Shows
Pod Only KnowsSarah Posner - On her new podcast, Epstein, and other newsFriend of the pod Sarah Posner joins John to discuss her great new podcast, Reign of Error. They also look at the various ways of understanding new developments in the Epstein case through the religious studies lens.
*IMPORTANT PODCAST UPDATE*
Kelly will be taking a few months away from the show. We plan to get back to normal rotation in the summer. In the meantime, John will be joined by some friends of the show for some conversations on the goings on in the news. During that time, we won't be following a normal release...
2026-02-0949 min
1999: The PodcastSee Also: A VERY ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMASMerry Christmas and happy every other holiday!
In this episode, John and Julia each recommend five of their favorite "alternative" Christmas movies. The like of It's a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, Love Actually, Miracle on 34th Street, and, yes, even Die Hard are off-limits.
Instead, we present 10 movies that are maybe not in your annual Christmas rotation but ought to be! Enjoy!
Julia's picks:
The Ref (1994)
Carol (2015)
The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941)
A Christmas Tale (2008)
The Shop Around the...
2025-12-241h 26
1999: The PodcastTHE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR - with Sarah D. BuntingThe Thomas Crown Affair was the 31st-highest grossing movie of 1999, coming in one slot below another entry, Galaxy Quest, opening August 6th at number 3 at the box office behind the debut of the juggernaut The Sixth Sense at number one and Runaway Bride at number 2.
The first of two 1999 film besides (besides The 13th Warrior, which we also recently discussed) from Die Hard director John McTiernan, The Thomas Crown Affair is a remake of the 1968 Steve McQueen-Faye Dunaway caper of the same name.
Starring Pierce Brosnan in the title role - at the height of his...
2025-09-091h 33
Pod Only Knows#054 - James Dobson (1936-2025) with Hilde Lovdal Stephens (SORRY ABOUT JOHN'S AUDIO!!)James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family and author of many popular books about "Christian parenting", died in late August at the age of 89.
Dobson's death was celebrated by many ex-Evangelicals of a certain age who were raised in part or in total by Dobson's teaching and methods.
He leaves behind a complicated and questionable legacy, including a generation of ex-Evangelicals who despise him and credit him for ruining their lives on the one hand, and an Evangelical movement that seems to have moved past him on the other.
Joining Kelly...
2025-09-021h 04
1999: The Podcast1999 REWIND - Woodstock 99ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 7/24/24:
Today marks the 26th anniversary of one of the true low points of 1999 and pop culture in general - the human rights disaster that was Woodstock 99.
Dan Colón, of CageClub's very own The Monsters That Made Us podcast, joined John to talk about the greed, mayhem, and madness that defined Woodstock 99.
The Woodstock that was just so great that it convinced everybody to never Woodstock again, 1999's 30th anniversary festival (inspired by the relative success of the 25th anniversary Woodstock 94) was...a lot of things. But mostly it was an epi...
2025-07-231h 05
1999: The PodcastWriter Peter Raleigh joins John and Julia to discuss (and defend) 1999's most high-profile failure, "The13th Warrior"August 1999's The 13th Warrior was (mostly) directed by legendary Predator and Die Hard director – and occasional felon – John McTiernan, and released just three weeks after his other (far more successful) 1999 film The Thomas Crown Affair.
Based on the 1976 novel "Eaters of the Dead" by Michael Crichton (who also took over to direct several scenes), The 13th Warrior stars Antonio Banderas, Vladimir Kulich, Dennis Storhoi, Diane Venora, Richard Bremmer, Tony Curran, and Omar Sharif
It took two decades to finally get Crichton’s reimagining of "Beowulf" to the screen, and the film is best remembered as a fascinat...
2025-06-171h 39
Pod Only Knows#049 – Our Pope Watch Has Ended
Last week, the Catholic Church absolutely shook the world by electing Robert Prevost - an Augustinian from Chicago - Pope Leo XIV, making him the first ever American pope.
Immediately, MAGA lost their collective minds, calling Leo XIV a woke Marxist and an anti-Trump liberal.
Leo XIV's election was, without question, a statement by the Church directed squarely at MAGA and Donald Trump, but so many questions remain about what happens next.
Kelly and John share their thoughts about the selection of Prevost, what it means that he chose the name...
2025-05-131h 06
1999: The PodcastTHE LIMEY: "Bang" - with Devan ScottThe Limey was 170th highest grossing movie of 1999, finishing just one spot ahead of cult favorite Jawbreaker
Released October 8th in just 17 theaters and going on to make $3.2 million on a $10 million budget, The Limey was directed by Steven Soderbergh, just on the verge of his first major commercial successes (Erin Brokovich and Traffic, both released on opposite ends of 2000) and following another acclaimed crime caper, 1998’s Elmore Leonard adaptation Out of Sight.
Featuring a tour-de-force performance from Terrence Stamp, The Limey crosses genre boundaries, it also straddles the line between Soderbergh's smaller, more risk-taking film...
2025-05-061h 24
1999: The PodcastSWEET AND LOWDOWN: "All That Jazz" - with Liz WhitmereSweet and Lowdown opened on December 3rd in just 3 theaters and taking in an impressive 31,562 dollar per screen averageWritten and directed by Woody Allen, it stars Sean Penn as fictional jazz guitar legend Emmet Ray alongside Samantha Morton and Uma Thurman, Brad Garrett, John Waters, Anthony LaPaglia, and Brian Markinson, among others.Sweet and Lowdown was a welcome end to what many saw as a mid-90s slump for Allen, who had released a string of movies who that had been received with mixed or sometimes scathing reviews, like 1995’s Mighty Aphrodite, 1996’s Everyone Says...
2025-04-081h 32
Pod Only KnowsChris Kluwe - On standing up for others, being a nerd, and his first science fiction novel "Otaku"This is a republished episode from John's former podcast Hard to Believe featuring an interview with Chris KluweIn light Kluwe making national news with his recent act of anti-MAGA civil disobedience, we decided to republish an interview John conducted with Kluwe in 2021, in which he describes, among other things, how he came to be an activist and advocate for justice causes.Here is the original descriptions of that episode:********************************************************************Chris Kluwe was an accomplished NFL punter with the Minnesota Vikings. Then...
2025-02-211h 01
1999: The PodcastChristmas Special - ONE SPECIAL NIGHT: "Happy Hallmarky" with Audrey FoxIt's our third Christmas special, and once again we turn to the small screen for Christmas with Hallmark Hallo of Fame's One Special Night.Airing Sunday, November 28th, 1999 on CBS, One Special Night stars James Garner and Julie Andrews, alongside Patricia Charbonneau, Stewart Bick ,Stacy Grant, and Danniel Magder.Written by the highly prolific Christmas TV movie scribe Nancey Silvers and directed by accomplished TV director and Emmy winner Roger Young, One Special Night was generally praised by critics and probably beloved by our nation's grandparents at the time. It was then, however, entirely forgotten until...
