Last week, Dean and Phil got Season 4 of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour underway with an hilarious and fascinating installment recorded in the nation’s capital. This week, Dean is back in Detroit, Phil is back in Los Angeles, and they have a ton to follow up on, as well a great deal of show biz to news to catch up on! Here is just some of what they have on their agenda: Dean’s thoughts about the need for all-encompassing cultural experiences, highlights (and lowlights) from his D.C. adventures with friend of show John Kay Steel, two inspiring live events Phil attended this week, the avalanche of movie and television award news, a juicy celebrity-laden “Lawsuit of the Week”, and several “Celebrity Deaths”.

Last week, Dean and Phil said hello to 2024 and said goodbye to “Season 3” by welcoming a special guest and discussing their creative intentions for the year. This weekend, Dean and Phil got together in the nation’s capital to get “Season 4” underway by swapping stories about art galleries, historic battlefields, historic D.C. clubs, the James Webb Space Telescope, New Jersey restaurants, Wim Wenders and his 3D documentary about the artist Anselm Kiefer, and a whole lot more. A whole lot of laughs ensue!

Years back, Dean & Phil used to start each year with a show where they revealed their New Year’s Resolutions. They stopped doing this because their perceived failures to fulfill their resolutions started to become depressing! Flash forward to present day and your friends in podcasting and broadcasting 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 each other to live more artful, authentic lives. This weekend, they discussed their intentions for 2024 and how they intend to set their compasses to their true North(s). We thought it might prove interesting, funny and maybe even inspiring, so we are sharing that conversation with you. Happy New Year, one and all!

The first half of this week’s show is all about the art and craft and future of podcasting! Storyteller Dave Pickering joins us from his home in Lancaster in the north of England to talk about his brilliant podcasts (“Getting Better Acquainted”, “Down to a Sunless Sea”, “The Family Tree” and more), about college lectures he gives about podcasting, about where he sees the art form at present, and what he thinks the future might hold. Actress Lily Holleman drops by in the second half of the show to reveal her Screen Actors Guild Awards ballot and to discuss what she looks for in performances. A whole bunch of great movies and performers get discussed. Great podcasts and great movies – truly two of our favorite things!

This week’s toe-tapping, funny bone-tickling, mind-expanding, Atlantic Ocean-crossing epic installment gets started with perhaps the most pleasant surprise surrounding today’s Oscar nominations. From there, it’s onto an amazing email from loyal listener Maurice Terenzio, who instead of focusing on “Celebrity Deaths” inspires Dean and Phil to celebrate the final four performers of the silent era who are still alive! After that, Dean and Phil welcome good friend and intrepid investigative journalist Mark Bennett to discuss his health travails of the last year, Oak Island and Nazi UFOs! In fact, Mark has launched a very cool crowd-sourcing campaign for his proposed documentary Nazi Flying Saucers: Hunting Hitler’s Secret UFOs. The second half of the show is a check-in with Jon Lawlor, who has provided many Chillpak Hollywood Hour theme songs thru the years, as well as the awesome theme song to The Truth Is Out There, and who first lent his vocal talents to a Phil Leirness-directed project in 2002! Jon reveals the hardest part of pandemic life for him, discusses living with depression, describes the changes he would like to see as we emerge from pandemic and discusses his new music. All that, plus he joins Dean in playing the latest round of the vintage movie ad game! If you are looking for the heartfelt, the hilarious, and “exoskeletons of desire”, you have come to the right place!

This week’s episode is a grab bag of what you’ve come to expect from YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour. A broadcasting legend, perhaps the greatest record producer ever (though also a convicted murderer), a chart-topping early rock and roll star, and many others get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. Phil and Dean discuss a review given to their film The Lady Killers (now available to rent or to own everywhere in the world). Phil once again quizzes Dean on movie ads from the 80s and 90s before they analyze the latest Covid-19 fallout to theatrical movie releases and to theaters themselves. Then, Phil regales with details of his “Drive-In Movie Adventure”, Dean reviews Wonder Woman 1984, and your friends in podcasting close with “What We’re Reading”, including an hilarious and disturbingly relevant book from 15 years ago that arrived to Phil by mistake!

This week’s brand new show is a whole lot of fun, with a cold open (about Dean’s former website), a special guest appearance (from Siren FM’s Alex Lewczuk), a discussion about why certain movies (especially in the “Star Trek” universe) seem like movies, whereas others seem like TV episodes, a review of Doctor Sleep, a celebration of Stanley Kubrick, an analysis of an all-time great movie monologue delivered by a powerhouse actress (Nicole Kidman), and a remembrance of actor-producer Kirk Douglas, along with a thoughtful conversation about the messy business of appraising legacies.

In the first half of this week’s show, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness celebrate the lives of several show biz luminaries who shuffled off the mortal coil these past few weeks. They also analyze the list of the 10 best films of the decade according to the legendary Cahiers du Cinema, especially their top choice. Finally, Dean and Phil reveal a newfound opponent to the Department of Justice’s plan to end the Paramount Consent Decree. Then, after a commercial break, your friends in podcasting welcome to the program, lifelong broadcaster and educator Alex Lewczuk of the University of Lincoln in the UK, Siren FM, and Southside Broadcasting. He discusses the past and present of sci-fi, as well as the importance of futurism.

Most of Monday’s show is a conversation that took place a couple weeks back between your friends in podcasting and special guest Dave Pickering. And since that time, Dean and Phil have been dying to share it with you … Dave Pickering is a “storyteller” in so many ways. Based in the UK, he hosts and produces Getting Better Acquainted, Stand Up Tragedy and much, much more. He has a new show debuting this fall that sounds fascinating. Just interviewing him would make for a great show, but he actually starts out by turning the tables on Dean and Phil and interviewing THEM for the first half hour! What transpires is surprising, thoughtful and maybe even inspiring. All in all, it’s an hour unlike any other, which is to say, it’s what you loyal listeners have come to expect from YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!