From expanding cinematic universes to hostile fan cultures and AI-generated storytelling, this episode examines who actually shapes meaning in contemporary media. We trace the tension between corporate control, audience participation, and algorithmic systems, and ask whether storytelling is becoming more open, or more tightly managed.
This episode was recorded live at Edge Radio 99.3FM studios in Hobart Tasmania, and first aired on 23 APRIL 2026.
What if the most ideological moment in Project Hail Mary is not when the main character, Rylnad Grace, saves the world, but when he insists, repeatedly, that he is not a hero?
We are tempted, of course, to read this in the most obvious way, that a man who begins as a coward becomes, through narrative necessity, a hero. This is a standard character arc, the ideological comfort of many stories. But this reading misses something more interesting. What if Grace’s problem is not that he fails to be a hero initially, but that he is too invested in the very category of the hero itself?
The Ideological Trap of “I’m not heroic in any way”.
Consider Grace’s insistence that “I’m not heroic in any way. I get sick on an elevator!”
Grace refuses the request to join the space mission – ideology + identity.
This is not modesty. Nor is it simple fear. It is something more precise, an identification through negation. He tells us who he is by telling us who he is not. And in doing so, he reveals the structure of ideology at work. Drawing upon Michel Foucault, we can say that the “hero” is not a natural category but a discursive position, it is a role produced by institutions, narratives, and expectations. Grace does not stand outside the discourse; he is fully caught within it. His refusal is not a rejection of the system, but a form of participation in it. He accepts the terms hero vs non-hero and places himself on the “correct” side. In other words, he believes in the category enough to refuse it.
The Body as the Site of Ideology.
Here is where psychologist Burno Cayoun’s MiCBT framework becomes unexpectedly useful, not as a competing explanation, but as a way of further pushing this issue of identification. Of course, one should note that Cayoun’s MiCBT is a therapeutic framework designed for clinical application. Its use here is not to “diagnose” a fictional character, but as a way of reading how the film represents the relationship between thought, sensation, and action.
Grace under stress. A somatic experience.
Cayoun’s model suggests that what we call “identity” is not just an abstract concept, but embodied in how we feel. Evaluations like “I’m not heroic” are not neutral statements because they trigger body sensations such as elevated heart rate, constriction, and heat, which in turn produce a reaction, such as avoidance.
So when Grace says “I’m not heroic in any way,” this is not simply an ideological statement. It is a somatic event, a moment where a clear physical sensation occurs rather than just an abstract thought. He is not just anxious; his face flushes, his chest tightens, his stomach drops and so on.
According to Cayoun, this evaluation activates the “I/me” network; it produces an unpleasant bodily state, and the reaction (refusal) then aims to reduce that discomfort.
We might say, then, that ideology is not just something we think. It is something we feel in the body. Grace does not refuse the mission simply because it is dangerous. He refuses it because the situation produces a bodily state he cannot tolerate, and this state is inseparable from the identity he has constructed.
Amnesia: The Fantasy of Escape from Ideology.
The film begins with the central conceit that Grace has amnesia. This appears, at first glance, to offer a kind of liberation. Without memory, Grace is no longer burdened by the past, his failures, his self-doubt. He becomes capable, adaptive, even, dare we say, heroic. But we should be careful here. Amnesia is not simply a narrative convenience; it is a fantasy. It asks, what would remain of someone if we stripped away the accumulated layers of identity?
Grace waking up on the ship. A disruption of identity.
From a Foucauldian perspective, this is a temporary suspension of subjectification. The subject loses access to the discursive positions that previously structured their existence. From a MiCBT perspective, something equally important happens: the evaluation loops are disrupted. Without immediate access to identity-based schemas, the chain of evaluation> sensation > reaction is weakened.
What emerges is not a new self, but a different relation to experience of less immediate judgment, less reactive avoidance, and more direct engagement with the situation.
The Return of Memory: The Real Test.
The true test comes when memory returns.
Grace and Rocky celebrating. Engagement and cooperation.
If identity were simply a matter of content, this would mark the return of the old Grace, the man who insists, “I’m not heroic in any way.” But this is not what happens.
Instead, something more subtle occurs. Grace no longer needs to declare who he is. In the final act escalation [SPOILER], when faced with the decision to return to Earth or to sacrifice that return to save Rocky, the alien, who unexpectedly becomes both collaborator and companion to Grace, he does not announce “I am a hero now” or retreat to his earlier avoidance and refusal. He simply acts. And here we encounter a paradox: the only way to become a hero is to stop needing to define yourself against or within the category of the hero altogether.
Beyond Identity.
This is where Cayoun’s notion of “equilibrium” crosses over with cultural studies theory in a useful way. In MiCBT, equilibrium is achieved when attention is no longer dominated by evaluation and reaction, but balanced with sensory and bodily awareness. This does not eliminate thoughts; it changes the relationship to them.
Deciding a future without identity narration.
In Foucauldian terms, we might say that the subject is no longer fully governed by the ned to position itself within available discourse.
