The Cold Open Podcast

In The Cold Open Mini #10, The Top 5 Concerts We’ve Seen Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels give their lists and have a Double Life of Veronique moment when they realize they were likely at a ton of the same San Francisco Bay Area concerts 15 years before they first met! Songs from the artists featured on this Mini can be found on The Cold Open Mini Pod Spotify Playlist, which is fant...

In The Cold Open Mini #9, Kynde Kiefel and Kathryn Frank name their top 5 problematic artists who they still kind of like. That Woody Allen tops one of the lists is not hugely surprising, but there are some other very unexpected choices! The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please rate, review, and subscribe!

In The Cold Open Mini #8, The Top 5 Movies Carried by a Single Performer Edition, Robert Sickels and Kynde Kiefel give their lists, which is highlighted by Kynde’s spectacular #1 choice! The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please rate, review, and subscribe!

In The Cold Open Mini #7, The Top 5 Books on Film/Music/Comics Edition, Matt Reynolds, Kathryn Frank, and Robert Sickels give their wildly divergent lists. Matt and Robert clearly love movies, while Kathryn is much more varied! The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please rate, review, and subscribe!

In The Cold Open Mini #6, The Top 5 Musical Acts No Longer With Us That We’d Love to See Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels give their pleasingly eclectic lists. Songs from these acts, as well as every other musical artist that has been mentioned on the Minis so far, can be found on The Cold Open Mini Pod Spotify Playlist, which is already fantastic and will continue to grow in intrig...

In The Cold Open Mini #5, The Top 5 Songs We Are Embarrassed to Admit We Love as Much as We Do Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel give their respective lists, which are indeed delightfully embarrassing. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please rate, review, and subscribe!

In The Cold Open Mini #4, The Top 5 Books to Read When You Have Time Edition, Robert Sickels and Kathryn Frank name the top five books they’ll be reading in the coming months (or not, if the social distancing ends). The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please rate, review, and subscribe!

In The Cold Open Mini #3, The Top 5 Songs for the End of The World Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and special guest star Kathryn Frank name the top five songs they’ll be listening to if and when the end of the world comes around. The Cold Open Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, so please rate, review, and subscribe!

Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel are very grateful that their jobs allow them to work from home for at least the moment. And they have much love for those who aren’t as fortunate as they are and they are doing what they can to help. That said, working from home, though infinitely better than the alternative, is not all it’s cracked up to be. And so, with that in mind, co...

Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel are being responsible citizens and practicing social distancing in all aspects of their lives. That said, we are lonely and we miss each other. Hence, the birth of the Cold Open Mini pods, in which we’re together. Apart. Remotely. Giving our top five lists on an endless array of topics. We intend to do this as close to every day as possible for...

In The Cold Open #40, The Pop Culture Potpourri Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel begin with a discussion of the emergence of coronavirus.  As this was recorded a week before it was posted, the opening is a time capsule illustrating just how radically life has changed in such a short period of time.  Strange days indeed.  We then move towards more evergreen content and discu...

In The Cold Open #39, The Great Pumpkin/Scary Movies Edition, Kynde Kiefel, Robert Sickels, and special guest star Kathryn Frank begin with their responses to Todd Phillips’ Joker, which Kynde loves and Robert most definitely does not. They then delve into a discussion about the scariest movies they’ve seen in a movie theatre, which includes Attack the Block, The Omen, The Love Witch,...

In The Cold Open #38, The So Bad It’s Comfortingly Good Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel begin with an in depth discussion of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. They then each detail their top five lists of media objects so bad they’re comfortingly good, which includes things such as the remake of The Wicker Man, Tiptoes, the films of Jean-...

In The Cold Open #37 Part 2, The Franchise Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel discuss their top five best film franchises lists, which include some of the usual suspects–the Fast and the Furious, Mad Max, Night of the Living Dead, Rocky/Creed, and Toy Story films–as well as some pleasingly unexpected choices like the Luchador films and the Police Story movies feat...

In The Cold Open #37 Part 1, The Franchise Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel discuss their top five least favorite film franchises, which includes the Scary Movie, Transformers, Death Wish, Carry On, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hobbit, Saw, Pirates of the Caribbean, Matrix, Madea, and James Bond franchises, as well as a couple of controversial surprise choices. Our intro this w...

In The Cold Open #36, The Nuclear Meltdown Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel discuss Booksmart, John Wick 3, Rocketman, and Chernobyl.  Both our intro and outro this edition are songs featured in Booksmart, Leikeli47’s “Attitude” from the album Wash & Set and Sampa the Great’s “FEMALE” from the album The Great Mix Tape. The Cold Open P...

In The Cold Open #35, The Endgame Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel begin with an unexpected digression on The Big Bang Theory finally ending before moving on to discuss the cultural phenomena trifecta of Us, Avengers: Endgame, and the final season of Game of Thrones. We then finish with each of us recommending a TV show the other two haven’t watched: Catastrophe, Happ...

In The Cold Open #34, The Generational Films Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel discuss generational defining films.  This was inspired by a recent assignment in an Intro to Film Class in which half the students wrote on either The Perks of Being a Wallflower or Love, Simon.  While these are beloved films for teens and early twenty somethings, they don’t necessarily app...

In The Cold Open #33, The Pop Culture Deal Breakers/Fiery Passion Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel discuss a litany of their pop culture deal breakers, including the way art and artists are depicted in film & TV, critical disdain for what’s popular, online celebrities, Mark Wahlberg, CNN, Trump surrogates (especially Jason Miller & Jack Kingston), NPR both sid...

In The Cold Open #32, The Spring Can Not Get Here Fast Enough Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel discuss movies released over the past few months, including, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Mother!, The Shape of Water, The Post, Phantom Thread, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Suburbicon, It, and Blade Runner 2049.  Also, throughout this episode Matt pays homage to Mark E...

In The Cold Open #31, The Lunar Eclipse/Welcome to Fall Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel discuss their recent media consumption, which includes Game of Thrones, The Beguiled, Logan Lucky, Baby Driver, Detroit, Dunkirk, Atomic Blonde, and a whole lot more. Our intro this edition is Carla Thomas’ “B-A-B-Y” from the Baby Driver Soundtrack and our outro is Nen...

In The Cold Open #30, The Wonder Woman/Summer Day Drinking Vol. 2 Edition, Matt Reynolds, Robert Sickels, and Kynde Kiefel start off by pouring some out for the recently departed Adam West. They then discuss what they’re currently consuming (The Keepers, Fargo, Twin Peaks, Better Call Saul, The Leftovers, Silicon Valley, Catastrophe, The Handmaid’s Tale, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Roma...

In The Cold Open #29, The Moonlight in Manchester Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels discuss four high profile recent films, Rogue One, Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea, and La La Land. Our intro this edition is The Goodie Mob’s “Cell Therapy” from the Moonlight soundtrack and our outro is Ryan Gosling’s “City of Stars” from the La La Land soundtrack. The...

In The Cold Open #28, The Hell or High Water Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels begin with a deep dive into the state of contemporary movie Westerns, using Hell or High Water and The Magnificent Seven as our jumping off point.  We then briefly discuss the rapidly evolving business model of the television industry in the age of viewing on demand. Our intro this edition is Townes Van Zandt&#8...

In The Cold Open #27, The Welcome to Summer Day Drinking Edition, Matt Reynolds and Robert Sickels begin with a discussion of the pilot of AMC’s Preacher.  We then take a look at the latest installment in the never-ending Marvel Comic Universe, Captain America: Civil War.  And finally, we take a deep dive into Shane Black’s Los Angeles, specifically as seen in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and T...