The Stories We Tell Podcast

In this bonus episode, we take a look at the most complicated of all the Universal Monsters: The Wolf Man. From his roots in Nazi Germany to his modern day American interpretation which fetishizes transformation, understanding the truth behind the Wolf Man forces us to confront the most basic aspects of being human: That we all have the capacity for change. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thestorieswetellpodcast/support

In the final episode, we look at the film The Lost Boys and discuss how post-modernist theory explains why everything feels slippery and hard to define fact from fiction. How do we unravel the stories we're telling when everything is self-referential and there is no truth behind anything, including our own personal narratives? References: The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge by Jean-Francois Lyotard (1979) Symbolic Exchange and Death by Jean Baudrillard (1976) Simulacra and Simulation (The Body, In Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism) by Jean Baudrillard (1981) --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thestorieswetellpodcast/support

This episode, I uncover the dangerous legacy of transphobia in the slasher film to reveal the true monsters behind the knives and chainsaws. References: Behind the Horror: The True Stories That Inspired Horror Movies by Dr. Lee Mellor Dead Blondes and Bad Moms: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power by Jude Ellison Sady Doyle (you will find the book under Sady Doyle) (2019) Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film by Carol J. Clover (2015) --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thestorieswetellpodcast/support

In 1992, the world was introduced to the scariest monster yet: a fully actualized sexual woman. Boy oh boy was the backlash swift. In this episode of The Stories We Tell, we look at Basic Instinct, the Film Noir sex thriller that set the debate over 3rd wave feminism on fire and nearly scorched the career of Sharon Stone for her portrayal of Catherine Tramell. The performance was so good in fact that people couldn't separate her from her character. Not unlike Jaws, her filmic incarnation gave the world justification to demonize her in the form of slut-shaming. But also, not unlike Jaws, Catherine Tramell isn't real. She's the sum of Nick Curan's fantasies and projections of a woman. Therein lies the rub in Film Noir. The only thing that matters, the only thing that's real, is the opinion of the most unreliable of sources: the male protagonist. Thus, the stories we tell ourselves about this hugely popular genre is that our anxieties, fears, tensions, and worst nightmares have a brith place: women. In Basic Instinct, our protagonist faces that fear quite literally head on, and we look at what that story says about us, about men, and about the very stories we tell ourselves about the order of the world. For this episode, I called on the help of TV comedy writer Doni Muransky. She took on the brave task of analyzing a lesser known scene in the film, and the conversation that ensued revealed how modern day incarnations of these tensions function. We also laugh a lot, which helps to keep from crying. You can find Doni on Twitter and IG @donatellasays. References: Film Noir: The Dark Side of the Screen by Foster Hirsch (1938) Film Noir Reader by Alain Silver and James Ursini (2004) Dead Blondes and Bad Moms: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power by Jude Ellison Sady Doyle (you will find the book under Sady Doyle) (2019) Books and Edited Collections by Professor Shelley Stamp: Lois Weber in Early Hollywood (University of California Press, 2015) Movie-Struck Girls: Women and Motion Picture Culture after the Nickelodeon (Princeton University Press, 2000). "Women and the Silent Screen." A special issue of Film History 18, no. 2 (2006), co-edited with Amelie Hastie. American Cinema's Transitional Era: Audiences, Institutions, Practices, co-edited with Charlie Keil (University of California Press, 2004). --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thestorieswetellpodcast/support

This weeks episode looks at the 1975 classic JAWS and breaks down the stories we tell ourselves about staying on top of the food chain. By looking at the film through marxist literary theory, post-modern feminist psychoanalytic theory, and sociology we can start to uncover our anxieties about human's most innate fear: not beating nature. References: Behind the Horror: The True Stories That Inspired Horror Movies by Dr. Lee Mellor Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson by Camille Paglia On the Sexual Theories of Children by Sigmund Freud --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thestorieswetellpodcast/support

The origins of the monster was born in the year 1931, when prohibition had created criminals out of citizens, marginalized communities were forming under the cover of speakeasies, and the depression had depleted faith in the federal government. Hollywood's answer: the Universal Monsters. By looking at the real stories behind these spine-tingling tales, we reveal the darker truth about how we are taught to place blame, and on who. This episode, we look at the lineage of Frakenstein, and how the subtext of anti-LBGT anxieties and fears are used to mask the real story being told - that those in power are the true monsters. This episode contains spoilers for the TV show Succession. Listen with caution. References: The White Album by Joan Didion Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film by Harry M. Benshoff The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror by David J. Skal Too Much, Never Enough by Mary Trump --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thestorieswetellpodcast/support

Season one of The Stories We Tell kicks off January 2022. Like and follow on Spotify for bonus episodes and tie bits to tied you over until then. Have a safe and happy holiday season. This is Kacy Boccumini reminding you: please watch carefully. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thestorieswetellpodcast/support

Welcome Watchers to The Stories We Tell, a podcast about storytelling in movies and TV show. In each episode, we're going to break down the stories they've told you about you. More specifically, the “you” you've constructed through years of watching movies and TV shows that were feeding you fantasies disguised as fundamental truths. The Stories We Tell is the podcast where we uncover the stories we've been told (and taken up as our own) and investigate the unspoken truth behind them that the stories themselves are used to conceal. This inaugural season of The Stories We Tell will focus on a central, and most misunderstood, figure in the stories we tell ourselves: The Monster. From Norman Bates to Jaws to Catherine Trammel, we are going to look at the world from the perspective of the Monsters we've been made to fear. This podcast will function like a typical film school class. I will present a use case and position and will layer in numerous discourses to analyze the presented stories and what they could reveal. I will use the theoretical underpinnings of linguistics, semiology, critical race theory, gender studies, queer theory, semiotics, literary criticism, psychoanalysis, and more. We will also dig into film historiography – which is like film history, but with a critical lens. Class begins in January 6, 2022. Like and follow on Spotify or subscribe on iTunes to be notified when new content is available. Until then, this is Kacy Boccumini asking please, watch carefully. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thestorieswetellpodcast/support