Best The Reel In Motion Podcasts (2025)

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Mark Archuleta, "The Reel Thrilling Events of Bank Robber Henry Starr: From Gentleman Bandit to Movie Star and Back Again" (U North Texas Press, 2025) 39:56

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1d ago39:56

39:56

In 1921 headlines across the country announced the death of Henry Starr, a burgeoning silent film star who was killed while attempting to rob a bank in Harrison, Arkansas. Cynics who knew the real Starr were not surprised. Before becoming a matinee idol, Starr had been the greatest bank robber of the horseback bandit era. Born in 1873, Cherokee out…

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Mary Beth Willard, "Why It's Ok to Enjoy the Work of Immoral Artists" (Routledge, 2021) 1:08:14

4d ago1:08:14

1:08:14

The #metoo movement has forced many fans to consider what they should do when they learn that a beloved artist has acted immorally. One natural thought is that fans ought to give up the artworks of immoral artists, but according to Mary Beth Willard, it’s hard to find good reasons to do so. In Why It's OK to Enjoy the Work of Immoral Artists (Routl…

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Yu Zhang, "Going to the Countryside: The Rural in the Modern Chinese Cultural Imagination, 1915–1965" (U Michigan Press, 2020) 57:41

6d ago57:41

57:41

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, modern Chinese intellectuals, reformers, revolutionaries, leftist journalists, and idealistic youth often crossed the increasing gap between the city and the countryside, which made the act of "going to the countryside" a distinctively modern experience and a continuous practice in China. Such a spatial…

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Mark Goble, "Downtime: The Twentieth Century in Slow Motion" (Columbia UP, 2025) 55:11

11d ago55:11

55:11

Slow motion is everywhere in contemporary film and media, but it wasn't always so ubiquitous. How did slow motion ascend to the dubious honor of becoming our culture's least "special" effect? And what does slow motion — a trick secured paradoxically through the camera's ever-racing speeds of capture — tell us about the temporalities and trajectorie…

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The Straight Story 29:28

9d ago29:28

29:28

Everybody was shocked when, in 1999, David Lynch released a G-rated film with a Norman Rockwell setting that didn’t have a dark underbelly or wild reveal; if you have a David Lynch bingo card, The Straight Story is the free space. And while The Straight Story is as wholesome a film as you can find, it's never sentimental or corny. Dan thinks it’s L…

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All At Once on opening for PTV & Frank Iero 27:13

15d ago27:13

27:13

I talked with All At Once about opening for Frank Iero & The Future Violents as their first live show they ever played, their new single, upcoming music, and more! Listen to All At Once: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7riZx... / all-at-once Website: https://www.weareallatonce.com/ Follow All At Once on socials: https://www.instagram.com/weareallat…

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HAUNTER upcoming EP, anime, ghost pepper pizza 34:41

15d ago34:41

34:41

HAUNTER talks about their upcoming EP, having their song played on SiriusXM, anime, ghost pepper pizza, and more! #poppunk #Music #podcast #interview #band #newmusic #haunter Listen to HAUNTER on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3EVTz... Follow HAUNTER on socials: https://www.instagram.com/haunterisnt... / haunterisntreal https://www.tiktok…

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Emo band from Texas Like Ghosts on collabs & upcoming EP 18:53

15d ago18:53

18:53

I talked with Like Ghosts, an emo band from Texas on collaborating with Ryan Cabrera (who has written hits for Avril Lavigne) and with Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens, favorite venues, local bands they would collab with, bands that influenced them, Warped Tour spelling their band name wrong, and more! Listen to Like Ghosts' collab w/ Ryan Cabr…

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Katherine Fusco, "Hollywood's Others: Love and Limitation in the Star System" (Columbia UP, 2025) 43:30

20d ago43:30

43:30

We tend to think about movie stars as either glamorous or relatable. But in the 1920s and 1930s, when the Hollywood star system was taking shape, a number of unusual stars appeared on the silver screen, representing groups from which the American mainstream typically sought to avert its eyes. What did it mean for a white entertainment columnist to …

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Alice Lovejoy, "Tales of Militant Chemistry" (U California Press, 2025) 36:42

