Chillpak Hollywood Hour

Original Release Date: Monday 28 April 2025     Description:   Our last show before our 18th Anniversary is also our last show to be recorded via Skype! It’s also an action-packed 72 minutes that boasts the return of “Lawsuit of the Week”, where Dean and Phil get down and dirty discussing the Paramount merger with Skydance, the fate of CBS’ long-running “60 Minutes”, DEI initiatives, the FCC and T...

Original Release Date: Monday 21 April 2025     Description:   Welcome to a very freewheeling episode! It begins with Dean Haglund revealing what he's watching these days. The action then shifts to a rooftop roundtable discussion with two special guests all about television. "Baby Reindeer", "The White Lotus", "Severance", "Hacks", "Slow Horses", "Poker Face", "The Residence", the Marvel Studios s...

Original Release Date: Monday 14 April 2025     Description:   This week's episode finds Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness in fine form, discussing this year's Oscar-winning animated feature Flow , how it was made, and why actual cats might be enjoying it! The "Lawsuit of the Week" returns, and it is a rather astounding one involving a once Oscar-nominated filmmaker. Phil and Dean both relate to a re...

Original Release Date: Monday 7 April 2025     Description:   One month from their 18th Anniversary (of changing the way you listen to the internet!), your friends in podcasting are still recovering from their European Adventures and during this week’s installment they start by discussing the Marx Brothers, and end by revealing architecture and fine art discoveries they made while overseas. In bet...

Original Release Date: Monday 31 March 2025     Description:   Phil is in Los Angeles, Dean is back in home in Detroit (or its environs) and normalcy is restored on this week's show. Dean offers up his final thoughts about Lisbon, shares the status of his ongoing home renovations, and wighs in on the in-flight movies he availed himself of: John Woo's remake of his own The Killer and a zombie dog h...

Original Release Date: Monday 25 March 2025     Description:   Due to the ridiculous travel itineraries of your friends in podcasting, this week’s show is coming at you one day late, but is jumbo-sized to make up for its tardiness! The festivities get started on a midnight train ride through Denmark two Saturdays back as Phil Leirness and Jon Lawlor discussed sandwiches, the English language, the...

Original Release Date: Monday 17 March 2025     Description:   Today is not only St. Patrick’s Day, it’s also Dean Haglund’s wedding day! Therefore, this week's installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour is an absolute travel adventure. First, Lily Holleman joins Phil at the Hotel Kong Arthur in Copenhagen to share her thoughts about their trip to Venice. Then, we switch locations to a pub in Hel...

Original Release Date: Monday 10 March 2025     Description:   Coming at you from Venice, Italy, Los Angeles of the 1980s and everywhere in between, this week’s show is a wild pastiche. First, Phil gets the ball rolling from Venice, as he welcomes frequent contributor over the years, Lily Holleman (Leirness), who shares some thoughts about the ancient world capital. Phil issues a warning to anyone...

Original Release Date: Monday 3 March 2025     Description:   Later this week, your friends in podcasting depart for Europe. Last night, the Oscars were held. Last week, one of their dear friends celebrated his 81st birthday, another friend had a brain tumor removed, and another friend died. So, you will forgive Dean and Phil if this isn’t the most polished installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood H...

Original Release Date: Monday 24 February 2025     Description:   Your friends in podcasting have two more shows before they make their way (separately) to Europe and reconvene in Denmark! So, understandably, they have a full discussion agenda for this week's show. They discuss the theft of thousands of art works from Venice and how a 1954 cinematic masterpiece helped in the reconstruction of one...

Original Release Date: Monday 17 February 2025     Description:   Phil is celebrating his 6th wedding anniversary, the USA is celebrating President’s Day, and the rest of the world, we hope, is going to have a lovely Monday! Certainly Dean and Phil are doing their level best to get your week off to a great start as they discuss anniversaries, bar mitzvahs and bus rides! In the return of “What We’r...

Original Release Date: Monday 10 February 2025     Description:   What do the movies The Brutalist, The Substance, Red Rooms and Anora have in common? They all made BOTH Dean AND Phil's lists of the Top Ten Films of 2024! The Critics have all had their say, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have announced their nominations for the Best in Cinema 2024, and on this week’s show, your f...

