Pop Culture Confidential

For those who follow Pop Culture Confidential, you know that we LOVE Saturday Night Live (SNL) and refer often to how it has influenced pop culture over the decades. We are so excited to be joined this week by Eugene Lee, who has been the original Saturday Night Live production designer since the start of the show's first season in 1975. At 77, he is one of the only original crewmembers still work...

Scissor hands, face masks and apes – oh my! Three-time Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood has dressed some of the most iconic characters on the big screen. This includes Hannibal Lecter, Edward Scissorhands, Roxie Hart – and all the characters in eleven Tim Burton films. Atwood has been very busy this past year with Huntsman: Winter’s War, Alice Through the Looking Glass, her most recen...

Their legendary careers have included the animated classics The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Princess and the Frog – and this year’s Oscar nominated Moana. Directors Ron Clements, John Musker and producer Osnat Shurer of Moana join us this week live in Stockholm to share their excitement of being nominated and journey they have taken to bring the story to the screen. Musker and Clements started th...

When we say La La Land starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone is one of the most buzzed about films this awards season – we’re not kidding! The film won every in every category it was nominated for at this years Golden Globes, including for Best Film and Best Director. As the most awarded film in Globe history – the road to Oscar glory seems unstoppable. Host Christina Jeurling Birro is thrilled to...

Veteran filmmaker and documentary cinematographer Kirsten Johnson has spent the last 25 years capturing the often-harsh realities of humanity in some of cinemas most influential documentaries with directors such as Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11), Laura Poitra (Citizenfour about Edward Snowden) and Kirby Dick (This Film is Not Yet Rated). Her latest documentary is a very personal exploration of he...

We kick-off the New Year with a true Hollywood legend - Roger Corman, whose latest film Death Race 2050 is perfectly timed for the current political landscape. Then host Christina Jeurling Birro discusses politics and pop culture with author and political science Professor Lilly Goren, including how female presidents are depicted in film and TV, and how this might change after the recent U.S. pres...

If you are a loyal listener of Pop Culture Confidential you know that we are huge fans of The Daily Show so we were very excited to speak to author Chris Smith who has arguably written THE definitive history of The Daily Show (The Book) that is now a New York Times Bestseller. To chronicle the shows astounding 17 years on Comedy Central Smith spoke to pretty much everyone involved with or adjacent...

We are very excited that awards season is finally here! We speak to writer Gregory Ellwood about where we are in the Oscar race, and we speak to the Josefin Asplund – star of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the new season of Vikings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Canadian spy, a French resistance fighter, and a love story set in the Sahara desert? Academy-Award nominated screenwriter Steven Knight has spent thirty-odd years bringing the new blockbuster ‘Allied’ starring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard to the big screen. In those thirty years Knight has been busy writing critically acclaimed films like ‘Dirty pretty Things’ for which he was Oscar nominated...

Aliens, hackers and awesome prizes on this week’s episode! First we speak to Dr. Jessica Coon, a linguistic professor who was tapped by Hollywood to help Amy Adams communicate with aliens for the new blockbuster ‘Arrival’. We are also joined by German actor Vinzenz Kiefer, who took on Jason Bourne as hacker Christian Dassault. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Disgusting vermin multiplying before our eyes, threatening to take over modern civilization? It's the unsettling new documentary “Rats” that takes us deep into the infestation of rats around the world. Our host Christina Jeurling Birro is joined this week by the films director Morgan Spurlock who also brought us Freakonomics, Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden and Oscar nominated Super Size Me...

Race, sexual politics, masculinity, friendship and parenthood – the new FX TV show Atlanta tackles all of these subjects with uncompromising honesty and humour. This week host Christina Jeurling Birro is joined by one of the shows stars - Brian Tyree Henry who gives a powerful performance on the show as Paper Boi, a rising-star of the Atlanta rap scene. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit mega...

