Podcasts about White lotus

We've been fans of Murray Bartlett's for years, so it was an absolute delight to talk to him on this week's EXQUISITE episode! Now you know Murray from a million things, as the Emmy Award-winning supporting actor from The White Lotus, as well as from The Last of Us, Welcome to Chippendales, Looking, Nine Perfect Strangers and so much more including the wonderful Apple TV+ show Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (starring former guest Tatiana Maslany!), which just finished its first season! This is just a small sampling of Murray's CV, but today we're getting to know the real person behind the roles, and folks, he's a joy! We talk about Perth in the 1980s, moving across Australia to live with his first boyfriend, acting as a doorway to flawed self-perception as well as therapy as a tool to fix one's perception of oneself, and SO MUCH MORE! PLUS, obvi, we answer YOUR advice questions! If you'd like to ask your own advice questions, call 323-524-7839 and leave a VM or just DM us on IG or Twitter!BUY A SUPER CUTE "Open Your Hearts, Loosen Your Butts" mug! Also, we're in culture critic and Vulture writer Sean Malin's book The Podcast Pantheon: 101 Podcasts That Changed How We Listen! And:Support the show on Patreon (two extra exclusive episodes a month!) or gift someone a Patreon subscription! Or get yourself a t-shirt or a discounted Quarantine Crew shirt! And why not leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts? Or Spotify? It takes less than a minute! Follow the show on Instagram! Check out some CT clips on YouTube!Plus some other stuff! Watch Naomi's Netflix half hour or Mythic Quest! Check out Andy's old casiopop band's lost album or his other podcast Beginnings!Theme song by the great Sammus! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emmy-winning actor Murray Bartlett joins Kevin Fallon to talk about his thrilling new series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, the unforgettable success of The White Lotus, and why there's still hope for a return to Mike White's hit HBO drama. He also reflects on filming one of television's most beloved love stories in The Last of Us, breaking stereotypes through LGBTQ+ representation, behind-the-scenes secrets from his most shocking scenes, and the surprising impact his work continues to have on audiences around the world. Follow Kevin Fallon on Instagram ⁠@kpfallon⁠ Follow Matt Wilstein on Instagram ⁠@mattjwilstein⁠ Follow Obsessed on Instagram ⁠⁠@beastobsessed Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We switch to sunnier climes this week, to a posh hotel in Sicily. It’s where the TV series White Lotus was filmed, and it’s also where our colleagues at The Australian Financial Review spotted One Nation leader Pauline Hanson poolside with billionaire Gina Rinehart. So what’s Hanson doing in Europe? In today’s episode, host Jacqueline Maley and chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal talk about who Hanson met overseas and how that plays for voters back home in Australia. Also, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave a landmark speech this week about the government’s approach to AI.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Friday Headlines: Bianca Jones’ father calls on Albanese to intervene over inadequate methanol poisoning charges Iran launches fresh attacks on Gulf states as US strikes ship attempting to breach blockade Second case of bird flu detected in NSW Smoking rates hit historic low across Australia Pauline Hanson and Gina Rinehart spotted at White Lotus hotel Deep Dive: Is Australia a world leader on AI? Anthony Albanese wants you to think so – he gave a speech last week in the Great Hall at The University of Sydney, where he implied that new Australian AI regulations could set a global benchmark – similar to superannuation and the social media ban. Today we’re looking at Labor’s AI plan, and whether it really is a world-leading attempt to curb the harms of AI and harness its potential. What’s right with the plan, and what’s missing? Joining The Briefing is AI expert Professor Toby Walsh, Chief Scientist of the Artificial Intelligence Institute at the University of New South Wales. Further listening from the headlines: Why smoking is ‘cool’ again Follow The Briefing: TikTok: @thebriefingpodInstagram: @thebriefingpodcast YouTube: @TheBriefingPodcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We switch to sunnier climes this week, to a posh hotel in Sicily. It’s where the TV series White Lotus was filmed, and it’s also where our colleagues at The Australian Financial Review spotted One Nation leader Pauline Hanson poolside with billionaire Gina Rinehart. So what’s Hanson doing in Europe? In today’s episode, host Jacqueline Maley and chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal talk about who Hanson met overseas and how that plays for voters back home in Australia. Also, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave a landmark speech this week about the government’s approach to AI.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Een vakantiethriller vol zon, zee en geheimen. Voor fans van Suzanne Vermeer en The White Lotus. Uitgegeven door Heartbeat Spreker: Amber Tomas

Zijn we superheldenfilms langzaam zat aan het worden? We duiken in de discussie rondom Supergirl en vragen ons af of het publiek steeds vaker kiest voor iets anders.Daarnaast hebben we het over:Toy Story 5 – heeft Pixar nog magie over?Scary Movie – kan de comeback werken in 2026?The White Lotus – waarom blijft iedereen hierover praten?De groei van horrorfilms en of horror misschien wel de nieuwe blockbuster is geworden.En natuurlijk nog veel meer film- en serienieuws.Luister nu en laat weten: zijn we superheldenfilms moe, of hebben ze gewoon betere verhalen nodig?#PvoorPodcast #Supergirl #ToyStory5 #ScaryMovie #WhiteLotus #FilmPodcast

