Podcasts about shakespearean

Send us a textWelcome to another killer episode of Hallmark Mysteries and More! Andrea and Eric dig deep into Mystery 101: An Education in Murder — the film that finally gives fans the long-awaited first kiss between Amy and Travis… but also serves up academic scandal, edge-of-your-seat twists, and maybe the best red herrings in the series.Is Steve Bacic the villain—or just another wrongly accused professor caught in the crosshairs? Was Travis's loyalty to Amy the highlight of the movie? And what literary Easter eggs did writer John Christian Plummer sneak in to reveal the killer before the final act?We also unpack:

More weird Amazon reviews: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTz_vyR-zjcBMoD6PwEpKv-kYsR0vlh9nThey said it was just Tuscan Whole Milk, 1 Gallon, but I have uncovered something far greater. This is no ordinary dairy product—it is liquid poetry, a Shakespearean masterpiece in a plastic jug. Today, we embark on a dramatic reading of its infamous Amazon reviews, which have turned a simple grocery item into an internet legend. Will this milk transcend its humble origins? Or will it curdle under the weight of expectation? Stick around as we dive into the most over-the-top food review of all time!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/reddxyDiscord: https://discord.gg/reddxPayPal: https://www.paypal.me/daytondoesPatreon: http://patreon.com/daytondoesTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/daytondoes

This week on Born to Watch, we're heading to the desert planet of Arrakis to break down one of the biggest sci-fi epics of recent memory in Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part One Review. Join Whitey and Sir Dimmy of the House Cockburn as they unpack a film that's equal parts galactic power struggle, political thriller, and interstellar fever dream.Villeneuve's Dune had a lot riding on it. Announced in 2017 and delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, it finally arrived in 2021 with both cinema and HBO Max releases. But did it live up to the hype? Was the spice worth the squeeze? Whitey and Sir Dimmy get stuck into the sandstorm of ambition, adaptation, and a whole lot of Zimmer.From the very start, the duo agree, this film demands the big screen. Whitey confesses to watching it via a sneaky early online drop and instantly regretting not experiencing it in the cinema. For Dimmy, it was love at first IMAX. There's a reverence for the visuals, the grandeur, and the world-building that marks Dune as a rare modern blockbuster that dares to go deep.But this isn't a dry academic analysis. This is Born to Watch, where film critique meets pub banter. That means serious praise for Hans Zimmer's thunderous, Oscar-winning score, though we do wonder if the music sometimes overshadows the movie. The team marvels at the film's scale: the ornithopters, the wormsign, the sand-soaked vistas. Arrakis feels real. The political scheming feels Shakespearean. The voice feels like Jedi mind tricks on steroids.Naturally, the cast gets a full once-over. Timothée Chalamet is dubbed a “scrawny action hero” who somehow works as Paul Atreides. Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica earns the nickname “Freckles Ferguson” and delivers the emotional heft of the film, tears, telepathy, and total commitment. Jason Momoa's Duncan Idaho is everyone's space-dad crush, and Stellan Skarsgård's floating, grotesque Baron Harkonnen might just be the scariest slug in cinema history.And then there's Zendaya. Or… is there? While her face is plastered across posters, trailers, and marketing campaigns, she's in the actual film for about 10 minutes, and that's being generous. Sir Dimmy and Whitey don't hold back, calling it one of the greatest bait-and-switches in recent memory. She's Paul's “blue-eyed wet dream,” more vision than character, and it all but guarantees the necessity of a sequel.The discussion also gets into the film's legacy. Is Dune the sci-fi blueprint that inspired Star Wars? Without question. From the Force-like Voice to desert-dwelling mystics and chosen one arcs, Herbert's fingerprints are all over modern sci-fi. Villeneuve's version just finally gives the novel the serious treatment it deserves, after the messy (but charmingly weird) David Lynch version in 1984 and a forgettable miniseries.Of course, Born to Watch being Born to Watch, there are plenty of detours. There's debate over whether Duncan Idaho could survive in the Game of Thrones universe. There's talk of Dutch ovens, nose jobs, and the possibility of casting Mr. T as the Reverend Mother. At one point, the podcast veers into a philosophical wormhole involving one-name celebrities like Sting, Prince, and, of course, Zendaya. The House Cockburn coat of arms even gets a shoutout, shielded by fire, flanked by two swords in the shape of appendages. You really had to be there.Despite a few gripes, underexplained lore, a traitorous doctor's paper-thin logic, and the slightly sluggish pacing, Whitey and Sir Dimmy are all in on Dune. It's a film that dares to take itself seriously. No snark, no winks. Just grand, immersive sci-fi storytelling. It may not be everyone's flavour of spice, but it's a feast for those who want their blockbusters with brains.As the credits roll and the sand settles, one thing is clear: this is only part one. And Born to Watch will be there when part two drops, with fresher takes, deeper dives, and possibly more Zendaya.Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts!Join the conversation: Is Dune a sci-fi masterpiece or a high-concept snooze? Was Zendaya's screen time the greatest bait-and-switch ever? Would YOU ride a sandworm into battle?Please drop us a voicemail at BornToWatch.com.au and be part of the show!#BornToWatch #Dune2021 #DenisVilleneuve #TimotheeChalamet #SpiceMustFlow #MoviePodcast #FilmReview #SciFiCinema #Zendaya #HansZimmer #MovieNerds #FilmTalk #PopCultureBreakdown #HouseCockburn #BlueEyedWetDreams #JasonMomoa #RebeccaFerguson

Tuck chats with Sawyer K. Kemp about the news that Ian McKellan is involved in an all-trans staged reading of Twelfth Night. Topics include whether Twelfth Night is trans, what baseball and Shakespeare plays have in common, and what prison has to do with any of this.  Listen to the full episode on Patreon to hear discussions of West Virginia, trans cringe, 17th-century trans intra-community conflict, which Shakespearean role Shohei Ohtani would play, and whether acting is good or bad :) Find Sawyer at sawyerkkemp.com and at Queens College. ~ Senior Producer: Ozzy Llinas Goodman Logo: Ira M. LeighMusic: Breakmaster CylinderAdditional Music: Blue Dot Sessions

