Episode 81: Magic Mike Walked so Heated Rivalry Could Run

This week’s prompts: Blue, Twitch, 15

Lauren flies solo — but not really — as she welcomes her longtime partner-in-podcast-crime Julia from Miss Information: A Trivia Podcast for a full-throttle celebration of the cinematic masterpiece that is Magic Mike XXL (2015). What begins as a prompt-inspired detour quickly becomes a passionate thesis: this is not just a stripper sequel. It’s The Odyssey. With abs.

The two dive into the eight-and-a-half-hour road trip that somehow takes three days, from Tampa to Myrtle Beach’s gloriously unnamed “Stripper Convention.” Along the way: Mad Mary’s voguing chaos, a gas station Backstreet Boys breakdown for the ages, Jada Pinkett Smith presiding over a velvet-draped Savannah hedonism palace, and Andy MacDowell hosting a Charleston book club that accidentally turns into foreplay.

Lauren argues that the film’s true message is simple and profound: stripping is healing. Julia charts the logistical madness of the Froyo truck crash, the montage sewing session, and the conference room glow-up that somehow transforms Resurrection into the 10:20 p.m. moneymaker. And yes — they break down that final mirror routine from Channing Tatum and the late Stephen “Twitch” Boss in reverent, breathless detail.

They also tackle the deeper questions:
Why is everyone littering?
How long are these women at the convention?
Why does no one slip on the dollar bills?
And why did the third movie even exist?

PLUS:
The Stripper Convention as American myth
Joe Manganiello’s Cheetos-fueled Backstreet Boys meltdown
Domina, Rome, and subscription-based beauty
Sex swings, Nine Inch Nails, and the most romantic wedding ever staged
Magic Mike Live in Vegas and the $87 spiritual awakening
Why you can skip Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and just watch this instead

No death. No brooding. Just friendship, fireworks, and finely crafted choreography.

Next week’s prompts: 1600, Divine, Royal Purple

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Episode 80: Dr. Dermis: A Brief History of Nudity in Film

This week’s prompts: Nude, Mirror, 2193

Neal flies solo this week — juggling book deadlines, radio producing, directing gigs, and on-camera classes — and takes the prompts “nude” and “mirror” as an invitation to dive headfirst into one of cinema’s most controversial, complicated, and endlessly fascinating subjects: nudity on screen. From the silent era’s flesh-colored body stockings and allegorical “Truth” figures to the Hays Code crackdown that scrubbed Hollywood nearly clean for three decades, Neal traces how filmmakers have used (and misused) the naked body for art, shock, comedy, horror, politics, and pure box office bait.

Jane Mansfield makes mainstream movie history. Blow-Up and Midnight Cowboy help dismantle the Production Code. The ’70s explode with art-house extremity and exploitation excess — from Last Tango in Paris to Carrie. The ’80s normalize teen sex comedies and birth the erotic thriller, giving us Phoebe Cates in slow motion, Richard Gere in full frontal, and the rise of the femme fatale as both fantasy and threat. And then the ’90s detonate the culture wars. Sharon Stone’s leg-cross in Basic Instinct becomes the most paused moment in VHS history. Showgirls tests the limits of NC-17. The Crying Game uses nudity as narrative revelation. Schindler’s List reminds audiences that nudity can devastate rather than titillate. Through it all, Neal examines the power dynamics behind the camera — from Maria Schneider’s traumatic experience on Last Tango in Paris to Sharon Stone’s later revelations about consent and deception.

This isn’t just a history of skin on screen. It’s a history of censorship, power, vulnerability, gender politics, commerce, shame, and spectacle — and how cinema keeps holding up a mirror to all of it.

Next week's prompts: Twitch, Blue, 15

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Episode 79: Reclining Nudes and One Rude Dude

This week’s prompts: Nude, Mirror, 2193

Surprise! It's a solo episode, this time with LT! Neal is working on his book and way over his head, so we're changing things up a bit. He'll be back next week. Today, LT takes on the prompts of nude and mirror, and brings us along through a minor history of nudity... in what else? Art! LT talks about stereotypes in art, Manet, how nudes and class evolved over time, and maybe a hot take on Paul Gaugin?

