Episodes

  • Awards Season in Flux

    Awards Season in Flux
    Jan 11 2025
    This week I’m joined by Richard Rushfield and Katey Rich of The Ankler to discuss the state of the awards season post-Golden Globes and in the midst of the Los Angeles fires. (Indeed, Los Angeles resident Richard is in the city to give us an on-the-ground update of the state of things from his perspective. Please excuse any background noise/distortion that you may hear as a result!) We talked about how the Globes might affect the Oscars, how the Globes has devolved into an incestuous web of self-dealing, and how the fires might affect Academy Award voting patterns. We also discussed the new Ankler Pundits prediction site, which I am honored to have been asked to take part in. Check it out and feel free to mock my picks.

    And look: I understand the impulse to avoid discussing awards given everything that’s going on out west. I want to reiterate that there are good charities that can be donated to if you’re looking to help out:

    If you can’t wait to donate, you can never go wrong with José Andrés’s World Central Kitchen, which has teams on the ground helping feed first responders. Two additional charities I’ve had folks recommend are Global Empowerment Mission and the California Community Foundation. I’m sure they’ll all make good use of every penny.

    I also think halting the awards will do little to improve anyone’s financial standing and will in fact hurt the folks who work for all the ancillary events. Not just the awards shows themselves, but the parties, the limo drivers, the caterers, the dress designers, people whose whole year is made or broken by this stretch in Los Angeles. Awards may feel silly but even silly things can be worthwhile, particularly when your livelihood depends on it.

    If you enjoyed this show, I hope you share it with a friend.
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    49 mins
  • The Fascinating Legacy of 'Yacht Rock'

    The Fascinating Legacy of 'Yacht Rock'
    Jan 4 2025
    On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Steven Hyden, who—in addition to being the author of books on Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, and Radiohead, and a prolific author at Uproxx—served as the story producer on HBO’s new film, Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary. In addition to discussing just what it means to be a story producer on a documentary, we discussed the making of this film, the evolution of the term “yacht rock,” and why (some) artists have (slowly) warmed to the term. I really can’t recommend the documentary enough: it’s both entertaining and informative. And if you enjoyed this episode, I hope you share it with a friend!
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    46 mins
  • Everything There Is to Know About Star Wars

    Everything There Is to Know About Star Wars
    Dec 21 2024
    On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Brandon Wainerdi to discuss DK’s hefty and handsome new reference book, Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy. We discussed how he broke into writing about Star Wars, researching his entries for the book, and why so much of what we obsessives know about Star Wars comes not from the films but the surrounding products. Brandon’s interview podcast, Talking Bay 94, is a must-listen if you’re a fan of the series. I’ll just say, on a personal note, that this is a really beautiful book: lots of illustrations, tons of information. If you have a precocious tween who loves Star Wars in your life, you could do much worse than this as a gift for them this Christmas. And if you enjoyed this episode, I hope you share it with a friend!
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    50 mins
  • Bringing Novels Into the Internet Age

    Bringing Novels Into the Internet Age
    Dec 14 2024
    On this week’s episode, I’m joined by novelist and Broadway producer Michael Wolk to discuss his new interactive novel, Devil’s Game. You can check it out yourself here; it’s an interesting mix of web-first design and apocalyptic airport thriller. We talked about what drove him to write this novel and also discussed the state of Broadway and live theater more generally. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!
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    30 mins
  • The Copyrighted Material Being Used to Train AI

    The Copyrighted Material Being Used to Train AI
    Dec 7 2024
    On this week’s episode, I talked to Alex Reisner about his pieces in The Atlantic highlighting the copyrighted material being hoovered into large language models to help AI chatbots simulate human speech. If you’re a screenwriter and would like to see which of your work has been appropriated to aid in the effort, click here; he has assembled a searchable database of nearly 140,000 movie and TV scripts that have been used without permission. (And you should read his other stories about copyright law reaching its breaking point and “the memorization problem.”) In this episode, we also got into the metaphysics of art and asked what sort of questions need to be asked as we hurtle toward the future. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!
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    40 mins
  • Comcast Is Spinning Off Its Cable Assets: What Does that Mean?

    Comcast Is Spinning Off Its Cable Assets: What Does that Mean?
    Nov 23 2024
    This week I’m rejoined by Sean McNulty of The Ankler’s morning roundup newsletter, The Wakeup, to discuss the big news in cable land: ComcastNBCUniversal’s decision to spin (most of!) their cable properties into a new, separate company, called SpinCo for now. What does this mean for MSNBC, USA, and the rest of the impacted channels? Why is Bravo staying under the Comcast umbrella? What impact will this have on NBC? All of these questions are asked and some answers are given. Warning: There is a fair amount of rank speculation in this episode, but that couldn’t be avoided.
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    40 mins
  • Melding Video Games and TV Shows

    Melding Video Games and TV Shows
    Nov 16 2024
    This week I’m thrilled to be joined by Jacob Navok, the CEO of Genvid Entertainment, to discuss his company’s new partnership with DC Comics, DC Heroes United. A combination mobile game and Justice League television show, DC Heroes United is a fascinating hybrid entertainment experience, one that Navok has been working on in various forms for years now.

    The first 20 minutes or so of the show are largely about DC Heroes United; after that, we discuss the evolution of this sort of interactive gaming/viewing more broadly, including earlier experiments on Facebook and with properties like The Walking Dead and Silent Hill. It’s a fascinating new arena of entertainment, and I hope you learn something about how the next generation is interacting with media even if you’re not that interested in the properties themselves.

    If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!
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    59 mins
  • The Christmas Movie Industrial Complex

    The Christmas Movie Industrial Complex
    Nov 9 2024
    This week I’m joined by Russell Hainline, the screenwriter of the forthcoming Netflix original Hot Frosty as well as a whole bunch of Hallmark original Christmas movies (including last year’s The Santa Summit and the forthcoming The Santa Class). I asked him on today to talk about the burgeoning market for Christmas movies on channels like Hallmark and streaming services like Netflix, and we had a great chat about how Hallmark resembles a cable network less than the old Hollywood studios like RKO and MGM. What lessons can the rest of the industry learn from them? If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend!
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    53 mins