5AM StoryTalk

This week, I'm joined by an Australian musician whose career I’ve been following since I first interviewed him in a Detroit club 20 years ago. I’m talking about BEN LEE here, and  we’ll be discussing his music (from the 20th anniversary of his seminal album 'Awake Is the New Sleep' to his stunning new single 'The Fall of America'), the death of the American myth that once inspired us to chase our...

5AM RealTalk is a 5AM StoryTalk plog where I discuss the highs and lows of my life as a screenwriter/novelist and human being. On the itinerary today: Thanksgiving in the wrong part of the world – two Frankensteins: Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 film and the BBC mini-series 'Frankenstein: The True Story' from 1973 – why screenwriters should study del Toro’s version – your racist uncle now thinks pedop...

Author - design advocate - cyborg anthropologist (yes, I said cyborg anthropologist !). This week, I'm joined by AMBER CASE and we’ll be talking about what’s gone wrong with how we interact with our technology, how craft, aesthetic, and consequently beauty have largely vanished from what we use in our everyday life, and how both issues affect our psychological and cultural health. Most importantly...

“Screenwriters: I want you to PUT THE CAT IN THE BLENDER instead.” 🐱🌪️ 'Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need' has done catastrophic damage to Hollywood storytelling and the moviegoing experience in the 21st century—but after 20 years as a professional screenwriter, I have a solution that might just help with your next script. In this episode of 5AM STORYTALK, I break down...

On the itinerary today: ' Sinners' , at last — Denis Villeneuve agrees with me — are scripts just blueprints, or can they be literature? — what artists and magicians have in common — the limits of the screenwriting form — what I’ve learned from Walter Hill, William Goldman, and Celine Song — but also, Terrence Malick, Christopher Nolan, J.C. Chandor, and Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan — writing...

Author - screenwriter - podcaster - and trailblazing journalist. Today on the 5AM StoryTalk Podcast , I’m joined by EMILY ST. JAMES and we’ll be talking about her transition from beloved TV critic to the 'Yellowjackets' writers’ room, the fluidity of memory when it comes to our childhoods and relationships, and her beautiful new novel 'Woodworking' (which left me bawling and cautiously hopeful). T...

A lawyer who has helped transfer $5.5 billion from corporations to their victims - an author - the co-founder and chair of Digital Rights Watch. Today, I'm joined by LIZZIE O'SHEA and we'll be discussing her digital rights activism, (which impacts the rights of artists), the value of art in changing political conversations, and how to fight back against everything in the 21st century. I dare you n...

5AM RealTalk is a 5AM StoryTalk plog where I discuss the highs and lows of my life as a screenwriter/novelist and human being. On the itinerary today: finding my characters’ voices fast with a writing trick you might want to try – breakfast with musician Tim Rogers (front man of Australian rock band YouAmI) – why artists need artists in their lives – how I answered when my therapist asked me what...

'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' - 'Sinister' - 'Doctor Strange' - 'The Gorge' - 'The Black Phone' and 'Black Phone 2'. Today, I'm joined by SCOTT DERRICKSON , the director of these horror and action blockbusters and more. He co-wrote many of them, too. I think it’s safe to say this is his most candid and revealing interviews ever; it’ll change how you understand so much of his work. A BONUS EPISODE w...

Since I was little, all I wanted was to do was grow up to write stories for the screen. But when my first TV series was green lit to series, it was a gut punch almost as bad as finding out someone I love had died. Find out why in the exciting, soul-crushing conclusion of the four-part podcast story "The Horror of 'Dracula': The Unbelievable True Story of the 2013 TV Series". What you're about to l...

What could lead me to try to REPEATEDLY try to quit the first TV series I ever created - 'DRACULA' (2013)? If you thought things went to a dark place in Part 2, you ain't seen nothing yet! Today brings you Part 3 of a four-part real-life horror story I often describe as a cautionary tale for screenwriters – and artists, in general – about what can happen when all your dreams come true. I'm talking...

On the itinerary today: how the writing muscle changes (negatively?) with age - my failed first novel - the importance of carving out thinking time amongst everything we juggle as artists and human beings - am I a workaholic? (thanks, Dad!) - springtime in Australia - Samantha Harvey's novel Orbital - Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk and his four-part War and Peace films - Mosfilm on YouTube - an...

What could lead me to try to quit the first TV series I ever created - 'DRACULA' (2013) starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Oliver Jackson Cohen, and Jessica De Gouw?! Today brings you Part 2 of a four-part real-life horror story I often describe as a cautionary tale for screenwriters – and artists, in general – about what can happen when all your dreams come true. A story so terrifying it became infam...

