Meet Your Host

Pete Wright

Pete Wright is a podcaster, author, and co-founder of TruStory FM. He’s been behind a microphone for over thirty years and has logged thousands of episodes across three dozen shows covering film, ADHD, creative process, and the craft of storytelling. He spent fifteen years teaching graduate students and has consulted on brand communications for organizations ranging from global brands to one-person shops. His debut science fiction novella, Lattice, was published in 2026. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

Pete has hosted as well as been a panelist on a number of episodes.
This page features episodes on which he has been a host.
See episodes where Pete has been a panelist right here.

The Next Reel • Season 15 • Series: Thinking Machines • Ex Machina

Ex Machina

We dig into Alex Garland’s tense, unsettling Ex Machina — a Thinking Machines entry about consciousness, creation, and who’s really running the test.

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CATWS Minutes 21-25 • We Recognize Liver Spots

Steve Rogers visits Peggy Carter, who is elderly, sharp-tongued, and running out of time to remember him — a scene so emotionally efficient it does three different kinds of grief simultaneously. Then Nick Fury finds a file he can’t open and immediately decides this is everyone’s problem.

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Necessary Fictions

Every creative is running on at least one magnificent lie — and this week, the crew confesses theirs. Pete, Mandy, Kyle, and Ryan name the fictions that get them to the keyboard, the audience living rent-free in their heads, and the craft rules they break without remorse.

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The Next Reel • Season 15 • Series: Thinking Machines • Her

Her

In our Thinking Machines series, we dig into Spike Jonze’s Her—AI love, a voice-only performance that works completely, and why this film feels truer every year.

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Fax for Drugs

According to the WHO and the CDC, roughly half of people with chronic conditions don’t take their medication as prescribed — and the reasons are weirder, sadder, and more human than you’d think. Pete and Tommy both decided to talk about pills this week, they both went completely different directions, and somehow it works.

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The Next Reel • Season 15 • Series: Thinking Machines • WarGames • Member Bonus

WarGames • Member Bonus

We dig into John Badham’s WarGames for our March member bonus episode—the AI that learns, the script that sidesteps, and the film that actually changed federal law. Thinking Machines series.

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CATWS Minutes 16-20 • This Isn’t Freedom

Nick Fury shows Cap three orbital death machines and calls it a briefing. Cap calls it fear with a targeting system. Then he gets on his motorcycle and goes to look at his own museum exhibit, which is either deeply sad or deeply sensible depending on your read of Steve Rogers.

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