Three weeks shy of their 17th Anniversary show, your friends in broadcasting & podcasting bring you this action-packed installment. A Tony-winning playwright whose work revealed genuine comedy brilliance, a football player-turned movie star-turned (alleged) murderer, a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist, a groundbreaking drummer, an iconic news journalist, the director who helped launch many of the most beloved T.V. shows of all time, and the matriarch of a great filmmaking dynasty (an award-winning filmmaker herself), all get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Then, the movie talk continues with two great, internationally hailed documentaries and two recent releases from (once) great filmmakers now available for streaming: Matthew Vaugn’s Argylle and Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls. Finally, Dean has thoughts about the current theatrical release Wicked Little Letters. All that, plus the return of “What We’re Reading”.

Phil is back in Los Angeles. Dean is at home in Birmingham, Michigan, and they are unpacking the mysteries of Dean’s sleep schedule, a California town called “Chowchilla” and the US Government report on UFOs. The subject of paranoia gets get a deep dive analysis. Another of Dean’s favorite episodes of “The X-Files” gets revealed. HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” gets reviewed through comparisons with such other recent HBO procedurals as “True Detective” and “The Undoing”. Movies are back, box office is promising, and Dean and Phil celebrate the success of two new horror movies, before offering up a classic 2016 horror film from South Korea. This leads into remembrances of a major (and controversial) figure in the emergence of Korean cinema of the 21st Century, who died of Covid-19 in December. The rise and fall of a legendary attorney gets discussed in “Celebrity Deaths”, as does the legacy of one the great songwriters of the 1970’s and 1980’s. Finally, your friends in podcasting will play another couple rounds of their new Vintage Movie Ad game, this week featuring action stars of the 80’s and 90’s!