talking
Radio/Podcasting
NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED
ALIENS at Thirty. July 18, 2016.
Can Wonder Woman Offer a Superhero Theme That Sticks? June 3, 2017.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Celebrates Inclusion. Dec. 22, 2018.
Why Are There No New Christmas Songs? Dec. 17, 2019.
On My 2020 Yulemix. Dec. 24, 2020.
NPR's Weekend Edition
Doctor Strange. Nov. 6, 2016.
NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour
On, um, Real Steel, and robot boxing generally. Oct. 14, 2011. Notes.
On Arnold Schwarzengger's memoir and the State of the Action Hero. Oct. 12, 2012. Notes.
On Man of Steel, or The Cavil Over Henry Cavill. June 21, 2013. Notes.
On Captain Phillips, and pop culture that makes us cry. Oct. 18, 2013. Notes.
On The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and Christmas songs. Dec. 20, 2013. Notes.
Silly Questions Live, for Special Guests. Jan. 3, 2014 (recorded Dec. 10, 2013). Notes.
Edge of Tomorrow and Noble Failures. June 13, 2014. Notes.
Guardians of the Galaxy and Things So Bad They're Good. Aug. 4, 2014. Notes.
Interstellar and Plausible Sci-Fi Films. Nov. 7, 2014. Notes.
Jupiter Ascending and Chemistry. Feb. 13, 2015. Notes.
Funny Girl and Movies From Books. March 20, 2015. Notes.
Small Batch: Furious 7. April 2, 2015. Notes.
The Comedians and Cameo Appearances. April 10, 2015. Notes.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Pop Culture Pariahs. May 8, 2015. Notes.
Small Batch: Mad Max: Fury Road. May 21, 2015
Small Batch: Terminator Genisys (sic). July 7, 2015.
Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp and Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation. Aug. 7, 2015. Notes.
Small Batch: Fantastic Four. Aug. 11, 2015.
On Mr. Robot and Title Sequences. Sept. 4, 2015. Notes.
On The Martian and How-To Stories. Oct. 9, 2015. Notes.
On Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Merch, Merch, March. Dec. 18, 2015. Notes.
On The Hateful Eight and the Theatrical Filmgoing Experience. Jan. 15, 2016. Notes.
On Hail, Caesar! and Entertainment About Entertainment. Feb. 19, 2016. Notes.
On Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Objects We Desire. April 1, 2016. Notes.
On X-Men: Apocalypse and Supervillains. June 3, 2016. Notes.
On Jason Bourne and Suicide Squad. Aug. 5, 2016. Notes.
On The Magnificent Seven and Fleabag. Sept. 30, 2016. Notes.
On Arrival and Pop Culture Mood-Boosters. Nov. 18, 2016. Notes.
On Alien: Covenant and Veep. May 26, 2017. Notes.
On Atomic Blonde. Aug. 1, 2017.
On Logan Lucky. Aug. 21, 2017.
On Blade Runner 2049. Oct. 6, 2017.
On Black Mirror, Season 4. Dec. 29, 2017.
On Annihilation and What's Making Us Happy. Feb. 23, 2018.
On Isle of Dogs. March 27, 2018.
On Deadpool 2 and What's Making Us Happy. May 18, 2018.
On Paddington 2. June 6, 2018.
On Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and What's Making Us Happy. June 21, 2018.
On Ant-Man and The Wasp and What's Making Us Happy. July 6, 2018.
On Skyscraper and What's Making Us Happy. July 20, 2018.
On Mission: Impossible — Fallout and What's Making Us Happy. July 27, 2018.
On First Man and What's Making Us Happy. Oct. 12, 2018.
On Die Hard (which is usually What’s Making Us Happy). Nov. 21, 2018.
On Creed II. Nov. 28, 2018.
On Christmas Songs—The Best, and, Separately, Our Favorites. Dec. 5, 2018.