My guest is Kurt Johnson Co-author of The Moon Tavern, A Culinary Love Story With Recipes. The Moon Tavern takes the reader on a romantic and culinary journey through the Islands of Croatia, where dark family secrets are revealed, quirky friends and relatives are found, and love is discovered.Vesna, or Ves, is a cookbook writer from Minneapolis who travels to the remote, exotic island of Lastovo off Croatia's Mediterranean coast to reconnect with her biological grandmother. She'd been adopted as a young child after her parents died in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. Ves is also fleeing a frayed relationship with her live-in partner, Reed.In Lastovo, she meets Dinko, a single, handsome, and wealthy vineyard owner, and his cute daughter Mia. With his help with the translation, Ves discovers her biological family's history and the dark secrets of what happened during the war. Romance, travel, and cooking ensue. She ultimately learns what matters most to her: simplicity in life, closeness with family, and someone to share love with. And, of course, food!Stephanie [00:00:00]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast where we talk to people in the food space and other spaces. All the spaces of all the fun things. Kurt is my spouse, Kurt Johnson, and also the co author of the Moon Tavern, a culinary romance with recipes. It is a fiction book that is available on your bookshelf now. Welcome to the podcast, Kurt.Kurt Johnson [00:00:22]:Hi, thanks for having me.Stephanie [00:00:24]:Thanks for having us. The idea that we should work on a book together. I am, as many of you listening know, a cookbook writer and my husband is a fiction writer. And somewhere along the way, we decided that maybe it would be good to collaborate together. Kurt, was it you or me that had the idea first? I think it was you.Kurt Johnson [00:00:42]:Yeah, probably. I was kind of done with my past book writing about Las Vegas and looking for something different. And we'd been traveling a lot, so going to Croatia, going to Italy, going out west, going to Turkey. So I wanted to incorporate travel with a novel, and I also wanted to incorporate food. And so I thought this would be a lot of fun. Since we're traveling together, we have those shared experiences and you have the food experience and the food writing experience. So I thought it'd be a fun collaboration. And I've always liked the idea of love stories.Kurt Johnson [00:01:18]:Even my thriller books in Las Vegas had kind of a love story element. And it adds a dimension to a novel that, I don't know, makes it cohesive, makes it pull together in an emotional arc that's kind of fulfilling in the end.Stephanie [00:01:33]:Do you think you're a romantic at heart, or what is it about romances that are fun to write for you?Kurt Johnson [00:01:39]:Maybe I'm a romance at heart. I may be more stoic than that, though. I just. I like the idea of seeing people get together, seeing people enjoy the same interests and finding people that can fall in love. Of course, that's always the fun part. The hard part is once you get married and move on from there and have to deal with kids and daily life and work and all the other things that go with living life. And that's not that much fun to write.Stephanie [00:02:07]:Yeah, exactly. We as a couple, I think I can speak for me and you maybe on this one. We've always had great experiences traveling. We are good traveling companions. We like the spirit of adventure. Did you know that Croatia would be the spot for the first fiction endeavor?Kurt Johnson [00:02:24]:Yeah, that was a given since we'd been there five times and four times running a sailboat and visiting the islands. And as you know, Stephanie, I'm just enamored with those islands, I think they're so beautiful. And there was one island we discovered out there, Lastovo, which is the furthest island out. So a lot of the sailors and tourists just never get there. They stay closer to shore. So, you know, going out there the first time, this beautiful bay of Zachlopedia, where, you know, it's a, it's a protective cove which is beautiful turquoise water. And then taking the dinghy in, and then you walk up this path, I think it's about a two mile hike. And then you go over this ridge and this 16th, 15th century town opens up.Kurt Johnson [00:03:10]:You know, at one point maybe it had 10,000 residents. And, and it, it, when we first saw it, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago, it was abandoned. So it was a ghost town of 15th century buildings and churches and apartments in this beautiful valley of lush green foliage. So that's very picturesque. We had an incredible meal there of just simple anchovies and blitfa. And for you, for you people out there that don't know, blitfa is ubiquitous in Croatia. And it's, it's just spring potatoes with Swiss chard, but it's served with everything.Stephanie [00:03:52]:It is served with everything. And they sometimes have spinach, sometimes have like another type of green, but it's sort of like the potatoes are cooked till they're pretty soft, and then it's kind of mashed in a little bit. So it's not fully a mashed potato and it's not fully a roasted potato. It's sort of a combination of both. But it is good.Kurt Johnson [00:04:12]:Yeah, so, yeah, that's so, you know, it seemed such an exotic place, the island of Lastovo in Croatia, that it was a natural to place it there.Stephanie [00:04:23]:Can you tell a little bit of just an introduction of the story, like what people will find when they crack open the book?Kurt Johnson [00:04:30]:Sure. It's about Vesna, who is. Has a breakup with her live in boyfriend, and they'd had a restaurant. She was a chef, a cookbook authority, and had a restaurant, not unlike my dear wife Stephanie. And she has a breakup and she leaves Minneapolis to go to Croatia to uncover her. Her heritage. She had been adopted from Croatia, specifically Dubrovnik, when her parents died in the Serb bombing of Dubrovnik in 1991. So she was adopted out of there and raised in Minnesota.Kurt Johnson [00:05:05]:So then she goes to Croatia and rediscovers her dark family secrets and meets Dinko Radek, who is a winery owner, and, you know, romance ensues. But she has a life still back in Minneapolis that she has to go back to and resolve.Stephanie [00:05:24]:When we talked about putting this first concept together, you know, I see the world through food. Like, literally everything in sort of my life is framed by a meal, an experience, just the way that I see the world. It's always around food, celebrations. And so did you know that that would work for this Croatia book? Because I didn't. When you first brought it up, I was like, I can't be a Croatian grandma here. And writing recipes about what at the time I perceived as, like, dumplings.Kurt Johnson [00:05:53]:Yeah, I wasn't sure either, frankly. You know, so each chapter, there's 25 chapters, and each chapter in it has a description of cooking. And it's all Croatia cooking, Croatia recipes. You know, all food we at over the years where we were there. And then the idea of tagging on recipes was just kind of bringing it home. Like, here's the Croatia experience. Now here's how Stephanie would bring that back to the real world, which is here in the United States.Stephanie [00:06:21]:We have talked about doing a series of books. What is it about this genre that you think lends itself to other titles and other characters?Kurt Johnson [00:06:29]:Well, you know, it's an adventure book on one level, and there's always new places to visit. So the next book is based in Panza, Italy, where we've been a couple times. And it's this beautiful island off the coast of Italy in the Mediterranean. And, you know, Italian food. You go to Italy and what you remember is the pizza in Naples or the. The pasta in Rome and. And the busteca up in the hills. So, you know, a way to experience a place is.Kurt Johnson [00:07:04]:Is through food. And I like writing about new settings. You know, it. It's not as interesting writing about Minnesota,Stephanie [00:07:11]:but you've written a lot about Las Vegas. You've had how many books about Las Vegas? Three.Kurt Johnson [00:07:16]:Yeah, three. You know, two of the. Of kind of a thriller in. Two thrillers in a series, and then a book about RVing that ends up in. In Las Vegas. And Las Vegas is a interesting place, and I lived there for five years running nightclubs and restaurants. And so two of the books are Underbelly of Las Vegas, which I was a part of in the nightclub scene back in the late 80s. So that's just flat out fun to write about.Kurt Johnson [00:07:39]:And Las Vegas is such a weirdo place that it's fun to bring that to life.Stephanie [00:07:45]:It's interesting to hear you talk about that. The way you choose your stories is about place, because the first book, the Barrens, that you wrote with our Daughter Ellie, inspired by her experiences as a canoe camper in the tundra. That's also based in Place, too. Place is sort of what starts you on these journeys. It seems like, yeah, you know something,Kurt Johnson [00:08:07]:you threw me a curveball because I never really thought about it. But you're exactly right.Stephanie [00:08:12]:All.Kurt Johnson [00:08:12]:All these books start off with a setting, with a place, and then, you know, the plots revolve around. Around that. And there's just so many. So many different. There's a finite number of, really, plots you can choose from. It's kind of like a piano keyboard has all the. The notes that you want to make up a. A music piece the same way with plot structures.Kurt Johnson [00:08:34]:And so to take it to the next level, you really have to search out characters, and the characters are in a setting, so those two are inexplicably, Inextricably. Inextricably linked. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, the two go hand in hand. So character and place really can set a novel apart.Stephanie [00:08:59]:Can you think of other books that you've written or. Excuse me. No, not that you've written, that you've read. Where Place sort of started you off on this adventure?Kurt Johnson [00:09:07]:Yeah, probably. I really love Beautiful Ruins.Stephanie [00:09:11]:Jess Walters.Kurt Johnson [00:09:13]:Walters, yeah. And that starts off in Italy, kind of near Cinque de Terre. And it's kind of the poor version of Cinque de Terre, where the tourists don't go. And it was such a fascinating story. And then they bring that all back to Hollywood in America, and it just works so well. But what really captures your imagination is the description of this little seaside community. Before the whole plot takes over, IStephanie [00:09:41]:kind of think about that book. The Embarrassment of Mangoes.Kurt Johnson [00:09:44]:Yeah.Stephanie [00:09:44]:When you and I first started sailing and going on these adventures, we read that book. It was about a couple that buys a boat and sails through the Caribbean, and she is discovering spices and fruits and vegetables and things that she's never eaten before. And I just loved that book. It was really what got me into sailing and thinking about how to make that our life and whether or not, you know, we could buy a boat and do that. And that boat really had a huge setting of place. Can you think of, like. I don't know. When I think of other books, there's very few books that I think about character first.Stephanie [00:10:19]:I usually always think about the place. Maybe that's just something.Kurt Johnson [00:10:22]:Or the plot, too. Yeah, they're all just linked together. And you don't think about. Well, you were saying you don't think about character as much.Stephanie [00:10:31]:Not really.Kurt Johnson [00:10:32]:Yeah, it's funny. I think, you know, the best books people say are character driven, but they're inexplicable. What's the word again?Stephanie [00:10:41]:Inextricably.Kurt Johnson [00:10:43]:Inextricably. Trouble with that. Linked. So, you know, you pick a place and you pick a plot and then you build these characters. The characters have to build around that plot and so they kind of naturally flow. And, and I, I think they, if they're well written and honest, you shouldn't think of them. You know, they're interesting characters and you'll say, you know, this is Rabbit and the Rabbit series. And you'll know, but you won't say, oh, that's just a great character.Kurt Johnson [00:11:10]:I, I, I don't know that I certainly, you know, I'm probably deep into it and I look at the craft a lot so I can see where somebody has really spent some time to develop an honest character or where, you know, the narrative voice comes through and, and a character comes to life through this first person narrative voice. So I see that a lot moreStephanie [00:11:30]:people have a real, like they can't believe you can write a book. Like the idea of the literal act of sitting down and writing and how that works. People fantasize about writing it, but then very few people do. What was it that got you over the hump from thinking about writing it to actually sitting down and doing it?Kurt Johnson [00:11:47]:Well, selling our business and all of a sudden being able to free up time. Because for me, novel writing and I think was it Chrisham talked about, you know, writing at 5 in the morning before he goes to work at 7. I just couldn't do that. You know, I just, I'm very focused on one thing and, and so I needed to free up my time from work in order to get going. And then it was, can you put together, you know, a thousand or fifteen hundred words every day so that it links up into a novel and have that, not only that, that discipline, but also have the creative juices to produce scenes almost every day because, you know, like a, a good novel is created from 50 scenes. So I went from, you know, writing a memoir that I probably won't publish just to see if I can get, you know, a thousand words every day and put this together to then writing Las Vegas turnaround. And there I, I, I really just copied a lot of plot structures that I saw that I liked. And so it was easier for me to set up main characters, set up tertiary characters, subplots, because I had a blueprint from somebody else.Kurt Johnson [00:12:56]:And then, and then once, you know, you Keep writing. You get muscle memory for it and it becomes more, more natural and actually more fun because it becomes more organic. You'll follow characters through a town and they'll meet somebody and all of a sudden that person becomes a character in their universe and they say something and all of a sudden that takes off and you have to follow it. Now, you know, the woman's gonna fall in love with a guy at the end. But getting there is the fun part. And now I can do that a lot more organically.Stephanie [00:13:27]:If you are talking to any aspiring novel writers, what kind of advice do you have for them to get started?Kurt Johnson [00:13:34]:Well, you know, you gotta lower your expectations just because publishing is so hard, you know.Stephanie [00:13:39]:Can you elaborate on that?Kurt Johnson [00:13:41]:Well, you know, there's maybe two or three or 400 agents, most of them in New York City and they're all trying to make a buck. And it's hard to make a buck off a debut writer. It helps if you're MFA and you're writing in a genre because, you know, let's say 70% of the books are read by women and 70% of those are romances. And then men, the other 30%, probably 80% of what they read are, you know, thrillers or mysteries. So if you can pick a genre, that always helps. But yeah, it, you have to be more thoughtful about it. And I think, I think so many first time writers, you know, once they get the discipline and put, put the, the words on a page, they write that first personal novel, you know, and I wrote my memoir and it's, it's really 90% of those, they, you know, people have the, they aspire for the great American novel and it's too personal, it's too close to home. They can't break out from the reality of their lives to have fun with the plot and make things happen.Kurt Johnson [00:14:45]:So a lot of times these books, nothing happens. They're deeply emotional books where nothing happens and they're, they're excruciatingly boring. So you gotta get past that phase and then you gotta look at it as a, as a craft. And, you know, a big chunk of it's art, of course, whatever you wanna call that, you know, shedding light on the human experience. But a big chunk is craft. And I don't think you can get to the craft for most people in that first book. So you gotta keep writing, you know, and realize that the first couple books may not get published. So, you know, the barons got published.Kurt Johnson [00:15:21]:That was one, two, that was my third, fourth book, you know, and the, and two, the, the first three, two of them were duds that will never be published.Stephanie [00:15:31]:Yeah. Yeah. All right, well, it's good to chat with you about the book. We are in the marketing process of the book. I feel like books come in three waves. One is the idea that you're thinking about it. The second, the actual writing of it. And then the third is actual the marketing of it.Stephanie [00:15:48]:What do you think's the hardest part?Kurt Johnson [00:15:49]:Well, I mean, it's. The hardest part's finding an agent and finding a publisher. Then if you self publish, the hardest part is marketing. And at least it is for me because writing is so natural and fun for me. But I think for most people, you know, the writing's a hard part. And, and you know, like the Minnesota writer o', Brien, he hates writing, so he forces himself. Tim o'. Brien.Kurt Johnson [00:16:12]:So he forces himself to get those books out there. So probably that's the hardest part for him.Stephanie [00:16:17]:We had, I had a cookbook, two cookbooks out and I had a publisher, but they didn't publish this book because it was a fiction book. I think some people just assume like, oh, well, they've already had books out, but we self published this book. Why did we make that decision from your standpoint?Kurt Johnson [00:16:33]:Well, we couldn't get an A list agent or a New York publisher. There's just not, it comes off as almost a debut book and it's hard for them to make any money. So if you can't get an A lister, then you're, you know, stuck with boutique publishing companies and others and, and they just don't support the marketing of your book. And I've self published books in the past, so I know how to do it. I know how to put a professional product out there. And, and we can, you know, both of us are marketers and, and Stephanie has a large platform, so we can do a lot of our own marketing or, or outsource it, you know, but still we retain most of the profits. So when we do the marketing, we can reinvested or keep those profits.Stephanie [00:17:17]:Yeah, I, when you say profits, it sounds like there's a lot there. I'd like to, I mean, I mean,Kurt Johnson [00:17:22]:maybe, maybe we broke it even at this point, but then now we're looking at a marketing PR firm that's going to set us back another $5,000. But you know, if, if these books succeed and somebody makes a lot of money, it's the, it's the third, you know, book that's going to put them over the top. It's not the first.Stephanie [00:17:40]:I have this idea too that we're going to write these books and then sooner or later someone's going to turn them into a T series because it's going to be like the White Lotus where each season is a different location and a different cast of characters, but sort of the general premise is sort of the same.Kurt Johnson [00:17:56]:I hope so. You know, I hope an A list agent comes along and, and frees us from our servitude or whatever. And, but, and yeah, you know, there's, there's plenty of stories of self published authors that, that get deals or even boutique. Boutique authors that get deals. So you know, we can dream.Stephanie [00:18:16]:One thing that I'd like the listener to hear is what their part is in this because we've. I was leaving the coffee shop today. We're in Ely. That is the vacation backgrounds. But.Kurt Johnson [00:18:25]:Right.Stephanie [00:18:25]:I was leaving the coffee shop today and a woman stopped me and said, Stephanie, I had the opportunity to read the Moon Tavern. It's so good. I loved it so much. And she's telling me about it and telling her friend. And I have that experience a lot where people have really, really enjoyed this book. And I just want the listener to know that leaving reviews on Goodreads or Amazon or Barnes and Noble or wherever you bought the book or if you can' find a book, asking for it at your local bookseller. Cause they can always order it when you're self published. The more buzz you can create about these books, the better chance that someone will hear about it, someone will buy it and eventually a publisher, if they hear about a book and they like it, then they may pick it up.Stephanie [00:19:03]:So I think if you like what you're reading and you want to see more of this type of work in the world and books that you like, that's something that you can do to help us out.Kurt Johnson [00:19:13]:Yes, a 5 on Amazon or top rating on any other Goodreads is good too. Yeah, it's, it's all, it's all good. So yes, those, those help a lot. Just because the more reviews you can get and the more five star reviews you get, the more people will pick up the book, the more buzz you'll get. So yeah, so it helps us immeasurably.Stephanie [00:19:35]:Another thing before we wrap up here, someone asked me about the Cover of the book. Do you want to talk about how you picked the artwork?Kurt Johnson [00:19:41]:Yeah, I was pretty much online Xee Reider, she's in St. Paul and she's a muralist mostly. And I really liked the look that she had. So I reached out to her, and she did the original artwork, and then each chapter ends with a recipe, and there's a pen and ink drawing, and she did those. And I really think that adds another level to the book. And I love a beautiful cover.Stephanie [00:20:10]:Yeah, the cover is really nice. She did a great job. All right, well, that is it for this episode of the podcast. Just want to chat with you and give people a little background. Thanks for being a guest. Stephanie Hansen's @StephaniesDish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe

My guest is Kurt Johnson Co-author of The Moon Tavern, A Culinary Love Story With Recipes. The Moon Tavern takes the reader on a romantic and culinary journey through the Islands of Croatia, where dark family secrets are revealed, quirky friends and relatives are found, and love is discovered.Vesna, or Ves, is a cookbook writer from Minneapolis who travels to the remote, exotic island of Lastovo off Croatia's Mediterranean coast to reconnect with her biological grandmother. She'd been adopted as a young child after her parents died in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. Ves is also fleeing a frayed relationship with her live-in partner, Reed.In Lastovo, she meets Dinko, a single, handsome, and wealthy vineyard owner, and his cute daughter Mia. With his help with the translation, Ves discovers her biological family's history and the dark secrets of what happened during the war. Romance, travel, and cooking ensue. She ultimately learns what matters most to her: simplicity in life, closeness with family, and someone to share love with. And, of course, food!Stephanie [00:00:00]:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast where we talk to people in the food space and other spaces. All the spaces of all the fun things. Kurt is my spouse, Kurt Johnson, and also the co author of the Moon Tavern, a culinary romance with recipes. It is a fiction book that is available on your bookshelf now. Welcome to the podcast, Kurt.Kurt Johnson [00:00:22]:Hi, thanks for having me.Stephanie [00:00:24]:Thanks for having us. The idea that we should work on a book together. I am, as many of you listening know, a cookbook writer and my husband is a fiction writer. And somewhere along the way, we decided that maybe it would be good to collaborate together. Kurt, was it you or me that had the idea first? I think it was you.Kurt Johnson [00:00:42]:Yeah, probably. I was kind of done with my past book writing about Las Vegas and looking for something different. And we'd been traveling a lot, so going to Croatia, going to Italy, going out west, going to Turkey. So I wanted to incorporate travel with a novel, and I also wanted to incorporate food. And so I thought this would be a lot of fun. Since we're traveling together, we have those shared experiences and you have the food experience and the food writing experience. So I thought it'd be a fun collaboration. And I've always liked the idea of love stories.Kurt Johnson [00:01:18]:Even my thriller books in Las Vegas had kind of a love story element. And it adds a dimension to a novel that, I don't know, makes it cohesive, makes it pull together in an emotional arc that's kind of fulfilling in the end.Stephanie [00:01:33]:Do you think you're a romantic at heart, or what is it about romances that are fun to write for you?Kurt Johnson [00:01:39]:Maybe I'm a romance at heart. I may be more stoic than that, though. I just. I like the idea of seeing people get together, seeing people enjoy the same interests and finding people that can fall in love. Of course, that's always the fun part. The hard part is once you get married and move on from there and have to deal with kids and daily life and work and all the other things that go with living life. And that's not that much fun to write.Stephanie [00:02:07]:Yeah, exactly. We as a couple, I think I can speak for me and you maybe on this one. We've always had great experiences traveling. We are good traveling companions. We like the spirit of adventure. Did you know that Croatia would be the spot for the first fiction endeavor?Kurt Johnson [00:02:24]:Yeah, that was a given since we'd been there five times and four times running a sailboat and visiting the islands. And as you know, Stephanie, I'm just enamored with those islands, I think they're so beautiful. And there was one island we discovered out there, Lastovo, which is the furthest island out. So a lot of the sailors and tourists just never get there. They stay closer to shore. So, you know, going out there the first time, this beautiful bay of Zachlopedia, where, you know, it's a, it's a protective cove which is beautiful turquoise water. And then taking the dinghy in, and then you walk up this path, I think it's about a two mile hike. And then you go over this ridge and this 16th, 15th century town opens up.Kurt Johnson [00:03:10]:You know, at one point maybe it had 10,000 residents. And, and it, it, when we first saw it, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago, it was abandoned. So it was a ghost town of 15th century buildings and churches and apartments in this beautiful valley of lush green foliage. So that's very picturesque. We had an incredible meal there of just simple anchovies and blitfa. And for you, for you people out there that don't know, blitfa is ubiquitous in Croatia. And it's, it's just spring potatoes with Swiss chard, but it's served with everything.Stephanie [00:03:52]:It is served with everything. And they sometimes have spinach, sometimes have like another type of green, but it's sort of like the potatoes are cooked till they're pretty soft, and then it's kind of mashed in a little bit. So it's not fully a mashed potato and it's not fully a roasted potato. It's sort of a combination of both. But it is good.Kurt Johnson [00:04:12]:Yeah, so, yeah, that's so, you know, it seemed such an exotic place, the island of Lastovo in Croatia, that it was a natural to place it there.Stephanie [00:04:23]:Can you tell a little bit of just an introduction of the story, like what people will find when they crack open the book?Kurt Johnson [00:04:30]:Sure. It's about Vesna, who is. Has a breakup with her live in boyfriend, and they'd had a restaurant. She was a chef, a cookbook authority, and had a restaurant, not unlike my dear wife Stephanie. And she has a breakup and she leaves Minneapolis to go to Croatia to uncover her. Her heritage. She had been adopted from Croatia, specifically Dubrovnik, when her parents died in the Serb bombing of Dubrovnik in 1991. So she was adopted out of there and raised in Minnesota.Kurt Johnson [00:05:05]:So then she goes to Croatia and rediscovers her dark family secrets and meets Dinko Radek, who is a winery owner, and, you know, romance ensues. But she has a life still back in Minneapolis that she has to go back to and resolve.Stephanie [00:05:24]:When we talked about putting this first concept together, you know, I see the world through food. Like, literally everything in sort of my life is framed by a meal, an experience, just the way that I see the world. It's always around food, celebrations. And so did you know that that would work for this Croatia book? Because I didn't. When you first brought it up, I was like, I can't be a Croatian grandma here. And writing recipes about what at the time I perceived as, like, dumplings.Kurt Johnson [00:05:53]:Yeah, I wasn't sure either, frankly. You know, so each chapter, there's 25 chapters, and each chapter in it has a description of cooking. And it's all Croatia cooking, Croatia recipes. You know, all food we at over the years where we were there. And then the idea of tagging on recipes was just kind of bringing it home. Like, here's the Croatia experience. Now here's how Stephanie would bring that back to the real world, which is here in the United States.Stephanie [00:06:21]:We have talked about doing a series of books. What is it about this genre that you think lends itself to other titles and other characters?Kurt Johnson [00:06:29]:Well, you know, it's an adventure book on one level, and there's always new places to visit. So the next book is based in Panza, Italy, where we've been a couple times. And it's this beautiful island off the coast of Italy in the Mediterranean. And, you know, Italian food. You go to Italy and what you remember is the pizza in Naples or the. The pasta in Rome and. And the busteca up in the hills. So, you know, a way to experience a place is.Kurt Johnson [00:07:04]:Is through food. And I like writing about new settings. You know, it. It's not as interesting writing about Minnesota,Stephanie [00:07:11]:but you've written a lot about Las Vegas. You've had how many books about Las Vegas? Three.Kurt Johnson [00:07:16]:Yeah, three. You know, two of the. Of kind of a thriller in. Two thrillers in a series, and then a book about RVing that ends up in. In Las Vegas. And Las Vegas is a interesting place, and I lived there for five years running nightclubs and restaurants. And so two of the books are Underbelly of Las Vegas, which I was a part of in the nightclub scene back in the late 80s. So that's just flat out fun to write about.Kurt Johnson [00:07:39]:And Las Vegas is such a weirdo place that it's fun to bring that to life.Stephanie [00:07:45]:It's interesting to hear you talk about that. The way you choose your stories is about place, because the first book, the Barrens, that you wrote with our Daughter Ellie, inspired by her experiences as a canoe camper in the tundra. That's also based in Place, too. Place is sort of what starts you on these journeys. It seems like, yeah, you know something,Kurt Johnson [00:08:07]:you threw me a curveball because I never really thought about it. But you're exactly right.Stephanie [00:08:12]:All.Kurt Johnson [00:08:12]:All these books start off with a setting, with a place, and then, you know, the plots revolve around. Around that. And there's just so many. So many different. There's a finite number of, really, plots you can choose from. It's kind of like a piano keyboard has all the. The notes that you want to make up a. A music piece the same way with plot structures.Kurt Johnson [00:08:34]:And so to take it to the next level, you really have to search out characters, and the characters are in a setting, so those two are inexplicably, Inextricably. Inextricably linked. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, the two go hand in hand. So character and place really can set a novel apart.Stephanie [00:08:59]:Can you think of other books that you've written or. Excuse me. No, not that you've written, that you've read. Where Place sort of started you off on this adventure?Kurt Johnson [00:09:07]:Yeah, probably. I really love Beautiful Ruins.Stephanie [00:09:11]:Jess Walters.Kurt Johnson [00:09:13]:Walters, yeah. And that starts off in Italy, kind of near Cinque de Terre. And it's kind of the poor version of Cinque de Terre, where the tourists don't go. And it was such a fascinating story. And then they bring that all back to Hollywood in America, and it just works so well. But what really captures your imagination is the description of this little seaside community. Before the whole plot takes over, IStephanie [00:09:41]:kind of think about that book. The Embarrassment of Mangoes.Kurt Johnson [00:09:44]:Yeah.Stephanie [00:09:44]:When you and I first started sailing and going on these adventures, we read that book. It was about a couple that buys a boat and sails through the Caribbean, and she is discovering spices and fruits and vegetables and things that she's never eaten before. And I just loved that book. It was really what got me into sailing and thinking about how to make that our life and whether or not, you know, we could buy a boat and do that. And that boat really had a huge setting of place. Can you think of, like. I don't know. When I think of other books, there's very few books that I think about character first.Stephanie [00:10:19]:I usually always think about the place. Maybe that's just something.Kurt Johnson [00:10:22]:Or the plot, too. Yeah, they're all just linked together. And you don't think about. Well, you were saying you don't think about character as much.Stephanie [00:10:31]:Not really.Kurt Johnson [00:10:32]:Yeah, it's funny. I think, you know, the best books people say are character driven, but they're inexplicable. What's the word again?Stephanie [00:10:41]:Inextricably.Kurt Johnson [00:10:43]:Inextricably. Trouble with that. Linked. So, you know, you pick a place and you pick a plot and then you build these characters. The characters have to build around that plot and so they kind of naturally flow. And, and I, I think they, if they're well written and honest, you shouldn't think of them. You know, they're interesting characters and you'll say, you know, this is Rabbit and the Rabbit series. And you'll know, but you won't say, oh, that's just a great character.Kurt Johnson [00:11:10]:I, I, I don't know that I certainly, you know, I'm probably deep into it and I look at the craft a lot so I can see where somebody has really spent some time to develop an honest character or where, you know, the narrative voice comes through and, and a character comes to life through this first person narrative voice. So I see that a lot moreStephanie [00:11:30]:people have a real, like they can't believe you can write a book. Like the idea of the literal act of sitting down and writing and how that works. People fantasize about writing it, but then very few people do. What was it that got you over the hump from thinking about writing it to actually sitting down and doing it?Kurt Johnson [00:11:47]:Well, selling our business and all of a sudden being able to free up time. Because for me, novel writing and I think was it Chrisham talked about, you know, writing at 5 in the morning before he goes to work at 7. I just couldn't do that. You know, I just, I'm very focused on one thing and, and so I needed to free up my time from work in order to get going. And then it was, can you put together, you know, a thousand or fifteen hundred words every day so that it links up into a novel and have that, not only that, that discipline, but also have the creative juices to produce scenes almost every day because, you know, like a, a good novel is created from 50 scenes. So I went from, you know, writing a memoir that I probably won't publish just to see if I can get, you know, a thousand words every day and put this together to then writing Las Vegas turnaround. And there I, I, I really just copied a lot of plot structures that I saw that I liked. And so it was easier for me to set up main characters, set up tertiary characters, subplots, because I had a blueprint from somebody else.Kurt Johnson [00:12:56]:And then, and then once, you know, you Keep writing. You get muscle memory for it and it becomes more, more natural and actually more fun because it becomes more organic. You'll follow characters through a town and they'll meet somebody and all of a sudden that person becomes a character in their universe and they say something and all of a sudden that takes off and you have to follow it. Now, you know, the woman's gonna fall in love with a guy at the end. But getting there is the fun part. And now I can do that a lot more organically.Stephanie [00:13:27]:If you are talking to any aspiring novel writers, what kind of advice do you have for them to get started?Kurt Johnson [00:13:34]:Well, you know, you gotta lower your expectations just because publishing is so hard, you know.Stephanie [00:13:39]:Can you elaborate on that?Kurt Johnson [00:13:41]:Well, you know, there's maybe two or three or 400 agents, most of them in New York City and they're all trying to make a buck. And it's hard to make a buck off a debut writer. It helps if you're MFA and you're writing in a genre because, you know, let's say 70% of the books are read by women and 70% of those are romances. And then men, the other 30%, probably 80% of what they read are, you know, thrillers or mysteries. So if you can pick a genre, that always helps. But yeah, it, you have to be more thoughtful about it. And I think, I think so many first time writers, you know, once they get the discipline and put, put the, the words on a page, they write that first personal novel, you know, and I wrote my memoir and it's, it's really 90% of those, they, you know, people have the, they aspire for the great American novel and it's too personal, it's too close to home. They can't break out from the reality of their lives to have fun with the plot and make things happen.Kurt Johnson [00:14:45]:So a lot of times these books, nothing happens. They're deeply emotional books where nothing happens and they're, they're excruciatingly boring. So you gotta get past that phase and then you gotta look at it as a, as a craft. And, you know, a big chunk of it's art, of course, whatever you wanna call that, you know, shedding light on the human experience. But a big chunk is craft. And I don't think you can get to the craft for most people in that first book. So you gotta keep writing, you know, and realize that the first couple books may not get published. So, you know, the barons got published.Kurt Johnson [00:15:21]:That was one, two, that was my third, fourth book, you know, and the, and two, the, the first three, two of them were duds that will never be published.Stephanie [00:15:31]:Yeah. Yeah. All right, well, it's good to chat with you about the book. We are in the marketing process of the book. I feel like books come in three waves. One is the idea that you're thinking about it. The second, the actual writing of it. And then the third is actual the marketing of it.Stephanie [00:15:48]:What do you think's the hardest part?Kurt Johnson [00:15:49]:Well, I mean, it's. The hardest part's finding an agent and finding a publisher. Then if you self publish, the hardest part is marketing. And at least it is for me because writing is so natural and fun for me. But I think for most people, you know, the writing's a hard part. And, and you know, like the Minnesota writer o', Brien, he hates writing, so he forces himself. Tim o'. Brien.Kurt Johnson [00:16:12]:So he forces himself to get those books out there. So probably that's the hardest part for him.Stephanie [00:16:17]:We had, I had a cookbook, two cookbooks out and I had a publisher, but they didn't publish this book because it was a fiction book. I think some people just assume like, oh, well, they've already had books out, but we self published this book. Why did we make that decision from your standpoint?Kurt Johnson [00:16:33]:Well, we couldn't get an A list agent or a New York publisher. There's just not, it comes off as almost a debut book and it's hard for them to make any money. So if you can't get an A lister, then you're, you know, stuck with boutique publishing companies and others and, and they just don't support the marketing of your book. And I've self published books in the past, so I know how to do it. I know how to put a professional product out there. And, and we can, you know, both of us are marketers and, and Stephanie has a large platform, so we can do a lot of our own marketing or, or outsource it, you know, but still we retain most of the profits. So when we do the marketing, we can reinvested or keep those profits.Stephanie [00:17:17]:Yeah, I, when you say profits, it sounds like there's a lot there. I'd like to, I mean, I mean,Kurt Johnson [00:17:22]:maybe, maybe we broke it even at this point, but then now we're looking at a marketing PR firm that's going to set us back another $5,000. But you know, if, if these books succeed and somebody makes a lot of money, it's the, it's the third, you know, book that's going to put them over the top. It's not the first.Stephanie [00:17:40]:I have this idea too that we're going to write these books and then sooner or later someone's going to turn them into a T series because it's going to be like the White Lotus where each season is a different location and a different cast of characters, but sort of the general premise is sort of the same.Kurt Johnson [00:17:56]:I hope so. You know, I hope an A list agent comes along and, and frees us from our servitude or whatever. And, but, and yeah, you know, there's, there's plenty of stories of self published authors that, that get deals or even boutique. Boutique authors that get deals. So you know, we can dream.Stephanie [00:18:16]:One thing that I'd like the listener to hear is what their part is in this because we've. I was leaving the coffee shop today. We're in Ely. That is the vacation backgrounds. But.Kurt Johnson [00:18:25]:Right.Stephanie [00:18:25]:I was leaving the coffee shop today and a woman stopped me and said, Stephanie, I had the opportunity to read the Moon Tavern. It's so good. I loved it so much. And she's telling me about it and telling her friend. And I have that experience a lot where people have really, really enjoyed this book. And I just want the listener to know that leaving reviews on Goodreads or Amazon or Barnes and Noble or wherever you bought the book or if you can' find a book, asking for it at your local bookseller. Cause they can always order it when you're self published. The more buzz you can create about these books, the better chance that someone will hear about it, someone will buy it and eventually a publisher, if they hear about a book and they like it, then they may pick it up.Stephanie [00:19:03]:So I think if you like what you're reading and you want to see more of this type of work in the world and books that you like, that's something that you can do to help us out.Kurt Johnson [00:19:13]:Yes, a 5 on Amazon or top rating on any other Goodreads is good too. Yeah, it's, it's all, it's all good. So yes, those, those help a lot. Just because the more reviews you can get and the more five star reviews you get, the more people will pick up the book, the more buzz you'll get. So yeah, so it helps us immeasurably.Stephanie [00:19:35]:Another thing before we wrap up here, someone asked me about the Cover of the book. Do you want to talk about how you picked the artwork?Kurt Johnson [00:19:41]:Yeah, I was pretty much online Xee Reider, she's in St. Paul and she's a muralist mostly. And I really liked the look that she had. So I reached out to her, and she did the original artwork, and then each chapter ends with a recipe, and there's a pen and ink drawing, and she did those. And I really think that adds another level to the book. And I love a beautiful cover.Stephanie [00:20:10]:Yeah, the cover is really nice. She did a great job. All right, well, that is it for this episode of the podcast. Just want to chat with you and give people a little background. Thanks for being a guest. Stephanie Hansen's @StephaniesDish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe

Lukas Gage (I Wrote This For Attention, Voicemails for Isabelle, and The White Lotus) is an actor and author. Lukas joins Armchair Expert to discuss growing up in a chaotic family in San Diego, surviving a brutal hate crime as a teenager, and being sent to a troubled teen wilderness program. Lukas and Dax talk about navigating Hollywood as a closeted actor, the surreal experience of getting married on The Kardashians, and Conor McGregor fracturing a disc in his back while filming Road House. Lukas explains how a BPD diagnosis changed the way he understood himself, how shame and secrecy can distort identity, and what it means to stop performing for other people's approval.Check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds: https://www.allstate.com/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

White Lotus, Succession, Real Housewives... Depuis plusieurs années, les ultra-riches ont envahi nos écrans. Alors que les inégalités se creusent, des personnages réels ou fictionnels étalent leurs privilèges pour notre divertissement. Alors pourquoi on regarde ?Ameziane :Son compte Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/hahamez/?hl=frLe Summer Tour de la Random Family : https://www.billetweb.fr/random-summer-tourSon spectacle Seum & Spleen à La Nouvelle Seine : https://www.billetreduc.com/spectacle/ameziane-dans-seum-spleen-393302Sources : Emma Garland, "Why Do We Love Watching Rich Arseholes on TV?", Vice (2021)Sophie Gilbert, "Money Is Ruining Television", The Atlantic (2025)Emily J. Smith, "When Did TV Stop Worrying About Money?", Substack (2025)Amelia Eqbal, "After years of 'eat the rich' television, are we finally full?", CBC (2025)Mia Sato, "Streaming services really want you to buy stuff while you watch TV", The Verge (2024)Erica Sweeney, "Wealth on TV Could Change Attitudes Toward Low-Income People, Study Finds", Teen Vogue (2018)"Rich People on TV: Satire or Good PR?", Wisecrack (2022)Kaleigh Werner, "Are TikTok Influencers Mainstreaming the Birkin?", WWD (2026)Rob Grams, Bourgeois Gaze, La domination de classe au cinéma, Editions Les liens qui libèrent (2026)Abonnez-vous à la newsletter sur Substack : chaque mois, je publie un article sur un sujet de la pop culture !Suivez Star System sur les réseaux :Instagram : @starsystempodcastTikTok : @starsystempodcastIllustration : Ines Basille. Musique : Naaha. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!

Lo prometido es deuda. Si hace unas semanas Juan Luis Álvarez comentaba varias series que tenían en común a personajes encerrados en lugares extraños y casi siempre con futuros inciertos, en esta ocasión salimos al exterior buscando soleados destinos vacacionales, ranchos donde ver horizontes inmensos y pueblecitos entre montañas... White Lotus (HBO MAX, 3 temporadas, 21 episodios) Mike White, actor y guionista, tiene un humor ácido que trastoca los universos familiares, de amistades y las cosas de pareja de una forma tan divertida como incómoda. Por ejemplo, en la tercera temporada de "White Lotus" lleva a un puñado de personajes nada edificantes a un resort en Tailandia a disfrutar del aire libre, a beber, a comer y a todo lo demás a lo que ayuda el picante... Lo mejor: Lo conjuntado del trabajo del reparto. Lo bien que retrata las incongruencias humanas y la culpa. Lo peor: Demasiado poco "normal" para el paladar masivo. Trailer 1923 (Sky showtime, 2 temporadas, 16 episodios) La precuela de "Yellowstone", protagonizada por Harrison Ford y Helen Mirren, transcurre entre los paisajes de Montana, donde se desencadena una guerra entre vaqueros y ovejeros por los pastos en época de sequía, y los de Kenia donde anda buscándose a sí mismo uno de los miembros jóvenes del clan protagonista, tras las barbaridades que vivió en la Primera Guerra Mundial. Lo mejor: Dos actrices: la veterana Helen Mirren y la joven Julia Schlaepfer. Lo peor: Acabó pronto. Daba mucho más de sí. Trailer Un lugar para soñar (5 temporadas, 54 episodios, Netflix) Serie sobre una enfermera que, huyendo de sus recuerdos, llega a la pequeña localidad de Virgin River, entre montañas, pensando que será el sitio perfecto para empezar de nuevo. No imagina que va a encontrar al amor de su vida y un campamento de narcotraficantes, corrupción policial, varias personas con estrés postraumático, celos, traiciones, infidelidades y algunos cadáveres. Cosas normales que ocurren en cualquier drama romántico al aire libre que se precie… Lo mejor: Te la bebes como un vaso de agua fresquita. Lo peor: Las últimas temporadas dan un poco igual, pero ya estás enviciado. Trailer

New York Times bestselling author and Shakespeare Professor Emeritus, Eloisa James, spoke with us about balancing literary scholarship with romance writing, leaving academia to write full-time, and her new “gothic adjacent” novel, THE LAST LADY B. Eloisa James is a New York Times bestselling author who has lead a “double life” as both Mary Bly—a Harvard, Oxford, and Yale-educated Shakespeare professor—and Eloisa James—a powerhouse of historical romance (recognized for her Regency and Georgian-era romances). Eloisa, called “a reigning queen of romance” by CBS Sunday Morning and a newly retired Shakespeare professor, continues to reinvent herself with her latest novel. THE LAST LADY B is a sharp, contemporary take on historical romance and her first foray into near-gothic storytelling—described as Jane Austen meets The White Lotus in the Scottish Highlands. Publishers Weekly said of the book in a starred review, "As the intrigue ramps up—complete with death, scandalous revelations, criminal allegations, and the potential for supernatural interference—sparks fly …" Eloisa James inherited a fascination with literature from her father, American Book Award-winning poet Robert Bly; her mother, short story author Carol Bly; and her godfather, Pulitzer Prize winner James Wright. [Discover The Writer Files Extra: Get 'The Writer Files' Podcast Delivered Straight to Your Inbox at writerfiles.fm] [If you're a fan of The Writer Files, please click FOLLOW to automatically see new interviews. And drop us a rating or a review wherever you listen] In this file Eloisa James, Milena, and I discussed: The burnout she experienced as a professor and former head of the Creative Writing program at Fordham University Why she decided to break the fourth wall and write her latest in first person What the romance genre offers writers in creative freedom and experimentation Her Popular course on writing genre fiction “Dragons, Daggers, and Dukes” How she collaborated with co-author Julia Quinn And a lot more! Show Notes: ElevenReader is a new, award-winning audio app for iOS, Android, Web Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/files! #squarepod eloisajames.com  The Last Lady B: A Novel By Eloisa James (Author) Eloisa James on Facebook Eloisa James on TikTok Eloisa James on Instagram Milena Gonzalez | Writer | Reader | Book Reviewer diary_of_a_book_babe on Instagram Kelton Reid Instagram Kelton Reid on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Bubbles Mushrooms, now available on AOL. This week is no exception! We finally have Ann back on the show and we're definitely doin' dogs. Ann's foster dog Hank (the best boy you've ever seen) has been adopted by some lady, we break down the particulars of the current housing crisis, we break down the particulars of the manosphere and we break down the particulars of airing out your bits. Elon Musk has been blowing up people's Honda's so they go buy a Cybertruck, we check out some jams from Herb Alpert, discuss White Lotus and talk about all the different PPs we have seen. This week's special game is all about doggies in honor of Hank. We're doing a bracket to find out who the bestest boy (or girl) of all is once and for all! Will it be Benji or Chevy Chase? Can Ren Höek beat out Scooby Doo? Find out this week on your favorite podcast named after a dog - Bubbles Mushrooms. Email the show at bubbmush@gmail.com and follow us on all the socials @bubbmush - Thanks for checking out the show.

In this episode of Obsessed: The Podcast, Kevin Fallon sits down with Jake Lacy to discuss his acclaimed new film Mosquito in the Ear, the emotional complexities of portraying fathers in crisis, and what it was like filming in India. Jake reflects on working alongside stars like Nicole Kidman, earning an Emmy nomination for The White Lotus, and navigating the transition from playing lovable boyfriends in Girls and High Fidelity to scene-stealing villains. He also shares stories about collaborating with Mike White and Lena Dunham, offering a candid look at the career moments that shaped one of television's most versatile actors. Follow Kevin Fallon on Instagram ⁠@kpfallon⁠ Follow Matt Wilstein on Instagram ⁠@mattjwilstein⁠ New episodes every Thursday, and Saturday; ⁠early drops on YouTube⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here we are, season 6, episode 2, things are in motion, momentum is building, and I'm joined by one of my favorite composers: Cristobal Tapia de Veer (The White Lotus, Smile)! Cristo's latest project is the 2026 BBC adaptation of Lord of the Flies, featuring some incredible child actor performances and an increasingly psychedelic and psychotic score. We focus our conversation around that score, but inevitably veer off into different directions, also covering some of his past works with Lord of the Flies director and his longtime collaborator Marc Munden as well as Smile director Parker Finn, our shared interest in metal, the inspiration and magic of the unknown, and plenty more. I even ask point-blank about what happened in The White Lotus. How does he answer? Cristo's score for Lord of the Flies, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms while the show itself is available on Netflix.