Our goal words, as a reminderSarina: presenceJess: growthJennie: Teflon™KJ: inner compass#AmReadingJess: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins ReidKJ: The Spy Coast by Tess GerritsenJennie: Shakespeare: The Man Who Plays the Rent by Judi DenchSarina: Say You'll Remember Me by Abby JimenezTranscript below!EPISODE 454 - TRANSCRIPTKJ Dell'AntoniaHey, writers. KJ here announcing a new series and a definite plus for paid supporters of Hashtag AmWriting it's Writing the Book, a conversation between Jennie, who's just finished a Blueprint for her next nonfiction book, and me, because I've just finished the Blueprint for what I hope will be my next novel, Jennie and I are both trying to, quote, unquote, play big with these next go rounds, which is a meta effort for Jennie, as that's exactly what her book is about. And we're basically coaching each other through creating pages thoughts and encouragement, as well as some sometimes hard to hear honesty about whether we're really going in the right direction. So come all in on Team Hashtag AmWriting and you'll get those Writing the Book episodes right in your pod player, along with access to monthly AMAs, the Booklab: First Pages, episodes, and come summer, we shall Blueprint once again. So sign yourself up at AmWriting podcast.comMultiple Speakers:Is it recording? Now it's recording, yay. Go ahead. This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone. I don't remember what I'm supposed to be doing. Alright, let's start over. Awkward pause. I'm going to rustle some papers. Okay, now one, two, three.KJ Dell'AntoniaHey, listeners, its KJ here. And this is Hashtag AmWriting, the weekly podcast about writing all the things, short things, long things, pitches, proposals, fiction, nonfiction. This is the podcast about getting that work done. And this week we're all here with a mid-year check in, but still introduce yourselves, people.Jess LaheyI'm Jess Leahy. I am the author of The Gift of Failure and The Addiction Inoculation, and you can find my journalism at The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Atlantic.Sarina BowenI'm Sarina Bowen, the somewhat exhausted author of many romance and thriller novels, and my brand new one is called Dying to Meet You.Jennie NashI'm Jennie Nash. I'm the founder and CEO of Author Accelerator and the author of 12 books in three genres. And today, not so tired. So you know, day by day.KJ Dell'AntoniaYay. I'm KJ Dell'Antonia, the author of three novels, most popular, which is The Chicken Sisters, and the most recent is Playing the Witch Card. And also the former editor and lead writer of The Motherlode at The New York Times, which feels like a total past life, And this is our mid-year "Are we achieving our goals?" check-in, and I badly wanted to make fun of Jess, who said she had to go get her notebook—so she would know her goals. But then I didn't realize I didn't have to, I didn't know mine, so I had to go get my notebook. So now I can't, and it's pretty much a crushing blow to me. So anybody achieved anything so far? I can't. I can totally believe we're six months into the year. It's been a really long six months, and also, I haven't done anything. Okay, that's me.Jennie NashKJ, you were saying that. Actually, it's funny, because you were saying that about was it January or February? You kept saying this month is lasting forever. You think you're just having that year.KJ Dell'AntoniaI am.Sarina BowenAren't we all though?KJ Dell'AntoniaI thought we were all having that year, but maybe not.Sarina BowenI'm looking at my goals page here, and I'm kind of astonished to see that I really am accomplishing a lot of them, because every day feels like such a battle. You know, it's I have write a romance, write a thriller, plan another romance, and maybe revise this one other thing. And, man, I'm doing it. I have written the words count for one entire book, even though neither of them is finished yet, but I'm, I'm chugging along. The other stuff I wrote down for doing at home and in my personal life is sort of happening, but it just feels, um, it feels hard, like the weight of the world is weighing down on my week. And so it's actually kind of lovely to look at this and see like, oh, okay, yeah. Well, we're getting some of this done.Jess LaheyThat's why we do this. That's why it's nice to check in. And I think it also, you know, it's, it goes back to a long time ago. We used to talk about accountability buddies, or accountability bunnies, as we have called them sometimes. And I think it's just great to have them, not just to hold you to task when you're not doing the stuff, but to help you, help you remember that it's important to check in and realize that we are getting the stuff done it may not look exactly like what we were expecting, and in fact, mine going forward, I'll go ahead and go next, because mine looks so different from what I expected it to be, and yet it's going really well. But before I move on, Sarina, is there any chance you could share with us for the big picture like mile high view, what was your word for this year?Sarina BowenWell, I did just notice that I left...KJ Dell'AntoniaOh! I have it your word was "present". I wrote them down. Your word was "present".Sarina BowenYou know. And I am. I am not doing a terrible job on presence. I'm not doing a bad job.KJ Dell'AntoniaJennie, your word was "Teflon".Jennie NashThat's what I thought. Let's stick with Sarina a minute, though, because I'm fascinated by the fact that the way you're describing that you're feeling, and the fact that you achieve these goals and you feel like you're doing well, all of that happened despite the fact that you didn't think it was... like, it's just the daily actions that that lead up to the goals, right? I mean, that sounds silly, but that's like you sit down and you do the work, and you achieve the things.Sarina BowenI guess I do. And part of what's disorienting about this year is that I'm actually writing less overall, and I am going more places. You know, presence means my presence is in several different states and countries, and so that it feels disorienting because I've had to be better at switching from working on the novel, to being on vacation with my family, to working on the novel, to doing a book tour in May, which was super time consuming. But I guess, you know, with some hiccups here and there, like I've been able to switch tasks in a way that is getting it done.Jennie NashThat's very cool.Jess LaheyIt's also nice every once in a while, you know, to look back on those stickers that are on the calendar. And for those of you who have joined us recently, we haven't really talked about stickers in a long time, but our sticker thing is, you know, we all tend to have the same kind of plan book, and on our calendar we get a sticker if we reach whatever goal it was for that day. Often it's a word count goal, and it's really nice to be able to look back... well, I guess it depends on the month, but generally speaking, it's really nice to be able to look back at the calendar and see those little stickers. Plus at the first day of every month, we have a little text thread where we decide what the sticker is going to be, what kind of vibe we're feeling that month, because we do have a lot of stickers. There's a lot of stickers, but Sarina has been killing it with her stickers, and I'm very impressed with her.Sarina BowenI do love to flip back and see how, you know, like, last month, it's like, oh, look at the good job you did. That's so pretty.Jess Lahey People ask me all the time if that undercuts that… you know, one of the things I talk about in The Gift of Failure and when I'm speaking at schools, is about, you know, trying to use the carrot and stick method to make kids do what you want them to do. And you're we're not supposed to rely exclusively on extrinsic motivators. We're supposed to rely on things that make us like want to do the thing for the sake of the thing itself. But when you when you reward yourself with something. It is an intrinsic process. And I think that the sticker, for us anyway, has been such a now, it's been going on for a long time, and it's such part of our language as a group of people, and it is really rewarding to slap that sticker on there.Sarina BowenI really believe you about intrinsic versus extrinsic goals, because I know for sure that no sticker chart I ever made for one of my children was any damn good, but like but mine is for me, and that's why it works.Jess LaheyDo you know that there's an exception when it comes to sticker charts? There is one situation in which sticker charts work really well for kids, and that's potty training, because there appears to be something about getting out of the diaper and into big boy or big girl panties/underpants, that makes them intrinsically motivated to do it. So if parents out there hearing this and thinking, oh man, sticker charts don't work, and they don't over the long term, but for potty training, for some reason they do anyway, I think it's great. And plus, when we buy the stickers, we're just envisioning all that writing we're going to do. And so when you put the little sticker on there, it's our nice little reward. Am I going next?Multiple Speakers: [Overlapping voices]: Yeah. You go next. Go for it.Jess LaheyAlright. So my year, my word this year, was a really appropriate and very topic specific, uh, one for me, and my word this year was "growth". And many of you know, I went back and went back to school and I got my master gardening certificate, and I'm now in my intern phase. I have to do two; I have to do 40 hours of volunteer work over the next two years to get my full certification. Working on that. But all things, looking back the first six months of this year, which is when this class ran, and when I was doing studying like I had to study botany and entomology and all that sort of stuff, I have grown a lot this year. In other news, I also after 10 years of debating and planning and learning, I finally got a beehive. So I now have bees, and I have my gardens going. So for me on that side, growth is crazy. And then in terms of my goals, something really interesting happened. And this is another reason having other writers or creatives in your life so important. So I was really struggling with the book proposal I actually wrote. I completed it, and my agent was liking how it was going, and everything was good. And then I just realized through the process of writing it, that it wasn't feeling like the right thing for me to be writing right now. And Sarina had planted an idea in my head months before about something she really wanted me to write like it occurred to her that it would be a really good idea, and I poo pooed it at first, and then I let my brain sort of ruminate on it for a bit, and I realized, oh my gosh, you're right. This is such a great topic. So I started again, which is fine, it's my book proposal. I can do what I want people, don't look at me like that all of you people. They would never do that because they don't look at me like that. I started with a new topic that's really exciting for me, and also requires a lot of growth for me. This isn't like something I could just spit out because I already know the material, and I it's caught... it's forcing me to have to grow in some ways, especially as doing statistical analysis and things like that. And thank you, Sarina, because I know at the moment you mentioned it in the first place, I dismissed it. And I didn't mean to sound dismissive, but you were right. It was a really good idea.Sarina BowenWow, I didn't know. I mean, I remember this conversation so well, but of course, like it's kind of your friend's jobs to spit ideas at you, like nobody is under any obligation to weigh them. But I find that when people spit ideas at me, I often have an early No, and then it it almost always takes till later until I'm like, Oh, wait...Jess LaheyYeah. Well, it wasn't until I do what I do as part of my process, which is to think, okay, from that angle, that's interesting. What would the chapters be? Let's say, just for fun, if I were to think about this, what would the chapters be? What might my introductory chapter look like? Oh, wait, there's that anecdote that would fit really well here. In fact, yesterday, I got a spam email that I saved because something in that email triggered an idea about something. So it's really... this one has been fun, and I have to credit Sarina with this one. So my goals are going to look a little bit different. But then this other thing happened, which is, I decided to start this new series for this from soup to nuts series that's sort of like a I have a really interesting idea for a nonfiction book. What do I do now? And you can get on that series if you if you become a supporter, because episode one was free, and the rest are going to be for supporters. And I'm guiding this person through the entire book process, the book proposal process. And I realized, aha, if I'm doing this in real time, this is a fantastic excuse for me to be doing the sections I'm assigning to her at the same time. So I'm working through my new proposal for this new idea at the same time she's working through her proposal, which also gets me in a really nice headspace for discussing those sections with her. I have to be very deep in those sections. She's working on her introduction right now and thinking about agents that she's going to query. And while I don't have to query an agent, I very much have to write the introduction. So we've been going back and forth on that, and it's caused me to have to think very deeply about mine too. So it's all, I think this is one of those, like, you know, right thing, right time. I like it. I'm happy, even though I haven't met the goals. I'm very happy.Jennie NashAre you sharing what your topic is? The new topic?Jess LaheyNot yet.Jennie NashOkay.Jess LaheyNot yet. Soon, I maybe, maybe for our end of the year, check in. I will.Jennie NashOkay.Jess LaheyI don't want to lose the juju.Jennie NashMy Word of the Year, thank you for reminding me was—thank you for reminding me was “Teflon.” And the reason for that was I had been involved in a trademark battle last year that was very upsetting to me, and I was wanting to step into my power, I think, is what that word “Teflon” meant, and not be pushed around by the winds of fortune, but to stand strong, in what I was doing, and who I was, and what I was standing for. That's what that's what “Teflon” meant to me. And here in the mid-year, oh, my tangible goals were, I wanted to write a book this year, a book about writing and KJ and I have been doing a series where we have been chronicling that progress. And where I stand today is, I feel great about it. I feel great about it, and the process of writing it has been kind of aligned with that idea of Teflon, of keeping really understanding what I want to say, what I believe, stepping into that power. That's actually what the book is about as well. So it's very meta, and it's been hard, much harder than I thought it was going to be, and also much more satisfying than I thought it was going to be, which is nice. And my other goals had to do with my business. I needed to get my business into... the way I describe it is to get it into integrity. I, at the end of last year, 2024, I did a last chance sale on the price that my book coaching certification course was priced at, and the intention was that I needed to raise my price a lot to bring it into integrity with what we were offering and what it was. And I made those moves. I had that and end of year sale, I raised the price, and I joined a business mastermind of other entrepreneurs in nobody's in a space topically close to mine, but a lot of people are in spaces that are similar-ish and the they're all women. Well, that's not true. There's we have one man and are in our cohort, but just people really trying to step into their power as entrepreneurs. And and I've been really giving myself over to this, the work of this business mastermind, and to learning from the coach who's running it. And in terms of Teflon, it feels like all, all of a piece, all the same thing of becoming who, who I am, and really tapping into what I believe. And I've been really surprised at how much more there is to learn. My own brain, my own habits, my own tendencies, my own fears and weaknesses and strengths. It just as it just is really surprising to me, the older I get them, that there's still so much to learn. I don't, I don't, I guess I must have thought it so in some part of me that that you get to a place where you think you know everything, and it's just not true. It's just not true. So I've been really enjoying the learning, and I feel that my business is coming into a place that I always wanted it to be, and the word I would use for that is easeful, full of ease. And that doesn't mean that it's easy, but that it there's an elegance to it and a naturalness to it, and it keep using this word integrity, but it feels like a business that has a lot of integrity. And so I, too, Sarina, feel proud of this year so far and that I have done what I set out to do, and I find it curious that I have already raced to put in new goals and bigger goals and more goals, even for this year, that that it's not enough just to reach the big goals. So that's another topic, perhaps for another day, but kind of aligned with stopping to celebrate that you have achieved those things. I tend to be really bad at about that, and I just keep back filling new goals and new things. And, you know, the goal post keeps moving, but, yeah, I feel good about where I sit.Sarina BowenWell, fantastic. My....Jess LaheySuper happy for you.KJ Dell'AntoniaBig surprise in opening my notebook is that I too, am exactly on track to achieve my goal. Because my goal, at least the only one in capital letters, is "COMPLETE NOTHING", and I, I, in fact, am exactly on track to complete nothing this year. I did put some things under that, which is, I do want to draft about a book, but draft means draft. It says that right here on this page; it says draft does not mean finish. So, um...Sarina BowenAnd are we drafting?KJ Dell'AntoniaWe ,Well, we are sort of barely drafting, but we are, we are we are pulling together a book that is harder than the last ones that I have pulled together. I think, um. And my other goal for this year was my word was, well, they're words, but it was "inner compass". I am supposed to be stopping looking at other people to compare what I'm doing. I'm supposed to be letting other people, you know, do their thing without feeling responsible to it, listening to myself, not absorbing the tension of the world around me, and I, I am definitely still working on that. Like that has been a daily preoccupation of mine, is to work on this book, not some other book, not some more appealing book, not the book that some friend is is working on, not the book that I just read, that I really liked, but this book. Yeah, I'm I am doing it. I can't. I'm striving towards enjoying that process, right? Yeah, yeah. I want. I want. I don't want to be living so much in the world right now. That's and that's not actually a commentary on the world. I just think I need to write this book out of my own head. So it's kind of hard.Jess LaheyYeah, it is hard, but it's also, you know, for me, sometimes reassuring, to find ways to block the other stuff out. I mean, I had to make a very specific choice this year to get off Instagram. I'm not off completely, but I'm on it a lot less because I was finding myself. We've talked about this before. We've talked about jealousy and we've talked about FOMO before, but I had some friends who had terrific success with a book, and they absolutely 100% deserved it. And the they got insane media. And every time I went on there, I would see them or someone else and get... I felt it happen in me, in that moment, I felt myself go. But why didn't I get that? Why didn't I do that? And I had to, and I turned to Tim and I said, I have to stop going on Instagram, because it's making me feel really bad about myself, and about and not good for my friends who are having these incredible successes. And so, you know, I think it's just a maybe it's because I'm not putting a book out this year or whatever, but I it was, it was forcing me into a bad place. So sometimes shutting that stuff out, man, it's been good. And you know, my new favorite thing to do, instead of going into on Instagram, is...Jennie NashBees!Jess LaheyAnd I sit, I know! I go up and I sit with them. And I was just talking to my dad about this. He said, you know, he was watching the bees with me. And he said, you know, you could, like, if you put a chair up here, you could just sit up here for a long time and watch the bees go in and out and see how much pollen is on their legs and all that sort of stuff. And I said, oh, no, I do that. I sit up there, and it's like “Bee TV”, and I watch them go in and out and in and out and in and out, and I just watch what they do. And that's I'm trying to anytime I feel the need to, like, get on Instagram. I'm like, No, go, and watch the bees instead. That's more fun anyway, and it doesn't make you feel bad about yourself.Jennie NashI love that “Bee TV”. Come on. That's great.KJ Dell'AntoniaThey're pretty cool. I also love like, you know, like the this is where my head goes, and this is the thing I want to stop. Don't put, like, a camera on them and monetize them and, like, make them famous, viral bees, you know, like... ‘Come watch the bee camera channel and you can relax'. And like, I, I mean, you know, we totally do that, if you if you want to, but like, I need to stop having those thoughts about everything. Yeah, like, I have chicks? Should I be putting them on Instagram so everyone can see my chick? They're just they're chicks. I have chicks. It's fine to have chicks, without having chicks loudly, right?Jess LaheyWell, I actually had a really interesting— speaking of that. I had a very interesting moment where I realized I had been listening to music when I was gardening, and sometimes I'm listening to books. Shout out to Taylor Jenkins Reid's new book Atmosphere. I couldn't gobble it down fast enough. But I also can't hear what the bees are doing when I'm listening to something. So I can't and I have to listen, because you can tell when they're starting to get upset by the sound of their buzzing. Not it gets louder, it gets more intense. Little things happen, and so you can sort of back off or use the smoker and calm them down a little bit. And it's been really nice. And so I've taken the ear buds out of the ears, but in the defense of the people who have gone before me doing this and took the time to film it, I've learned a ton from them. So I'm very grateful to a bunch of people who. Did think to turn the camera on the bees, but I'm not going to be doing that myself.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, that wasn't meant to like, you know, yeah, no, no, no there. And I was just watching a YouTube video to show me how to set up a smoker. I mean, you know, yeah, all that stuff is great.Jess LaheyYeah it's, there's a I had to do something in the hive that really scared me. I had to get rid of some extra comb that was sticking up, and it's going to make the bees mad when you do it, because things are going to die, and I'm going to squish some things. And so I watched like, 10 instructional videos by other people on how to do it, so I'd covered every angle from an educational perspective. And Tim was like, “I have never seen you this intimidated to do anything... like you're so fearless”, and I'm like, but it's the bees. I'm freaked. I'm going to hurt the bees. So I watched a lot of videos to do that, and that was great. I learned a lot. So anyway, ah, but no, I will not be monetizing my bees. Those are for me. Those are for me. Alright. How's everybody feeling? Everybody good? I think this is good. Because you all going into this, people are like, oh, no, I'm afraid to look at my word. What if I didn't accomplish anything? And I think all of us are sort of leaving this feeling like, Oh, we did some stuff.KJ Dell'AntoniaThis is good, yeah, at least being the person that I, that I that I wanted to be this year.Jennie NashKJ, loved that you put complete nothing like you were trying to give yourself a break, right? You're trying to let yourself just be different, kind of be than bees, but and maybe you haven't allowed yourself that, but it gives you so much leeway, right? And drafting a book to your point is, there can be a lot of definitions of that.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, and I don't know, I just and I think it possibly has to do with having been in such a prominent and high profile position earlier in my career that I have this tendency to feel like, if I'm not getting feedback, I'm not doing anything. Like if I'm not sort of constantly, you know, loudly announcing myself to people, and telling them what I think, and what I'm doing, and how it feels to be doing the thing, and maybe what they should be doing, then I'm, I'm, you know, like, who even am I? And I can name like, writers that I want to be like, that are not like sort of living hugely and putting their chicks on social media unless they want to, like you could tell the difference between people who really want to and people who don't. And but I am scared that I am not as good as those writers, and therefore I should probably just stick to being a shouty person begging you to pay attention to me and I, yeah, um, I'm definitely just sort of trying to figure that, figure out my way within that world right now.Jess LaheyFair enough. Yeah, sometimes you need to do that.Sarina BowenYeah.Jess LaheyAlright. Well, I like it.KJ Dell'AntoniaOkay. Well, we know Jess has read something good lately because she mentioned, yes, Taylor Jenkins Reid's Atmosphere. Atmospheric?Jess LaheyLoved it. I listened on audio, by the way, and there are two female audio book narrators, one whom you probably have heard of a million times, Julia Whelan, who's everywhere, and she's fantastic. And then the other one I'm going to look up so that I can come up with it. But um...KJ Dell'AntoniaWhile you're looking her up, I wanted to say... I was trying to figure out why I'm not going to read this, this book. I like, love Taylor Jenkins Reid, I've loved her last ones, and I was, I don't like, I only like space books if they're like, set in the future, and space is sort of under control. Other than that, a space book, to me, is like a water book. And I, I don't, I don't like it. It's too much scary, okay, too much scary, unwieldy stuff. So I don't plan on reading this.Jess LaheyIt's just so you know, it's hardly about space. And by the way, the other narrator, narrator is Kristen DiMercurio, and it is a it is a romance, it is an adventure, it is a thriller. It's all those things, and it's just, she's, she really, the language is really, she's the language is just great.KJ Dell'AntoniaBut also, there's plenty of books. It's fine. If one does not interest you in this moment, read a different book. It's all good.Jess LaheyAbsolutely.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah.Jennie NashI'm so curious. I know this is a ridiculous question to ask any writer, but how she lands on her topics. Because, like, tennis, you know, Malibu, celebrity space, like, it's so great, and...Jess LaheyShe had to do a lot. Lot of research for this book, because there's a lot of really highly technical stuff, and her protagonists are highly technical people. And so yeah, that she had to do a lot of research.KJ Dell'AntoniaThe Book Riot people pointed out that she's kind of the queen of women doing jobs.Jess LaheyYeah, But to also Lauren, Christina Lauren, also, they are big fans of like, they're, you know, agents, they're dude ranchers, they're, you know, they hop from thing to thing, and that's one of the things I enjoy about them. It's sort of like I could do this, or I could do that, and you get to, like, sample all these different lives through the characters that they do as well. Anything else people have read?KJ Dell'Antonia I just finished the book.Multiple Speakers:[All laughing]KJ Dell'AntoniaThank you. I just finished Tess Gerritsen's The Spy Coast at Sarina's recommendation, and it was so good, just really endlessly, just really entertaining. And not a low stress read, but a really great read. I'm going to read the next one.Jess LaheyIt's on my list too.Sarina BowenThen I would like you to know, that the next one I actually feel might be even better.KJ Dell'AntoniaOh, can't wait.Sarina BowenBecause she's done such a fantastic job of setting up this pretty unusual group of people. And in the second book, she really like... not eases, but sort of sinks into it and let's, lets the strange setup really play out in a way that is totally charming.Jennie NashWell, I've had rocky personal things going on in the last month, and so my reading has been sort of interestingly. I've gravitated towards different things that I might normally and there's a book that I've been gravitating toward at night when I want to sort of turn my brain off and just get ready to go to bed. And it's called Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench. And it is the most charming book you will ever read. It's, it's Judi Dench talking to her friend, Brendan O'Hea about the roles that she's played over the years, the Shakespearean role she's played over the years. And so you'll get a chapter on like Lady Macbeth. But it's, it's just Judi Dench riffing about like that time when Anthony and, you know, Sir Anthony, and she's talking about, you know, like all the famous actors, and it's, and then she's, you know, Brandon will ask her, Well, how do you play the scene when she's, you know, washing her hands or whatever, and she'll just say these very charming things about... it's just so fun and insightful, and you can just, it's almost like reading poems. They're just little snippets of, oh, now we're going to read about when she played Titania. And it's just so great. So it's just nothing but total delight. And it also makes you realize the incredible work that actors do. So...Jess LaheyI may have to do that one on audio, because I'm assuming she reads that one, and oh my gosh, that would just be an amazing audio read.Jennie NashShe does. And my daughter listened to it and said, it could not be more charming. Yeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaSarina, have you read anything lately?Sarina BowenI am in a big drafting phase and not a big reading phase, and everything I checked out of the library ends up being recalled before I finish it. It's just really pathetic over here.KJ Dell'AntoniaWell, I'm going to, I'm going to do one for you then. We both read, Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez. And we enjoy Abby Jimenez.Sarina BowenYes, we did!KJ Dell'AntoniaWe both enjoyed the heck out of that one. And also it has lots of career in it. If you like a hot vet. Yeah, that's a hot vet book.Sarina BowenIt was darling. And what we especially loved about it is how much she gets out of a book that, on paper, not a whole lot happens, which sounds like a condemnation of the book, but it's absolutely not. Like she just doesn't need... big drama to make this book fantastic. And that was just really skillful.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, no, it's, it's excellent, huge fun. Alright, kids, we would love to hear, if you, I mean, go back, look at your goals from the beginning of the year. Are you also surprisingly achieving what you set out to achieve? Um, or, you know, do you want to regroup? What's going on with you? We would, we would love to hear back. If you hit the show notes and comment in the in the comments, we will absolutely talk back to you, because, you know...Jess LaheyYeah, yeah.KJ Dell'AntoniaThat's our idea of fun. Jess LaheyMight even have to do a little chat thread in, in, in Substack when this comes out. Well, we'll see how it goes.KJ Dell'AntoniaYeah, I don't know. People don't seem to love chatting or comments. I can't figure this out. We cannot figure out how to talk to y'all, but we would like to. We're trying. Okay?Jess LaheyWe very much miss some of the forums part of it, but we'll figure it out. Alright. This has been fantastic, and until next week, everyone keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game. The Hashtag AmWriting podcast is produced by Andrew Perilla. Our intro music, aptly titled Unemployed Monday was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their time and their creative output, because everyone deserves to be paid for their work. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