On Glass and What’s Making Us Happy. Jan. 18, 2019.
On Shazam! and What's Making Us Happy. April 5, 2019.
On John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum and What's Making Us Happy. May 17, 2019.
On Spider-Man: Far From Home and What’s Making Us Happy. July 5, 2019.
On Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood. July 31, 2019.
On Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Aug. 7, 2019.
On The Goldfinch (the movie) and What’s Making Us Happy. Sept. 13, 2019.
On A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and What’s Making Us Happy. Nov. 29, 2019.
On Star Trek: Lower Decks. Aug. 19, 2020.
On Enola Holmes and What’s Making Us Happy. Sept. 25, 2020.
On American Utopia. Oct. 21, 2020.
On Sean Connery (1930-2020). Nov. 2, 2020.
On Showgirls. Jan. 7, 2021. Notes.
On Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself. Feb. 1, 2021.
On Our Favorite Concert Films. March 22, 2021. Notes.
On Without Remorse and What’s Making Us Happy. April 30, 2021. Notes.
On For Those Who Wish Me Dead and What’s Making Us Happy. May 14, 2021.
On Black Widow and What’s Making Us Happy. July 9, 2021. Notes.
On The Suicide Squad and What’s Making Us Happy. Aug. 6, 2021.
On No Time to Die and What’s Making Us Happy. Oct. 8, 2021.
On Red Notice. Nov. 12, 2021.
On Severance. March 15, 2022.
On The Northman. April 26, 2022.
On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. June 23, 2022.
On The Gray Man. July 28, 2022.
On The Banshees of Inisherin and What’s Making Us Happy. Nov. 4, 2022.
On Avatar: The Way of Water and What’s Making Us Happy. Dec. 16, 2022.
On Plane and What’s Making Us Happy. Jan. 13, 2023.
On Creed III. March 3, 2023.
On Asteroid City and What’s Making Us Happy. June 23, 2023.
On Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and What’s Making Us Happy. June 30, 2023.
On Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. July 11, 2023.
On Ferrari. Dec. 27, 2023.
On Road House 2024 and What’s Making Us Happy. March 22, 2024.
Smithsonian Magazine’s There’s More to That
How the Osage Changed Martin Scorsese’s Mind About Killers of the Flower Moon. Oct. 19, 2023.
A Brief History of Banned Books in America. Oct. 5, 2023.
Are Wild Animals Really Just Like Us? Sept. 21, 2023.
The WWII Battalion of Black Women That Inspired an Army Base’s New Name. Sept. 7, 2023.
Deep-Sea Tourism or Deep-Sea Science? Aug. 24, 2023.
What Happens When the Colorado River Dries Up? Aug. 10, 2023.
How We See Oppenheimer. July 27, 2023.
He’s (Not) Just Ken: The True History of Barbie’s Beau. July 27, 2023.
JAMES BONDING
Only Timothy Dalton's aborted 3rd Bond film. Oct. 31, 2017.
THE CANON
The Philadelphia Story v His Girl Friday. Dec. 4, 2017.
The Voice Film Club
On Vampire Academy and RoboCop remake. Feb. 13, 2014.
On Tom Cruise, X-Men, and Han Solo. May 20, 2014.
WAMU's Metro Connection
Searching for the Starship Enterprise, Nov. 1, 2013. Notes.
On Donald Tillery, Feb. 14, 2014. Notes.
Downtown Boxing Club, Feb. 21, 2014.
WBEZ's Filmspotting
#357 One segment, on Captain America. July 29, 2011 (It's about 38 minutes in.)
#369:Footloose, The Thing and Top Five Remakes. Oct. 21, 2011 (With footnotes!)
#374: The Descendants and Top Five Movies About Movies. Nov. 24, 2011.
#563 Spectre and Top Five Bond Things. Nov. 13, 2015. Notes.
#579 Batman v Superman and Top Five Batman-Superman Movie Moments. April 1, 2016. Notes.
