Tender Subject

This week, Kayte, Jay and Jon Greenaway (aka the LitCrit Guy) slice into one of the big cultural artifacts of the Tender Subject canon, Peter Greenaway's gorgeous film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. We use John Berger's Ways of Seeing plus readings on French haute cuisine to dissect the fashion, art, food and politics of the film. Plus: Brecht! Opera! Gaultier! What a feast! Extra Cr...

Dave and Kayte are joined by writer Madeline Lane-McKinley to talk about a different kind of body horror, in the Todd Haynes masterpiece Safe (1995). We discuss class, gender, genre, illness, cults and milk drinking. Plus, we dig into Douglas Crimp's seminal essay "How to Be Promiscuous in an Epidemic" . Extra credit: "How To Have Promiscuity in an Epidemic" by Douglas Krimp, October Magazine, 198...

This week, Kayte and Mae are joined by writer/professor Jo Issaacson to devour 1974's cult cannibalism classic Frightmare! We talk about crazy old biddies, British politeness, Julia Ducournau, psychiatry and tarot. Plus Kayte tries and fails to say Canibanthropy multiple times.  Where to find Jo: @StepfordDotter on Twitter Stepford Daughters book What Ever Happened to Baby Jane book Facebook horro...

This week, Kayte and Dave descend deep into the tunnels of the New York city subway, with author/professor Eleanor Russel to slice into 2008's The Midnight Meat Train (directed by Ryuhei Kitamura). We talk about public transit, the art world on film, the meat industry and why it's so disorienting to film a movie about one city while filming in a different city. Naturally our discussion turns to Cl...

Have the lambs stopped screaming Clarice? That’s right: Kayte and Jay are joined by author Jon, the Lit Crit Guy from Horror Vanguard to tackle a big one: Silence of the Lambs! We talk through genre, gender, class and cannibalism in this monster of a film.  Media referenced:  Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters by J Halberstam “ Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs” by Jeanne...

It's a world with no pain, new organs and performance art is all the rage! Join Kayte and Dave as we delve into the gorgeously grotesque Crimes of the Future. We talk about pain, wounds, pleasure and art through the film and through some of Kayte's favorite performance art texts.  Other readings:  Jones, Amelia. "Performing the Wounded Body: Pain, Affect and the Radical Relationality of the Body"...

This week on Tender Subject, we are joined by comedian Jake Flores and writer J †Johnson to talk Frankenstein. We dissect the book and the 2025 film through queer and Marxist theory and get into why the film often let us down.   Media referenced: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters by J Halberstam Capitalism: A Horror Story by Jon Greenaway J †John...

This week on Tender Subject we are joined by Jane Altoids to dissect two Jess Franco surgery movies: The Awful Dr. Orloff (1972) and Faceless (1987). We discuss Franco as a complicated auteur, his mythology and legacy, then get into two body horror movies that bookended his career!  Media referenced:  Murderous Passions, Volume 1: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco  Flowers of Perversion, Volume...

Kayte is Joined by Langdon from Death/Sentence podcast for a discussion about Sayaka Murata's books Earthlings and Convenience Store Woman. We talk biopolitics, cannibalism both literal and figurative, trauma and living in a society.  Media referenced:  Gina Meyers' new book of poetry, Works and Days Buy Earthlings and Convenience Store Woman on Bookshop The Biopolitical Body of Convenience Store...

This Week, Kayte and Dave are joined by returning fave, comedian Gabe Pacheco for a deep dive into the drug fueled Ken Russell film Altered States. We talk about getting high, colonialism, the simian monster and the bliss of turning to sand with your lover.  Media Referenced:  Altered States: Visions and Divisions by Jessica Kiang Patriarchal-Industrial Anxiety and the Return of the Repressed (Eco...

This week Kayte and Mae are joined by writer and editor of Cul de Sac of Blood (a horror poetics journal) J †Johnson to sink our teeth into Gretchen Felker-Martin's nightmarish novel Cuckoo . We talk about the unknowable monster, the horror of the family and liken the book's desert conversion camp to the violence of ecological colonialism and memoricide.  "Elements of Semitism" by Jake Romm , Para...

Long live the new flesh. Kayte, Dave and guest Jake Flores dig into David Cronenberg’s weirdo masterpiece, Videodrome. We talk Marshall McCluhan, techno-utopians, techno-fascists, kink and more!  Media referenced:  The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McCluhan and Quentin Fiore  Rev Left Radio: episode on Marshall McCluhan & The Medium is the Message with Matthew Furlong. Listen here . Videod...

Help us come ashore, we won’t eat you, my dear.  This week, we deep dive into the mermaid musical, The Lure (2015) (directed by  Agnieszka Smoczynska) with our guest DeVaughn Taylor . We talk about Poland in the ‘80s, mermaid lore, trans themes, disgust and desire and so much more.  Find DeVaughn as a co-host on Specter Cinema Club and Tainted Love and a regular on The Pod and the Pendulum Mae is...

