Anne Levine Show
Funny, weekly, sugar free: Starring "Michael-over-there."
Anne Levine Show
More Socks Than Plot
What makes a moment stick—the heat, the heart, or the craft? We start courtside in Melbourne, reliving a giddy exhibition with Federer, Agassi, Barty, and Hewitt that turns pure fun into a lesson on mastery. A tight Venus Williams match reminds us how crowds sway momentum and how a single ball toss can tilt a set. As Coco Gauff looms in the next round, we talk form, nerves, and why the Australian Open still feels like summer’s best live theater.
Then we wade into the cultural wave everyone’s streaming: Heated Rivalry. The chemistry is undeniable, the intimacy is frank, and the representation matters. But does the story hold? We unpack why people love it, why some bounce after episode one, and how a tender queer romance can be groundbreaking even when the plot loops. It’s the rare show that makes the case for both hype and hesitation at once.
We take a hard left into wonder: 52! ways to order a deck means your shuffle has almost certainly never existed before. From there, relativity reframes intuition—why time stops at light speed and how the universe’s expansion can outpace our everyday sense of “fast.” Curious minds, this is your candy: big ideas made graspable without sanding off the awe.
Books anchor the back half. The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff earns our full recommendation—an elemental survival tale through Jamestown’s starving time that reads like a prayer carved into bark. Theo of Golden, meanwhile, splits us down the middle: a premise built on kindness that, for us, slides into tidy parable. We get specific about character, momentum, and when sentiment helps or hurts. Finally, we rave about One Battle After Another, a sharp, star‑studded Paul Thomas Anderson ride where DiCaprio, Penn, Del Toro, and Teyana Taylor surprise in all the right ways. It’s funny, bruising, and unnervingly timely.
If you’re here for tennis, TV heat, big‑number brain candy, fierce reads, or film craft with teeth, you’ll find a lane—and a strong opinion—to ride home with. Enjoy the show, share it with a friend who loves a good argument, and tap follow so you don’t miss what we break down next.
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On a warm summer's evening. On a train bound from the wheel, met up with the gambler. We were both too tired to sleep. So hello turns a stare.
SPEAKER_06:Welcome to the Unloving Show. It's Tuesday, January 20th, 2026. I think that's the first time I said that. Well, okay. I mean properly. I wrote 25, but excuse me. We are coming to you from W O M R 92.1 FM in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
SPEAKER_01:That's right, on WFMR 91.3 FM Orleans, and we're streaming worldwide at W O M R dot O R G. And folks, this is the only place you can hear these things. I'm serious. I mean I know you're serious. This is the cave this is a Cape Cod station. This is what you hear. This is what you hear.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. That, by the way, is Michael over there.
SPEAKER_00:Hello.
SPEAKER_06:Who was named by Nicholas down there? That's correct, yeah. And uh haven't heard from you in a long time, Nicholas down there.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, I am you know I see him on the on the Facebook pages and stuff.
SPEAKER_06:I do too, but he used to give us some shout-outs about the show. Right. And I haven't heard too much of that lately.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you know, it's it's it's uh it's the middle of summer.
SPEAKER_06:Yes, well, I'm I'm just saying, Nicholas, drop us a line.
SPEAKER_01:All right, he did post a picture of himself from uh several years ago with the killer sideburns. I'm so jealous about because I can't grow sideburns at all. I've learned how to say a few things like rise up blides. Oh yeah, they yeah, you got that from um that's a uh fortune femester thing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_06:Well, it's a whole handsome podcast thing.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay, right.
SPEAKER_06:And they for some reason fall into Australian accents frequently, and none of them is any good at it. May they're terrible. And May May has borderline okay, but the other two are just horrible.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:And they're famous for being able to say two things. One is Jennifer Laupez. Okay, and the other one is Rise Up Lides. Gotcha. Um, and I I don't know what any of that is, except I was put in mind of it by the Australian Open.
SPEAKER_07:Oh, yeah, that's that's happening.
SPEAKER_06:And that's happening.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that started uh what a couple days ago.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. So get on it. Watch some of it.