23d ago36:42

36:42

In Tales of Militant Chemistry (U of California Press, 2025), Alice Lovejoy tells the untold story of film as a chemical cousin to poison gas and nuclear weapons, shaped by centuries of violent extraction. The history of film calls to mind unforgettable photographs, famous directors, and the glitz and hustle of the media business. But there is anot…

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Patricia Aufderheide, "Kartemquin Films: Documentaries on the Frontlines of Democracy" (U California Press, 2024) 1:24:21

27d ago1:24:21

1:24:21

Kartemquin Films: Documentaries on the Frontlines of Democracy (U California Press, 2024) traces how filmmaker-philosophers brought the dream of making documentaries and strengthening democracy to award-winning reality—with help from nuns, gang members, skateboarders, artists, disability activists, and more. The evolution of Kartemquin Films—Peabod…

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Excalibur 33:01

1M ago33:01

33:01

We’ve seen many attempts at transferring Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and its variants onto the screen, but none of them capture the spirit of the original quite like Excalibur, John Boorman’s 1981 film that can be called, without insult, “aggressively two-dimensional.” Join us for a conversation about how Boorman makes the experience of watching a …

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Thomas Christian Bächle and Jascha Bareis eds., "The Realities of Autonomous Weapons (Bristol UP, 2025) 1:00:17

1M ago1:00:17

1:00:17

Autonomous weapons exist in a strange territory between Pentagon procurement contracts and Hollywood blockbusters, between actual military systems and speculative futures. For this week's Liminal Library, I spoke with Jascha Bareis, co-editor of The Realities of Autonomous Weapons (Bristol UP, 2025), about how these dual existences shape internatio…

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Prudence Peiffer, "The Slip: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever" (Harper, 2023) 50:30

1M ago50:30

50:30

For just over a decade, from 1956 to 1967, a collection of dilapidated former sail-making warehouses clustered at the lower tip of Manhattan became the quiet epicenter of the art world. Coenties Slip, a dead-end street near the water, was home to a circle of wildly talented and varied artists that included Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Mar…

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Alisha Mughal, "It Can’t Rain All the Time: The Crow" (ECW Press, 2025) 44:21

1M ago44:21

44:21

Alisha Mughal's It Can’t Rain All the Time: The Crow (ECW Press, 2025) weaves memoir with film criticism in an effort to pin down The Crow’s cultural resonance. A passionate analysis of the ill-fated 1994 film starring the late Brandon Lee and its long-lasting influence on action movies, cinematic grief, and emotional masculinity Released in 1994, …

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Jirí Anger, "Towards a Film Theory from Below: Archival Film and the Aesthetics of the Crack-Up" (Bloomsbury, 2024) 1:01:34

1M ago1:01:34

1:01:34

Jiří Anger is a scholar, archivist, and videographic critic devoted, as he says in this interview, to "making weird shapes shine." In this episode of New Books in Film, Anger sits down with Alix Beeston to discuss his award-winning book Towards a Film Theory from Below: Archival Film and the Aesthetics of the Crack-Up. Anger's book is an experime…

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Horror and Humanism in "28 Years Later" 1:08:32

2M ago1:08:32

1:08:32

We break down the themes and ideas in 28 Years Later, with a particular focus on the politics of this Danny Boyle / Alex Garland sequel to 28 Days Later. We react to the humanitarianism of Dr. Kelson, the role of the islands within the movie, and analyze the visions of family, fatherhood, and masculinity presented. We explain the controversial endi…

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Meredith McCarroll, "Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film" (U Georgia Press, 2018) 1:02:14

2M ago1:02:14

1:02:14

If you mention Appalachia to many people, they may immediately respond with the "Deliverance" dueling banjos theme. Unfortunately, this is an example of how the region is stereotyped and misunderstood, particularly in films. In her book, Unwhite: Appalachia, Race, and Film(University of Georgia Press, 2018), Meredith McCarroll, Director of Writing …

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Liza Black, "Picturing Indians: Native Americans in Film, 1941-1960" (U Nebraska Press, 2020) 39:09

2M ago39:09

39:09

Behind the braided wigs, buckskins, and excess bronzer that typified the mid-century "filmic Indian" lies a far richer, deeper history of Indigenous labor, survival, and agency. This history takes center stage in historian Liza Black's new book, Picturing Indians: Native Americans in Film, 1941-1960 (University of Nebraska Press, 2020), which looks…

