Pop Culture Confidential

Award’s season is upon us and the Golden Globes nominees have been announced, including our guest from this Fall - Sterling K. Brown for his role on 'This Is Us'. Brown has had a long acting career with success on both stage and television but his role as Randall on 'This Is Us' seems to have propelled him to the next level. His characters’ emotional journey and struggles have had audiences really...

As the Oscar race heats up, we look back over our guests of 2017 to see which fan favorites are in the running, including cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema for his work on the epic film Dunkirk. Shot on large format film, Hoytema and his team worked with director Christopher Nolan to create the stunning camera shots – from the visually stunning dogfights to the challenging water shots. We speak to...

With awards season in full swing – we speak to Senior Contributor at Awardscircuit.com – Mark Johnson, to get all of his insights as we head into the Oscar race. We spoke to Mr Johnson in September about what he had seen at Telluride – an early award season predictor. On this episode, host Christina Jeurling Birro asks about the films we have discussed before, such as Dunkirk – but also the less t...

Thrilling, dark, gripping and tense are just some of the words used to describe the hit Nexflix series Mindhunter. Playwright Jennifer Haley is a writer and co-producer on the series, and joins us this week to share her experience getting into the minds of FBI agents and serial killers. Mindhunter is a meticulously paced crime drama based on the writings of the pioneering serial killer profiler Jo...

In light of the perpetually expanding list of people accused of sexual abuse in the entertainment industry, we speak to journalist Amanda Hess about her New York Times article “How the Myth of the Artistic Genius Excuses the Abuse of Women”. Host Christina Jeurling Birro speaks to Hess about separating the art from the artist, an industry in denial, why the myth of the artistic genius has been use...

On this week’s episode, we are joined by writer and TV critic Alan Sepinwall to discuss his new book Breaking Bad 101: The Complete Critical Companion, an unrivalled guide to one of television’s most important shows. 
Sepinwall is a TV critic at Uproxx, He is also the author of the book The Revolution Was Televised, which is a favorite. Sepinwall is also co-author of TV The Book with another great...

On this week’s episode, we speak to Kasper Collin who directed the critically acclaimed music documentary I Called Him Morgan. Collin’s documentary accounts the life and musical legacy of jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and the life of his common-law wife Helen Morgan, who would first save his life, then kill him. The documentary premiered at the Venice Film Festival and Metacritic announced the film as...

After a six-year hiatus – Curb Your Enthusiasm is back! On this week’s episode, we speak to executive producer, writer and director Jeff Schaffer who takes us behind the scenes of the latest season with all of its awkwardness, insensitivity and laugh-out-loud comedy. Mr. Schaffer also speaks with host Christina Jeurling Birro about working with Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld on 'Seinfeld', what he...

On this episode of Pop Culture Confidential, Pamela Adlon speaks about life, parenting, and her jewel of a show – Better Things. After a fantastic, Emmy nominated first season of her semi-autobiographical series, Adlon is back with an already critically acclaimed Season 2 of Better Things. Pamela Adlon directs, produces, co-writes and stars in the show, which has given us some of the most touching...

Last week we covered 2017’s Fall TV and Emmy awards, but September also marks the start of Oscar season and the big Fall movie releases. There are also the major film festivals like Venice, Toronto, and probably most important in terms of Oscar predictions – the Telluride Film Festival. In the last decade, eight Best Picture Oscar winners, including 12 Years a Slave, Argo, Birdman and Moonlight ma...

It’s here! The annual Pop Culture Confidential Fall TV preview and Emmy awards prediction special. We take a look at the Fall TV season, what shows and trends are we most looking forward too, and we share our 2017 Emmy predictions! Guiding us through all of this - critic Jazz Tangcay, lead writer at Awardsdaily.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest, Swedish director/writer Ruben Östlund, is the newly crowned winner of the Cannes Palme d’Or for his latest film "The Square", which is described as a poignant satirical drama reflecting our times. The suspenseful satire tackles the Swedish art scene, politics, media, community and national identity. The film stars Danish actor Claes Bang, Elizabeth Moss, Dominic West and motion capture...

