Chillpak Hollywood Hour

Original Release Date: Monday 12 January 2026     Description:   On the eve of the Golden Globes, Dean and Phil got together via Zoom with the Best of 2025 very much on their minds. They discuss the recent Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild award nominations. They discuss why the Writers Guild awards pale in significance compared to the DGA and SAG. That leads to a review of the multi-Golden...

Original Release Date: Monday 5 January 2026     Description:   Our first installment of 2026 finds your friends in podcasting discussing why the President of the United States is so insistent on there being another Rush Hour movie from director Brett Ratner. Then, Dean and Phil delve into the two final “Mission: Impossible” movies, both 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and 202...

Original Release Date: Monday 29 December 2025     Description:   Our final installment of 2025 finds your friends in podcasting discussing Dean's holiday travels, the health of Phil's wife, the latest on the sale of Warner Bros. Discovery and the use of AI (and self-learning programs) in a wide array of fields. Then, Dean and Phil get down to the serious business of discussing such award-hopeful...

Original Release Date: Monday 22 December 2025     Description:   Dean and Phil got together high atop a certain “historic building” in downtown Los Angeles to watch the sunset on the winter solstice, to enjoy a lovely bottle of Malbec, and to record this week’s show! They discuss Dean’s holiday travels, the big forthcoming change to the annual Oscars telecast, and the changes in the beaks on song...

Original Release Date: Monday 15 December 2025     Description:   Dean and Phil share seasonal decoration news, holiday plans, and Christmas travel tales. Then, Phil tells a hilarious story about an awards screening he attended. Wake Up Dead Man (“A Knives Out Mystery”) gets a deep dive analysis which leads into a new way of discussing the issues surrounding Netflix’s pending purchase of Warner Br...

Original Release Date: Monday 8 November 2025     Description:   On this week’s show, Dean Haglund is finally using a microphone once again. It makes his audio better, to be certain, but somehow it also manages to create several cameo opportunities for his dogs! Don’t let those moments dissuade you, however, as this week’s show is an utterly fascinating conversation between Dean and his longtime c...

Original Release Date: Monday 1 December 2025     Description:   Dean and Phil compare notes on their Thanksgivings and reveal how (and probably why) Phil got sick on his birthday! Then, they discuss a wide array of brand new and classic movies from various genres and from locales around the world, including Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague , Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value , the noir classic...

Original Release Date: Monday 24 November 2025     Description:   This week, Dean and Phil will begin to slowly roll out the new era of Chillpak Hollywood, releasing much more content each week. Phil provides details at the outset. Then, he and Dean engage in much show biz “water cooler” discussion. The most famous modernist home in the world is up for sale for the very first time. Dean and Phil t...

Original Release Date: Monday 17 November 2025     Description:   Big changes are coming, with much more content each week. This week, Dean and Phil hint more at what these changes might bring, while whetting the appetite thru discussions of art, culture, television, movies and acting. The festivities begin with Dean revealing which of the cities he has lived in most inspired his painting. The ret...

Original Release Date: Monday 10 November 2025     Description:   After almost 19 years of “changing the way you listen to the internet”, your friends in podcasting are about to change the way they continue to … change the way you listen to the internet! They discuss their plans on this week’s absolutely excellent show. Dean discusses a big improv performance he gave this weekend and goes deep int...

Original Release Date: Monday 3 November 2025     Description:   After a cold open wherein Phil sets the stage, the show gets started in mid-conversation as frequent contributor Jon Lawlor shares some of his thoughts about Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune . The topic then turns to Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2002 film Punch-Drunk Love with particular emphasis paid to the way Anderson used music while shootin...

Original Release Date: Monday 27 October 2025     Description:   In what might be a first, Dean will offer up both a point and a counterpoint (all on his own) about the merits and deficits of Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter . Then, Phil will discuss the long career of the great cinematic surrealist Luis Buñuel and take a deep dive into one particular masterpiece of his, the 1950 Los Oli...

Original Release Date: Monday 20 October 2025     Description:  Big changes are on the horizon for YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! This week's show begins with Dean and Phil discussing them. Then, they shift gears into a wide array of topics including: Unexpected events at local screenings of One Battle After Another , the variable frame rates of the silent era, a movie that had wildly different end...