Featured article: "Wellness Tourism Could Top 900 Billion in 2030. Luxury Hotels Are Racing to Keep Up." — Forbes A Forbes feature highlighting 12 luxury hotels leading the wellness tourism shift — immersive White Lotus–style programming, longevity-driven design, destination spa experiences — opens the door to one of the most consequential conversations on the show this year. Wellness tourism is on track to hit nearly $900 billion by 2030. The architecture is gorgeous. The marketing is aspirational. But the strategic story underneath is bigger than any single hotel. Joe, Dave, and Aransas use the article as a launch point to talk about what luxury actually means now, why reflection is the highest-leverage cost-free upgrade an experience stager can make, why integration therapists are showing up at high-end destinations, and what the White Lotus effect tells us about the power of the guide. Key Ideas Place is the offer. The most successful destinations are not selling generic luxury — they are repositioning their authentic environments as wellness solutions. Sedona sells healing rituals. Greece sells the water. Aransas's framing: these hotels immerse you in a film, a script, an aspirational lifestyle you have already seen on Netflix. The destination becomes the set, and you get to step into the story. The MGM prediction came true. Joe takes the show back to 2000–2002, when he told MGM in Las Vegas that there would come a day when they made more revenue, and eventually more profit, off non-gaming experiences than off gaming. They thought he was crazy. The line crossed before 2010. Today the money-value-of-time per minute in the spa beats gaming. The Aria does not care if you skip the casino for the spa floor. Luxury is no longer about exclusivity. It is about transformation. Dave's reframe: luxury used to be the biggest diamond and the nicest car. Now it is who can go to Greece and walk away with better sleep, better biometrics, hormones optimized, and a body ready for the next experience. The shift is from possession to durable change. That is why the willingness to pay is climbing — the value compounds instead of fading on the flight home. The transformation stack. GLP-1s, biometrics, prevention, hormone optimization, longevity supplements, fitness tracking, anti-aging skincare — all converging inside hotels and spas. The result is not a vacation. It is a chrysalis. Joe's frame from the Rotterdam Third Place Summit: think of your place as a chrysalis between what your guest was before and what they are becoming, and help them through the change. Reflection is the highest-leverage upgrade in the experience economy. Dave names it clearly: the single biggest thing you can do to increase the value of an experience costs nothing. Get people to reflect. Joe builds on it from the work he and Aransas did at the Arival travel event in DC — reflection automatically and retroactively increases the value of the experience. It cements the memory, surfaces the impact, fuels the aspiration to come back, and turns guests into evangelists. It is the most consistently skipped step in experience staging today. The four-step transformation arc. From Joe's chapter on encapsulation in The Experience Economy: preparation (some academics call it preflexion), the experience itself, reflection, and integration. The fourth step is where most experience providers fall off — what happens after the guest leaves your property to keep the change taking root. Integration therapists are entering hospitality. Joe references a Wall Street Journal piece on luxury hotels hiring integration therapists — a model previously associated with ketamine therapy and plant medicine — to help guests integrate transformations they undertook elsewhere. Othership in Toronto and Brooklyn does the same thing for ayahuasca journeys done in the desert. The pattern is spreading. The White Lotus effect is really about the guide. Aransas's read on the most recent season: it makes the case, in narrative form, for how intimate and consequential the guide relationship can be inside a transformation setting. Some guides are destructive, some are generative. Either way, the show is teaching mainstream audiences to imagine what it would mean to travel with someone helping you become the next version of yourself. That imagination is what hotels are now being asked to deliver. A Useful Distinction Aransas's nuance on what counts as transformation: in your research, guests draw a hard line. A massage and a facial feel good. They are not transformation. Longevity — sustained, measurable, durable change — is transformation. The risk for the industry is selling the impression of transformation without delivering the underlying change. Beautiful sets, aspirational scripts, and no actual chrysalis. Memorable Moments Joe on the Aria: "It's a hundred degrees outside. We will keep you so pampered you won't want to leave." Dave: "Luxury used to be about who has the biggest diamond. Now it is about who can go to Greece and walk away with their sleep better, their biometrics better." Aransas: "You can't logic emotion, Joe." The Strategic Takeaway If you are in hospitality, third places, or any business adjacent to the transformation economy, the upgrade path is clear: Stop selling memorable experiences. Sell transporting ones — and inside the transport, design transformation. Pick the chrysalis you actually are. Place, ritual, regimen, guide — what specifically helps the guest move from before to after? Stage all four steps. Preparation, experience, reflection, integration. Reflection is free and almost no one does it. Start there. Treat the guide as a role, not a job title. The White Lotus audience is being trained to look for one. Subscribe and Continue the Conversation Find the show on theexperiencestrategist.substack.com, the podcast feed, and everywhere else. Got a topic you want us to dig into? Reach out on Substack. We are building the next round of episodes around what listeners are actually reading. And if you have a kid going to college this fall, Aransas would like to start a support group.

Reposted from The Handmaid's Tale Podcast: The Testaments, which you can find and subscribe to at: https://podcastica.com/podcast/the-handmaids-tale-podcast  — Another big batch of passionate, thoughtful, insightful messages from you guys. Praise be! It was a pleasure for us to go through these and respond, and think about The Testaments in new ways. We really made the right decision making these podcasts interactive, because you all really do add a lot. As we mentioned on the podcast, there's a chance (though not guaranteed) that we'll be back soon with an interview with The Testaments showrunner Bruce Miller. Otherwise, we may or may not be in this feed before The Testaments season two, but we'll definitely be back for that!  In the meantime, here are some other podcasts of ours you might be interested in: Dragon ‘Cast, where Wendy, Veronica, and Archmaester Renny cover HBO's Game of Thrones follow-ups, House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: https://podcastica.com/podcast/dragon-cast  Yellowjackets wtf?, where Daphne, Wendy, Jason, and Penny cover the delightfully dark show, Yellowjackets: https://podcastica.com/podcast/yellowjackets-wtf  Run for Your Lives, where Daphne and Pake cover all kinds of monster, disaster, and horror movies: https://podcastica.com/podcast/run-for-your-lives-podcast  Wax Episodic, Jason's main podcast, where he and various others cover top-tier shows like Severance, Pluribus, Fallout, Welcome to Derry, and Alien: Earth, with others to come: https://podcastica.com/podcast/wax-episodic  Welcome to the White Lotus, where Jason, his wife Jenny, and their friend Randy cover The White Lotus: https://podcastica.com/podcast/welcome-to-the-white-lotus  The Walking Dead ‘Cast, the one that started it all way back in 2010, where Jason, Lucy, and others cover The Last of Us, all the Walking Dead spinoffs, and our ep-by-ep Walking Dead rewatch: https://podcastica.com/podcast/walking-dead-cast  Talk to you soon, D, W, & J P.S. If you want more conversation during the hiatus: Come check out our Handmaid's Tale: Mayday Facebook group, where we put up comment posts for each episode, at facebook.com/groups/thtmayday. Or join our Discord where you can leave comments and chat with hosts and other listeners: https://discord.gg/6WUMt3m3qe  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us as Keala Kendall, author of the compelling gothic novel That Which Feeds Us, takes us through her creative process, the importance of representation in storytelling, and how horror can serve as a mirror to society's fears and unresolved histories. This conversation uncovers the layers behind her work, blending culture, history, and genre to provoke thought and evoke emotion. Main topics covered: Kendall's artistic process and how the novel evolved from initial inspiration The significance of Hawaiian history, colonialism, and land in her storytelling How research and world-building influenced the succinct yet powerful narrative The role of horror in exploring societal fears and marginalized voices The creative benefits of genre fiction, especially horror, in addressing difficult truths Personal journey: reading influences, media inspiration, and her experiences as a Pacific Islander author The novel's reception, including selection by Reese Witherspoon's Book Club, and its impact on conversations about Hawaii The importance of representation and amplification of Pacific Islander stories in publishing How fiction can be a tool for education and social change Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction to the novel That Which Feeds Us 00:30 - The inspiration and artistic process behind the book 01:25 - Use of horror to tell stories rooted in colonial history 02:16 - Hawaii as a gothic setting and its historical echoes 03:00 - How the novel balances brevity with depth and world-building 06:13 - Introducing the protagonist, Lihua, and her connection to Hawaii 07:03 - The significance of the book's title and themes of reciprocal land relationships 07:53 - The impact of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club selection 08:28 - What readers might discuss after reading the book 10:05 - Amplifying Pacific Islander voices and stories in publishing 11:17 - The concept of ghosts and history as a collective haunting 12:49 - Confronting Hawaii's dark history and media portrayals 13:17 - The influence of reading and media on her writing, including White Lotus and horror films 14:05 - Early ideas for the novel and Hawaiian cultural motifs in her stories 15:36 - How horror makes space for taboo topics and societal critique 16:24 - Early stories about sisters and the significance of land in Hawaiian culture 17:22 - Her transition from Massachusetts inspiration to homeland storytelling 18:07 - Influences from film and media, including Moana and Hollywood's depiction of Hawaii 19:02 - The intersection of media representations and authentic cultural narratives 20:58 - The pandemic's role in shaping her perspective on Hawaii's infrastructure 22:12 - Why horror's capacity for boundary-pushing makes it vital today 23:58 - The societal fears reflected in horror, from Godzilla to Get Out and Us 25:26 - The power of horror in sparking conversations and societal reflection 26:20 - Closing remarks and thoughts on the book's impact and importance Keala Kendall is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of How Far I'll Go and Nobody Gets Left Behind in Disney's A Twisted Tales series. Hapa Native Hawaiian, she is a co-founder of Pacific Islanders Publishing and a past organizer of the charity Books for Maui.

Laura is headed to Cannes and may or may not accidentally end up in White Lotus season 4, the Solidcore guy somehow gets even weirder, and the JP Morgan “cannons” lawsuit continues to spiral into one of the funniest workplace scandals on the internet.This week, we get into:Men paying for fake cauliflower ear surgeryRobert Pattinson getting ghosted by his own stalkerElon Musk losing his OpenAI lawsuitThe scientifically hottest male dance movesCatholic school “mixers”A law associate asking if hanging an original Picasso in his office is too obnoxiousWhispering Angel rosé discourseWhy women absolutely do NOT want fake cage fighter earsPlus: ringworm in the Bahamas, White Lotus filming chaos, and the return of “leave room for Jesus.”

Purple Pants Podcast | Survivor 50 Finale Tea Breakdown The baby boys are back for one more Survivor 50 Tea Breakdown! Even though the season ended last week, Brice and Jack had to jump back on the mic to unpack all the chaos and conversation coming out of the live finale and reunion. From the exit interview fallout and their thoughts after finally processing the finale to the “White Lotus effect,” the future of Survivor 51, and all the extra tea in between, Brice and Jack are covering it ALL. The season may be over, but the conversation is far from done! You can also watch along on Brice Izyah’s YouTube channel to watch us break it all down https://youtube.com/channel/UCFlglGPPamVHaNAb0tL_s7g LISTEN: Subscribe to the Purple Pants podcast feed  WATCH: Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT: Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks! Previously on the Purple Pants Podcast Feed: Purple Pants Podcast Archives

Purple Pants Podcast | Survivor 50 Finale Tea Breakdown The baby boys are back for one more Survivor 50 Tea Breakdown! Even though the season ended last week, Brice and Jack had to jump back on the mic to unpack all the chaos and conversation coming out of the live finale and reunion. From the exit interview fallout and their thoughts after finally processing the finale to the “White Lotus effect,” the future of Survivor 51, and all the extra tea in between, Brice and Jack are covering it ALL. The season may be over, but the conversation is far from done! You can also watch along on Brice Izyah’s YouTube channel to watch us break it all down https://youtube.com/channel/UCFlglGPPamVHaNAb0tL_s7g LISTEN: Subscribe to the Purple Pants podcast feed  WATCH: Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT: Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks! Previously on the Purple Pants Podcast Feed: Purple Pants Podcast Archives

Purple Pants Podcast | Survivor 50 Finale Tea Breakdown The baby boys are back for one more Survivor 50 Tea Breakdown! Even though the season ended last week, Brice and Jack had to jump back on the mic to unpack all the chaos and conversation coming out of the live finale and reunion. From the exit interview fallout and their thoughts after finally processing the finale to the “White Lotus effect,” the future of Survivor 51, and all the extra tea in between, Brice and Jack are covering it ALL. The season may be over, but the conversation is far from done! You can also watch along on Brice Izyah's YouTube channel to watch us break it all down https://youtube.com/channel/UCFlglGPPamVHaNAb0tL_s7g Previously on the Purple Pants Podcast Feed:Purple Pants Podcast Archives LISTEN: Subscribe to the Purple Pants podcast feed WATCH: Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTubeSUPPORT: Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Mental Health Awareness Month, and Trish is getting real. As she looks back at some of her most infamous and cringey public feuds, she also shares insight into her mental health during those callouts, revealing the connection between past incidents and her personal well-being.

