This weekend's Oscars ceremony will mark the close of awards season. But what has been an exciting year in film seems to have turned into an opportunity for outrage over snubs, "firsts" and more. Host Brittany Luse wants to know: Is the discourse over awards season stifling our love of art? Brittany is joined by Aisha Harris, co-host of Pop Culture Happy Hour and author of the essay "Award shows have become outrage generators. Surely there's another way?"
Then, politicians and economists are constantly telling us the economy is good. But with high grocery prices, high interest rates, and high rent - Brittany feels like there's something lost in translation. To get to the bottom of it all, The Indicator co-host Darian Woods joins the show to shed some light on what exactly makes this economy good while also feeling kind of bad.
When Shogun, James Clavell's best selling novel was adapted into a powerhouse NBC miniseries in 1980. The hero of the story was Englishman John Blackthorne.
The people he met when he landed in Japan in search of riches, are viewed and portrayed as primitive.
In the 2024 Shogun adaptation the Japanese characters are fully formed. The series elevates the stories of the Japanese characters as much as it does Blackthorne's.
That was a deliberate decision on the part of Shogun co-creators Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks.
In the 1980 version of Shogun, Japan, its culture and its people were portrayed as foreign and remote. What do we lose when stories are only told from one point of view? And what can be gained when we widen the lens?
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When you sit down to watch the Oscars, what you are really watching is the final battle in a months-long war of financial engineering and campaign strategy. Because in Hollywood, every year is an election year. A small army of Oscars campaign strategists help studios and streamers deploy tens of millions of dollars to sway Academy voters. And the signs of these campaigns are everywhere — from the endless celebrity appearances on late night TV to the billboards along your daily commute.
On today's show, we hit the Oscars campaign trail to learn how these campaigns got so big in the first place. And we look into why Hollywood is still spending so much chasing gold statues, when the old playbook for how to make money on them is being rewritten.
This episode was hosted by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. It was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Jess Jiang. It was engineered by Cena Loffredo and fact checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
Akira Toriyama has died at 68. He was known globally for his best-selling manga series Dragon Ball, which gave rise to the popular anime series Dragon Ball Z, multiple films, and video games.
Special prosecutors face an uphill battle in trying to convict the actor over the tragic death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, a former federal prosecutor says.
Will it be Oppenheimer? Will it be Barbie? Or will it be some other story entirely? It's time to get down to business, because the Oscars are upon us. In this guide, we're talking about actors, directors, best pictures — and everything we think will and should win.
UCLA's annual report on Hollywood diversity finds a mixed bag. While people of color are being hired more in key categories, the study shows a film industry disinvesting in women.
This year's Oscar nominees for outstanding documentary feature are really strong entries that are available on streaming now. They also happen to be pretty heavy, gripping watches — and well worth checking out. Today, we get into what we think will win, what should win, and where to watch this year's nominees.
From a perceived Barbie snub to the notching of a few significant historical firsts, this awards season has magnified the flaws in how art is celebrated and valued.
Warner Bros.' decision to cancel Coyote vs. Acme disappointed some cast, crew and fans — and had many wondering why a studio would shelve a project it had spent millions of dollars to make.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is the first to stand trial in a case reexamining the movie industry's safety standards. Actor Alec Baldwin's criminal trial will start in July.
This year's crop of Oscar nominees for the best international feature adopt vastly different approaches to tell their disparate stories. There's a couple that tackle the specter of fascism, one about the plight of migrants and one about an infamous real-life plane crash and its aftermath. Also there's one about a guy who cleans toilets.
This year's Oscar nominees for best original song are headlined by two songs from Barbie: one from Billie Eilish, and the other from Ryan Gosling. But there's also an intriguing mix of tracks from Jon Batiste, the Osage Tribal Singers, and Becky G — with an assist from perennial Oscar nominee Diane Warren. Today, we get into what we think will win, what should win, and what criteria should we use when we judge original songs in movies?
Armed with sandworms and big screen spectacle, the science fiction epic stormed the North American box office this weekend earning $81.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.