Read it and Weep

Put on your best hoodie and wake up from a nap, it's the bi-coastal podcast event of the year!

The News: Anthony gives us a report on a stranger than usual Golden Globes.

The Homework: Hunter introduces us to the Italian slasher genre giallo.

The Argument: What's the best slasher film of all time? Scream (1996) or Psycho (1960)

If you want to get weirder in the giallo world, Hunter recommends Deep Red (1975)

The LA Times deep reporting on corruption with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-02-21/hfpa-golden-globes-2021

We're off on an adventure this week, an epic journey across time, the Midwest, and Middle Earth.

The News: the first 3-d reconstructed dinosaur cloaca

The Homework: The 1999 Disney/David Lynch movie The Straight Story about a long trip on a little mower.

The Argument: What's the best epic journey movie: Lord of the Rings or Mad Max: Fury Road

Ezra started baking sourdough over the pandemic (he's the only one) and he wanted to share the joy with Alex. Alex, on the other hand, thinks bread is a lie.

This week is all about survival. Will Pi survive the wide ocean alone with a metaphor? Will Gina Carano survive being held accountable for her actions? And what is the best survival movie of all time?

Gina says terrible stuff, gets a movie deal

Life After Pi documentary about the VFX company winning an Oscar then going out of business.

Anthony recommends: Touching the Void

For our first ever magic special we've got world-traveling magician Billy Kidd to help us talk about the new special from Derek DelGaudio, In and Of Itself, which is a magic show but also kinda not. It's on Hulu and definitely worth a watch. We talk about what parts worked for us and which landed like a ton of golden bricks. Plus magic news, the best magic movies, and more than a little talk about the differences between comedians and magicians. Check it out before it disappears!

Siegfried Faschbacher of Siegfried and Roy dies at 81

Alex recommended the book The Magician and the Cardsharp by Karl Johnson

Anothny recommended David Byrne's American Utopia

Alex mentioned Penn & Teller's beach trick:

Billy recommends the film The Great Buck Howard

This week we're celebrating the wide world of space with three far out topics: The Mandalorian on Disney+, SpaceX's announcement of the first all private space mission, and an argument about what makes a good space movie.

Ezra's back with a group of Meat Buddy-voted topics but because he's such a generous soul, we actually took all three of the top vote-getters for kids shows: Magic School Bus Rides Again, the Netflix remake where Ms Frizz gets super hot, Paw Patrol, a show that set out to prove not all dogs are good dogs, and Gravity Falls where a legitimately good show just happens to be aimed at kids.

Season 4 just got a whole lot more topical with our first ever breaking news segment. We've got four great segments:

The News: Why are people who used to play online poker buying GameStop stock?

The Homework: When you see the queen of diamonds you'll HAVE to listen to us discuss The Manchurian Candidate (1962).

The Argument: Do you leave your water cup out?

The Business: Anthony's mea culpa and commander

We've got another fun pile of topics as season 4 crawls on.

Tell & Tell: Alex opens his wikihole for La Secchia Rapita and Hunter talks about the unfortunate journey of Pepe the Frog.

The Homework: I know you've heard about The Wizard of Oz (1939) so we tried to find a few new ways to think about it.

The Argument: Do you try to pronounce menu items you're not sure about?

The Business: Alex's mom responds to "all that dick talk."

Over on our sister podcast Pack Your Mics we recorded a special bonus episode about the Netflix series Bridgerton. It features Ezra and Sarah and Chris and Tanya, so I thought you'd like to hear it in this feed. So if you like us or you like Bridgerton, check it out! 

WARNING: Contains major spoilers and innovative swearing