You Are Good

Frankenstein [1931] and Young Frankenstein are about mad scientists who have to come to terms with their creations, sure, but is it possible that movies about men who create monsters have daddy issues to dissect?

Frankenstein is about a man who tries to figure out how to create life without the involvement of his fiancée and—surprise!—he becomes an absentee dad. Young Frankenstein is about a dad who tries the opposite.

Join Sarah and Alex as they discuss.

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In Why Are Dads, Sarah Marshall and Alex Steed attempt to understand what the hell it means to be the grown children of dads and other dad-like figures. And, as they do with all difficult subject matter, they do so by looking through a pop culture lens.

https://www.podpage.com/why-are-dads/

It’s a cult classic about 1980s Brooklyn intellectuals falling apart at the seams, sure, but Sarah and Alex sort through The Squid and the Whale’s many dad themes and issues.

What happens when mom and dad decide to go their separate ways and everybody has to come to terms with how much of a prick dad has been this whole time?

We were joined by the delightful writer, actor and musician Sean Nelson to discuss The Squid and the Whale, the 2005 Noah Baumbach classic starring Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, William Baldwin and Anna Paquin.

It's a classic 90s stoner comedy, sure, but Sarah and Alex sort through Friday's many dad themes and issues.

What happens when, confronted with bullies and vengeful drug dealers, you feel compelled to stand your ground?

It's about a handful of guys competing against each other at a top tier Navy flight school, sure, but Sarah, Alex and special guest Clementine Ford unpack Top Gun's dad themes and there is plenty to sort through.

What happens when, haunted by questions about your father's death and legacy, you become the cockiest fighter pilot in the Navy?

Top Gun is, of course, the story of Maverick, Goose, Iceman and a bunch of 1980s cool dudes competing for the Top Gun trophy but it's also stuffed to the brim with dad themes. For Maverick, who grew up haunted by the specter of his father, everyone he encounters becomes—whether he knows it or not—a father figure. We talk all the dad themes, military themes, and—of course—homoeroticism Tony Scott stuffed into this 1986 classic.

What if dads taught their kids to deescalate rather than to retaliate? To prioritize love over conflict? What if men learned from their trauma, and shared their lessons with their families?

The War is an under-appreciated classic — a kids movie that tries to show the destructive nature of cycles of violence. It is hokey and fantastic, but it dares imagine another way for dads to be. You don’t have to have seen this 1995 Kevin Costner and Elijah Wood vehicle about addressing post-Vietnam trauma to appreciate our conversation about this movie, which has a little something for everyone. And we are joined by friend of the show Kasai Richardson, a writer and educator who knows this movie well because it was a staple in his family. The War helped Kasai to better understand his own father’s struggles with trauma and post traumatic stress.

This one was a joy.

It’s about a lascivious dream demon, sure, but Sarah and Alex unpack Nightmare on Elm Street’s Dad themes and there is plenty to sort through.

What happens when you realize that your parents' self-serving attempts at keeping you safe push you even further into harm’s way? And when you find yourself on the hook for their sins?

Nightmare on Elm Street is, of course, the story of Nancy Thompson—a teenage girl who is stalked by Freddy Krueger, a burned man equipped with razor-like fingers. She learns that the demon was once a man in their neighborhood, a man named Freddy known for murdering children, who—after getting free on a legal loophole, was burned to death by a gang of local parents. These parents include her mother, who is now a drunk, and her father, who is an unfeeling cop. Freddy attacks and kills her friends Tina and Rod, and eventually her boyfriend Glen, and she is tasked with surviving.

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Beyond that, Nightmare on Elm Street comes out at an extraordinarily fascinating time—it’s right around when America’s obsession with serial killers is starting to mature and when the Satanic Panic is beginning to take shape. If you follow Sarah’s work generally, particularly her writing on Ted Bundy for The Believer or her and Michael Hobbes' work on You’re Wrong About, you know that all of these factors play heavily into her areas of interest, and this is a great companion piece to a lot of her existing body of work. Also, thanks to feedback we received on Twitter regarding where slasher movies intersect with the popularity of serial killers in popular media, we recorded an additional piece for this episode and so what you’re hearing here is actually base don two conversations.

There are so many accompanying texts that you might be interested in, from the Michelle Remembers episodes of You’re Wrong About to articles form Psychology Today, and you can find all of those in the show notes. And one other note is that the McMartin Case, which Sarah will mention later in the episode, is one of the initial phenomena that would metastasize into what we now know into the Satanic Panic.

If you want to dive further into the cultural context, or refresh what you already know:

Why Are Dads is produced by Carolyn Kendrick with support from Knack Factory. It was created by Sarah Marshall and Alex Steed.

Sarah Marshall and Alex Steed are Executive Producers.

It’s about dancing, sure, but Sarah and Alex unpack Dirty Dancing’s dad themes and there is plenty to sort through.

What happens when you disappoint your father by putting his own ethical code into action? A young woman gets radicalized and dance becomes a metaphor for sex and revolution. Dirty Dancing is, of course, the 1987 Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze oft-maligned “chick flick” that is about dancing, yes, but also lefty politics, reproductive rights, and—if you’re Sarah—imagining Jerry Orbach’s nipples.

We are lucky to be joined in this conversation by our friend the wonderful Candace Opper.

Original music by Carolyn Kendrick, who also produced the episode. Additional beats provided by Funky Fresh Lesh.

It is about a shark, sure, but Sarah and Alex unpack Jaws' Big Dad Energy by looking at its larger themes in the context of their own experiences with fathers and dads.

Jaws, of course, is Steven Spielberg’s wildly popular 1975 adaptation of Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel. The film is about at least one literal dad: Brody. And it’s about other men who remind us of our respective dads, sorting through their egos and masculinity while in pursuit of this shark.

Sarah is also the co-host of You're Wrong About.

Alex is also the host of Nashville Demystified.

This episode was produced with support from and overside by Mary Dooe. It was produced by Carolyn Kendrick.

Original intro song and interpretations of 'Show Me the Way' to Go Home and 'Spanish Ladies' by Carolyn Kendrick. Other original music by Mosart Nunez.

Sarah Marshall [You're Wrong About] and Alex Steed [Nashville Demystified] attempt to understand what the hell it means to be the grown children of dads and other dad-like figures. And, as they do with all difficult subject matter, they do so by looking through a pop culture lens.

They try to understand their own dads, their relationships with those dads—and very possibly your relationship with your dad—by looking at fatherhood, and masculinity in television, film, and other popular [and unpopular] media.

There are a lot of podcasts about being a dad. This is not that.

This is dad crit.

Produced by Carolyn Kendrick and Alex Steed for Knack Factory.