The Podcast That's Going Up On The Wall: The Hollywood Prospectus Podcast

Let’s start with the place I stole the idea of The Wall from - Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan’s Hollywood Prospectus Podcast for Grantland. Despite the fact that they’re recording from different coasts, the chemistry here between the hosts is basically unmatched on any other podcast I heard, which comes from their decades-long-length friendship, stretching back to their days as writers for SPIN magazine (remember music magazines, guys?). Now that Ryan is the editor of Grantland’s entertainment division, and Greenwald its head TV writer, it’s a refreshing pleasure to hear the two of them call each other and riff on television, music, movies, or whatever seems to be bouncing around pop culture.


They’re both so attuned to each other’s rhythms and nearly perfectly in sync in terms of taste that they’re almost a hive mind when breaking down why Homeland has gone off the rails, or why everyone should check out the new A$AP Ferg record; but even when they draw firm lines in the sand over something, you get the sense they're just trying to get a laugh out of the other person.

If you wanted to check it out, I’d recommend checking out the October 27th episode where they break down what they loved and hated about ‘Birdman’ and compare Taylor Swift’s “1989" to Fleetwood Mac’s “Tango In The Night." But I’d also recommend seeking out Andy Greenwald’s interview podcast, particularly the episode where he sits down with Jenny Lewis about her new album “The Voyager,” and she tells some of the most incredible stories about working with Ryan Adams (the man, God bless him, is both a musical genius and a borderline insane person). It’s gone from the podcast archives, but I dug up the link online.

Others receiving votes: Serial (Well, of course. I’m a white person), Drunk Ex-Pastors, How Did This Get Made?

Introducing: The Wall of Fame (2014)

Every year I do some sort of wrap-up of things I liked over the year, but no matter what I do to try and avoid it, it always ends up becoming some sort of Top 10 list, and Top 10 lists are mostly boring. I like seeing playlists, but who cares if I thought Interstellar was better than Nightcrawler?* Who cares if my high expectations for the new Muppet movie were wildly missed, or my already incredibly low expectations for the last Hobbit movie were somehow not met?**

Instead, I’m introducing a new wrinkle this year: The Wall. Things I’m throwing up on The Wall this year are the things I fought for, begged people to watch, defended from their critics, rode for online. This is not any sort of Top 10 list - these are just the things that made me happiest. And they go up on The Wall so I can look up at them in satisfaction from now on.

*If you do care: I did.
** Both true!

Rwanda, Part 6: Carved In Stone

Rwanda, Part 6: Carved In Stone

I don’t notice the scars.

I don’t notice the scars because I never notice things like that. This woman has been showing us the country all week, bumping along dirt roads in sweaty buses, and I never see them until someone else mentions it to me. But there they are, sharp lines that could only be from a dull machete, marked on this woman’s neck. Remnants of a time I don’t dare bring up. Maybe she doesn’t even see them anymore when she looks in the mirror. Maybe she’s forgotten they’re there.

She can’t have forgotten. But maybe she’s trying to forget.

Rwanda, Part 5: The Light At The Top Of The Stairs

Rwanda, Part 5: The Light At The Top Of The Stairs

The information, at first, is clinical. The first few panels are essentially a sketch of a history lesson, a bare framework on which to hang the rest of the tragedy. There are tiny bits about tribes and population, but the story doesn't really begin until the arrival of Dutch settlers in the late 19th century.

Of course it does, I immediately think. When you hear about a tribal battle based on insignificant racial distinctions, the odds that the conflict sourced from vaguely well-meaning European colonists are astronomically high. This is what we have always done. John Oliver had a good bit the other week about how being British is a little like being an alcoholic. "When someone says you did something awful, you find yourself going, 'honestly, I don't even remember doing that but, yeah, probably, probably!'"

Rwanda, Part Four: Our National Heroes...

Rwanda, Part Four: Our National Heroes...

We can’t get away from it. Even in the most remote villages, even in the furthest reaches of the country, the bus jolts and rocks past another reminder – usually, another mass grave, encircled by a spiked iron fence, a wobbling arch above the entrance. On each arch, the same bold letters: “Never Again.”

Around seemingly every corner, we pass another, a mirage of ribbons and close-cropped grass in the midst of scraggly banana plantations. Never again. Never again. Never again.