royalcourt https://www.twitter.com/bbroyalcourt  Follow Brittany: https://www.tiktok.com/@brittany_broski  https://instagram.com/brittany_broski  https://youtube.com/brittany_broski  ICE OUT OF OUR CITY / PROTEST RESOURCES: ACLU – https://www.aclu.org/know-your-rights/protesters-rights  Immigrant Defense Project – https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/raids-toolkit  Freedom for Immigrants – https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/resources Immigrants Legal Resource Center – https://www.ilrc.org/community-resources/know-your-rights  Immigration Justice Campaign – https://immigrationjustice.us/  CREDIBLE RESOURCES TO HELP FREE PALESTINE: Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund - https://www.pcrf.net/ UNICEF - https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/helping-gazas-children-cope-trauma Doctors Without Borders - https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org World Central Kitchen - https://wck.org/ World Health Organization - https://www.who.int/ Headcount - https://www.headcount.org/ IG ACCOUNTS FOR A FREE PALESTINE: @eye.on.palestine @aljazeeraenglish @palestinianyouthmovement @byplestia @motaz_azaiza @impact LGBTQ+ RESOURCES: https://Translifeline.org  https://Glaad.org   https://Pflag.org  https://www.thetrevorproject.org/  REPRODUCTIVE RESOURCES: https://aidaccess.org  https://plancpills.org  https://Ineedana.com  https://www.reprolegalhelpline.org/  https://heyjane.com  Brought to You By:  Rocket Money – Reach your financial goals faster with The Rocket Money App Seat Geek – Get 10% off tickets – Download Seat Geek and use code BROSKI2025 CHAPTERS: 0:00 – Intro  1:07 – Beluga Whales 3:06 – Frankenstein 5:09 – Prometheus 6:54 – Immortality & Morality 11:07 – Mary Shelley 14:07 – Frankenstein Cont. 39:07 – Reanimation 53:10 – Who’s The Villain in Frankenstein? 56:36 – Songs of the Week 58:48 – Outro #brittanybroski, #broski, #broskination, #broskireport, #jacobelordi, #frankenstein, #guillermodeltoro, #immortality

Direct from the Brozky Nation headquarters in Los Angeles, California. This is the Brozky Report with your host, Brittany Brozky. Hello and welcome back, Bruski Nation. We're back here on the Brosecke Report set. Sadly, all Victorian elements have sadly been removed. We're returning to normal, say, this autumn or fall if you're American. Hey guys. Yes, I've got rid of the Victorian set dressings.

And yes, I'm devastated. It feels wrong. I need my little eyeballs. I need my teeth. I need my Edgar Allan Poe creepy skeleton painting. I need it. And this just feels wrong. But we press on.

Just spit all over the fucking thing. Awesome. Guys, second Red Bull of the day. And one cup of coffee, deep. Do you ever get that feeling that like you have a caveman forehead? And I don't mean physically. I mean mentally. That my brain kind of like, sometimes I feel like, one of those, what are those dolphins that look all fucked up? Big, big headed dolphin. Yeah. This one, Baluga. Sometimes I feel like a fucking beluga whale, bitch. Look at that. Look at him. Look at him.

It's all swollen and shit to tell what I feel in my forehead. I feel like it's swollen and it kind of hangs down. It hangs down over my eyes. Like something from the side, I feel like it's kind of like this sometimes. Like the sac, the bulging sack that sits above my eyebrows, kind of just, it's like resting real heavy. I'm going, I'm going beluga whale mode today. Can anyone agree? Can anyone sympathize?

Just me? Awesome. Yeah, guys, I just feel, I feel beluga sometimes. Chopped beluga and unk. I think that I have whatever the fuck it's called cortisol. I got cortisone poisoning. I got a low cortisone poisoning in my bloodstream ions. Because I'm always tired. And I thought, you know, I went to the doctor like a year ago, whatever, and they were like,

you have PCOS? And I was like, I fucking knew it. That's why my pups grow down to my knees. And that's why I have chin hair. And it's why I'm balding as I have PCOS. Okay. And over the pandemic, I didn't have a period for a month. Okay? We're having girl talk now. Now, that all is just part of this. I just feel this way all the time. Like, I thought it would go away and it doesn't. I should feel swollen in beluga. Anyway, we power through. So keep in mind, I'm suffering from beluga syndrome today. But I have something very exciting to talk. You guys about that I'm like, it's like, no obsession unlocked. That's how I feel.