Listen in for a great opening story that LT says might be the best compliment she's had in ages! Thank you to all of our Patrons for supporting the show. We couldn't do it without you! Join our patrons by going to:

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Next week: a solo show from Neal about nudity in... what else? Film!

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Episode 78: Whose Cah We Gonna Take?

This week’s prompts: Holy, New England, 530

Neal and Lauren welcome listeners to the deep winter doldrums with an episode that starts cozy and conversational… and then quietly spirals into bank robbers, nun masks, American realism, and one of the most haunting paintings of the 20th century. It’s a classic Curated by Chance hang: warm, thoughtful, and gloriously meandering.

Neal takes Holy and New England straight into The Town (2010), Ben Affleck’s Boston-set crime thriller that doubles as a love letter to place, loyalty, and impossible escape. He breaks down how Affleck reshaped a bloated studio script into a lean, character-driven heist film; why Charlestown functions as both setting and prison; and how real Boston crime lore — from codes of silence to armored car robberies — found its way into the movie. Along the way, Neal highlights Jeremy Renner’s Oscar-nominated performance, the infamous nun masks, the jaw-dropping Fenway Park climax, and why The Town belongs in the modern heist-movie canon alongside Heat.

After the break, Lauren also follows New England, but through art history, with a rich and moving portrait of Andrew Wyeth, one of America’s most iconic — and most misunderstood — painters. She traces Wyeth’s upbringing under illustrator father N.C. Wyeth, his frail childhood and intense artistic training, and the profound impact of loss, isolation, and landscape on his work. Lauren digs deep into Christina’s World: its real-life subject, its emotional ambiguity, and why viewers can read hope, despair, or quiet endurance into the same image. She also explores Wyeth’s mastery of watercolor and egg tempera, the tension between “illustration” and “fine art,” and the controversial, secretive Helga paintings — a body of work that shocked the art world and complicated Wyeth’s legacy.

PLUS:
Nun masks, Fenway Park, and Boston as a cinematic character
Jeremy Renner’s breakout performance and Affleck’s growth as a director
Christina’s World and why it refuses a single interpretation
New England landscapes as emotional terrain
Andrew Wyeth, watercolor wizardry, and the thin line between intimacy and obsession

Next week’s prompts: Nude, Mirror, 2193

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Follow the show and its creators on Instagram:

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Episode 77: Betty Spaghetti

This week’s prompts: Peach, Necktie, 309

It’s a solo mission this week as Neal takes the wheel for a heartfelt, history-rich deep dive into one of the most beloved sports movies ever made — a film that still makes audiences laugh, cheer, and maybe tear up just a little.

Neal takes Peach straight to A League of Their Own (1992), Penny Marshall’s classic underdog comedy about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II. He walks through the film’s origins, from its real-life inspiration to its journey to the big screen, and explains why it remains one of the most enduring sports movies of all time. From John Lovitz’s fast-talking scout and the formation of the Rockford Peaches to the unforgettable chemistry of Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna, and Rosie O’Donnell, Neal breaks down what makes the movie such a perfect balance of comedy, heart, and history.

Along the way, he digs into Penny Marshall’s legendary direction style, the intense baseball boot camp that put the cast through their paces, and the behind-the-scenes stories that gave us iconic moments like “There’s no crying in baseball!” Neal also explores the real women behind the story — the trailblazing athletes who kept professional baseball alive on the home front and whose legacy finally received long-overdue recognition at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It’s a love letter to teamwork, sisterhood, representation, and the kind of feel-good storytelling that never goes out of style.

PLUS:
⚾ The real All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
👒 Rockford Peaches, Racine Belles, and the best team names in sports history
🎬 Penny Marshall’s boot camp, bruises, and baseball realism
💄 Charm school, skirted uniforms, and playing hard in a “ladylike” world
🏆 Why A League of Their Own belongs in the sports-movie hall of fame

Next week’s prompts: Holy, New England, 530

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Episode 76: A Pod Full of Tangents

This week’s prompts: Peach, Necktie, 309

Neal and Lauren lean fully into chaos this week with an episode that earns its title the old-fashioned way: by going absolutely everywhere. What starts as a quick check-in spirals into a joyful, free-range conversation about internet conspiracies, parasocial fandom, doomscrolling, poetry whispered in the middle of the night, Roman fruit paintings, French Impressionists, and the eternal question of whether Doctor Who has queer time-travel fan fiction (spoiler: obviously).