After a party- and screening-filled weekend on the Croisette, Rebecca and John report back from the Cannes Film Festival, including a peek inside Vanity Fair's casually elegant event at Tetou. They discuss the couple of great films and the larger number of disappointing ones, and give a preview of the premieres to come. Plus, did Rebecca help Jordan Firstman decide which studio to go with for Club Kid? Did the cast of the new White Lotus season spill any juicy secrets to John? There's one way to find out!Follow along on Vanity Fair's Cannes liveblog, and send your festival questions to littlegoldmen@vf.com. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Boots Riley talks about his new film, ‘I Love Boosters.' It stars Keke Palmer as the leader of a crew of women shoplifters who steal from luxury stores and sell the goods cheap to people who can't afford retail. Riley says he thinks of his work labor organizing, filmmaking and writing hip-hop music as the same project. Also, we'll hear from actor Will Sharpe. He starred in season two of ‘The White Lotus,' Lena Dunham's series ‘Too Much,' and the movie ‘A Real Pain.' Now he plays Mozart in a new adaptation of ‘Amadeus.' TV critic David Bianculli reviews a new special by David Attenborough.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

The army that marches north out of Quanzhou in June 1852 is not the same one that left Jintian 18 months prior. It has left its prime architect in an unmarked grave, massacred the city that killed him, and crossed into the unknown territory of Hunan. At Daozhou, for the first time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom starts speaking to Empire at large, calls upon brotherhood to honor their blood-oaths, & dares name the emperor himself a demon. It's beginning to get real, and all roads - it seems - lead toward Changsha... Time Period Covered:June – October 1852 Major Historical Figures:Taiping Heavenly Kingdom:Hong Xiuquan, Heavenly King, Second Son of God [1814–1864]Yang Xiuqing, East King, Voice of God the Father [d. 1856]Xiao Chaogui, West King, Voice of Jesus Christ [d. 1852]Wei Changhui, North King [1823–1856]Shi Dakai, Wing King [1831–1863] Qing Dynasty:Luo Bingzhang, Governor of Hunan [1793–1867] Other:Lan Chengzun, Yao tribesman, White Lotus chieftain [fl. 1836]Lei Zaihao, Yao chieftain [fl. 1847]Li Yuanfa, Han Triad rebel leader [fl. 1849] Major Sources Cited:Kuhn, Philip A. "Ch. 6, The Taiping Rebellion" in The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 10.Platt, Stephen R. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom.Spence, Jonathan D. God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 314: Beef Season 2 This week, Matt and Bob dive deep into Season 2 of Beef — unpacking its brutal class commentary, surreal comedy, and emotionally devastating character arcs. From country club elitism and generational resentment to relationships poisoned by ambition, the hosts explore why this season feels like a spiritual cousin to The White Lotus while carving out its own chaotic identity. They discuss standout performances from Charles Melton, Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, and Kaylee Spaney, the season's themes of selfishness vs. selflessness, capitalism as emotional corrosion, and why the show's most haunting moments come from characters realizing they've become the very people they hate. Plus: menstruation orange juice, dead dachshunds, ChatGPT physical therapy, Tom Cruise fantasy scenarios, and a detour into HBO's bizarre murder mystery DTF St. Louis.

Outlouders, enjoy this free taster of Mia Freedman, Holly Wainwright and Emily Vernem on our subscribers only episode. You can listen to the full conversation: 'Scurrilous Gossip: The Royal Affair No One Saw Coming' here. What do you mean, you're not a subscriber yet? Solve that problem HERE. Welcome to another episode of Scurillous Gossip, where we stand by nothing. Here’s what we cover: We know why Helena Bonham Carter pulled the plug on The White Lotus Season Four. Support independent women's media - SUBSCRIBE HERE And we also know way too much about the strangest celebrity-royal rumour we’ve ever heard. Yes, we’re talking about Sarah Ferguson and… look, you won’t believe it. Then, the former Prince Andrew was chased by a man with a crowbar, and it’s about to make Prince Harry’s security battle even more complicated. And, Em’s Roman Empire is the relationship she calls ‘the most toxic situationship ever’, featuring one Mindy Kaling. VOTE FOR US: Help Out Loud win the People’s Choice category of the Australian Audio Awards. Find the link to vote right here Got questions or things you'd like Mia to talk about? Email us at outloud@mamamia.com.au What To Listen To Next: Listen to our latest episode: How To Be Liked By Absolutely Everyone Listen: Writing a List of Anti-Goals Made Me Quit My Job Listen: Scurrilous Gossip: A Facelift Slippage & ‘Wildly Unhappy’ Royals Listen: The Red Carpet Moment That Answers The Blake Lively Question Listen: Fake Nips & Wandering Hands: Mia’s Met Gala Verdict Listen: We Do Not Agree On The Taxi Cab Theory Listen: She Opened The Fridge. What She Found Ended Her Friendship. Listen: The Real Reason You Resent Your Friends Connect your subscription to Apple Podcasts Got questions or things you'd like Mia to talk about? Email us at outloud@mamamia.com.au Discover more Mamamia Podcasts here including the very latest episode of Parenting Out Loud, the parenting podcast for people who don't listen to... parenting podcasts. SUBSCRIBE here: Support independent women's media You can now watch our show in full length video on the Apple Podcast app - make sure your phone is up to date and we can't wait for you to see Mamamia Out Loud on Apple What to read: We finally know the plot of The White Lotus Season 4, and it's not what anyone expected. We need to discuss Fergie and the alleged 'corgi cloning'. HOLLY WAINWRIGHT: Why Fergie is the most feared royal. Cassie’s mum took out a home loan to protect her daughter against Diddy. She just told the world why. Mindy Kaling and B. J. Novak fell in love on The Office. They were a 'romantic, toxic mess'. THE END BITS: Check out our merch at MamamiaOutLoud.com GET IN TOUCH: Feedback? We’re listening. Send us an email at outloud@mamamia.com.au Share your story, feedback, or dilemma! Send us a voice message. Join our Facebook group Mamamia Outlouders to talk about the show. Follow us on Instagram @mamamiaoutloud and on Tiktok @mamamiaoutloud Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land on which we have recorded this podcast. Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribeSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nearly two decades after filming Somm, Jason Wise, Chief Creative Officer of Somm TV and Director of the Somm movies, has a deep view of wine in the media. Jason shares his perspective on what types of media moves the needle, how to get involved as a brand, the ever changing landscape of media itself. Detailed Show Notes: Update from the last 4 years: filming tons of food & wine content around the world, a couple theatrical releasesSomm TV: video streaming services, partners w/ wineries and wine regions, Jason founded it to not have to ask permission to film storiesA lot of people find Somm TV from YouTubeWine industry evolution (2010-2026): a lot more grapes and too much wine; beginner wine content no longer needed; market needs to sort a few things out; tariffs had huge impact on American wineries (some wineries were 20% Canada)Wine helps create more connection and conversationMedia filming rights have changed a lot, used to have a pay a place to film, now they are happy to be a part of itSideways worked because it was unexpected and was done on its own termsStreaming wars haven't helped media gain influence, only a few shows that have had an impact (e.g. - Game of Thrones, White Lotus); there's so much content, it's hard to break through, now niche is kingNiche segments sometimes just talk to their niche, don't bring in new audiencesDocumentaries tell stores people didn't know existedNetflix used to license shows, now they want to own everything, leads to less originality, just make what's worked beforeYouTube feeds media, creators build a following, then produce more standard mediaWine industry's role in the mediaNobody wants to watch commercialsHard to push media to do what you want it to doWine should be the drink to push in PR (e.g. - Chateau Angelus in James Bond films has had an impact)Wine cameos in movies can build awarenessWinery engagement with mediaInfluencers are like “maintenance,” believes their influence is waningGet the product in TV shows / moviesNeed the “magic” in the bottle, be known for something (e.g. - Taylor Swift and Sancerre, fans figured it out)Celebrity helps bring a platform if the product had good product-market fit (e.g. - Aveline and Cameron Diaz)Media effectiveness goes in cycle, what works changes over time and circles back; need to try 10 things for 1 to workBelieves regional marketing is criticalPodcasts are part of people's everyday routine and movies stick with you, TV is like the “bulk wine” of mediaWineries should put budget towards media, spread the money aroundMany wineries have exited sponsorships and are losing consumer awareness Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sharpe played a newly rich tech bro on vacation in Italy the second season of ‘The White Lotus.' Now he's starring as Mozart, a musical genius who struggles to "read the room" in the new STARZ limited TV series ‘Amadeus.' He spoke with Fresh Air producer Ann Marie Baldonado about studying piano, acting opposite Kieran Culkin in ‘A Real Pain,' and feeling like an outsider as a kid. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

How do you reinvent a TV series without breaking its engine? Jacob Krueger breaks down Beef Season 2 to explore one of the most difficult balancing acts in screenwriting: evolving a show's engine without alienating your audience. At first, the second season of Beef appears to deliver the same escalating conflict that powered Season 1 — a small, petty squabble spiraling toward violence. Yet episode by episode, creator Lee Sung Jin subtly shifts the rules of the game until the show operates on entirely new terms, feeling less like a repeat of Beef than the inspired love child of Beef and The White Lotus. Along the way, Jacob explains how metaphor can function as a creative North Star, and why your narrative becomes stronger when you stack the deck against your central argument rather than in support of it.

