Book and Film Globe Podcast

This week's podcast is alive and well! Host Neal Pollack welcomes Michael Washburn to talk about everyone's favorite 90s dorm-room novelist, Milan Kundera. But Kundera was about far more than a 30-year-old undergraduate vogue, Washburn argues. He was a perennial Nobel Prize candidate whose best works laughed in the face of totalitarian oppression and showed a deep warmth and humanity. He understoo...

On the newest BFG podcast, we turn back time to talk about ' Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ,' in theaters now and for at least the next three weeks. Neal Pollack found grumpy old Harrison Ford charming. Stephen Garrett thought the movie was a bit of a wet noodle, and hated the fake-looking first half hour. Your mileage may vary on whether or not you like the wispy mustache on the bland new...

In this week's space-tinged episode of the BFG podcast, Neal Pollack welcomes JP Guinn to discuss ' Asteroid City, ' the delightful new Wes Anderson film that pays homage to the 1950s in many different ways. Neal liked the goofy songs, JP loved the off-kilter humor, they both enjoyed the stop-motion animation. According to our critics, who are not all critics but are the best critics, this was a d...

Hot podcast comin' atcha this week! Host Neal Pollack welcomes contributor Chris Farnsworth to discuss the life and literary legacy of Cormac McCarthy . As he said in his excellent obituary for the site, Chris admires how McCarthy wrote what he wanted, how he wanted, and when he wanted, without compromising anything for commercial considerations. His works were stark and horrifying and both Neal a...

BFG delivers another great podcast episode this week. Host Neal Pollack welcomes guest Michael Washburn to discuss the curious recent decision by The Criterion Channel to edit out a sequence featuring a racial slur from the 1971 Oscar-winning film, ' The French Connection .' Neal ties this decision into recent efforts to bowdlerize popular classic works of British fiction. And Michael points out t...

It's a blockbuster podcast this week as host Neal Pollack returns from the well-managed wilds of America to once again parse the culture with our ace critics. Stephen Garrett is back from Cannes to review ' Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse ,' the sequel to an Oscar-winning animated film from five years ago. Stephen marvels, literally, at the exciting animation, the fun action set pieces, and th...

Book and Film Globe Editor in Chief Neal Pollack is taking a well-deserved Memorial Day jaunt across America. Pinch-hitting as host this week — and doing a swell job — is frequent BFG contributor Scott Gold , who's written for the site about The Mandalorian , Moon Knight and tons of other Disney and Star Wars and adjacent properties. This week, Scott talks to Jonpaul Guinn about Fast X, whose Domi...

Our podcast has arrived this week! We show the breadth of our range, we go heavy, we go light. To start, Rob Kutner comes by to discuss the WGA Strike with host Neal Pollack. Both Rob and Neal are "inactive" WGA members, but Rob is out on the pickets with a Guild almost entirely united in solidarity. The producers and the big corporations are really putting the screws to writers these days. Neal a...

It's your favorite hour of the week, the listening of the BFG podcast! This week, Neal Pollack welcomes Ayun Halliday to the BFG podcast dome to discuss the box-office non-success ' Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret ,' an adaptation of a 50-plus-year-old Judy Blume novel about a young suburban girl's coming of age. Neal found the movie sweet and sentimental, but Ayun, who was really looking for...

An interesting mix of topics and points of view highlights this week's episode of the BFG podcast. Host Neal Pollack welcomes Sharyn Vane to talk about the somewhat sinister trend of conservative legislators and legislatures trying to defund libraries . Sharyn says this is an extension of the movement to keep kids away from sexualized literature, particularly literature about transgendered culture...

In this tremendous milestone for BFG, for BFG editor-in-chief Neal Pollack, for Sea of Reeds Media, and for the history of the world in general, this week we celebrate the 100th episode of our podcast! And by "celebrate," we mean, "do what we've always done on the show at a high level, and with a funky new theme song."Neal summons frequent guest Stephen Garrett to discuss the vampire action-comedy...

On this week's BFG Podcast, host Neal Pollack welcomes special guest Clifton Duncan. Before the pandemic era hit, Clifton's career on Broadway and in television was beginning to take off. But after the culture he loved shut down, he moved to Atlanta to find work. There he saw a society that was functioning with relative normalcy, unlike the dystopian New York City that he'd left. He began to quest...

A great episode of the BFG podcast this week, as host Neal Pollack welcomes Jamie Mason to the pod-dome to talk about the plague of sensitivity readers that is smothering big publishing, particularly in the U.K. Despite no "hue and cry," as Jamie puts it, the readers are changing classic Agatha Christie novels to bring them up-to-date with modern sensibilities. Jamie posts that there's no real nee...

