I’m very happy to have appeared on Jesse Hawken’s fine podcast Junk Filter to talk about the two Road House movies, Pain Don’t Hurt, and related topics. I hope you enjoy!

I spoke with Jeet Heer about Andor for his podcast The Time of Monsters at The Nation! Listen here!

I was so pleased to appear as a guest on Road House Minute, Marcie & Roger Wistar’s podcast dedicated to going through Road House one minute at a time! I pop up during the closing credits, so we talk a bunch about Cody and just generally wax rhapsodic about the whole film. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts!

The fourth and final installment of the Zeptember podcast series on Led Zeppelin from me and Matthew Perpetua is out! This one’s a Q&A episode. Go subscribe and enjoy!

I’m joining my pal Matthew Perpetua for a four-part podcast series on the work of Led Zeppelin, starting with the opening installment on Zeppelin I, II, and III. Go subscribe to his patreon so you can listen!

I’m back on Matthew Perpetua’s Fluxcast, discussing music of all kinds. It’s a fun ramble between two pals. I hope you enjoy it!

I’m back on Matthew Perpetua’s Fluxcast for a fun rambling episode on breakup records, Led Zeppelin, Joss Whedon, Godzilla, Drake, Bowie, Usher, Nicki and much more. It’s an elite subscriber-only podcast, so go and subscribe!

I joined Ricky Camilleri and Chris Chafin on the Thirty Years Later podcast to talk about all things The Silence of the Lambs. It’s a wide-ranging conversation about the cornerstone of the Hannibal Lecter Cinematic Universe that I think you’ll really enjoy!

I’m back on Matthew Perpetua’s Fluxpod in a free-ranging discussion about rock’n’roll, covering Tears for Fears, Human League, Aerosmith, Guns n’ Roses, Nirvana, Lenny Kravitz and more. It’s a Patreon-exclusive episode, so go and subscribe already!

I’m the guest on the latest episode of Matthew Perpetua’s Fluxpod podcast, talking about industrial music! Specifically we’re talking about this industrial music playlist we curated together. Enjoy!

I appeared on the latest episode of the Imaginary Worlds podcast to talk about my Polygon piece on Jurassic Park‘s carnivore capitalism. Enjoy!

I forgot to mention this, but I appeared on the Raised by Wolves podcast Crazed by Wolves to discuss the show’s wild first season. Enjoy!

I appeared on the Crazed by Wolves podcast to discuss the first season of everyone’s new sci-fi fave Raised by Wolves—listen here or wherever you get your podcasts!

Nine years. One hundred episodes. My illustrious co-host Stefan Sasse and I celebrate the Boiled Leather Audio Hour’s big milestone by reflecting on why A Song of Ice and Fire resonates with us in the first place. Click here to listen or find it wherever you find your podcasts!

I’ve made my triumphant return to the Delete Your Account podcast to talk to co-hosts Roqayah Chamseddine and Kumars Salehi about the year in movies, the decade in TV, the horror renaissance, the Star Wars situation, and more!

I appeared on the latest episode of the Struggle Session podcast to talk to hosts Leslie Lee III and Jack Allison about the latest episode of Watchmen. Give it a listen!

I returned to Elana Brooklyn’s Graphic Policy podcast to talk about The Punisher Season One from the perspective of the Left (and goths). Give it a listen!

I’m quite pleased to say I was the guest on this week’s subscriber-only edition of the leftist podcast Delete Your Account! Basically, host Kumars Salehi and I are both unhappy with how various factions of the Left talk about art these days, so we tried to come up with a left-wing discussion of politics and pop culture that won’t make you want to kill yourself. We cover Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, The Walking Dead, prestige TV, horror, the Four Worst Types of TV Critics, and more. It’s for Patreon subscriber’s only, so smash that motherfuckin subscribe button and give it a listen!

Those nice boys of online at the Chapo Trap House podcast had some very kind words for Julia Gfrörer’s new graphic novel from Fantagraphics, Laid Waste, on this week’s episode. Oh yeah, they also interviewed some guy named Adam Curtis, I think he makes movies? Anyway please listen, and visit Julia’s webstore if you’d like to know more.

The DUSTWUN Bowe triggered cost a ton of resources and caused a great deal of suffering (not least for Bowe himself), and for that he should be punished. Certainly the portrait that emerged of him as a samurai wannabe is not a particularly endearing one, and this dopey set of ideas had real-world consequences for thousands of people. He may deserve punishment, Koenig says, though she obviously holds out the possibility that his time with the Taliban was punishment enough. But does he deserve blame?

To pin the tail of guilt on Bergdahl leaves an awful lot of jackasses roaming around with their hindquarters un-pinned, camouflaged in the undergrowth of plausible deniability and endless variables. Koenig cites several missions in which multiple soldiers died, in which their deaths might have been avoided had their units been given their requested access to surveillance drones and other supplies that had been diverted to the Bergdahl search. But is that Bowe’s fault, or the fault of the Army for not having enough equipment? Of the commanding officers (like gravel-voiced Ken Wolfe, who blames himself for one such death and emerges as a voice of moderation regarding Bergdahl’s culpability) who ordered the missions to go forward anyway? What about Defense Secretary Robert Gates, or Gen. Stanley McChrystal, or President Obama? What about the Taliban themselves, as one bereaved parent points out? And finally, to bring it back home, what about the armed forces, who let a man unfit for duty enlist despite his previous, proven inability to serve? Meanwhile, other soldiers who fled their bases—including one who did so with a ceremonial sword and battle ax in an attempt to reach Eastern Europe on foot, in an echo of Bergdahl’s he-man Last Warrior routine—escaped punishment entirely, because they were intercepted by allies rather than enemies. Is it fair to take Bergdahl’s failure out on him? To single out Bergdahl for his link in the chain is to let an awful lot involved parties off the hook.

I reviewed the season finale (!) of Serial Season Two for the New York Observer. I learned a lot about Bowe Bergdahl and the cultural context around him, but there’s no compelling reason why it had to be taught in this format.