Okay, today we are diving into none other than the world famous, internationally acclaimed, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Amen, church, amen. I need everyone listening or watching this broadcast to understand. I saw Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein with Jacob Alorti, Oscar Isaac Mia Gough, Christoph Wals. That movie, I'm actually going to freak out talking about it. That movie shifted something in my spirit. I genuinely like, laugh all you want, okay?

laugh at the fool, but the fool is content, and you are miserable, right? You can giggle and point at the fool, but he has found Nirvana. I'm the fool in this scenario. Frankenstein is the best movie that's ever been made, in my opinion. Well, maybe, right? I say that with an asterisk. As of right now, as of November 4th, 2020-25, 2025, Frankenstein changed my life. Dude, I literally in the theater, like, so much to say. So much to say. Today we're talking

all things Frankenstein. We're talking all things Mary Shelley. We're talking all things, Girobe de Boto. We're talking all things spooky story. The Modern Prometheus. Okay, we're going to dive into what that means. We're going to dive into the inspirations for Frankenstein. We're going to dive into its ripple effects. And we're going to dive into some ancillary content. Okay? So let me go ahead and get Mrs. Beluga off the stage. Thank you. And let's dive in. And if you hear my gut bubbling, it's because I've had about 804 Red Bulls today, so whatever.

Okay. So much to talk about when it comes to Frankenstein. Frankenstein is also referred to as the modern Prometheus, going back to the legend of Prometheus, one of the Greek titans, where Prometheus is credited to stealing fire from the gods and giving it to humanity, giving humanity tools for science and art and knowledge. He was then punished by Zeus indefinitely, which we've talked about before, I believe, strapped to a rock, chain to a rock, and every night his liver is pecked out by an eagle because Zeus takes the form of an eagle.

And the liver to ancient Greeks was meant to hold, was thought to hold all emotion. So during the day, an eagle would fly in, peck his liver out, leave him overnight, it would grow back, and then the next morning it would happen all again forever. Okay. That is the legend of Prometheus until eventually Hercules, Heracles, Heracles comes and rescues Prometheus. Now, Prometheus is also, there is a legend that Prometheus crafted humanity out of clay, which, you know, say what you will about how that rivals the myth of the legend of Christian evolution or the Christian creation. or scientific evolution versus that.

You know, all three of these are, they're just theories. Prometheus sculpting humanity out of clay is mainly what Mary Shelley drew inspiration from or a modern retelling of that version of Prometheus, because this was something of intrigue to the romanticists. This was, or romanticist, romantics, whatever, that era of poetry, of romanticism. the idea of science outpacing morality. Okay, so much to say there. Because back in the Oppenheimer episode, if you guys want to go back to that one, or plenty of episodes since, I have a real fascination with and fixation on immortality and on morality and morality behind science. When I read that passage from the Dan Brown book Angels and Demons, that stuck with me. I read that book when I was probably 14, and I still think.

about it because it's still relevant, how when science progresses so far, because humans have such unlimited potential, and, you know, we've only unlocked whatever the percentage, the minute percentage of brain functionality, our brains are an instrument in and of itself that we truly don't know how to harness. And so as that exponentially increases, you know, now we're talking about AI, we're talking about space travel, we're talking about curing cancer, are things that feel so impossible, they are very possible. There is no moral guidepost that teaches you what to do with these scientific discoveries. So Mary Shelley, I mean, think about this.

This is back in the 18, 18, 1820s, I believe, is when this was published for the first time. Because I believe she died in the 1830s. No, when did Mary Shelley die? 1851 and she was born in 1797. So this is probably probably, yeah, she wrote Frankenstein when she was 18, okay? So this obsession with science outpacing morality has always been a concern, right? It's just gotten so much worse since this time period. This era of poets and of authors and of novelists, scientists, philosophers, this was a real point.

of intrigue for them and continued to be. So even I'll take it into when you talk about, like I said, Oppenheimer, you develop the atomic bomb, something that is capable of decimating human life to a degree and to a scale that still is like decades later we're trying to figure out what exactly was the scale of the damage here, other than like immediate loss of life, more so like the residual health effects and things like this. No one gave Oppenheimer a book on how to morally handle this weapon, this monster he has created. So all of these stories or examples tie back in to each other, I think. They're all related, where humanity has to look itself in the mirror and say,

what monster have I created? what atrocity have I created at the helm of innovation, right? When does innovation turn into a negative connotation? Because we always think of this as like pushing the envelope, always progressing humanity forward. We're on the brink of discovery, all these things that, especially in America, are celebrated. You know, you think about landing on the moon, this thing that America prides itself on, of NASA, and just always being at the helm. of human achievement, what do you do when you've achieved it? And that achievement brings nothing but suffering or is used inevitably. And this is a whole point of philosophical contention,

okay? Will it always be used for destruction, suffering, and devastation? For power. It will be used, no matter how impressive or beautiful or truly stunning an innovation, a scientific discovery can be a powerful man will find out how to use it to cause destruction and suffering. That is an inevitability. And I think that's a negative point of view that I have. But look at history. And of course, there's probably positive examples back in history. But like, that is something to be considered.

Okay? So let's dive into Frankenstein. because holy fuck. I just want to point out that this story was originally published in 18, it was published anonymously. Okay, so this is the 1820s, 18 teens. Let's paint the scene. If you're not that familiar with this era of poets or of literature, if you never had to study it in school, I'll give you a little short and condensed version. There was a mess of a friend group, okay?