2024-12-161h 36
Pod Only Knows#034 – Thomas Lecaque - Why the right can't stop loving the Crusades (and other losers)This week, in part inspired by the anniversary of 9/11, Kelly and John invited Thomas Lecaque on the show to talk about the ways the Christian right frame the Crusades and other violent failures to justify their own acts of political and religious violence.Thomas Lecaque is an associate professor of History at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. He specializes in the nexus of apocalyptic religion and political violence. He has written for the Washington Post, Religion Dispatches, Foreign Policy and The Bulwark, among others. He has recently turned his attention to colonial America, examining the...
2024-09-171h 07
Pod Only Knows#033 – “Jesus Camp” (2006) with Megan GoodwinJesus Camp was 2006's other big documentary, nominated for the Academy Award for documentary feature but losing out to a little film called An Inconvenient Truth.Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (and timed, coincidentally, to the appointment of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court) it mainly follows three young evangelical Christians as they prepare to attend the Kids On Fire summer camp, run by a youth pastor named Becky Fischer.Largely through interviews with Fischer and the children, Ewing and Grady paint a picture of an emerging movement to indoctrinate young people in ord...
2024-09-031h 16
1999: The Podcast99@25 #015 - August 1-15 1999We're nearing the end of summer, and this time we take a look back at a very entertaining first half of August, 1999.August 1-15 gave us:
KISS!
Prince's Yard Sale!
Two guys named Putin and Netanyahu who have since faded into total obscurity
Dick! The Sixth Sense! Mystery Men!
Wade Boggs!
Mark McGwire jacking dingdongs!
The Dilberito!
And your host turning 20!
This week, John is joined by friend of the show Tyler Birth (with a brief appearance from his new mouse friend!) as they take a look at a little bit of Monica, Jessica, Sandra...
2024-08-171h 04
1999: The Podcast99@25 #013/14 - July 1-31 1999But, to make up for it, we have the delightful and hilarious Jacki Krestel (@zombie_jacki) to join John in a walk down 1999 memory lane!July 1999 included:
Macy Gray!
Destiny's Child!
Bree Sharp's summer novelty pop hit "David Duchovny"!
The Fenway Park All-Star Game!
Blair Witch, American Pie, Eyes Wide Shut, and Deep Blue Sea!
The death (????) of JFK Jr!
Cheatin' cheater Lance Armstrong!
Terrible ghoul JK Rowling!
Woodstock 99!
And more
Plus, join John and Jenn next week for a more in-depth look at what is universally agreed to be the best Woodstock in another s...
2024-08-0251 min
Pod Only Knows#031 - Project 2025 (and why you should really, really care about it)Project 2025 has (finally) become an enormous national news story.But while its goals (which go after everything from contraception to the Department of Education) have rightly been in the spotlight, it's also important to understand that, far from being the fantasy wish list of a group of fringe conservatives, it is in fact a project of a major think tank, decades in the making.It comes out of the Heritage Foundation, an organization founded by anti-democratic far-right Christian nationalist Paul Weyrich and currently run by the like-minded Kevin Roberts...whose upcoming book has a forward...
2024-07-301h 04
1999: The PodcastTHE EMPTY CINEMA - A Special Summer EpisodeJohn and Jenn take a crack at explaining the baffling summer 2024 box office. Why did PLANER OF THE APES and FURIOSA fail where INSIDE OUT 2 succeeded? Is the summer movie season a thing of the past? And why do people seem less inclined to go to the movie theater for just ANYTHING?Covid? Prices? Capitalism? All of the above?Find out what we have to say in this special summer episode about America's increasingly, depressingly empty cinemas.
2024-07-2951 min
1999: The PodcastARLINGTON ROAD: "Boom" - with Matt BelenkyArlington Road was 77th highest grossing movie of 1999, released 25 years ago last week on July 9th, unfortunately crowded out by some other big releases, namely American Pie, released the same day, as well as Wild Wild West, Tarzan, and The General's Daughter, all in their second weeks.Directed by acclaimed music video director Mark Pellington (Pearl Jam's "Jeremy"), with a script from future Oscar nominee Ehren Kruger. a score by David Lynch’s personal composer Angelo Badalamenti, and starring two of the finest actors of their generation, Jeff Bridges and Tim Robbins, Arlington Road has a lot going f...
2024-07-151h 53
Pod Only Knows#029 - Thou Shalt Not Violate the 1st AmendmentWell it's been a heck of a week of bad news, and even before the Supreme Court decided the the president was king, Kelly and John decided to look at two news stories likely to play into next year's Supreme Court decisions: Louisiana's new Ten Commandment school mandate and Oklahoma's new requirement to include the Bible in its public school curriculum.On the surface, both of these measures are clearly, explicitly unconstitutional, and both have plenty of precedent to back up their unconstitutionality.But in this episode we argue...
2024-07-0255 min
1999: The PodcastSOUTH PARK - Summer Rerelease! - with George FreitagSouth Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut is...very funny.It's also absurd, obscene, and one of the best movie musicals not called Moulin Rouge of the last few decades.The humor of the show and the movie, though, has always been too things - edgy (bordering on shocking) and timely. South Park the series has produced some of the smartest, most incisive satire anywhere in its 25 years of existence, but that kind of humor doesn't always age well?So how does this movie hold up in that regard? We asked someone who loved it a...
2024-07-011h 24
1999: The Podcast99@25 #012 - June 16-30 1999This week, we're covering the second two weeks of June, 1999 (16-30), perhaps the most teenage-boy two weeks of the year.This week:
Cartoons rule as SOUTH PARK and TARZAN both arrive in cinemas (setting up an epic Best Original Song Oscar duel!)
Adam Sandler's massive hit BIG DADDY is also released.
SMOOTH is released as a single and refuses to go away ever!
Tony Hawk lands a 900 for the first time ever!
Weird Al spoiler-bitches the ENTIRE plot of THE PHANTOM MENACE
Stephen King gets hit by a car
And more!
This week, John is...
2024-06-291h 00
1999: The PodcastTARZAN - Summer Rerelease! - with Heather AntosDisney’s Tarzan was, as the 6th-highest grossing movie of the year, a big hit. But it also had a giant budget. Made for $130 million, it grossed $171 million domestically and $448 million worldwide. Tarzan did well with critics, as well. It was nominated for more than 2 dozen different awards, and won the Oscar and Golden Globe for best original song, Phil Collins’ “You’ll Be in My Heart”. It holds a an 89 percent Rotten Tomatoes score with more than 100 reviews, and 79 Metacritic score with 27 reviews, putting it right in the middle of the pack of the so-called Dis...
