So What Are You Into?

This week we’re doing something a little different. Instead of bringing our usual Intos, we’re talking about the frustrating, messy, and often invisible process of trying to make something good.

While deep in post-production on Miss Holloween, Curt has been wrestling with the gap between what he can imagine and what he can actually accomplish with limited time, resources, experience, and energy. That leads us into a larger conversation about creative ambition, perfectionism, failure, and learning to accept that the thing you make might not look exactly like the thing that existed in your head.

We talk about the invisible work behind great art, knowing when to let an idea go, working within limitations, and the responsibility directors and producers have to the people helping bring their vision to life. We also get into generative AI and the promise of skipping straight to the finished product, and whether removing failure and struggle from the creative process also removes something essential.

We also talk about:

• Making Miss Holloween
• Creative ambition vs reality
• Why your taste can exceed your abilities
• Failure as part of learning
• Perfectionism and knowing when to stop
• The invisible work behind great art
• Directing, producing, and treating collaborators well
• Working within limitations
• Generative AI and creative shortcuts
• The myth of effortless creativity
• Giving yourself permission to make something imperfect

So… what are you into right now?

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We’re back! After a summer spent making theatre, James and Curt catch up on Poe Party and StarKid’s Tomb Quest, the exhaustion of doing a show, understudies, staying present onstage, and the strange miracle of live theatre actually coming together.

This week James brings FX’s Adults, which leads us into a conversation about why we miss sitcoms, characters who are allowed to be messy and cringe, and the value of vulnerability in comedy. We also get into social media, the pressure on actors to become content creators, and the danger of trying to follow somebody else’s path instead of figuring out what actually works for you.

Curt brings Elden Ring after finally deciding to stop fighting against what the game was asking of him and embrace being bad at something. After years of bouncing off difficult games, something finally clicks, leading to a conversation about failure, patience, mastery, and why struggling with something might actually be part of what makes it rewarding.

Both of these lead us to the same place: maybe being uncomfortable, looking stupid, and sucking at something for a while isn’t always something we need to avoid.

We also talk about:

• StarKid’s Tomb Quest
• Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party
• The exhaustion and magic of live theatre
• Understudies and staying present onstage
• FX’s Adults
• Sitcoms, comedy, and cringe
• Social media and content creation
• Finding your own creative path
• Elden Ring
• Failure, patience, and mastery
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Hades and Silksong
• Why being bad at something might actually be good for us

So… what are you into right now?

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Talking out loud about the stuff that won’t leave us alone.

This week James brings a growing appreciation for intimate, stripped-down music performances, the kind that remind us why we connect with artists in the first place. From acoustic concerts to MTV Unplugged, we explore why vulnerability and imperfection can sometimes create a more powerful experience than spectacle.

Curt, meanwhile, falls down an unexpected YouTube rabbit hole watching Pokémon card convention videos. Not because he suddenly became obsessed with Pokémon, but because he finds himself fascinated by something much bigger: the joy of watching people share what they genuinely love.

Somehow, both of these lead us to the same place: why it’s so much fun to watch people genuinely love something, even when you don’t totally understand it yourself.

We also talk about:

• Intimate live music and acoustic performances
• MTV Unplugged and stripped-down concerts
• Pokémon card conventions and collecting culture
• Community and shared enthusiasm
• Nostalgia and growing older
• Authenticity vs spectacle
• Why passion is contagious
• Finding joy in other people’s interests

So… what are you into right now?

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Follow along:
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This week writer, actor, and producer Sinead Persaud joins us to talk about Widow’s Bay, the new horror comedy series that became the jumping-off point for a much bigger conversation about creativity, collaboration, and building worlds.

What starts as a discussion about horror comedy turns into an exploration of writers’ rooms, worldbuilding, and the strange experience of watching someone else release a project that’s remarkably similar to one you’ve been dreaming about for years. Along the way, we unpack why collaboration isn’t a compromise, why atmosphere matters just as much as plot, and how the best creative work often comes from trusting other people with your ideas.

We also talk about:

• Widow’s Bay
• Horror comedy and atmosphere
• Writers’ rooms and collaboration
• Shipwrecked Comedy
• Television development
• Worldbuilding
• The myth of the lone genius
• Creative partnerships
• Making stories with other people

So… what are you into right now?

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Talking out loud about the stuff that won’t leave us alone.

This week James brings Blue Prince and Curt brings Inside, two games that unexpectedly lead us into a conversation about curiosity, uncertainty, and the value of not always knowing where you’re headed.

Along the way, we discuss the Tony Awards, cruise ships, artistic validation, and the strange ways our tastes evolve over time. What begins as a conversation about games eventually becomes something larger: a discussion about discovery, failure, creativity, and why some of life’s most meaningful experiences refuse to give us easy answers.

Blue Prince challenges players to embrace uncertainty and experimentation, while Inside explores conformity, control, and navigating systems that feel bigger than ourselves. Together they spark a conversation about curiosity, exploration, and learning to trust the process even when the destination isn’t clear.

We also talk about:

• Blue Prince
• Inside
• The Tony Awards
• Cruise ships and travel culture
• Puzzle games and storytelling
• Curiosity vs mastery
• Failure and experimentation
• Creativity and artistic growth
• Discovery and exploration
• The joy of not knowing

So… what are you into right now?

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Follow along:
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Talking out loud about the stuff that won’t leave us alone.

This week James brings One Cut of the Dead, the beloved Japanese comedy horror film that is best experienced knowing as little about it as possible. We talk about spoilers, audience expectations, and the rare stories that completely transform once you understand what they’re actually doing.

Curt brings Backrooms, and we dive into liminal horror, internet mythology, and the strange challenge of adapting stories from one medium into another. What happens when a piece of online horror built on mystery and ambiguity becomes a feature film? How much lore is too much lore?

Along the way, the conversation opens up into a broader discussion about adaptation, spoilers, mystery, and our tendency to explain the things we love until there’s nothing left to discover.

We also talk about:
• One Cut of the Dead
• Backrooms
• Spoiler culture
• Lore vs mystery
• Adapting stories across mediums
• Internet horror
• Why some stories work better when they leave questions unanswered
• The difference between explanation and discovery

So… what are you into right now?

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Talking out loud about the stuff that won’t leave us alone.

This week Angela Giarratana from Smosh, Starkid and Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists joins us for a conversation about comedy, horror, theater kids, internet comfort creators, and the strange emotional process of growing into yourself creatively. Angela is a comedian, actor, writer, and Smosh cast member whose work also spans projects like StarKid and Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists.

Angela brings:
• Half Man on HBO
• Rewatching Nerdy Prudes Must Die
• TikTok creator Joey Foo

We talk about the brutal and riveting world of Half Man, revisiting creative work years later, and why internet sincerity can feel strangely healing in a cynical online landscape.

From there, the conversation opens up into Angela’s creative journey through theater, improv, sketch comedy, producing, gaming, and online content, and why making things in community can feel so creatively and emotionally vital.

We also get into:
• Comedy horror
• Smosh and online comedy
• Nerdy Prudes Must Die
• Theater kids and collaboration
• Internet comfort creators
• Gaming and escapism
• Creative insecurity and vulnerability
• Why making art with friends matters

So… what are you into right now?

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[email protected]

Follow along:
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Talking out loud about the stuff that won’t leave us alone.

This week we get into West End theatre, indie horror films, nostalgic video games, AI art, and the strange emotional reality of trying to make things for a living.

James talks about choreographing The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals for the West End and what changes when adapting a beloved cult musical for a completely new audience and scale.

Curt talks about working on the newly announced Starkid hybrid feature Miss Holloween and the strange in-between space of making independent art while existing adjacent to larger entertainment industry machinery.

This week’s Intos:

James brings:
• Obsession by Curry Barker

James talks about Curry Barker’s debut feature and how it functions both as an exploration of toxic male loneliness and a deconstruction of familiar coming-of-age movie tropes. We get into projection, emotional isolation, and the dangerous comfort of fantasy.

Curt brings:
• Mixtape

Curt talks about the walking simulator Mixtape and why it resonates emotionally despite not trying to literally recreate teenage life. Instead, it captures the feeling of nostalgia through impressionistic and emotionally heightened storytelling.

Along the way, the conversation spirals into AI-generated art, why increasingly polished artificial media can still feel emotionally hollow, and why struggling through the process of making messy human art may actually be the entire point.

We cover:
• TGWDLM on the West End
• Miss Holloween
• Toxic loneliness and projection
• Why nostalgia works emotionally
• AI and the future of creativity
• Red carpet embarrassment
• Why imperfect art still feels human

So… what are you into right now?

Email us:
[email protected]

Talking out loud about the stuff that won’t leave us alone.

This week writer, actor, and Shipwrecked Comedy co-founder Sean Persaud joins us to talk about adapting Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party, the beloved 2016 web series, into a full stage musical premiering this summer at the Garry Marshall Theatre in Los Angeles.

What starts as a conversation about adaptation turns into something much bigger. We get into the strange experience of revisiting work that no longer belongs entirely to you, the pressure of adapting something people already have an emotional relationship with, and the challenge of translating a deeply visual piece of storytelling into the more suggestive language of theatre.

Sean talks about what changes when you move from screen to stage, how creative limitations can actually sharpen storytelling, and why adaptation is less about recreating something exactly and more about preserving the feeling people had when they first experienced it.

We also talk about:
• Adapting beloved cult material
• Why theatre and film tell stories differently
• Suggestion vs realism in storytelling
• How constraints shape creativity
• Making weird art with your friends

Watch now on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

So… what are you into right now?

Email us:
[email protected]

Follow along:
Instagram + TikTok: @sowhatareyouintopod

Talking out loud about the stuff that won’t leave us alone.

This week James brings Boy Band Confidential and a conversation about the machine behind 90s and early 2000s pop stardom. We talk about boy bands, nostalgia, exploitation, bad deals, and what it looks like when young artists are shaped by people with more power than them.

Curt brings the process of pitching a feature film before it exists. He talks about building a pitch deck, cutting a sizzle, communicating tone, and learning how to get people emotionally invested in a movie that has not been made yet.

We also talk about:

• Boy bands and the darker side of the industry

• The pressure placed on young performers

• Pitching a creative vision

• Why feeling matters more than plot

• Getting collaborators on the same wavelength

So… what are you into right now?

Email us:

[email protected]

Follow along:

Instagram + TikTok: @sowhatareyouintopod