In this week's essential episode of the BFG podcast, Neal Pollack welcomes not one, but two Gallaga brothers into the pod dome to talk about the culture. First up, Pablo Gallaga, who reviewed ' John Wick: Chapter 4' for us. Pablo felt like the movie took a little long to get going. But once it gets going, it contains some legendary set pieces that will remain iconic as long as the projectors roll...

In this week's excellent show, Neal Pollack welcomes Scott Gold to explain what's going on in The Mandalorian to him. Apparently Din Djarin has to bathe in the living waters and is the Moses of the Black Sword and has a Naboo Spaceship number one or some such thing. Regardless, Neal goes into the segment getting ready to make fun of the show and by the end Scott has convinced him again that Star W...

Host Neal Pollack succeeds in feeling like a failure on this week's show. He welcomes in the pride of Ontario, Canada, Steven Marche, to talk about Steven's new book ' On Writing and Failure .' Hear Steven talk about the poverty-stricken Herman Melville! And how James Joyce wasn't good enough to teach English in Italy! Listen to Neal complain about how no one loves him anymore. Neal continues to t...

In this week's fascinating edition of the BFG Podcast, host Neal Pollack welcomes Michael Washburn to talk about the recent "sensitivity" rewriting of Roald Dahl's novels . Among the things no longer acceptable: mentioning that a character likes to read Joseph Conrad, saying that women work as cashiers, and talking disparagingly about people who wear wigs. We join the universal chorus of the peopl...

The BFG podcast has returned to stun and amaze you with our breadth of pop-culture knowledge. Host Neal Pollack, the editor of BFG, welcomes Stephen Garrett, as usual, to talk about ' Magic Mike's Last Dance .' Stephen thought the movie was corny and slight but found its love letter to midlife romance charming. Neal thought it was flat stupid and was annoyed that the script didn't give the backup...

No publication online covers the highs and lows of culture quite like BFG, and this week's podcast is no exception. Neal Pollack gives us a complete rundown of the week that was. Then Stephen Garrett appears to ask Neal: What's the big deal about Ant-Man. Neal proceeds to give a complete nerdy history of Kang the Conqueror, and they both wonder why 'Quantumania' didn't include more Bill Murray. Th...

It's Oscar season, which gives our many Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critics a sense of duty and purpose. Host Neal Pollack, who has seen all ten of the nominated pictures, welcomes Sara Stewart and Stephen Garrett as they make their selections and make fun of the Best Song category. It's a wonderful night for Oscar. Oscar Oscar! Who will win? Meanwhile, Stephen has to listen to Neal rant about '...

In the latest soon-to-be-award-winning edition of the BFG podcast, Neal Pollack welcomes Sara Stewart and Stephen Garrett back to the show. Stephen went to Park City, Utah, to see all the Sundance movies, and Sara watched them from home. Sundance is back, the movies are back, and this was one of the best festivals in years ! They both loved the Wall Street-set erotic thriller 'Fair Play.' Stephen...

BFG Editor-in-chief Neal Pollack rounds up the best culture critics in the world once again for this week's show. Let's start with Omar Gallaga, talking about ' The Last of Us .' Neal doesn't play many video games and is afraid of zombies and hates apocalypses. Omar has no such aversions, and 'The Last of Us,' which broke video-game fans' hearts, appears to be ready to do the same in the excellent...

In this edition of the BFG podcast–now with vastly improved sound quality!–host Neal Pollack welcomes the well-read Michael Washburn to discuss the work and legacy of the novelist Russell Banks , who died recently at the age of 82. Michael and Neal have nothing but praise for Banks's two best-known novels, Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter, both of which became popular and critically-acclaimed mo...

In this week's audio-enhanced edition of the BFG Podcast, editor Neal Pollack, an AI-assisted lifeform, welcomes contributors JonPaul Guinn and Pablo Gallaga. JP proves his versatility and then some, starting off by talking about the Noah Baumbach adaptation of Don DeLillo's ' White Noise .' JP prefers the middle part of the movie, when the "Airborne Toxic Event" means there's actually some action...

Welcome to 2023! The BFG podcast has turned the calendar with you, with no changes whatsoever, as it's a perfect show. Host Neal Pollack switches it up and welcomes Stephen Garrett back for the 70th time. This week Neal and Stephen talk about 'Glass Onion.' This big, expensive sequel to 'Knives Out' resembles a big-budget live-action adaptation of Scooby-Doo, but it's fun as long as you don't take...