But Why Tho?

We interview director Goran Stolevski about his new movie  Housekeeping for Beginners . He shares what it's like growing up in a crowded house, working with young and untrained actors, and the importance of throwing away the rules.

CW: This episode discusses child abuse and sexual abuse at great length. This week, Alex, Neysha, and Swara talk about the ongoing Cinema for Gaza fundraiser and the documentary "Quiet on Set."    

Developed by the Open Roads Team and published by Annapurna Interactive, Open Roads doesn't rest on its laurels, which are its lead actresses, Kaitlyn Dever and Kerri Russell. Instead the game's dialogue, choices, and immersive art style is core to this mother-daughter story. We spoke with the Open Roads Team developers which included Amy Fincher (Executive Producer), Noël Clark (Art Director), Aa...

Earlier this month we lost the iconic storyteller, Akira Toriyama. This week, we remember him. 

Jason and Prab review Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, but is the second lega-sequel in the franchise Firemaster hot or Death Chill cold?

This week, we're talking about the Oscar's. Alex, Kate, and Jason talk about everything they watched (which is more than the voters), what they avoided, and the real snubbs that weren't Margot Robbie.

What do you do when companies are erasing art from existence? What do you do if you never really own media if its digital? Alex, Kate, and Adrian talk about the erasing of Funimation as a platform, the taking down of games, and other general dystopian "you don't own it" corporate attitudes and where piracy fits into it all.

This week, Alex, Kate, and Neysha talk about body diversity in media and how casting thin actresses for buff characters perpetuates outdated and colonial ideas of beauty. 

This week, Alex, Kate, and Jason talk public domain and why everyone collectively went "But Like, What If Steamboat Willy F***ed?" They discuss the immediate reaction to make anything public domain sexy or a horror story from Pooh Blood & Honey to all of the muder-varients of Steamboat Willy.

This week, Alex, Kate, and Matt ask the question: Do people really like sci-fi? Or do they just like space fantasy and think that everything else is boring? 

This week Alex, Kate, and Matt get together to say goodbye to 2023 and talk about all the things they loved in pop culture throughout the year. From video games to movies and why Godzilla Minus One needs an oscar, listen to our last episode of 2023. 

This week Alex is joined by Jason and Adrian to talk about the validity of disliking things, and how sometimes it’s alright to hate stuff, no matter what the internet says. From Star Wars to Fast X and beyond, there’s something for everyone (to dislike).

[From Patreon] Welcome to a new bi-weekly Patreon exclusive show, I Bet You Haven't Seen This. Every other week, Patrons at any tier will get to hear about at least three things we bet you haven't seen and why you totally should. This week, But Why Tho's Senior Editor Jason takes the reigns to walk you through what's on VOD, what's seating in theaters, and what's fleeting from streamers at the end...

This week, Alex, Adrian, and Kate talk about the appeal of competition as entertainment. From Survivor to The Challenge and Physical 100, the trio talk about why they like watching this specific genre of entertainment and why we're all just a little bloodthirsty in the end.

Wizards of the Coast and  Magic: the Gathering have been embracing diversity in fantasy storytelling. With a beautifully adapted Lord of the Rings set that was released earlier in 2023 and The Lost Caverns of Ixalan set, it's a beautiful time to see yourself represented in fantasy in ways that haven't been present before. This month, Magic the Gathering  released a stellar Mesoamerican-inspired Th...

If this week’s episode was a cereal it would be Oops All Recommendations. Listen along as Alex, Swara, and Adrian share the things that have them excited. From manga to TV to games and beyond, if you’re looking for something to love we’ve got you covered. 

Alan Wake II  is already set to be one of the top games of the year. With layered horror storytelling and a mixed-medium approach to game design, this sequel to 2010's Alan Wake  carries on the legacy of one of gaming's biggest horror-mystery icons. Developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Epic Games, we got the chance to talk with Creative Director Sam Lake and Game Director Kyle Rowley...

This week, Alex, Kate, and Swara skip the news, skip the jokes, and get serious. Whether it's saying, "it's a great year for gaming," when every studio is laying off developers, talking about movies during a strike, or having podcasts while a genocide is being allowed to happen, how do we keep talking about pop culture when the world is so...bad? It's a tough question and one we've been grappling...

This week, Alex, Kate, and Matt talk about games as service. Which genres benefit from it? Which ones struggle with the pivot? And, we debate, the question: Sequel versus constant expansions? While live service may bring an eye roll from some gamers, we think they may just be an answer to some of gaming's problems. 

As the Assassin's Creed franchise returns to its roots in West Asia for Assassin's Creed: Mirage , allowing players to explore the splendor of Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate in the 9th Century, Ubisoft has recruited a Persian legend to help bring this story to life. An icon in Iranian and many other SWANA communities and beyond, Shohreh Aghdashloo has paved the way for SWANA actors to have r...

Assassin's Creed Mirage   is bringing this iconic video game franchise back to its roots in more ways than one. Perhaps most significantly, by setting this installment in West Asia (the Middle East) once again, like the original Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft has moved the franchise forward by taking it back to its roots. By giving us another Arab Assassin protagonist (after Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad ) in Bas...

Castlevania: Nocturne Season 1 is here and it's expanding the world of the hit series, that some people would say broke the video game adaptation curse (it's me, I'm some people). Set in the 18th century in the middle of the French Revolution, audiences are introduced to a new Belmont, and a new evil, the Vampire Messiah. In this interview, Directors Sam and Adam Deats and showrunner Kevin Kolde t...

This week, Alex, Kate, and Matt are on to talk about Rotten Tomatoes or, more importantly the "Decomposition of Rotten Tomatoes," the Vulture article that questioned not only the legitimacy as the aggregator but the critics of it as well. Do we need a middle ground? Or is fresh and rotten enough? Also, how does widening access almost always result in high scores — hint, it's not from bribing. We d...

It's not every day that a studio gets handed the keys to Disney's most magical property, Mickey and Friends. Recently, Dlala Studios was given that chance and more in their new game, Disney Illusion Island . In their fresh take on the Metroidvania genre, Dlala got to create their own fresh story for Disney's Fab 4, and even were one of the historical few to create a new design for Mickey, Minnie,...

At PAX West 2023, we got the chance to talk to Design Director Artie Rogers and Narrative Director Sam Johnson, developers on  Wizard101  and  Pirate101.  In this interview, the duo discusses the importance of building an MMO that is driven by the community and how Wizard101  has been able to evolve over time to offer players the ability to play how they want to.