2024-06-241h 20
Pod Only Knows#028 - Dr. Matthew Taylor on An Appeal to Heaven, Alito, and the NARWe're back for season two, and we're kicking it off by talking to Dr. Matthew D. Taylor about that weird An Appeal to Heaven flag that got Justice Samuel Alito in so much trouble!Taylor holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and Muslim-Christian Relations from Georgetown University and an M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. His book, Scripture People: Salafi Muslims in Evangelical Christians’ America (Cambridge University Press), offers an introduction to the oft-misunderstood Salafi movement in the U.S. by way of comparison with American Evangelicalism.He is also the creator of...
2024-06-181h 12
1999: The Podcast99@25 #011 - June 1-15 1999Meteorological summer has arrived, and it brings the sounds of summer with it! We're covering the first two weeks of June, 1999 (1-15) and what a two weeks it was!This week:
Things get shaggadelic (baby) as AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME conquers the box office (and THE PHANTOM MENACE)!
People are just UNABLE to stop buying the new Backstreet Boys album!
People are just UNABLE to stop stealing the new Backstreet Boys album as Napster launches!
Dido! J-Lo! Blink-182!
The son of that one president announces his long-shot bid for the presidency!
And more!
2024-06-151h 08
1999: The PodcastTHREE TO TANGO: "No La Tango" - with R. Lee Fleming Jr.Three to Tango was the 126th-highest grossing movie of 1999, sandwiched between two movies we have covered already, Drop Dead Gorgeous at 125, and Bats at 127. It opened in 8th place (behind Bats, which it would ultimately outgross) on the very not rom-com season of October the 22nd, going on to gross 10 and a half million dollars worldwide on a 20 million dollar budget.Three to Tango - which, we can't stress enough, features no tango or dancing of any kind - was written by Aline Brosch McKenna, who would go on to write romcoms like 27 Dresses and La...
2024-06-101h 48
1999: The Podcast99@25 #010 - May 16-31 1999It's the second half of May, 1999 - the 16th through the 31st - and the most anticipated event of the year finally arrives as Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace finally opens on May 19th, taking in $68 million on its opening weekend.This week:
We'll explain why $68 million is a lot more than it sounds like!
Moby! LEN! The Backstreet Boys!
The end of Home Improvement!
Slobodan Milosevic faces justice!
Susan Lucci!
And more!
This week, John is joined by special guest, the host of Pop Culture Reflections!Connect with Justin on Tw...
2024-06-0150 min
1999: The PodcastNEVER BEEN KISSED: "Grosie" - with Trae Crowder and Corey Ryan ForresterNever Been Kissed was the 43-rd highest grossing movie of the year, just edging out last week's Forces of Nature (though proving far more profitable) at the box office.Never Been Kissed opened April 9th, pitting it against The Matrix in its second week, but still managed to post an impressive second place finish for the week, taking in 14 million dollars. This is largely thanks to the overwhelming popularity of star Drew Barrymore, coming off consecutive romantic hits in 1998 with Ever After and The Wedding Singer.It's a strange movie with an, um, uncomfortable premise. It's pa...
2024-05-272h 06
1999: The Podcast99@25 #009 - May 1-15 1999We have hit May 1999! This is one of the biggest months of the year, and we haven't even gotten to its biggest event yet!But in the first two weeks of May 1999, we got:
Duel of the Fates!
Robbie Williams!
The Mummy!
The premiere of SpongeBob SquarePants on Nickelodeon!
Prestige Star Wars counter-programming!
And more!
This week, John is joined by a special guest - author Chris Morgan, who has written a book about the Nickelodeon 90s that is currently available, and whose next book, 99 Episodes that Defined the 90s will be available soon! (Sooner than...
2024-05-151h 08
Pod Only Knows#027 - DeSantis v SatanLast month, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill authorizing Florida school districts and charter schools to adopt a policy for chaplains “to provide support, services, and programs to students"...provided those chaplains aren't Satanists."We're not playing those games in Florida. That is not a religion," DeSantis said of Satanism. "That is not qualifying to be able to participate in this."The thing is, though, Satanism most definitely is a religion, and in the case of The Satanic Temple it is a religion in the eyes of United States tax law.DeSantis may...
2024-05-071h 01
1999: The Podcast99@25 #008 - April 21-30 1999We continue our celebration of the 25th anniversary of 1999 with our eighth installment, April 21-30 1999!In the last ten days of April we got:
The premiere of WWF Smackdown on UPN!
Jay Leno goes HD!
The Dawson's Creek soundtrack!
Aerosmith!
Election! eXistenZ! Idle Hands!
And some other fun diversions, including the horror that was pan and scan movies!CageClub icon Mike Manzi joins John for a short look at the end of one of 1999's worst months, and the Star Wars content yet to come!
2024-05-0243 min
1999: The PodcastBLAST FROM THE PAST: "Adam & Eve" - with Samm LevineBlast from the Past was 75th highest-grossing movie of 1999, opening at #4 at the box office on Valentine’s Day weekend and going on to take in $40 million worldwide on a $35 million budget.The first of two 1999 collaborations between director Hugh Wilson and star Brendan Fraser, Blast from the Past included a stellar supporting cast, including Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, Dave Foley, Nathan Fillion, Joey Slotnick, and the legendary Jennifer Lewis.Critics were pretty even split on it - partly because it was inevitably compared to 1998's Pleasantville - and none were especially effusive in t...
2024-04-292h 15
Happy DevJohn WylesIn this episode James Brooks interviews John Wyles, our new co-host .Show notes:Imposterble - John's app to help people work with their Imposter SyndromeJohn Wyles on TwitterYou can discuss this podcast at:Leave a comment on PodHuntTweet us @HappyDevFM on Twitter or email us at mail@happydev.fm
★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
2024-04-2446 min
Pod Only Knows#026 - Dr. Richard NewtonDr. Richard Newton is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Director in the Religious Studies department at the University of AlabamaFrom the University's website:Dr. Newton's areas of interest include theory and method in the study of religion, African American history, the New Testament in Western imagination, American cultural politics, and pedagogy in religious studies. His research explores how people create “scriptures” and how those productions operate in the formation of identities and cultural boundaries.In addition to an array of book chapters and online essays, Dr. Newton has published in the Journal of Bi...
2024-04-231h 00
1999: The Podcast99@25 #07 - April 1-20 1999, the Columbine EpisodeWe're taking a slightly different approach to this one, covering 20 days of April 1999 instead of 15, and, frankly, we're focusing mostly on the 20th, because that's when the Columbine massacre occurred.Columbine was not the first school shooting, but it was - at the time - the most unthinkable one in terms of scope and scale. 25 years later, it has become significantly less unthinkable, as so many instances of gun-based mass murders in schools have occurred in the meantime that it's difficult to name them all.But Columbine is also a hotbed of misconceptions and misinformation...
