Longtime listeners know that Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness care about your health and the health of society. This week’s episode gets started with a discussion of Phil’s eyesight loss, the NBA Finals, the catastrophic injuries that marred the NBA Finals, and the pressure everyone feels, not just athletes, to get back to work as quickly as possible, even if they are injured or if their health is compromised. Then, Dean discusses the latest about his streaming improv web series “Gravity Hole”, the conspiracy-themed live comedy performance he will be giving in July, before he and Phil dig into some of the great comedy series and how they reveal the truth. Finally, Phil brings up the recent implosions at the box office before singing the praises of a recent superhero release, a silent classic and a brand new Zombie comedy. The show closes with part 2 of Phil’s conversation with actress-singer-producer Chase Masterson and her profound efforts to build a healthier society through her anti-bullying Pop Culture Hero Coalition

As the holidays approach, it’s the season of self-congratulation in Hollywood, where awards are being handed out and award shows are being planned. Dean and Phil weigh in on the controversy surrounding the Academy’s choice of Oscar hosts, and where they go from here. A filmmaker who never won major awards, but who left an enduring legacy, is remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Steve Coogan is a comedic actor (writer and producer) who is a source of contention between Dean and Phil. Your friends in podcasting roll up their sleeves and analyze his gifts and review his two 2018 big-screen releases: Ideal Home and Stan & Ollie. This leads into a terrific discussion of pathos and of the enduring film catalog of Laurel and Hardy.

As they approach the final few shows of the Australian, intercontinental and trans-pacific era of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour, your friends in podcasting have really been ramping up with great episodes. And those episodes have led to an overflowing “mailbag”. On this week’s installment, Dean and Phil will finally get to several of these missives, which range in content from corrections about things Dean and Phil have said to questions about the dubbing of movies and TV into different languages, from a question about mysterious sounds to one about the ineffable art of casting the right performers for the right roles. Of course, Dean and Phil will comment upon the latest show biz and media news, including the controversy surrounding Nike, the latest charges leveled against CBS head honcho Les Moonves, and the Academy’s major about-face for this year’s Oscars. All that, plus Dean updates his Down Under Bucket List and he and Phil remember the late, great Burt Reynolds.

Following up on one of their best episodes ever, your friends in podcasting return with the latest installment of Dean’s Down Under Bucket List (before he moves to Detroit)! Then, after a discussion of the visual symbolism of watching Aretha Franklin and John McCain memorialized in back-to-back days, Dean and Phil tackle the current season of “Better Call Saul”, the upcoming season of “Man in the High Castle”, the new movie from Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman) and the Spike Lee joint Do The Right Thing (at almost 30!). Then, an actress with a once-promising, high-profile career who was shot and killed by police and the writer with the most ever combined Tony and Oscar nominations are remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

This week, we promise that Dean will NOT spend half the show working on home construction while on the microphone! He will regale us with tales of his final iprov comedy performance in Sydney prior to his move back to the USA. Then, your friends in podcasting discuss “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”, NBC’s “The Good Place”, Patrick Stewart’s return to “Star Trek”, Q Anon (no, not the villain in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” – at least we think not) before turning their attention to movies. Such releases as Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp the elephant documentary Love & Bananas, the coming-of-age Eighth Grade, the sci-fi mind-bender The Endless, the award hopeful Leave No Trace and the early Denis Villeneuve films Incendies and Enemy all get discussed.

 

Dean Haglund is down under, enjoying his new home in Sydney, Australia. And if this show is to be believed, Phil Leirness is on his way to visit Dean via “swim” (is that a new mobile app?). So, talented, funny, and razor sharp ladies Karen Forman and Lily Holleman step in to help your friends in podcasting change the way they “change the way you listen to the internet”!

There is the familiar – Live Events of the Week, movie reviews, the Bechdel test, appeals for racial and age diversity in mainstream media, and an appeal for more opportunity for women both in front of and behind the camera. Bottom line: “Shame on you, Hollywood!”

Karen and Lily also celebrate the Tony Awards, Lifetime Movies, and “Game of Thrones”.

All in all, it’s an “outward display of inner self-love” and it just might save Christmas!

One day late, but well worth the wait.

Am I right, ladies?

 

The holidays are rapidly approaching, so it’s only appropriate your friends in podcasting gift you with one of their most heartfelt shows of the year as they welcome special guest Suli McCullough. Suli is an accomplished, talented and hilarious writer, producer, actor and stand-up comic who has written for “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”, acted in such films as Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood and is currently producing a documentary about stand-up comedy featuring the biggest names in the business. Suli and Phil grew up together, so in addition to fascinating and irreverent stories of show business adventures, this week’s episode will boast thoughtful and moving discussions about race, art, culture and communication. Even after more than 7 1/2 years of free, weekly podcasty goodness, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness keep coming up with new and ever-more nourishing helpings of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

 

45 complete trips around the sun ago, your friend in podcasting, Phil Leirness, was born. We here at YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour wish him Many Happy Returns and we’re celebrating with one of our funniest episodes ever.

Long before Dean Haglund was the host of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour and even before he was “Langly” on a certain television series, Dean was “Spock” in a long-running, live musical stage version of “Star Trek” in Vancouver, B.C. Like his Vulcan first officer, the “Kirk” from that show also went onto great success in a long-running sci-fi television franchise …

Actor, writer, improv comic and voice artist Gary Jones is perhaps best known for playing “Sgt. Walter Harriman” on “Stargate SG-1”, “Stargate: Atlantis” and “SGU Stargate Universe”. For years, we’ve been trying to get him onto the show and schedules have never alligned.

This week, we’ve got him on a long layover from Australia and he’s armed with hilarious stories about “Stargate”, Peter Deluise, Dean Haglund, Katharine Hepburn, Nick Nolte and there’s even an hilarious recurring joke about Rae Dawn Chong! What other show can claim that?!

On Sunday, your friends in podcasting, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness, were in Portland, Oregon for an event commemorating the 10th Anniversary of 9/11. While their film The Truth is Out There played inside the Bing Lounge, Dean and Phil sat in the PacWest Center green room with the host of the evening, Clyde Lewis, to record this week’s show.

Clyde Lewis is the fantastic host of the extremely popular “Ground Zero” which airs on KXL News Radio in Portland and which streams on www.GroundZeroMedia.org (where you can also find podcasts of Clyde’s past shows INCLUDING this past Thursday’s show, on which Phil was the guest, and Sunday’s show in front of a live audience, on which Dean was the guest).

How will we view the events of 9/11 2001 as we move forward? Will there ever be a true criminal investigation of those events? Will Dean and Phil change the name of their weekly podcast to “Bag Full of Rainbows”?

Find out the answer to these burning questions and many many more on this week’s installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

Chris Mancini is a stand-up comic, filmmaker and author, who was the guest on Chillpak Hollywood Hour #103 when he discussed his just-published book Pacify Me: A Handbook for the Freaked-Out New Dad with Dean Haglund. Now, he’s back to discuss how the book was received (both commercially and critically), the state of (and future of) publishing, as well as of stand-up comedy, short filmmaking, and CHH “sister” podcast “Comedy Film Nerds”. This week’s installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour will definitely put the “happy” in Happy Holidays!