SPEAKER_01:You know what? I've I've already seen my favorite part though. Yeah. I have already seen my very favorite part, which was a an exhibition, a goof around, hey, let's have some fun match out there with Roger Federer, Andre Agassi, uh, let's see, uh Bardy. What's her first name? Ash. Ash Bardy. And uh who was the other one? Um Leighton Hewitt. Leighton Hewitt, yeah. And that was so cool. Because I haven't seen Roger on a court in years.
SPEAKER_06:Well, and he was amazing.
SPEAKER_01:Great. He really was, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:That I mean, at one point he had two people playing j against just him. Right. In the in doubles, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:And it was incredible. It was going so fast. Because Ash Bertie like left the court. Yeah, she would sit down. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:It's like, all right, you got this.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that was amazing. And they were mic'd up so you could hear them kind of, you know, trash talking to each other a little bit, although it wasn't really too much of that. But they were kind of ribbing each other a little bit. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:It it was it was fun. It was really fun, really delightful. And then it turned into tennis. Well, no, I was gonna say that horrible interview segment with Jim Courier.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:But um, it did turn into tennis, and it was fun watching Venus Williams, who unfortunately went out. Um, she was playing Danielovich from Serbia, who did a great job.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Because, for one thing, that center court in Malbour is famous for how loud it is. And the crowd was one hundred percent behind Venus, yeah, and they were being really loud about it and cheering this poor Danielovich. Every time she lost a point, the crowd went wild. You know, they were so rooting against her and rooting for Venus, who ended up losing, but by by a hair. I mean, if she had been a little more together, she could have won it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:It could have gone either way almost. And I don't know, Venus is is trying to reestablish herself.
SPEAKER_01:Well, she's she's never really left, to be honest. Right. You know, so she's she's been winning in doubles for uh ages. She never quit doing that.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, but she's been definitely putting the pedal to the metal as far as showing up hard. Playing singles, being more visible, and uh she's got all the quirks and things that she's always had that make it sometimes hard to watch.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, but it's always kind of fun because you know you know it's you know it's there, right?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, but she can't do a ball toss to save her life. And so she so often ends up doing a bad ball toss. I have to admit that watching her on Sunday, she did one ball toss that came down and hit her in the face. Right?
SPEAKER_07:I mean, come on, Venus. Well, she had the sun in her eyes. That was it. No, it was dark. Oh, see, it was too it was too dark to see.
SPEAKER_06:No, there were lights. I mean, it was there was bright light in her eyes. There were no extenuating circumstances. It was just like, and she does that where she does bad toss and she says, sorry, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01:I know. Yes, exactly. Oh that's her that's the thing.
SPEAKER_06:So aggravating. You'd think by now, of all the things, she might have that organized. But no. No. I think she's just having fun. She is. Yeah. But anyway, watch the Australian.
SPEAKER_01:Speaking of uh Danilovich, she uh she's moved on to this. I haven't seen the second round yet, have you? No. Because she's playing Coco. Oh yeah, so that'll be exciting. Well, we could do that when we're done here, I suppose.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, we'll have to watch that one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I didn't know that was the next pairing.
SPEAKER_01:It seems like Cocoa's in awfully early, but yeah, but she she had to go in the first round, too, and uh beat uh uh Rackam Rak Rackhamova or something like that.
SPEAKER_06:Rack emova here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, rack em over there. Yeah. Uh and you know, pretty handily, six, two, six, three, but uh yeah. So and then she's got it, you know, on to the second round. So that'll be cool.
SPEAKER_06:Well, speaking of sports. Sports did it. There's a news show that everyone in the world is watching and is talking about. Oh. And it's called Heated Rivalry. Oh. And I hear the crowd going wild out there right now.
SPEAKER_01:All right, uh, which one of those is here?
SPEAKER_05:Theyated rivalry, folks. Yes. They deserve two rounds of applause. Right. Well, yeah, they do.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he said the name, so yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Well, I don't know what to say about this. Let me first of all say Connor Story and Hudson Williams, who are the two big stars, and then Francois Arnault, who's kind of the head of the second rank. Okay. They're all fantastic. Okay. They are really good actors. They're fresh young things, they're handsome, and it's got a ninety-nine percent Rotten Tomatoes rating and nine out of ten on IMDB.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Wow. Which is crazy. Canadian. I just wanted to mention. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Well hockey. Hockey. It's probably somehow.
