Pop Culture Confidential

This week on Pop Culture Confidential awarding winning journalist and former CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin. Mr Yellin spent decades covering Capitol Hill, domestic policy, the White House, elections and more  at  MSNBC, ABC, CNN to name a few. Now she is on a mission to change how we receive and process the news. Recently she started a digital platform 'News Not Noise’, and us...

This week we are joined by the President of the LA Film Critics Association Claudia Puig who guides us through her most anticipated movie releases coming up this summer and fall. From Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart to Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, what to expect from the new Elton John biopic Rocketman, Scorsese's new Netflix movie and the new Lion King adaptation. And what is making the fe...

This week on Pop Culture Confidential actor Jared Harris joins us to talk about his spectacular performance in the new HBO miniseries ‘Chernobyl’. We talk about researching his character, Valery Legasov, the real-life Soviet nuclear physicist who was one of the first to understand the scope of the destruction, the lies and conspiracy that surrounded the disaster, how Harris choses his roles and wh...

This week we talk to documentary filmmaker Erin Lee Carr who has written the brutally honest and beautiful memoir 'All That You Leave Behind', about her relationship with her father the celebrated NY Times reporter David Carr, who passed away 4 years ago Erin Lee Carr talks to us about writing the memoir, about the the almost 2000 emails and texts that she and her dad wrote to each other through t...

This week we are so glad to speak to film editor Nicholas Monsour about his work on the innovative, multi-leveled, genre-defying and just flat out terrifying new movie ‘Us'. In this fascinating conversation Mr. Monsour speaks about working with Oscar winner Jordan Peele, his research and influences going into the project (which included the films of David Lynch, Friedkin and Bergman) working with...

This week on Pop Culture Confidential, Christina talks to one of her personal favorites, author David Sedaris! Sedaris, a contributor to the New Yorker and This American Life, has sold 12 million copies of his books. His personal essays and reflections have entertained, enlightened and sometimes even shocked readers for decades. His latest book of essays ‘Calypso' is hilarious and charming and it...

This week on Pop Culture Confidential we talk about a legend,  a role model, and a real bad ass, US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. My conversation is with someone who knows her very well, Daniel Stiepleman. Stiepleman is the screenwriter of the movie “On The Basis Of Sex", based on a major part of her life,  and he also happens to be Justice Ginsburgs nephew. We talk about the case at...

This week on Pop Culture Confidential journalist Alicia Lutes joins us with a 2019 television update! Ms Lutes recently spent a couple weeks covering the TCAs, the Television Critics Associations huge event where producers, showrunners and casts gather to present their new and returning shows. From FX Fosse/Verdon to HBOs new season of Big Little Lies, to sex advice with Dr Ruth and much more! Plu...

Welcome to our 2019 Oscar prediction special! We are thrilled to welcome back to the show the New York Times Carpetbagger columnist Kyle Buchanan, who covers every aspect of award season. Join us as we discuss this crazy Oscar season and predict the winners. Follow Mr. Buchanan on twitter @kylebuchanan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we are joined by Rachel Leah (writer at Salon.com covering culture, race and criminal justice) for a conversation on some difficult topics but also about what may be the beginnings of a cultural shift. Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, R Kelly, Michael Jackson, Bryan Singer… Recently there’s been a wave of shocking articles, exposés and documentaries about allegations of sexual misconduct by...

Episode 131: Tony McNamara, screenwriter "The Favourite" by Pop Culture Confidential Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the show this week the director and the producer of "Ralph Breaks the Internet”, the Oscar buzzed and critically acclaimed sequel to "Wreck-it Ralph"! Rich Moore (The Simpsons, Futurama, Zootopia) and Clark Spencer (Lilo & Stitch, Zootopia) join us to talk about developing their new movie, what they discovered about the darker side of the internet during their research process, Rich Moore’s...