Hey, mess, drama T. Gedden. Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley. Lord Byron. I've talked about Lord Byron on here before. He's a big inspiration of mine, even though he was fucking mess. He was a shitty, horrible person. But some of his poetry is some of the best, unfortunately, to have ever existed. Say what you talk amongst yourselves, okay?

Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley. There was some other people on this trip. Okay, this was like a friend holiday that they all took to Switzerland because they had been sort of socially excommunicated from England. They were all messy. Mary Shelley started dating Percy Shelley. They weren't married at this point. She was still Mary Godwin, I believe. Also, the daughter of Mary Wallstonecraft, who is a big women's rights.

advocate and also an author. They start dating, okay, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley. He's already married to someone else. Doesn't really care for her. Knocked her up, doesn't really care. Starts getting busy with Mary, okay? They kind of elope, run off to Switzerland, and they're all friends with Lord Byron. Lord Byron brings along his little physician, who's 20, okay?

The legal practicing age in England at this time is 26. Okay. So he was like, I don't get that fat. You've been a doctor for five years because he started studying when he was 15, this position. I don't give that fact. Just come with me. They leave the country, go to Switzerland. Now, they also, Mary and Percy also bring along Mary's stepsister Claire Claremont, who is another famous author.

They're all at this big mansion in Switzerland, and they're bored to tears. They're sitting up in the crib. And Lord Byron, they're reading this German novel of ghost stories, of spooky, scary stories. and they're discussing, they're feeling inspired, and Lord Byron puts them to a competition where he says, let's write some scary stories of our own, and whoever can write the scariest wins. It's competition. Well, out of this competition, we find Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, she writes what begins as a short story, turns into a full-blown novel by hand, and this story, there's so much to say. say. This story has and continues to be one of the most important, well-written, human stories.

That is a message. It's a fable. It's a fairy tale. It's a sci-fi dystopian novel. All of these things continue to be a point of inspiration and admiration for so many creatives, for anyone, anywhere. Frankenstein, to this day, is so influential. And it's important to be studied. Frankenstein, I think, is an example of literary excellence. But I wanted to make this point, because I kind of had this realization to myself the other day, and it feels a little juvenile, but it's still true. I think that when it comes to, like, studying literature or people who do English-lit degrees, or anyone who's ever had to take like a British literature class in college or whatever, even Shakespeare in high school.

Like, you see this as such a daunting task. It feels insurmountable. It feels unapproachable, inaccessible. Like, this isn't for me, okay? This is for scholars. This is for people who, I don't get this. I think that once you, this is a message of hope for anyone who's ever felt that way, because I sure is, I've felt this way.

And I love reading. I love literature. there is a barrier sometimes between like reaching across the table and saying, I understand this. Because what's important to understand is that every story that's ever been written, even the ones that are written hard on purpose, you know, like to, okay, we get it, you're smart. They've all come from a human. And there is always going to be a touch of humanity to every story. That is a linking factor that I recently, because I've been. And, you know, studying Frankenstein, and I've been obsessed with it since I saw the fucking movie.

And I just like, it's always on my mind. And I'm like, you know, I've always thought of these stories, like Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, Picture of Doreen Gray, Moby Dick, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, like, Khammonie Gray. All of these novels that's like, these are the most famous books ever to be written. They feel so, like, untouchable. and that's intimidating as someone who's just like pleasure reading. But I think the older I get, the more I'm like, these were just normal people who had an idea and thought to write it down and look at the lasting impact that it had. And it's honestly really inspiring as a creative because it's like,

I just have this idea and I have to get it out. They had no idea. They were going to become some of the most famous, well-loved, most important novels in all of human history of all time. I think that that as an adult, I'm like, I remember being in school and feeling like, this isn't for me. You know what I mean? Like this level of literature, this level of scholarship is not for me. This is for academics.

And that couldn't be farther from the truth. These are human stories. And Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, all these people, they've become almost these infamous characters in history. they were humans. They died very tragic deaths due to natural ailments, like most of us will. Most of us do. I think that that kind of when you bring them down on this human level where they're not so different from you and me, they just lived 200 years ago. They didn't have access to, you know, I think Lord Byron and Percy Shelley both died of fever. Like very curable things that we are so lucky to live in a time now where we don't lose some of the best creatives to ever live to something as, as curable as a fever.

So I think that's helped me kind of break this down. Frankenstein is not an inaccessible story. I think also because it's so fantastical, it's a bit easier to sink your teeth into. However, I didn't always feel that way. So if you've ever felt intimidated by reading something that feels a bit beyond your reading level, try it.

There are plenty of resources online. And when you finish it, feel proud of yourself. a feat. You know, this was written 200 years ago. Like, take a second, sit with the material, and remember that it's for everyone. So, that being said, let's talk about it. Girmido Toro's Frankenstein really closely follows the original book, the original text. It is a series of letters that this ship captain is writing to his sister, I believe. And in the letters, Victor Frankenstein's story and the creature's story. Okay, so the long and short of it is Victor Frankenstein, scientist, sets out to create human life. Without a womb, without any of these

things, he sets out to create and to successfully render a reanimated corpse. He's successful. But here we are again with this moral question of when science outpaces morality. What happens? He's met with this predicament face-to-face. You've done it. You've reanimated a corpse. What now? You have to teach it how to be human.