SPEAKER_06:It could be it could be any sport, basically.
SPEAKER_01:Right, yeah, it's true.
SPEAKER_06:Because what this show is really about is two gay guys getting it on in every episode more than once. Okay. And you see but you see uh but what?
SPEAKER_07:You you see bottoms. Oh. Buttocks. Back bottoms, okay. Yeah. Yeah. You don't see front bottoms. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it's in an HBO Max, so uh, you know, you never know.
SPEAKER_06:You see down to right over the right at the bottom of the near Merkin territory.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:No, it's below Merkin territory.
SPEAKER_01:Sock territory and moving. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Right up to sock territory. Yeah. Uh-huh. Now, the fact that these guys have any socks on or anything on. Although they do have socks on. Right. Well, yeah. The first time they have sex, they strip down and just have socks on. That's right. Which I would never have thought of if you hadn't said that. Um but and they're getting it on, and they're getting it on very explicitly. Okay. Yeah. And there's uh a lot of what am I allowed to say on this radio? There's a lot of um we do have probably less than you want. If exactly. Way less than I want. We do have to be careful because this is radio. But as Howard Stern would say, there's oral pleasuring. Uh-huh. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And there's um, you know what? Put your minds to it, people. What can you imagine will happen? All I can probably happen.
SPEAKER_06:What you should do is watch episode one. Now, there are only six episodes of this show on HBO Max. Um, each episode is more or less the same. The fact that it has 99% anything anywhere has everything to do with these two hot guys having sex. All right. Well. And it's explicit. There you go. And they have a loving relationship. That's the other part of it that is very unusual. Uh-huh. They actually love each other. They fall in love with each other. Yeah. So it's not just sex. Um, there's an emotional part to it. Yeah. You know, and most people are tuning in for that, for the emotions.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, it's it's a side effect, maybe, right? You know, you you get feel you get that feeling from it.
SPEAKER_06:So it doesn't feel like uh how how can I put this? It doesn't feel pornographic. It is a a book.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I mean, it's it's it's it's written somewhere because uh uh everywhere I'm seeing her is like that stays absolutely true to the source material.
SPEAKER_06:Well, you can imagine how incredibly well written the source material is.
SPEAKER_07:I guess, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, not so much. I saw I had really no desire to see this until I heard Fortune Themster talking about it and how she loves the show, she's obsessed by the show, and everyone needs to watch the show. And she's coming at it partly, partly, not entirely, from an LGBTQ positive point of view. Well, yeah. Um, saying this is great for our whatever, our quote people, for gay people. This is a real breakthrough. And I would have to say I agree, it's a breakthrough. Um and it's also it's a weak story, you know, um, it's two hockey players that end up falling in love with each other. Ta-da! And they're on two two rival teams. Okay, so they are rivals on ice. And um it's it's got a blades of glory in it. That's not fair. But um there is a thing where they're on rival teams, and so that is an element, albeit it's the Deus Ex Machina that keeps them from they constantly see each other in different cities because their teams are touring.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_06:All right, anyway, heated rivalry. If you haven't seen it, you must see it just because everyone's gonna be talking about it. Um I can say that I'm not a fan in particular of this show. I watched the first episode.
SPEAKER_08:Okay.
SPEAKER_06:And I felt like, yeah, I get it. Okay. And now what do I watch? It was kind of like that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Okay. Um, however, I have gotten in touch with a lot of my girlfriends, well, and guy friends, some of them, and said, You have got to watch at least one episode of this show, but don't watch it with your husband. This is what I've been saying to my married or to my hooked up female straight friends. And the reason I say that to them is because most straight guys that I know are not gonna be able to get with this at all. You know, um seeing seeing explicit homosexual sex between men. If it's women, that's another story.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that usually is a different story. You're right, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:But between men, not so much. So I'm telling them, just watch the first episode on the DL and your husband's asleep. Um, anyhow, fascinating, and I can't wait to hear what I I can't wait for some feedback.
SPEAKER_08:Okay.
SPEAKER_06:Uh I yes.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I I I have something to talk about.
SPEAKER_06:Well, by all means.
SPEAKER_01:And I did want to get to it, you know, uh because it ties in with the song at the beginning, because it's The Gambler. Yeah. Well, go for it. Which is a weird song for us to start off with, actually. But I wanted to talk darn shit. I wanted to talk about it because of cards.
