I am pleased to be rejoined this week by Bobby Miller to discuss his new novel, Situation Nowhere. Imagine Brazil by way of Idiocracy but goopier: That’s Situation Nowhere. We talked about some of his influences, the state of our increasingly recursive culture, and why we need to bring back shaming folks for selling out. If you’re in Los Angeles, check out Bobby’s event on Saturday at The Redwood Bar! And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. (And listen to last year’s episode with Bobby about the Blu-ray release of his film, The Cleanse.)

On this week’s episode I’m joined by Ross Benes, the author of the forthcoming book 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times. It comes out in a few weeks and I hope you take a gander at it; we spent most of our time discussing the ways in which professional wrestling and the Insane Clown Posse help explain the phenomenon that is Donald J. Trump and his ascent through the political landscape, but there’s more to the book than that. And if you enjoyed this episode, I hope you share it with a friend!

Sonny Bunch sits down with filmmaker Jonathan Gruber to discuss his new documentary, Centered, which explores the life and legacy of Joe Lieberman. As the first Jewish Vice Presidential candidate, Lieberman made history—only to later shake up politics by breaking with his own party. With the film releasing today, they dive into his career, key political battles, and the impact of centrism in modern politics.

A weird question I sometimes get is this: “I want to get into buying movies on disc, Sonny, but I don’t know where to start.” I say it’s weird because the answer seems obvious to me: just buy movies you like to watch! But there are issues I take for granted like formats and resolutions, so I thought it would be useful to talk to Aidan Ryan of the Boston Globe about his recent piece in that newspaper’s magazine focused on the Gen Z/Young Millennial cohort that has gotten really into collecting movies on disc. From the dollar DVD bins to the high-quality UHD 4K collectors sets put out by the boutique labels, these younger collectors run the gamut. If you have questions of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, I’m plesaed to be rejoined by Brandon Struessnig to discuss one of my favorite packages of the year, Vulture’s annual stunt awards. Who were the big winners? What were some of the surprises? Just how long did it take George Miller to shoot that war rig sequence in Furiosa anyway? All that and more on this week’s episode. Make sure to check out the winners before listening to us discuss them. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend!

This week I was joined by Jake Rademacher, the director of Brothers After War to talk about his new documentary checking in with folks who have returned from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and how they are reintegrating into society. It’s a powerful and moving documentary, and I highly recommend checking it out if you get the chance, particularly if you have a veteran in your life. You can find showtimes nearest you here. And if you’re a veteran, you should still be able to get free tickets to the film by signing up at VetTix.org and searching for Brothers After War. If you enjoyed this episode, I hope you share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by the New York Times’s James Poniewozik to discuss SNL’s (rather lengthy) 50th anniversary celebration. (Here’s a gift link to James’s piece on his favorite episode of SNL.) We discuss the show, how it has changed, and how changes in how people watch the show change its meaning (and our relationship to it). I also asked James about his book, Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America and how to best cover Trump without succumbing to the siren song of scolding; that clip starts a little before minute 30 if you want to skip all the SNL chatter. (But why would you?) If you enjoyed the episode, I hope you share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Jake VerKesen—some of you in the comments might know him by his handle, Jake VK—on the long and winding road to turning an idea for a micro-budgeted indie movie like I Agree With You from a dream into a reality. We discuss the paperwork, the delays, the fundraising, the shooting, the food, the editing, and, finally, the showing, that goes into getting an indie movie made and delivered to the people. 

As discussed on the episode, the movie’s not out just yet, but hopefully y’all will get a chance to see it soon. You can follow the film’s progress on its Substack and add I Agree With You to your Letterboxd watchlist. 

On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by writer/director Philip Gelatt and novelist Paul Tremblay (author of Horror Movieand The Cabin at the End of the World, among other scary books) to discuss the new Substack-hosted docu-horror series Etch. The concept is pretty cool: Philip has interviewed a quintet of horror authors—Tremblay, Stephen Graham Jones, Laird Barron, Elizabeth Hand, and Mariana Enriquez—and every week he’s dropping another episode that combines that interview with a reading of a short story and video illustration. (Not quite a movie, exactly, more like creepy imagery.)

I’ll say, as a longtime user/reader of Substack, it’s exciting to see folks push the boundaries of what the site can be. I think most people see Substack as a newsletter/podcast site, and most of the video I’ve seen on Substack has been, more or less, video versions of podcasts. (We have a lot of those here at The Bulwark!) But this is a great example of a creator deciding to bypass the studios and the streamers and just make something he wants to see in the world using the broadcast tools provided by Hamish McKenzie and his team at Substack and doing so in a way that allows you to “own” the readers/followers, a stark contrast from YouTube, TikTok, and other user-generated video sites. (It’ll be great when they drop a streaming-style app.) If you are into horror, I highly recommend checking this out. And if you enjoyed this episode, I hope you share it with a friend!

On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch is rejoined by Jesse Nelson of DiabolikDVD and Cauldron Films to discuss the state of home video. We get to the tariff discussion around 32 minutes in, but before that, Jesse dispels some of the concerns about Sony’s recent announcement that they’re discontinuing recordable media like Blu-ray, what collectors are looking for from his store, and how he and his business partner go about deciding out what titles to distribute via their label, Cauldron Films. As mentioned on the episode, I enjoy Diabolik’s “Browse by Label” page to see what weird stuff is hitting Blu-ray and UHD in the upcoming months. Make sure to check out Cauldron’s lineup; that Mad Foxes set seems pretty cool. If you enjoyed the episode, please share it with a friend!