You have to teach it philosophy. You have to teach it morality. You have to teach it how to function. It's not a baby, but mentally it is. How do you teach it tenderness and kindness and how to care, how to have empathy, without turning it into a monster? Because again, it's a man. And what Guillermo de Toro really injects into this story, because like any director, you put your own lens on the story is the relationship between a father and son and generational trauma, cycles of trauma, these sort of things. I think that the creature, because I don't care to call it a monster, right?

The creature is innocence personified. That's how I saw it. I think that when you have created innocence, it is only a matter of time before that innocence is corrupted because I don't think in this world that we have, innocence can be untouched. I wish that weren't the case. However, in his story, at the end of it, and of course I'm not going to ruin it, but there are themes of forgiveness, how difficult forgiveness is, even when maybe they don't deserve it, offer it anyway. The relationship between father and son, the relationship of femininity, femininity to innocence and to gentleness, color. Okay, color is a big theme in this movie. He really uses red. By the way, Oscar Isaac.

Oh, okay, let me talk about the fucking movie for a second. That's kind of the general structure of the story is that it's a series of letters that details the creation of Victor Frankenstein's creature and how he escapes and the eventual, you know, tying up of a bow of the creature's story. So, Oscar Isaac plays Victor Frankenstein. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, wait, okay. Oscar Isaac plays Victor Frankenstein. Y'all know that one of my favorite movies of all time is Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes. Hello, and can Gierma Biltoro do Sherlock Holmes, please, for the love of God, please?

Can we just, like, find a way? I'll help finance it, okay? Now, I don't have the money for it, but I will find a way. I'll sell something. I'll figure it out. Just leave it to me. I think that while I'm drawn to female madness, I'm also drawn to the idea of the mad genius, okay? Two separate ideas that overlap.

It's a Venn diagram, okay? This idea of you have reached a different level of consciousness because you're so damn smart. because you're so damn tapped in. You're not here with us anymore. Or what's worse is like almost on this level of fake, fake genius. Like just delusion. And I think that that's a whole other Venn diagram. Okay, so anyway, the reason I love Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes is because he plays that genius, that madness so well.

Jack Sparrow is probably another example maybe, like the character of Captain Jack Sparrow is so like, you think he's aloof, you think he's crazy, but that motherfucker is smart. He's always scheming. He always finds a way out. He's very charming. He's very slimy. Like, all of these qualities, I just, I love it in a main character. I froth at the mouth for it. It's some my favorite shit ever in storytelling. Just like a charming, and I know I need to read whatever the fuck that book is. Six, Six of Crows. Is that what it's called? Six of Crows. I know a of y'all are like you would love this fucking and i watched that tv show way back when shadows six of crows yeah lee bardugo she also wrote what else did she write night house and see i didn't

like ninth house i did not like ninth house it felt forced and it felt like there was really sensitive graphic subject matter that had no it served no purpose in like propelling the story along it was kind of like trauma porn that's how the ninth house felt to me to me to me Shadow and Bone. That's what I'm talking about. Shadow and Bone, 2012 is crazy. That TV show came out, and I liked that TV show. Cal, what's his name? Yeah, I'm into that. Isn't that his name? Six of Crows is about Caz. Yeah, Kaz. Not Cal. I'm into that. Okay. I'm not. Hold on. Hold on. I need to tap into this. If any of y'all have read this, tell me if this is to YA. And even if it is YA, that's fine, because I sometimes YA, Y, really hits. However, Oscar Isaac's portrayal of Victor Frankenstein is unlike any Victor Frankenstein I've seen before. It felt more less like mad scientist and more like I believed him. He was mad. He played madness so well. And the way that it spirals out of control and to the end, it almost returns him to his humanity.

Like, I don't know at what point along the way, along the arc, he lost his humanity, but at the end you return to it. And what a beautiful homecoming to humanity it is. Heartbreaking. And so, and honest, you know, the whole, for any conversations around Frankenstein, a lot of it will say the creature, the monster, is more human than Victor himself, which is true, which is completely true, which is true of any story of, someone who has experienced oppression, you learn your oppressor.

It's true of anyone who has undergone a level of trauma that almost like knocks you back a few paces. It's like you look at the world through a different lens, and that's what the creature goes through, of you are hyper aware of not only the cruelty around you, but the beauty. and watching Frankenstein's creature learn the world and the small things to find beauty where usually we don't pick up on it. It made me cry. It was so good. It's going to make me cry again. So good. Jacob Alluredi, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I don't think I'd talk shit on Jacob Allorty at all, but now I'm crying over him, so that's awesome. he did such a good job he was such a good monster me made me cry oh anyway okay

this movie is so wow I love this movie Oscar Isaac did a fan fantastic job the use of color in this movie is something I really want to talk about also sorry I'm from the South I say movie

I don't give a fuck if it's a film I don't give a fuck if it's a film it is a movie to me. It's a movie. And I saw it at the movie theater. And I didn't see a film at the cinema, okay? I think that the usage of color in this movie is, it's like a little treat for an audience. And can I just say really quick, for any actual, I don't want to hear it, for any film bros, any film ladies out there, you take this shit serious, you do the journal. Okay, okay. Okay, I'm not a huge moviegoer, but I can appreciate the artistic, the artistic choices made in a movie like Frankenstein.

