The Juggernaut

The Coens have made some of the most iconic and idiosyncratic films in the history of the medium. You've probably seen at least a few of their films, or probably have at least *heard* of them. On today's show, film nut Josh Fischberg joins to rank all the Coen Brothers' movies, both to try and understand what's so unique and lovable about their blend of humor and pathos and wildness, and also to h...

D.T. Max is a New Yorker staff writer who wrote the first biography of Wallace and has become a great, low-key advocate for DFW's work. D.T. developed a picture of a writer who tried really hard, who had his genius and his flaws, and whose fiction performed the rare feat of offering solutions as well as identifying problems. This conversation will hopefully encourage listeners to cut through the c...

Vox.com's culture editor Todd VanDerWerff has written that the best show on TV is "The Americans." But why? What is FX's little-seen, low-key espionage drama doing that hasn't been done before, and why does it appeal to our sensibilities in ways so much mass-produced TV doesn't? Todd joins the Juggernaut to help decode the best show you haven't been watching.

Marty Beller is the amazing drummer for They Might Be Giants. Shouldn't that be enough? Well, it's not: Marty also composes film and TV scores, and is currently music director for a terrific play called "The Total Bent." The fact that his creative process is so painful illustrates how high his standards are for his art: he thinks art's ambition should be no less than to throttle us.   NOTES: =====...

Steve Almond is a writer, a thinker and a self-professed curmudgeon, and he's spent much of his professional life trying to cut through bullshit. From his upbringing by parents who partook in the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam movements, to a journalistic and fiction-writing career, to his recent book exploring the conflicted plight of the NFL fan, Steve has a history of brilliant gallows humor and...

Professionally speaking, first and foremost Josh Larsen is a film critic, one half of a successful duo on the Filmspotting podcast. But he's also a man of faith. We talk about the intersection of movies and Christianity, and how that influences Josh's criticism. And then we tackle a fun task: recommending underappreciated films since 2000.   NOTES: View Josh Larsen's work at Think Christian: http:...

What do you do when you achieve your rock-star dreams, and then discover they're killing you? You may know Ross Flournoy as the frontman of Apex Manor, whose song introduces every episode of our sister podcast. His story is one of frustration and perseverance, from his time in the late, lamented Broken West, to his changeover to a more hard-driving style in Apex Manor, to battles with addiction, a...