FOX Sports Radio Weekend host Martin Weiss is in for Rob, and he and Kelvin tell us if it's fair to call Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder are a 'boring' champion, debate whether it's fair to say that people will remember Tyrese Haliburton's playoff run more favorably than OKC actually winning the title, and discuss what's next for Devin Booker in the wake of the Kevin Durant trade. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Time to talk righteous violence!   S.A. Cosby is a writer on a meteoric rise. After the insane success of Razorblade Tears, and the Gothic horrors of All the Sinners Bleed, he's back with a fresh crime epic of titanic brutality.   King of Ashes is the tale of a family under threat from criminal forces, and the shocking depths they will go to in their fight back. It's a challenging book, full of unexpected character arcs, Shakespearean intrigue, and a candid exploration of kink.   It's also bloody, very damn bloody. The crematorium at the story's centre gets well fed!!   We talk about all of that, as well as the strange commonalities of our small town lives, and the influence of violent men.   Enjoy!   Other books mentioned:   All The Sinners Bleed (2023), by S.A. Cosby Razorblade Tears (2021), by S.A. Cosby Blacktop Wasteland (2020), by S.A. Cosby A Thousand Acres (1991), by Jane Smiley “The Dog Park,” (1983), by Dennis Etchinson Darkness, Take My Hand (1996), by Dennis Lehane Gone, Baby, Gone (1998) by Dennis Lehane Jar of Hearts (2018), by Jennifer Hillier   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Bluesky @talkscaredpod.bsky.social  on Instagram/Threads, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though best known for his comedic role of Ernest P. Worrell, the onetime Shakespearean actor carved out a successful career spanning film, TV, and the stage.

Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) is up next in Calum's Chine-aboo Dream month! We have another Wuxia film, but this one is a lot less highly regarded than the other ones that have featured this month. Does this mean we enjoyed it less? Of course not, we are nothing but natural contrarians. We also love a bit of drama and this film is absolutely full of it.Join us next week as we watch Devil and Angel (2015)

Called “the finest actor of his generation,” Sir Simon Russell Beale has played just about everyone in Shakespeare's canon—Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Falstaff, Malvolio, Iago—and most recently, Titus Andronicus, for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In this episode, Beale reflects on the Shakespearean roles that have shaped his career and how his approach to them has evolved over time. He shares what drew him to Titus, and how he found surprising tenderness in Shakespeare's brutal tragedy. The actor revisits past performances, exploring grief in Hamlet, aging and dementia in King Lear, and how time has deepened his connection to the plays and the characters. Beale's memoir, A Piece of Work: Playing Shakespeare & Other Stories, is a moving and often humorous reflection on acting, Shakespeare, and the power of performance to reveal something essential about being human. Sir Simon Russell Beale studied at Cambridge before joining the RSC. Described by the Daily Telegraph as “the finest actor of his generation,” he has been lauded for both his stage and TV work, winning many awards including the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Evening Standard Best Actor Award, and the BAFTA Best Actor Award. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published June 17, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

We are thrilled to welcome back the actress Tasha Milkman, onto the latest Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. She stopped by to talk about Boomerang Theatre Company's upcoming production of Richard II. This is a brilliant new interpretation of this classic Shakespearean work. So make sure you tune in and turn out for this amazing work!Boomerang Theatre Company PresentsRichard IIJune 21st- July 20th @ Central Park (69th St and Central Park West)Tickets and more information are available at boomerangtheatre.org And be sure to follow Tasha to stay up to date on all her upcoming projects and productions: @tashamm9tashamilkman.com

Whether they be faithful retellings, modernized homages or in the category of "loosely based on", the silver screen has consistently been a home for the works of William Shakespeare. This week, which tales from The Bard make our list? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brace yourself for brainy laughs and biblical wit!This Friday at 4PM Central, The Random Kristian Show welcomes legendary clean comedian John Branyan — the man who made Shakespearean comedy cool again!From Thou Shalt Laugh to viral stage hits, Branyan brings his faith-fueled humor, brilliant wordplay, and family-friendly firepower to our livestream for a hilarious and insightful conversation.Don't miss the fun – this one's divinely funny and randomly brilliant!#JohnBranyan #TheRandomKristianShow #CleanComedy #FaithAndFunny #LivestreamLaughs #ChristianComedian #ShakespeareWithPunchlinesThanks to -  MRS A'S FAMOUS SALSA BUENA, RABBITINREDRADIO.COM, & Spreaker & iHeart Radio & The Colonel with THE ADVISER facebook Group and our friends at Creative Coatings!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-random-kristian-show--5624504/support.

Acclaimed Canadian theatre maker Robert Lepage is back at the Stratford Festival with a new take on Shakespeare's “Macbeth.” This new production tells the same classic story of greed, betrayal and murder, but it's set during the brutal Quebec biker wars of the ‘90s. Robert joins Tom Power to talk about putting a new spin on this Shakespearean tragedy, his unique approach to theatre and his incredible decades-long career. If you're looking for more conversations about Canadian theatre, check out Tom's chat with esteemed stage actor Tom Rooney on what it takes to play a dog.

