Candy Jail

Candy Jail

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Candy Jail episodes

  • 8. The Shining

    One of us reads Stephen King for the first time and we both revisit the familiar haunts of Stanley Kubrick's film. 

    1 hr 22 min
  • 7. Indiana Jones and the Denial of Death

    You may not be able to be neutral on a moving train, but you can certainly punch Nazis on one. 

    Why don’t franchises know when to die? Why, in spite of our trenchant trash talk, do we keep watching these movies? Is America’s unique denial of death expressing itself through these films? Also, Nazi punching. 

    Also mentioned: Steven Spielberg, Siegfried Kracauer, James Bond, Black Panther, Norman Rockwell

    Note: High Priest would've been a more accurate term than Rabbi. 


    1 hr 16 min
  • 6. Do We Need a Weatherman After All?

    Can reflecting upon the legacy of the Weather Underground help us today to develop strategies to change the world for the better?

    Book: Dan Berger's Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity.  (Available here.)

    Also mentioned: Underground (1976), The Weather Underground (2002), Jean Amery, CS Lewis, an imaginary version of King Lear

    Intro and Outro Music: Candy Jail by Silver Jews

    1 hr 30 min
  • 5. I Consent to Feeling Moved by Sunsets

    Are all autobiographies bullshit? Can anyone really truly know themselves? Is there a "self" at all?

    We fumble for answers to these questions during our discussion of Edouard Levé's experimental (anti) memoir, Autoportrait. 

    Also mentioned: Jean Amery, Georges Perec, Fernando Pessoa, Ulysses

    Also existentially disturbing: the audio glitch around 8:05. Apologies. 


    1 hr 29 min
  • 4. Up Against the Wall, Motherf***er

    Who were the Symbionese Liberation Army, what did they want, and how do they fit into the histories (and legacies) of Leftist movements?

    Film: Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (2004) available here.

    Also mentioned: The Weather Underground, A Raisin in the Sun

    Intro music: Silver Jews, Candy Jail

    Outro music: Jefferson Airplane, We Can Be Together

    1 hr 28 min
  • 3. No One Wants to Read Your Catharsis

    Why does inspiration arrive, where does it go when it leaves, and how do you get it to come back?

    We discuss Vladimir Nabokov’s 1972 essay “On Inspiration.”

    Also mentioned: JD Salinger, Walt Whitman, Charles Bukowski, David Lynch, Keith Jarrett, Lana Del Rey, Saul Friedlander

    1 hr 24 min
  • 2. Speak No Evil

    One of us is shaken by, and the other skeptical of, Christian Tafdrup's 2022 film Speak No Evil. 

    Speak No Evil is available here. Also mentioned: Ikiru, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kafka, Raul Hillberg

    1 hr 15 min
  • 1. Walter Benjamin and A.O. Scott

    What makes movies so special? Can art be “political” without being didactic? Are superhero movies fundamentally fascist?

    We discuss Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and A.O. Scott's decision to leave film criticism.  

    1 hr 12 min

About Candy Jail

From the publisher's feed

A podcast about the agonizing questions of existence and the shit we watch, read, and listen to to try to make sense of it. 

Currently handcuffed to a bank vault. Send cheap wine,…