A new year, and a new Oscar race! Film critic, writer and Oscar expert Thelma Adams is here to guide us, ahead of the nominations announcement on January 22nd. Ms Adams joins us to talk about this very eventful year at the movies. How did the Golden Globes change the Oscar race? What are some of the years controversies, who will get nominated and take the gold on the biggest night of the film year...

On a very special edition, Pop Culture Confidential went to London to meet the cast and director of the magical new movie “Mary Poppins Returns”! Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emily Mortimer, Ben Whishaw and director Rob Marshall on the making of this sequel, 50 years in the making! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When HBO and David Simon hired an intimacy coordinator/director to choreograph and monitor the on-set sex scenes on his show ‘The Deuce’ it started a lot of interesting conversations. We wanted to know more! On the show this week, one of the co-founders of ‘Intimacy Directors International’, Executive Director Tonia Sina. An intimacy director acts as an advocate for the actors, keeping actors phys...

This week on Pop Culture Confidential it's all about rage! Joining us is Soraya Chemaly, author of the provocative, infuriating and inspiring new book  “Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger.” Ms Chemaly has written for Time magazine, The Guardian and The Atlantic. She is an activist and the director of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project. In our interview we talk about her new book, he...

This Halloween week writer and critic Alicia Lutes joins me to dissect some of the new horror hits on film and TV. We cover Jaime Lee Curtis' return for her final confrontation with Michael Myers in ‘Halloween’, Luca Guadagnino's reboot of Dario Argento’s ‘Suspiria' and the Netflix hits ‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ and ‘The Haunting of Hill House’. PLUS This week marks the US premiere of  ‘Boy...

This week Pop Culture Confidential Oscar nominated screenwriter Luke Davies talks about adapting the addiction memoir ‘Beautiful Boy’ starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet. As well as about his own painful and personal journal though a 10-year heroin addiction Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Pop Culture Confidential Oscar winning cinematographer Linus Sandgren talks about his incredible work on “First Man” Damien Chazelle’s new movie about Neil Armstrong. And: Gregory Ellwood covers movies and awards on The Playlist.net and is the host of the 4 Quadrant Podcast. Gregory joins us with an update on the Oscar race! From Lady Gaga’s star turn in “A Star is Born”, to Nicole Ki...

Episode 122 writer Constance Grady: the Kavanaugh hearings and reflections in popular culture. by Pop Culture Confidential Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on the show our conversation with the award-winning Swedish director Björn Runge (The Wife). Glenn Close delivers a stunning, Oscar worthy performance in The Wife, a searing portrait of a marriage, intimately directed by Björn Runge. The film hits the zeitgeist on so many levels, particularly now at the height of the #timesup movement.  Björn Runge talks to us about marriage, compromises...

This week on Pop Culture Confidential we welcome a legend of cinema to the show, Paul Schrader! He is the screenwriter behind such films as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and writer/director of American Gigolo and Light Sleeper, to name a few. Paul Schrader joins me this week to talk about his career, Travis Bickle, male anger, faith, love, Bergman and his spiritually brut...

Episode 119: TV Special Part 2. The creators of Netflix “Maniac”, Cary Fukunaga and Patrick Somerville + 2018 Emmys recap with journalist Alicia Lutes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Pop Culture Confidential the dream team of Alan Yang (Master of None, Parks and Rec) and Matt Hubbard (Parks and Rec, 30 Rock) on their new series “ FOREVER” , starring another dream team, Maya Rudolph and Fred Armison. Amazon’s new series "Forever" is already getting rave reviews right out of the box. It’s a comedy, but also quite a serious look at a marriage stuck in a rut. And ther...

This week producer Todd Fisher on his excellent memoir "My Girls". This is a very personal story of his life with two iconic women: his mother Debbie Reynolds and sister Carrie Fisher. On their Hollywood life, tumultuous relationships and the huge pain of losing them both only 24 hours apart in December 2017. Todd Fisher, the son of ”America’s Sweetheart” actress Debbie Reynolds (Singing in the Ra...