It's been a minute hasn't it? I did a post for Youtube channels instead of podcasts last year, as several of my favorite media podcasts have been quietly morphing into Youtube channels recently, but there's still a clear distinction between the two mediums. And I've definitely latched on to enough new podcasts over the past two years to write a new post about. Below are a couple of new and new-to-me offerings that I've started following since my last podcast post.
Going Rogue - Australian writer Tansy Gardam is my new favorite podcaster. She is the main writer, researcher and host of "Going Rogue," which has gone through a couple of permutations, but can be broadly described as a show about the endless drama of getting movies made. Initially, in 2022, it was a six part miniseries on the making of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." This was followed by seasons covering "Solo: A Star Wars Story," the 2007 WGA strike and its fallout, and "The Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. Lately, there have been a lot of one-off episodes devoted to a diverse selection of titles including "Megalopolis," "Gladiator II," and Kenneth Branagh's "Cinderella." Every episode is extremely well researched, often following the development of a film for decades on its way to the silver screen. I love the "Megalopolis" episode in particular for explaining the reasoning behind some of Francis Ford Coppola's artistic choices, including his fascination with "live cinema."
The Big Picture - I've brought up the Ringer podcasts before, but I want to give special recognition to "The Big Picture," hosted by Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins, and a revolving group of other co-hosts. The show premiered roughly around 2017, and follows the familiar format of reviews and interviews revolving around new releases. However, "The Big Picture" is also run by some of the most insanely knowledgeable film geeks I've ever encountered, and they dig into awards races, top five/ten/twenty-five lists, and rankings with a gusto that I find super impressive. What they're best known for is probably their movie drafts, where they'll invite a few friends and run a draft of movies by year or actor or director. They did one for Tom Cruise movies recently that ensured I will never forget which "Mission: Impossible" movie is which, ever again. However, the nerdiest movie podcast discussion I think I've ever heard in my life was probably their Sidney Lumet episode last year, when it became apparent that Sean had seen all or nearly all of the forty-three movies that Lumet had directed over the course of his storied career. Now that's dedication.
The Spiel - From the folks that brought you "The Kingcast" comes another podcast about a famous Steve. "The Spiel" is all about the films and shows that Steven Spielberg was involved with in some way. Hosted by Eric Vespe, the guests have been fantastic, including some of Spielberg's major collaborators like producer Frank Marshall and screenwriter David Koepp. Rian Johnson stopped by a few months ago to talk about the early episodes of "Columbo" that Spielberg directed at the beginning of his career. I especially appreciate that the show counts any Spielberg involvement as fair game, so they'll talk about movies that Spielberg or Amblin only produced, like "Casper" or "The Goonies" or "Joe vs The Volcano." There's an "Animaniacs" epsiode. There's an episode on John Williams scores for Spielberg movies. I hope that Vespe will manage to wrangle an appearance by Spielberg himself one of these days - "The Kingcast" got their Steve, so it's not impossible.
Little Gold Men - Finally, I want to send a little love to Vanity Fair's long-running "Little Gold Men" awards season podcast, especially since we're losing another host to editorial changes. It's always a great resource for interviews and putting titles on my radar that I might otherwise have missed. They also talk about festivals, controversies, business deals, campaigns, and pretty much anything else going on in the industry that could affect the awards races, so I like checking in regularly to keep myself informed.
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