We’re sharing a bonus episode from our friends at American Masters: Creative Spark, the PBS podcast that goes in-depth with an iconic artist about the creation of a single work. This episode is about John Waters, a filmmaker who loves to break the rules and make you laugh along the way. The iconoclast has been doing just that over the past six decades with provocative and perverse films like Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, and Female Trouble. Now enshrined as the king of transgressive cinema, Waters breaks down the creative process behind his first novel, Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance.

This episode includes derogatory epithets used in an artistic context. Listener discretion advised.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Film scholars Racquel Gates and Donald Bogle detail the rise and fall of Blaxploitation, and how Pam Grier transcended the genre and stayed iconic for decades afterwards.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Legendary stunt performers Jadie David and Bob Minor go in-depth about their most dangerous stunts, working with Pam Grier, and breaking through as Black stuntpeople in the early 70s.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ben Mankiewicz speaks to TCM host and Director and President of The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Jacqueline Stewart about Pam Grier's star image, the legacy of Blaxploitation, and meeting Pam at the TCM Classic Film Festival.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More from Ben Mankiewicz’s interview with Quentin Tarantino, who speaks about making Jackie Brown, enjoying Blaxploitation, and first seeing Pam when he was an impressionable 10 year-old boy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After receiving a devastating diagnosis, Pam leaves Hollywood and heads home to Colorado. But she’s lured back into the spotlight when the hottest director in Hollywood gives her the role of a lifetime.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pam finds love on a movie set when she’s cast opposite superstar comedian Richard Pryor. She sets out to change Richard’s self-destructive ways, and succeeds – for a little while. She then immerses herself in a difficult new role, a role that gives her nightmares but could spark a comeback.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the Blaxploitation craze comes to an end, Pam fights for better roles and hobnobs with the biggest names in showbiz. She meets the love of her life, a hot young comedian named Freddie Prinze -- whose personal demons lead to heartbreak and tragedy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pam is almost killed when a horse goes wild on the set of a gladiator movie. But instead of losing her life, she meets a new friend, who just happens to be one of the most famous filmmakers in the world.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pam’s career hits new heights as Black-themed movies take the country by storm. She stars in four low-budget films in the span of one year, including two bonafide hits: Coffy and Foxy Brown. Yet her celebrity is tied to controversy, as Blaxploitation gets criticized by the Black community and snubbed by the Hollywood establishment.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices