Pop Culture Confidential

He was Player of the Year for Norwich City Football Club in the 1970s. Then he vanished, for decades.Directors Ramiel Petros & Nicholas Freeman found him hiding in plain sight, managing a motel in Los Angeles that was about to close for good. His name is Tony Powell, and his story became the heart of their doc, The Last Guest Of The Holloway MotelIn this episode, Ramiel and Nicholas join me to talk about their doc and about Tony & his story: a story about escaping a homophobic culture, t

We are thrilled and honored to be joined by Widow's Bay's own Ruth, the incredible K Callan (Widow's Bay just got 19 Emmy nominations!!!). At 90 years old, K Callan is a LEGEND , over 7 decades working in TV, from Norman Lear shows to Bosom Buddies with Tom Hanks, Martha Kent in ABC's Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Dawson's Creek, Veep, Great Nana in Knives Out and more. She is INCREDIBLE in the breakout show Widow's Bay, a scene stealing perfomance.In our wide-ranging conversat

Film critic and journalist John Bleasdale joins Christina to discuss the news that Luca Guadagnino's film about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Artificial, has been dropped by Amazon, which just happens to have a partnership with OpenAI...Also in the mix: the many partnerships forming between creators and tech. A24 has announced a $75 million research partnership with Google DeepMind. Steven Soderbergh is embracing AI. Scorsese has signed on as a partner with an AI image-generation startup. And Netflix

TV time! Emmy nominations drop on July 8th. Christina and guest Eoin Daly make their boldest nom predictions. From The Pitt to Hacks, Widows Bay, Pluribus, and a lot of surprises. Who's getting in? Who's getting snubbed?The Emmys ceremony is on September 14th.Eoin Daly on Instagram. @eoin_daily

It's Disclosure Day! Christina is joined by Ryan McQuade of AwardsWatch to discuss and review Steven Spielberg's latest film. They dig into how it fits into the director's filmography as well as his biography, exploring where his mastery shines through, where the film falls short, and how it all comes together. Includes spoilers!

Backrooms is the record-breaking horror phenomenon of the summer. Christina sat down with brilliant production designer Danny Vermette and VFX supervisor Edward J. Douglas to talk about their work on the film and their collaboration with 20-year-old YouTube creator Kane Parsons , A24's youngest-ever director. We dig into the 30,000-square-foot build that brought Parsons's Backrooms YouTube series to life on the big screen, the themes and anxieties of isolation, (and the horror of fluorescent lig