BEFORE LISTENING: Highly recommend you read this movie review of, “The Substance.” Written by one of my favorite writers on substack, Acquired Tastes.
Thus far, I’ve done about four serious podcasts. The kind of podcasts where you sit down with a person opposite you in a real space, you have a topic in mind that you’d like to discuss, and you have a list of questions you intend to tackle. During that time I’ve really learned one thing.
I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing.
Seriously.
You think about a podcast and it seems simple. You get a relatively quiet place, some audio equipment, and you record a conversation. You think to yourself, “I’ve had conversations all my life, how hard could it be?” And then you hit the record button and you realize a hot mic is not part of a typical conversation.
There is a momentum involved in a podcast that standard conversations don’t have. Someone asks you a question and you have to come up with a response in real time. Sure you can take a moment, but you really don’t have much time. The mic is on and you need to reply. You’re shooting ideas from the hip like an rookie gunslinger, and you’re not exactly sure where all your shots will land. Hopefully you’re shooting ideas with integrity and honesty.
All this to say, I went on a podcast that has nothing to do with teaching and everything to do with critically analyzing a text. The text being the Oscar nominated film, “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore and perhaps the most fucked up costume and make-up team on the planet. I agreed to doing this podcast for two simple reasons, I enjoy podcasting and I NEED REPS.
Like anything, when you suck at something, you need to continuously to do the thing you suck at until you suck less. Upon critiquing myself after listening to the above podcast (yes, listening to your own voice for 2 hours is weird) I have discovered I tend to go off on tangents, I curse too much (nothing new there), and as much as I enjoy laughing for my own sake, I probably need to tone down my laughter for an average listener. All this said, I still think the above podcast is worth your time if you have any interest whatsoever in watching, “The Substance.”
Skylar Singer, one of my favorite writers on Substack and the author of Acquired Tastes, hosted the podcast. He’s a brilliant writer, and a movie aficionado who spends his free time writing movie reviews. (He once watched all nine SAW movies so he could properly review the tenth movie in theaters.) He was absolutely delightful in his questions, and he had a brilliant way of keeping me on track when ideas spun out of control. We discuss body image, aging, Horror, the male gaze, how feminist movies usually don’t give male roles any credit whatsoever (this is a nuanced discussion in the podcast, so listen before you judge), how important relationships are in response to aging, and a million other ideas that spawn from one of the most uncomfortable movies ever made.
ENJOY.
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