It's for me. It's for me, okay? I know Guillermo Dutoro is talking to me, to me specifically. It's that sort of, okay, I get it. I get that there's other, there's better movies. There's this, there's that. You like this director, then you should, this one's actually better. I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck. I loved this movie. This was for me. That being said, Red. The first time we see Red is Victor Frankenstein's mother who dies tragically. There's always a dead mom. There's always a fucking dead mom. Okay? That's how these stories start. Dyes very tragically childbirth. Red throughout the rest of the movie kind of symbolizes, it could symbolize so many different things. And again, like I could write. I could write. I could write. write a paper on it. Sometimes we see Victor Frankenstein with red gloves. That could be blood on his hands. Sometimes we see it as a neck scarf around his neck, maybe something strangling him. I chose to see it as each scene that we see him in a new costume. It's a piece of his mother. That's how I chose to see it. How through all of life's cruelties and what hardens you and maybe calluses your soul, you always

deep down have this touch of softness. Because humans are soft creatures. We are frail. Human life is so frail and it's mortal and it is finite and it ends. And isn't that the greatest tragedy and the greatest blessing? And so the red to me symbolizes this feminine softness that as Victor goes to the rest of his life, that occurrence of losing his mother, he's never the same. And maybe that in some fucked up way influences or informs why he is so fixated on reanimation, why it's so important to him to bring someone back from the dead. This is his instigating action. This is what for the rest of his life is his mission.

And there are a few points in the movie where I'm like, God, it's so good, where you see him kind of question, what am I doing? like I have lost the plot, but I'm way too far. I'm too far gone. I have to finish this. I have to see it through. What I found interesting in this version is there's no Igor. There's no Igor character. There's no, you know, evil assistant like Marty Feldman or, you know, whatever, this type of, like crazy, kooky character that's his assistant.

Instead, Christoph Waltz plays the rich patron, the rich. the rich funder of Victor's scientific experiment, which is crazy, because I don't know if that's in the book. It's been a long time since I've read the actual book, but I think that that choice lended itself to telling this, the Garamo's version, better. So color, red with Victor. The creature is first, when we first meet the creature, he's swathed in white, almost like a baby. He's wearing a diaper and white bandages. You know, it's very like white is purity. innocence towards the end of the film completely black, completely fur, black, almost like

balaclava gloves, everything is just, we see him hardened. And also through the story, we see that these pieces of clothing are acquired through maybe some trespasses that he's done, maybe things that have been gifted to him by a kind passerby, like the people he meets along the way. I, it's just, there's so much to say. There's so much to say. Okay. Mia Gough. Wow. Hey, and can I say, wow. I haven't seen, what's the famous one Mia Gauth is in? That's like her, her famous role. Pearl, yeah. Maxine, X. Oh my God. She's going to be. Odyssey. Don't get me started on the fucking Odyssey. What's the fucking one where she's in the blue dress? You know the one I'm talking about?

She's in the blue dress and it's one of her famous, maybe it's Maxine. I don't know. Anyway, I've never seen her before. And I'm woman enough to admit that. She blew me away in this movie. She blew me away. I believed every word that came out of her mouth. I believed every word. She played softness so well, so well, but also very articulate, very sure of herself, very real. The use of color with her, so smart, she is always either in this really vibrant teal or green. We also see, which was gag, and I read this after the fact, and I was like, God, we know that Gironmo of Toro is a super fan of Frankenstein, like, addicted to it, obsessed with it. In the scene where Elizabeth is her name, where Elizabeth's getting married, Mia Goss's character,

her wedding dress resembles the bride of Frankenstein's dress that is the, it's almost like bandage wrapping around the arms. And it's just so good. It's so good, dude. Her hair, the feds. It felt very, what I'm not. I love about his costume design is it feels very period piece, but it also feels very fantastical. It feels whimsical and fairy tale.

And it's like a bit drag. It's a bit drag. I wouldn't say it's campy, but it's definitely like a bit over the top, which I love because I'm of the opinion. I'm on the side of the table that's like, this is a movie. Okay? This isn't a historical documentary. This isn't a historical retelling. this is a creatively curated personal view of the story of Frankenstein.

So if that version is very whimsical and very, you know, the costuming, the set design, the fucking shit, I'm just like, I cannot believe it. It's the best movie ever. And did I say that about Elvis when it came out to? Yeah. I honestly, I wonder, like, if I rewatch Frankenstein in six months, I think I'm going to feel the same way. This movie, it moved me. It moved me. I don't know.