SPEAKER_05:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, because I f I I I I sort of relearned a thing I'd forgotten long ago, and uh my mind is blown. Once again, like it was the first time, uh, by a deck of cards. In that uh there are more combinations that you can get shuffling a deck of cards than there are atoms in the earth.
SPEAKER_06:So when you say atoms in the earth, could you please define Yes.
SPEAKER_01:I mean that the number of atoms on the earth is approximately 1.3 times 10 to the 50th power.
SPEAKER_06:Which comes out to what, like 10 trillion or something?
SPEAKER_01:Oh no, no, way, way, way beyond that. We're it that's uh fifty digits. Oh, okay. So it's like a Google Right. It's 1.3 followed by 50 zeros.
SPEAKER_06:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:Or yeah, times, yeah. Right. Thirteen times with yeah, fifty zeros.
SPEAKER_06:So now there are more now explain again.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_06:Start from the beginning. There are more.
SPEAKER_01:There are more combinations you can get shuffling a deck of cards than there are numbers of atoms in the earth. And in fact, every time you shuffle a deck of cards, it is very, very likely it's almost impossible for it to be absolutely unique. It's never been shuffled in that way ever before, ever by anybody.
SPEAKER_06:Well, I said I was gonna find out this magic trick, and I totally forgot that you were gonna talk about this. Yeah. But I've seen a guy on Instagram do a thing that defies everything that you're saying, and it is mind-blowing, regardless, of knowing these numbers. Um but I guess that's why it's a trick.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it's because each each card in a 52-deck card has a 52 factorial. Correct. It's 50. That the math comes to 52 factorial, which is eight times ten to the sixty-seventh power. That's four, no, that's a hundred quadrillion times more than the number of atoms on the earth.
SPEAKER_06:That's so that's so hard to. First of all, numbers of that size are really hard to conceive of, to wrap your mind around. Absolutely. And so this whole thing is uh extremely confusing. And um, if this wasn't the most educational show on radio, uh, I would be surprised to be hearing about this.
SPEAKER_01:I have another impossibility for you as well.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, please do tell, Michael.
SPEAKER_01:Well, we've spoke you and I personally have spoken about this before, but uh we both know that uh, and it has been demonstrated the speed of light is as fast as things can go. Right. You can't go any faster than the speed of light because that's it.
SPEAKER_04:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:And we and uh and what happens when a photon of light travels from somewhere to another place, uh, it doesn't actually it gets there when it leaves. It's very strange because time stops at the speed of light. So if it's traveling at the speed of light, it takes zero time to get to where it's going. Right. It's weird. However, how fast is the universe expanding? And you would rightly think it's the speed of light. However, however, it's not. It's twice that. Relatively speaking. Yeah. So if you take from the point where we are here on Earth, and a beam of light goes out in both directions from where we are, it's actually traveling relative to each other to the end of you know, each light beam, twice the speed of light. Because it's going the speed of light to the left, the speed of light to the right, and relative to each other, that's twice the speed. Well, there's a very strange concept for people to understand. They don't they don't get it, but that is actually what's happening, and the universe is expanding at twice the speed of light in every direction.
SPEAKER_06:Unfortunately, it takes a certain kind of mind to be able to grasp a lot of this stuff. I guess and Michael has one of those minds, which is a very rare thing. But I think from now on, he's not Michael over there. I think he's Michael de Grasse Tyson. That's your new one.
SPEAKER_01:I do like I do like to listen to Neil. He's got he's got some great stuff. I too enjoy him. And he is actually the guy who learned the uh relative you know speed.
SPEAKER_06:Well, he is a way of describing things, and he has a sense of humor and a whole thing.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you know, here's an here's another uh uh another way of looking at this. If you have two cars on a you know uh two two-way road, and they're both going sixty miles an hour towards each other, then relative to each other, it's 120 miles an hour. Right. And it's the same, it's the same thing with with light and the universe expanding. You know, relative to each other, it's it's faster. If one wasn't moving, it would still be only sixty miles an hour. But since the other one is, relative, you know, and going at the same speed, it doubles as it's anyway. I find it fascinating. Well there you go. That's been Cards and science.