2024-04-201h 27
1999: The PodcastPUSHING TIN: "Control" - with Joe KwaczalaPushing Tin was the 135th-highest grossing film of the year, grossing 8.4 million dollars on a 33 million dollar budget, opening April the 23rd, 1999 as the #4 movie at the Box Office behind The Matrix, Life, and Never Been Kissed.Directed by Four Weddings and a Funeral and Donnie Brasco director Mike Newell and written by Cheers co-creators Les and Glen Charles, Pushing Tin felt like a sure thing, especially given its very of-the-moment core cast of John Cusack, Cate Blanchett, Billy Bob Thornton, and Angelina Jolie.But it never left the runway (get it) with audiences or cri...
2024-04-151h 42Happy DevJames Brooks💛 Happy Dev is finally back with Season 2! 💛 In this episode we introduce John Wyles, our new co-host and John interviews James Brooks.You can discuss this podcast at:Leave a comment on PodHuntTweet us @HappyDevFM on Twitter or email us at mail@happydev.fm
★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
2024-04-1138 min
1999: The Podcast99@25 #06 - March 16-31 1999We continue our celebration of the 25th anniversary of 1999 with our sixth installment, March 16-31 1999!In the second half of March, we got:
The Oscars! Roberto Benigni jumping on chairs! Harvey Weinstein buying the Best Picture Oscar for Shakespeare in Love!
The premiere of Futurama!
Jack Kevorkian!
Ricky Martin unleashes La Vida Loca upon an unsuspecting world!
Fabio gets hit by a goose!
The Melissa Virus
10 Thing I Hate About You! The Matrix!
and more!John and Jenn also accidentally create a true crime podcast and wonder if they've pinpointed the moment Gwyneth Palt...
2024-04-041h 26
1999: The PodcastMICKEY BLUE EYES: "Gid Ouda He" - with Meghan Leigh PaulkMickey Blue Eyes was just the 61st-highest grossing movie of 1999. The only major US release of the weekend of August 20, 1999, Mickey Blue Eyes opened in third place while The Sixth Sense continued to dominate the box office. It would go on to make $54 million on a $75 million budget.Directed by Kids in the Hall alum Kelly Makin and written by Robert Kuhn and Adam Scheinmann, it was ostensibly a romcom vehicle for Hugh Grant and Jeanne Tripplehorn but works better as a romcom between Hugh Grant and James Caan.Critics were iffy, with most still p...
2024-04-011h 28
Pod Only Knows#024 - Simulation Theory, or Young Earth Creationism for AtheistsIn 2003, Oxford University philosophy professor Nick Bostrom published a paper titled Are You Living in a Computer Simulation, thus giving rise to the modern incarnation of Simulation Theory, which posits that our experienced reality is actually the product of an advanced (possibly future-self) civilization running a simulation experiment.But the paper on might have been written off as a useful thought experiment had it not been for the popularity of the 1999 film The Matrix, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this month, and its two sequels, which came out the same year as Bostrom's paper.In th...
2024-03-2653 min
1999: The Podcast99@25 #05 - March 1-15We continue our celebration of the 25th anniversary of 1999 with our fifth installment, March 1-15 1999!In the first half of March, we got:-Cher Believe-ing her way to the top of the charts!-The untimely death of the legendary Dusty Springfield-Cruel Intentions! Analyze This! The Rage: Carrie 2!-Marilyn Manson taking a tumble (but, alas, not enough of one!)-And, of course, the deaths of both Stanley Kubrick and "Joltin'" Joe DiMaggio...and more!John and Jenn also discuss KateGate (WaterKate?), Love is Bl...
2024-03-151h 17
Pod Only Knows#023 - Sarah PosnerSarah Posner has been covering the Christian right and Christian Nationalism for more than a decade. A regular contributor to MSNBC, her works has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Salon, The Nation, The American Prospect, Al Jazeera America, and many other publications.Posner is the author of 2008's God's Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters and 2020's Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind.She joined Kelly and John last week, on the eve of the State o...
2024-03-1256 min
1999: The Podcast99@25 #04 - February 15-28We continue our celebration of the 25th anniversary of 1999 with fourth installment, February 15-28 1999!In the second half of February, we got:-The death of Gene Siskel!-Jawbreaker! Office Space! October Sky!-OJ Simpson news!-Lauryn Hill breaking a record at the Grammys!-Eminem's "The Slim Shady LP"!and more!John and Jenn also discuss celebrity doppelgangers, The Crow, remakes/boots, Jenn's birthday, and more!
2024-02-291h 02
Pod Only Knows#022 - God's Army with Amanda MooreFor the last couple years, Amanda Moore has spent her time covering the far right on her Substack The Turtle DiariesAmanda infiltrated the far right during the final year of the Trump administration and has written about her experiences in publications like The Nation.She recently went to the Texas border to cover the arrival of "God's Army" - a group of truckers (possibly) who took it upon themselves to defend the border from an "invasion" and maybe possibly kick of the 2nd Civil War (they didn't).Amanda joined Kelly and John...
2024-02-271h 00
1999: The PodcastNOTTING HILL: "Just A Girl" - with Courtney BrooksNotting Hill was the 16th-highest grossing movie of 1999, opening Memorial Day Weekend, May 28th, and in 2nd place earning $27.7 million (behind #1, The Phantom Menace, which, then in its second weekend, earned $67 million).It would go on to make $116 million domestically and $364 million worldwide on a $42 million budget.Notting Hill was the second of several successful ventures between Grant and writer (and Mr. Bean creator) Richard Curtis, following 1994’s Four Weddings and a Funeral and predating 2001’s Bridget Jones's Diary (which Curtis adapted from Helen Fielding's enormously popular novel) and 2003’s Love Actually.It has go...
2024-02-202h 13
1999: The Podcast99@25 #03 - February 1-14We continue our celebration of the 25th anniversary of 1999 with our third installment, January 1-14 1999!In the first half of February, we got:-Blast from the Past!-The worst *NSYNC song!-GMO hysteria!-Stupid ideas to fix the Y2K bug!-Where in the World is Osama bin Laden??and more!John and Jenn also discuss REM, G Love and Special Sauce (again), Valentine's Day, the rerelease of The Phantom Menace, and our next episode: Notting Hill!
2024-02-141h 17
Pod Only Knows#021 - Dr. Nicole SymmondsThis week, Kelly and John talk to Dr. Nicole Symmonds, who works as an Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics and, it happens, used to work a few cubicles down from John at Beliefnet a decade and a half or so ago.Dr. Symmonds' work sits at the intersection of Christian ethics and women, gender, and sexuality studies. She explores Black women’s embodiment, particularly the practices of liberative embodiment they craft as a method of resistance to domination and as a simulation of freedom.Dr. Symmonds identifies as Black Catholic, a religious tradition that follows th...
