Small Beans

Charlie Kaufman's devastating tale of life, death, and ham-fisted direction shows a side of Phillip Seymour Hoffman that is actually thirty sides. Michael, Brooks and Abe try in vain to unpack a movie that is both representative of less and more than the movie represents. SHIT. GETS. META.

Jamie Loftus joins Michael in the Pit of Odiousness to discuss her dealings with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, the importance of wearing long sleeves at work, Lilo & Stitch merchandise, and how all of these things conspired to make her the hackstress she is t0d4y. Art by Seth Laster. Music by Abe Epperson and Kevin Clark.

MUBI Promotional Offer: https://mubi.com/brothers The oft-maligned prelude to No Country, Joel and Ethan's grudging remake of the Alec Guinness/Peter Sellers comedy classic The Ladykillers is...wait for it...funnier than you think it is. Abe and Michael unpack it's undeniable flaws, learn a lot about the Coens in the process, and also highlight some truly hilarious Coen Moments you missed if you overlooked this one. J.K. Simmons as you've never seen him before, Tom Hanks as you've never seen him before, and Stephen Root exactly as you've seen him in every other Coen Brothers movie! What's not to kind of like? Art by Michael Vincent Bramley. Music by Abe Epperson.

BOLD is a podcast about race and justice in America, and a collaboration between Small Beans and Showing Up For Racial Justice, produced by White People 4 Black Lives. In the second episode, writer, educator, and legendary social justice advocate Paul Kivel helps Dahlia and Michael explain a bit of the history of white allyship, what your stakes as a white person are in dismantling racism in America, the history of racial assimilation in America, the relationship between racism and economic inequality, and much, much more. Also features a piece by Ariel Luckey, and voices and sounds from ongoing protests against 24-Hour Fitness following the locker-room murder of Albert Ramon Dorsey by police.

Abe and Cristian examine fictional economies that strive to span galaxies, yet fail to actually function in any conceivable realm of reality. From Trade Federations to the Replicator to Spice-Trade and the Houses, it's alllllll just bullshit. So let's enjoy it!

The Dino Dream Team of three people who barely know anything about dinosaurs but make up for it with passion is BACK, BABY! Abraham tells Bridgett and Michael about the meanest prehistoric meth-turkey this side of the Mesozoic...Hesperonychus!

The dream team of Fish, Swaim, and Epperson decode the dense, symbolist tome that is the "Weird" Al movie. And if they don't by noon tomorrow, the podcasting network will get sold to an evil old billionaire!!!!

Joel and Ethan force Catherine and George to channel Hepburn and Grant, all respectively. It's the Coens' most expensive film, and therefore the best, as any good divorce attorney will tell you. Join the madcap antics as Mike and Abe unpack one of the brothers' lighter offerings. Get your 30 day free trial of MUBI here: http://mubi.com/brothers

"We three kings be stealin' the gold!" "You make Michael Jackson cut up his own face, my main man; you have the fucked up country." "David O. Russell is a lunatic asshole." TWO of those are indelible lines from Three Kings, one is just a fact. The Daily Zeitgeist's Miles Gray returns to revisit this George Clooney/Jamie Kennedy/Jim Gaffigan vehicle about assmaps the men who misuse them.

Cristian and Abraham, two people with ultra-modern sci-fi names, examine spacesuits and the spacefarers who fill them. As this symbiosis between science-fiction and science fact attests, surviving in the vacuum of what is 99% of the Universe takes some doing.

Teresa Lee has a love inside of her that makes her invincible and a light you can't even imagine, so we think you'd better say "that's that" and listen to our podcast before she comes over there and beats the Hell from you.

James Gandolfini, Frances McDormand, Tony Shalhoub, Billy Bob Thornton, and common house-dirt all collide in a way Heisenberg himself couldn't have predicted, but the Coens apparently can. Join Michael and Abe as they struggle to crack the code of this often-obtuse, but always interesting entry in the Coen canon.

Vanessa Gritton comes by for her first non-Red Dead-related episode of Small Beans, and gets things off to a great start by kicking Sarah and Bridgett in the she-testicles whenever they disagree even slightly.

Maggie sits down with writer and actor Zora Bikangaga to discuss the social complexities of interracial friendships and tips on how to be happy for other's success.

Cristian and his stalwart co-pilot Abe swerve back into sci-fi hilarity with an overview of awesome guns, both lethal and non-, from our favorite futurescapes. The Sick Stick pranks alone are worth the price of admission.

Hey, you remember that one Simpsons episode where Ruth Powers and Marge flee from Homer and Chief Wiggum across the desert? Wiggum tries to cook engine-block eggs? Well, hey, let's talk about the incredible Ridley Scott movie of which that was a parody! Maggie Mae joins to help us dive into a pretty kickass flick.

Sage of Boning and Bodily Juices (also licensed Sex Therapist) Jamila Dawson returns to help explain what exactly she does, why kink and poly relationships are on the rise, and what to do when it all explodes in your face (and not in the good way). At the top, Michael ruins your mental image of him forever, and all future prospects of holding elected office.

Bridgett Greenberg, your Sound Leader, and her grubby minions Michael and Abe, FINALLY -- fucking FINALLY -- determine, once and for all, What Dinosaur Real Good. It's Ankylosaur, the one with a tail made of murder!

In a wiiiiiiiide-ranging episode, Creature Feature host Katie Goldin joins Bridgett and Sarah to discuss eating snails, butt worms, her Bird Rights Activism, and some seriously useful dating advice. But to get to the advice, there's def some slime to wade through, so start wadin'!

Colloquially referred to as "O Brother," this film is a panoply of tight spots, m'hair, and suitors what got prospects. Abe and Michael delve them all, and thankfully do not break into song at almost any point. Turturro. Clooney. Nelson. And thou.