The Grey Album Podcast

The ninth episode of the Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture. This episode we look at two films as part of our Central European Christmas Special: The Shop Around the Corner (1940), a tender Christmastime romance set in inter-war Budapest and Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Wes Anderson's pastel-coloured meditation on the decline of...

The eighth episode of the Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture. This episode we look at two films that are millenial classics: Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), a quirky time-travel comedy starring Aubrey Plaza and Garden State (2004), Zach Braff’s coming-of-age comedy drama that touched the heart of sensitive young white guys everywh...

The seventh episode of the Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture. This episode we discuss two Los Angeles-set detective films: Inherent Vice (2014), Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s hippie mystery novel, and L.A. Confidential (1997) which follows three cops in 1950s L.A., each with wildly different styles, on h...

The sixth episode of the Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture. This episode we discuss Whit Stillman’s ‘Doomed Bourgeois in Love Trilogy’, three comedies of manners that portray the professional and romantic travails of upper-middle-class young people. Metropolitan (1990) takes place in the world of debutante balls, Barcelona (199...

The fifth episode of the Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture. This episode we discuss Michael Mann’s magisterial crime epic Heat (1995), featuring legendary performances from Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, and Drive (2011), Nicolas Winding Refn’s synth-and-neon-drenched L.A. noir starring Ryan Gosling as a quiet stunt driver who ge...

The fourth episode of the The Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture. This episode we talk about two films as part of our Tony Blair Christmas Special Extravaganza : The Ghost Writer (2010), Roman Polanski’s political thriller about a controversial former British Prime Minister and Love Actually (2003), Richard Curtis’s modern Chris...

The third episode of the The Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture. This episode we talk about three films by legendary filmmaker Woody Allen: Annie Hall (1977), the Best Picture winner that revolutionised the romantic comedy genre; Interiors (1978), Allen’s underrated attempt at a Bergmanesque drama; and Manhattan ( 1979), perhaps...

The second episode of the The Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture. This episode we talk about Jonah Hill’s directorial debut Mid90s (2018), a nostalgic look at a 1990s childhood, and American Beauty (1999), the Best Picture-winning suburban satire starring cancel-culture icon Kevin Spacey. Featuring: * Zoomers being unable to use...

The very first episode of the The Grey Album Podcast – an audio companion to the newsletter that takes a free-wheeling look at pop culture. This episode we discuss Rian Johnson’s high school neo-noir Brick (2005) and the underrated Canadian comedy-mystery film The Kid Detective (2020). Featuring: * Film Noir slang * What even is sixth-form college? * Why we all secretly love femme fatales * 2000s...