Thank you to our Co-Producer patron Chris Marlton for selecting this week's topic!

This 1997 Australian alternative rock record was a massive success in its home country, but is something we (the hosts) were totally unfamiliar with. We look at how music subjectively builds identity for some "young people" to understand why Unit is so important to adults looking back on their outsider adolescence.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Unit

Additional Resources:

• Polyester genius: reflecting on the boundary-pushing perfection of Regurgitator’s 1997 classic, Unit
• MUSIC REVIEW | Regurgitator – Unit (1997)
• ! (The Song Formerly Known As) by Regurgitator – towering electronic fuzz
• Jade Lazarevic. (2012, September 8). The way we were. Newcastle Herald, The (Includes the Central Coast Herald), p. 12.
• ELIZABETH LORD. (2012). Regurgitator relive retro. Mercury, The (Hobart), 6.
• Regurgitator has always pleased itself — and fans are happy to tag along Andrew M c Millen. (2018, August 2). Band of outsiders. Australian, The, p. 15.
• Regurgitator crowd still partying like it's 1999 By: Craig Platt, Age, The (Melbourne), 03126307, Aug 13, 2018
• Brain uploading, warts and elaborate subterfuge: a chat with Quan Yeomans of Regurgitator

This 2015 Vertigo comic by Tom King and Mitch Gerads sets a murder mystery in the Iraq War in 2004. We discuss how the creators strived for accuracy and reverence with this complex story while struggling with our own distaste for violence, glorification, and authority.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Sheriff of Babylon

Additional Resources:

• One of comics’ best writers is a former CIA agent
• Inside 'The Sheriff of Babylon,' DC Comics' Wartime Crime Drama
• Comic-Con: DC's Vertigo Imprint to Launch 12 New Series Before End of Year
• Why the CIA Has to Read This Comic Before You Can
• The Best Retelling of the Iraq War Story Is a Comic Book
• 15 Reasons Why You Should Be Reading The Sheriff Of Babylon
• https://twiststreet.tumblr.com/post/181648879026
• Did Batman’s Tom King Work For the CIA? Yes, Yes He Did.
• PERSPECTIVES ON A CRIME: TOM KING AND MITCH GERADS ON ‘THE SHERIFF OF BABYLON’

Thank you to our Co-producer patron Kevin Wetter for selecting this week's topic!

This 2003 superhero film adaption went through ten screenwriters during its production and suffered poor critical reception. We look back before the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we now know it and ask why the formula of Greek tragedy mixed with Cold War paranoia failed to work.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• HULK

Additional Resources:

• Countdown to Hulk: Screenwriter John Turman talks about a fan's dream job
• U Bulks Up Hulk
• Hulk Makes a Monster Out of Gamma Rays
• Green With Anger
• Ang Lee Gets Inside Hulk’s Head
• Countdown to Hulk: Screenwriter Michael France Talks ‘Hulk,’ ‘Punisher,’ and Beyond.
• Countdown to 'Hulk': Producers Avi Arad and Gale Anne Hurd talk
• Temper, Temper
• Ang Lee looks back at his Hulk movie
• The successful failure of Ang Lee’s Hulk
• Credit Grab
• The Hulk. (2003). Millimeter, 31(6), 14.

This HBO series remake about artificial intelligence, violence and consciousness was made with expert care by everyone involved in its production. But we ask, why then wasn't its depiction of its big themes ultimately satisfying?

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Westworld

Additional Resources:

• Abrams and Nolan Team Up for Westworld HBO Pilot
• The Long, Weird History of the Westworld Franchise
• HBO’s Westworld Extras Have to Sign a Consent Form Agreeing to ‘Genital-to-Genital Touching’
• Ed Brubaker on Westworld, The Fade Out, and his immersion into Hollywood
• Your Westworld Logistical Questions Answered
• On the Ranch with the Creators of “Westworld”
• How the Creators of Westworld Built a Violent World of Robot Cowboys
• Why the Westworld Costumes Were So Complicated to Create
• The Secrets Behind Westworld’s Opening Title Sequence
• Westworld’s Showrunner Hint at Season 2, Discuss Show’s Video-Game Influences
• Why the Bicameral Mind Theory is Crucial to Unlocking Westworld
• A New Diversity Reviews Site Rates TV Shows and Films By Quality of Representation
• Westworld, Race and The Western
• Racial Stereotyping and Westworld

This 1996 novel is infamous for its length and complex narrative structure, while being critically lauded for its themes and style. We discuss how Wallace approached the project, while grappling with revelations about how he treated women both on-and-off the page.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Infinite Jest

Additional Resources:

• The Afterlife of David Foster Wallace
• Infinite Proofs: The Effects of Mathematics on David Foster Wallace!
• David Foster Wallace at 50: Why he still matters and always will
• MICHAEL PIETSCH: EDITING INFINITE JEST
• A BRIEF (CROWD-SOURCED) INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL PIETSCH
• 'Infinite Jest' celebrates 20th anniversary
• God, Mary Karr and Ronald Reagan: D.T. Max on David Foster Wallace
• Mary Karr Speaks Out About David Foster Wallace Amid Literature's #MeToo Movement
• 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Infinite Jest
• Why Insufferable People Love Infinite Jest
• Men Recommend David Foster Wallace to Me
• 15 Facts About Infinite Jest
• Reading from the “Blind-spots”
• A Short Meditation on the Whiteness of David Foster Wallace’s Writing
• Thinking About David Foster Wallace, Misogyny and Scholarship
• The Magic of Michael Schur's Sitcoms: Why 'The Good Place,' 'Parks and Rec' & More Are So Rewatchable
• An Interview with Michael Schur
• 'Parks and Recreation': 'Infinite Jest' references in 'Partridge'

Thank you to our Co-Producer patron Miriam Meaney for selecting this week's topic!

This 2016 film by Nicolas Winding Refn is about beauty, jealousy and the entertainment industry. We look at Refn's thematic intentions and the myriad of arguments about his "misogyny" or "feminism," to try to understand how the glamour industry portrays women.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Neon Demon

Additional Resources:

• ‘Movie blood tastes so good’ – on The Neon Demon set with Nicolas Winding Refn
• A HORROR FILM ABOUT BEAUTY: NICOLAS WINDING REFN & ELLE FANNING ON “THE NEON DEMON”
• Nicolas Winding Refn Readies Danish/French Horror Tale
• Nicolas Winding Refn on The Neon Demon's Female-Dominated Cast
• The Neon Demon is the most offensive film of the year - and not because of the necrophilia
• MOVIES‘The Neon Demon’ Is ‘Valley of the Dolls’ Meets ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’?!
• Birth. Movies. Interview: Nicolas Winding Refn And Cliff Martinez Talk THE NEON DEMON
• The Neon Demon: a spoiler-filled chat about the year’s best or worst movie
• I’M A FEMINIST, AND I LOVED THE NEON DEMON
• The Neon Demon tries to both fetishize and vilify young girls. It fails.

This 2007 manga serial by Inio Asano seems like a simple story about a middle-school boy growing up in Japan. But we find that using symbolic simplicity together with the detailed, weird world of adults, Asano has been described as the voice of his generation.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Goodnight PunPun, Volume 1

Additional Resources:

• INIO ASANO INTERVIEW — “REALITY IS TOUGH, SO READ THIS MANGA ABOUT CUTE GIRLS AND FEEL BETTER”
• The disaffected world of Inio Asano
• GOODNIGHT PUNPUN Is A Horrifying Glance In The Mirror
• Preview: Inio Asano’s Goodnight Punpun is an ode to life’s awkwardness
• ‘GOODNIGHT PUNPUN’ IS THE STRANGEST MANGA OF THE YEAR (AND ONE OF THE BEST)
• Saying Goodbye to Childhood in Goodnight Punpun
• Interview: Goodnight Punpun Creator Inio Asano

This 1992 album is celebrated as one of the best of the era but we look at the dysfunctional, toxic relationships between the five band members, and we find that the pressures of the music business, touring, and getting older, led to internal conflicts that made it harder for Faith No More to just be a group of goofy weirdos.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Angel Dust

Additional Resources:

• THE POWER OF NEGATIVE THINKING
• Talking music and zoning with Roddy Bottom of Faith No More
• Faith No More - Making Of Angel Dust (Full)
• Faith No More: 'We’ve made bad decisions our whole career. That’s why the English champion us'
• 26 YEARS AGO: FAITH NO MORE RELEASE ‘ANGEL DUST’
• 10 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT FAITH NO MORE’S ‘ANGEL DUST’
• HEAVY METAL HOMO

This 1967 British TV show is revered as a cult classic that was radical and countercultural, while symbolizing philosophical arguments about individualism vs. collectivism. We take a deeper look at star Patrick McGoohan and the commercial interests behind the show to ask if it's ultimately more conservative than pop culture likes to remember.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Prisoner

Additional Resources:

• A Spy Trapped in a Nightmare of Psychedelia
• GEORGE MARKSTEIN interviewed by Chris Rodley
• Number Six At 50: The 50th Anniversary Of 'The Prisoner'
• How did The Prisoner ever get made?
• Patrick McGoohan Explains The Meaning Of The Prisoner, A TV Cult Classic
• Alan Moore Remembers Patrick McGoohan’s “The Prisoner”: Part 1
• What on earth was The Prisoner all about?
• McGuire, J. T. (2014). A Mentor-Protégé Relationship?: Orson Welles, Patrick McGoohan, and The Prisoner Television Series. Quarterly Review of Film & Video, 31(7), 647.
• Hanna, E. (2014). Be Selling You: The Prisoner As Cult and Commodity. Television & New Media, 15(5), 433.
• Woodman BJ. Escaping Genre’s Village: Fluidity and Genre Mixing in Television’s The Prisoner. Journal of Popular Culture. 2005;38(5):939

This 1979 collection of essays attempts to reveal the 1960s and California as stories without narratives. We discuss how Didion's work was branded because of her gender, class, and lack of politics, despite her insistence that writing was only an attempt to make sense out of chaos.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The White Album

Additional Resources:

• The Top 10 Essays Since 1950
• Joan Didion’s Style
• Joan Didion: Staking Out California
• There's a reason Joan Didion's work endures: she changed the way we wrote
• We Tell Ourselves Stories: Didion’s “White Album” Takes to the Stage
• From literary heavyweight to lifestyle brand: exploring the cult of Joan Didion
• The White Album, by Joan Didion

This 2015 Indian romantic comedy uses a meta-narrative to deconstruct expectations about identity and everyday life. We question the assumptions writer/director Imtiaz Ali makes about gender roles, while wondering how much the real infidelity between the lead actors complicated the film's big theme.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Tamasha

Additional Resources:

• ‘Tamasha’ not autobiographical, says Imtiaz Ali
• Anushka Sharma Rejected 'Tamasha' Because The Role Wasn't 'Meaty' Enough For Her
• 'Tamasha' is about choosing your own story: Imtiaz Ali
• An inspiration, a formula, a discovery— filmmaker Imtiaz Ali breaks down ‘love’
• Love aaj kal
• Watch Imtiaz Ali Talk about This Iconic Tamasha Scene Where Deepika Cried for Real
• Ranbir, Deepika break down on sets of 'Tamasha'
• Ranbir, Deepika's Personal History Doesn't Bother Tamasha Director
• Censor Board beeps saali in Imtiaz’s film
• 2 years of Tamasha: I meet people who tell me that the film changed their life, says Imtiaz Ali
• Here's why Imtiaz Ali's Tamasha is more than just a movie
• Why Imtiaz Ali Movies Are Beautiful And Most Of All Tamasha
• Tamasha Was Made With a View the Audience is Not Stupid, Says Imtiaz Ali

This 2012 experimental noise record was heralded as an important moment in musical evolution. We look at how the band approaches their process while unpacking their relationship with major label Epic Records. And we ask, how do noise, magick, and defecation contribute to the future of music?

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Money Store

Additional Resources:

• Suspicious Minds - The Resolute Mission Of Death Grips
• Death Grips Implode Punk and Rap Borders on New LP
• Band of the Year: Death Grips
• Death Grips: “There's a lot of recycling and destruction in the making of our music”
• Who Are…Death Grips

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Tale of One Bad Rat

Additional Resources:

• The Tale of One Bad Rat homepage
• The Rat's Whiskers
• The Tale of One Bad Rat (Graphic Medicine)
• The Tale of One Bad Rat, or, thoughts on teaching adults to read comics
• Still Relevant Today: The Tale of One Bad Rat
• #metoo stories. Library Journal; 4/1/2018, Vol. 143 Issue 6, p53-53, 1/3p
• Donna R. White (2018) Finding Beatrix Potter: Bryan Talbot’s The Tale of One Bad Rat, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2018.1533484

This HBO television show about a standup comedian going through divorce attempts to tackle three big themes: sex, religion and the importance of comedy. We look into Pete Holmes and Judd Apatow's motivations behind-the-scenes, while also asking, "What is its point of view beyond self absorption?"

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Crashing, Season One

Additional Resources:

• How Pete Holmes Morphed His Despair Into Comedy With Crashing
• The Tao of Pete Holmes: HBO’s ‘Crashing’ Creator on Comedy, Sex and God
• How HBO’s ‘Crashing’ Star Pete Holmes Found Salvation — And Judd Apatow
• ‘Crashing’: Pete Holmes and Judd Apatow on Their HBO Stand-Up Comedy Series
• Pete Holmes Opens Old Wounds in HBO’s ‘Crashing’
• Pete Holmes on Crashing and Finding God in Filthy Jokes
• Small Screen: Apatow, Holmes offer raw look at HBO’s Crashing
• Finally, somebody is updating Crashing for current day
• I'm Sorry But HBO's Crashing Sucks

This 1996 novella is about the dark history of Chilé, merged with a detective story about poets. We look at Bolaño's career, while taking into account criticisms of his authenticity and his representation of Chileans from the vantage of his security in Europe.