This week on Radio Labyrinth, we say goodbye to one of the most influential media figures of the Gen X era — Ted Turner. From WTBS after-school marathons and Atlanta Braves baseball to Cartoon Network, CNN, WCW, and the strange magic of shows starting at 5:05 and 7:35… we look back at how Turner quietly shaped the childhoods of an entire generation.Plus: thoughts on Widow's Bay, The Boys, and Lord of the Flies, Laura Dern joining The White Lotus, Jeff's scam alert after getting hit with a surprise $199 charge, Tim's awkward David Cross encounter, Trailer Trash, and a fresh round of Views or Snooze featuring M.I.A., Remarkably Bright Creatures, and the Roast of Kevin Hart.Also this week's Staff Picks include #SkyKing, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, Eugene Mirman's comedy special, and Lizzie's dangerously creamy coconut Dr Pepper obsession.

Lisa Kudrow finally reveals if Ross and Rachel were "on a break." Plus Mike White speculation...Ready to reach your goals? Visit forhers.com/rosepricks to get personalized, affordable care that gets you.Sleep better with Magnesium Breakthrough! Go to bioptimizers.com/rosepricks, use code ROSEPRICKSTry Lumi! Go to LumiGummies.com and use code ROSEPRICKS for 30% off your order.

Princess Eugenie’s baby announcement is already triggering fresh palace tensions over whether Prince Andrew will be welcomed at the christening, while Helena Bonham Carter reportedly walked away from “The White Lotus” after clashing with creator Mike White over her character’s direction. Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian has quietly hit pause on her legal ambitions after another bar exam setback, with insiders saying she won’t attempt a comeback until at least 2027. Rob’s latest exclusives and insider reporting can be found at robshuter.substack.com My novel, It Started With A Whisper, is available nowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week in reality TV is actually unhinged

Vacation recaps! (00:00-59:28). Summer House reunion audio leaks (1:00:59-1:09:49). Maura Higgins & Ciara Miller join the next season of Dancing with the Stars (1:09:50-1:16:22). Whitney Leavitt exiting The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (1:16:23-1:19:24). Laura Dern replaces Helena Bonham Carter in The White Lotus (1:19:25-1:24:19). Harry Styles & Zoë Kravitz are engaged (1:24:20-1:31:43). Weekly Watch Report: Summer House, Euphoria, Survivor + more! (1:32:27-1:57:02). Interview with the hilarious Heather McMahan - talking about us joining her cruise, going to The Masters with her husband, filming her next special + more! (1:58:08-2:36:14). CITO LINKS > barstool.link/chicks-in-the-office.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/chicks-in-the-office

Listen if you want to… Hear Heather M and Susie Evans from the Bachelor on dating older men… Adam Levine is looking a lot different these days. What are the red flags on instagram Is dating via email a thing? What actress is replacing Helena Bonham Carter on the upcoming White Lotus season See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen if you want to… Hear Heather M and Susie Evans from the Bachelor on dating older men… Adam Levine is looking a lot different these days. What are the red flags on instagram Is dating via email a thing? What actress is replacing Helena Bonham Carter on the upcoming White Lotus season See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris and Andy talk about the news that Laura Dern is replacing Helena Bonham Carter in ‘The White Lotus' Season 4 (9:15), Yung Lean's dazzling new music video (4:08), and the updated box office tracking of ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu' (16:31). Then, they discuss the first two episodes of ‘Widow's Bay,' the Apple TV series starring Matthew Rhys, and highlight how the show seamlessly balances elements of horror and comedy (19:32). Later, they react to ‘Top Chef' Season 23, Episode 8 (57:02). Finally, The Watch: After Dark (01:08:58). Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of The Watch and so much more! Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Producers: Kaya McMullen and Kai Grady Additional Video Supervision: Donald LoBianco Order and it will come. Like today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

1. Ariana Grande Announces New Album ‘Petal' and Sets July Release Date (Variety) (19:20) 2. ‘White Lotus' Season 4 Casts Laura Dern (Variety), The White Lotus Season 4 shake-up gets juicy as Jennifer Tilly to allegedly replace Helena Bonham Carter amid alleged on-set drama (Pop Rant) (29:37) 3. Dianna Russini Spotify Playlist For 'Mike' Raises Eyebrows Amid Vrabel Scandal (TMZ) (35:51) 4. Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton Were 'Forced' to Take Baths Next to Each Other While Making Apex (PEOPLE) (40:14) 5. Kyle Cooke blasts West Wilson for letting Amanda Batula take ‘brutal beat down' at ‘Summer House' reunion (Page Six) (53:45) The Toast with Jackie (@JackieOshry) and Claudia Oshry (@girlwithnojob) ⁠⁠⁠The Toast Patreon ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Toast Merch ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Girl With No Job by Claudia Oshry ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Camper & The Counselor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lean In⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Disclaimer: Yasso awarded as product coupons. No purchase necessary. Open to 50 US/DC, 18+. Ends 11:59pm ET 4/30. Rules: ⁠⁠⁠yasso.com/TOAST⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who has more pet peeves, Hugh Grant or Matty? ‘Friends' ended in 2004, but you won't believe how much the cast is still raking in every year in residuals. They never have to work again, so why is David Schwimmer doing workplace training videos? ‘Ted Lasso' is coming back for season 4. If you're looking for a new show, Sarah is raving about ‘Sexual Education.' ‘The White Lotus” has already replaced Helena Bonham Carter with Laura Dern. Mountain View is still dealing with a major water issue. The Oakland and San Francisco airports have settled their beef. GenZ should consider moving to these cities.

Hour 1: Many movies do not stand the test of time - nor do the behind the scenes stories. Sarah's got a bizarre story about an 80s Richard Pryor movie. Enhanced Games: a sports league where athletes are allowed to take performance enhancing drugs. Is anyone wearing fedoras these days? Vinnie reminds us of Sarah's most interesting fashion choice over the years. There's a clear choice for America's best light beer. Judge Sarah is ruling over an insane story about dynamite. Hour 2: Who has more pet peeves, Hugh Grant or Matty? ‘Friends' ended in 2004, but you won't believe how much the cast is still raking in every year in residuals. They never have to work again, so why is David Schwimmer doing workplace training videos? ‘Ted Lasso' is coming back for season 4. If you're looking for a new show, Sarah is raving about ‘Sexual Education.' ‘The White Lotus” has already replaced Helena Bonham Carter with Laura Dern. Mountain View is still dealing with a major water issue. The Oakland and San Francisco airports have settled their beef. GenZ should consider moving to these cities. Hour 3: It's time for Bridge The Gap! Sarah's bestie Pat is back for his third and final appearance in our trivia battle. Representing the Millennials is the star of the Audacy office, Danae! While we wait to hear if she'll be cast on Survivor, let's hear her sing. That's right, a special musical performance in the Alice studio! Yes, you are in need of a Girls' Night! Enjoy your cheese and wine. E-bikes are surging in the Bay Area, and so are death and injuries. Should Sarah and Bob go to a goat farm to make soap? Hour 4: What do Harry Styles fans call themselves? #1 with a bullet, it's Olivia Rodrigo. Sarah can't get Olivia Dean out of her head. The New York Times has named the 250 Greatest Living Songwriters. Ariana Grande is putting out new music. Here's why we should be more respectful of truck drivers on the highway. Are you using AI like everyone else?

Chris and Andy discuss Helena Bonham Carter's exit from Season 4 of ‘The White Lotus' (1:14) before reacting to the trailers for ‘House of the Dragon' Season 3 (2:53) and the ‘For All Mankind' spinoff series, ‘Star City' (6:54). Then they discuss ‘Euphoria' Season 3, Episode 3 (11:57). Later, they are joined by ‘Beef' series creator Lee Sung Jin to discuss why Season 2 is set in Ojai (and Seoul), the millennial cringe undercurrent, how he convinced Youn Yuh-jung and Song Kang-ho to join the cast, writing the ‘X-Men' movie, and more (34:15). Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of The Watch and so much more! Email us! thewatch@spotify.com Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Guest: Lee Sung Jin Producers: Kaya McMullen and Kai Grady Additional Video Supervision: Sarah Reddy Order and it will come. Like today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robach and Holmes cover the latest news headlines and entertainment updates and give perspective on current events in their daily “Morning Run.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Robach and Holmes cover the latest news headlines and entertainment updates and give perspective on current events in their daily “Morning Run.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Decoding TV, David and Patrick discuss what's going on in the world of TV, then dive into the latest episode of Euphoria.Is Half Man worth the painful experience of watching it? Is Peacock a must-have streaming service? What might have happened on the set of The White Lotus season 4? Listen to hear us discuss all these questions and more.Homework for next week:Show of the Week: Widow's BayEuphoria season 3 episode 4 (HBO Max)Bonus Ep: Beef season 2 (Netflix)Bonus Ep (hopefully!): The Boys season 5 episode 5 (Prime Video)Shownotes (All timestamps are approximate):03:15 - Show of the Week (Thanks to Adam for this week's bumper!)Half Man20:12 - TV NewsGen V is cancelledPeacock has lost $432MM in Q1Peacock cancellations are highest amongst all servicesBeef season 2 down 60% from first seasonNetflix second seasons don't do as wellWhite Lotus: Helena Bonham Carter recast days into shooting44:20 - Euphoria Season 3Episode 3 - The Ballad of PaladinLinks:Thanks to Michael J Johnson for our Show of the Week and Patrick Finishes the Damn Show audio bumpersListen to Patrick's videogame podcast, Remap RadioSubscribe to Patrick's newsletter, CrossplaySubscribe to this podcast on YouTubeFollow this podcast on InstagramFollow this podcast on TiktokSubscribe to David's free newsletter, Decoding EverythingFollow David on InstagramFollow David on Tiktok Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hannah & Lamorne chat about location sharing, Max on White Lotus 4, bad teenage decisions and New Girl-themed tattoos!Follow @TheMessAroundPod on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.Rate The Mess Around on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!This is a Headgum podcast. Follow Headgum on Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chris and Andy talk about the buzz out of CinemaCon (3:19) and the news that the next season of ‘The White Lotus' is taking place in Cannes (8:14). Next, they talk about ‘Bandi,' a Netflix crime series from the creator of ‘The Bureau' (18:48). Then they discuss the Season 2 finale of ‘The Pitt' (29:31). Later, they react to ‘Top Chef' Season 23, Episode 6 (60:54). Finally, The Watch: After Dark (01:08:47). Subscribe to the Ringer TV YouTube channel here for full episodes of The Watch and so much more! Hosts: Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald Producers: Kaya McMullen and Kai Grady Additional Video Supervision: Sarah Reddy Order and it will come. Like today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices