Podcasts about The Great Gatsby

And that's a wrap on season 11. These episodes cover Kris' legendary Great Gatsby themed 60th, the aftermath of Lamar's overdose, Scott's stay at rehab, Kim and Kanye's house construction delays, Kendall's arguments with Caitlyn and Kylie re: the VS show, and so much more. ShopMy: https://shopmy.us/shop/product/216980CANN code: COMMENTS for 20% offCodes:Head to Saks Fifth Avenue for inspiring ways to elevate your personal style, every day.Rhoback: Rhoback.com code CBC for 20% off your first order through the end of this weekBoll & Branch: BollAndBranch.com/comments to save 20% for a limited time. Exclusions applyLaundry Sauce: code CBC at laundrysauce.com/CBC for 20% off your entire order Squarespace: squarespace.com/CBC for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, use OFFER CODE: CBC to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domainDime Beauty: code PODCAST20 at DimeBeauty.com for 20% off your first orderSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this inspiring interview on The Voice of Costume, host Catherine Baumgardner talks with acclaimed costume designer Lynn Ollie about her creative evolution from sketching fashion plates as a child to working for major productions like Black Panther, Mad Men, and The Great Gatsby. Lynn opens up about discovering her passion for storytelling through costume, her mentorship from legendary designer Ann Roth, and how persistence and curiosity helped her break into the film industry. She shares behind-the-scenes stories from “The Man in My Basement,” including collaborating with Corey Hawkins, Willem Dafoe, and director Nadia Latif, recreating authentic 1990s Long Island style, and improvising through last-minute wardrobe crises. Lynn also discusses her creative philosophy—how costume design bridges character psychology, history, and visual poetry. From the gritty realism of American Horror Stories to the cultural symbolism of Black Panther, she reveals the emotional truth behind every fabric choice. Filled with wisdom for aspiring costume designers, filmmakers, and creatives, this episode explores the art of collaboration, the balance of vision and budget, and why costume design is truly storytelling through texture, color, and time. Watch more episodes on youtube: @voiceofcostume The “Voice of Costume” is the first podcast created between working costume designers sharing stories, inspiration, struggles, and insights into the creative career of costume design. A behind-the-scenes podcast to showcase the voices of Costume Designers around the world. Listen in on this inspirational, one-on-one conversation between Kathleen and Catherine Baumgardner. Audio available wherever you get podcasts. https://voiceofcostume.com/

‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ announces Broadway plans, Jeremy Jordan to return to ‘Great Gatsby,’ Kandi Burress to join ‘& Juliet’ Since 2016, “Today on Broadway” has been the first and only daily podcast recapping the top theatre headlines every Monday through Friday. Any and all feedback is appreciated:Grace Aki: grace@broadwayradio.com | @ItsGraceAkiMatt read more

With the plethora of book to film adaptations that have come out in 2025, our newest season will focus on great books that were adapted into movies. Our first discussion is in honor of the great Robert Redford, who recently passed away, with the 1974 F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation THE GREAT GATSBY.  Please send any and all feedback to anotherlookpod@gmail.com.  Please follow us on Instagram @anotherlookpod, and rate/review/subscribe where ever you get your podcasts.

This week on Skip the Queue, we're stepping into the turret and turning up the tension, as we explore one of the UK's most talked-about immersive experiences.Our guest is Neil Connolly, Creative Director at The Everywhere Group, who have brought The Traitors Live Experience to life. With over 10 million viewers watching every betrayal, backstab and banishment on the BBC show, expectations for the live version were nothing short of murderous.So, how do you even begin to transform a TV juggernaut into a thrilling, guest-led experience? Let's find out who's playing the game… and who's about to be banished…Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is Paul Marden.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website SkiptheQueue.fm.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on LinkedIn. Show references: The Traitors Live website: https://www.thetraitorslive.co.uk/Neil's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-connolly-499054110/Neil Connolly is a creative leader of design and production teams focused on development, production and installation of live theatre, entertainment, multi-media and attractions for the themed entertainment industry worldwide.Neil began his career as a performer, writer, producer & artist in Londons alternative theatre/art scene. It was during this time Neil developed a love and passion for story telling through the platform of interactive playable immersive theatre.Having been at the vanguard of playable & immersive theatre since 2007, Neil had a career defining opportunity in 2019 when he devised, wrote & directed an immersive experience as part of Sainsbury's 150th Birthday Celebrations. Making him the only immersive theatre & game maker in the world to have HRH Elizabeth Regina attend one of their experiences.In a distinguished career spanning 20 years, Neil has brought that passion to every facet of themed entertainment in the creative direction and production of attractions such as; Handels Messiah, Snowman & The Snowdog, Peppa Pig Surprise Party, Traitors Live, The Crystal Maze Live Experience, Tomb Raider Live Experience & Chaos Karts, an AR go-kart real life battle. Other clients and activations include: Harrods, Sainsbury's, Camelot/The National Lottery, Samsung, Blenheim Palace, Land Rover and Warner Brothers.Neil has worked across 4 continents for many years with private individuals; designing, producing and delivering live entertainment on land, sea & air. A world without boundaries requires freethinking.Neil is currently working with Immersive Everywhere on creative development of show and attraction content for projects across U.K, Europe, North America & Asia. Transcriptions:  Paul Marden: This week on Skip the Queue, we're stepping into the turret and turning up the tension as we explore one of the UK's most talked about immersive experiences.Paul Marden: Our guest is Neil Connolly, Creative Director at The Everywhere Group, who've brought The Traitor's live experience to life. With over 10 million viewers watching every betrayal, backstab and banishment on the BBC show, expectations for the live version were nothing short of murderous. So how do you even begin to transform a TV juggernaut into a thrilling guest-led experience? Let's find out who's playing the game and who's about to be banished.Paul Marden: So, we're underground. Lots of groups running currently, aren't they? How did you make that happenNeil Connolly: Yeah, so now we're two floors under us. There's a lower basement and some other basement. So the building that we are in, there's a family in the 1890s who owned all of the land around Covent Garden and specifically the Adelphi Theatre.Paul Marden: Right.Neil Connolly: And they wanted their theatre to be the first theatre in the UK to have its lights powered by electricity. So they built their own private power station in this building. Like, literally like, all this, this is a power station. But unfortunately for these the Savoy had taken to that moniker, so they quickly built their important institution. The family had this building until the 1980s when the establishment was assumed through the important UK network.Neil Connolly: And then it was sat there empty, doing nothing for 40 years. And so the landlord that is now started redeveloping the building 10 years ago, added two floors onto the top of the building. So now what we're in is an eight-storey structure and we've basically got the bottom four floors. Two of which are ground and mezzanine, which is our hospitality area. And the lower two floors, which are all in the basement, are our experience floors. What we're looking at right now is, if you look off down this way to the right, not you people on audio, but me here.Neil Connolly: Off this side is five of the round table rooms. There's another one behind me and there's two more upstairs. And then I've got some Tretters Towers off to the left and I've got my show control system down there.Neil Connolly: On the floor above me, we've got the lounges. So each lounge is connected to one of the round table rooms. Because when you get murdered or banished, one of the biggest challenges that I faced was what happens to people when they get murdered or banished? Because you get kicked out of the game. It's not a lot of fun, is it? Therefore, for me, you also get kicked out of the round table room. So this is a huge challenge I face. But I built these lounge concepts where you go— it's the lounge of the dead— and you can see and hear the round table room that you've just left. We'll go walk into the room in a while. There's lots of interactivity. But yeah, super fun. Neil Connolly: But unfortunately for these the Savoy had taken to that moniker, so they quickly built their important institution. The family had this establishment until the 1980s when the establishment was considered through the important UK network.Paul Marden: Yeah. So we've got 10 million people tuning in to Traitors per episode. So this must be a lot of pressure for you to get it right. Tell us about the experience and what challenges you faced along the way, from, you know, that initial text message through to the final creation that we're stood in now.Neil Connolly: So many challenges, but to quote Scroobius Pip on this, do you know Scroobius Pip? Paul Marden: No. Neil Connolly: Great, he's amazing. UK rapper from Essex.Neil Connolly: Some people see a mousetrap and think death. I see free cheese and a challenge.Neil Connolly: There's never any problems in my logic, in my thinking. There's always just challenges to overcome. So one of the biggest challenges was what happens to people when they get murdered or banished. The truth of the matter is I had to design a whole other show, which happens after this show. It is one big show. But you go to the Lounge of the Dead, there's more interactivity. And navigating that with the former controller, which is O3 Media and IDTV, who created the original format in the Netherlands, and basically designing a game that is in the world and follows the rules of their game with some reasonable adjustments, because TV and live are not the same thing.Neil Connolly: It takes 14 days to film 12 episodes of The Traitors. Paul Marden: Really? Okay. Neil Connolly: So I was like, how do I truncate 14 days of somebody's life down into a two-hour experience and still deliver that same impact, that same power, that same punch?Paul Marden: Yep.Neil Connolly: But I knew from the beginning of this that it wasn't about time. There is a magic triangle when it comes to the traitors, which is time, space, atmosphere. And time was the thing that I always struggled with. I don't have a Scottish cattle show, and I don't have two weeks. No. So I'm like, 'Cool, I've got to do it in two hours.' So our format follows exactly the same format. We do a breakfast scene, then a mission, then a roundtable banishment, then there's a conclave where the traitors meet and they murder somebody. And I do that in a seven-day structure, a seven-day cycle. But it all happens within two hours around this round table.Neil Connolly: I'm the creative director for Immersive Everywhere. We're a vertically integrated structure in the sense that we take on our own venues. So we're now standing in Shorts Gardens in the middle of Covent Garden. So we've leased this building. We've got a lease that is for a number of years and we have built the show into it. But we also identify the IP, go after that ourselves, we capitalise the projects ourselves. We seek strategic partners, promoters, other people to kind of come involved in that journey. But because we're also the team that are licensing the product, we are also the producers and I'm the creative director for that company. So I developed the creative in line with while also getting the deal done. This is incredibly unusual because other producers will be like, 'Hey, I've identified this IP and I've got it.' Now I'm going to approach a creative agency and I'm going to get them to develop the product. And now I've done all of that, I'm going to find someone else to operationally put it on, or I'm going to find a venue to put it on in, and then I'm going to find my ticketing partner.  But we don't do that. We have our own ticketing platform, and we have our own database, so we mark our own shoulders.Neil Connolly: As well as other experiences too. Back, we have our own creative industry, we are the producers, we are the female workers. So we cast it, we hire all the front of house team, we run the food and beverage, we run the bars. The operations team is our operations team because they run the venue as well as the show at the same time. So that's what I mean. We're a vertically integrated structure, which means we do it, which makes us a very unusual proposition within... certainly within the UK market, possibly the world. It makes us incredibly agile as a company and makes us to be able to be adaptive and proactive and reactive to the product, to the show, to the market that we're operating in, because it's all under one roof.Neil Connolly: This show started January 24th, 2023. Right. It's very specific because I was sitting on my sofa drinking a lovely glass of Merlot and I had just watched... UK Traitors, Season One. Yep. Because it came out that Christmas. Immediately I was like, 'Oh my God, this is insane.' And then I got a text message that particular night from our head of licensing, a guy named Tom Rowe, lovely man. And he was like, Neil, I'm at a licensing event with some friends of mine and everyone's talking about this thing called Traitors. I've not watched it. Have you watched it? Sounds like it might be a good thing. And so I sat back and drank my Merlot. And about five minutes later, I text him back and I was like, Tom, get us that license.Neil Connolly: And then I sent him a bunch of other details of how the show in my head would work, both from a commercial standpoint, but also from a creative standpoint, because I'm a commercially minded creative. Right. So I instantly took out my notebook and I started writing down exactly how I thought the show was going to do, the challenges that we would face and being able to translate this into a live thing. But I literally started writing it that night. And then he watched the first episode on the train on the way home. And then he texted me the next morning and he was like, 'I love it.' What do we need to do? And I was like, 'Get us in the room.' Two days later, we were in the room with all three media who own the format globally.Paul Marden: Okay.Neil Connolly: So we sat down and then they came to see one of our other shows and they were like, 'Okay, we get it now.' And then that was like two and a half years of just building the show, getting the deal done and facing the myriad of challenges. But yeah, sometimes it just starts with the text message.Paul Marden: So they get to experience all the key parts of the TV.Neil Connolly: All the key beats. Like right now, I'm holding one of the slates. They're not chalkboard slates. Again, this is... Oh, actually, this is a good challenge. So in the TV show, they've got a piece of slate and they write on it with a chalkboard pen. This seems so innocuous and I can't believe I'm talking about this on a podcast.Neil Connolly: Slategate was like six months of my life. Not in its entirety, but it was a six month long conversation about how we do the slates correctly. Because we do... 48 shows a day, six days a week. And those slates will crack. They will bash. And they're kind of a bit health and safety standards. I was like, can't have them. Also, they write on them with chalk pens, white ink chalk pens. But in the TV show, you only do it once a night. Yeah.Paul Marden: And then you have a producer and a runner.Neil Connolly: They just clean them very, very leisurely and set them back for the next day. And I was like, no, I've got to do a whole bunch of roundtable banishments in two hours. So we talked a lot about material, about style, literal viewership, because if you take a seat at the table. Yeah. If you're sitting at the table here, you'll notice that we've got a raised bit in the middle. If I turn mine around, the other person on the other side can't see it. So I was like, 'Okay, cool.' So we had to do a whole bunch of choreography. But also, the room's quite dark. Yes. At times, atmospheric. Yeah. In that magic triangle time-space atmosphere. So anything that was darker, or even that black slate, you just couldn't read it. And then there was, and then I had to— this is the level of detail that we have to go into when we're designing this kind of stuff. I was like, 'Yeah, but I can't clean off these slates with the white ink because everyone will have to have like a wet cloth chamois. Then I've just got loads of chamois around my venue that I just don't need.' And so then we're like, 'Oh, let's use real slates with real chalk.' And I was like, 'No, because dust will get everywhere.' I'll get chalk just all over my table. It'll just ruin everything. It'll ruin the technology that's inside the table because there's lots of hidden tricks inside of it. Paul Marden: Is there really? Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Neil Connolly: There's loads of hidden tricks inside the table. So after a while, going through many different permutations, I sat down with Christian Elenis, who's my set designer and my art director. And we were, the two of us were nearly in tears because we were like, 'We need,' and this only happened like.Neil Connolly: I would say two, three weeks before we opened. We still hadn't solved how to do the slate, which is a big thing in the show. Anybody who's seen the show and loves the show knows that they want to come in, they want to write somebody's name on the slate, and they want to spell the name incorrectly.Neil Connolly: Everyone does it on purpose. But I wanted to give people that opportunity. So then eventually we sat down and we were like, Christian, Neil. And the two of us in conversation went, why don't we just get a clear piece of Perspex, back it with a light coloured vinyl. And then Christian was like, 'Ooh,' and I'll make it nice and soft and put some felt on the back of it, which is what I'm holding. And then why don't we get a black pen? And we were like, 'Yeah,' like a whiteboard marker. And then we can just write on it. And then A, I can see it from the other side of the table. Thing one achieved. Two. Every marker pen's got an eraser on the top of it. I don't know why everyone thinks this is important, but it is. That you can just rub out like that, and I'm like, 'There's no dirt, there's no mess, and I can reuse this multiple times, like dozens of times in the same show.' And I know that sounds really weird, but that's the level of design I'm going to need.Paul Marden: I was just about to say, and that is just for the chalkboard. Yeah. Now you need to multiply that. How many decisions?Neil Connolly: How many decisions in each game. But also remember that there are eight round tables in this building. Each round table seats 14 people. And we do six sessions a day. So first ones at 10 a. m. Then we do 12, 2, 4, 6, and 8 p. m. So we do 48 shows a day, six days a week.Paul Marden: I love the concept that these are shows. This is not this is not visitor attraction. This is theater repeated multiple times a day for multi audience is concurrently.Neil Connolly: And I've just spent five minutes describing a slate to you. Yeah. But like, I haven't even got— it's like the sheer amount of technology that is in the show. And again, theatrical, like, look above our heads. Yeah. You've got this ring light above every seat. It's got a pin light. There's also microphones which are picking up all the audio in the room, which again is translating to the lounge of the dead. Every single one of the round table rooms has four CCTV cameras. Can you see that one in the corner? Each one of them is 4K resolution. It's quite high spec, which is aimed at the opposite side of the table to give you the resolution in the TV. In the other room. Then you've got these video contents. This is constantly displaying secret information through the course of the show to the traitors when they're in Conclave because everyone's in blindfolds and they took them off. They get secret instructions from that. There's also a live actor in the room. A live actor who is Claudia? They're not Claudia. They're not pastiches of Claudia. They are characters that we have created and they are the host of The Traitor's Game. Right. They only exist inside this building. We never have them portrayed outside of this building in any way whatsoever.Neil Connolly: They are characters, but they live, they breathe— the game of Traitors, the world of Traitors, and the building that we have designed and constructed here. And they facilitate the game for the people. And they facilitate the game for the people. One actor to 14 people. There are no plants, even though everyone tries to tell me. Members of the public will be convinced that they are the only person that's in that show and that everyone else is a plant. And I'm like, no, because that would be insane.Neil Connolly: The only actor in the room is the host.Paul Marden: 14 people that can sit around this table. How many of them are in the same group? Are you with your friends or is it put together where there are other people that you won't know in the room? If you book together, you play together.Neil Connolly: Yes. Okay, so if you don't book 14 people... Ah, we also capped the number of tickets that you can purchase to eight. Right. So you can only purchase a maximum of eight tickets unless you do want a full table of 14, at which point you have to then purchase a VIP package because you are booking out a whole table for yourselves. The game doesn't work if there's less than 10 people at the table. So there has to be 10, 11, 12, 13 or 14 people sat at a round table for the show to actually happen, for it to work. By capping the number of tickets that you book for eight, then that guarantees that strangers will be playing together. And that is the basis of strangers. Yeah, yeah. Like, you need to be sat around a table with people you know, you don't know, that you trust and you don't trust. Yeah. Fact of the matter. And do you see people turning on the others in their own group? Every single time. People think genuinely, and I love this from the public, you would think that if you're turning up as a group of eight and a group of four and a group of two, that the bigger group would just pick everybody off to make sure that someone in their group gets through to the end game.Neil Connolly: I'm sure they think that and they probably plot and plan that before they arrive on site. As soon as this game starts, gloves are off and everyone just starts going for each other. We've been open nearly two months now. I have seen, like, children murdered of their mothers.Neil Connolly: Husbands murder their wives, wives murder their husbands. I've seen, like, three generations—like, we get, because it's so intergenerational, like our lowest, the lowest age that you can play this is 12. Right. And then it's upwards. I've seen three generations of family come in and I've seen grandkids murder their own nan.Neil Connolly: Absolutely convinced that they're a traitor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%. Or they banish them. Like, it's just mental. I've also seen nans, who are traitors, murder their grandkids.Neil Connolly: Like, and this is in a room full of strangers. They're just like, 'No, I'm not going to go for Barbara, who I met two hours ago in the bar. I'm going to go for my own grandson. It's mental.'Neil Connolly: The very, very first thing that I always think about whenever I'm creating an experience or whenever I'm designing a show is I put myself in the position of 'I'm a member of the public.' I have bought a ticketNeil Connolly: What's the coolest thing that I am going to do for my money? What is my perceived value of my ticket over actually what is the value of that ticket? I wanted to give people the experience of knowing what it was like to be sitting in one of these chairs at this table and feeling their heart. The pounding in their chest and I mean, the pounding in their chest, that rush of adrenaline from doing nothing— from sitting in a chair and all you were doing was sitting in a room talking to people and your heart is going.Neil Connolly: Because you're either being accused of being a liar. And trying to defend against it. And trying to defend against it. Or you actually are lying and you're trying to whittle your way out of it. And that feeling is the most alive that you will ever feel. Not ever. Like, I'm sure they're... No, no, no. But, like, give people that opportunity and that experience, as well as, like, access to the world of traitors and the law and everything else. But also, it's like any other theme park ride. People go on roller coasters because the imminent fear of death is always there. Yeah. And you feel alive. You're like, you've got such a buzz of adrenaline. Whereas, arguably, we do exactly the same thing as roller coasters, but in a much more longer-drawn format and multiple times. Yeah. And people do feel alive. When people walk out of the show, you see them go upstairs to the bar, and they are... Yeah.Paul Marden: You've said to me already that you don't use the word 'immersive,' but you know, I'm, I'm, I'm sat. The company is called 'immersive' everywhere. I'm sat behind the scenes. Okay. I'm sat in the room and the room is hugely convincing. It's like the highest fidelity escape room type experience that I've ever sat in. It feels like I'm on set, yeah, yeah. Um, I can totally believe that, in those two hours, you can slip. I sat on a game. It was only a two-minute game at iApple, but I was being filmed by one of the team. But within 30 seconds, I'd forgotten that they were there because I was completely immersed in the game. I can believe that, sitting in here right now, you could forget where you were and what you were doing, that you were completely submerged in the reality of the land that you're in.Neil Connolly: Yeah, 100%. Like, the world does not exist beyond these worlds. And for some people, like, I have my own definition. Everyone's got a different definition of what immersive is. I've got my own definition. But... I can tell you right now, as soon as people enter this building, they're in the bar, they're kind of slowly immersed in that world because the bar is a themed bar. It's done to the same, like we designed and built that bar as well. But as soon as they start descending that spiral staircase and coming into the gameplay floors, into the show floors, they just forget the rest of the world exists. And especially when they sit down at this table, it doesn't matter. I'm sat next to you here, but you could be sat at this table with your loved one, strangers, whatever. The gloves come off and just nothing exists apart from the game that you're about to go through.Paul Marden: You've been open now for a couple of months. More success than you were anticipating, I think. So pre-sales went through the roof? Yes. So you're very happy with the results?Neil Connolly: Yeah, yeah, we were. Yeah, well, we still are.Neil Connolly: We were very confident before we'd even started building the show, like the literal structural build, because we did very well. But then that set expectations quite high because I had a lot of people that had bought tickets and I was like, 'OK, I need to put on a good show for these people. And I need to make sure that they get satisfaction relative to the tickets that they bought.' But I don't feel pressure. I do feel anxiety quite a lot. Creatively? Yeah. I mean, I meditate every day.Paul Marden: But you've created this amazing world and you're inviting people into it. And as a creative, you're opening yourself up, aren't you? People are walking into the world that you've created.Neil Connolly: Yeah, this was said to me. This is not something that I came up with myself, and I do say this really humbly, but it was something that was said to me. It was on opening day, and a bunch of my friends came to playtest the show. And they were like, 'Oh, this is your brain in a building.'Neil Connolly: And I was like, 'Yeah, I hadn't thought about that.' But yeah, it is my brain in a building. But also that's terrifying, I think, for everybody else, because I know what happens inside my brain and it's really quite chaotic.Neil Connolly: But, you know, this I am. I'm so proud of this show. Like you could not believe how proud I am of this show. But also a huge part of my job is to find people that are smarter than me at the relative thing that they do, such as the rest of my creative team. They're all so much smarter than me. My job is vision and to be able to communicate that vision clearly and effectively so that they go, 'I understand.' The amount of times that people on the creative team turn around to me and go, 'Neil, that's a completely mental idea.' If people are saying to me, 'No one's ever done that before' or 'that's not the way things are done.'Neil Connolly: Or we can do that, but we're going to have to probably invent a whole new thing. If people are saying those things to me, I know I'm doing my job correctly. And I'm not doing that to challenge myself, but everything that I approach in terms of how I build shows is not about format. It's not about blueprints. It's not like, 'Hey, I've done this before, so I'm just going to do this again because I know that's a really neat trick.' I go back to, 'I made the show because I wanted people's heart to pound in their chest while they're sitting in a chair and make them feel alive.'Paul Marden: Is that the vision that you had in your head? So you're articulating that really, really clearly. Is that the vision that you sold to everybody on, not maybe day one, but within a couple of days of talking about this? No, it was day one.Neil Connolly: It was day one. Everyone went, that's a completely mental idea. But, you know, it's my job to try and communicate that as effectively and clearly as I can. But again, I am just one man. My job is vision. And, you know, there's lighting design, sound design, art direction, there's game logic. We haven't even gotten to the technology of how this show works yet, or how this room works.Neil Connolly: Actually, I'll wander down the corner. Yeah, let's do that. But, like, there's other, like, lots of hidden tricks. Like, this is one of the games, one of the missions. In the world and the lore of the show, the round table is sacrosanct.Paul Marden: Yes.Neil Connolly: Traitors is the game. The game is in other people. I can do so many missions and there's loads of missions and they're really fun in this show. But the game is in other people. It's in the people sat on the other side of the room. But also I wanted to do a thing where people could interact directly with the set. And so I designed one of the missions to be in the round table itself.Neil Connolly: So there's a course of these moon dials, which you basically have to align through the course of it. And there are sensors built into the table so that they know when they're in the correct position. How you find out the correct position is by solving a very, very simple puzzle and then communicating effectively to a bunch of strangers that you just met.Neil Connolly: And the sensors basically read it all. And when that all gets into position, the lights react, the sound reacts, the video content reacts, the whole room reacts to you. So I wanted to give people something tangible that they can touch and they make the room react to them. Yes, it's. I mean, I've designed, I've got background in escape rooms as well, right? Um, so I've done a lot of that kind of stuff as well. So I wanted people to feel in touch, same, but like, there's more tangible props over here. Um, yeah, that is a model box of the room that we are stood in, yeah. Also, there's an exact replica of it on the other side of it. There are very subtle differences between it, and that informs one of the missions. So that is two model boxes in this roundtable room. There's one of these in every single roundtable room. So there's 16 model boxes of the show that you're stood in on the set. And again, theatre. It's a show. But it's one of the missions, because I wanted people to kind of go, 'Oh, there's a live actor in front of me.' I'm having fun. Oh, look at all these lights and all the sound. Oh, there's a model box over here. That's in theatre land and blah, blah, blah. But that is also a really expensive joke. It's a really expensive joke. And there's other, like, lots of hidden tricks.Neil Connolly: Let's go look at backstage. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.Neil Connolly: I say backstage, like how we refer to it or how I always go. I use 'I' and 'we' very interchangeably. Like right now you're on the set. Like you're on the stage. Yes. We're just wandering around a long corridor. There are round table rooms off to either side. But like, you know, there's a green room upstairs where the actors get changed, where the front of house team are, where the bar team all are. But as soon as they go out onto the show floor, they're on stage—yes, completely. We'll very quickly have a look at the gallery—yes, show control. Hi, Robbo. Do you mind if I stand in your room for the purposes of the audio? I'm talking to the technical manager, Thomas Robson. We're recording a podcast.Paul Marden: Robbo, oh yeah, okay. My mind is absolutely blown. So you've got every single room up on screen.Neil Connolly: Yeah, so that's great. There's 164 cameras—something like that. But every roundtable room has four cameras in it. Each camera is 4K resolution. So we've got cameras on all of them. We've got audio into those rooms. That's two-way, so that if show control needs to talk directly to them, they just press a button here and they can talk directly to the room itself. Mainly just like, stop misbehaving, we're watching you.Neil Connolly: We've then got cameras into all of the lounges, all of the show spaces, all the front of house, all of the bar areas, the mezzanine and back of house. And then you've got QLab running across all of the different shows. We've got backups on all of these screens. So if one... of the computers goes down, we can very quickly swap it in for a backup that's already running. We've got show control, which is, there's a company called Clockwork Dog, who, they're an amazing company. What COGS, their show control system, is doing is pulling in all of the QLab from sound, all of the QLab from lighting, and also we built our own app. to be able to run the show. So there's a whole logic and decision tree based on the decisions that the public do through the course of the game. So yes, there is a beginning, a middle, and an end in terms of our narrative beats and the narrative story of the show that we're telling people. But also that narrative can go in. Hundreds of different directions depending on the actions and the gameplay that the people do during the course of the show. So, you haven't just learned one show— you have to learn like You have to learn a world, and you have to learn a whole game.Neil Connolly: Like, there's the server, stacks, which we had to build. You had to network and cable the entire building. So we have built an entire new attraction, which didn't exist before. And also we're pulling in information from the front of house system which is also going into the show itself because again, you put your name into the iPad when you arrive on site and then you tick a box very crucially to say, 'Do you want to be selected as a trader? Yes or No.' Because in the game, it's a fundamental rule. If you say no, you cannot be selected as a traitor by the host during traitor selection. That doesn't mean you can't be recruited.Paul Marden: By the traitors later on in the game. So you could come and do this multiple times and not experience the same story because there were so many different pathways that you could go down.Neil Connolly: But also, the game is in other people. Yes. The show is sat on the opposite side of the table to you because, like, Bob and Sandra don't know each other. They'll never see each other ever again. But Bob comes again and he's now playing against Laura. Who's Laura? She's an unknown quantity. That's a whole new game. That's a whole new show. There's a whole new dynamic. That's a whole new storyline that you have to develop. And so the actors are doing an incredible job of managing all of that.Paul Marden: Thanks, Robbo. Thank you. So you've worked with some really, really impressive leading IP, Traders, Peppa Pig, Doctor Who, Great Gatsby. What challenges do you face taking things from screen to the live experience?Paul Marden: Challenges do I face? We're wandering here.Neil Connolly: So we are in... Oh, we're in the tower.Neil Connolly: Excellent. Yep, so we're now in Traitor's Tower. Good time for you to ask me the question, what challenges do I face? Things like this. We're now stood in Traitor's Tower. Paul, let me ask you the question. Without the show lights being on, so we're just stood on a set under workers, what's your opinion of the room that we're stood in?Paul Marden: Oh, it's hugely impressive. It feels like, apart from the fact you've punched the fourth wall out of the telly, it does feel like you're on set.Neil Connolly: It's a really faithful reproduction of the set. So that's kind of one of the challenges is managing the public's expectations of what they see, do and feel on site. So that I don't change the show so that people come and play the game that they're expecting to play. But making reasonable adjustments within that, because TV and live are two very, very different things. So first and foremost was making sure that we get the format right. So the game that people play, which informs the narrative of the show and the narrative structure of the show. Breakfast, mission, round table, conclave. Breakfast, mission, round table, conclave. I've designed a whole bunch of new missions that are in this, taken some inspiration from missions that people know and love from the TV shows, whether that's the UK territory or other territories around the world. And also just other stuff is just clear out of my head. So there's original content in there. paying homage and respect to the world that they've built and allowing ourselves to also play and develop and build out that world at the same time. Other challenges.Neil Connolly: This is not a cheap project. No, no. I mean, the production quality of this is beautiful. Yeah, yeah, thank you. It is stunning. When people walk in here, they're like, 'Oh my God, this is... High end.' I am in a luxury event at a very affordable price.Paul Marden: Thank you. And then we're going back upstairs again. Yes. And in the stairwell, we've got the crossed out photos of all of those that have fallen before us.Neil Connolly: No, not quite. All of the people that are in this corridor, there's about 100 photos. These are all the people who built the show.Neil Connolly: So this is David Gregory. He's the sound designer. This is Kitty, who is Immersive Everywhere's office manager. She also works in ticketing. That is Tallulah and Alba, who work in the art department. Elliot, who's our lighting designer. So all of these people are the people who brought the show to life.Paul Marden: Amazing.Neil Connolly: And we wanted to pay homage to them because some of them gave years of their lives to building the show from literally the inception that I had in 2023. Through to now and others are the people who literally spent months of their life underground in these basements building hand-building this set and so we wanted to pay homage to them so we got all of their photos we did the iconic red cross through it yeah and we stuck them all up in the corridor just because we thought it'd be a nice thing to do.Paul Marden: You're in the business of trading and experiences and that ranges from art exhibitions to touring shows. There's always going to be a challenge of balancing innovation and profitability. What is the formula? What is the magic formula?Neil Connolly: I believe, first and foremost, going back to what I was telling you earlier about us being a collaborative organisation. We are not a creative crack that has been used for the show. We are also the producers of the show. And to make my point again, I'm a commercially minded creative. So I actually sit down with the producers and go, 'Okay, cool.' There are 112 seats in the show.Paul Marden: Yep.Neil Connolly: Therefore, how many shows do we need to do per day? How many shows do we need to do per week? How many shows do we need to do per year? Therefore, let's build out a P &L. And we build a whole business plan based around that.Paul Marden: By having everybody— that you need in the team— makes it much easier to talk about that sort of stuff. It makes it much easier for you to design things with the end result in mind. You don't have a creative in a creative agency going off— feeding their creative wants without really thinking about the practicalities of delivering on it.Neil Connolly: Exactly. So you've got to think like, literally, from the very, very beginning: you've got to think about guest flow. You've got to think about throughput. You've got to think about your capacities. Then you've got to basically build out a budget that you think— how much, hey, how much really is this going to cost? Yeah. Then you build out an entire business plan and then you go and start raising the money to try and put that on. And then you find a venue. I mean, like the other magic triangle, like the traitor's magic triangle is, you know, time, space, atmosphere. That's how you do a show. Like with my producer's hat on, the other magic triangle is show, money, venue.Neil Connolly: The truth of the matter, like I make no bones about it, I can design shows till the cows come home, but I'm always going to need money to put them on and a venue to put them in. Also, I want to stress this really important. I use the words 'I' and 'we' very interchangeably.Paul Marden: It's a team effort.Neil Connolly: You can see that in that corridor. I am not a one-man band. I am the creative director of a company. I am a cog that is in that machine, and everybody is doing... We are, as a team... I cannot stress this enough. Some of the best in the business are doing what we do. And everyone is so wildly talented. And that's just us on the producing side. That's immersive everywhere, limited. Then I've got a whole other creative team. Then we've got operations. Then we've got... It's just mad. It's just mad, isn't it? This is a job. Who would have thought, when you were at school, this was an opportunity? Not my principal or my maths teacher.Neil Connolly: So, sorry, just to balance the kind of economies of scale. That was the question, wasn't it?Paul Marden: Well, we were talking about what is the formula for making that an investment, but you know, the authority here is the effort you've put in to do this feels high, but at the same time, you have to find this thing. There is a lot of investment that goes into the front.Neil Connolly: But that comes back to creatives. Caring and I'm not saying the creatives don't, but I care. I care about building businesses. Yeah, not necessarily like building my own CV, like there's so many projects that across our desks. I'll be like, 'Yeah, that'd be really fun to work on.' But do I think that I can make that a touring product? Can it be a long-running location-based entertainment sit-down product? Can it be an art shop? Like you've kind of got a balance with what do you think is just creatively cool versus what can we do as a company that is a commercially viable and financially stable product? And so all that comes through in terms of the creative, but also in terms of the activities of how we run the building, how this model realizes. Because if you think about it, let's make Phantom of the Opera run in the West End. Yes. The show is very obvious, with many casts on a room, away, fruit team away, terrace, it's a big activity. If they haven't sold half that away, they have to use the whole show and play all those people.Neil Connolly: But if they haven't sold half that away from one of my shows... I only have to activate four of my rooms, not eight of them. Therefore, I don't have to call in four actors. I don't have to call in a bunch of the other front of house team and I can scale in the operations on the back. It's an entirely scalable process. Flexible, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, 100%. But also, like, we've got eight rooms here. If we decide to take this to another territory, and that territory demands a much higher throughput, then instead of eight rooms, I can do 20 rooms, 30 rooms. As long as we know that the market is there to be able to kind of get people through it.Neil Connolly: I love this show and I'm so proud of it. The main reason why I'm proud of it is when the show finishes, let's go into one of the lounges. Have you been into one of the lounges?Paul Marden: I've had a nose around a lounge.Neil Connolly: There are different shapes and sizes. We won't go into that one. We'll go into this one down here. That one, that one. It's always such a buzz when you're stood in the bar and the shows kick out, and you see tables and tables of 14 people going up into the bar.Neil Connolly: Area and before they've even gotten a drink, they will run straight over to their friends, families, strangers, whoever they were playing with in that table of 14, and instantly be like, 'Right, I need to know everything that was going on inside your head, your heart, and your soul over the last two hours of my life because this was my experience.'Neil Connolly: And they'll just go, and they'll be like, 'And this is what I was thinking.' And then I thought it was you because you did this and you touched your nose in a weird way. And then I thought you were sending secret signals. And then everyone's like, 'No, that's not what I was doing.' I was just trying to be a normal person. And they were like, 'Well, why did you say that thing?' It sounded super weird. And they're like, 'That's just what I do.' And it's just totally mental. And then they all get a drink from the bar. And we call it the bar tab chat.Neil Connolly: It's another revenue stream.Neil Connolly: I do talk about this like it's a show. And it is a show. You've walked around, do you think it's a show? Completely. I talk to established houses all the time. Like, you know, the big theatres of the land. Organisations that are national portfolio organisations who receive a lot of Arts Council funding. The thing that they want to talk to us about all the time is new audiences. They're like, 'How do I get new audiences through my door?' What can I do? And I'm like, 'Well, firstly, make a show that people want to go and see.'Neil Connolly: Again, they're like, 'But I've got this amazing writer and he's a really big name and everyone's going to come because it's that name.' And I'm like, 'Yeah, that's wicked. That's cool.' And they can all go pay reverence to that person. That's really wonderful. Whereas when you look at the attractions landscape or the immersive theatre landscape or like anything like... Squid Game, or The Elvis, Evolution, or War of the Worlds, which has also laid reality, or any of that kind of stuff, across the landscape, it is nothing but new audiences. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is nothing but actual ticket-buying audiences.Neil Connolly: And they come from all different walks of life. And what I love is that they do come in to this experience and we hit them with this like secret theatre.Neil Connolly: And they're like, 'Oh my God.' And often it's a gateway to them being like, 'Oh, I didn't realise that.' Maybe I'll go see a Western show or maybe I will go to the National Theatre and see something. Because that's the level of archery. Because those organisations, I love them and I've worked in a few of them, but those buildings can be quite austere, even though they're open and porous, but it's still very difficult to walk through that threshold and feel a part of it.Paul Marden: Whereas coming in here, coming into an event like this, can feel like a thing that they do.Neil Connolly: Because it's the same demographic as theme park junkies. People who love going to theme parks love going to stuff like this because it's an experience, it's an otherness, it's an other nature kind of thing. Because modern audiences want to play and do, not sit and watch. But we all exist in the kind of same ecosystem. I'm not taking on the National Theatre.Paul Marden: Gosh, no. I always talk about that. I think the reason why so many attractions work together in the collaborative way that they do is they recognise that they're not competing with each other. They're competing with sitting on your backside and watching Netflix.Paul Marden: Yeah, yeah.Paul Marden: Our job for all of us is to drag people away from their screens and drag people off of their sofas to do something. And then that's the biggest challenge that we all face.Neil Connolly: I think then that kind of answers the question that you asked me earlier, which I didn't answer. And I'm very sorry.Neil Connolly: is about identifying different pieces of IP. Like, yes, we largely exist in the world of licensing IP. And how do we identify that kind of IP to be able to translate? Not just how do we do it, but like, actually, how do we identify the right thing that's going to... How do you spot the winner? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And that is one of the biggest challenges to your point of we're talking directly to people who consume arts, culture and media and technology in a slightly more passive way, whether that's just at home and watching Netflix and then bringing that to life. In a very, very different way. If you have a very clear marketing campaign that tells people what it is that they're buying and what they're expected to see or do on their particular night out, because that's what modern people really care about, what they do with their money. Yeah. And they want to have a good night out. And I'm in the business of giving people a good night out. We also happen to be murdering a lot of people in the course of the show.Neil Connolly: Still a good night out. Still a good night out. But I'm in a place where the dead sit. Yeah, exactly. Lounge of the dead. And like, you know, this is a really cool space. Oh, it's just beautiful. You know, we've got the telephone really works. There's lots of information that comes through that. The radio works, that does different things. The TV screen on the wall, that has the actual live feed into the round table room that you've just left. And there's other little puzzles and hints and tricks in this room, which means that after you've been murdered or banished and you come to the Lounge of the Dead, you're still engaged with the game to a degree. You just don't directly influence the outcome of the game. But you're still involved in it. You're still involved in it. It's super fun. Oh, and you can have a drink in here.Paul Marden: I don't let people drink in the round table. Even more important. What's this?Neil Connolly: The dolls, the creepy dolls. What this is, this is the void. Creatively speaking, this is where all the gold goes when people win or lose it. And the creepy dolls are from the TV show. Ydyn nhw'r un gwirioneddol o'r sioe? Felly, gafodd studio Lambert, sy'n gwneud y sioe tebyg, llawer o brops o'r sioe tebyg i ni eu rhoi ar y ddispleiddio yma. Felly, mae gennych chi'r Dolls Creepy o'r lles 3 yno. Rydyn ni'n mynd i fyny. Yn ôl yma, mae'r peintiwch Deathmatch.Paul Marden: Which is from season three.Neil Connolly: And they get the quill and they write the names and got the quill upstairs. We've also got over here, the cards that they used to play the death match with. Excellent.Paul Marden: So you began your career in theatre. How did that evolve into the world of immersive live experiences?Neil Connolly: Life story. I am the son of a postman and a cook. And if you haven't noticed already, I'm from Ireland. There was no theatre in our lives, my life, when I was growing up. And I stumbled into a youth theatre. It's called Kildare Youth Theatre. And the reason why I joined that is because there was a girl that I really fancied.Neil Connolly: She had just joined this youth theatre and I was like, 'Oh, I'm gonna join that as well' and that kind of opened the world of theatre for me. At the same time, I then got spotted by this guy, his name's Vijay Baton, his real name's Om, but he converted to Hare Krishnanism in the 90s. And he set up a street theatre company in Ireland. He just taught me street theatre. So he taught me stilt walk, he taught me juggling, he taught me how to build puppets. And so I spent years building puppets with him and going around Ireland doing lots of different street theatre while I was a teenager. And doing street theatre and doing my youth theatre and then kind of all of that kind of came to a head when I had to decide what I was going to do with my life. I applied to go to drama school. And I applied to two drama schools. One was Radha. Didn't get in. Didn't even get an audition. And the other one was Rose Bruford. And they took me. And the reason why they took me— I probably wasn't even that good. But on the day that I was auditioning to get into Rose Bruford was the same day as my maths exam for my final exams at school. You call them your A-levels, we call them the leaving certificate.Neil Connolly: And while all of my friends were back in Ireland doing their maths exam, I was in an audition room pretending to be a tree or the colour black.Neil Connolly: Who knows? And they kind of went, 'Well, if I fail my maths exam, I don't get into university in Ireland.' Like, it's just a blanket thing. And so I was like, 'I literally sat across the panel' and I was like, 'eggs, basket.' And they were like, 'cool.' So they let me in based off of that. So I got a classical training. Then what happened is I came out of university. I was living with two of my friends, Natalie and Joe. And we had our own little production company called The Lab Collective. And we just started making shows. In weird ways, we joined a company called Theatre Delicatessen. Let's get away from this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.Neil Connolly: So Theatre Deli was a company set up to take over disused spaces in London and convert them into art spaces.Neil Connolly: Basically legalised squatting. It's the same as like a guardianship. But we weren't living in the buildings. We were just putting on shows and we put on art shows, we put on theatre shows. We did Shakespeare for a while. We wrote our own work and we just did lots of really, really cool stuff. And I worked in music festivals, classically trained actor. So I was trying to do shows. I did a lot of devising. I also joined an improvisation group. And kind of through all that mix, like those years at Delhi, which was making these weird shows in these weird buildings, were very, very formative years for us. The Arts Council wouldn't support the kind of work that we were making. We were like, 'Cool, how do we get space?Neil Connolly: How do we get or make money to support ourselves? And what are the shows? There's the magic triangle all over again. Space, show, money. And that's your apprenticeship, I guess, that brings you to here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, again, I make no bones about it. 10 years ago, I was selling programs on the door of the Royal Festival Hall while doing all of that stuff. So in one of the Theatre Daily buildings, we did a show called Heist, which is you break into a building and steal stuff. That's what the public do.Neil Connolly: And a bunch of us did that. I mean, it's so much fun— kind of doing it. And off the back of that, somebody else basically tried to chase down the crystal maze. And then they went away, and then they called me up and they were like, 'Hey, I've got the rights. Do you want to make the crystal maze?' And I was like, 'Yeah, sounds like fun.' So I got involved with that, did that for a while. And then, from there, this is the end of a very long story. I'm so apologised. Yeah, from there, all of those different things that I've done through the course of my life in terms of operations, designing experiences, being a creative, understanding business.Neil Connolly: Building a P&L, building a budget, talking to investors, trying to convince them to give you money. All of that stuff kind of basically came together. And over the last few years, like the wildest ride is that pre-2020.Neil Connolly: We were just a bunch of people doing a bunch of weird things, making weird shows and weird attractions in kind of different ways. And then that year happened. And I don't know what happened, but literally every single major studio, film, TV production, game designer, licensor in the world, suddenly just went— brand extensions, world extensions, and they all just started calling us. And they were like, 'Hi, I've got this thing.' Can you develop it into a thing? Because I need to extend my brand or I want to build a world and extend that for the public. And we were like, 'Yeah, okay, cool.' And we were just lucky, serendipitously, to be in the right place at the right time. To be those people that people can approach. And we're always, we're very approachable.Neil Connolly: As you can tell, I talk a lot. And, you know, so the last five years, it's just been a mad ride.Paul Marden: So look, Neil, it's been amazing. I have had the most fun. Last question for you. What's next? Are you putting your feet up now because you finished this? Or on to the next? Neil Connolly: Very much on to the next thing. So we're already in production with our new show, which is called Peppa Pig Surprise Party. And that is opening at the Metro Centre in Gateshead next year. Oh, how exciting is that? It's very exciting.Paul Marden: So quite a different demographic.Neil Connolly: The demographic for Peppa Pig is two to five year olds. It's been a really fun show to design and create. To go back to a question that you asked me very early on, there is no blueprint, there is no format. I have embraced the chaos tattooed on my arm. And always when I approach things, any new show or any new creative, I am thinking of it from a ticket buying perspective: 'I have paid my money.' What is the coolest thing that I can possibly do with that money? And so therefore, I'm now looking at families and, like, what's the coolest thing that they can do for that ticket price in the world of Peppa Pig?Paul Marden: Let's come back in the new year, once you've opened Peppa Pig, let's go to Gateshead and see that. That sounds pretty awesome to me. I reckon there's a whole new episode of Designing Worlds for two to five-year-olds that we could fill an hour on.Neil Connolly: Oh yeah, 100%. It's a totally different beast. And super fun to design.Paul Marden: Oh mate. Neil, it has been so wonderful having a wander around the inside of your crazy mind.Paul Marden: If you've enjoyed today's episode, please like it and leave a comment in your podcast app. It really does make it so much easier for other people to find us. This episode was written by Emily Burrows from Plaster, edited by Steve Folland, and produced by Sami Entwistle from Plaster and Wenalyn Dionaldo. Thanks very much. See you next week.  The 2025 Visitor Attraction Website Survey is now LIVE! Dive into groundbreaking benchmarks for the industryGain a better understanding of how to achieve the highest conversion ratesExplore the "why" behind visitor attraction site performanceLearn the impact of website optimisation and visitor engagement on conversion ratesUncover key steps to enhance user experience for greater conversionsTake the Rubber Cheese Visitor Attraction Website Survey Report

Listen, I really wanted to do the whole rest of the absolutely phenomenal EP Nashville Canyon: Part 2 by our very own Jessica Simpson this week, but Fade is so fantastic that it deserves its VERY OWN episode!!! In this song, Jessica once again processes her brutal heartbreak through the art of the past... this time, it's the Great Gatsby. It's time for English class, lets dive in!!PATREON Subscribers heard this episode completely ad-free! Join our community at Patreon.com/AshleeAndJessicast for 150+ bonus podcast episodes & long form video content! Starts at $5 a month, cancel anytime. FOLLOW THE PODCASTInstagram & TikTok: @ashleeandjessicastTwitter: @ashleejessicast Send an email at ashleeandjessicast@gmail.comUse code ASHLEEANDJESSICAST for 15% full priced & new arrival items on ⁠JessicaSimpson.com⁠ - total must be at least $100 before discountFOLLOW LIA Lia-Russo.com Instagram & Twitter: @capriamoon TikTok: @liarussonyc 

Matt and Tom go head to head in pitching very very inaccurate movie versions of the books Entangled Lives and The Great Gatsby

Guests: Mollie Hemingway & Benedict Whalen Host Scot Bertram talks with Mollie Hemingway, senior journalism fellow at Hillsdale College and editor-in-chief at The Federalist, about the recent Comey indictment and revelations in a recent letter from YouTube officials to Rep. Jim Jordan. And Benedict Whalen, associate professor of English at Hillsdale College, continues a series on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Original Release Date: Monday 29 September 2025    Description:   Because Phil is on the road, tending to family matters, this week's show was pre-recorded last week and much of the episode is dedicated to discussing two icons: The historic landmarked Mayan Theatre in downtown Los Angeles closed its doors for good on September 14, and the great leading man, filmmaker, and supporter of the arts and the environment, Robert Redford, left the stage on September 16. Dean and Phil do a deep dive into his career and accomplishments and put his 1974 starring vehicle The Great Gatsby under the microscope. This leads to a discussion of lead characters, often seen as heroes, who suffer the delusions caused by their own fantasies. Such characters include Holly Martins in The Third Man and Rick in Casablanca. The dangers of fantasy prove the perfect segue way to Phil's thoughts upon finally having watched James Gunn's Superman. Finally, things wrap up, in this jumbo installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour, with a devilishly haunting, and rather delightfully macabre 1964 suspense picture from Japan, Onibaba.

If you like golf, this is definitely the episode of The Big Four for you! Edith Cummings is the gal in our spotlight in this episode, and she led quite a life. Edith was one of the premier amateur golfers during the Jazz Age popularly known as the Fairway Flapper. Not only that, but Edith Cummings was also the inspiration for the character Jordan Baker in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. It truly does all connect. Click here to save 20% annually on Patreon!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I ate White Castle while we recorded this, Gab, meanwhile, sat on a cheetah and played battleshits against herselfDispatch article about the movie - https://www.dispatch.com/story/entertainment/movies/2024/07/26/how-white-castle-embraced-its-role-in-harold-kumar/74417243007/Welcome to the Movies to Watch Before You Die Podcast with Gab and Dylan!Movies To Watch Before You Die merch here - https://moviestowatchbeforeyoudie-shop.fourthwall.com/Look up the movie here - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366551/Find us everywhere here - https://linktr.ee/moviestowatchbeforeyoudie00:00 Welcome00:42 What's it about?08:35 Opinion Time38:22 Let's get to the facts55:46 Mail Time58:41 VerdictsWe're a member of the Hall of Pods, find links for our podcasting friends here - https://linktr.ee/hallofpodsWho are we: A former actress and video editor but more than anything we're movie fans like you.Why listen? Why not! We're gonna talk about movies you love, movies you hate, and movies you've never heard of. We can't wait to hear what you think of them too. If you want to tell us your opinion on whether or not a movie is one we should watch before we die, tell us we're wrong, or tell us you like the show send us an email or voice message at moviestowatchbeforeyoudie@gmail.com . We can't wait to hear from you and we can't wait to talk movies!Thanks to Scott Interrante for the music in our intro!Thanks to Brian Maneely for our artwork!Movies Dylan and Gab agree you should watch before you die: Vampire's Kiss, Die Hard, Tropic Thunder, Wag the Dog, The Legend of Billie Jean, You've Got Mail, True Lies, The Room, Game Night, The Truman Show, The Great Gatsby, Whiplash, The Lost Boys, The Fugitive, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, My Cousin Vinny, Shutter Island, Starship Troopers, Big, Joy Ride, The Jerk, Alien/Aliens, Best in Show, Freaky Friday, Over the Garden Wall, North, Catch Me If You Can, Clue, Jerry Maguire, Groundhog Day, The Great Mouse Detective, Chicago, Wall-E, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Breakdown, Cool Runnings, Ruthless People, Mean Girls, Borat, A League of Their Own, City Slickers, Jingle All the Way, Saw, The Lion King, Little Big League, The Naked Gun, Young Frankenstein, Tootsie, The Changeling, The Birdcage, and Superman

Patrick and Rob are boats against the current. Download this episode here.Subscribe to F This Movie! on Apple Podcasts.Also discussed this episode: Mulholland Dr. (2000), Twinless (2025), Highest 2 Lowest (2025), Honey, Don't! (2025), The Home (2025), AKA Charlie Sheen (2025)

New York Times bestselling thriller writer Riley Sager, spoke to me about why he publishes under a pen name, how to write Hitchcockian suspense, and his latest "The House Across the Lake." Riley Sager is the bestselling author of six novels, most recently Home Before Dark and Survive the Night. His award-winning first novel, Final Girls, was a national and international bestseller that has been published in 30 countries. His latest novel, The House Across the Lake, has been named a most anticipated summer book by People, E! News, PureWow, CNN.com, CrimeReads, and many others.  It's been described by CrimeReads as "... a psychological thriller version of The Great Gatsby, featuring binoculars for more accurate across-the-lake spying, smaller gatherings for a shorter list of suspects, and a truly bat**** twist for more satisfying consumption." The House Across the Lake was inspired by Riley's "... own pandemic escapes to a cabin in rural Vermont [and] oozes with slow-burn Hitchcockian suspense before building to a finale that will leave readers reeling. " [Discover ⁠⁠⁠The Writer Files Extra⁠⁠⁠: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at ⁠⁠⁠writerfiles.fm⁠⁠⁠] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please ⁠⁠⁠click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews⁠⁠⁠. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] Stay calm and write on ... In this file Riley Sager and I discussed: The albatross of bad sales early in your career Why his process changes from book to book How to turn common genre tropes on their head What happens to his social life as deadlines loom Taking inspiration from classic film And a lot more! Show Notes: ⁠rileysagerbooks.com⁠ ⁠The House Across the Lake: A Novel⁠ by Riley Sager (Amazon Affiliate) ⁠Riley Sager Amazon Author Page⁠ (Amazon Affiliate) ⁠Riley Sager on Facebook⁠ ⁠Riley Sager on Instagram⁠ ⁠Riley Sager on TikTok⁠ ⁠Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

pWotD Episode 3059: Robert Redford Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 2,864,009 views on Tuesday, 16 September 2025 our article of the day is Robert Redford.Charles Robert Redford Jr. (August 18, 1936 – September 16, 2025) was an American actor and filmmaker. He received numerous accolades including an Academy Award; a BAFTA Award; and five Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994; the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1996; the Academy Honorary Award in 2002; the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005; the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016; and the Honorary César in 2019. He was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014.Redford started his career in television acting in Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone before making his Broadway debut playing a newlywed husband in Neil Simon's comedic play Barefoot in the Park (1963). Redford made his film debut in War Hunt (1962) before finding leading man stardom acting in Barefoot in the Park (1967), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Candidate (1972), and The Sting (1973), the last of which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Redford's stardom continued with roles in films such as The Way We Were (1973); The Great Gatsby (1974); Three Days of the Condor (1975); All the President's Men (1976); The Electric Horseman (1979), Brubaker (1980), The Natural (1984); and Out of Africa (1985). He later acted in Sneakers (1992), All Is Lost (2013), Truth (2015), Our Souls at Night (2017), and The Old Man & the Gun (2018). Redford portrayed Alexander Pierce in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), the last of which served as Redford's final on-screen appearance.Redford made his directorial film debut with the family drama Ordinary People (1980), which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. He went on to direct eight feature films including the drama The Milagro Beanfield War (1984); the period drama A River Runs Through It (1992); the historical drama Quiz Show (1994); the neo-western The Horse Whisperer (1998); and the sports fantasy The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000). Redford co-founded the Sundance Resort and Film Institute in 1981. He was also known for his extensive work as a political activist where he was a champion of environmentalism, Native American and indigenous people's rights, and LGBT rights.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:58 UTC on Wednesday, 17 September 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Robert Redford on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Ayanda.

Hey Broadway Besties! Time for our weekly check-in on the Broadway News, Top Selling Shows, and this week, it's all about the upcoming season on Broadway! Bryn is on FTM this week!!! GUESS WHAT!!! Lindsey saw Leslie Odom Jr in Hamilton and can't wait to share all the deets with the Broadway Besties!In Broadway News:

Jeff and Rebecca introduce their new podcast, Zero to Well-Read, with its inaugural episode about The Great Gatsby. We dig into what makes Gatsby a classic, why it's all over high school reading lists, and the ways it still echoes in our culture. This season of Zero to Well-Read is presented by Thriftbooks. Subscribe to The Book Riot Newsletter for regular updates to help you get the most out of your reading life. Email us: zerotowellread@bookriot.com The Book Riot Podcast is a proud member of the Airwave Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Australian model Cleo Glyde sits down with the Beast's Joanna Coles to share her extraordinary, unsettling memories of New York in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At just 22, she was living the height of the fashion world, signed to Ford Models, immersed in the club scene, and swept into the orbit of Jeffrey Epstein. She recalls meeting him through a fellow model, their early friendship, his Great Gatsby–like allure, and how he used wealth and connections to project power. Cleo also opens up about her introduction to Donald Trump through Epstein, visiting Trump Tower, and witnessing the bizarre mix of glamor, neediness, and showmanship inside his gilded world. She reflects on the dangerous charm Epstein wielded, her shocking encounter with him on a private plane, and how hindsight reveals the darker truth behind the high-society facade. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests: Mark Moyar, Benedict Whalen, & Juliane Malia Hillock Host Scot Bertram talks with Mark Moyar, William P. Harris Chair of Military History at Hillsdale College, about the legacy of the Vietnam War during its 50th anniversary. Benedict Whalen, associate professor of English at Hillsdale College, discusses the themes of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald during the novel’s 100th anniversary. And Juliane Malia Hillock, founding principal at Hózhó Academy in Gallup, New Mexico, describes the unique challenges of leading a school in a remote part of the United States.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If only this time Gab did a bunch of research and I just had to watch the movieWelcome to the Movies to Watch Before You Die Podcast with Gab and Dylan!Movies To Watch Before You Die merch here - https://moviestowatchbeforeyoudie-shop.fourthwall.com/Look up the movie here - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31956415/Find us everywhere here - https://linktr.ee/moviestowatchbeforeyoudie00:00 Welcome07:26 What's it about?10:27 Opinion Time40:05 Let's get to the facts49:44 Mail Time56:14 VerdictsWe're a member of the Hall of Pods, find links for our podcasting friends here - https://linktr.ee/hallofpodsWho are we: A former actress and video editor but more than anything we're movie fans like you.Why listen? Why not! We're gonna talk about movies you love, movies you hate, and movies you've never heard of. We can't wait to hear what you think of them too. If you want to tell us your opinion on whether or not a movie is one we should watch before we die, tell us we're wrong, or tell us you like the show send us an email or voice message at moviestowatchbeforeyoudie@gmail.com . We can't wait to hear from you and we can't wait to talk movies!Thanks to Scott Interrante for the music in our intro!Thanks to Brian Maneely for our artwork!Movies Dylan and Gab agree you should watch before you die: Vampire's Kiss, Die Hard, Tropic Thunder, Wag the Dog, The Legend of Billie Jean, You've Got Mail, True Lies, The Room, Game Night, The Truman Show, The Great Gatsby, Whiplash, The Lost Boys, The Fugitive, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, My Cousin Vinny, Shutter Island, Starship Troopers, Big, Joy Ride, The Jerk, Alien/Aliens, Best in Show, Freaky Friday, Over the Garden Wall, North, Catch Me If You Can, Clue, Jerry Maguire, Groundhog Day, The Great Mouse Detective, Chicago, Wall-E, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Breakdown, Cool Runnings, Ruthless People, Mean Girls, Borat, A League of Their Own, City Slickers, Jingle All the Way, Saw, The Lion King, Little Big League, The Naked Gun, Young Frankenstein, Tootsie, The Changeling, The Birdcage, and Superman

Today on Art of the Cut we speak with editor Matt Villa, ACE about working with Ron Howard on his new film, Eden.Matt's been on Art of the Cut before for his editing of Elvis, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA and an ACE Eddie . His other films include The Great Gatsby, Peter Rabbit 2, and The Lego Batman Movie for which he was nominated for an ACE Eddie.Today's discussion is about compressing a 3:40 editors cut down to size, finding subtext in performance, and so much more.If you'd like to read along with this podcast, visit the BorisFX blog at: borisfx.com/blog/aotc

"You're on the phone with your girlfriend, she's upset..." Welcome to Season 3 of AP Taylor Swift! What happens when we can't trust the person telling the story? In this week's Show & Tell episode, we explore the concept of unreliable narrators through three Taylor Swift songs that demonstrate how perspective shapes truth. From teenage crush confessions to post-breakup rants to defiant love declarations, we examine how Taylor uses narrative techniques that make us question what's really happening beneath the surface of these seemingly straightforward stories. Subscribe for free to get episode updates or upgrade to paid to get our After School premium content: aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe. After School subscribers get monthly bonus episodes, exclusive content, and early access to help shape future topics!   Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com Mentioned in this episode: The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon Atonement, Ian McEwan Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen After Party (Apple TV+ series) The Residence (Netflix)  How I Met Your Mother (TV series) E32: Love Story Deep Dive Episode Highlights: [01:22] Introduction to Unreliable Narrators [08:47] "You Belong With Me" (Fearless, 2008) [19:55] "Mr. Perfectly Fine" (Fearless Taylor's Version, 2021) [26:15] "But Daddy I Love Him" (The Tortured Poets Department, 2024)   Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!  TikTok → tiktok.com/@APTaylorSwift Instagram → instagram.com/APTaylorSwift YouTube → youtube.com/@APTaylorSwift Link Tree →linktr.ee/aptaylorswift Bookshop.org → bookshop.org/shop/apts Libro.fm →  tinyurl.com/aptslibro Contact us at aptaylorswift@gmail.com  Affiliate Codes:  Krowned Krystals - krownedkrystals.com use code APTS at checkout for 10% off!  Libro.fm - Looking for an audiobook? Check out our Libro.fm playlist and use code APTS30 for 30% off books found here tinyurl.com/aptslibro   This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

On this episode of 13: A Taylor Swift Fan Podcast, Nick, Ana, Amy, and Lacey dive deep into track seven on Evermore: “Happiness.” From Taylor's own reflections in the Willow live chat and her Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe, to parallels with The Great Gatsby and Easter eggs leading into Midnights and The Life of a Showgirl, we explore the hidden meanings, lyrics, and emotions behind this deceptively titled ballad. We also break down how “happiness” fits into Taylor's larger storytelling—grief, reinvention, and moving forward after heartbreak—and debate fun Swiftie trivia like Taylor's longest songs, the caterpillar-to-butterfly lyric connections, and listener voicemails that tie songs across albums. THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY QUINCE Go to Quince.com/taylorswiftfan for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY RUFF GREENS Fetch a Free Jumpstart Trial Bag for your dog today (you just cover the shipping) Go to RuffGreens.com and use discount code: taylorswiftfan THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY WAYFAIR “Cozify” your space with Wayfair's curated collection of easy, affordable fall updates — from comfy recliners to cozy bedding and autumn decor. Find it all for way less at Wayfair.com.  Join the conversation in our Swiftie community at station.page/13  and call in anytime at 689-214-1313. There are lots of ways to reach us! CONTACT THE PODCAST! Voicemail Number- (689) 214-1313 Email- ⁠⁠the13podcast@gmail.com⁠⁠ IG- ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/the13podcast⁠⁠ TikTok- ⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@the13podcast⁠⁠ Twitter- ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/the13TSpodcast⁠⁠ YouTube- ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@13ATaylorSwiftFanPodcast⁠⁠ FOLLOW US! Ana - ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/anaszabo13⁠⁠ Lacey – ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/laceygee13⁠⁠ Amy – ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/amysnichols⁠⁠ Nick – ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/nickadamsonair⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It started with The Thursday Murder Club hitting Netflix last week and turned into a full-blown debate: what are the BEST book-to-screen adaptations of all time? So today we’re breaking down the movies and TV shows that actually did their source material justice.Plus, we share the ones we’re desperate to see adapted next (Eleanor Oliphant, we’re looking at you)! It’s nostalgic, it’s passionate, and yes—we have some controversial opinions.WHAT TO LISTEN TO NEXT Listen to us deep dive into The Thursday Murder Club movie, in our new podcast Watch Party out now on Apple or Spotify. Plus, check out these episodes of The Spill: A Truly Unhinged Movie Chat With Laura And EmThe Most Scandalous Sibling Love Triangles In TV & Film THE END BITS Support independent women's media The Spill podcast is on TikTok here and on Instagram here and you can check out our vodcast on Youtube here. Read all the latest entertainment news on Mamamia... here. To explore more Mamamia shows including those mentioned in this show browse here Do you have feedback or a topic you want us to discuss on The Spill? Send us a voice message, or send us an email thespill@mamamia.com.au and we'll come back to you ASAP! CREDITS Hosts: Ksenija Lukich & Taylah Strano Executive Producer: Monisha Iswaran Audio Producer: Scott Stronach Mamamia studios are styled with furniture from Fenton and Fenton.Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week's podcast, Andrew and Keith line up offsides. The topics include: The Great Gatsby, cling wrap, and statistical anomalies.

Author Meg Mitchell Moore joins WBUR's Morning Edition to talk about "Mansion Beach."

F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic 'The Great Gatsby' may be a century old, but it hasn't aged a day.

What did you think of this episode?Back in May, I chatted with Elena Ricardo about The Great Gatsby, Water For Elephants, Bounce by Elena and more! Support the showIf you liked At This Performance Podcast, please subscribe. Be sure to follow me on Instagram and Facebook.You can also donate at Buy Me A Coffee.Thanks to Jeffrey Schmelkin for the awesome music.Thank you to my guests and listeners.

Aimée Fisher and George Crawford are In The Frame!Real-life couple Aimée and George are currently performing alongside eachother in the West End production of The Great Gatsby at the London Coliseum. They're both in the ensemble, with Aimée playing Gilda Grey whilst covering Myrtle and George covering both Nick and Gatsby. Aimée's theatre credits include Les Miserables (Sondheim Theatre), Wicked (Apollo Victoria), Elf (Dominion) and Groundhog Day (Old Vic). George has been in The Book of Mormon (UK Tour), Newsies (Troubadour Wembley Park), Spend Spend Spend (Royal Exchange) and Forever Plaid (Upstairs at the Gatehouse). Aimée and George first met when they both performed in the UK & Ireland tour of Waitress; Aimee covered Jenna and Dawn whilst George played Ogie.In this episode, Aimée and George discuss all-things Gatsby, life as a couple working in the same industry, memories of meeting on Waitress and lots more.Follow Aimée @aimeelynfisher and George @georgeygriffThe Great Gatsby runs at the London Coliseum until 7th September. This podcast is hosted by Andrew Tomlins @AndrewTomlins32 Thanks for listening! Email: andrew@westendframe.co.uk Visit westendframe.co.uk for more info about our podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald turns 100 this year, and joining Kieran to discuss its significance is Dr of Modern History Brian Murphy, Professor Kirk Curnutt, Author and Researcher and Sarah Churchwell, Professor in American Literature.

Today's episode marks a very fun development in the Lit With Charles universe: my first repeat podcast guest! Caitlin Macy  is an American writer known for her sharp portrayals of class, privilege, and social dynamics – especially of New York City's elite. So, when I visited the States a few weeks ago, I knew I wanted to make time to chat with her. Caitlin is a fantastic writer, and I found her thoughts on literature (and four book selections) absolutely fascinating.Lit with Charles loves reviews. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd be so grateful if you could leave a review of your own, and follow me on Instagram at @litwithcharles. Let's get more people listening – and reading!Caitlin Macy's four books were:The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald (1925)Collected Stories, John Cheever (1978)Runaway, Alice Munro (2004)The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James (1881)

We're doing a legacy sequel to our previous podcast episode, with cameos from Gab and DylanWelcome to the Movies to Watch Before You Die Podcast with Gab and Dylan!Movies To Watch Before You Die merch here - https://moviestowatchbeforeyoudie-shop.fourthwall.com/Look up the movie here - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5950044/Find us everywhere here - https://linktr.ee/moviestowatchbeforeyoudie00:00 Welcome01:50 What's it about?05:37 Opinion Time32:09 Let's get to the facts49:38 Mail Time01:02:28 VerdictsWe're a member of the Hall of Pods, find links for our podcasting friends here - https://linktr.ee/hallofpodsWho are we: A former actress and video editor but more than anything we're movie fans like you.Why listen? Why not! We're gonna talk about movies you love, movies you hate, and movies you've never heard of. We can't wait to hear what you think of them too. If you want to tell us your opinion on whether or not a movie is one we should watch before we die, tell us we're wrong, or tell us you like the show send us an email or voice message at moviestowatchbeforeyoudie@gmail.com . We can't wait to hear from you and we can't wait to talk movies!Thanks to Scott Interrante for the music in our intro!Thanks to Brian Maneely for our artwork!Movies Dylan and Gab agree you should watch before you die: Vampire's Kiss, Die Hard, Tropic Thunder, Wag the Dog, The Legend of Billie Jean, You've Got Mail, True Lies, The Room, Game Night, The Truman Show, The Great Gatsby, Whiplash, The Lost Boys, The Fugitive, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, My Cousin Vinny, Shutter Island, Starship Troopers, Big, Joy Ride, The Jerk, Alien/Aliens, Best in Show, Freaky Friday, Over the Garden Wall, North, Catch Me If You Can, Clue, Jerry Maguire, Groundhog Day, The Great Mouse Detective, Chicago, Wall-E, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Breakdown, Cool Runnings, Ruthless People, Mean Girls, Borat, A League of Their Own, City Slickers, Jingle All the Way, Saw, The Lion King, Little Big League, The Naked Gun, Young Frankenstein, Tootsie, The Changeling, The Birdcage, and Superman

Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema's greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you've got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 113 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello discuss the last film in their Paul Verhoeven series, Benedetta (2021). For Verhoeven's latest film, the director reteamed with his Elle collaborator David Birke, to make a religious film, as he's an expert scholar of the Jesus Seminar, even writing a book in 2007 entitled Jesus of Nazareth. Though his adaptation of his book, along with several other projects, didn't come to head, he was able to make Benedetta, a loose adaptation of Judith C. Brown's Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy, following the life of a nun (Virginie Efira) who joins the Italian convent while she was a young child and later has a forbidden love affair with another nun, while also seeing religious visions that make her seem like she has direct contact with Jesus. Wickedly hilarious, sensual, and fascinating, Benedetta is a thorny tale of the complexities of faith, as well as Verhoeven's critique of the church, an institution that he's examined for all of his life. Ryan, Jay, and Sophia break down their thoughts on the film, just how funny the film is, if it has more to say than what Verhoeven is bringing up on the surface, the dream sequences, Benedetta's struggles with temptation, Jay's love of The Great Gatsby, Sophia's story about seeing the film at the world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, and splinters. And seeing that it is the end of the series, the boys give out their Paul Verhoeven rankings as well as preview their new director series starting new week. You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube and more. This podcast runs 2h44m. The guys will be back next week to begin their new series on the films of Yasujirō Ozu with a review of his film, Late Spring. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let's get into it. Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

She's had a love-hate relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald since she was a teenager. And she's now written a wonderful new take on The Great Gatsby, reimagining the story with a cast of the Black elite in post-war Los Angeles.

This week, we're sharing an episode of a show we think you'll enjoy: “Worth It” from the Minnesota Star Tribune and Lemonada Media.We've got the inside scoop on why the Guthrie's “Cabaret” is getting rave reviews. Also, as “The Great Gatsby” turns 100, why is this novel with Minnesota roots worth another read? Plus, we'll tell you about the Culinary North Stars that are pushing the boundaries of the Twin Cities' dining scene.Read more about the Culinary North Stars, Gatsby's centennial, Gatsby remixes and the Guthrie's production of “Cabaret”.This week our guests are taste editor Nicole Hvidsten, general assignment reporter Zoë Jackson, interim books editor Chris Hewitt, theater critic Rohan Preston and digital food and culture producer Abby Sliva.To support “Worth It” and the important work of the Minnesota Star Tribune, subscribe today by visiting Startribune.com/WorthItToSubscribe.Stay up to date with the Minnesota Star Tribune at @startribune on TikTok, Bluesky, X, Facebook, and Instagram. Lemonada Media is on X, Facebook and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.

Send us a textToday's episode is my conversation about the 1929 film Dyamite. I'm joined by Murray Mintz from the "CineVibez Fanzine" newsletter and we talk about what the going rate for "buying a husband" was in 1929, some wonderful twists and turns throughout the plot, and innovative uses of sound in director Cecil B. DeMille's first fully sound feature. You can watch Dynamite on YouTube and be sure to check out Murray's newsletter.Other films mentioned in this episode include:Babylon directed by Damien ChazelleThe Shawshank Redemption directed by Frank DarabontBeauty and the Beast directed by Kirk Wise and Gary TrousdaleThe Ten Commandments directed by Cecil B. DeMilleSunset Boulevard directed by Billy WilderHold Back the Dawn directed by Mitchell LeisenJohn Wick directed by Chad StahelskiGlorious Betsy directed by Alan Crosland and Gordon HollingsheadThe Hollywood Revue of 1929 directed by Charles F. ReisnerThe Ten Commandments (1923 silent version) directed by Cecil B. DeMilleThe Bridge of San Luis Rey (lost film) directed by Charles BrabinThe Substance directed by Coralie FargeatOther referenced topics:The Great Gatsby by F. Scott FitzgeraldMovieDiva article about the sound innovations produced for this filmLA Times reviewSupport the show

This year marks the 100th anniversary of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, widely considered by many to be one of the greatest American novels ever written. A.O. Scott, critic at large for the New York Times book review, discusses how and why The Great Gatsby became a staple of the American literary canon. Listeners also share their thoughts on The Great Gatsby.