SPEAKER_06:Cards and science stuff. So there. That's been brought to you by my Okay, we're deal. Nice good joke. Yeah. Deal with it. Um Michael deGrasse Tyson over there. Thank you for educating us. That and giving yourself applause. Now, um that's not my job at all. My job is to tell you about pop culture and try to make it funny.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm so so when are you gonna start doing that?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, but um bum. You've got a rim shot over there, right? Oh, there we go. Oh, we got two. We got a double, thank you. That was the speed of light right there. Um, okay, The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff is one of the best novels I have ever read. Um and given how many novels I've read.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's you you are you are a novel uh reader.
SPEAKER_06:That's saying a lot. And it's a it's an historical fiction about a young servant girl who escapes the starving time, as it was called, of the Jamestown colony.
SPEAKER_00:Oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:In 1609, and it was uh it went from 1609 to 1610, and she escapes and embarks on a journey of survival and spiritual discovery in the American wilderness. It is extraordinary. You must read the vaster world.
SPEAKER_00:She doesn't even have a name.
SPEAKER_06:No.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:She doesn't have a name.
SPEAKER_00:That's yeah, that's that's mind-blowing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Um, she doesn't have a lot of things as far as knowledge, and of course, no one had a a lot of knowledge, certainly not about North America. Oh, yeah, yeah, good point. At the time. And there are points where I mean she essentially had nowhere she had no idea where she was going. She knew, okay, I go that direction, and I will hopefully run into these people who will accept me. It's incredible. Yeah. I've never read anything like this. It is I don't even know what to say. I I it's one of those things where you finish a book and no other book will do.
SPEAKER_01:Ah, okay. You know, it's a I've read a few books like that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:I'm trying to find another book and I can't. So The Vaster Wilds.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Title I don't particularly like because it's weird. The Vaster Wilds by I kind of like it. By Lauren Groff. And wow, it it made me want to find out more about Jamestown Colony and about the Roanoke colony.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:The famous Roanoke colony. Right. Which disappeared.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I believe they uh they just assimilated, is what my understanding is. They've they've learned now.
SPEAKER_06:Well, there are assimilated to what? Native Americans?
SPEAKER_01:Yes. With the with the with the natives, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Gosh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:There's a lot of evidence pointing that direction. That's why I mentioned it.
SPEAKER_06:There's a lot of evidence. There are a lot of theories about Roanoke. A lot. And uh there's evidence for all of them, for all of the theories. Um, it's fascinating though, regardless of what happened, the whole thing disappeared.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. DNA evidence is helping a lot, actually. Uh clear some of this up, I think. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Well, uh anyway, The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Um, it's a very intelligent book, it's beautifully written. The ending is stunningly beautiful. It's like one of the most beautiful endings of a novel ever. Um, and I don't mean happy, I mean beautiful. Uh oh. I I could just wax on and wax on, but I guess it's time to wax off.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_06:Um, all right, I'm gonna tell you about another book. All right. This book is like number one on the everything, everything. It's like I might be number one on the New York Times bestseller list. It it's called Theo of Golden, and it's a novel by Alan Levi. Now, this book is so loved by readers, it's insane. I have a friend who's in a book club, and she's the first person who told me about this book. And she said, uh, my book club, she's in like three book clubs. She says, Well, my one book club is reading Theo of Golden, and I started it, and so far I'm bored. And I thought this is so obnoxious, but I thought that's possibly a good sign. I'm gonna take a shot at this. Now, the first 40 pages of Theo of Golden are terrific. That's the part that she said was boring. Oh the rest of this book, in my opinion, and I know I'm gonna upset people when I say this, one of the worst books I have ever read in my really you got like f fur 40 pages, and then you're like, okay, no? I mean, I finished it because I kept thinking, wait, this can't keep happening. It's about a a mysterious stranger with an accent. He is eighty-six years old, and he is from Portugal. And he is charming, and so the beginning of this book is about him, it's about Theo, and he's really interesting, and he ends up in this town in Georgia that's called Golden. Now, that whole part where somehow this guy, he's a big mocher from New York. That's not to imply that he is Jewish, which he most certainly is not. No one in this book is Jewish. Um, it's true. Um, and he anyway, he he goes to this city called Golden. Spoiler alerts are coming in case you're planning on reading this.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, okay, yeah. That's probably wise.