Lauren takes Peach and turns it into an art-history fever dream, beginning with drunken T.S. Eliot recitations (“Do I dare to eat a peach?”) and winding through ancient Roman still lifes, fuzzy fruit symbolism, and the unexpectedly rich visual history of peaches in painting. From there, she launches into a deep, deliciously nerdy deep dive on Pierre-Auguste Renoir — the Impressionist painter of glowing skin, soft pastels, and famously gravity-defying nudes. She traces his journey from porcelain factory apprentice to founding Impressionist, his crisis of confidence after seeing Raphael and Titian in Italy, his pivot toward classical modeling, and the voluptuous excess of works like The Large Bathers. Along the way: invisible corsets, painterly filters, imposter syndrome, arthritis rumors, nepo-baby descendants, and one of the best art quotes ever: “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.”

By the end, the episode has become exactly what it promised: a pod full of tangents, powered by curiosity, affection, and the belief that sometimes the long way around is the most fun.

PLUS:
🍑 Ancient Roman peaches and pre-cultivation fruit history
📜 Drunk T.S. Eliot poetry as a lifestyle choice
🎨 Renoir’s glow, his gravity-defying nudes, and Impressionist rebellion
🩰 Invisible corsets, painterly filters, and the fantasy of beauty
🧠 Imposter syndrome, artistic reinvention, and why Raphael ruins everything
📱 Doomscrolling, fandom conspiracies, and the last good corners of the internet

Next week’s prompts: Peach, Necktie, 309

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Episode 75: To Couture a Mockingbird

This week's prompts: Paper White, 1962, Glasses

Neal takes 1962 straight to To Kill a Mockingbird, the landmark film adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel that somehow manages to be both gentle and devastating. He talks about Gregory Peck’s towering, quietly radical performance as Atticus Finch; why the movie still holds emotional power decades later; and how its moral clarity feels almost shocking in a modern landscape full of irony and cynicism. Neal also touches on the book’s long history of bans and challenges, why that still matters, and how the film’s restraint — its refusal to sensationalize — is exactly what gives it weight.

Meanwhile, Lauren unspools the life and legacy of Yves Saint Laurent, the fashion prodigy who permanently changed how women dress. From his early paper-doll designs and meteoric rise at Dior to the creation of ready-to-wear as a democratizing force, Lauren breaks down how Saint Laurent blurred gender lines, mainstreamed women in pants, and fused art, business, and rebellion into a single brand. She digs into his partnership with Pierre Bergé, his friendships and rivalries (Warhol, Lagerfeld), and the darker side of genius — addiction, burnout, and a career that flickered between brilliance and collapse. Along the way, we get couture history, fashion-week mechanics, and why Saint Laurent’s influence still shapes what hangs in our closets today.

PLUS:
📚 Why To Kill a Mockingbird still lands — and still gets banned
⚖️ Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch as moral north star
👖 Yves Saint Laurent and the radical act of putting women in pants
🧵 Couture vs. ready-to-wear, and how fashion actually makes money
🎨 Genius, excess, and the cost of changing culture

Next week’s prompts: Peach, 309, Necktie

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Episode 74: Down Ghibli Road

This week’s prompts: Bath, Paper White, 70

It’s New Year’s Eve at Curated by Chance, and Neal and Lauren settle into a quieter, cozier kind of chaos — the kind fueled by lingering colds, holiday brain fog, and the strange emotional clarity that tends to arrive between December 26 and January 1. What starts as a low-key check-in turns into a surprisingly tender conversation about memory, comfort, and the stories that show up exactly when we need them.

Lauren takes the prompt “Bath” straight into the warm, surreal waters of Spirited Away (2001). What begins as a rewatch with her son becomes a meditation on growing up, fear, and transformation. She explores Chihiro’s journey from frightened child to quiet hero, the dream logic of the bathhouse, and why Miyazaki’s world never explains itself — it simply invites you to exist inside it. From No-Face’s eerie longing to the film’s gentle emotional pacing, Lauren reflects on how Spirited Away trusts its audience in ways most Western animation never dares to.

