The Best Stuff In The World

We’re talking about John Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic The Thing . When it came out, critics hated it and audiences mostly stayed home but over the following decades it was reappraised as one of the greatest horror movies ever made, and I feel that reputation is well deserved. It’s the story of a team of researchers at a remote Antarctic station who take in a stray dog, which turns out to be a s...

Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice came out in 1813, and it has basically never stopped being popular. We get into what we think the reasons for that are during the episode, but it’s smart, it’s funny, it’s romantic, and it still holds up over 200 years later. Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Elizabeth Bennett, one of the great protagonists in English literature, a character who...

I’m back after my little break for Dragon Con to talk about the greatest of all television shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer ! On the face of it, Buffy is ridiculous: a show about a teenage girl who fights vampires and demons on top of a literal hellmouth in suburban California and yet somehow it wound up being one of the smartest, funniest, and most emotionally devastating shows ever made. The earl...

It's the return of our occasional segment where guests come on to talk about albums that changed their lives - the last time we did this was about a year ago when Gary Mitchel joined to talk about Portishead’s Dummy and this time I’m welcoming back to the show writer and musician Andre Salles to talk about two of his favorite records, Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes and Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock !...

I’m joined by author Michael Blanding to talk about his fascinating new book THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO HOBBY LOBBY . Hobby Lobby is the multibillion-dollar craft store chain you may have wandered through for picture frames and fake flowers at some point, founded and owned by the Greens, an evangelical Christian family who have spent decades quietly using their fortune to push their religious beliefs...

AMC's The Vampire Lestat is based on the popular novel by the late Anne Rice, part of her VAMPIRE CHRONICLES series and continuing on from Interview with the Vampire , which is what the previous two seasons of the tv show were called. It’s a really bonkers show where Lestat, played by Sam Reid, forms a rock band where he sings about vampire stuff and goes on tour and kills people and has sex with...

We're talking with writer, director, producer, and actor Julia Campanelli! Julia is the founder of SHELTER FILM and SHELTER THEATRE GROUP in New York City, companies built around a simple but urgent mission: changing the narrative through visually provocative, genre-expanding, socially impactful projects by and about women. As a filmmaker, she's written, directed, and produced a string of award-wi...

Put down that chainsaw and listen to me! My guests and I are spending this episode talking all about the life and career of a singular American artist: "Weird Al" Yankovic! "Weird Al" has been making music for over forty years now and I think his story is genuinely one of the most interesting in music - he's outlasted pretty much everyone he's ever parodied, he's won five Grammys, and he seems to...

We are talking to writer, designer, filmmaker, editor and other multi-hyphens I can’t come up with right now Rachel Lichtman! Rachel’s latest project is Programme 4 - a multimedia video project that creates an entire world centered around the fictional tv station Programme 4. Rachel has been touring with a roughly 90 minute Programme 4 compilation featuring ads, music videos, and opening credits t...

This time out I am talking to musician Chris Principe about his time in the band Hooray for Earth and his new solo digital release under his own name - Judge and Jury and Us vs. Them! It was great talking to Chris about the music that inspired him and the music he’s making. You can find the new single on Bandcamp here: https://chrisprincipemusic.bandcamp.com/album/judge-jury-us-vs-them Find out Ch...

I’m excited to talk to musician and playwright Alexia Rowe! Alexia describes herself as an award-winning third-culture kid playwright and singer-songwriter who got her first production professionally produced while still in college. Alexia is currently running a crowdfunding campaign for her House Plays initiative - an attempt to make theater more affordable and accessible by embracing diverse per...

I’m excited to talk to Micah Huang about the upcoming course he’s teaching at Tufts University: Punk Rock: History, Theory, and Practice! The punk rock class was what brought Micah to my attention - I love talking about the punk scene with people and I was curious about how someone builds a syllabus for a course like that (what do you include, what do you leave out?) but in addition to his punk co...

For our 50th episode I'm welcoming back Kellian Adams Pletcher and her husband Brian Pletcher to talk about the new immersive mystery puzzle show they are helping to put on in Boston along with the Secret City Group: The Wedding Party ! The Wedding Party is a 2.5-hour mystery dinner experience at The W Hotel in Boston - it runs from May 1 to June 14. Six live actors play the wedding party, and you...