2024-02-131h 13
1999: The PodcastAUDITION and WE SOLD OUR SOULS FOR ROCK 'N ROLL - "Ozzdition"Audition does not rank anywhere in the 1999 box office. This is largely because it had no theatrical release in 1999.Rather, Audition played a single screening at the Toronto International Film Festival that year, and would only go on to make a few hundred thousand dollars worldwide during its run.But it developed an enormous cult following since, and has become one of the most revered horror films of its time. And it's easy to see why - Audition is gruesome, inventive, and stunningly unique.And, also, due to circumstances beyond her control, Jenn coul...
2024-02-051h 04
1999: The Podcast99@25 #02 - January 16-31We continue our celebration of the 25th anniversary of 1999 with our second installment, January 16-31 1999!In the second half of January 1999, we got:-She's All That-The release of Super Smash Bros.-The premiere of Family Guy!-The Blair Witch Project debuts at the Sundance Film Festivaland more!Plus, John's conversation with She's All That writer R. Lee Fleming, Jr!John and Jenn also discuss the 1999 Golden Globes, Gwyneth Paltrow, ODB, and G. Love and Special Sauce.
2024-01-311h 13
Pod Only Knows#020 - Dr. Judith WeisenfeldAs a nice break from all the doom and gloom in the world (and the depressing stuff we often cover), we decided to ask the wonderful Dr. Judith Weisenfeld to come talk to us about her life and work.Judith Weisenfeld is the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University, Associated Faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Effron Center for the Study of America.Her research focuses on early twentieth-century African...
2024-01-301h 12
1999: The PodcastIDLE HANDS: "American Idle" - with John-Michael BondA dismal critical and commercial failure that has gone on to be a genuine cult classic, Idle Hands came in at 162nd at the box office, earning less than $2 million on a $25 million budget.It probably didn't help that it was released 10 days after Columbine, and audiences maybe weren't in the mood for a high school-set slasher film.Or maybe it's that Idle Hands is a bafflingly, deliriously confused movies, with tones shifting wildly, sometimes within the same scene.But either way, it can't be accused of being lazy, and everything that makes its...
2024-01-221h 39
Pod Only Knows#019 - The Cult of Peloton?Is Peloton a cult?Well, Kelly owns one, so she is uniquely qualified to answer.In all seriousness, a Google search for terms like "peloton cult" or "fitness cult" yields a lot of results.Fairly or not, the fitness equipment company Peloton has been accused of fostering cult-like behavior in its customers. And the same can be said for branded workout companies like CrossFit and SoulCycle.But why? And is there anything to this?In this episode, Kelly and John ask those very questions, and explore what thinking about f...
2024-01-161h 03
1999: The Podcast99@25 #01 - January 1-15It's been 25 years since 1999, and to celebrate, your favorite the only 1999 podcast is going to take a look back on the time that was twice each month, starting with January 1-5, 1999!In the first episode of a series we are calling 99@25, we cover:-The Clinton Impeachment!-The (slow) release of movies (including Varsity Blues)-The debut of The Sopranos-Jon Stewart taking over The Daily Showand much more!John and Jenn share some personal anecdotes of their younger selves at the time, and reveal thei...
2024-01-151h 08
Pod Only Knows#018 - David Feltmate - The Simpsons, Religion, and Other Stuff34 years ago, in December of 1989, Fox aired Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, a Simpsons Christmas special, the de facto pilot to the subsequent primetime sitcom, and a cultural phenomenon was born.To people of a certain age, The Simpsons is part of the cultural DNA. And as an animated sitcom, it had unique license to explore elements of American culture that no other series could. And one of those elements was religion.The Simpson family went to church. They lived in a multicultural, multiethnic (but still predominantly white and Christian) community. They exposed aspects of...
2024-01-021h 20
Pod Only Knows#017 - Ghosts of Christmas Past - with Sara Cleto and Brittany WarmanBut Scrooge was all the worse for this. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black.So Charles Dickens described Ebenezer Scrooge's encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in his beloved 1843 classic A Christmas Carol.And while A Christmas Carol is best known as the endlessly-adapted and reimagined cornerstone of modern Christmas storytelling, it's al...
2023-12-191h 11
Pod Only Knows#016 - A Brief History of the War on ChristmasIt's December, which means it's time for everybody's racist uncle's favorite holiday tradition, the War on Christmas.Every year, sure as silver bells chime and lit wreathes line the streets of America's most aggressively white suburbs, Fox News delights eager viewers by trotting out this year's new battlefront narrative: Gay nutcrackers at Target! Insufficiently Christmassy Starbucks cup! Liberals cancelling Rudolph!If you ask Fox News and your least-favorite relatives, there is a War on Christmas...and there always will be.So Kelly and John are here to lay down so facts, starting with...
2023-12-0559 min
Pod Only Knows#015 - Unraveling the Thanksgiving Myth - with Dr. David J. SilvermanWhat better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than to have Kelly and John ruin it for you?Just kidding! We're not here to cancel Thanksgiving and we hope you have a lovely one.But holidays are weird things - we often celebrate them without really examining why, or how we arrived at the myths and rituals that emanate from their core.And Thanksgiving is, in many ways, our strangest holiday - a secular celebration that is at once also an aggressively religious one, built around a series of supposedly historical events that seem to...
2023-11-211h 25
1999: The PodcastSTIGMATA: "St. Frankie" - with Kelly BakerStigmata was, impressively, the 49th-highest grossing movie of 1999, finishing just ahead of House on Haunted Hill at 50th (which is upcoming in this round!)It made $50 million domestically and just shy of $90 million worldwide on a $29 million budget.Opening at #1 on September the 10th at over $18 million on a spooky box office weekend that saw The Sixth Sense take second with $16 million and ALSO opening, Stir of Echoes, debuting at $5.8 million in 3rd, the music video of a movie was directed by, appropriately, a music video director named Rupert Wainwright and cowritten by Tom Lazarus...
2023-11-131h 49
Pod Only KnowsMike Johnson - Christian Nationalist Wolf in Normal Guy ClothingMike Johnson is the new Speaker of the House or Representatives.And what the media seems to think you should know about him is that he's very nice, he's smart. he's well-respected by his colleagues, he's personally liked by Democrats, and he's conservative Christian. Oh, and did we mention he's nice? Mike Johnson - real nice guy!What we think you should know about him, however, is that he is now the most powerful Christian Nationalist in the country - possibly in the history of the country. And Mike's niceness masks some truly dark intentions. Beca...