Grace’s transformation, then, is not from coward to hero but from someone who must constantly declare and defend their identity TO someone who can act without first wrestling with and then deciding who they are.
Conclusion: The Failure of the Hero.
The ultimate irony of Project Hail Mary is that it appears to affirm the heroic narrative while quietly undermining it.
The film gives us the spectacle of sacrifice, bravery, and salvation. But beneath this, it suggests something more unsettling, that the possibility of identity itself, this constant need to say “I am this” or “I am not that “, is the very mechanism that traps us in a reactive pattern of thought and behaviour.
Grace does not save the world because he discovers he was a hero all along.
He does so because, at a crucial moment, he no longer needs to know whether he is one.
References
Cayoun, B. A. (2015). Maintaining well-being and personal growth, in mindfulness-integrated CBT for well-being and personal growth: four steps to enhance inner calm, self-confidence and relationships. UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Chichester,
Foucault, M. (1990). The history of sexuality: An introduction. Vintage.
In Mindfulness-Integrated CBT for Well-being and Personal Growth, Bruno Cayou outlines a simple but powerful idea: we suffer not just because of what we experience, but because we identify with those experiences as who we are.
We see this insight especially vividly in contemporary pop culture characters, many of whom struggle to “become someone”. Let’s briefly explore this through three examples:
Jason Asano from He Who Fights with Monsters by Shirtaloon, aka Travis Deverell (a LitRPG fantasy series about suddenly finding yourself in a magical world)
Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing (a darker reimagining of the Hulk comic book character focused on trauma and identity)
Midnight Mass by Mike Flanagan, particularly Rily Fynn and Father Paul (a horror-drama miniseries exploring faith, guilt, and belief).
Identity as Experience and Mistaken Identity.
Cayoun suggests that internal experience, thoughts, emotions, and sensations are often mistaken for the self.
Anger becomes “I am angry”,
Guilt becomes “I am guilty”,
Fear becomes “this is who I am”.
This tendency to equate thoughts, emotions, and sensations with the self is the mechanism of identification, and it maintains suffering.
Cultural Studies theorists like Stuart Hall have long argued something similar concerning the formation and maintenance of identity. Hall, for instance, describes identity as not being fixed, but as a process of ‘becoming’. Michel Foucault also shows how identities are shaped through discourse and social roles, while Roland Barthes argues that cultural meanings can easily become normalised myths. Mindfulness-integrated Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (MiCBT) adds a crucial layer: even if identity is constructed, we still suffer when we believe it is who we are.
Jason Assano: The Anxiety of Becoming
Jason Asano’s central question is: “What am I becoming?”
As he gains power, he experiences violence, fear and moral ambiguity. However, rather than seeing these as situational experiences, he interprets them as signs of identity. That is, “I am becoming something dark”, or “I must remain a good person”.
This process of turning an emotional experience into one’s identity creates an escalating loop in which experience forms identity, leading to resistance and then suffering.
Jason embodies what Hall might call identity in flux, but he struggles to stabilise it. From Cayoun’s perspective, his suffering comes not from his actions, but from turning them into a fixed sense of self.
Immortal Hulk: Fragmented Selves
In Immortal Hulk, Bruce Banner’s internal experiences of rage, trauma and fear are split into multiple identities: Banner, Hulk, Devil Hulk.
Rather than recognising these as conditioned responses, they are treated as separate “selves’. The result is fragmentation:
Rages becomes “the monster”
Fear becomes something to suppress,
Identity becomes something to hear.
Here, Foucault’s idea of the “subject” is useful: Banner is shaped by narratives of monstrosity and control. Barthes would call “the Hulk’ a myth, yet Banner experiences it as reality.
From a MiCBT lens, the core issue is simple: “rage is not the problem, identifying with rage as self is.
Midnight Mass: Guilt vs Certainty.
In Midnight Mass, we see two opposing identity traps.
Riley Flynn experiences guilt after a fatal accident. That guilt becomes identity, he believes “I am the one who did this”, and then, “I am irredeemable”. He cannot separate experience from self.
Father Paul, by contrast, identifies with belief; he would claim that his experiences are divine and that he is chosen.
Where Riley is trapped in guilt, Father Paul is trapped in certainty. Both are forms of identification one with suffering, one with meaning.
Both illustrate Cayoun’s point: identification sustains suffering, whether through self-condemnation or self-justification.
A Shared Pattern.
Across all three:
Jason > “I am becoming something”
Hulk > “I am the monster”
Riley > “I am guilty”
Father Paul > “I am chosen”
The structure is the same: experience > identity > attachment > suffering.
Cultural Studies theories help us see that these identities are constructed. MiCBT helps us see why they hurt and lead to suffering.
A Different Possibility.
What Cayoun points toward is not the elimination of experience, but a shift in relationship:
not “I am this”.
But “this is happening”.
In other words, you are not these identities you experience; you are experiencing identities forming.
For fictional characters, this tension drives narrative. For us, it may be the difference between being trapped in a story we’re telling ourselves or being told about ourselves, and stepping outside it.
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