America's golfer-in-chief trades on exclusivity, but he still can't buy a green jacket. Are the Saudis using Donald Trump's obsession to disrupt even more than a super-league? Ahead of the U.S. Open, veteran golf reporter and author Alan Shipnuck takes Pablo behind the Shakespearean curtain. • Read "LIV and Let Die" by Alan Shipnuck https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/LIV-and-Let-Die/Alan-Shipnuck/9781668020012 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

America's golfer-in-chief trades on exclusivity, but he still can't buy a green jacket. Are the Saudis using Donald Trump's obsession to disrupt even more than a super-league? Ahead of the U.S. Open, veteran golf reporter and author Alan Shipnuck takes Pablo behind the Shakespearean curtain. • Read "LIV and Let Die" by Alan Shipnuck https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/LIV-and-Let-Die/Alan-Shipnuck/9781668020012 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, we're diving into Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel—a hauntingly beautiful novel that blends post-apocalyptic survival with the enduring power of art, memory, and human connection. Set in the aftermath of a devastating pandemic, the story weaves together multiple timelines and characters, from a Shakespearean theater troupe traveling the ruins of North America to the lives they left behind. Our guest is Dave Valeza, who grew up in Covina, California, after emigrating with his family from Manila, Philippines. Pursuing his love of drawing, Dave earned a bachelor's degree in illustration and a master's in sequential art. A passionate visual storyteller, he especially loves drawing people, fashion, and technology. In his spare time, Dave enjoys cooking, reading, and sketching in Savannah, Georgia - where he lives with his husband and family. Find out more about Dave and his work at davevaleza.com. Our drink this week fits right into a dystopian world. It's a simple Mimosa—cocktail or mocktail style—made with sparkling wine or ginger beer/ginger ale. But here's the twist: you must drink it out of a random old cup you found lying around. That's the full Station Eleven experience—elegance in the ruins. Cheers! In this Episode Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel Four Eyes: A Graphic Novel by Rex Ogle (Author) Dave Valeza (Illustrator) Pizza Face: A Graphic Novel by Rex Ogle (Author) Dave Valeza (Illustrator) Blubber by Judy Blume Forever by Judy Blume Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

In this episode of QAV, Cameron and Tony kick off with a discussion on the political tension in the U.S. and what Trump's moves with the National Guard might foreshadow, then slide into serious investing updates. There's news on Perenti (PRN), NRW (NWH), and Findi (FND), with a nod to confusing results and sovereign risks. Judo (JDO), BOQ, and QBE get coverage too, as does the SOL–Brickworks merger and what it means for index fund flows. Cameron ponders the shocking long-term flatline of Telstra (TLS), while Qantas (QAN) and Perseus (PRU) get some love for outperforming. Tony wraps up with a pulled pork on Fleetwood (FWD), highlighting modular housing, mining village profits, and capital risk. There's also a review of the film _Ballerina_ and some off-topic Doctor Who and Shakespearean riffing.

The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song 19 – Jeff from BellevilleWelcome back, Hip faithful. This week on the Countdown, I'm joined by one of our most beloved Sunday Evening Jam regulars — the witty, wise, and wonderfully loquacious Jeff from Belleville. You know him. You love him. And if you've ever caught a live stream where he was in the comments, you've probably laughed out loud.But today? Today, we go deeper.Jeff takes us back to his teenage years, up in a century-old Belleville coach house where Road Apples first took hold and never let go. From bootleg tapes and roadside attractions to mosh pits, surprise shows, and backstage encounters — Jeff's Hipstory spans 31 shows and countless life moments tied to the soundtrack of this band.Along the way, we talk memory, meaning, and mortality — including the two cardiac arrests Jeff survived (yes, you read that right), and the unexpected video message he received from Paul Langlois while recovering. This episode reminds us why we do this show in the first place: for the love, for the connection, for the community.We even get a bonus English Lit breakdown of King Lear — and how defiance, irony, and Shakespearean tragedy might be woven into one of the Hip's most poetic tracks. (And yeah, we manage to keep the actual title of that track on the DL. You're welcome.)

Put on your latex head-cap and grab your Thermian translator — this week, your starfleet of snark is diving headfirst into the unlikely sci-fi cult classic that beamed itself into nerd hearts everywhere. Jordan and Heigl travel back to 1999 to explore how a fake show about fake space heroes somehow made real Trekkies weep with joy — and earned an honorary place alongside the actual Star Trek movies. You'll hear how Leonard Nimoy accidentally inspired the original script, why Kevin Kline (not Buzz Lightyear) was supposed to lead the crew, and how Alan Rickman — literal Shakespearean royalty — somehow found himself next to a farting Tim Allen...and hated every second of it. (So did everyone on the set.) Heigl delves deep into Allen’s pre-fame life as a coke mule with a prison stint under his belt, Jordan talks about psychologic effects of space travel and Orson Welles’ touching friendship with Winston Churchill (for some reason), and they both luxuriate in the decades-long feuds between Star Trek cast members. The pair go on to discuss the worst-dubbed F-bomb in cinematic history, why comedy legend Harold Ramis prematurely departed the project, and all the reasons why the producers were terrified they were going to get sued. You’ll also discover how the film’s parody became prophecy, predicting not just the rise of fandom, but the emotional power of obsessive nerdery years before Comic-Con went corporate. So whether you’re a diehard fan or just here for the fart jokes, this one’s for you. By Grabthar’s Hammer — it’s podcast time! Support your friendly neighborhood TMI Guys here! https://ko-fi.com/toomuchinformationpodcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Terrific Video Version: https://bit.ly/4mS3Cmg A modern Shakespearean tragedy? Or Greek? On the occasion of the release a best-selling book on President Joe Biden's last 8 months in office, we decided to examine whether the many accusations on Biden's mental health in the last year of his Presidency hold any water. If they actually do, what does that say about any influential national/global leader's responsibility to step down, when they become physically/mentally impaired? The book we are referencing is entitled, “Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again”. Strangely, it is written by 2 authors who are often identified with the left-of-center press: Jake Tapper from CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios and CNN. Two “lefties” throw a Democrat under the bus???? In its 4 year history, “Scandal Sheet”, has stood by its pledge not to take sides with any running political candidate or sitting office-holder, of either party. We also steer away from contemporary partisan parties or their various policies. But this is not partisan politics. This is a unique scandal -- where loyal supporters, the press, and the general public were allegedly misled on the health of a top political leader. This is bigger than just politics. Former President Biden has been out of office and retired for almost 6 months. We believe the actions of his former administration - and its top insiders - is both fair game and worthy of thoughtful discussion. BUT we WILL NOT discuss or take positions on his policies or those of his political opponents, over his term. Anuradha and I are joined by a 35-year marketing/data science specialist and executive for numerous Fortune 500 companies, Jim Mauer. He has also been a volunteer political activist for numerous candidate-specific campaigns, but not a party member. We welcome his unique insights. Find co-host, Anuradha's Instagram accounts: @anuradhaduz_food and @artist_anuradhachhibber. Jim is also a professional photographer: jmaurerphoto.com Find us on Patreon at patreon.com/ScandalSheet with bonus content for premium subscribers. We'd love to have your generous support for only the price of one Starbuck's coffee per month. Please reach out to us at scandalsheetpod@gmail.com, find us on Facebook as 'Scandal Sheet' or on X at @scandal_sheet. We'd love to hear from you!

Terrific Video Version: https://bit.ly/4mS3Cmg A modern Shakespearean tragedy? Or Greek? On the occasion of the release a best-selling book on President Joe Biden's last 8 months in office, we decided to examine whether the many accusations on Biden's mental health in the last year of his Presidency hold any water. If they actually do, what does that say about any influential national/global leader's responsibility to step down, when they become physically/mentally impaired? The book we are referencing is entitled, “Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again”. Strangely, it is written by 2 authors who are often identified with the left-of-center press: Jake Tapper from CNN and Alex Thompson of Axios and CNN. Two “lefties” throw a Democrat under the bus???? In its 4 year history, “Scandal Sheet”, has stood by its pledge not to take sides with any running political candidate or sitting office-holder, of either party. We also steer away from contemporary partisan parties or their various policies. But this is not partisan politics. This is a unique scandal -- where loyal supporters, the press, and the general public were allegedly misled on the health of a top political leader. This is bigger than just politics. Former President Biden has been out of office and retired for almost 6 months. We believe the actions of his former administration - and its top insiders - is both fair game and worthy of thoughtful discussion. BUT we WILL NOT discuss or take positions on his policies or those of his political opponents, over his term. Anuradha and I are joined by a 35-year marketing/data science specialist and executive for numerous Fortune 500 companies, Jim Mauer. He has also been a volunteer political activist for numerous candidate-specific campaigns, but not a party member. We welcome his unique insights. Find co-host, Anuradha's Instagram accounts: @anuradhaduz_food and @artist_anuradhachhibber. Jim is also a professional photographer: jmaurerphoto.com Find us on Patreon at patreon.com/ScandalSheet with bonus content for premium subscribers. We'd love to have your generous support for only the price of one Starbuck's coffee per month. Please reach out to us at scandalsheetpod@gmail.com, find us on Facebook as 'Scandal Sheet' or on X at @scandal_sheet. We'd love to hear from you!

With the Nintendo Switch 2 officially released and one in-hand, I give my first impressions on what it's like using the console (very sparingly) and why the Switch 2 Pro controller is a noticeable upgrade over the previous model. If that's not enough excitement, I also talk about the recent PlayStation State of Play and the surprising game that stood out to me most--spoilers: it's Shakespearean. Of course, if those topics don't tickle your fancy, there's always what I've been playing, this week with Starlight Legacy, Polterguys: Possession Party, NanoApostle, Detective From The Crypt, Is This Game Trying to Kill Me?, and Mortisomem. Anyway and as always, thank you for watching or listening, I hope you enjoy this here episode, and I hope you have a wonderful wonderful rest of your day. (And if you haven't already, or are a listener and not a watcher, please like, subscribe, hit the bell, and all that jazz; it may not seem like much, but it goes a long way in helping support the show and site in general. I would appreciate it greatly.)

[School of Movies 2025] One of the most astonishing action epics in cinema history, and almost nobody who saw it managed to do so in the cinema! At least in the West. This historical epic, popularised by Netflix plays extremely fast and loose with the facts, reimagining the lives of two of India's most celebrated revolutionaries to have intersected. RRR tells the story of Komaram Bheem, a man of the Gond Tribe who is searching for a little girl taken from his people by despicable English Colonial Governor Scott Buxton. Worried about the human tsunami inbound, Buxton's awful wife brings in Police Officer Raju to intercept and catch Bheem alive. BUT in Shakespearean fashion, the two under assumed identities unknowingly become firm friends, and as it turns out Raju is secretly trying to climb the ranks and gain access to guns for a revolution, and the best way to do that will be to stop his new brother-in-arms and bring him in for execution. It is a rip-roaring tiger-tale of unbound ferocity, mixed with a refreshingly gentle take on male bonding. It is also of course rather troubling in its political and cultural implications, which we will elaborate upon in this firestorm of a podcast.

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this bonus episode, we're joined by Dr. Kent Lehnhoff to talk about his new book, Voice and Ethics in Shakespeare's Late Plays. Together, we explore how Shakespeare uses the concept and qualities of human voice in The Tempest, Cymbeline, King Lear, Pericles, and The Winter's Tale, how he writes for and about the voice, and beyond that, how embracing the unique voice of each character (and actor) can create a more ethical, inclusive theatre.  About Kent Lehnhof Kent Lehnhof earned a BA from Brigham Young University and a PhD from Duke University. He is Professor of English at Chapman University, where he specializes in early modern literature and culture, especially the works of William Shakespeare. Dr. Lehnhof has published two dozen scholarly articles, has co-edited two essay collections, and is coming out with a new book in October titled Voice and Ethics in Shakespeare's Late Plays. In this book and in many of his articles, Dr. Lehnhof treats Shakespeare's plays like lively enactments of ethical philosophy. He believes that one of the things that makes Shakespeare's work distinctly Shakespearean is its interest in exploring what it's like to be in relation—what it's like to be tied to other people, some of whom love you, some of whom hate you, and some of whom pay you no mind at all. At present, Dr. Lehnhof is finishing a guidebook for Arden Shakespeare called Understanding Shakespeare's Plays: A Candid Companion to All the Drama. This book goes through all the play, one by one, giving an overview of each and offering insights and analysis as to what it offers. Dr. Lehnhof only has six plays left to do, which means he's getting down to the deep cuts. Timon of Athens, anyone? Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: join our email list, follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, buying us coffee, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod (we earn a small commission when you use our link and shop bookshop.org). Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.  Works referenced:  Lehnhof, Kent. Voice and Ethics in Shakespeare's Late Plays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025. Print.

The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown: Song 20 — Neil from Arroyo GrandeHey, it's jD, and this week I'm joined by a die-hard hockey fan and Hip convert who hails from California. Meet Neil from Arroyo Grande, the west coast wizard of late-night YouTube rabbit holes and deep-cut reverence.Neil didn't grow up with The Hip in his backyard. He had to find them — through hockey, through Trailer Park Boys, through a fascination with Canadian culture that led him down a road paved with Gretzky, Jericho, and yes… Gord.We talk about getting into the band via Yer Favourites, chasing context across albums and eras, and how discovering The Hip opened the door to new perspectives on art, identity, and memory. He shares what it's like being an American Hip fan (“Wait, they're not on the radio here?”), and how Phantom Power, Man Machine Poem, and some Gordon Edgar Downie solo magic helped him through hard times — and made the music his own.From WWE finishers to vapor trails to songs that hit like Shakespearean tragedy, this one's for the late bloomers, the lyric heads, and anyone who ever found themselves singing along to a song they didn't fully understand… until they really did.