2023-11-071h 02
Pod Only KnowsHalloween Special - NEVERMORE: Poe, Pain, and "The Fall of the House of Usher"Jenn Tisdale joins John and Kelly to talk about Edgar Allan Poe and the new Netflix series from Mike Flanagan The Fall of the House of UsherLike he did for Shirley Jackson with The Haunting of Hill House, Flanagan's series remixes and reimagines much of Poe's work and life story to create something haunting, timely, and revelatory, exposing themes in Poe's work and digging into the author's sense of morality and justice.For this Halloween special, they discuss the role that fears of pain and death play in narrative, what Carla Cugino's Raven character...
2023-10-311h 13
1999: The PodcastEXISTENZ: "Pod People" - with Julia Sirmons and Jess CollinsAt 174th place at the box office, eXistenZ was not one of the big hits of 1999, though the it has some proud company in the 170s, including The Limey, Cradle Will Rock, Princess Mononoke, and JawbreakerIt’s not clear that it ever had the makings of a runaway hit, but it can’t have helped that another heady sci-fi thriller about people who aren’t sure if the reality they exist in is real (and it isn’t) was released three weeks earlier in the form of The Matrix. Cronenberg was hardly a bankable commercial...
2023-10-301h 33Pod Only KnowsReligion of Fear - Horror in Conservative Evangelical America - with Jason BivinsJason Bivins is a specialist in religion and American culture an is the author of 2008's Religion of Fear: The Politics of Horror in Conservative Evangelicalism. He has also published multiple articles, review essays, and occasional pieces on religion, politics, and culture in the United States.His most recent book is Embattled America: The Rise of Anti-Politics and America’s Obsession with Religion (forthcoming, Oxford University Press, April 2022).A child of the era of the Satanic Panic - the unfounded moral hysteria around devil worship that gripped much of the US and Canada in...
2023-10-251h 13Pod Only KnowsMidnight Mass Rerelease - From Hard to Believe 10/20/2021 (RAIN DELAY FILLER CONTENT!!)Mike Flanagan's "Midnight Mass" revisits a lot of the themes of much of his previous work: grief, death, trauma, loss (and you can listen to our discussion of his "Haunting Of" Netflix series here).But it also covers some a lot of new ground, including the complicated relationship between human beings and the religions they build. It is a show grounded as much in humanity as it is in horror, and it asks more questions than it answers - and, in this way, it demonstrates an understanding of what religion is and how it works that is...
2023-10-241h 21Pod Only Knows#010 - Religion and The Labor Movement - with Dr. Heath CarterFor many, Labor Day is not much more than the end of summer movie season, a reason to have a cookout, or the symbolic beginning of the school year. It's the holiday we talk least about, in large part because the labor movement is one of the most underexamined areas of American history.So in honor of Labor Day, Kelly and John talked to Dr. Heath Carter, who has written extensively about the sometimes helpful, sometimes hostile role religion has played in driving the labor movement.Heath is an associate professor at Princeton Theological Seminary...
2023-09-121h 11Pod Only Knows#009 - Deus Ex Machina - Jesus Chatbots and the Religion of A.I.#009 - Deus Ex Machina - Jesus Chatbots and the Religion of A.I.Did you know A.I is not just the title of one of the best movies of the 21st century - it's a also a thing that's making a lot of news??Well, we did, because we're very young and hip and with it.In this episode, we consider the implication of some of the emerging areas of A.I. - like ChatGPT - on religion.First, Kelly spent some time chatting with Jesus on two different platforms - a text based interface where users can ask Jesus questions and get text message...
2023-08-291h 08Pod Only Knows#008 - Solomon Missouri - Twitter's PastorIt's Kelly's birthday (John's was yesterday...) and so we decided to talk to one of her favorites - Solomon Missouri, known to those in the know as Twitter's Pastor.In his own words, Rev. Solomon Missouri's ministry focuses on sexuality and spirituality outside and beyond church walls. We talk about how he stumbled into his role as Twitter's favorite spiritual leader, where Christianity is going, how he ministers to atheists who are still looking for community and support.You can find out more about his on his website here: https://www.solomonmissouri.com/...
2023-08-151h 09Pod Only Knows#007 - Preparing for War - Brad Onishi on the threat of Christian NationalismDr. Bradley Onishi is the author of the recent Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next as well as the co-host of the podcast Straight White American Jesus, which focuses on the the state of Christian Nationalism from a variety of angles.He joined John and Kelly to talk about his book, his experience growing up in California and converting to evangelical Christianity (which he would later go on to leave), and where exactly we are in the fight for a secular democracy in America.You can find ou...
2023-08-011h 18Pod Only KnowsDr. Shreena Gandhi - Yoga, White Supremacy, and CasteShreena Gandhi is a part of the Religious Studies Department at Michigan State University, where is primarily teaches classes on religion and race in the Americas.She is currently finishing up edits on a manuscript, A Cultural History of Yoga in the United States, which looks at the impacts of race, gender and class on how yoga is practiced and commodified in religious and secular spaces.And she is working on two other projects: one on religious seeking in the colonial and post-colonial global south, which uses her grandfather’s writings and books as primary ev...
2023-07-181h 16
1999: The PodcastA MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: "Ye Woodes" - with Steven SabelMichael Hoffman's adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream came at the end of a big decade for Shakespeare adaptations in general.Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet starring Mel Gibson was released in 1990, and other hit adaptations would follow - notably Kenneth Branagh’s celebrated Much Ado About Nothing in 1993, Oliver Parker’s Othello, starring Branagh and Laurence Fishburne, in 1995, and Baz Luhrman’s huge hit Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in 1996, a movie that made ten times its 14 million dollar budget.So when A Midsummer Night's Dream, often cited as the most popular Shakespeare play ev...
2023-07-101h 24Pod Only KnowsIs July 4th a Religious Holiday?This week, Kelly and John take on July 4th and ask if it's possible to wrestle it away from the darker side of American history as well as its increasingly Christian Nationalist connotations.Even though (or maybe because) America is not, in fact, a Christian nation and has no official religious identity, is July 4th a religious holiday? Has the project of state that (purportedly) guarantees freedom of religion and keeps the government (purportedly) independent of any religious affiliation actually made American history and its icons objects of religious devotion?Also this week: The good...
2023-07-041h 00Pod Only Knows#004 - UFOs as Religion - with Toby BallToby Ball is the host and creator of the series Strange Arrivals, a production of iHeart Radio an Aaron Mahnke's Grim and Mild.The recently-concluded third season of his show looks at UFO researchers who developed theories to explain the phenomenon and the consequences those theories had for people who believed they had experienced the paranormal.In the finale, Toby explores the ways in which belief in aliens via the UFO phenomenon functions as a modern religious movement, including the ways in which it pierce the boundaries of an obsession to become something more like a...