SPEAKER_06:Okay, so he goes into a coffee shop, and because he is in search of perfect coffee, he's Alexa Hente.
SPEAKER_01:I see, yes.
SPEAKER_06:He does remind me of him.
SPEAKER_01:He's the uh he's at uh who's who's the guy, the most interesting man in the world. Yes.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_06:Yes, yeah, all right. Um who's um oh I can't remember which coffee now.
SPEAKER_01:But anyway. Well, I mean it he was Dosecchi's. That beer is what he you know the most interesting, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:No, this is um he was the coffee guy.
SPEAKER_01:Juan Valdez?
SPEAKER_06:Yes. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's who that's who we're talking about here when you say, and I can't say it, of course, now again, because we have robot lady. Uh-huh, yes. A L E X A. Right. Well, I'm just gonna say it. So he is Elixente. Um, I got away with it that time. You have that use the accent.
SPEAKER_01:I guess, yeah, I guess.
SPEAKER_06:The better effect accent she does not understand. Um anyway, he ends up in this city, and he's in the city, and he's oh, this is such a charming city. I wonder if I can get a perfect coffee. And he starts listing the great coffees of the world, and we find out this guy's a world traveler. As I said, he's a mocher, although not Jewish. No one in this book is Jewish, everyone in this book is Catholic. Um, that's a whole other plot line. Uh, or a Christian of some flavor. Um, so he walks into this coffee shop where they make the best espresso. It is as good as Rome. Um, and he sees that there are pencil portraits all over the walls.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:There are ninety-two of them, in fact. Yeah. And he says, I am going to reunite these portraits with the the subjects. The subjects.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_06:And so he starts changing lives and sparking stories of generosity and connection in the process. Right.
SPEAKER_01:So he buys these portraits from the from the place where they're being displayed. Right. And decides, yeah, and he's going to take them back to the people in the photos or in the pictures. Yeah. Exactly.
SPEAKER_06:And by doing so, in each one of these situations. So every time he returns a portrait, we learn about the person in the portrait. Right. And their particular issues and struggles in life. Do you remember that? And yeah. But no, Amelie was good. Um Theo. Theo returns the portraits and has a transformative effect on their lives and on his own.
SPEAKER_00:Right, yes.
SPEAKER_06:And so to bring it down to to boil it down, if you're interested in this, a book that explores themes of anonymous kindness, wonder, the power of small attentive acts, and in narrative style compared to authors like Paul Coelho and Mitch Album.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I actually saw that. This is reference myself. This is the book for that's the th yeah, this is it right here.
SPEAKER_06:It's often described as an allegorical, heartwarming story about human connections, similar in tone to works by Matt Haig or David Brooks. Now, these are all people that what can I say? I know that a lot of people are going to read this book and that many of them are going to disagree with me.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and and you know, you know what though? Um he's working on a sequel.
SPEAKER_06:Of course he is.
SPEAKER_01:Ellen of Golden.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:And I know who Ellen is. So having read Theo of Golden. So I wonder if Ellen will carry on his work. Hard to say. We'll have to find out. I can tell you this much. I will not be purchasing a copy of Ellen of Golden.
SPEAKER_01:You know what's gonna happen? You're gonna get like 60 emails all with like uh, you know, people bought you this book on Audible or something.
SPEAKER_06:Just so you have to. Well, you know what? Right. And I hope they do because what I can do is return all of them and trade them in for credits for stuff I want.
SPEAKER_01:So yes, please send me. I can just see it. I don't know. I can see it happening. Totally. Weirder things have happened here.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, if I got if I was at listening to a show where someone was bashing The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff, I would send them a hundred copies. Absolutely. Absolutely. And say, You're a stunad. You don't know of what you read. Um, I want all of my reader friends.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_06:I have a few who are or were devotees of this show. I want them all to read both of these novels.
SPEAKER_01:I see. Okay.
SPEAKER_06:And just tell me what you think.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you should start a book, you know, an anime show book club, is what you should do. I really should.
SPEAKER_06:You really should. Well, this week's assignment is both of these novels. I'll give you what? How much do you need? The the The Vaster Wilds is sadly not as long as I wish it was.
SPEAKER_04:Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Uh it's not terribly long. You wish it were vaster. I wish Theo and Theo of Golden was about eighty eighty percent shorter.
SPEAKER_05:Like just the first 35, 40 pages. Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Uh anyway, this is gonna become this is like chicken soup for the soul.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, yeah. There you go. Which we all need right now. You know.
SPEAKER_06:I need the vaster wilds. Excuse me. Okay. That's what I need. I watched a film that is truly extraordinary.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_08:And oh, the big one. The big one? The big deal film with all the famous people in it. It's called One Battle After Another. That's a big deal.
SPEAKER_06:Now, if you're a Paul Thomas Anderson fan, if you're not, I'm not sure who you are. And I urge you, you might be an alien life form. I urge you to get in touch with me and explain. This is certainly, if not his masterpiece, it's one of them. And just extraordinary. Now, this cast includes but is not limited to Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Chase Infinity, Tiana Taylor, she's the one who was wearing the diamond thong. Yes, yes. And won the Golden Globe, and will probably win the Oscar. Um, when I saw that she had won the Golden Globe just based on what she was wearing, I thought, ugh, no way. This can't, this movie can't be any good. Yeah, I will.
SPEAKER_08:If the Golden Globe winner has on a diamond thong. One of the one of the Haim girls is in this movie too.
SPEAKER_06:Alana, who's been doing a lot of acting. She was in Licorice Pizza. Um, and I'm so glad Paul Thomas Anderson has, or PTA as we call him. Yeah, that guy. Um I'm so glad that he has embraced her and brought him in as part of his Yeah, part of the the group. The what do you call what do you call that?
SPEAKER_01:The stable? Is that a the stable?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Because they're all horsies. Yeah. Um Sean Penn. Is there a name for that?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, I and I can't think of what that name is. Yeah. And that's gonna be bother me for for potentially a a long time. Um so um so this is a a really interesting film. It's a comedy, a really dark comedy, but it's also a drama, and it's very timely. Yeah, it has a lot to do with what's going on in this country right now. And it's one of those weird films where Paul Thomas Anderson wrote this as well as co-produced and directed it. Steven Spielberg was one of the producers of this film.
SPEAKER_08:Oh. Um, yeah, well, that's where they got all the money to get all these people in there. My goodness.
SPEAKER_06:Well, Paul Thomas Anderson um isn't exactly needing needy in the money department, but but Spielberg might have drawn in people beyond the the usual suspects. Yeah. Um, I gotta say, Leonardo DiCaprio, my favorite role I have ever seen him do.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, really?
SPEAKER_06:Yes. So impressive, so interesting, so different from anything I've ever seen him do before. Sean Penn was phenomenal. He was phenomenal. And part of the reason is because he played a guy that you kind of finally he played a guy that you kind of think, wow, this is the real Sean Penn. There you go. In certain bizarro ways. Right, right, yeah. Um Benicio del Toro plays the funniest character. He's Mexican and he has a dojo and he teaches martial arts. And so um they and the only PTA can do stuff like that, they make him look Asian.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_06:Even though you know he's Mexican.
SPEAKER_01:Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:But the the point being that he's representing as Asian.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Even though he's speaking I don't know how to do it.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, can I can I real quick make a call back to the most interesting man in the world? Yes. Uh uh named Goldsmith, by the way. Just so you know. With with the Spanish accent and all of that stuff, yeah.
SPEAKER_08:He's uh So you mean Juan Valdez is really Goldsmith?
SPEAKER_01:No, I mean the most interesting man in the world.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:From the Dose ads.
SPEAKER_06:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's his his name's like Jerry Goldsmith or something like that. Jerry Goldsmith. Not Jerry. That's a that's a different guy, but yeah. Well okay. Well, Jerry Goldsmith made movies, you know, so I I don't know.
SPEAKER_06:I don't know any of this. But the most interesting man in the world. I miss him. I wish I wish they would do uh a series. Yeah. With him as Jonathan Goldsmith, that's his name. Juan Valdez. Um I would like to see a series with the two of them.
SPEAKER_01:So I I didn't didn't want to interrupt you, but you know, you were saying, you know, people like you know, not representing who they really are. This is also one. You know? Because this is the Mexican beer guy. Well, this John Goldsmith.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, of course. It's always like that. Well, this is Benicio del Toro, and maybe my favorite thing I've ever seen him in as well.
SPEAKER_01:You know what? Everything he does tends to be I like everything he does better every time. Yeah. Are you that way?
SPEAKER_06:Well, he's fascinating and he's he's really a comic actor.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. He's he's a lot funnier than you know, than the roles often let him be.
SPEAKER_06:Well, if you look at his PTA films, like uh what's Budapest Hotel.
SPEAKER_01:Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:And there was another one that just came out before this one, one battle after another, uh, that I'm never gonna never gonna think of, where he's playing a comedic role, and he's so good at that. And bravo PTA for seeing that. He Paul Thomas Anderson sees things in people that others do not see. It's like Adam Sandler and Punch Drunk Love. You would never think that Adam Sandler could play that role and be so brilliant at it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um well, I mean, I don't know. It's it's really hard to talk about uh this guy because of the movies themselves. Boogie Knights, Magnolia, Punch Blood Drunk Uh Blood, Licorice Pizza. Yeah. This one, one battle after another, and then what we got Phantom Thread.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, you don't when you look at all of his films, when you look at a list of all of oh, and Budapest Hotel. Um, when you look at a a list of his films.
SPEAKER_01:No, that's that's the other guy.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, that's Wes Anderson. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Sorry, Paul. Um now when you look at a list of his films, yeah, it is so crazy because you do, you have everything from punch drunk love to magnolia, yeah, to There will be blood. Right. And the the the extreme difference in in genres and in casting and in sets and cinematography, and the it's it's like he can do anything.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, twenty-eight Oscar nominations, three wins so far. Incredible. Yeah. If this film Seven Golden Globes and four BAFTAs.
SPEAKER_06:So the guy has a very large and very secure trophy case.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, uh he would have to, I think.
SPEAKER_06:He would have to. Uh yeah, it's it's something that I really, really recommend. And Tiana Taylor was superb. And of course, as I said, after seeing her at the globes, not just because of what she was wearing, yeah, but also because of her acceptance acceptance speech. Um, I did not feel in any way motivated to see this movie, but I did. And oh boy, am I glad that I did. One thing that I haven't seen yet, and I have got to see, is Hamnet.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, that's right. Which is one of the people have been telling us this for months now, it seems.
SPEAKER_06:Well, of course, after I've been telling people they have to read the novel.
SPEAKER_01:Right, yeah. Yeah, true.
SPEAKER_06:So few of you did.
SPEAKER_08:Oh man. So few take my word. What's going on there, people? I don't know.
SPEAKER_06:Really?
SPEAKER_01:That's what I want to know.
SPEAKER_06:And now, of course, it's the world's greatest film. And um I I do want to see it. Um, so unfortunately, I'm gonna have to go to one of these multiplexes now with sticky floors and creaky seats.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I don't know. The you know, the one we got down the street here has got like recliners and stuff. Which one? The the uh one down by the stopper shop.
SPEAKER_06:They redid it? Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah. Oh, honey, we we are going like tomorrow. No, really. Uh yeah, no, it's a it's a must see, as is one battle after another, which I'm not sure when it hit the screens, but it wasn't in the theaters very long. Um which is a sad part of what's happening in the film industry now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Um, you know, streaming has the it came out on September 8th. Yeah, so that's a while. It's on HBO, and you can watch it for free if you have HBO Max or whatever the heck, Max HBO, HBO.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, whatever those things are. One of the things that are there that are there, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. Oh my gosh. This is Serge Gainsborg and Brigitte Bardot performing their song Bonnie and Clyde. And I'm playing this because Bridget Bardot passed away. Uh she was, of course, one of the world's greatest sex symbols of all time. Uh and after she stopped making movies where she was just gorgeous all the time, um, she became an animal rights activist. And she was ninety-one when she died uh two weeks ago at her home in southern France. And she uh no cause of death was given. No arrangements have been made for a funeral memorial. She was hospitalized last month. I'm saying she died of being ninety-one.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, seems likely.
SPEAKER_06:What an incredible woman, an incredible career, and for Bridget Bardell, please put a light on.
