Sensual Creatures: Vampires, Frilly Shirts, and Interview with a Vampire with Jonny Lee Jr.
Cher was almost cast as Louis. Jonny Lee Jr. returns to walk Mandy through the Anne Rice vampire universe, where the blood drinking is sexier than the sex, the five-year-old is the smartest one in the room, and Tom Cruise — against all odds and her own initial objections — absolutely earns his place as Lestat.
Shoot Again! Talking Pinball with Clark Hill
Clark Hill has pinball machines in his blood, quarters in his pocket at all times, and a very reasonable explanation for why you are both encouraged and expected to physically shove a 300-pound machine while playing it.
The Truth is RIGHT HERE: X-Files with Chelsea Stardust
Mandy has spent decades successfully avoiding The X-Files. Filmmaker Chelsea Stardust has six episodes, zero aliens, and one extremely persuasive Flukeman to fix that.
Watch Me Fly… Serenity with Krissy Lenz
Krissy Lenz is back in the nerd chair, this time making the case for Serenity — the 2005 movie that exists only because Fox couldn’t kill Firefly hard enough. Mandy watches the space western, meets the Browncoats, and discovers that a fandom is hardcore when it can get a movie greenlit, commission a documentary about getting the movie greenlit, and also organize themed parties called Shindigs.
No Time To Play… Ender’s Game with Erica Cochran
Mandy Kaplan has been handed a Hugo-winning, Nebula-winning, Mormon-authored military sci-fi classic about a six-year-old being psychologically tortured into committing accidental alien genocide, and reader, she has THOUGHTS.
One For The Kids: Battle Royale with Jimmy Aquino
Mandy Kaplan has thoughts about 42 Japanese ninth-graders being forced to murder each other on a deserted island, and honestly, who among us doesn’t?
Moon Prism Power, Make Me a Gorgeous Podcaster: Sailor Moon with Jonny Lee Jr.
Sailor Moon was made for five-year-old Japanese girls and somehow became a queer awakening for an entire generation. Jonny Lee Jr. is back to explain why, and Mandy has feelings about Tuxedo Mask that she cannot control.
From Basement Nerds to Amazon Prime: The Improbable (and Inevitable) Rise of Vox Machina with Hem Brewster
Mandy finally meets the world where improv, fantasy, and a Goliath with a ginormous hidden heart collide — and it turns out The Legend of Vox Machina was designed exactly for people who need a good fart joke before they’ll commit to an eight-hour campaign. Hem Brewster, lead producer at Blighthouse Studio and D&D lifer, joins from Iceland to explain how a group of voice actors playing in someone’s basement became one of the most successful Kickstarters in history — and why none of that required knowing a single rule.
Movie Friends Michelle Rubinstein and Seth Vargas on the Strange Legacy of Ed Wood
Plan 9 from Outer Space was declared the worst movie ever made — by people who hadn’t even watched it. Mandy finally does, and walks away utterly charmed.
Nate McWhortor Makes Mandy a Future Folk Fan
A 2012 micro-budget alien bluegrass musical starring the lead singer of Twisted Sister somehow became one of the most charming films you’ve never seen. Mandy watched it skeptical, played a drinking game through it, and came out the other side recommending it far and wide.