 

• Distant Star

• A Chilean Writer’s Fictions Might Include His Own Colorful Past
• Valdes, M. (2008). His Stupid Heart: Robert Bolaño’s Novels Were a Love Letter to His Generation, But What He Had to Say Many Chileans Didn’t Want to Hear. Virginia Quarterly Review, 84(1),
• Corral, W. H. (2006). Roberto Bolaño. World Literature Today, 80(6), 50–54.
• The Best Bolaño Book is 'Distant Star'
• What Roberto Bolaño Can Teach Us About Making Art Under Fascism

This 1957 Japanese samurai film is a postwar adaptation of Shakespeare's MacBeth, but we learned that it's also tapping into historical theatrical techniques and criticisms of nationalistic self-destruction. We turn to other writers and scholars for help unpacking these symbols we don't know much about, while learning just how universal this critically acclaimed movie actually is.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Throne of Blood

Additional Resources:

• 1957: When Akira Kurosawa's 'Throne of Blood' Was Ahead of Its Time
• Parker, B. (1997). Nature and Society in Akira Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood.” University of Toronto Quarterly, 66(3), 508.
• Catherine Russell. “Men with swords and men with suits: The cinema of Akira Kurosawa” Cineaste. Winter2002, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p4. 10p. 9
• The Chilling Effect of Noh Theater on Akira Kurosawa's 'Throne of Blood'
• ‘Throne of Blood’: The Value and Meaning of Kurosawa’s Fog-Drenched Masterpiece

This 2006 comic by Brian K. Vaughn and Niko Henrichon is about lions escaping the Baghdad Zoo during the Iraq War. We look at how the creators approached this subject matter, why it's been challenged in libraries and how it represents people in the Middle East.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Pride of Baghdad

Additional Resources:

• US troops kill Baghdad lions
• 15 YEARS AGO, A LION PRIDE ROAMED THE STREETS OF BAGHDAD
• Revisiting ‘Pride of Baghdad’s’ Haunting Iraq War Allegory
• The Joy of Pride: Vaughan talks "Pride of Baghdad"
• BANNED BOOKS WEEK: PRIDE OF BAGHDAD
• The Pride of Baghdad
• CBLDF Discussion Guide: Pride of Baghdad

This 1977 record seems to mythologize a certain version of New York, so we look at how it was made to get to the core beneath its poetry, guitar solos and critical success.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Marquee Moon

Additional Resources:

• Television's Principles
• How Television Made ‘Marquee Moon,’ the Best Punk Guitar Album Ever
• Television’s Punk Epic “Marquee Moon,” 40 Years Later
• Invisible Hits: When Eno Met Television
• https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/punks-founding-father-richard-hell-306738.html
• Waterman, B. (2011). Television’s Marquee Moon. New York: Continuum.
• Rolling Stone. 1/7/93, Issue 647, p22.
• Lloyd, R. (2018). Everything is Combustible. Mount Desert, ME: Beech Hill Publishing Company.

This 1996 comic-book-based-cartoon aired on MTV in 10-minute bursts of weirdness. We discuss its themes of tragedy and trauma, together with how it represents feminism, while still objectifying the female body.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Maxx

Additional Resources:

• The Maxx -- The Only Thing MTV Never Screwed Up
• The Maxx messed up afterschool MTV viewers with its dark surrealism
• FEMINIST REPLAY: MTV'S THE MAXX
• Why The Maxx Was the Perfect Comic for '90s MTV
• Shaping The Maxx: Adapting the Comic Book Frame to Television
• MTV’s Oddities Part 2: The Maxx: Julie’s Pangea, Laura’s Ghostwood

This book attempts to redefine the novel by combining narrative with an imagined anthropological record. We discuss Le Guin's background and mission, as well as larger questions about cultural misappropriation and utopianism.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Always Coming Home

Additional Resources:

• Future Ethnography of the Inhabitants of the Valley of the Na, and The unBible of Ursula K. Le Guin
• PAPERBACKS; THE KESH IN SONG AND STORY
• Always coming home…
• Ursula K. Le Guin‘s Folk/Electronica Album Can Teach Us a Lot About Storytelling
• The Journeys of Ursula K. Le Guin. By: CARPENTER, ZOË, Nation, 00278378, 10/24/2016, Vol. 303, Issue 17
• Taking Politics to Another World. By: Pilon, Dennis, Canadian Dimension, 00083402, Sep/Oct2007, Vol. 41, Issue 5
• Le Guin, Urusula K. “On the Frontier,” in The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination, edited by Le Guin. Boston: Shambhala Press, 2004.