Meanwhile, Neal brings in Down Cemetery Road, the moody British mystery series that’s become his latest obsession. Set in a quiet English neighborhood with secrets simmering just beneath the surface, the show taps into a very specific kind of storytelling pleasure: slow-burn tension, intimate character work, and the creeping sense that something is deeply off. Neal talks about the show’s measured pacing, lived-in performances, and why British crime dramas hit differently — less spectacle, more unease. It’s less about “whodunit” and more about the emotional fallout of knowing too much.

Next week’s prompts: 1962, Glasses, AstroTurf

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Episode 73: Johnny Galecki Is My Wingman

This week’s prompts: Attic, Fur, 160

Neal and Lauren close out the holiday season with migraines, subzero temperatures, Christmas Eve recording energy, and an episode that somehow becomes both a love letter to seasonal chaos and a rom-com–worthy personal anecdote.

Neal takes “Attic” straight to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) — the quintessential “everything goes wrong” holiday classic that turns good intentions into full-blown festive disaster. He walks Lauren (who has somehow never seen it) through Clark Griswold’s doomed quest for the perfect Christmas, unpacking iconic moments like the blinding house lights, Cousin Eddie’s RV arrival, the squirrel chaos, and that legendary Jelly of the Month Club rant. Along the way, Neal dishes out a sleigh-full of behind-the-scenes stories: a deceased trained squirrel, cue cards , an unscripted crotch grab into the final cut, and why this movie accidentally helped give us Home Alone. It’s pratfalls, pine sap, and pure holiday mayhem — with a surprising amount of heart.

Meanwhile, Lauren picks up “Attic” in a very different way, launching into a sharp, funny, and surprisingly moving breakdown of The Husbands by Holly Gramazio — a magical-realist novel about a woman whose attic functions as a portal dispensing an endless supply of husbands. She unpacks the book’s clever metaphor for modern dating, choice paralysis, grief, and self-definition, spotlighting standout husbands, the running Netflix joke, and why the book’s ending lands with such emotional precision. It’s funny, thoughtful, occasionally dark, and deeply relatable — even when the premise is completely bonkers.

And then — because this is Curated by Chance — Neal casually drops a real-life holiday rom-com story in which Johnny Galecki accidentally becomes his wingman. Yes, that Johnny Galecki. Sometimes the universe just hands you a third-act twist.

PLUS:
🎄 Why Christmas Vacation still feels painfully accurate
🐿️ Dead squirrels, wild squirrels, and very nervous stunt warnings
📖 Magical realism as dating allegory (and emotional survival guide)
💍 The grief of losing a perfect husband… to an attic portal
🍸 Johnny Galecki, Midwest bars, and the power of accidental celebrity proximity

Next week’s prompts: Bath, Paper White, 70

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Episode 72: Dancin' Slow

This week’s prompts: Goldenrod, 919, Hat

Lauren returns — coughs muted, spirits high — and Neal officially hands the mic back after last week’s Bond-fueled solo outing. What follows is a cozy, conversational episode that blends modern art theory, eccentric geniuses, and a little bit of podcast navel-gazing as the two reflect on growth, gratitude, and why structure can sometimes be the ultimate form of freedom.

Lauren takes Goldenrod and 919 straight into the world of Piet Mondrian, the Dutch modernist whose grids of black lines and primary colors became one of the most recognizable visual languages of the 20th century. She traces Mondrian’s journey from impressionist windmills to Cubist experimentation to the radical philosophy of De Stijl and neoplasticism, unpacking how horizontal and vertical lines were meant to represent nothing less than the underlying structure of the universe. Along the way: theosophy, occult philosophies, jazz clubs, secret flower paintings, rigid diets, racist pseudoscience, and the deeply funny revelation that Mondrian — stoic grid-master — loved dancing the Charleston.

Meanwhile, Neal reacts in real time, connecting Mondrian’s self-imposed artistic rules to movements like Dogme 95, modern minimalism, and why restriction often produces innovation. The conversation drifts into Mondrian’s lasting influence on fashion (hello, Yves Saint Laurent), graphic design, architecture, and pop culture — including why his work keeps resurfacing every few decades as the ultimate visual reset.

In between, the two share Spotify Wrapped–style listener stats, celebrate international fans, and marvel at the strange, wonderful overlap between art nerds, trivia lovers, audiobook obsessives, and people who just really liked an episode called Wash Your Damn Hands.

Next week’s prompts: Attic, Fur, 160

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