Because you know those type of movies were at the end. It's almost like, like, fuck the screen. It should just be a mirror. Like, metaphorically, it is a mirror. And this feels kind of like, all right, we get it, queen. Hey, queen, we get it. But it does. Like, these stories, any story.

Like, picture of Dorian Gray or what did I just read, Babel. Like, these stories genuinely pick anything where at the end of it, you are left feeling with the question of what am I? Who am I? Is this what I want to be? Is this what I want to admit? What I want to reflect back to the world? Like, any story that holds a mirror to humanity and the cruelty and kindness of humanity

and how did those two, it's oil and water. And we are so complex and we're so fucking hypocritical, all of us, every single one of us. And it's like how can all of that so perfectly fit within the eight pounds that the human head is? Like, I don't, it's amazing. I literally, I sat in the theater afterward. I saw it with Stanley and I was just sobbing and I was like, I cannot believe. I can't, but it was so well done. Like, I genuinely, okay, let me move on.

Damn, let me move on. Okay, this was a question I had that, of course, we're going to kind of dive into. Is reanimation possible? Now, don't laugh. Don't laugh, because you'd Google it too, and you'd Google it too. And I'm going to Google it. This is from palatinate. It's not just on a dreary night in November that science fiction can come close to reality.

Mary Shelley's most famous novel, Frankenstein, depicts a man so obsessed with life and death that he tries to make life from the remains of cadavers. The endeavors Shelley envisioned may not be so far from modern-day scientific accomplishment. From organ transplants to the restoration of activity to dead brains, the question on everyone's thoughts is, will it ever be possible to create Frankenstein's creature? In 2019, the concept of reanimating life was taken to be something close to reality when scientists from the Yale University School of Medicine were able to revive function on a cellular level in 32 pig brains. What? The pig brains were acquired from animals who were already deceased, and the restoration was

assisted using a machine, BrainX, which encouraged fluids and oxygen to flow back through the cells. BrainX acts as an artificial pump supplying. the brain cells with a fluid similar to blood. But how far dead do you have to be? Also similar to blood? Why wouldn't you just use real blood? The team men... Okay.

Because here's the deal. I ain't no scientists. I don't know what you're doing in there when them pigs. They're putting shit in a pig brain. I really don't know. I know some people who've got a pig brain. Shut.

Most of them got a painter between her legs, too. Shit. They got it. I got a pig dick for brains. Scientists at Yale still insisted this is not a living brain, and while this is still a far call from the assemblage of multiple body parts into a new being, it does allow multiple avenues of research. There are applications for the treatment of heart attack suffers

and the study of brain disorders and brain diseases. A central theme of Frankenstein is morality. And as with any groundbreaking research, the reanimation of the brain cells does raise ethical questions on the definition of death and the extent to which Brain X could be used to restore brain activity, as well as the use of animals in their research. Yeah, that's a whole talk amongst yourselves with that. You know what I mean?

With like the mice and the pigs and the rats and the cats. And it's like, is it, is it ethical? Is it in the name of science? What do you do with animal rights activists? Would it rather be on a human cadaver? Is it ethical if a human in death or not in death consents or does not consent to being used as a scientific prop?

And what about the people who do consent? How would their family members feel about that? I mean, there's just so, there's so many gray areas. The Yale team insists that they are not attempting to restore consciousness and dead brains and took steps to prevent this too. Instead, their focus is on investing, investigating the brain's activities and structure. The reanimation of these cells is still a far call from

the creature Mary Shelley imagined. This is not the first time scientists have tried to preserve tissue after death. At the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, Alexis Corell worked on maintaining small tissue samples and petri dishes by supplying them with oxygen and nutrients. He was even rumored to have kept a chick's heart tissue alive after death. The focus of Corel's work was investigating a way to grow organs artificially for transplantation. Whoa. A concept that is even beyond the creativity of Frankenstein, but today is very much a reality. Teclusenbet Bayan was the first man to receive a windpipe transplant grown from stem cells in 2011. Why did I not know this?

I feel like this would have been a global... The creation of new organs from stem cells is not the same as reanimating dead cells. The Franken concept of creating from nothing is an ever-growing field. Could these grown organs ever be considered the same as those we are born with? Or are we just creating many new variations of ourselves? So, while the answer to the question, are we able to create Frankenstein's creature, is still a strong no, the reality of distinguishing between the nature of life and death is not so clear cut in biology. cells, tissues, and organs are just one part of the equation of creating life, and the part they play in conscious and sentience is just as debatable as when Shelley first questioned it in 1818.

It is uncertain if other cells could similarly be revived after death, but if brain cells are only the start, it is impossible to say what other organs could be revived long after the tissue has died. I just saw something on God's internet that was some famous composer has hooked up some of his brain tissue to like musical instruments and I'm not sure what exactly the science is there and of course it's all kind of gimmicky but essentially forever he will be creating music

his cells will create music and it's in some art gallery composer who... Here we go. Artificial brain. In Australia, a team of artists and scientists have resurrected the U.S. composer Alvin Lucier.