This week, we are slurping and crunching our way through Fruit Chan’s film Dumplings with guests Gretchen Felker-Martin and Sophie Lewis ! We talk about the politics of food, abortion, class in Hong Kong and Birkin bags!  Media referenced:  Fruit Chan's "Dumplings"—New "Diary of a Madman" in Post-Mao Global Capitalism by Lu Tonglin Buy Gretchen’s books: Manhunt, Cuckoo and newly published Black Fl...

Boils and blood and side wounds, oh my! This week we are joined by artist/professor (and Kayte's MFA thesis mentor!) Jonathan Van Dyke to talk about Renaissance paintings, torture, eroticism and more. On the menu: Jesus's sexuality, saints in ecstasy, leaky artists and why so many old Christian paintings look so queer.  About Jonathan Van Dyke:   Jonathan VanDyke is a New York City–based visual ar...

The shoe is too small for her, the true bride waits for you. This week we dig our teeth into the bloody fairy tale of Cinderella retold as the film The Ugly Stepsister with our guest, writer/editor Payton McCarty-Simas . We talk through the rot of beauty standards, overbearing mothers and fuckboy princes through the many iterations of tale, including Angela Carter's Ashputtle and Grimm's Cinderell...

Who are the real cannibals? Spoiler: it’s western imperialism! Kayte, Jay and guest Mark Steven dissect the cult classic Cannibal Holocaust and discover layer upon gristly layer of meaning. Topics we cover: found footage, the complicity of media, anthropology, groovy soundtracks and well-meaning liberals.  a note: this movie contains a lot of SA, violence and animal cruelty. We still think it’s a...

Out by 16 or dead in the scene but together forever! This week we are joined by writer/performer Addison Peacock to talk about Ginger Snaps! Topics include: being a weird girl, fashion before the internet, becoming a monster and sisterly incest!  Media referenced:  The Monstrous Feminine by Barbara Creed ”Out by 16: Queer(ed) Girls in Ginger Snaps” by Tanis McDonald Where to find Addison:  Listen...

We're back for Season 2 of Yellowjackets with Dave and writer Madeline Lane McKinley! We talk about mystery box TV and if solving mysteries matters. Plus, physical media, girls eating girls, '90s bangers and over-medicated teens. Buy Madeline’s book Comedy Against Work here   Buy Fag/Hag here soon!  And look out for Solidarity with Children here soon!  Dave is also a co-host on Genre Reveal Party...

Kayte, Mae and our guest Rocco are in our shiny tendon suits and, uh-oh, we're in the nightmare mind of Vincent D'Onofrio? That's right, we are talking about Tarsem Singh's surrealist psychological horrror, The Cell. We talk about the lost art of music videos, Jennifer Lopez's unique empathetic heroism and unreal animation vs AI.  Where to find Rocco: The LadyKillers Podcast Read Rocco's Reviews!...

Then we'll all sing together, Society waits for you... This week on Tender Subject, it's finally time for the shunt! Kayte, Dave and our guest, comedian Gabe Pacheco, talk about Brian Yuzna's gooey satirical horror film Society (1989). We talk about Bodies without Organs, capitalism, Luigi Mangione and the possibilities of a Communist shunt.  Media referenced: Some good podcasts to get started on...

This week on Tender Subject, Kayte and Jay are joined by Ash from Horror Vanguard to talk about Alison Rumfitt’s brutal novel Tell Me I’m Worthless . We talk about haunted houses, bodies and territories plus TERFs, RadFems and looming Fascism.  Media referenced:  ”Battlefield Exctacies” by Sophie Lewis, The Point Magazine. Capitalism: A Horror Story by Jon Greenaway, Repeater Books. Antifa: The An...

Who's hungry? As you travel this week to your own Blood Feasts, we're taking another bite of an old favorite episode! Kayte and Jay are joined by noted Herschell Gordon Lewis expert LaborKyle to talk about the film Blood Feast (1963). In doing so, we summon Ishtar (which means we talk about all sorts of stuff like treating your artistic work as work, how Victorians ate mummies, and the warm piss s...

This week, Kayte and Mae are joined by writer and professor Jo Isaacson to dissect the polarizing new body horror film by Coralie Fargeat, THE SUBSTANCE! We dig really deep, and discuss camp, old Hollywood and hagsploitation, Marxist alienation, unboxing videos and giving birth to a new beautiful monster.  Sources mentioned: The Monstrous Feminine and The Return to the Monstrous Feminine by Barbar...

This week on Tender Subject, Kayte, Jay and Dave have cooked up a feast of an episode on the demon barber himself, Sweeney Todd! Join us as we sink our teeth into the movie, the play, the sets, the songs and lots and lots of blood. Media referenced: “Is That Just Disgusting?" Mapping the Social Geographies of Filth and Madness in "Sweeney Todd" by Aleksei Grinenko link here   Six by Sondheim Jay i...