The /Filmcast
On RoboCop. Feb. 17, 2014.
American Public Media's Marketplace
On the stagnant yuletide songbook, Dec. 23, 2013.
Minnesota Public Radio's The Daily Circuit
Discussing good holiday music and my 2012 Yulemix, Dec. 21, 2012.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Word of Mouth
Discussing my Four Types of Spoilers essay for the Village Voice, Nov. 5, 2013 (Read the essay here.)
Discussing my Christmas songs essay for Slate, Dec. 18, 2013. (Read the essay here.)
Southern California Public Radio's AirTalk
On Christmas Songs, Dec. 24, 2013
The Washington City Paper
On the Fringe & PurgeCast, which I created, host, produce and edit all by myself.
Television/Video
HuffPost Live
On Christmas Music (Dec. 17, 2013)
The PEN/Faulker Foundation
Literature on Screen with You author Caroline Kepnes and You Netflix star Penn Badgley (Sept. 23, 2020)
WETA's Around Town
On Signature Theatre's ART (April 2011)
On Studio Theatre's The Walworth Farce (April 2011)
On Woolly Mammoth's Clybourne Park (Aug. 2011)
On Remounts (Aug. 2011)
On Woolly Mammoth's Stupid Fucking Bird and Theater J's The Hampton Years (June 2013)
On Signature Theatre's Sex with Strangers (Nov. 2014)
On Folger Theater's Julius Caesar (Nov. 2014)
On Forum Theatre's How We Got On (Nov. 2014)
On Synetic Theatre's Beauty and the Beast (Dec. 2014)
On Old Trout's Famous Puppet Death Scenes (Dec. 2014)
On Arena Stage's Fiddler on the Roof (Dec. 2014)
On Theater J's The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide (Dec. 2014)
On Washington Stage Guild's In Praise of Love (Jan. 2015)
On Signature Theatre's Diner (Jan. 2015)
On Studio Theatre's Choir Boy (Feb. 2015)
On Theater J's Life Sucks (Feb. 2015)
On Ford's Theatre's The Widow Lincoln (Feb. 2015)
On Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's Cherokee (Feb. 2015)
On Arena Stage's King Hedley II (Feb. 2015)
On Folger's Mary Stuart (Feb. 2015)
On Washington Stage Guild's Back to Methuselah, Part 2 (March 2015)
On Signature Theatre's Kid Victory (March 2015)
On Studio Theatre's Laugh (April 2015)
On Shakespeare Theatre's Man of La Mancha (April 2015)
On Arena Stage's The Originalist (April 2015)
On Signature Theatre's Soon (April 2015)
On Synetic Theatre's Alice in Wonderland (Oct. 2015)
On Olney Theatre Center's Bad Dog (Oct. 2015)
On MetroStage's Uprising (Oct. 2015)
On Shakespeare Theatre Company's King Charles III (Feb. 2017)
On Folger Theatre's As You Like It (Feb. 2017)
On Theatre Alliance’s Word Becomes Flesh (Sept. 2017)
On Studio Theatre’s Skeleton Crew (Sept. 2017)
On Constellation Theatre Company's The Wild Party (Oct. 2017)
On Ford's Theatre's Death of a Salesman (Oct. 2017)
On Olney Theatre and Round House Theatre's joint In the Heights (Oct. 2017)
On Olney Theatre Center's Mary Stuart (May 2019)
On Folger's Love's Labor's Lost (May 2019)
On Mosaic Theater's Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine (Sept. 2019)
On Signature Theatre's Assassins (Sept. 2019)
On Arena Stage’s Ride the Cyclone (Jan. 2023)
On Studio Theatre’s English (Jan. 2023)
On Studio Theatre’s Good Bones (May 2023)
On Studio Theatre’s Fat Ham (Oct. 2023)
On Olney Theatre Center’s A Christmas Carol (Dec. 2023)