It raises a swarm of questions about AI and authorship, and it's also incredibly beautiful. This is crazy, guys. In a darkened room, a fractured symphony of rattles, hums, and warbles bounces off the walls, like an orchestra,

tuning up in some parallel universe, but there's not a musician in sight. If you look closely, there's a small fragment of a performer, albeit one without a pulse. Whoever wrote this is so dramatic. In the center of the room, visitors hover around a raised plinth, craning to glimpse the brains behind the operation. Under a magnifying lens sit two white blobs, like a tiny pair of jellyfish. Together, they form the lab-grown mini-brain of the late U.S. musician Alvin L. Lucier, composing a posthumous score in real time. Lucille was a pioneer of experimental music who died in 2021, but here in the art gallery of Western

Australia, he's been resurrected with cutting-edge neuroscience. First, his white blood cells were reprogrammed into stem cells. Then, led by Hodgits, the team transformed the cells into cerebral organoids, clusters of neurons that mimic the human brain. What are we talking about? Hey, hey, hey, what are we talking about? The revivification team used custom technology to bring the work to life. Lucier's organoids were grown onto a fine mesh of 64 electrodes, developed with a German

bioengineer, allowing neural signals to be captured from multiple layers, much like a developing brain. They then adapted an open source platform to interpret. this activity and generate sound, turning the artificial brain into a live, responsive performer. Importantly, Lucier's organoids don't just produce sound. They also receive it. Microphones in the gallery pick up ambient noise, including human voices and the resonant tones of the plates, and that audio data is converted into electrical signals and fed back into the brain. We're very interested to know whether the organoid is going to change or learn over time. Organoid? What are we? This is freaking me out. The project raises timely, ethical, and philosophical

questions, yeah, about biology, artificial intelligence, and authorship. But according to the team, revivification is an art first and science second. What? Where does creativity lie? As cultural workers, we are really interested in these big questions, but this work is not giving the answers. Instead, we want to invite conversations. Can creativity exist outside of the human body? And is it even ethical to do so? You want my opinion? Sorry, do you want my opinion?

No. Creativity doesn't exist outside of the human body in the sense that we're talking about it, as in a creation, not as in nature. Nature is its own creation. Nature is its own beast, its own entity. I don't involve nature and natural processes. like bird song and the growing of a flower, I don't consider those things to be creativity, okay? Because it is, but something divine, okay? That's something not of a human. This is of a human.

Music as they're talking about it, everything involved in this has to do with human science, humans harnessing science. And in that sense, if we're talking about human creativity, No, this is not creativity. This is science. Because there wasn't a person behind it who translated their idea into this. However, someone had the idea to do this. So I guess it's creative in that sense, but is it art? I guess everything's art.

Damn, what the fuck? Can creativity exist outside of the human body? I'm going to take a hard stance and say no. even though there are caveats and there are asterix and there are exceptions. And you know what else I saw recently? Something said, it's not a rule if there's an exception to the rule. Shut the fuck up, ho. You're pissing me off.

You're pissing me off. Because rules, now I'm worked up. Now the Red Bull's talking. Now the monk fruits got me gaping. There are rules to society because that's how we qualify everything in life. Rules, consequences, rewards. That's how we compartmentalize things. It's how society functions. It's how we're kept in line. It's how we keep out trouble, which is an impossible task, okay, but it is close to achievable. Okay. If we don't have a risk and reward and

consequences system, things like prison, things like punishment, things like rewards, then there is no society. There's no civilization. You know what I mean? There's no social, not hierarchy in the sense of like that kind of hierarchy, but like the things we need and the things that are important, security, all of these things. Like I think that in that sense, I don't know. Creativity exists outside the human body. Who fucking knows? Is it ethical to do so? I'm going to also say no with a caveat. Oh yeah, that's what I was saying. That bullshit of it's not a rule if there's an exception. Let's read about that. Okay, we're on Reddit. R slash, explain it like I'm five. What do people mean by the exception that proves the rule? If you claim that an exception to a rule exists,

that must mean you accept the rule itself also exists. If you put up a sign saying no parking on Tuesday, then you are tacitly acknowledging that parking is permitted other days. Okay, period. Okay, so I saw some rage bait shit online. It fucking rage baited me and it got me. An exception to the rule doesn't disqualify the rule. We have to have the rule.

Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. In 1984, this is what some Reddit user says. In 1984, Orwell occasionally mentions that nothing is illegal in Oceania because there are no laws. Your example is the reason why. If Big Brother made a rule prohibiting parking on Tuesdays, it might carry an implication that parking was allowed on the other days. But if no parking law exists, then parking is neither legal nor illegal, and the party can arrest you for parking on any day for any reason they choose.

To build on this, the common use can still be viewed this way. In this case, the rule would be parking is allowed. Technically, no parking on Tuesday is an exception that disproved that the rule is always absolutely true, but does prove that outside of that exception, a general rule exists. Period. Period. And period. That makes sense to me.