This week host Christina Jeurling Birro is joined by Joe Swanberg – maybe one of the hardest working filmmakers in the indie world with 29 director credits to his name at the age of 35. His work has been at the center of the mumblecore film movement that has also included the Duplass brothers, Lena Dunham and many more. Often low budget, featuring naturalistic dialogue and relationship focused, hi...

We are joined Oscar winning director Roger Ross Williams whose inspiring documentary 'Life, Animated' tells the story of Owen Suskind, an autistic boy whose family discovered he was communicating with them thru the Disney films he was watching and The Playlist's Jessica Kiang guides us through some of the biggest trends and controversies of the film season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

Emmy award winning actress, active spokesperson for fair funding of public schools, breast-cancer survivor and ambassador Susan G. Komen For The Cure – Cynthia Nixon is just as powerful as the amazing kaleidoscope of characters she has portrayed. For most of us, she is best known for playing the glamorous lawyer Miranda on the iconic series Sex and the City, a role that still resonates with viewer...

Politics, power, and comedy. We speak with David Litt, former senior presidential speechwriter for Barack Obama and head writer/producer at “Funny or Die” DC, and author Rudolph Herzog who’s book “Dead Funny” documents humor in Hitler’s Third Reich. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Critic and author Matt Zoller Seitz spent 100 hours interviewing Oliver Stone for his new book “The Oliver Stone Experience” and he joins us this week to tell all. Then we speak to director David Farrier about his documentary that shocked at Sundance. “Tickled” dives into a mysterious tickling competition online and Farrier shares the deep resistance he faced when trying to document a story strang...

The Fall movie lineup is upon us and we speak to Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune’s film critic, to get his recommendations and early Oscar contenders. We also speak with Javier Peña, the real DEA agent that helped bring down the murderous drug lord Pablo Escobar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Fall TV season is here! NPR TV Citric Eric Deggans guides us through the new shows, trends, hits and misses, to give us his recommendations. The season offers a mixed bag of genres with a lot of 70’s and 80’s nostalgia, which includes a MacGyver reboot on CBS and the series The Exorcist, starring Geena Davis, based on the iconic film. We also discuss the much-awaited Netflix superhero Luke Cag...

The big talk of the Summer TV season (and one of our favorite shows) is the Netflix original drama Stranger Things, a show that transports us back to 1983. On this weeks show speak to breakout star Shannon Purser who plays fan favorite Barb on the show, and veteran prop master Lynda Reiss who has been able to capture the 1980’s to a tee. Created by the Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things is an eight...

Welcome to our Summer Pop Culture Confidential special! We are thrilled to talk to Paul Feig, the director of the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot and someone we have been wanting to talk to for a long time. With this years huge Summer release Paul Feig has taken on one of the most beloved comedy franchises: Ivan Reitman’s 1984 blockbuster Ghostbusters starring Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis and a...

On this weeks episode we dive into some of the most talked about, and difficult, topics in pop culture today. Melissa Silverstein, founder and editor of Women and Hollywood, discusses the much too slow progress for women in Hollywood and the backlash towards the upcoming female driven Ghostbusters reboot. And we speak to critic Matt Zoller Settz on how he approaches Woody Allen’s films today, post...

No one is covering the issues, and in particular the 2016 US Presidential election, quite like Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. The shows Executive Producer, and a former Producer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Miles Kahn joins us this week to share what makes the show so successful and entertaining. Last year Jon Stewart left late night TV just before what may be the most absurd election to...

Anticipation for the TV show “Outcast” has been mounting since it was debuted at SXSW and was immediately renewed for a second season. The series has a stellar cast including our guests - prolific actor Reg E. Cathey, who is know for his work on The Wire, OZ and House of Cards, for which he won an Emmy, and Patrick Fugit who is know for his memorable performances in Almost Famous and Gone Girl. Ro...

In just 15 months British actor, comedian and Broadway star James Corden has reinvented the late night TV format with The Late Late Show on CBS. For example, his ‘Carpool Karaoke’ segment with Adele is the most-viewed late night TV clip in social media history with over 102 million views to date! On this weeks episode Late Late Show writer Lauren Greenberg joins us to share what makes the show so...