An Emmy winner in 2016 for The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, and Emmy nominee this year for this role on the massive NBC hit This Is Us, Sterling K. Brown has had quite a year. Last year we were captivated by the excellent FX drama The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, starring this week’s guest along with Sara Paulson and John Travolta, just to name a few. Brown portra...

Our guest this week is Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times. During his career he has covered four presidents: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now the Trump administration. Mr. Baker joined The Times in 2008 after 20 years at The Washington Post, including four years as Moscow bureau chief. His wife Susan Glasser is the chief international affairs colu...

Spectacular, jaw-dropping, sweeping and intimate - Dunkirk marks the return of director Christopher Nolan and our guest cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema. The World War ll drama is a different type of war story, about bravery and survival. It focuses on the days when 400,000 British and Allied troops were trapped by the Germans on the beaches of Dunkirk, seemingly doomed to die there. Shot on larg...

Just in time for Summer we round up our best pop culture tips to enjoy – including the book from our guest Anne Helen Petersen who writes about culture, celebrity, and feminism in 'Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman'. We have long been reading Petersen’s work and we can highly recommend her previous book 'Scandals of Classic Hollywood'. She has a PhD in media stu...

It’s a real joy to welcome this week’s guest – television legend Chuck Lorre who has been a juggernaut, a sitcom comedy mastermind creating shows such as The Big Bang Theory, Dharma & Greg, Two and a Half Men, Mike & Molly, and Mom. Lorre has carried on the sitcom tradition in the footsteps of Norman Lear, who brought modern family dynamics to popular television with shows such as All in t...

On Pop Culture Confidential this week we speak with journalist and screenwriter Jon Ronson about his new film Okja that recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. We ask Ronson what really happened at ‘that’ Cannes premiere which became world news, what it was like working with director Bong Joon-ho, how to spot psychopaths, Trump and more. Then in celebration of Twin Peak’s return - we speak...

Pasta, Italy, Master of None, Wonder Woman and the female gaze – Pop Culture Confidential is jam packed this week! We speak to Katie Parla, culinary writer and the author of the book Tasting Rome. Parla was the food concierge on the Italian episodes of the brilliant, and food obsessed, new season of Master Of None (Netflix) where we find that Dev (Aziz Ansari) has left New York and moved to Modena...

On this week’s episode of Pop Culture Confidential we are joined by VOX culture writer Constance Grady to discuss the biggest news, trends and controversies of 2017 so far. We speak about how the first 100 days of Trump has influenced storylines on TV, what the ousting of Bill O’Reilly really means for Fox and why The Handmaid’s Tale is so important to audiences today. We also ask Grady what excit...

From Buster on Arrested Development, to his Emmy winning role as the devoted body man to Selina Meyer on Veep – Tony Hale has already proven that he is one of our generation’s comedy greats. Host Christina Jeurling Birro is joined this week by Hale ahead of the upcoming sixth season premiere of Veep. In this political climate, what is better than the return of HBO’s hilarious political comedy Veep...

With unforgettable performances in Frasier, 24, and now one of this seasons’ most acclaimed new series Legion - Jean Smart is television royalty with a career spanning three decades and three Emmy wins. Smart’s career includes the iconic CBS hit sitcom Designing Women. A show that featured intelligent women who were both sassy and sympathetic and who expressed differing views on women’s issues. Fo...

Richard Simmons, workout and fitness guru, is a true American pop culture icon. One example of the empire he built is his workout video “Sweatin’ to the Oldies”, which sold millions of copies. Three years ago Simmons mysteriously disappeared from public life, including cutting off contact with most of the world. This week we speak to Dan Taberski about his search for answers that lead to the massi...

Now that the film award season has come to a dramatic conclusion we are happy to turn our attention to the upcoming season of television. This week’s episode of Pop Culture Confidential covers the recent Netflix event in Berlin where they unveiled the upcoming lineup. Host Christina Jeurling Birro was thrilled to speak with two of the stars of Orange is the New Black – Kate Mulgrew who plays Red a...

The Academy Awards are upon us and this is the annual Pop Culture Confidential Oscar predictions show! We are joined again by Sasha Stone, journalist and founder of the website Awards Daily, who gives all the details of this years statistics, trends and controversies. Annually there are many big award shows during the season, from the Golden Globes to BAFTA, each giving us a hint at which film cou...