2023-06-201h 18
1999: The PodcastGO: "Mary Xmas" - with Alex Steed and Jess CollinsThe shortest-titled movie of 1999 (and among the shortest ever), Go was Doug Liman's follow-up to his 1996 debut, a collaboration with writer John Favreau, Swingers.There is some shared DNA between the two movies - both explore a very specific subculture in LA at a very specific time in the 90s, both drip with cool, and both borrow heavily from other films while creating something all their own.But they're also very different. And Go was often labeled by critics - who overwhelmingly praised the movie - as "Tarantinoesque".Of all the movies we've cove...
2023-06-121h 31Pod Only KnowsMagic's a Messy Bitch - with Dr. Shaily PatelWhen you work in religious studies, sometimes you get to work on really cool subjects, like Dr. Shaily Patel, who works on magic.For centuries, magic had been an integral part of religion. So much so, in fact, that it's hard to really see it as a separate category.So when did we start removing magic from religious practice and putting into the wands of boy wizards and teenage witches, or the hands of bearded old men? Why is magic a Vegas act instead of Church liturgy?The short answer is Christianity.
2023-06-061h 09Pod Only KnowsThe Middle WayIn the first weekend episode, John bring Kelly the topic of the Buddhist teaching of The Middle Way.One of the first breakthroughs in Siddhartha's journey to become the Buddha, the Middle Way reminds us that in order to be successful in our quests, we must center ourselves in moderation. This means avoiding the pitfalls of thinking in terms of extremes - that the answer to our problems is probably not ever the opposite of whatever caused them.As a society, and as a culture, we suck at this. And, worse, we tend to confuse...
2023-05-2744 minPod Only KnowsDr. Megan Goodwin on public scholarship in religious studiesThis week, Kelly and John talk to Dr. Megan Goodwin about the importance of getting religious studies out to the public and the challenges and tools for doing so.Dr. Goodwin is the co-host of the podcast Keeping it 101: A Killjoy's Introduction to Religion. Her formal expertise is in issues of gender, sexuality, race, politics, and American religions. She is the author of the 2020 book Abusing Religion: Literary Persecution, Sex Scandals, and American Minority Religions as well as the forthcoming Cults, Inc.Here she talks to your hosts about her journey into religious studies, why peo...
2023-05-231h 06
1999: The PodcastThe Sarah Rose Cosmetics Mount Rose American Teen Princess Round 3 Review ShowIt's the Sarah Rose Cosmetics Mount Rose American Teen Princess Round 3 Review Show.One year and 27 movies later, we're wrapping up round 3 and previewing our fourth round - this time, it's hosts' choice, as John and Joey each pick 4 movies and one they decided on together. But before that, they are joined by their friend and #1 fan Tyler Birth to take a look back at the highs and lows of our request round.Thanks to all our guest from this round:Bridget Todd (The Talented Mr. Ripley)Jenn Tisdale (Jawbreaker)
2023-05-1551 minPod Only KnowsMike Rothschild on his upcoming book "Jewish Space Lasers"Mike Rothschild, author of the acclaimed 2021 book The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything, is set to publish his follow-up, Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories, in September.The book covers the history of the antisemitic conspiracy theories surrounding the Rothschild (to whom Mike is not related) family and how they set a new model for framing Jewish people as responsible for major world events.Mike joined Kelly and John to discuss the book, its title (a joking reference to a conspiracy the...
2023-05-091h 01
Pod Only KnowsMetamorphosis - Hard to Believe becomes Pod Only KnowsNext week, we release the first official episode of Pod Only Knows. But to ease the transition from Hard to Believe, Kelly and John took some time to explain the idea and format of the new show and to let listeners get to know them both a little better.
2023-05-0241 min
1999: The PodcastBATS: "Bats, Man" - with Austin Wolf-Sothern"Dusk! With a creepy, tingling sensation, you hear the fluttering of leathery wing! BATS!"Bats.So, not every 1999 movie was a paradigm-shifting landmark. Some of them were unabashedly absurd b-movie creature features about bats. Like Bats.1999’s 127th-highest grossing movie, Bats opened at #9 just in time for Halloween, on the weekend of October 29th.But it nearly earned back its budget in its opening week, taking in 4.7 million dollars, and going on to earn more than 10 million dollars on a US-only release.Bats is also the worst-reviewed film we’ve co...
2023-05-011h 13
1999: The PodcastTHE MESSENGER - THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC: "The Voices" - with Sebastian MajorThe Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc was...big in France?Actually, The Messenger was indeed touted as "Oscar bait" prior to its release in November of 1999. Luc Besson was fresh off of his most commercially successful hit The Fifth Element, and so reteaming with Fifth Element star Milla Jovovich (who at the time was married to Besson) for a big, epic, gritty retelling of the Joan of Arc story seemed like a sure thing.Add in star power from John Malkovich, Dustin Hoffman, and how could you go wrong?Well, The Messeng...
2023-04-171h 35
1999: The PodcastTARZAN: "Apes!" - with Heather AntosDisney’s Tarzan was, as the 6th-highest grossing movie of the year, a big hit. But it also had a giant budget. Made for $130 million, it grossed $171 million domestically and $448 million worldwide. Tarzan did well with critics, as well. It was nominated for more than 2 dozen different awards, and won the Oscar and Golden Globe for best original song, Phil Collins’ “You’ll Be in My Heart”. It holds a an 89 percent Rotten Tomatoes score with more than 100 reviews, and 79 Metacritic score with 27 reviews, putting it right in the middle of the pack of the so-called Dis...
2023-03-201h 20
1999: The PodcastDEEP BLUE SEA: "Sharks!" - with Mark HofmeyerA modest success, Deep Blue Sea was the 29th-highest grossing movie of the year, putting it close the likes of Any Given Sunday, Galaxy Quest, and The Thomas Crown Affair, earning $74 million at the domestic box office on an $80ish million budget but going on to take in $165 million worldwide.Opening on July 30, Deep Blue Sea debuted in 3rd place behind the #1 opening of Runaway Bride and a still-strong Blair Witch Project coming in #2 in its third week.It would continue to stay in the top 10 for a respectable three further weeks.Writing in...
2023-03-061h 37
1999: The Podcast"Drop Dead Gorgeous" Director Michael Patrick JannJohn and Joey talk to "Drop Dead Gorgeous" director and founding member of "The State" Michael Patrick Jann.Jann shares his thoughts on the film's journey from critical and commercial dud to beloved cult classic, and shares what he's been up to lately (spoiler, his second feature film is due out this year!)
2023-03-0434 min
1999: The PodcastRAVENOUS: "Wendigo" - with Least Haunted hosts Cody and Garth1999's 180th-highest grossing film, Antonia Bird's Ravenous never finished higher than 18th at the domestic box office, earning just over 2 millions dollars on a 12 million dollar budget. And it was never released theatrically outside North America.Ravenous was also the recipient of decidedly (often wildly) mixed critics' reviews, all of whom seem to agree that the movie shifts tones so often and dramatically that it’s hard to actually pin it to any one genre.But like our previous movie, Jawbreaker, it has since developed a loving cult following. So this week Joey and John inv...
