Hello and welcome once again to the Midnight Burger Newsletter. How are things? We just posted “Chapter 28: Pockets”, AKA the episode that nearly killed me and now, since it didn’t kill me, I feel invincible. This is a temporary feeling, I’m sure. But for now, I am impervious. Hurl sharp objects at me.
The Scientist vs. The Mad God
In our most recent episode we saw Leif, the slayer of John Wilkes Booth, go up against the pure chaos of Clementine. It was a doozy. When I say this episode almost killed me, what I mean to say is, it was the first time I had written a bunch of things into a script that I had absolutely no idea how to pull of in the sound design. It was a leap into the darkness for me, and perhaps something I won’t make a habit of, but at least this time it all worked out fine.
In the midst of all the nonsense of any episode there is usually an “actual science thing”. This time around it was the irresistibly named Maxwell’s Demon.
As Ava describes, Maxwell's Demon is a thought experiment in physics that was proposed by physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1867. The experiment challenges the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy of an isolated system tends to increase over time. In the thought experiment, a "demon" is envisioned that has the ability to sort fast-moving and slow-moving molecules in a gas. By opening and closing a tiny door, the demon selectively allows only fast-moving molecules to pass into one chamber and slow-moving ones into another, creating a temperature difference without expending energy. This seemingly violates the second law of thermodynamics, as it suggests the creation of a temperature gradient without any work being done. The paradox highlights the deep relationship between information, entropy, and energy in physical systems.
That’s a lot. When you’re talking about the sciences to an audience of (mostly) non-scientists, the challenge is always to talk about them in a way that doesn’t alienate or outright bore anyone listening. The key for me is always in the relationship between “the thing” and “the spirit of the thing”. “The thing” is the complicated thought experiment of Maxwell’s Demon and “the spirit of the thing” is what the thought experiment implies: the question of wether or not we can, with our considerable intellect, somehow outsmart the laws of physics. And after about 150 years of doing battle with Maxwell’s Demon, the answer seems to be no. No matter how powerful you think you are, you can never overpower the world that created you, even if you’re Clementine.
We’ve got a ways to go with Clementine, and we’ll see if she can come to terms with the harsh reality that we are all, despite all we can do and all we can achieve, powerless in the end.
Fan Art Round Up!
Who’s arting it up out there? It’s Whisperdan! Let’s see…
Whisperdan was on a tear this last month, continuing their quest to make everyone on the show sexy. Here’s Leif and Caspar at the Orange Julius in Chapter 22.
Here are Caspar and Leif again in Chapter 24 pondering the “Orgy Question”.
A tender moment between Leif and Gloria.
A raspberry across space and time from Chapter 27.
And then this epic “the girls” moment really nailed me.
I know not why Whisperdan has become obsessed with the show, but I will definitely not be looking the gift-artist in the mouth anytime soon. Keep them coming!
Up Next: Home for the Holidays
Keep your eyes on your feed on the 1st of August when Leif goes to worst spot in three galaxies: home. Leif is about to begin his life as a pirate and it’s time to wrap up some old family business.
or…
You can always subscribe! If you’d like to hear the next episode of Midnight Burger or the final TWO episodes of Young Leif, you can now for only two dollars a month over at patreon.com/midnightburger. In addition to early access and ad free shows you can also mess around on our subscriber discord and in the upper tiers of membership get free merch, listen to our “show about our show” Shift Notes, or join the irresponsibly long list of names you hear at the end of every episode. If you’d like a perk or two and would like to digitally hang out with people who will get your Midnight Burger inside jokes, please join us.
A reminder!
Remember that Season 3 will be two episodes longer than our previous seasons with the final episode being chapter 32. (32?!?!? That’s so many?!?!?)
That’s all for now. Making this show for you all is a dream. We have no plans on waking up from it.
We’ll be out there, somewhere, lookin’ for ya’.
-Joe