Toronto podcasting magnate and author Will Sloan was also, improbably, one of the last people to see Al Goldstein alive. Goldstein, for better or worse, was a trailblazing First Amendment crusader who embodied a particular time and place in American cultural history as the publisher of Screw magazine and the host of the long running New York public access program Midnight Blue, both indelibly scuzzy documents of the city’s sex trade in the 70s and 80s. Things didn’t end particularly well for Al, as two documentaries we discuss, 1996’s Screwed and 2005’s Porn King: The Trials of Al Goldstein, make abundantly clear.

We discuss our mutual long-term fascination with this complicated creep, discuss the ultimate fate of most psychopaths, and draw parallels between Goldstein’s downfall and the current collapse of another monstrous creation of New York City’s media ecosystem, the soon-to-be ex-President.

Plus a discussion about the upcoming Netflix prequel to Citizen Kane, the story of a screenwriter known to friends and foes alike simply as...Mank.

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Al Goldstein & Jerry Lewis together on New York morning television, 1976

Al’s immortal battle with the host (and studio audience) of the Wally George show, 1988

Will wrote a great piece for Hazlitt about the life of Al Goldstein shortly after his death.

Will Sloan & Justin Decloux’s new book about Matt Farley & Motern Media.

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