How could a straight-to-series greenlight go so wrong for the first TV series I ever created?! Today brings you the first part of a four-part real-life horror story I often describe as a cautionary tale for screenwriters – and artists, in general – about what can happen when all your dreams come true. A story so terrifying it became infamous in two different countries’ TV industries. I'm talking a...

'100 Bloody Acres' - 'Scare Campaign' - 'Late Night with the Devil'. Today, I'm joined by Australian writer-directors of these fantastic horror films - THE CAIRNES BROTHERS . We're going to discuss their unique blend of horror, comedy, and drama, growing up in the 80s on a mix of Hollywood and Ozploitation films, the breadth of what a horror film can be today in part because of Aussie filmmakers,...

This week on the 5AM StoryTalk Podcast , we’re joined by KAREN HORNE — DEI pioneer and former Senior VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion North America for Warner Bros. Discovery. Karen and I are going to dig into her life, how she became such a voice for representation and DEI in Hollywood, and the economics of diversity behind and in front of the camera. Let’s throw out the political hyperbole...

In today's plog, we discuss: white supremacist marches around the world - Charlie Kirk's assassination - Karen Attiah getting fired for directly quoting Kirk - Jimmy Kimmel canceled by the U.S. government and a cowardly corporation - the risk to artists for speaking up IRL and in their work - what's the point anyway? - Amazon 'reconstructing' Orson Welles' 'The Magnificent Ambersons' using AI - Pa...

HOW DO WE SURVIVE AS ARTISTS TODAY? Not just in 2025, but going forward, too, as the world’s creative industries become ever more perilous places to forge careers thanks to fun things like AI, corporate greed, and fascism. How do you keep on keeping on despite all the uncertainty that comes with an artist's life? How do you become the artist you want to be given such terrible odds? To help, I'm go...

Historian of science, monster consultant, and author of the brilliant new book '⁠Humans: A Monstrous History⁠'. Today I'm joined by DR. SUREKHA DAVIES , and we'll talking the perception of category breakers as monsters in history and storytelling and how our relationship to these 'monsters' helped invent race, gender, and nations along the way. This conversation couldn’t be more relevant to our wo...

5AM RealTalk is a 5AM StoryTalk plog where I discuss the highs and lows of my life as an artist and human being - what I'm struggling with in my work, what's inspiring me, what's causing me to lose sleep. In today's episode, we get to know each other a little better, I muse about the artist's "waiting game" and the anxiety that brings, I talk about some personal stuff that's leading to something l...

Today I'm joined by KELLY FREMON CRAIG – screenwriter and director of coming-of-age films 'The Edge of Seventeen ' (2016) and the Judy Blume adaptation 'Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret' (2023). Her direction is never showy, and yet always specifically her; her dialogue and character work is always authentic and crackling and very often unexpectedly moving; and her screenplays are a legitimate...

I’m Cole Haddon - screenwriter, novelist, and comic book writer - and this is a trailer for Season 2 of 5AM StoryTalk! If you're as confused by the 21st century as I am, then you've come to the right place. Every week at this podcast, I'm going to be joined by some of the world's biggest artists and intellectuals so that we can try to make sense of what's going on in our culture. I’m talking where...

Today, I'm joined by MIKE JACKSON , co-founder of the Get Lifted Film Co. (with John Legend and Ty Stiklorious), the Emmy-winning producer of films and TV series like ‘Underground’ , ‘Rhythm + Flow’ , ‘ Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey’ , ‘ Southside with You’ , ' Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children', the 2019 ‘Jesus Christ Superstar Live and Concert’ event, and so many more, and t...

MIKE JACKSON — co-founder of Get Lifted Film Co., Emmy-winning producer, and host of the Why Not Me? podcast — returns for a bonus episode to discuss two seminal artworks from his life – Kwame Brathwaite’s photographs of the Jackson 5 and Muhammad Ali, both taken on the coast of Africa in 1974. Check the photos out here: Brathwaite's Ali photo: https://kwamebrathwaite.com/artworks/5030-kwame-brath...

Today I'm joined by SOPHIE HYDE , one of my favorite contemporary Australian filmmakers – director of numerous documentaries, short films, and TV series and feature films such as ‘52 Tuesdays’, ‘Animals’, ‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’, and, most recently, ‘Jimpa’ starring Olivia Coleman and John Lithgow. Her filmmaking is deeply collaborative, structurally challenging, and very often transgressiv...