El estudio independiente sueco Hazelight es sinónimo de juegos cooperativos, por lo que, por supuesto, su próximo proyecto está diseñado para dos jugadores, pero esta vez también presenta dos tipos de juegos. Dividir la imaginación Es una aventura cooperativa en la que los jugadores navegan por mundos de ciencia ficción y fantasía en un intento de escapar de las garras de una editorial codiciosa. Admite juego local y en línea y utiliza la pantalla dividida de manera adecuada.
en Dividir la imaginaciónJuegas como Mio y Zoe, dos escritoras que terminan atrapadas en la misma burbuja como una máquina de robo de creatividad controlada por un editor malvado. Mio es una autora de ciencia ficción y Zoe escribe fantasía, y sus mundos cobran vida a su alrededor. Juntos deberán escapar saltando entre los mundos de ciencia ficción y fantasía, sobreviviendo a los peligros únicos de cada espacio de fantasía. Parece una historia clásica sobre el poder de la amistad y las plataformas.
El primer tráiler del juego, que se estrenó el premios del juegomuestra dos mundos ricos en estilo y una variedad de mecánicas en cada uno. El mundo de ciencia ficción de Mio contiene luces de neón, robots, láseres, patinetas flotantes y bicicletas de gravedad, mientras que el espacio de fantasía de Zoe contiene dragones, magia, pueblos fantásticos, gigantes y castillos. Cada nivel tiene una mecánica única. Por ejemplo, en un nivel de fantasía, los dragones eclosionan y sus habilidades evolucionan desde transportarte entre plataformas hasta hacerte rodar como un armadillo y, finalmente, montar un dragón.
Hazelight y su fundador, Joseph Fares, son tan parte de The Game Awards como lo es Hideo Kojima en este momento, y el título anterior del estudio, se necesitan dosganó el premio al Juego del año 2021. Amazon está adaptando. se necesitan dosen una películacon los escritores de Sonic the Hedgehog, Pat Casey y Josh Miller, a cargo del guión.
luz antiniebla
Al igual que los juegos anteriores de Hazlight, Dividir la imaginación EA lo publica bajo la marca EA Originals, que se centra en juegos independientes. Dividir la imaginación Está previsto que llegue a PC, PlayStation 5 y Xbox Series X/S el 6 de marzo de 2025 y costará 50 dólares. En PC, el juego está disponible en Steam, Epic Games Store y la aplicación EA. Lo más importante para el aspecto cooperativo es que admite el juego multiplataforma entre PS5, Xbox y Steam.
La edición anual de premios del juegoque parece tener más que ver con avances que con trofeos, nos brinda al menos un juego original de aspecto realmente impresionante que esperamos con ansias. Por lo general, está escondido entre anuncios promocionales de actualizaciones de juegos móviles, pero siempre está ahí.
Este año, podría ser ese juego. Dividir la imaginación. Desarrollado por Hazelight Studios y dirigido por Joseph Fares (conocido por usar… lenguaje colorido (en entregas de premios de juegos anteriores) Dividir la imaginación Es el seguimiento espiritual de los ganadores del Juguete del Año 2021 se necesitan dos. Eso significa que es una aventura extraña y original ambientada en torno a dos novelistas de fantasía en competencia, diseñada específicamente para ser interpretada en colaboración por dos personas juntas. No tenía la impresión de que el juego para un jugador fuera sólo una opción, ni tampoco tenía sentido que lo fuera.
De todos modos, tuve que sentarme y jugar unos 45 minutos. Dividir la imaginación Con el propio Knight antes de la gran revelación en premios del juego. Si bien queda por ver si alguna de sus grandes ideas funcionará cuando el juego se lance a principios de marzo, al menos puedo confirmar que Dividir la imaginación Da una primera impresión tremenda.
Dividir la imaginación Vista previa práctica: tienes ciencia ficción en mi imaginación
No importa qué estética estés usando en un momento dado, “Split Fiction” se ve bastante bien. Crédito: Hazlight/EA
Para entender qué es exactamente Dividir la imaginación es que necesitas entender la premisa. El problema es que no lo entendí del todo en el poco tiempo que pasé con el juego, pero haré lo mejor que pueda para explicarlo.
Historias principales mezclables
Dos novelistas llamados Zoe y Mio (Fares se apresura a mencionar los nombres de su hija) han quedado atrapados, por medios aparentemente nefastos, dentro de una simulación virtual de su trabajo juntos por una siniestra editorial que quiere robar sus historias. Uno es escritor de ciencia ficción y el otro es novelista de fantasía. La mayor parte del juego parece que tendrá lugar en un mundo de fantasía o de ciencia ficción, según el nivel, con la idea de que estas dos mujeres que no se agradan (o el trabajo de la otra) necesitan desesperadamente trabajar. juntos creativamente para salir de la simulación.
El nombre del juego está en Dividir la imaginación Misceláneas. Cada nivel parece tener una mecánica cooperativa única y dedicada que solo dura entre 10 y 15 minutos, que no verás en ningún otro lugar del juego. Aquí hay algunos ejemplos que Fares me mostró en la rápida demostración que tuve la oportunidad de jugar:
Un nivel en el que Zoe y Mio practican snowboard de manera competitiva bajando una montaña, con un sistema de puntuación y trucos razonablemente profundos.