For the latest Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper, we were joined by the artistic director/producer/performer Venkatesh Vohra, and the performers Amy Frances Quint and Jonathan Morgan, to talk about their latest production of Romeo + Juliet. This new take on the classic Shakespearean tale was so much fun to learn all about. So make sure that you tune in and turn out for this great production!Romeo + JulietJune 12th-June 15th @ The Sheen CenterTickets and more information are available at eventbrite.com And be sure to follow our guests to stay up to date on all their upcoming projects and productions: @no.theatre@romeo_o_julietnotheatre.org amyfrancesquint.com

How do the works of Shakespeare echo the teachings of the Buddha?In this heartfelt talk, Matthew Perifano reflects on the transformative power of language as he intertwines his lifelong love of Shakespeare with his journey through Buddhism and the AIDS epidemic. He begins by framing the dharma as more than just teachings—truth, practice, and a deep refuge—and connects it to the power of Shakespearean language. Matthew highlights how Shakespeare can evoke profound emotional resonance, citing authors and works like Shakespeare Meets the Buddha and The Buddha and the Bard that mirror Eastern thought. He recounts how one particular quote from Cymbeline has echoed through his life: “All other doubts by time, let them be cleared. Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.” This quote, and others, become spiritual companions, much like Buddhist texts.He shares personal stories from his past, including his deep involvement with a Shakespeare reading group and its eventual disbanding. Through grief and loss during the AIDS crisis, Matthew found solace in Shakespeare's sonnets, many of which mirrored his emotional landscape. This culminated in the creation of a musical project—A Shakespeare Garden—telling a poignant love story between two young men in 1980s San Francisco, solely through Shakespeare's words. Matthew sees blank verse as a heartbeat, a meditative rhythm that aligns with Buddhist practice. He closes by reciting stirring lines from The Tempest, capturing impermanence and the dreamlike nature of life, resonating with the first noble truth and the dharma's essence.______________Matthew Perifano (he/him) is a member of the Gay Buddhist Fellowship. He is grateful to be given this opportunity to share his love of Shakespeare and the Dharma with GBF. Shakespeare Dharma recounts his rich and strange journey with Shakespeare that began with a reading group that approached Shakespeare as mind/body practice rather than as theater. Eventually, this reading group would form Birnam Wood Musical Shakespeare Co. and Matthew would discover his facility for setting Shakespeare's verse to music.As Matthew became more knowledgeable about Buddhist Dharma, he discovered connections between Buddhist teachings and the truth about human nature and human existence to be found in the plays and sonnets of Shakespeare. Certain passages have become like sutras to him which he is happy to share with you. Ultimately, on a most profound level, Shakespeare became a refuge of solace and healing during the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic. ______________ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/There you can: Donate Learn how to participate live Find our schedule of upcoming speakers Join our mailing list or discussion forum Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Steven welcomes the return of fellow podcaster and educator John Brooks to this episode to discuss John's experience with teaching the Shakespeare Authorship Mystery to high school freshman as part of their humanities curriculum and analysis of Shakespearean works. Support the show by picking up official Don't Quill the Messenger merchandise at www.dontquillthepodcast.com and becoming a Patron at http://www.patreon.com/dontquillthemessenger  Made possible by Patrons: Clare Jaget, David Neufer, Deduce, Earl Showerman, Edward Henke, Ellen Swanson, Eva Varelas, Frank Lawler, James Warren,  Jen Swan, John Creider, John Eddings, Kara Elizabeth Martin, Richard Wood, Romola, Sandi Boney, Sandi Paulus, Sheila Kethley, Teacher Mallory, Tim Norman, Tim Price, Vanessa Lops, Yvonne Don't Quill the Messenger is a part of the Dragon Wagon Radio independent podcast network. For more great podcasts visit www.dragonwagonradio.com

Mel Gibson's directorial debut, The Man Without a Face, shines in this special Patreon episode of the Mel Gibson Podcast! Join hosts and guest Seann Malloy as they dive into this 1994 character-driven gem, set in the late 1960s in New Harbor, Maine. Explore the touching mentor-student relationship between Justin McLeod (Gibson) and young Chuck, a coming-of-age story filled with Shakespearean nods, family struggles, and small-town prejudice. With stellar performances from Nick Stahl and Margaret Whitton, this underrated film captures timeless themes of trust and redemption. Perfect for fans of heartfelt dramas and Mel Gibson's early directorial work!

Get ready for some Klingon Politics and Shakespearean Vibes! In this episode of Turning Trekkie, Richard and Christel set coordinates for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the final voyage of the original Enterprise crew. Joined once again by returning guests Michael and Debra, this crew dives deep into the political intrigue, Cold War allegories, and unexpected Shakespearean flair that define this iconic film.From General Chang's dramatic monologues to Kirk's evolving views on Klingons, we explore how this movie serves as a poignant and powerful farewell. Whether you're a longtime fan or a new recruit, this episode boldly goes into rich conversation, laughter, and a few surprisingly emotional moments.Grab your Romulan ale and join us as we decode the mystery, the message, and the magic of The Undiscovered Country.

An emotional deep dive into the untold history of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a terrible, racist and transphobic film. Rabia looks at the lives of the three drag queens and one trans woman that it was based on (Cindy Pastel, Strykermeyer, Lady Bump and Carlotta) and the erratic behavour/Shakespearean motivations of troubled writer/director Stephan Elliott. Deep research uncovers a complex story with no clear heroes or villains - a tale as beautiful as it is tragic.  This is a bonus episode that originally appeared on Totally Trans.  Source notes for this episode: WATCH “LADIES PLEASE” ON YOUTUBE HERE “Fact sheet: The sorry rock phenomenon”, Uluru – Kata Tjuta National Park,  “I Love the Nightlife” rehearsal footage with Cindy Pastel, Strykermeyer and Lady Bump – shot on camcorder, outtake from Ladies Please The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert DVD commentary track by Stephan Elliott Al Clark – Making Priscilla (1995) Birth of a Queen documentary on Priscilla DVD Footage of Priscilla premiere aftermath at Cannes 1994 including Stephan introducing “the people it was based on” “'Priscilla' lets director Elliott indulge in his loves for disco and high camp”, Steve Murray, The Atlanta Journal, 26 August 1994 “The drag queens behind Priscilla”, Wendy Tuohy, The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 May 1995 Interview with Carlotta from Stations of the X, 1963 Clip of Carlotta's appearance on Number 96, 1976 “Priscilla party boat, Sydney Harbour, Australia Day 2007” video Damien W. Riggs – Priscilla, (white) queen of the desert (2006) Stephan Elliott Q&A at Austrian Film Museum, 2019 “The real life Priscilla Queen of the Desert”, 60 Minutes Australia “Putting Stamp on role”, Robert W. Butler, Syracuse-Herald Journal, 28 September 1994 Between a Frock and a Hard Place (2015)  

In 1996, Baz Luhrmann took a classic Shakespearean play and modernized it in a way that amazed and delighted movie goers around the world. The soundtrack that accompanied also made waves on the radio and on the charts. This week, Alex Whissell returns to deep dive the songs from this modern literary adaptation's soundtrack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Antonio from "Twelfth Night" is perhaps one of the most studied and talked about minor Shakespearean characters. After playing Antonio in a production, Shayne Cameris developed a one-man show all about the pirate through the lens of queer representation in Shakespeare's work. We talk about his upcoming performance as Antonio with Troy Foundry Theatre at UPH. https://www.troyfoundrytheatre.com/programming

This is a preview of a bonus episode! Check it out on our reasonably-priced Patreon! ----- With a 1950s star-studded cast, Ray Bradbury and John Huston bring us a Shakespearean take on a good, simple tale about a man who hates an animal. Content warning: graphic description of the process of whaling ----- FREE PALESTINE Hey, Devon here. As you well know I've been working with a few gazan families to raise money for their daily living costs in the genocide. Thanks to your incredible generosity, we've been able to raise the money to register Ahmed and his family for evacuation from Gaza. I truly, truly cannot thank you enough. I hope the wait is short and I'm able to tell you that he's safe in Egypt very soon.  Here are three more campaigns from trusted sources. Each of these are for a family that need your help. If you're able to help them out at all, it would mean the world. https://chuffed.org/project/121901-help-mahers-family-with-medical-costs https://chuffed.org/project/128691-help-my-family-evacuate-gaza-war-zone https://chuffed.org/project/130802-help-rashas-family-in-gaza-evacuate-and-live ----- WEB DESIGN ALERT Tom Allen is a friend of the show (and the designer behind our website). If you need web design help, reach out to him here:  https://www.tomallen.media/ Kill James Bond is hosted by November Kelly, Abigail Thorn, and Devon. You can find us at https://killjamesbond.com 

Larry is joined by writer and media executive Mark Whitaker to discuss his newest book ‘The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon's Enduring Impact on America'. They begin their conversation by talking about what inspired Mark to write the book and detailing Malcolm X's Shakespearean life journey from harrowing childhood to celebrated civil rights icon. This leads to a conversation about why both progressives and the modern black conservative movement have championed Malcolm's teachings, and a breakdown of X's relationship with Muhammad Ali (14:47). After the break, Larry and Mark discuss how Alex Haley's posthumous autobiography of Malcolm X came together and examine the role its played in preserving Malcolm's historical significance (32:06). Finally, they end the pod by taking a hard look at the events surrounding Malcolm X's assassination and shining a light on the strength of his cultural legacy against Martin Luther King's (45:02). Host: Larry WilmoreGuest: Mark WhitakerProducers: Brandy LaPlante and Chris Sutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recorded at the most recent ACTC conference, this episode features Michael McShane—educator, writer, and Shakespearean interlocutor—in a wide-ranging discussion of King Lear with both Greg and Alex. The group examine the play's structural and philosophical dimensions, from the politics of authority and the aesthetics of suffering to questions of justice, recognition, and the limits of language. McShane brings a scholarly yet accessible lens to one of Shakespeare's most harrowing tragedies. Plus: the guys turn it over to the crowd and field a range of questions from the audience!

In the early 1600s, cotton fabrics made in India were in high demand throughout Asia and Africa. When the English and Dutch arrived in India and Japan, they realized how popular the fabric was, and they soon began to ship it back to northern Europe. In this episode, we explore how the 'cotton craze' of the 1600s shaped the modern world, and shaped the English language. We also examine the end of the Shakespearean period and the second English dictionary.

Verdi considered this character worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy, and he delivers just that! John Banther and Linda Carducci explore Verdi's masterpiece and show you what to listen for, intricacies of the characters and plot, the banned origin story, and so much more. Support Classical Breakdown: https://weta.org/donatefmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mo Amer (Mo, The Vagabond, Black Adam) is an award-winning comedian and actor. Mo joins the Armchair Expert to discuss feeling anxiety only when there's something unsettled at home, embracing the responsibility of being a comic that's also made a personally and culturally meaningful thing, and the best part of his new show being that he gets to introduce different layers to his story. Mo and Dax talk about his brilliant telecommunications engineer father relocating their family from Palestine to Kuwait, living through the Iraqi invasion that catalyzed the Gulf War, and creating a supportive Sandlot brotherhood that still exists to this day. Mo explains how his teacher encouraging him to do Shakespearean standup rocketed his entry into comedy, performing some of the greatest sets of his life returning to Iraqi war zones, and the emotional rediscovery of long-lost home movies of his family and childhood.Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube or listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Andy Farnsworth joins KSL-TV to help audiences decipher #WhatToWatch for the weekend of May 9, 2025. A colorful palette and an earnest attempt at modernizing the classic Shakespearean tale just weren't enough to make Andy like "Juliet & Romeo.” But he did like watching season 2 of "Poker Face" on Peacock, with Natasha Lyonne returning in the clever murder-of-the-week series with an incredible lineup of guest stars in this new season. Also likable is "Nonnas", the new Vince Vaughn movie on Netflix. It's based on the true story of a guy on Long Island who opened a restaurant with grandmothers as chefs, cooking their favorite dishes for customers. And likeable for people other than Andy, "Fight or Flight" is an incredibly violent and bloody action comedy starring Josh Hartnett.   The brains behind Fan Effect are connoisseurs of categories surpassing nerdy with a goal to publish a weekly "What to Watch on the Weekend" minisode taken from KSL-TV's Friday segment, and two deep-dives a month on shows, creative works, artists, local events, and other fandom topics.  Based in the beautiful beehive state, Fan Effect celebrates Utah's unique fan culture as it has been declared The Nerdiest State in America by TIME, and is hosted by KSL Movie Show's Andy Farnsworth and KSL Podcasts' KellieAnn Halvorsen.  Listen regularly on your favorite platform, at kslnewsradio.com, or on the KSLNewsRadio App. Join the conversation on Facebook @FanEffectShow, or Instagram @FanEffectShow. Fan Effect is sponsored by Megaplex Theatres, Utah's premier movie entertainment company.

