Oscar, Schmoscar. What makes a BAD movie?
For Oscar week, a conversation about what makes a BAD movie? There are as many ways to make a bad movie as there are to make a good movie. What are the categories, elements, taxonomy, and causes of bad movies? Author David Schmader (who uses Paul Verhoeven’s ‘Showgirls’ as the ur-text bad movie), author and radio host John Moe, movie critic and author David Thomson (any movie with Alan Alda), movie critics Jeff Shannon and Christy Lemire radio and podcast host Jeannie Yandel, and callers dissect the elements and taxonomy of bad movies.
Atul Gawande: Being Mortal. What matters in the end
Atul Gawande on ‘Being Mortal’, the key questions to ask about the end of life.
High School Reunion
We ponder what happens you meet up with the people who knew you as a teenager..
Arlie Hochschild ‘Strangers in Their Own Land’
Berkeley sociologist Arlie Hochschild moved to Louisiana to spend time with conservative white rural people to find out why they hated government and supported Donald Trump
Alex Gibney: We Steal Secrets
Documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney on Julian Assange and Wikileaks
Wendell Berry
Farmer and writer Wendell Berry on prejudice against rural people and his short story collection ‘Fidelity’
Kima Cargill: The Psychology of Overeating
University of Washington Psychologist Kima Cargill on the psychology of overeating. 2015
Margaret Atwood
The Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood is best known for ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (1985) a dystopian tale of a patriarchal society where women are treated as property. In this 2020 interview, she discusses the sequel to ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ - ‘The Testament’, her surprise over the popularity of the character Aunt Lydia, who actively collaborates with the oppression of women, and her role in inventing a machine to allow writers to sign books remotely, and the difference between writing in her 80’s and her earlier decades.