Original Release Date: Monday 3 February 2025     Description:   Following what many people seem to feel was the longest January on record, your friends in podcasting return to get February off to a good start, freewheeling their way through a variety of topics, including the closing of the most odd airport in the world, the reasoning behind Quentin Tarantino’s move into live stage work, a listene...

Original Release Date: Monday 27 January 2025     Description:   For what it's worth, awards season in Hollywood is firmly upon us and on this week's show, your friends in podcasting examine the top ten 2024 releases at the U.S. box office, the top ten films according to critics, and the ten films selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Best Picture Oscar nominations. T...

Original Release Date: Monday 20 January 2025     Description:   Your friends in podcasting have a great deal on their minds ... Cold weather in the nation's capital, the hell of home renovations, fire and long-term unhealthful air and the Olympics in Los Angeles ... And they discuss it all on this week's show. They also remember the late David Lynch, suggesting that no artist has ever loved Los A...

Original Release Date: Monday 13 January 2025     Description:   If any week warranted an episode of epic length, it was the week that was. With Phil Leirness coming at us from the beaten and battered City of Angels and Dean Haglund coming at us from an air mattress on a hardwood floor not far from the Motor City, this week's show covers a lot of terrain in a little more than 68 minutes. Your frie...

Original Release Date: Monday 6 January 2025     Description:   The first show of 2025 find Dean and Phil in good form and discussing a wide array of topics including the landscape and geography of NY's Central Park, nature photography, the It Ends With Us controversy and lawsuit, and the near future of motion picture distribution both theatrically and via streaming. The truncated nature of this y...

Original Release Date: Monday 30 December 2024     Description:   Your friends in podcasting, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness, participate in a “side project” called The Art Life with good pal (and creator of many Chillpak Hollywood Hour theme songs) Jon Lawlor. Each week they hold each other’s feet to the fire as they try to free up their creativity, make it manifest in the world AND encourage eac...

Original Release Date: Monday 23 December 2024     Description:   Because of Dean's peculiar living conditions at present, because of Phil's adventures this week in the nation's capital, and because of a message from a loyal listener (about plein air painting, about microphones, about Bing Crosby, about the body horror comedy/thriller The Substance ), this week's show will be full of fascinating,...

Original Release Date: Monday 16 December 2024     Description:   Are Dean and Phil filled with the spirit of the holiday season? This week, we will all find out! They certainly are immersed in the spirit of the Hollywood Awards Season and they discuss the top ten films according to critics, and delve into the top films and performances according to the Golden Globes. They do deep dive analyses of...

Original Release Date: Monday 9 December 2024     Description:   Your friends in podcasting have returned from travel adventures and have tales about art galleries in the nation's capital and jazz clubs in the Big Easy. You will learn more about they year 1874, and more about the Marigny District of New Orleans, than you have ever heard before on this show! Much of this week's episode involves mov...

Original Release Date: Monday 2 December 2024     Description:   Dean traveled to D.C. and Virginia. Phil traveled to New Orleans, Mississippi and Memphis. Therefore, this seemed like the perfect week for a pre-recorded Top Ten show! As this is the 10th year of Netflix original movies, your friends in podcasting spend the entire hour discussing their all-time favorite Netflix films. Ordinarily, De...

Original Release Date: Monday 25 November 2024     Description:   Happy Birthday to our friend in podcasting, Phil Leirness, who is celebrating many returns of the day in New Orleans today! Before departing Los Angeles, and before Dean Haglund departed the environs of Detroit to head to the nation’s capital for Thanksgiving, they convened via zoom to record this week’s show. In it, they discuss th...

Original Release Date: Monday 18 November 2024     Description:   Dean flies into Los Angeles. Phil picks him up at LAX. You get into the back seat. Highway adventured and high fidelity hijinks ensue! The first two-thirds of this week’s show are recorded during Dean & Phil’s drive to downtown L.A. as they discuss Dean’s upcoming two-man improv show, his future performing plans, his prolific pr...

Original Release Date: Monday 11 November 2024     Description:   Dean is back from Japan. He will speak about his trip on this week's show. Phil is grieving the death of his sister. He has some thoughts about her and about grief and about two wishes he has that he will share. If you would like to read about Phil's sister, he included a tribute to her influence on him in “Haunted”, the most recent...