Audio #Content Report

Welcome to The Content Report , a newsletter by Vince Mancini. I’ve been writing about movies, culture, and food since the late aughts. Now I’m delivering it straight to you, with none of the autoplay videos, takeover ads, or chumboxes of the ad-ruined internet. Support my work and help me bring back the cool internet by subscribing, sharing, commenting, and keeping it real. — Paul Fischer’s new b...

'Predators' director David Osit discusses his new documentary about To Catch A Predator and Chris Hansen The instant I heard someone was making a documentary about To Catch A Predator I knew I had to see it. While it may seem like something of a weird novelty now, it’s hard to overstate what a phenomenon To Catch A Predator was in its own time. The clips of personalities like Jimmy Kimmel and Jon...

Vince Mancini interviews 'Death By Lightning' creator Mike Makowsky, about casting, Garfield/Guiteau, whether there will be a sequel, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vincemancini.substack.com/subscribe

Before it was a presumed Oscar contender starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson, The Smashing Machine was a documentary about MMA pioneer Mark Kerr, directed by John Hyams. Arguably one of the most influential documentaries of the 21st century, I was so obsessed with it that the first time I tracked down John Hyams to pepper him with questions about it was 13 damned years ago. That’s right, before my re...

(This is a crosspost from the Frotcast , since it seems relevant to both interest groups) Did you know Pedro Pascal gropes women to deal with his anxiety? If you were online at all in the past week or two, you might have noticed this narrative going around, or people making memes about it, or sharing supposedly damning video evidence of such a thing. Maybe involving Vanessa Kirby, or possibly Will...

This past week I was offered the opportunity to speak with this season’s Top Chef finalists — Bailey Sullivan, Shuai Wang, and Tristen Epps. This being The #Content Report, I’m always loathe to turn down an opportunity for #content, so I said yes. I don’t generally love interviewing more than one person at a time, which makes it harder to have a natural conversation, but I figured it would be nice...

Earlier this season I got to interview Top Chef host Kristen Kish for Decider . Then just before this past week’s episode, I got to interview Top Chef judge Gail Simmons. Just like last time, you can read the interview and my full write-up over at Decider . It’s all polished up and coherent over there. This time though, I also have the audio version for your aural pleasure. Check it out if you’re...

Howdy, #Content Report subscribers. It’s been a while since we posted a podcast. If you love Top Chef Power Rankings and movie reviews… well, this is different than that. But if you liked hearing Joey and I discussing Top Chef on a podcast, this is very similar to that! Joey Devine from Roundball Rock /our Top Chef podcast returns to the Frotquarters this week to talk Thunderbolts* ! Joey liked it...

My 2021 interview with Biff Wiff from I Think You Should Leave/Everything Everywhere. His first interview. RIP, Biff. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vincemancini.substack.com/subscribe

Vince and Joey finish up their season 1 Top Chef rewatch podcast by breaking down the two-part finale of Top Chef season 1, a competition between Harold Dieterle and Tiffani Faison. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit vincemancini.substack.com/subscribe

Little did Joey and I know when we planned to record an episode about Top Chef season 1 episode 10 that it was a reunion episode! That’s right, apparently they used to do the cast reunion episode before the finale. And the contestants on that reunion episode used be super drunk . Like slurring words and being messy drunk, and maybe almost throwing up. Was that the show producers being unethical, o...

This week on the Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show, our old pal (and Top Chef  virgin) comedian Joey Avery is joining us on the cast. We're talking Top Chef  season one, episode nine, "Napa's Finest," in which the final four chefs (Harold, Lee Anne, Tiffani, and Dave) get trimmed to three before the finale in Las Vegas. First the chefs competed to see who could elevate junk food classics, and then they...

What is the cruelest Top Chef challenge of all time? After this week’s episode of the Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show, we humbly submit Top Chef season 1, episode 8, “Wedding Bell Blues.” In this week’s Top Chef season 1 rewind, the five remaining competitors (season one had only 12 chefs, as opposed to later seasons which usually had 15) were challenged to cater a 100-person wedding. That sounds chal...

This week we’re going all the way back to April 19th, 2006 to recap Top Chef’s very first Restaurant War. This was an epic battle in which one team wanted to showcase American Classics (one of which included tuna tartare on a pita bread?) in order to take down the other team, who had invoked that brand new, red hot restaurant concept that had only just reached American shores in 2006, “Spanish.” T...

[This is the podcast section of The #Content Report. It’s different than the regular section. You put it in your ears.] David J. Roth from Defector  and The Distraction  joins Vince and Joey this week to discuss season 1, episode 6 of Top Chef, "Guess Who's Coming for Dinner," with guest judge Ted Allen! This episode could've been alternately titled "Miguel's Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" as it...

Welcome to The #Content Report , a newsletter by Vince Mancini. I’ve been writing about movies, culture, and food since I started FilmDrunk in 2007. Now I’m delivering it straight to you, with none of the autoplay videos, takeover ads, or chumboxes of the ad-ruined internet. Support my work and help me bring back the cool internet by subscribing, sharing, commenting, and keeping it real. — [This i...

Sean Keane from the Roundball Rock podcast joins us this week to discuss Top Chef season 1, episode 4 -- "Food on the Fly." This episode challenged the chefs first to get all their quickfire ingredients from a convenience store and then to prepare an entree that could be reheated in a microwave. These days David Chang and all the hip chefs brag about all the things they cook in a microwave, but ba...

Joey and I are back talking about season 1 of Top Chef . This week we're talking about season one, episode 3 (103), "Nasty Delights," which really is a fantastic Top Chef episode and quite possibly a big reason we still have this show 21 seasons later. Stephen Asprinio deserves his place in the Top Chef hall of fame. And maybe the Giant Tie Knot Hall of Fame. All-time great reality show character....

At the risk of overposting, here’s an audio interview with Rasika from Top Chef. With all due respect to Danny and Dan, I felt like this season of Top Chef was a little anti-climactic, and arguably slightly lower in general entertainment value than previous seasons, especially the most recent ones. Joey has wondered if we’ve reached “peak James Beard Award.” That’s a subject we could debate, but I...

Top Chef Wisconsin (aka Top Chef Season 21) may be over, but the Top Chef Frotcast Post-Show isn’t. This week we welcome Top Chef season 13 finalist and season 20 fan favorite Amar Santana, chef/owner of Broadway and Vaca , both in Orange County, California. Amar is great interview and actually seems to enjoy talking to us for whatever reason, which I hope won’t get him into any professional troub...

We’re baaaa-aaack. This week, part one of Top Chef ’s season 21 finale took the chefs to the Caribbean nation of Curacao, where the final four competed in a battle to combine gouda and lionfish, and then in an eight-course fish tasting menu on a Holland America Cruise Line with fresh fish ambassador, Morimoto! As promised last week, host of the Roundball Rock podcast and Top Chef superfan, comedia...

It's the Frotcast Top Chef Post-Show and we're discussing every episode. In this first episode of the Frotcast Top Chef Post-Show, Vince Mancini from the Frotcast/The #Content Report and Joey Devine from the Roundball Rock podcast are discuss Top Chef episode 12 of season 21, the one where the chefs are cut down to four. There's a blind taste test, then a challenge based on "personal growth." Whic...