2023-02-061h 32
1999: The PodcastJAWBREAKER: "Teen Dream" - with Jenn TisdaleOur second Round 3 film, Jawbreaker, was requested by our friend and Office Space guest Jenn Tisdale.Jawbreaker was released in theatres on February 19th, making it one of the earliest 1999 films we’ve covered to date.The sophomore feature from writer Darren Stein, Jawbreaker is a John Waters-esque psychedelic high school satire. The 171st-highest grossing movie of the year, it earned 3.1 million on a 3.5 million dollar budget and was a complete failure with critics, holding just a 14% Rotten Tomatoes score and a 22 Metacritic score.The film was really intended for home video consumption, how...
2023-01-231h 33
1999: The PodcastTHE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY: "Peepin'" - with Bridget ToddThe Talented Mr. Ripley is one of a few movies that just barely didn't make our first 18, so we were delighted to learn the talented Bridget Todd wanted to give it a shout-out.The second motion picture adaptation of the novel by Patricia Highsmith, Ripley was released just under the wire on December 25th, going on to earn $127 million on a $40 million budget. The film stars Matt Damon, a pre-Goop Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cate Blanchett, Jack Davenport, and James Rebhorn, with music by Gabriel Yared and adapted and directed by Anthony Minghella, just...
2023-01-091h 26
1999: The PodcastOLIVE THE OTHER REINDEER - A Very Special 1999 Christmas! - with Juhi KhemaniMerry Christmas! In the spirit of the season, John and Joey asked their friend (and friend of the network) Juhi Khemani to spend 45 minutes watching the 1999 animated Christmas TV special Olive the Other Reindeer.Olive the Other Reindeer is based on the children's book of the same name by artist J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh.With its unique style, an all-star voice cast, and Michael Stipe, Olive is something of a forgotten gem. And we're here to unforget it! (Except Joey and Juhi, who had never seen it at all...)Enjoy our laid...
2022-12-251h 17
1999: The PodcastSOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER, AND UNCUT: "La Resistance" - with George FreitagSouth Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut is...very funny.It's also absurd, obscene, and one of the best movie musicals not called Moulin Rouge of the last few decades.The humor of the show and the movie, though, has always been too things - edgy (bordering on shocking) and timely. South Park the series has produced some of the smartest, most incisive satire anywhere in its 25 years of existence, but that kind of humor doesn't always age well?So how does this movie hold up in that regard? We asked someone who loved it a...
2022-11-281h 24
1999: The PodcastRUN LOLA RUN: "die Tasche" - with Jacob MeirovichRun Lola Run only technically meets the criteria of our podcast, but no discussion of the revolutionary, groundbreaking films of 1999 could really be complete without it. Because while it was released in 1998 in its native Germany, its US theatrical release came in June 18, 1999.Starring Franke Potente and Moritz Bleibtreu, Run Lola Run was the breakout feature from writer-director-composer Tom Tykwer.The style and themes of the film share a lot in common with the first film we covered on the podcast and one of your favorites, The Matrix. Beyond just the superficial, like a telephone s...
2022-11-141h 42
1999: The PodcastELECTION: "Pick Flick" - with Brian RodriguezWhen Election premiered on April 23rd, audiences, it is safe to say, did not Pick Flick.Election was a pretty giant dud. With a reported $25 million price tag, the film earned just $15 million at the box office, making it the 98th-highest grossing movie of the year. And that's despite near universal critical acclaim and a number of major awards nominations.What went wrong? A lot, including a very limited release right after Columbine and sandwiched between The Matrix and The Mummy. But Election also defies genre, and having the MTV Productions label attached to it made t...
2022-10-031h 29
1999: The PodcastBEING JOHN MALKOVICH: "Malkovich" - with Brian SillimanBeing John Malkovich may well be the 1999est movie we have yet covered on the show. And the only reason it didn’t make it into the first nine (and just barely) is that 1) it really took some time to fully sink in to the culture, sort of like Fight Club, and 2) unlike Fight Club, it has largely been marginalized in recent years, due in no small part to the successive work of both Jonze and Kaufman, who produced films that would go on to greater critical and commercial success than this one did.But it explores ma...
2022-09-191h 42
1999: The PodcastAMERICAN PIE: "Band Camp" - with Tessa and Nicole of the Doom Generation podcastThe fact that American Pie was the twentieth-highest-grossing movie of 1999 wouldn't suggest that film was a mammoth hit, but it was.American Pie made back its tiny 11 million dollar budget and then some in its opening weekend. And it went on to gross more than 100 million domestically and 235 million worldwide, making it one of the most profitable movies of the year (an honor obviously belonging to the freakishly budget-to-gross ratio obliteration machine that was The Blair Witch Project).But like 10 Things, it had almost no star power whatsoever. While much of the cast would go...
2022-09-051h 45
1999: The Podcast10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU: "Sonnet" - with Kelly J. Baker10 Things I Hate About You has become a generational favorite, joining the ranks of The Breakfast Club and Fast Times at Ridgemont High among the teen movie pantheon. Filmed on a $13 million budget, it made $38 million at the domestic box office, making it the 53rd top grossing movie of the year (one ahead of Fight Club). It would go on to break $60 million worldwide.But while it boasted a very impressive cast of very good actors, it had virtually no star power, and the central draw was a virtually unknown young actor named Heath Ledger. Neither Joseph G...
2022-08-221h 25
1999: The PodcastSpybreak! - Round One RecapIn this end--of-round recap mini episode, Joey and John share their thoughts on the first nine movies, pick a "winner" from round one, and preview what's up ahead in the second round: The Back Nine.Thanks to Brian Raftery, Chris Kluwe, Brian Silliman, Matt Romano, Lila Shapiro, Chelsey Weber-Smith, Stephanie Gagnon, Aislinn and Tobin Addington, Amanda Moore, Logan Kisner, and Tyler Huckabee for sharing their time and thoughts with us!We'll be back to on Monday, 8/22 with a new episode!
2022-08-1626 min
1999: The PodcastMAGNOLIA: "Save Me" - with Tyler HuckabeePaul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia was just his third feature film. It remains both his most beloved and most divisive.Released at the very end of 1999, Magnolia was largely lauded by critics, received a number of year-end awards and nominations, and mostly overlooked by audiences.But like Fight Club before it, it found second life on DVD and quickly found an adoring audience, in addition to the source of a number of ubiquitous pop culture references, largely due to Tom Cruise's outrageous motivational speaker character, Frank T. J. Mackey.Still, three hours of high dra...
2022-08-081h 26