I spoke with my friend Sandra Reichert about her debut novel "Der Himmel Muss Warten," what led her to publishing her book, the tricky media landscape for new writers, making the decision to pursue her dream, and more! Hope you enjoy!

You can purchase Sandra's novel here (in German): https://www.muerysalzmann.com/neuerscheinungen/der-himmel-muss-warten

Sandra's website

Harley is a curator, researcher, and the kind of person who could make any topic interesting. We settled on talking about the ups and downs of friendship. Harley is a New Yorker and she came to Berlin with her best friend from college, but things started changing between them after the big move. We talk about adolescent anger, what we need from our friendships, and becoming more settled than you ever thought you‘d be. This was my first in-person chat in a while and it was a windy day, so some of the audio might sound off at times!

Harley's art collective COVEN

Instagram

And now for something completely different. I sat down with film professor Prof. Peter Lehman and horror scholar Dr. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas to discuss male nudity in cinema. We discuss our connections with the topic, the phallus vs the penis, rape revenge, the pitfalls of “respectable cinema,” the prosthetic penis and a lot more. I’m so glad and grateful that I had a chance to talk to these bona fide experts about a topic that I have been wondering about for a very long time. I hope you take something away from this unusual film exploration.

Illustration by Karolin Schnoor

A Selection of Peter Lehman’s Work:

Running Scared: Masculinity and the Representation of the Male Body

Masculinity: Bodies, Movies, Culture

Pornography: Film and Culture

Peter Lehman’s Arizona State University Profile

A Selection of Alexandra Heller-Nicholas’ Work:

Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study

1000 Women In Horror, 1895-2018

The Giallo Canvas: Art, Excess and Horror Cinema

Alexandra Heller-Nicholas’ Website

Watching Rape, the book Alexandra mentions

Wesley Morris’ NY Times article on Black male sexuality

Films mentioned:

• The Virgin Spring (1960)

• Drive, He Said (1971)

• Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)

• Last House on the Left (1972)

• I Spit On Your Grave (1978)

• Sweet Savage (1979)

• A Room with a View (1985)

• Drifting Into Chaos (1989)

• The Pillow Book (1996)

• Traps (1998)

• Baise Moi (2000)

• Django Unchained (2012)

• PVT Chat (2020)

• Zola (2020)

• Minx (2022-)

Kevin Bacon’s penis PSA

Lastly, thank you to Karolin Schnoor for the encouragement and for making the brilliant illustration!

June 20 2022

Freyia is a trainee wellness practitioner, podcaster and aspiring lingerie designer who reached out to me on social media. Freyia experienced a psychotic break a few years ago and we talk about what that was like for her as well as what changed in her life afterwards and what didn‘t. I want to thank Freyia for giving her first-person account and being so open with me, a stranger. My side of the chat sounds a bit off at times, apologies in advance!

March 25 2022

Grace, a student of psychology is interested in decision-making and therefore pretty perfect for the podcast. Grace, previous podcast guest Jess and I have been virtually movie watching for a year now, but this was the first non-movie related conversation Grace and I ever had. We talk about overthinking, some decision rules of thumb, inexplicable decision moves, and more. I was trying to go for a bit of a Hidden Brain vibe in this one. Hope you enjoy and take something away from this one!

Decision-making professor Grace mentions @lacepadilla

Grace in the middle of the decision-making process!

Jun 30 2021

During the pandemic I joined a book club with some great, admirable women. One of these women is Dyan, my guest this episode. Dyan is a multi-instrumentalist and singer currently working on her first solo album after almost two decades of working in bands. We talk about what led to her producing a solo album, what rising in the indie ranks with bands The Blood Arm and Mexican Radio was like, the catharsis that can come from music, and more. Dyan’s debut single “Fade Away” is coming out this fall and her debut album “Stand” will be released in early 2022! Be sure to follow her on social media for updates.

This episode features snippets from the following songs:

The Blood Arm - Torture

Mexican Radio - Night of the Nihilist

The Blood Arm - What Kind of Animal R U?

Dyan’s instagram - @dyanvaldes

Photo taken by Dyan Valdes

Apr 4 2021

The Bend is back with a light and hopefully fun episode! I chatted with Robby Hoffman, a Canadian stand-up comedian. I first saw Robby on The Chris Gethard Show where she was working as a writer. A year or so later, I found her comedy/advice show Dykevice on YouTube. Robby’s brand of comedy is really refreshing because she is clearly being herself the whole time, which is unfortunately rare to see! Robby actually started off as an accountant and made a very big career pivot going into comedy. We talk about her transition from accounting to comedy, her healthy amount of self-confidence, what winning a Daytime Emmy is like, and the art of advice giving.

Note: We discuss her show Dykevice in the episode, but it has since been renamed and is now called Robby Hoffman Consulting Group.

Watch Robby’s show (and more) on YouTube here

Follow Robby on twitter and Instagram

Dec 5 2020

One film project that has had a huge impact on me is the Up Series. The Up Series is an ongoing British series of documentary films that began in 1964 and followed 14 children from different socio-economic backgrounds in England. Every 7 years director Michael Apted meets up with the kids, who are now 64 years old, and talks about what has happened in their careers, mindsets, families and so on. The project packs an emotional wallop, and the longer it continues, the more compellingly humanist it becomes. The latest episode, 63Up, came out in 2019. I started to watch the series in my early teens and I’m now 35, so these individuals have accompanied me in some way for more than half my life. With all this in mind, you can imagine how happy I was when I got the chance to speak to Tony, the very charismatic London cabbie and former jockey, the “cheeky chappie” as he calls himself, who is one of the protagonists of the film series. We talk about his life, his priorities, and of course, we talk about the Up Series.

You can find out more about Tony on his webpage

He’s also on twitter and Instagram.

Oct 9 2020

Sophia is is the owner of the charming English-language bookstore Another Country in Kreuzberg and is quite a known entity in some Berlin circles because of it. She spent most of her life in England and moved to Berlin more than two decades ago. Trans coming out stories are very diverse, of course, and Sophia‘s experience is no exception. What started off as one of the effects of a health issue went on to change her life and led to her transition. Sophia was diagnosed with liver cancer a year ago and we discuss that as well as her many insights into the transitioning process. We did this interview over the phone and the sound isn’t optimal, I apologize in advance!

Check out Another Country here

And Sophia’s blog here

Aug 3 2020

Lizzie Borden is the director of the influential sci-fi/agitprop cult film BORN IN FLAMES (1983) and Sundance award winner WORKING GIRLS (1986). We showed BORN IN FLAMES as part of Final Girls Berlin Film Festival’s special sci-fi event in 2019 and I decided to reach out to Lizzie Borden during these Corona times and ask if I could interview her for the podcast. Luckily, she agreed! We spoke about her background, her films, what it was like to work with Harvey Weinstein, her current projects, and quite a lot more.

BORN IN FLAMES can be seen on the Criterion Channel and WORKING GIRLS will be restored and released by Criterion in early 2021.

You can follow Lizzie Borden here:

Facebook: Lizzie Borden (the profile with her face on it and NOT the ax murderer)

Twitter: @LizzieBordenLA

Instagram: @lizzieborden1403