That's completely valid. Technically, no parking on Tuesday is an exception that disproved that the rule is always absolutely true. but does prove, outside of that exception, a general rule exists. That's what I'm trying to get at, is that we need general rules that are evergreen, but there are moments when it doesn't apply. Sure. Fuck yet. Okay, anyway, what the fuck was I talking about?

Off the monk fruit Red Bull, I am philosophical. I am thinking, and y'all don't want me to start thinking. My big beluga whale brain, it's pulsing. I'm sending out sonar. I'm sending out echolocation with my fucking beluga whale brain. And that's scary, okay? Don't, don't get me on my sonar. Okay, you know what?

Another question that I consider a lot. You know what I consider a lot is, are they the villain or are they just misunderstood? Right? is Victor Frankenstein the villain? Is Frankenstein's monster the villain? Neither of them are. Well, Victor Frankenstein is Victor, here's the takeaway, right? The classic kind of cliche only because so many pieces of artistic,

so many artistic endeavors have landed at this conclusion that is a bit cliche and a bit corny of like, the monster was Victor all along. The real monster wasn't the creation, it was the creator. Right, it's kind of cliche, it's kind of corny, it's kind of like, like rip off the mask at the end, it was him all along, like that kind of thing. However, I personally, I personally, because maybe I'm a traditionalist, I think that plot point, that conclusion to a story,

is Evergreen and it stands because humans are monsters. We are capable of such unbelievable cruelty, right? It's important to acknowledge that. And if that's the first time, if watching a movie or reading a book like Frankenstein is the first time that you kind of have this realization dawns on you, then sure. Sure, it's fine. It's like, wow. Okay?

I think there are much deeper conclusions from Frankenstein than that. but it's a good one. It's a good baseline. Any retelling of Frankenstein has to nail that. And Garamo did it so well. So, so well. So well. Okay.

I think that I've pretty much yapped y'all's fucking ear off about this damn movie. It's so good. And I think that the idea of a villain in a movie like this, the real villain is, it's up to personal interpretation, but generational trauma might be the real villain, the human instinct occasionally to inflict pain. Like, that's the villain, like us warring with our own emotions, who is the villain, this alter ego in you sometimes that might take over or might have these nasty impulses

that you are constantly yanking the chain back on. You know, it's like, Hades, what's the monster with the dog with three heads? Dog with three heads. Cerberus. I got a surboris in my beluga whale brain, bro. I'm yanking the chain back. I'm like, that's not me. That cannot be what rears its ugly head.

That cannot be how I face the world. But sometimes it comes out, and I cannot. I cannot control my own. You know what I mean? Like, it's so difficult to explain, but I think that's the villain, is we're at war with ourselves. You know, I think that humans are the monsters.

That's kind of an easy conclusion. I think it's a bit more, it's a bit more intricate than that. Are you all rocking with me? Don't get what I'm saying? All right. Let's do songs of the week. My, I actually have a playlist of the week,

and I found this on TikTok. It's called Space Age Lounge, vintage cocktail, Bossa, Mambo, Musak, Muzak, and Jazz. It's by Hunter John Tree. This playlist, fantastic. Really, really, really great. Great to dissociate to. Great to just think about nothing. I'm kind of over at the moment as I wait for Rosalia's album, as I wait for looks.

I really don't care to listen other music. I really don't give a fuck. I put on Fontaine's D.C. the other day, and I was like, I just, not right now. Not right now, Grand. I can't do it right now. And I love them. But I just, music with words, I'm not really doing it right now. Like I mean, I listen to a lot of shout out, by the way, to KUSC FM. That's my favorite FM radio station. And I think it's on I heart. I listen to that shit all the time. It's just classical music. It's just classical music. I listen to it all the time. It actually really helps me. I don't know when I hit the A. where I'm like, this shit's awesome. This shit is so awesome. I love classical music. I listen to it all the time. As I wait for Rosalie's album,

genuinely, that is the only piece of musical art that I really am like, it's all I can think about right now, very important to me. This playlist has been helping as well because it's just like Basanova, Mamba, whatever. Guys, the Broccoli Report is available ad free on Patreon, if you give a fuck, okay?

And some of you guys like the ads. And I shout out to you. Shout out to you guys, okay? But if you would like an ad-free experience, go over to Patreon. You'll get every episode moving forward ad-free. And it's a beautiful opportunity. We also have merch and guys, something special is dropping soon. For the holidays, happy holidays, happy holidays.

Broski.com for that. We have an official Broski Nation playlist on Spotify. go check that out, Rosary Report playlist. And that's pretty much, I mean, you guys know what's going on here. If you've made it this,

we're like 113 episodes deep. If you don't know what's going on here, it's too late for you. We're talking about my swollen beluga whale brain and cerberus, Hades three-headed dog, okay? I love you guys. Thank you for letting me yap

about the things that I deeply care about and for exploring these ethical non-questions. I really appreciate it. I'll catch you guys next week. Be good and bye-bye.