Original Release Date: Monday 13 October 2025     Description:   This week's episode picks up where last week's show left off with a deep dive into Charles Laughton's 1955 masterpiece The Night of the Hunter the ending to which Dean greatly misunderstood. In fact, a special guest stops by to help explain the ending and to discuss the film through the prisms of expressionism, surrealism and absurdi...

Original Release Date: Monday 6 October 2025     Description:   In what might be our longest episode ever, but is certainly an epic installment in any event, your friends in podcasting delve into the potential new relevancy of late night television, the frightening potential merger of Paramount/CBS/Skydance with Warner Bros/Discovery, and the power of TikTok (and other social media platforms) in t...

Original Release Date: Monday 29 September 2025     Description:   Because Phil is on the road, tending to family matters, this week’s show was pre-recorded last week and much of the episode is dedicated to discussing two icons: The historic landmarked Mayan Theatre in downtown Los Angeles closed its doors for good on September 14, and the great leading man, filmmaker, and supporter of the arts an...

Original Release Date: Monday 22 September 2025     Description:  Phil is hitting the road, but before doing so, he recorded a great deal of material for the next two installments of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! This week, he and Marc Hershon discuss the following television series: "Your Friends and Neighbors", "The Studio", "Alien: Earth", "Chief of War", "Peacemaker", and "Code of Silence". De...

Original Release Date: Monday 15 September 2025     Description:  In another episode featuring now regular contributor Jon Lawlor (longtime purveyor of excellent Chillpak Hollywood Hour theme songs), Dean tells stories of his ongoing trip back to his hometown of Winnipeg and the workshopping of a theatrical play that was the reason for his trip. He also reveals details of what may, or may not, be...

Original Release Date: Monday 8 September 2025     Description:   This week’s show was recorded several days early because Dean is off to Canada to workshop a new play, to re-visit some of his old, musical stomping grounds, and to prepare for an art show! Phil hosted a live stage show this past week, one that featured such good friends of Chillpak as Lily Holleman and Jon Lawlor. Phil offers a ful...

Original Release Date: Monday 1 September 2025     Description:   It's the symbolic final weekend of summer 2025 and your friends in podcasting commemorate in style with almost 70 minutes of rich podcasty goodness! They discuss how one of Dean's all-time least favorite films might become a television series. They discuss how a Todd Haynes period detective film they would have loved to see might ju...

Original Release Date: Monday 25 August 2025       Description:   This was not the show we expected to be bringing you this week, but all of a sudden, during their “side project” (“The Art Life” with friend of show Jon Lawlor), Dean started holding court about the current box office smash Superman . Suffice it to say, Dean had THOUGHTS! So, we bring you what ensued, a free-wheeling discussion not...

Original Release Date: Monday 18 August 2025       Description:   This week, another “audio collage” of two different conversations recorded at different times, both exploring different facets of comedy. First Dean and Phil convene to compare notes on the new reboot of The Naked Gun – what it did right, what could have been done better and what good things its success (especially with young people...

Original Release Date: Monday 11 August 2025       Description:   This week, Dean and Phil go deeper into the life and career of the brilliant Tom Lehrer before opening the Chillpak morgue and remembering astronaut Jim Lovell, actor Alfie Wise, WKRP star Loni Anderson, wrestling superstar Hulk Hogan, heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne, and beloved "Cosby Show" star Malcolm-Jamar Warner, in "Celebrity...

Original Release Date: Monday 4 August 2025       Description:  Dean Haglund turned 60 this week and on the occasion, Phil Leirness and (friend of show and composer of numerous themes songs) Jon Lawlor met up with Dean via Zoom to discuss the importance of celebrating birthdays. They also celebrated the incredible life and hilarious artistry of the great Tom Lehrer. This leads into a discussion of...

Original Release Date: Monday 28 July 2025       Description:   Because your friends in podcasting really wanted to take a much-needed week off, they pre-recorded this week's show in two parts. One part involves Dean and Phil continuing their ongoing reappraisal of the "Mission: Impossible" films, as they debate the merits of the most successful (and critically acclaimed) installment – Mission: Im...