Making every Monday night merry and bright since before many of you were even born, your friends in podcasting and broadcasting hope you are all enjoying a wonderful Christmas. Unless you don’t celebrate Christmas, in which case, Dean and Phil hope you are having an awesome Monday! Among the many topics to be enjoyed in this week’s audio stocking stuffer are an honor being bestowed upon one of the most important directors of “The X-Files”, the brilliance of actors Jamie Foxx and Mahershala Ali, two of the best Christmas films of all time (and both are brand new theatrical releases!), animated superhero movies, Netflix movies, a UK Northern Soul legend, a star of TV’s “Route 66”, and the Detroit art scene.

This week’s episode is full of a lot of what Dean and Phil do best! In “Celebrity Deaths”, they remember the singer of one of Phil’s all-time favorite songs, an artist who truly made his mark on Wall Street, a trailblazing theatre impresario, Beat poetry’s greatest champion, and in celebrating these giants, Dean and Phil also celebrate diversity. That can NOT be said for the Golden Globes, which aired this weekend and which are (once again) mired in controversy. Dean and Phil will have a ball unpacking those controversies, and perhaps stirring up some of their own where TV Awards are concerned! Still, with award shows and with the recent news surrounding movie theaters and movie release dates, it seems as if we are going to be returning to some semblance of “normal” in the not-too-distant future. Dean and Phil cover all of that, plus their views on three award hopefuls: The Little Things, One Night in Miami and Judas and the Black Messiah. They also champion two great new songs, one a Golden Globe-nominated modern classic, and the other, a terrific single from our very own Jon Lawlor! All that, plus Dean and Phil have fun with a couple more vintage movie ads.

Dean Haglund spent part of his birthday recording this episode of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour and it turns out to be a very special, very personal installment for your friends in podcasting. Sure, they talk about a whole bunch of movies, including Mission: Impossible – FalloutHotel ArtemisSorry to Bother YouEat Me and The Breaker Upperers, and they celebrate John Waters’ Hairspray at 30. Of course, they also discuss the latest news regarding the James Gunn and Chris Hardwick controversies and weigh in on the ramifications surrounding the accusations leveled at longtime CBS head honcho Les Moonves. All that plus disturbing news surrounding two L.A. icons and the show biz disruptor that is (was?) MoviePass. What makes the episode truly unforgettable and personal, however, will have to remain a secret to all but those who listen to this week’s show. Which you can do NOW wherever good podcasts can be found!

This week’s installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour features the return of special (recurring) guest and free-lance journalist Yoshi Kato! He has recently returned from the Tokyo International Music Market and he offers up a full report on a life-time achievement award for cinema icon “Beat” Takeshi Kitano and two hot bands from Japan: VAMPS and Sakanaction. 

Yoshi joins your friends in podcasting in a spirited discussion on HBO shows, the faults in The Fault in Our StarsFoxcatcherThe Imitation Game and a commemorative stamp of … Dean Haglund?!

Hear all about Los Angeles’ design for a new green space that will rival Manhattan’s High Line (and will give bicyclists and pedestrians an uninterrupted path from Burbank all the way to downtown), learn why Canada doesn’t have game shows, remember L.A.’s first official film czar as well as a folk music icon and some of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s great on-screen roles, and appreciate the difference between “English” and “Irish” …

All that, PLUS, your friends in podcasting examine the storytelling in Harmony Korine’s The Spring Breakers, make sense of the success of The Lego Movie, the failure of The Monuments Men and the claim that Chris Pine’s days as a leading man are numbered following the failure of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

With a full week’s supply of insight, irreverence and inspiration, it’s YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour. Enjoy!