Episodes

  • Janeane Garofalo, Brad Bird and Really Smart Cartoons
    Apr 24 2015

    Brad Bird, director of The Incredibles and Ratatouille, first caught the attention of Disney after making his first animated film at age 14. Now one of the premier filmmakers in the Pixar camp, Bird is going live-action with the upcoming blockbuster Tomorrowland, based on the Disney park attraction. 

    Bird talks about making smart, creative family films with the very funny Janeane Garofalo, who stars as the voice of Colette, the feminist chef, in Ratatouille

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    51 mins
  • Christian Slater Leads an Underground Hacker Army in Mr. Robot
    Apr 24 2015

    There's a powerful group of people out there that are secretly running the world. The guys no one knows about. The guys that are invisible. The guys that play god without permission. And in the new USA Network series Mr. Robot, Christian Slater plays the leader of a hacker army at war with those guys. Hear Slater, his co-star Rami Malek, and the show's creator Sam Esmail discuss the show after a screening of the series premier.

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    40 mins
  • 'True Detective' Director Cary Fukunaga vs. The Clown
    Apr 24 2015

    Cary Fukunaga, the director of such edgy films as Jane Eyre and Sin Nombre, not to mention the often discomforting first season of True Detective, still has a fear of clowns. Fukunaga is now remaking Stephen King's It, and he told a crowd at the Tribeca Film Festival that in his mind, he still sees the same haunting image of Pennywise the clown that he saw as a kid. 

    Hear Fukunaga's full conversation with veteran independent film producer James Schamus.

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    1 hr
  • The Stars of SnapChat, Vine and YouTube
    Apr 23 2015

    Iman Crosson, who's better known on social media as Alphacat, has been making YouTube videos since the site's inception. But he's now perhaps just as well known for his Vine videos, which include remarkable six-second impressions of President Obama that actually earned Crosson the opportunity to meet the president. And yes, he Vined it. 

    But social media filmmaking isn't just a hobby. Some of the top performers on Vine and SnapChat bring in up to $100,000 a week by making sponsored content and selling advertisements. 

    Joining Crosson on this panel about the art and business of social media storytelling are Michael and Even Gregory of The Gregory Brothers, famous for their Auto-Tune the News videos. And we'll hear from "the Godfather of SnapChat," Casey Neistat. 

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    58 mins
  • The Psychological Depth of Good Will Hunting
    Apr 22 2015

    There's a scene in the movie Good Will Hunting where the character played by Stellan Skarsgard implores anyone in his class to solve this insurmountably difficult math problem, and of course, the one who solves it is a townie janitor played by Matt Damon. It turns out -- at least according to this video by a Cambridge mathematician -- that the problem itself wasn't so difficult. But the point remains: there's real intellectual heft to the film. And after this special screening of the film in partnership with The Alfred P. Sloan foundation, we'll hear from psychiatrist Paul Browde and World Science Festival co-founder Brian Greene about some of the math, science and psychology in movie.

    Joining them on the panel is the film's director, Gus Van Sant, and actors Minnie Driver and Stellan Skarsgard.

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    40 mins
  • Creating the Sound of the Coen Brothers
    Apr 22 2015

    Who could forget the psychedelic jams of The Big Lebowski; the old-timey ballads of the Soggy Bottom Boys in O Brother, Where Art Thou?; or the eerie silence, minus the sound of Javier Bardem's cattle prod, in No Country for Old Men? Composer Carter Burwell and sound mixer Skip Lievsay, who've worked on almost every Coen brothers movie, discuss the unique sound they create, and reveal further details on the upcoming Coen brothers movie Hail, Caesar!

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    51 mins
  • The Hacker and The Spy
    Apr 22 2015

    A lot has changed since 2003, when former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity was leaked by members of the Bush administration. Now we're living in the age of WikiLeaks, Edward Snowden and the Sony hacking scandal, where digital information is more accessible than ever. Case in point: Ralph Echemendia, who goes by "The Ethical Hacker," showed just how easy it is to hack into someone's computer by pulling up a Tribeca Film Festival intern's desktop on a big screen during this panel. 

    Hear Plame and Echimendia, along with Alex Gibney, director of We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bart Gellman, discussing the intersection of "Secrecy and Power."

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    1 hr and 23 mins
  • Nate Silver on Jesse Ventura, Pro Wrestler-Turned-Minnesota Governor
    Apr 21 2015

    Jesse Ventura, a former Navy Seal and fan of Aristophanes' play "The Birds," went into pro wrestling because he loved drama and competition. For Ventura, the political ring seemed like a reasonable next step. But for those in the two-party establishment, his victory in Minnesota's 1998 gubernatorial election came as a total shock. How'd it happen?

    Nate Silver, the data guru behind FiveThirtyEight.com, has answers. He spoke with Radiolab's own Robert Krulwich about the cause of Ventura's improbable rise. This discussion followed a screening of FiveThirtyEight's short documentary, Shock the World.

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    52 mins