Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
A movie podcast inspired by a Werner Herzog quote, “We have to articulate ourselves, otherwise we would be cows in the field.” Hosted by Justin Khoo (professor of philosophy at MIT) and Laura Khoo (art historian turned fundraiser).Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ film criticism with philosophy lens • relationships, love, friendship, family • horror/sci‑fi themes: AI, identity, transformation • class, capitalism, ideology, politics • war, violence, masculinity • aesthetics, color, formal technique, realism • mythmaking, celebrity, crimeThis podcast is a conversational movie show hosted by a philosophy professor and an art historian-turned-fundraiser, and that mix shapes the discussions: close attention to formal choices and aesthetic experience paired with an interest in ideas, ethics, and how films reflect social life. Episodes center on individual films across a wide range of genres—romantic comedy, family holiday fare, horror (including found-footage and body horror), science fiction, war films, crime stories, sports movies, and literary or art-house cinema—often using a single title as a springboard for larger questions.
Across the conversations, the hosts and guests frequently treat movies as arguments or thought experiments. Recurring themes include love and friendship, loneliness and mediated connection, family dynamics and midlife self-understanding, and the ways people narrate their own lives. Many discussions also emphasize power and social structure—class, ideology, capitalism, celebrity, patriarchy, and institutional pressures—alongside psychological frameworks such as psychoanalysis, identification, guilt, and desire. When the films are dark or violent, the show often probes the ethics of representation, the meaning of realism, and how context (or its absence) shapes viewers’ responses.
Form and craft are another consistent through-line. The podcast repeatedly returns to questions of cinematic technique—color and production design, practical effects, stylized versus naturalistic aesthetics, minimalist staging, the use of digital cinematography, and how viewpoint constraints (like diegetic cameras) guide empathy and suspense. Adaptations and remakes come up as opportunities to compare versions and ask what shifts when a story is retold in a different era.
Guests include philosophers, critics, writers, and other creators, and the tone suggests an analytical but pop-culture-literate approach: bringing in references from literature and theory while also engaging with genre pleasures, star personas, and franchise history. Overall, listeners can expect film-by-film discussions that connect storytelling and style to questions about morality, politics, identity, and contemporary life.