Ethan turned 30 and partied for an entire month! What a narcissist. In the latest pod, the boys talk about how they dressed for the various celebrations that Ethan celebrated this milestone birthday: dinner at a Polynesian-themed restaurant, going to Disneyland in riding boots, going black tie for an escape room (and drinks at 4100), and finally, a big Great Gatsby-themed house party. Because what could be more "Ethan" than giving yourself prompts to dress for? Ethan's Essay: https://alittlebitofrest.com/2025/08/07/my-30th-birthday-month-long-celebration/ Support us on Patreon and join the Discord: https://www.patreon.com/styleanddirection/ Follow us on Instagram! www.instagram.com/styleanddirection/ www.instagram.com/ethanmwong/ www.instagram.com/spencerdso/ www.instagram.com/awyeahmj Podcast is produced by MJ Kintanar

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," what color light shines from Daisy Buchanan's dock? Play. Share. Listen with FOX Weather Meteorologist Nick "The Dancing Weatherman" Kosir.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"Freedom felt like summer then on the coast." What happens when we explore Taylor Swift's music through the lens of summer? In this episode, we explore how summer functions both as a setting and a symbol in Taylor's songwriting. From the cruel intensity of forbidden love to nostalgic August romances and the catastrophic blues of heartbreak, we explore how Taylor uses summer to capture everything from youthful freedom to emotional devastation. Join us as we discuss "Cruel Summer," "august," and "Hits Different" to uncover why summer hits different in Taylor's discography. Subscribe to get new episode updates: aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com Mentioned in this episode: The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald A Room with a View, E.M. Forster Harry Potter A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare My Antonia, Willa Cather EXX: Fall Songs  E31: Shakespeare  Grease The Summer I Turned Pretty White Houses, Vanessa Carlton What Happened to Goodbye, Sarah Dessen A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle Episode Highlights: [01:12] Introduction to Summer in Literature [08:11] "Cruel Summer" Lover [17:03] "august" folklore [30:11] "Hits Different" Midnights Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!  TikTok → tiktok.com/@APTaylorSwift Instagram → instagram.com/APTaylorSwift YouTube → youtube.com/@APTaylorSwift Link Tree →linktr.ee/aptaylorswift Bookshop.org → bookshop.org/shop/apts Libro.fm →  tinyurl.com/aptslibro Contact us at aptaylorswift@gmail.com  Affiliate Codes:  Krowned Krystals - krownedkrystals.com use code APTS at checkout for 10% off!  Libro.fm - Looking for an audiobook? Check out our Libro.fm playlist and use code APTS30 for 30% off books found here tinyurl.com/aptslibro   This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.  

Your hosts are joined by Krystle Matar to disucss The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. They wonder why no one talks about Gatsby being a crime lord, throw around wild F. Scott conspiracy theories, and rank the characters from least shitty to most shitty. (It's all of them. They're all the most shitty)Find more from Krystle: https://bsky.app/profile/krystlematar.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/drippingbucket.bsky.socialhttps://www.instagram.com/krystlematar/Find us on Discord / Support us on PatreonThanks to the following musicians for the use of their songs:- Amarià for the use of “Sérénade à Notre Dame de Paris”- Josh Woodward for the use of “Electric Sunrise”Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Send us a textWhat if we told you that there was an ingenious retelling of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights set in post-war Japan that also has shades of Middlemarch and The Great Gatsby? Minae Mizumura's A True Novel, first published in 2002, checks all those boxes and more. Joining us to discuss A True Novel is Lavanya Krishnan, co-founder of the literary book subscription Boxwalla. (This episode originally aired in 2023).Discussed in this episode: A True Novel by Minae Mizumura Lavanya Krishnan, BoxwallaAlexander CheeWuthering Heights by Emily BronteThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott FitzgeraldMiddlemarch by George Eliot “Why I Write What I Write” by Minae MizumuraWriting Routines with Minae MizumuraThe Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor DostoyevskyLight and Darkness, Continued by Minae MizumuraAn I Novel from Left to Right by Minae MizumuraA Heart So White by Javier Marías Autobiography of Red by Anne CarsonThe Diary of an Invasion by Andrey KurkovTime Shelter by Georgi GospodinovSupport the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter. Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

Episode 253 - The Thinklings Podcast Welcome to Episode 253 of The Thinklings Podcast! This week's episode continues the summer style series—filled with books, reflections, and a bit of campfire humor. Thinkling Stearns and Carter each share about a book they're reading, and Thinkling Little wraps things up with a devotional from Deuteronomy. Thanks for listening to this week's episode!

This year, “The Great Gatsby” turns 100.A.O. Scott, a critic at large for The New York Times Book Review, tells the story of how an overlooked book by a 28-year-old author eventually became the great American novel, and explores why all of these decades later, we still see ourselves in its pages.Guest: A.O. Scott, a critic at large for The New York Times Book Review, writing about literature and ideas.Background reading: What the hero in “The Great Gatsby” tell us about how we see ourselves.For more information on today's episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: Abigail Cole/University of South Carolina Libraries Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

In June of 1922, the twenty-five-year-old wunderkind F. Scott Fitzgerald published "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz," an incredible story of fabulously wealthy people living a secret life in remote Montana. Later that month, he began composing his most famous work, The Great Gatsby. In this episode, Jacke and Mike read and discuss this early Fitzgerald story. PLUS Jacke kicks off a new series, 25 for 25, which looks at the 25 Greatest Books of All Time, with a discussion of #25, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Special Announcement: The History of Literature Podcast Tour is happening in May 2026! Act now to join Jacke and fellow literature fans on an eight-day journey through literary England in partnership with ⁠John Shors Travel⁠. Find out more by emailing jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com or masahiko@johnshorstravel.com, or by contacting us through our website ⁠historyofliterature.com⁠. Or visit the ⁠History of Literature Podcast Tour itinerary⁠ at ⁠John Shors Travel⁠. The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at ⁠patreon.com/literature ⁠or ⁠historyofliterature.com/donate ⁠. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at ⁠thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, old sports! Join us and our young and beautiful guests, Janet Dale and Allison Renner, as we revisit Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby (2013). Then we chat with Janet and Allison about their new collaborative chapbook, Green Light: A Gatsby Cycle. Read along for our next Bookpisode about Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata on August 5th. Then watch The Thing for our next Othersode with Paul Tremblay, author of the new novel Another, on August 19th.TOC:30 – Hello everyone! Welcome, Janet and Allison! 17:00 – How does this movie hold up?32:00 – Casting44:15 – The music48:45 – Why do people still love Gatsby?57:12– Interview with Janet and Allison!1:38:39 – What's up next?

Wildfires rage near the Grand Canyon forcing evacuations at the iconic landmark, while Canadian fires impact air quality in the Northern U.S. Also, major fast-casual restaurants – including Panera, Chipotle and Cava – leverage loyalty programs and summer discounts to draw in new customers. Plus, the green light blazes on: TODAY celebrates the 100th anniversary of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel ‘The Great Gatsby' with a tour of the extravagant 1974 movie set with Sam Waterson. And, beauty expert Zanna Roberts Rassi shares the best waterproof makeup brands perfect for a summer beach day. 

I'm giving 1-800 SLOOTS the serious attention it deserves and taking your calls from a VERY special dial up phone (vintage from Argentina IF you even care…) These are my favorite videos to record right now because you sloots are that good. Mind in the gutter with your boss? Faking a British accent? Love the beach but stuck in cow-town? This episode is for you. Also, don't worry I fill you in on the Great Gatsby party (hint: it's similar to my Lana Del Rey at Coachella story, if you know you know.) Enjoy sloots! Keep calling ; ) To be featured on the next 1-800 SLOOTS, leave a voicemail at +19295654836

All the neurochemicals in the brain have to do with life in the present. Except for one: dopamine. Dopamine is the one neurochemical that looks to the future. It anticipates what may be to come and drives you towards it.That can be a good thing — dopamine is one powerful motivator — but it also has its downsides. Here to help us understand how the most important chemical in the brain works and how to deal with its pitfalls is Michael Long. Michael is a trained physicist turned writer whose latest book is Taming the Molecule of More. Mike and I discuss how dopamine, for better and worse, makes you want what you don't have. He shares what causes low dopamine activity, how to know if you're experiencing it, and what increases dopamine. We then talk about how to deal with the consequences of dopamine in some of the scenarios in which it plays a role — like losing the spark in a relationship and getting stuck in a smartphone scroll habit — and why so much of taming dopamine comes down to living in the here and now. We end our conversation with why The Great Gatsby is really a novel about dopamine and the fundamental answer to not letting the dopamine chase lead you around.Resources Related to the PodcastMike's previous appearance on the AoM podcastAoM Article: How to Do a Dopamine ResetAoM Podcast #745: Do You Need to Take a Dopamine Fast?AoM Article: Your Life Explained Through DopamineConnect With Michael Long  Taming the Molecule website

For this "Summer Best-Of" we've put together some of our favorite conversations our centennial series, 100 Years of 100 Things:Ashley Stimpson, Maryland-based freelance journalist who writes about science and conservation, takes us through the past 100 years of kids going to the woods for summer camp.Victoria Rosner, dean of the Gallatin School at NYU and the author of Machines for Living: Modernism and Domestic Life (Oxford University Press, 2020), talks about the post-World War I development of modernism (and post-modernism) across the arts and beyond.Maureen Corrigan, the book critic for Fresh Air, Georgetown professor and the author of So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures (Hachette, 2014), looks at the 1925 publication of the novel, The Great Gatsby, and why it continues to resonate with readers one hundred years later.Polo shirts, khaki shorts, and boat shoes: the classic uniform of elites on their days off.  Avery Trufelman, host of the podcast Articles of Interest, delves into the last 100 years of preppies and their clothes. These interviews were polished up and edited for time, the original versions are available here:100 Years of 100 Things: Summer Camps (Aug 26, 2025)100 Years of 100 Things: Modernism (Jan 8, 2025)100 Years of 100 Things: The Great Gatsby (Jan 13, 2025)100 Years of 100 Things: Preppies and Their Clothes (Mar 26, 2025)

As always, you had plenty of great questions about our current book and on this episode we did our best to answer a bunch of them. Thanks for tuning in to and participating in this series. Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe