The Protagonist Podcast

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Returning guest Ryan Haupt joins Joe and Producer Andrew to discuss the 1997 film George of the Jungle. Starring Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser (not for this film, though he is great in it), the film tells the story of a Tarzan parody leaving the jungle and coming to San Francisco. 

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Author Allison Epstein joins Joe to talk about her novel, A Tip for the Hangman. The historical fiction novel tells the story of playwright Christopher Marlowe and his time as a spy for Queen Elizabeth.  Epstein uses what we know about Marlowe’s life and death to create a fascinating character who finds himself in over his head.

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Returning guest Norman Mitchell joins Joe to talk about the Japanese television show Jetman. A super sentai series, Jetman features a team of humans who can power up and drive robots to fight various monsters. For American audiences, this type of series is most familiar because versions were adapted into the Power Rangers franchise.

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Returning guest Christopher “Mav” Maverick joins Joe to talk about Will Eisner’s classic graphic novel, A Contract with God. We’re discussing Chapter 1, “A Contract with God” and Chapter 2, “The Street Singer.” Eisner uses a monochromatic, caricatured cartooning style that often feels at odds with the serious, dramatic, adult slice-of-life stories that are riddled with violence, hopelessness, loss, and despair. That unexpected stylistic and content pairing creates an unforgettable text that has been praised since its publication.

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Returning guest Rachel Armstrong and first-time guest Matt Armstrong join Joe to discuss the 2007 film starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler. We discuss the positives of the film (most of it), point out a couple flaws (mostly just some accents), and talk about its portrayal of grief.

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Producer Andrew joins Joe to discuss Cloud Cuckoo Land, a recent novel by Anthony Doerr. The novel tells the story of various people scattered across centuries and then slowly reveals how their lives unexpectedly intersect. 

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It’s our annual special, where on February 2 we release an episode discussing the film Groundhog Day. Joe, Producer Andrew, Chris “Mav” Maverick, and Nicole Freim visit Punxsutawney and talk about the film, what a great year 1993 was for Hollywood, and other favorite timeloop stories.

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Returning guest Christopher “Mav” Maverick joins Joe to talk about one of his favorite films, the 1993 western Tombstone. Telling the story of Wyatt Earp and the shootout  at the O.K. Coral, Tombstone features an all-star cast including Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer doing his best to earn an Oscar as Doc Holliday (the Academy snubbed his great performance).

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Returning guest John Darowski joins Joe to discuss the manga series Spy x Family by Tatsuya Endo. The series tells the story of a spy who must create a fake family for a mission, and unknowingly adopts a telepathic child and begins a fake relationship with an assassin to build his cover. The assassin also has no idea he’s a spy and the child’s a telepath, but as a telepath the child knows everything. 

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Returning guest John Darowski joins Joe to discuss Phil Hartman’s character, Bill McNeal, from the tv show NewsRadio. Newsradio was an ensemble workplace comedy that aired on NBC from 1995-1999. We discuss the status of NBC sitcoms in the 1990s, Phil Harman’s comedic genius, and the traditional sitcom format.

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