Pre-recorded this past week in Los Angeles and Birmingham, Michigan, and edited at the Montecito Club weekend, this week’s show features irreverent, insightful and occasionally inspired and inspiring discussion on a wide range of topics, including: The California Gubernatorial Recall Election, a paranormal convention Dean was attending, some long-awaited good news at the North American box office, the recent CinemaCon (a convention for theater owners) and what we learned about Ghostbusters: Afterlife and The Matrix Resurrections, and the 2018 Japanese TV series “Miss Sherlock” and its terrific star Yuko Takeuchi, who committed suicide one year ago. All that, PLUS Phil explains his passing, yet specific, reference to moving back east, which he uttered during episode 88’s drunken, red-wine fueled bacchanal. Safe to say, he is definitely Los Angeles-based for the foreseeable future.

Phil is back from another emergency trip to Turlock, and Dean is safely ensconced back in Detroit after a trip to Virginia, and after adopting another kitten! Cats get discussed, of course, and in an almost weekly occurrence, “Lord Turlock” issues proclamations. Then your friends in podcasting continue to tackle the appalling, ongoing wave of violence being directed against member of the AAPI community, which somehow leads to a discussion of just one of the problems Phil had with Godzilla vs. Kong. Dean and Phil share a text message from a loyal listener, and celebrate the show business lives of the actor who played “Cousin It”, a country-rock hitmaker, and a prolific country songwriter, and wax rhapsodic about the pedal steel guitar! Friend of show Jon Lawlor has another single out and it inspires a conversation about mental health and the messy business of having feelings. Dean and Phil both have feelings about the death (?) of the Arclight and Pacific movie theater chains, and about the controversy surrounding this year’s Oscar front-runner for Best Picture, Nomadland. Finally, speaking of the Oscars, Dean and Phil close the proceedings with an Oscar-themed edition of their recent (and apparently popular?) vintage movie ad game!

Dean files one last report from Detroit before spending the rest of the year in L.A. What does he hope to accomplish while he is there, what has he been working on and how is a certain graphic novel coming along? Not only will you find out on this week’s show, you will also learn about the (tongue-in-cheek?) Turlock-based detective series Phil has conceived! Of course, Dean and Phil have several serious show biz and culture-related topics to cover as well, from current box office news to an overlooked Sean Connery film that is a true gem, from a Netflix riff on Sherlock Holmes to an Apple TV+ workplace sitcom starring Jason Sudeikis. In “Celebrity Deaths”, they will remember a true behind-the-camera titan of live television, a groundbreaking Broadway performer-turned-TV show creator, and the co-creator of one of the most beloved animated shows of all time. Plus, Dean and Phil will continue their discussion on taking things too seriously in the “public square”.

We have been experiencing great difficulty making this week’s show (recorded on Sunday) available across our usual platform of fine podcast providers! If you have found this episode, we trust you will find it though-provoking. A wide range of topics gets covered, including airplane crashes, anger, gun massacres, distractions, climate change, live storytelling, the history of U.S. Constitutional Amendments and perhaps, the greatest drummer ever! Oh, yeah, and DOBERMAN PUPPIES!