This 2009 psychological thriller pretends to be a found footage horror film, when it's actually a dramatic exploration of grief. We discuss writer/director Joel Anderson's process, as well as the funding, distribution and historical themes in the movie.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Lake Mungo

Additional Resources:

• Why Lake Mungo is the best ghost film you’ve never seen
• Lake Mungo Filmmaker Joel Anderson Interview - Media/Culture Reviews
• Lake Mungo – A picture never lies…
• Mourning an Aboriginal death
• Pleistocene human remains from Australia: A living site and human cremation from Lake Mungo, western New South Wales
• Australian Ghost Stories Detail a Very Isolated, Lonely Brand of Terror
• Alice Kept Secrets: Cinematic Grief and ‘Lake Mungo’ (2008)
• SXSW '09 Interview: "Lake Mungo" Director Joel Anderson
• Review of Joel Anderson's faux documentary thriller LAKE MUNGO
• Scribe tapped for 'Lake' remake

It's our third annual Christmas ghost story episode and we're looking into this 2011 debut of the popular horror anthology series by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. We discuss Murphy's mission, the show's popularity and its contrast of trashy excessive violence and sex, with themes of mainstream, heteronormative patriarchy.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• American Horror Story: Murder House

Additional Resources:

• 'American Horror Story': Ryan Murphy talks premiere and Rubber Man -- EXCLUSIVE
• Ryan Murphy Talks American Horror Story
• Keetley, D. (2013). Stillborn: The Entropic Gothic of American Horror Story. Gothic Studies, 15(2), 89.
• Nussbaum, E. (2018). Mk. Big. New Yorker, 94(13), 52.
• 'American Horror Story’: Ryan Murphy warns finale's brutal labor scene is 'the most shocking scene we’ve ever done' -- EXCLUSIVE
• Set Pieces: The haunted house of 'American Horror Story'
• Jamie Brewer of 'American Horror Story' Is First Woman With Down Syndrome to Star in Off-Broadway Play
• Interview with Jamie Brewer
• What Hollywood Can Learn From TV's Gayest Show
• Kim, Yaeri. "Only the First of Many": Repetition and Subversion in American Horror Story: Murder House, Feminist Studies in English Literature, Vol. 22, No. 3, 2014 Available from:"Only the First of Many": Repetition and Subversion in American Horror Story: Murder House [accessed Dec 16 2018].
• Buyers of $3.2M 'Murder House' Haunted by 'American Horror Story' Fans, Lawsuit Says

This 3-disc debut by an accomplished saxophonist was universally acclaimed as a sea change in music. We discuss how Washington was influenced by friends, family, history and dreams, while trying to challenge his listeners with genre-defying sounds.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Epic

Additional Resources:

• Meet Kamasi Washington, the High Priest of Sax
• Horn of plenty: Kamasi Washington's epic approach to jazz
• Interview: Kamasi Washington Talks About ‘The Epic’
• Kamasi Washington Is Leading a Musical Revolution — and It's Time to Learn His Name
• CHANGING THE GUARD: THE EPIC JOURNEY OF KAMASI WASHINGTON
• Kamasi Washington Has Conquered the Jazz World. What Does He Do Next?

This long-form essay by one of the hosts of On the Media argues that our current sociopolitical conflicts stem from a dissolution of facts and reality. We look at Gladstone's manifesto for producing her radio show to unpack her project here, while considering her advice for bolstering our own personal realities.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Trouble With Reality

Additional Resources:

• The Facts Must Matter: On “The Trouble with Reality”
• Gladstone's Book Answers The Question: What Ails Our Democracy?
• Q&A: Brooke Gladstone on the media, Trump, and truth
• Brooke Gladstone
• 'On The Media's' Brooke Gladstone on 'The Trouble with Reality'
• Interview: Journalist Brooke Gladstone And 'The Trouble With Reality'
• On The Media’s Brooke Gladstone on the redefinition of truth in the Trump era
• Journalist Brooke Gladstone Explains The 'Trouble With Reality'

This 12-part comic series seems like a fan's homage to Carl Bark' Disney stories, but we uncover how the values of "hard work" within (and the corporate machinations of many publishers) led Rosa to quit making comics out of frustration and resentment.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck

Additional Resources:

• Don Rosa on himself
• Don Rosa Collection
• IntroDUCKtion to the Life and Times of $crooge McDuck
• Going Quackers