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Nezar AlSayyad and Heba Safey Eldeen, "Cinematic Cairo: Egyptian Urban Modernity from Reel to Real" (American U in Cairo Press, 2022) 1:08:10

2M ago1:08:10

1:08:10

The relationship between the city and cinema is formidable. The images and sounds of the city found in movies are perhaps the only experience that many people will have of cities they may never visit. Films influence the way we construct images of the world, and accordingly, in many instances, how we operate within it. Cinematic Cairo: Egyptian Urb…

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Bruce Isaacs, "The Art of Pure Cinema: Hitchcock and His Imitators" (Oxford UP, 2020) 1:10:41

2M ago1:10:41

1:10:41

The Art of Pure Cinema: Hitchcock and His Imitators (Oxford University Press) is the first book-length study to examine the historical foundations and stylistic mechanics of pure cinema. Author Bruce Isaacs, Associate Professor of Film Studies and Director of the Film Studies Program at the University of Sydney, explores the potential of a philosop…

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Homecoming | Top 3 Nollywood Feature Film Picks | The State of Nollywood | RIP Malcolm-Jamal Warner 1:09:39

2M ago1:09:39

1:09:39

On todays show, we do a homecoming episode (where we talk about Nollywood/Nigerian films) | We also reccommend our top 3 picks for Nollywood Feature Films; all conversations are laid back and informational to guide your movie selections and possibly save you from mindless scrolling.

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Moonstruck 26:59

2M ago26:59

26:59

Our episode on Moonstruck (1987) was almost never made: as with Manchester By the Sea, Dan harbored an irrational suspicion against it–but when he finally saw it, he sought forgiveness for the errors of his ways. That’s an appropriate theme to consider in light of a film saturated with Italian Catholicism that explores themes of sin and redemption,…

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Richard Scheib, "A Viewing Guide to the Pandemic: Depictions of Plague and Pandemic on Film and TV" (Headpress, 2025) 35:23

2M ago35:23

35:23

Richard Scheib's A Viewing Guide to the Pandemic (Headpress, 2025) is a film book like no other. It opens with the author's first-hand account of the Covid-19 pandemic and life in lockdown. His sense of dread, and anxiety about his state of health, were experiences shared with millions of others across the world. For author Richard Scheib, already …

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Veronica Litt, "Ugh! As If!: Clueless" (ECW Press, 2025) 47:57

2M ago47:57

47:57

Veronica Litt's Ugh As If!: Clueless (ECW Press, 2025) uncovers the complex layers beneath the glossy surface of the 1995 classic film "Clueless." Litt investigates not just the Austen satire but the film’s deeper ethical questions about femininity, innocence, bias, and inequity. A sweet and sly exploration of the Jane Austen–inspired teen movie an…

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Karen Redrobe, "Undead: (Inter)(in)animation, Feminisms, and the Art of War" (Univ of California Press, 2025) 1:02:40

2M ago1:02:40

1:02:40

Karen Redrobe's latest book Undead: (Inter)(in)animation, Feminisms, and the Art of War (Univ of California Press, 2025) is a fascinating account of the role of animation in the visual cultures of war. It analyzes works by artists including Yael Bartana, Nancy Davenport, Kelly Dolak and Wazhmah Osman, Gesiye, David Hartt, Helen Hill, Onyeka Igwe, I…

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Love and Mercy 23:29

3M ago23:29

23:29

Love and Mercy A film by Bill Pohlad Love and Mercy (2014) is a film that shows how the sausage is made, in terms of both the music and the man. We get to see Brian Wilson’s Kubrick-like devotion to getting Pet Sounds exactly like he wants it, as well as his becoming a whole person through the force of his future wife. The film is a nightmare versi…

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Elana Levine, "Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History" (Duke UP, 2020) 34:40

3M ago34:40

34:40

Since the debut of These Are My Children in 1949, the daytime television soap opera has been foundational to the history of the medium as an economic, creative, technological, social, and cultural institution. In Her Stories, Elana Levine draws on archival research and her experience as a longtime soap fan to provide an in-depth history of the dayt…

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Kevin Guyan, "Rainbow Trap: Queer Lives, Classifications and the Dangers of Inclusion" (Bloomsbury, 2025) 53:00

3M ago53:00

53:00

Rainbow Trap: Queer Lives, Classifications and the Dangers of Inclusion (Bloomsbury, 2025) by Dr. Kevin Guyan reveals how the fight for LGBTQ equalities in the UK is shaped – and constrained – by the classifications we encounter every day. Looking across six systems – the police and the recording of hate crimes; dating apps and digital desire; outn…

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Holiday Weekend Movie Picks 1:03:37

3M ago1:03:37

1:03:37

MC Edem and Onyeka Onyekpe shere top 3 feature films for the weekend.