Babylon 5 was a science fiction television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski. The show ran in syndication for its first four seasons before moving to TNT for its final season. Babylon 5 was a hugely ambitious show, and sometimes its reach was more than its grasp but I love that it was going for something big. When it worked there was nothing like it on television and I’m...

Athena Z. Peters from Incantrix Productions joins us to discuss the company's work and their upcoming shows. Incantrix Productions have been putting on immersive/interactive shows in the Boston area for about 10 years and they have two shows coming up in the near future: Romancing Jan , which is coming out the Saturday after this episode releases (so hopefully you haven’t let this sit in your queu...

I am delighted to be talking with Hudson Leick - yoga teacher, intuitive astrologer, dance instructor, and so many other things. In the nerdy circles I sometimes run in Hudson is perhaps best known for portraying Callisto, the best and most iconic villain on the classic television show Xena: Warrior Princess. We talk a little bit about Xena and a lot about all of the amazing things Hudson is doing...

For this episode I have gathered a panel of weapons-grade music enthusiasts to discuss some of our favorite holiday music songs - mostly Christmas tunes but a few more general “it’s wintertime” numbers. The picks run the gamut from beloved songs almost everybody knows (Johnny Mathis! Darlene Love!) to oddball novelty numbers (Max Headroom! Weird Al!) to songs that should be more well-known because...

I am talking to Jaina Cipriano : photographer/experiential designer/filmmaker/Executive Director of the Arlington International Film Festival! Jaina and I talk all about her art and the film festival, including the immersive experience that Witch Hunt Theatre staged at this year’s event. (You may remember that I chatted with Witch Hunt’s artistic director Taylor Stark earlier this year.) Jaina is...

On this edition of The Best Stuff in the World my guests and I are diving into our collective love of MAD Magazine!  For decades, MAD skewered politics, pop culture, advertising, television, and almost anything else you can think of. Joining me to discuss MAD and the "usual gang of idiots" who wrote and drew it are two of The Best Stuff in the World’s usual gang of idiots, returning guests Ke...

I am BACK ON MY BULLSHIT talking to a former cast member of SLEEP NO MORE - I am delighted to welcome the great Tori Sparks to the podcast this week. I first saw Tori perform in the Boston production of Sleep No More, which is the show that sparked my interest in immersive theater and, in my opinion, was the big bang for what we call “immersive theater” in the U.S. If you’re a person who follows t...

We're joined by R. Alex Murray, a cast member of Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern ! Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern bills itself as a live, onstage game of Dungeons & Dragons where YOU control the action. By calling out suggestions and making decisions on your smartphone, you’ll determine which heroes appear, where they explore, and ultimately how their story end...

The time out we’re discussing the films of Alfred Hitchcock! For over half a century, Hitchcock reshaped how we experience fear, tension, and surprise in movies. He was able to turn ordinary setting (a shower, a staircase, a crop-dusted field) into unforgettable cinematic nightmares. At his best, he made us complicit in our own voyeurism, could make us laugh at danger, and had audiences at the edg...

The Best Stuff in the World is back from summer break! I’m talking to Taylor Stark, the founder and artistic director of Witch Hunt Theatre , a Boston-area company that specializes in immersive site-specific horror theater. Taylor and Witch Hunt have a new show called HER RITES opening in Brookline Massachusetts this month and it was great talking to her about the upcoming show and Boston-area the...

It's our season finale episode and I'm excited to be chatting about the glory days of public access television with two folks who have first-hand experience in that world. Writer Keith DeCandido is best known these days for his novels and comics but back in the early 90s he was one of the hosts of the New York City science fiction public access show THE CHRONIC RIFT and Calvin Watts has been talki...

I’m excited to talk to writer and musician Luke MacPherson! Luke’s work explores the connections between music, film and philosophy and one of his most recent books, PRIME FORCE DIRECTIVE, draws connections between four cultural forces that shaped his life - the science fiction franchise Star Wars and Star Trek and the heavy metal bands Metallica and Iron Maiden. Luke’s also the lead singer and gu...