To be, or not to be? Aye, there's the central question at the heart of the classic work “Tommy Boy” the 1995 broad comedy starring the late Chris Farley. This movie is more than a work of staggering childish genius. It is also a sophisticated adaptation of “Hamlet,” as in, the Shakespeare one. Joining Tess for a close reading of “Tommy Boy” through a Shakespearean lens is the comedian and podcaster Lisa Chanoux @LisaChanoux. Listen to BBC's “In Our Time: Hamlet” Listen to the Hardcore Literature podcasts' Hamlet episode. Follow Pop Mystery Pod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @popmysterypod Pop Mystery Pod is written and produced by Tess Barker @tesstifybarker. Produced by Tyler Hill. Theme song by Rick Wood @Rickw00d.Support independent pop journalism and join us on Patreon at Pop Mystery Pod. Get access to ad free episodes, bonus content, and polls about upcoming topics. patreon.com/PopMysteryPodFollow Tess's other podcasts Lady to Lady and Toxic: The Britney Spears Story wherever you get your pods. Make sure to leave us a review! And tell a friend about the show! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this mini-episode, we sit down with author Julie Hammonds to discuss her debut novel, Blue Mountain Rose: A Novel in Five Acts. Set against the backdrop of a fictional Shakespeare festival in the Arizona mountains during the 2009 financial crisis, the story follows theater director Richard Keane, company manager Kate Morales, and enigmatic actor Peter Dunmore as they strive to save their beloved open-air stage. Julie shares insights into how Shakespeare's works inspired the novel's structure and themes, the challenges of portraying the behind-the-scenes world of theater, and the enduring relevance of the Bard's plays in times of personal and collective hardship. Whether you're a Shakespeare aficionado, a theater enthusiast, or a lover of character-driven narratives, this conversation offers a compelling look into the intersections of art, community, and resilience. Blue Mountain Rose is now available at booksellers near you and on our Bookshop.com storefront. About Julie Hammonds Julie Hammonds fell in love with Hamlet during a high school trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and has nurtured her passion for Shakespeare ever since. She learned to run a light board on an Army base in South Korea, studied the plays on her own and in school, stage-managed The Winter's Tale and Much Ado About Nothing, and became the founding board president of the Flagstaff Shakespeare Festival. Along the way, she decided to complete the canon as an audience member by seeing Shakespeare's plays performed on as many different stages as she can reach. The quest has taken her from a community hall in Juneau, Alaska, to the noteworthy festivals in Stratford, Ontario, and Cedar City, Utah, to Shakespeare's Globe in London and the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. She has four plays to go. This is her first novel. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: join our email list, follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com You can support the podcast by becoming a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone, buying us coffee, or by shopping our bookshelves at bookshop.org/shop/shakespeareanyonepod (we earn a small commission when you use our link and shop bookshop.org). Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree. Works referenced: Hammonds, Julie C. Blue Mountain Rose: A Novel in Five Acts. Soulstice Publishing, LLC, 2025.  

Much has been made of the hallucinatory qualities of OpenAI's ChatGPT product. But as the Wall Street Journal's resident authority on OpenAI, Keach Hagey notes, perhaps the most hallucinatory feature the $300 billion start-up co-founded by the deadly duo of Sam Altman and Elon Musk is its attempt to be simultaneously a for-profit and non-profit company. As Hagey notes, the double life of this double company reached a surreal climax this week when Altman announced that OpenAI was abandoning its promised for-profit conversion. So what, I asked Hagey, are the implications of this corporate volte-face for investors who have poured billions of real dollars into the non-profit in order to make a profit? Will they be Waiting For Godot to get their returns?As Hagey - whose excellent biography of Altman, The Optimist, is out in a couple of weeks - explains, this might be the story of the hubristic 2020's. She speaks of Altman's astonishingly (even for Silicon Valley) hubris in believing that he can get away with the alchemic conceit of inventing a multi trillion dollar for-profit non-profit company. Yes, you can be half-pregnant, Sam is promising us. But, as she warns, at some point this will be exposed as fantasy. The consequences might not exactly be another Enron or FTX, but it will have ramifications way beyond beyond Silicon Valley. What will happen, for example, if future investors aren't convinced by Altman's fantasy and OpenAI runs out of cash? Hagey suggests that the OpenAI story may ultimately become a political drama in which a MAGA President will be forced to bail out America's leading AI company. It's TikTok in reverse (imagine if Chinese investors try to acquire OpenAI). Rather than the conveniently devilish Elon Musk, my sense is that Sam Altman is auditioning to become the real Jay Gatsby of our roaring twenties. Last month, Keach Hagey told me that Altman's superpower is as a salesman. He can sell anything to anyone, she says. But selling a non-profit to for-profit venture capitalists might even be a bridge too far for Silicon Valley's most hallucinatory optimist. Five Key Takeaways * OpenAI has abandoned plans to convert from a nonprofit to a for-profit structure, with pressure coming from multiple sources including attorneys general of California and Delaware, and possibly influenced by Elon Musk's opposition.* This decision will likely make it more difficult for OpenAI to raise money, as investors typically want control over their investments. Despite this, Sam Altman claims SoftBank will still provide the second $30 billion chunk of funding that was previously contingent on the for-profit conversion.* The nonprofit structure creates inherent tensions within OpenAI's business model. As Hagey notes, "those contradictions are still there" after nearly destroying the company once before during Altman's brief firing.* OpenAI's leadership is trying to position this as a positive change, with plans to capitalize the nonprofit and launch new programs and initiatives. However, Hagey notes this is similar to what Altman did at Y Combinator, which eventually led to tensions there.* The decision is beneficial for competitors like XAI, Anthropic, and others with normal for-profit structures. Hagey suggests the most optimistic outcome would be OpenAI finding a way to IPO before "completely imploding," though how a nonprofit-controlled entity would do this remains unclear.Keach Hagey is a reporter at The Wall Street Journal's Media and Marketing Bureau in New York, where she focuses on the intersection of media and technology. Her stories often explore the relationships between tech platforms like Facebook and Google and the media. She was part of the team that broke the Facebook Files, a series that won a George Polk Award for Business Reporting, a Gerald Loeb Award for Beat Reporting and a Deadline Award for public service. Her investigation into the inner workings of Google's advertising-technology business won recognition from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (Sabew). Previously, she covered the television industry for the Journal, reporting on large media companies such as 21st Century Fox, Time Warner and Viacom. She led a team that won a Sabew award for coverage of the power struggle inside Viacom. She is the author of “The King of Content: Sumner Redstone's Battle for Viacom, CBS and Everlasting Control of His Media Empire,” published by HarperCollins. Before joining the Journal, Keach covered media for Politico, the National in Abu Dhabi, CBS News and the Village Voice. She has a bachelor's and a master's in English literature from Stanford University. She lives in Irvington, N.Y., with her husband, three daughters and dog.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. Full TranscriptAndrew Keen: Hello, everybody. It is May the 6th, a Tuesday, 2025. And the tech media is dominated today by OpenAI's plan to convert its for-profit business to a non-profit side. That's how the Financial Times is reporting it. New York Times says that OpenAI, and I'm quoting them, backtracks on plans to drop nonprofit control and the Wall Street Journal, always very authoritative on the tech front, leads with Open AI abandons planned for profit conversion. The Wall Street Journal piece is written by Keach Hagey, who is perhaps America's leading authority on OpenAI. She was on the show a couple of months ago talking about Sam Altman's superpower which is as a salesman. Keach is also the author of an upcoming book. It's out in a couple weeks, "The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI and the Race to Invent the Future." And I'm thrilled that Keach has been remarkably busy today, as you can imagine, found a few minutes to come onto the show. So, Keach, what is Sam selling here? You say he's a salesman. He's always selling something or other. What's the sell here?Keach Hagey: Well, the sell here is that this is not a big deal, right? The sell is that, this thing they've been trying to do for about a year, which is to make their company less weird, it's not gonna work. And as he was talking to the press yesterday, he was trying to suggest that they're still gonna be able to fundraise, that these folks that they promised that if you give us money, we're gonna convert to a for-profit and it's gonna be much more normal investment for you, but they're gonna get that money, which is you know, a pretty tough thing. So that's really, that's what he's selling is that this is not disruptive to the future of OpenAI.Andrew Keen: For people who are just listening, I'm looking at Keach's face, and I'm sensing that she's doing everything she can not to burst out laughing. Is that fair, Keach?Keach Hagey: Well, it'll remain to be seen, but I do think it will make it a lot harder for them to raise money. I mean, even Sam himself said as much during the talk yesterday that, you know, investors would like to be able to have some say over what happens to their money. And if you're controlled by a nonprofit organization, that's really tough. And what they were trying to do was convert to a new world where investors would have a seat at the table, because as we all remember, when Sam got briefly fired almost two years ago. The investors just helplessly sat on the sidelines and didn't have any say in the matter. Microsoft had absolutely no role to play other than kind of cajoling and offering him a job on the sidelines. So if you're gonna try to raise money, you really need to be able to promise some kind of control and that's become a lot harder.Andrew Keen: And the ramifications more broadly on this announcement will extend to Microsoft and Microsoft stock. I think their stock is down today. We'll come to that in a few minutes. Keach, there was an interesting piece in the week, this week on AI hallucinations are getting worse. Of course, OpenAI is the dominant AI company with their ChatGPT. But is this also kind of hallucination? What exactly is going on here? I have to admit, and I always thought, you know, I certainly know more about tech than I do about other subjects, which isn't always saying very much. But I mean, either you're a nonprofit or you're a for-profit, is there some sort of hallucinogenic process going on where Sam is trying to sell us on the idea that OpenAI is simultaneously a for profit and a nonprofit company?Keach Hagey: Well, that's kind of what it is right now. That's what it had sort of been since 2019 or when it spun up this strange structure where it had a for-profit underneath a nonprofit. And what we saw in the firing is that that doesn't hold. There's gonna come a moment when those two worlds are going to collide and it nearly destroyed the company. To be challenging going forward is that that basic destabilization that like unstable structure remains even though now everything is so much bigger there's so much more money coursing through and it's so important for the economy. It's a dangerous position.Andrew Keen: It's not so dangerous, you seem still faintly amused. I have to admit, I'm more than faintly amused, it's not too bothersome for us because we don't have any money in OpenAI. But for SoftBank and the other participants in the recent $40 billion round of investment in OpenAI, this must be, to say the least, rather disconcerting.Keach Hagey: That was one of the biggest surprises from the press conference yesterday. Sam Altman was asked point blank, is SoftBank still going to give you this sort of second chunk, this $30 billion second chunk that was contingent upon being able to convert to a for-profit, and he said, quite simply, yes. Who knows what goes on in behind the scenes? I think we're gonna find out probably a lot more about that. There are many unanswered questions, but it's not great, right? It's definitely not great for investors.Andrew Keen: Well, you have to guess at the very minimum, SoftBank would be demanding better terms. They're not just going to do the same thing. I mean, it suddenly it suddenly gives them an additional ace in their hand in terms of negotiation. I mean this is not some sort of little startup. This is 30 or 40 billion dollars. I mean it's astonishing number. And presumably the non-public conversations are very interesting. I'm sure, Keach, you would like to know what's being said.Keach Hagey: Don't know yet, but I think your analysis is pretty smart on this matter.Andrew Keen: So if you had to guess, Sam is the consummate salesman. What did he tell SoftBank before April to close the round? And what is he telling them now? I mean, how has the message changed?Keach Hagey: One of the things that we see a little bit about this from the messaging that he gave to the world yesterday, which is this is going to be a simpler structure. It is going to be slightly more normal structure. They are changing the structure a little bit. So although the non-profit is going to remain in charge, the thing underneath it, the for-profit, is going change its structure a little bit and become kind of a little more normal. It's not going to have this capped profit thing where, you know, the investors are capped at 100 times what they put in. So parts of it are gonna become more normal. For employees, it's probably gonna be easier for them to get equity and things like that. So I'm sure that that's part of what he's selling, that this new structure is gonna be a little bit better, but it's not gonna be as good as what they were trying to do.Andrew Keen: Can Sam? I mean, clearly he has sold it. I mean as we joked earlier when we talked, Sam could sell ice to the Laplanders or sand to the Saudis. But these people know Sam. It's no secret that he's a remarkable salesman. That means that sometimes you have to think carefully about what he's saying. What's the impact on him? To what extent is this decision one more chip on the Altman brand?Keach Hagey: It's a setback for sure, and it's kind of a win for Elon Musk, his rival.Andrew Keen: Right.Keach Hagey: Elon has been suing him, Elon has been trying to block this very conversion. And in the end, it seems like it was actually the attorneys general of California and Delaware that really put the nail in the coffin here. So there's still a lot to find out about exactly how it all shook out. There were actually huge campaigns as well, like in the streets, billboards, posters. Polls saying, trying to put pressure on the attorney general to block this thing. So it was a broad coalition, I think, that opposed the conversion, and you can even see that a little bit in their speech. But you got to admit that Elon probably looked at this and was happy.Andrew Keen: And I'm sure Elon used his own X platform to promote his own agenda. Is this an example, Keach, in a weird kind of way of the plebiscitary politics now of Silicon Valley is that titans like Altman and Musk are fighting out complex corporate economic battles in the naked public of social media.Keach Hagey: Yes, in the naked public of social media, but what we're also seeing here is that it's sort of, it's become through the apparatus of government. So we're seeing, you know, Elon is in the Doge office and this conversion is really happening in the state AG's houses. So that's what's sort interesting to me is these like private fights have now expanded to fill both state and federal government.Andrew Keen: Last time we talked, I couldn't find the photo, but there was a wonderful photo of, I think it was Larry Ellison and Sam Altman in the Oval Office with Trump. And Ellison looked very excited. He looked extremely old as well. And Altman looked very awkward. And it's surprising to see Altman look awkward because generally he doesn't. Has Trump played a role in this or is he keeping out of it?Keach Hagey: As far as my current reporting right now, we have no reporting that Trump himself was directly involved. I can't go further than that right now.Andrew Keen: Meaning that you know something that you're not willing to ignore.Keach Hagey: Just I hope you keep your subscription to the Wall Street Journal on what role the White House played, I would say. But as far as that awkwardness, I don't know if you noticed that there was a box that day for Masa Yoshison to see.Andrew Keen: Oh yeah, and Son was in the office too, right, that was the third person.Keach Hagey: So it was a box in the podium, which I think contributed to the awkwardness of the day, because he's not a tall man.Andrew Keen: Right. To put it politely. The way that OpenAI spun it, in classic Sam Altman terms, is new funding to build towards AGI. So it's their Altman-esque use of the public to vindicate this new investment, is this just more quote unquote, and this is my word. You don't have to agree with it. Just sales pitch or might even be dishonesty here. I mean, the reality is, is new funding to build towards AGI, which is, artificial general intelligence. It's not new funding, to build toward AGI. It's new funding to build towards OpenAI, there's no public benefit of any of this, is there?Keach Hagey: Well, what they're saying is that the nonprofit will be capitalized and will sort of be hiring up and doing a bunch more things that it wasn't really doing. We'll have programs and initiatives and all of that. Which really, as someone who studied Sam's life, this sounds really a lot like what he did at Y Combinator. When he was head of Y Combinator, he also spun up a nonprofit arm, which is actually what OpenAI grew out of. So I think in Sam's mind, a nonprofit there's a place to go. Sort of hash out your ideas, it's a place to kind of have pet projects grow. That's where he did things like his UBI study. So I can sort of see that once the AGs are like, this is not gonna happen, he's like, great, we'll just make a big nonprofit and I'll get to do all these projects I've always wanted to do.Andrew Keen: Didn't he get thrown out of Y Combinator by Paul Graham for that?Keach Hagey: Yes, a little bit. You know, I would say there's a general mutiny for too much of that kind of stuff. Yeah, it's true. People didn't love it, and they thought that he took his eye off the ball. A little bit because one of those projects became OpenAI, and he became kind of obsessed with it and stopped paying attention. So look, maybe OpenAI will spawn the next thing, right? And he'll get distracted by that and move on.Andrew Keen: No coincidence, of course, that Sam went on to become a CEO of OpenAI. What does it mean for the broader AI ecosystem? I noted earlier you brought up Microsoft. I mean, I think you've already written on this and lots of other people have written about the fact that the relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft has cooled dramatically. As well as between Nadella and Altman. What does this mean for Microsoft? Is it a big deal?Keach Hagey: They have been hashing this out for months. So it is a big deal in that it will change the structure of their most important partner. But even before this, Microsoft and OpenAI were sort of locked in negotiations over how large and how Microsoft's stake in this new OpenAI will be valued. And that still has to be determined, regardless of whether it's a non-profit or a for-profit in charge. And their interests are diverging. So those negotiations are not as warm as they maybe would have been a few years ago.Andrew Keen: It's a form of polyamory, isn't it? Like we have in Silicon Valley, everyone has sex with everybody else, to put it politely.Keach Hagey: Well, OpenAI does have a new partner in Oracle. And I would expect them to have many more in terms of cloud computing partners going forward. It's just too much risk for any one company to build these huge and expensive data centers, not knowing that OpenAI is going to exist in a certain number of years. So they have to diversify.Andrew Keen: Keach, you know, this is amusing and entertaining and Altman is a remarkable individual, able to sell anything to anyone. But at what point are we really on the Titanic here? And there is such a thing as an iceberg, a real thing, whatever Donald Trump or other manufacturers of ontologies might suggest. At some point, this thing is going to end in a massive disaster.Keach Hagey: Are you talking about the Existence Force?Andrew Keen: I'm not talking about the Titanic, I'm talking about OpenAI. I mean, Parmi Olson, who's the other great authority on OpenAI, who won the FT Book of the Year last year, she's been on the show a couple of times, she wrote in Bloomberg that OpenAI can't have its money both ways, and that's what Sam is trying to do. My point is that we can all point out, excuse me, the contradictions and the hypocrisy and all the rest of it. But there are laws of gravity when it comes to economics. And at a certain point, this thing is going to crash, isn't it? I mean, what's the metaphor? Is it Enron? Is it Sam Bankman-Fried? What kind of examples in history do we need to look at to try and figure out what really is going on here?Keach Hagey: That's certainly one possibility, and there are a good number of people who believe that.Andrew Keen: Believe what, Enron or Sam Bankman-Fried?Keach Hagey: Oh, well, the internal tensions cannot hold, right? I don't know if fraud is even necessary so much as just, we've seen it, we've already seen it happen once, right, the company almost completely collapsed one time and those contradictions are still there.Andrew Keen: And when you say it happened, is that when Sam got pushed out or was that another or something else?Keach Hagey: No, no, that's it, because Sam almost got pushed out and then all of the funders would go away. So Sam needs to be there for them to continue raising money in the way that they have been raising money. And that's really going to be the question. How long can that go on? He's a young man, could go on a very long time. But yeah, I think that really will determine whether it's a disaster or not.Andrew Keen: But how long can it go on? I mean, how long could Sam have it both ways? Well, there's a dream. I mean maybe he can close this last round. I mean he's going to need to raise more than $40 billion. This is such a competitive space. Tens of billions of dollars are being invested almost on a monthly basis. So this is not the end of the road, this $40-billion investment.Keach Hagey: Oh, no. And you know, there's talk of IPO at some point, maybe not even that far away. I don't even let me wrap my mind around what it would be for like a nonprofit to have a controlling share at a public company.Andrew Keen: More hallucinations economically, Keach.Keach Hagey: But I mean, IPO is the exit for investors, right? That's the model, that is the Silicon Valley model. So it's going to have to come to that one way or another.Andrew Keen: But how does it work internally? I mean, for the guys, the sales guys, the people who are actually doing the business at OpenAI, they've been pretty successful this year. The numbers are astonishing. But how is this gonna impact if it's a nonprofit? How does this impact the process of selling, of building product, of all the other internal mechanics of this high-priced startup?Keach Hagey: I don't think it will affect it enormously in the short term. It's really just a question of can they continue to raise money for the enormous amount of compute that they need. So so far, he's been able to do that, right? And if that slows up in any way, they're going to be in trouble. Because as Sam has said many times, AI has to be cheap to be actually useful. So in order to, you know, for it to be widespread, for to flow like water, all of those things, it's got to be cheap and that's going to require massive investment in data centers.Andrew Keen: But how, I mean, ultimately people are putting money in so that they get the money back. This is not a nonprofit endeavor to put 40 billion from SoftBank. SoftBank is not in the nonprofit business. So they're gonna need their money back and the only way they generally, in my understanding, getting money back is by going public, especially with these numbers. How can a nonprofit go public?Keach Hagey: It's a great question. That's what I'm just phrasing. I mean, this is, you know, you talk to folks, this is what's like off in the misty distance for them. It's an, it's a fascinating question and one that we're gonna try to answer this week.Andrew Keen: But you look amused. I'm no financial genius. Everyone must be asking the same question.Keach Hagey: Well, the way that they've said it is that the for-profit will be, will have a, the non-profit will control the for profit and be the largest shareholder in it, but the rest of the shares could be held by public markets theoretically. That's a great question though.Andrew Keen: And lawyers all over the world must be wrapping their hands. I mean, in the very best case, it's gonna be lawsuits on this, people suing them up the wazoo.Keach Hagey: It's absolutely true. You should see my inbox right now. It's just like layers, layers, layer.Andrew Keen: Yeah, my wife. My wife is the head of litigation. I don't know if I should be saying this publicly anyway, I am. She's the head of Litigation at Google. And she lost some of her senior people and they all went over to AI. I'm big, I'm betting that they regret going over there can't be much fun being a lawyer at OpenAI.Keach Hagey: I don't know, I think it'd be great fun. I think you'd have like enormous challenges and have lots of billable hours.Andrew Keen: Unless, of course, they're personally being sued.Keach Hagey: Hopefully not. I mean, look, it is a strange and unprecedented situation.Andrew Keen: To what extent is this, if not Shakespearean, could have been written by some Greek dramatist? To what extend is this symbolic of all the hype and salesmanship and dishonesty of Silicon Valley? And in a sense, maybe this is a final scene or a penultimate scene in the Silicon Valley story of doing good for the world. And yet, of course, reaping obscene profit.Keach Hagey: I think it's a little bit about trying to have your cake and eat it too, right? Trying to have the aura of altruism, but also make something and make a lot of money. And what it seems like today is that if you started as a nonprofit, it's like a black hole. You can never get out. There's no way to get out, and that idea was just like maybe one step too clever when they set it up in the beginning, right. It seemed like too good to be true because it was. And it might end up really limiting the growth of the company.Andrew Keen: Is Sam completely in charge here? I mean, a number of the founders have left. Musk, of course, when you and I talked a couple of months ago, OpenAI came out of conversations between Musk and Sam. Is he doing this on his own? Does he have lieutenants, people who he can rely on?Keach Hagey: Yeah, I mean, he does. He has a number of folks that have been there, you know, a long time.Andrew Keen: Who are they? I mean, do we know their names?Keach Hagey: Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, like Brad Lightcap and Jason Kwon and, you know, just they're they're Greg Brockman, of course, still there. So there are a core group of executives that have that have been there pretty much from the beginning, close to it, that he does trust. But if you're asking, like, is Sam really in control of this whole thing? I believe the answer is yes. Right. He is on the board of this nonprofit, and that nonprofit will choose the board of the for-profit. So as long as that's the case, he's in charge.Andrew Keen: How divided is OpenAI? I mean, one of the things that came out of the big crisis, what was it, 18 months ago when they tried to push him out, was it was clearly a profoundly divided company between those who believed in the nonprofit mission versus the for-profit mission. Are those divisions still as acute within the company itself? It must be growing. I don't know how many thousands of people work.Keach Hagey: It has grown very fast. It is not as acute in my experience. There was a time when it was really sort of a warring of tribes. And after the blip, as they call it, a lot of those more safety focused people, people that subscribe to effective altruism, left or were kind of pushed out. So Sam took over and kind of cleaned house.Andrew Keen: But then aren't those people also very concerned that it appears as if Sam's having his cake and eating it, having it both ways, talking about the company being a non-profit but behaving as if it is a for-profit?Keach Hagey: Oh, yeah, they're very concerned. In fact, a number of them have signed on to this open letter to the attorneys general that dropped, I don't know, a week and a half ago, something like that. You can see a number of former OpenAI employees, whistleblowers and others, saying this very thing, you know, that the AG should block this because it was supposed to be a charitable mission from the beginning. And no amount of fancy footwork is gonna make it okay to toss that overboard.Andrew Keen: And I mean, in the best possible case, can Sam, the one thing I think you and I talked about last time is Sam clearly does, he's not driven by money. There's something else. There's some other demonic force here. Could he theoretically reinvent the company so that it becomes a kind of AI overlord, a nonprofit AI overlord for our 21st century AI age?Keach Hagey: Wow, well I think he sometimes thinks of it as like an AI layer and you know, is this my overlord? Might be, you know.Andrew Keen: As long as it's not made in China, I hope it's made in India or maybe in Detroit or something.Keach Hagey: It's a very old one, so it's OK. But it's really my attention overlord, right? Yeah, so I don't know about the AI overlord part. Although it's interesting, Sam from the very beginning has wanted there to be a democratic process to control what decision, what kind of AI gets built and what are the guardrails for AGI. As long as he's there.Andrew Keen: As long as he's the one determining it, right?Keach Hagey: We talked about it a lot in the very beginning of the company when things were smaller and not so crazy. And what really strikes me is he doesn't really talk about that much anymore. But what we did just see is some advocacy organizations that kind of function in that exact way. They have voters all over the world and they all voted on, hey, we want you guys to go and try to that ended up having this like democratic structure for deciding the future of AI and used it to kind of block what he was trying to do.Andrew Keen: What are the implications for OpenAI's competitors? There's obviously Anthropic. Microsoft, we talked about a little bit, although it's a partner and a competitor simultaneously. And then of course there's Google. I assume this is all good news for the competition. And of course XAI.Keach Hagey: It is good news, especially for a company like XAI. I was just speaking to an XAI investor today who was crowing. Yeah, because those companies don't have this weird structure. Only OpenAI has this strange nonprofit structure. So if you are an investor who wants to have some exposure to AI, it might just not be worth the headache to deal with the uncertainty around the nonprofit, even though OpenAI is like the clear leader. It might be a better bet to invest in Anthropic or XAI or something else that has just a normal for-profit structure.Andrew Keen: Yeah. And it's hard to actually quote unquote out-Trump, Elon Musk on economic subterfuge. But Altman seems to have done that. I mean, Musk, what he folded X into XAI. It was a little bit of controversy, but he seems to got away with it. So there is a deep hostility between these two men, which I'm assuming is being compounded by this process.Keach Hagey: Absolutely. Again, this is a win for Elon. All these legal cases and Elon trying to buy OpenAI. I remember that bid a few months ago where he actually put a number on it. All that was about trying to block the for-profit conversion because he's trying to stop OpenAI and its tracks. He also claims they've abandoned their mission, but it's always important to note that it's coming from a competitor.Andrew Keen: Could that be a way out of this seeming box? Keach, a company like XAI or Microsoft or Google, or that probably wouldn't happen on the antitrust front, would buy OpenAI as maybe a nonprofit and then transform it into a for-profit company?Keach Hagey: Maybe you and Sam should get together and hash that out. That's the kind ofAndrew Keen: Well Sam, I'm available to be hired if you're watching. I'll probably charge less than your current consigliere. What's his name? Who's the consiglieri who's working with him on this?Keach Hagey: You mean Chris Lehane?Andrew Keen: Yes, Chris Lehane, the ego.Keach Hagey: Um,Andrew Keen: How's Lehane holding up in this? Do you think he's getting any sleep?Keach Hagey: Well, he's like a policy guy. I'm sure this has been challenging for everybody. But look, you are pointing to something that I think is real, which is there will probably be consolidation at some point down the line in AI.Andrew Keen: I mean, I know you're not an expert on the maybe sort of corporate legal stuff, but is it in theory possible to buy a nonprofit? I don't even know how you buy a non-profit and then turn it into a for-profit. I mean is that one way out of this, this cul-de-sac?Keach Hagey: I really don't know the answer to that question, to be honest with you. I can't think of another example of it happening. So I'm gonna go with no, but I don't now.Andrew Keen: There are no equivalents, sorry to interrupt, go on.Keach Hagey: No, so I was actually asking a little bit, are there precedents for this? And someone mentioned Blue Cross Blue Shield had gone from being a nonprofit to a for-profit successfully in the past.Andrew Keen: And we seem a little amused by that. I mean, anyone who uses US health care as a model, I think, might regret it. Your book, The Optimist, is out in a couple of weeks. When did you stop writing it?Keach Hagey: The end of December, end of last year, was pencils fully down.Andrew Keen: And I'm sure you told the publisher that that was far too long a window. Seven months on Silicon Valley is like seven centuries.Keach Hagey: It was actually a very, very tight timeline. They turned it around like incredibly fast. Usually it'sAndrew Keen: Remarkable, yeah, exactly. Publishing is such, such, they're such quick actors, aren't they?Keach Hagey: In this case, they actually were, so I'm grateful for that.Andrew Keen: Well, they always say that six months or seven months is fast, but it is actually possible to publish a book in probably a week or two, if you really choose to. But in all seriousness, back to this question, I mean, and I want everyone to read the book. It's a wonderful book and an important book. The best book on OpenAI out. What would you have written differently? Is there an extra chapter on this? I know you warned about a lot of this stuff in the book. So it must make you feel in some ways quite vindicated.Keach Hagey: I mean, you're asking if I'd had a longer deadline, what would I have liked to include? Well, if you're ready.Andrew Keen: Well, if you're writing it now with this news under your belt.Keach Hagey: Absolutely. So, I mean, the thing, two things, I guess, definitely this news about the for-profit conversion failing just shows the limits of Sam's power. So that's pretty interesting, because as the book was closing, we're not really sure what those limits are. And the other one is Trump. So Trump had happened, but we do not yet understand what Trump 2.0 really meant at the time that the book was closing. And at that point, it looked like Sam was in the cold, you know, he wasn't clear how he was going to get inside Trump's inner circle. And then lo and behold, he was there on day one of the Trump administration sharing a podium with him announcing that Stargate AI infrastructure investment. So I'm sad that that didn't make it into the book because it really just shows the kind of remarkable character he is.Andrew Keen: He's their Zelig, but then we all know what happened to Woody Allen in the end. In all seriousness, and it's hard to keep a straight face here, Keach, and you're trying although you're not doing a very good job, what's going to happen? I know it's an easy question to ask and a hard one to answer, but ultimately this thing has to end in catastrophe, doesn't it? I use the analogy of the Titanic. There are real icebergs out there.Keach Hagey: Look, there could be a data breach. I do think that.Andrew Keen: Well, there could be data breaches if it was a non-profit or for-profit, I mean, in terms of this whole issue of trying to have it both ways.Keach Hagey: Look, they might run out of money, right? I mean, that's one very real possibility. They might run outta money and have to be bought by someone, as you said. That is a totally real possibility right now.Andrew Keen: What would happen if they couldn't raise any more money. I mean, what was the last round, the $40 billion round? What was the overall valuation? About $350 billion.Keach Hagey: Yeah, mm-hmm.Andrew Keen: So let's say that they begin to, because they've got, what are their hard costs monthly burn rate? I mean, it's billions of just.Keach Hagey: Well, the issue is that they're spending more than they are making.Andrew Keen: Right, but you're right. So they, let's say in 18 months, they run out of runway. What would people be buying?Keach Hagey: Right, maybe some IP, some servers. And one of the big questions that is yet unanswered in AI is will it ever economically make sense, right? Right now we are all buying the possibility of in the future that the costs will eventually come down and it will kind of be useful, but that's still a promise. And it's possible that that won't ever happen. I mean, all these companies are this way, right. They are spending far, far more than they're making.Andrew Keen: And that's the best case scenario.Keach Hagey: Worst case scenario is the killer robots murder us all.Andrew Keen: No, what I meant in the best case scenario is that people are actually still without all the blow up. I mean, people are actual paying for AI. I mean on the one hand, the OpenAI product is, would you say it's successful, more or less successful than it was when you finished the book in December of last year?Keach Hagey: Oh, yes, much more successful. Vastly more users, and the product is vastly better. I mean, even in my experience, I don't know if you play with it every day.Andrew Keen: I use Anthropic.Keach Hagey: I use both Claude and ChatGPT, and I mean, they're both great. And I find them vastly more useful today than I did even when I was closing the book. So it's great. I don't know if it's really a great business that they're only charging me $20, right? That's great for me, but I don't think it's long term tenable.Andrew Keen: Well, Keach Hagey, your new book, The Optimist, your new old book, The Optimist: Sam Altman, Open AI and the Race to Invent the Future is out in a couple of weeks. I hope you're writing a sequel. Maybe you should make it The Pessimist.Keach Hagey: I think you might be the pessimist, Andrew.Andrew Keen: Well, you're just, you are as pessimistic as me. You just have a nice smile. I mean, in all reality, what's the most optimistic thing that can come out of this?Keach Hagey: The most optimistic is that this becomes a product that is actually useful, but doesn't vastly exacerbate inequality.Andrew Keen: No, I take the point on that, but in terms of this current story of this non-profit versus profit, what's the best case scenario?Keach Hagey: I guess the best case scenario is they find their way to an IPO before completely imploding.Andrew Keen: With the assumption that a non-profit can do an IPO.Keach Hagey: That they find the right lawyers from wherever they are and make it happen.Andrew Keen: Well, AI continues its hallucinations, and they're not in the product themselves. I think they're in their companies. One of the best, if not the best authority, our guide to all these hallucinations in a corporate level is Keach Hagey, her new book, The Optimist: Sam Altman, Open AI and the Race to Invent the Future is out in a couple of weeks. Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Sam Altman as the consummate salesman. And I think one thing we can say for sure, Keach, is this is not the end of the story. Is that fair?Keach Hagey: Very fair. Not the end of the story. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Prince Hamlet collides with Śrīmad Bhāgavatam in this mind-bending episode on the illusion of “good and bad.” Raghunath and Kaustubha explore Bhakti Yoga, mental programming, and the transformative power of staying steady amid life's chaos. They unpack a verse that flips the spiritual script: liberation doesn't require a cave—it requires clarity. With vegan cheesecake hangovers, Tom Sawyer tricks, and a dose of Shakespearean angst, this episode reveals how kings lived as yogis—and how your own messy, modern life can become sacred ground for spiritual evolution. Key Highlights: •⁠  ⁠“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” — Hamlet (and basically the Bhāgavatam too) •⁠  ⁠Why your mind is a meaning-making machine—and how that distorts reality •⁠  ⁠Eastern philosophy says good and bad are illusions—here's what that really means •⁠  ⁠The Bhagavad-gītā's bold message: you can transcend duality without renouncing your responsibilities •⁠  ⁠How tolerance is the first quality of a true sadhu or yogi •⁠  ⁠Why red isn't good, blue isn't bad, and Denmark is just a mindset