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Is Sinners a New Classic of Political Utopianism? 46:35

3M ago46:35

46:35

It’s the UConn Popcast, and we analyze the movie Sinners, starring Michael B. Jordan, just released on streaming. We address the political themes of the movie, focusing on its generic identity as a Southern Gothic, the historical context in which the movie takes place, its engagement with ideas of utopia, community, freedom, and the siren songs tha…

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American Gangster 24:35

3M ago24:35

24:35

American Gangster (2007) is Ridley Scott’s homage to The French Connection: it’s got the right cars, clothes, and colors and is based on another true story of an obsessed cop trying to take down a drug kingpin. The feature (or the bug, depending on how you look at it) is Denzel Washington in the title role. Is an actor so charismatic that everyone …

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The 1-800s on upcoming album 10 Compressors | interview 43:27

3M ago43:27

43:27

I talked with local Grammy Award-winning band The 1-800s about '10 Compressors'--their upcoming no-skip album, their unique 10-step process, fave pizza, and lots more! Catch them live at Cobra Lounge for their 10 Compressors release show July 5! Tickets: https://dice.fm/event/avmadq-the-1-800s-moon-rules-apply-clementine-5th-jul-cobra-lounge-chicag…

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Aren't documentaries based on who makes them? | Top 3 Documentaries/docuseries pick 1:08:43

3M ago1:08:43

1:08:43

MC and OO pick top 3 documentaries or docuseries that we feel you might like. Documentaries can be subjective and mostly based on who is making the documentary.

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Jeremy Stolow, "Picturing Aura: A Visual Biography" (MIT Press, 2025) 1:15:58

3M ago1:15:58

1:15:58

Picturing Aura: A Visual Biography (MIT Press, 2025) by Dr. Jeremy Stolow is the first book of its kind: an extended historical, anthropological, and philosophical study of modern efforts to visualize the hidden radiant force encompassing the living body known as our aura. This rich, interdisciplinary study by Dr. Stolow chronicles the rise and glo…

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Top 3 Feature Films for your weekend 52:52

3M ago52:52

52:52

OO and MC bring you their best suggestions for Movies that they think will be worth your time this weekend.

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John Trafton, "Movie-Made Los Angeles" (Wayne State UP, 2023) 52:51

4M ago52:51

52:51

Los Angeles was a cinematic city long before the rise of Hollywood. By the dawn of the twentieth century, photography, painting, and tourist promotion in Southern California provided early filmmakers with a template for building a myth-making business and envisioning ideal moviegoers. These art forms positioned California as a land of transformativ…

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Alison Griffiths, "Nomadic Cinema: A Cultural Geography of the Expedition Film" (Columbia UP, 2025) 1:02:25

4M ago1:02:25

1:02:25

From In Borneo, the Land of the Head-Hunters to The Epic of Everest to Camping Among the Indians, the early twentieth century was the heyday of expedition filmmaking. As new technologies transformed global transportation and opened new avenues for documentation, and as imperialism and capitalism expanded their reach, Western filmmakers embarked on …

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Top 3 Limited Series for Your Streaming list 56:04

4M ago56:04

56:04

This week on Reel Talk Extra, MC and Onyeka reveals their top 3 limited series. Picks were from 2024 shows to date. Great for the weekend, or place on your list and get to it when you can. Have a great watch!

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Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning 25:54

4M ago25:54

25:54

The eighth installment in one of the most entertaining franchises ever made, The Final Reckoning is Tom Cruise’s Return of the King. Whether it suffers from too much exposition is a matter of taste (and debated by the hosts), but both agree that the movie does what only its star can do: deliver thrills that derive from both the plot and the knowled…

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Jon L. Pitt, "Botanical Imagination: Rethinking Plants in Modern Japan" (Cornell UP, 2025) 45:13

4M ago45:13

45:13

Botanical Imagination: Rethinking Plants in Modern Japan (Cornell University Press, 2025) explores the complicated legacy and enduring lure of plant life in modern Japanese literature and media. Using critical plant studies, Jon L. Pitt examines an unlikely group of writers and filmmakers in modern Japan, finding in their works a desire to "become …

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Top 3 movie picks | How to navigate the multiplicity of streaming content | Turning RTX back on! 52:05

4M ago52:05

52:05

In this Episode, MC, and Stanley share their top 3 movies that you can place on your streaming list, and a couple of opinions on how to navigate the tons of content available on TV streaming to land at content that may be appealing to you. Movie reccommendations will be available at reeltalkextra.com…

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Heist 22:43

4M ago22:43

22:43

Caper movies aren’t like others involving criminals: there’s an aesthetic to a caper that’s as important to the thieves as it is to the viewers. Heist is David Mamet’s 2001 caper film that stands as his Singin’ in the Rain—an apt comparison, since “caper” meant “to dance” long before it took on its criminal meaning. Join us for an appreciation of o…

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Claire Knight, "Stalin's Final Films: Cinema, Socialist Realism, and Soviet Postwar Reality, 1945-1953" (Cornell UP, 2024) 1:23:23

4M ago1:23:23

1:23:23

Stalin's Final Films: Cinema, Socialist Realism, and Soviet Postwar Reality, 1945-1953 (Cornell UP, 2024) explores a neglected period in the history of Soviet cinema, breathing new life into a body of films long considered moribund as the pinnacle of Stalinism. While film censorship reached its apogee in this period and fewer films were made, film …

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Lori Jo Marso, "Feminism and the Cinema of Experience" (Duke UP, 2024) 50:11

4M ago50:11

50:11

Political theorist Lori Marso has been intrigued by filmmaker Chantal Ackerman for many years and has integrated Ackerman’s work into her courses at Union College and into her writings and scholarship as well. So it is no surprise that Feminism and the Cinema of Experience (Duke UP, 2024) is both an academic and a personal journey into Ackerman’s w…

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Kevin Smokler, "Break the Frame: Conversations with Women Filmmakers" (Oxford UP, 2025) 49:39

4M ago49:39

49:39

In the twenty-first century alone, women filmmakers have succeeded at directing every size, genre, and style of motion picture. Their movies have won Oscars (Free Solo), made actors into household names (Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone), received induction into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry (Real Women Have Curves), and become…

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Christopher Hanscom, "Impossible Speech: The Politics of Representation in Contemporary Korean Literature and Film" (Columbia UP, 2024) 1:08:14

4M ago1:08:14

1:08:14

How does art engage with its social context? What does 'the politics of art' even mean? In his new book Impossible Speech: The Politics of Representation in Contemporary Korean Literature and Film (Columbia University Press, 2023), Christopher P. Hanscom takes on these questions in the context of contemporary Korean literature. Moving away from rea…

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From Hal to Siri: How Computers Learned to Speak 54:27

4M ago54:27

54:27

Today we learn how computers learned to talk with Benjamin Lindquist, a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University’s Science in Human Culture program. Ben is the author “The Art of Text to Speech,” which recently appeared in Critical Inquiry, and he’s currently writing a history of text-to-speech computing. In this conversation, we explore:…

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The Politics of Andor (Season 2, Episodes 10-12): Freedom and Order 56:57

4M ago56:57

56:57

It’s the UConn Popcast, and we continue our analysis of Andor season 2 with the conclusion to the series. We break down, analyze, and explain the political themes in these finale episodes, focusing on freedom, order and their interconnectedness in both the rebellion and the Empire. We explore the extent to which farce is an operative mode of storyt…

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Metal Legend Gene Hoglan on upcoming Dark Angel album | Episode 280 34:35

4M ago34:35

34:35

I talked with the legendary and prolific heavy metal drummer Gene Hoglan (Death, Strapping Young Lad, Dethklok, Testament) about Dark Angel's comeback and 'Extinction Level Event', their upcoming album that will be their first release since 1991's 'Time Does Not Heal'. Listen to their first single off the album "Extinction Level Event" out now! htt…