We continue through Chris's second hand DVD collection with another film that, unbelievably, also has no direct involvement with Roger Corman. It's 1999's The Prince and the Surfer, which barely involves any surfing at all. Cash Canty (Sean Kellman) is a, and I cannot stress this enough, SKATEBOARD (not surfer) kid who spends his days as Southern California teenagers in films like this typically do: hanging out by the half pipe, saying "whatever" to his friends, not going to school. But after breaking into a swanky hotel, he finds a young prince of the made up country of Gelfland is his exact double! To adhere to the Twain plot, they switch places and then do... stuff. Prince Edward (also Kellman) hangs out with Cash's friends, including the pigtailed Mel (Linda Cardellini). Meanwhile Cash goes about seducing Edward's betrothed Galina (Katie Johnson). But the queen's evil vizier Kratski (Robert Englund) has ulterior motives for the visit to the United States. He wants to sell Gelfland to a mini-golf empire and turn it into Golfland. Also, Cash's dad Johnny (Timothy Bottoms, who is uncredited because they forgot to credit him) falls in love with Queen Albertina (Jennifer O'Neill). It's all very Shakespearean, except nothing really happens at the end and instead of a mass wedding we get a rushed epilogue read by some surfer dude to try to convince us this movie had anything to do with surfing. And for whatever reason, in the Tubi version Jon Voight appears in a poorly mic'd intro where he says he wants to see more modern Mark Train adaptations because he is a "concerned father." Lol.

We see who's been up the longest, Bailey insults us in Shakespearean, and more!

We see who's been up the longest, Bailey insults us in Shakespearean, and more!

Vengeance is such a core human urge that there are hundreds and thousands of parables and plays and stories warning us about what a dangerous path it is. In the classic Shakespearean tragedy, Hamlet destroyed himself and the entire Danish royal family in the name of revenge. Francis Bacon wrote “A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green.” Today's story is a good reminder that if you seek revenge, you should dig two graves. Join Katie and Whitney, plus the hosts of Last Podcast on the Left, Sinisterhood, and Scared to Death, on the very first CRIMEWAVE true crime cruise! Get your fan code now--tickets are on sale now: CrimeWaveatSea.com/CAMPFIRESources:Crime Traveler, Fiona Guy: https://www.crimetraveller.org/2024/12/fiona-beal-murder-case/The Independent, Amy Clare Martin: https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/crime/fiona-beal-murder-trial-sentence-teacher-b2553200.htmlBBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-68846713NN Journal, Sarah Ward: https://www.nnjournal.co.uk/p/im-not-a-total-monster-i-know-whatEmma Kenny, YouTube channel: Respected Teacher Conned Boyfriend Into Deadly Sex GameFollow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enTwitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: truecrimecampfirepod@gmail.comMERCH! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.