Un nivel en el que Zoe y Mio nacen, crían y eventualmente montan dos dragones que crecen a medida que avanza el nivel.
Un nivel en el que Zoe y Mew juegan como dos cerdos, uno de los cuales puede estirarse verticalmente como un juguete furtivo, mientras que el otro suelta pedos de arcoíris para despejar los espacios horizontales.
Ah, sí, hay un nivel en el que también te transformas en extraños monstruos. Crédito: Hazlight/EA
La parte más importante es que todo lo que tenía que jugar era Hazar. Dividir la imaginaciónLas mecánicas principales de juego en tercera persona del juego son sólidas y rápidas por sí solas, pero una vez que entran en juego las mecánicas más torpes, las cosas se ponen bastante bien. El nivel de snowboard era aproximadamente bastante decente. ssxmientras que el nivel del cerdo fue una pequeña distracción opcional que Faris me aseguró que duró unos 10 minutos. Hablando de desviaciones voluntarias, Dividir la imaginación Parece que estará lleno de niveles ocultos ambientados en otras historias escritas por estos dos personajes. El nivel del cerdo era uno de esos niveles, pero hubo otro nivel que convirtió el juego en un juego de desplazamiento lateral dibujado a lápiz por un tiempo.
El trabajo anterior de Hazelight creando juegos cooperativos únicos se destacó en la breve demostración que también jugué. Estas mecánicas no sólo son divertidas y los jugadores pueden realizarlas juntos; En muchos casos, a cada jugador se le asigna una habilidad o rol diferente, por lo que la coordinación es clave. A veces, un jugador tendrá que cambiar la gravedad para caminar por el techo, cortando las plataformas del otro. Ya sabes, cosas así.
No puedo decir si o no Dividir la imaginación Estará a la altura de la excelente primera impresión que causará cuando el juego completo se lance el 5 de marzo. Pero entre un montón de trucos cooperativos realmente divertidos que solo he visto en una breve demostración y el hecho de que no hay nada demasiado molesto, el narrador está por todos lados como… se necesitan dos, Dividir la imaginación Está previsto que sea uno de los juegos más interesantes de principios de 2025.
¿Qué tiene que ver Pulp Fiction con las películas de terror de bajo presupuesto? Bueno, la película 8 millones de dolares El presupuesto puede parecer una cantidad bastante grande, pero no es lo que esperarías de una película protagonizada por Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta y Uma Thurman. Por supuesto, en ese momento, estos actores no eran las estrellas dedicadas en las que se convirtieron o, En el caso de Travolta, tiene una puntuación del 0% en Rotten Tomatoes. (Lo siento John, eres una leyenda). Sin embargo, 8 millones de dólares es el tipo de presupuesto que se espera de una película de terror de gama media, por lo que es impresionante que Quentin Tarantino haya logrado ganar 212 millones de dólares con su extraña película posmoderna.
Y esta tampoco es la única conexión entre Pulp Fiction y el terror. Aparte de las representaciones a menudo violentas de la película, existe una conexión sorprendente entre una de sus estrellas y una película de terror de muy bajo presupuesto que se estrenó en la misma década que la película de Tarantino.
Bruce Willis hizo rentable Pulp Fiction incluso antes de que comenzara el rodajesimplemente aceptando aparecer en la película y aportar su atractivo estrella de cine a la película y no exigir una suma enorme por el esfuerzo. El actor no tuvo mucho papel en la famosa obra de Tarantino, pero como el boxeador Butch Coolidge, Willis recordó al público que merecía algo más que su estatus de estrella después de sus pocos fracasos en taquilla. Resulta que la estrella de “Die Hard” también hizo una predicción en el set de “Pulp Fiction” que resultó ser tan precisa que es casi tan inquietante como cualquier violencia que se encuentre en ella.
Bruce Willis anticipa con éxito un clásico del terror moderno
Entretenimiento literal
Escrito por el director Scott Derrickson en Gorjeo/XUn vídeo muestra a Bruce Willis hablando con Quentin Tarantino, quien sostiene la cámara, durante el rodaje de Pulp Fiction, y hace algunas predicciones inquietantemente precisas sobre el futuro del cine. “Un día, dentro de cinco años, alguien se llevará uno de estos”, afirma. [camcorders] Y hacer un largometraje con ello.” El actor continuó exponiendo un escenario donde el cine de bajo presupuesto se convierte en la norma:
“Alguien, un chico de 17 años, va a hacer esta película asesina, mortal y mal iluminada que será la más emocionante. Y luego habrá cientos de ellas en todas partes. Y van a costar unos 60.000 dólares.”
Ahora bien, “Pulp Fiction” se estrenó en 1994 y cinco años después, en 1999, vimos el estreno de la película que Welles aparentemente había predicho en una visión: “El proyecto de la bruja de Blair”. Esta legendaria película de terror de bajo presupuesto, filmada con una videocámara Hi8, lanzó la tendencia del metraje encontrado y se convirtió en una sensación cultural gracias a una ingeniosa estrategia de marketing que promovió la película como si se tratara de metraje encontrado de hechos reales.
Por supuesto, los directores Daniel Myrick y Eduardo Sánchez no sólo tenían 17 años cuando hicieron “Blair Witch”, sino que filmaron la película cuando tenían alrededor de 30 años. Pero eso es lo único en lo que Willis se equivocó. ¿Periodo de cinco años? Cheques. “¿Video mal iluminado?” Cheques. (Basta con mirar la infame toma final de “Blair Witch”.) ¿Y adivinen para qué se creó “The Blair Witch Project”? $60,000. O al menos entre 35.000 y 60.000 dólares.
La predicción de Bruce Willis fue un poco precisa
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Después de que The Blair Witch Project fuera seleccionado para su distribución, el presupuesto final se incrementó significativamente antes del estreno de la película en el Festival de Cine de Sundance de 1999. Según se informa, una remezcla de sonido y una transferencia de 35 mm aumentaron el presupuesto final a aproximadamente. $600,000. Pero con unos ingresos de taquilla mundial de 248 millones de dólares, ese aumento de 60.000 a 600.000 dólares resultó ser insignificante. Pero lo importante aquí no es lo que los distribuidores Artisan Entertainment hicieron con La bruja de Blair o que la película se convirtió en una de las películas independientes más exitosas de todos los tiempos, sino que Bruce Willis claramente tiene sus propios poderes sobrenaturales.
Los comentarios de Welles son particularmente impresionantes dada su afirmación de que la primera película con videocámara de bajo presupuesto produciría “cientos” de películas similares, que es exactamente lo que ocurrió después de “Blair Witch”. El metraje encontrado se ha convertido ahora en un género establecido en sí mismo, y muchas películas se inspiran en las modestas producciones de Daniel Myrick y Eduardo Sánchez. Es un linaje que incluye esfuerzos conocidos como la película de terror de Oren Peli de 2007 “Paranormal Activity” y la brutal película de terror de Matt Reeves de 2008 “Cloverfield”, dos de Las imágenes encontradas más aterradoras de las películas de terror Alguna vez. Por supuesto, se podría señalar que el género se remonta a películas como “Cannibal Holocaust” en la década de 1980 o incluso antes, pero “Blair Witch” fue la primera vez que una película de bajo presupuesto adoptó este lema. La naturaleza de su equipo cinematográfico ha recibido gran reconocimiento y atención.
Incluso hoy en día se puede ver la influencia de “Blair Witch”. Toma algo como “Skinamarink” es una de las películas de terror más aterradoras de 2023. La película de Kyle Edward Ball se produjo con un presupuesto de sólo 15.000 dólares y se filmó en la casa de la infancia del director. Con su adopción de la estética lo-fi y la producción minimalista, se siente muy parte del legado de “Blair Witch” y muestra que las predicciones de Willis siguen siendo ciertas hasta el día de hoy.
No es que Quentin Tarantino haya sufrido de ninguna manera desde que dirigió Pulp Fiction, pero cuando Welles le dice al director al comienzo del clip en cuestión: “Deberías ser la primera persona en hacer esto”, es posible que Tarantino haya escuchado.
En la extensa historia oral de la película en diverso Para celebrar el trigésimo aniversario de la película, Roger Avary, quien coescribió la historia con Tarantino, dijo que inicialmente el proyecto tenía una apariencia muy diferente.. “La idea original de Pulp Fiction era que íbamos a hacer tres cortometrajes con tres directores diferentes. Yo haría uno, Quentin haría otro y nos reunimos con un amigo, Adam Rifkin, que iba a dirigir. Para hacer uno, escribí un guión llamado 'Pandemonium Reigns' y, a lo largo del camino, 'Reservoir Dogs' se expandió hasta convertirse en un guión de largometraje, 'Pulp Fiction' por un tiempo fue algo que no iba a suceder”.
Finalmente, llegaron a un acuerdo con Danny DeVito, quien terminó trabajando como productor ejecutivo en Pulp Fiction y tenía un acuerdo más amplio con TriStar Entertainment; Como recuerda el actor de “It's Always Sunny”, quería tener esta versión de “Pulp Fiction” en funcionamiento muy rápidamente. “Después de unos seis minutos de hablar con Quentin, dije: 'Quiero llegar a un acuerdo ahora'”, dijo DeVito. “Quentin hizo una pausa y luego dijo que sí. E hice un trato con él. No había visto 'Reservoir Dogs' todavía porque todavía estaba en producción”.
El éxito de Reservoir Dogs retrasó Pulp Fiction… y también cambió todo el proyecto en cierto modo
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Como dice Roger Avary, después del estreno de “Reservoir Dogs”, todo cambió para Quentin Tarantino… y en el proceso, el guionista y director decidió que quería abordar “Pulp Fiction” de forma un poco diferente. “Luego Quentin escribió Reservoir Dogs y recibió todo tipo de ofertas para hacer proyectos de estudio realmente interesantes. Pero regresó y me llamó un día y me dijo: “Todavía estoy pensando en Pulp Fiction y creo que quiero hacer una película y dirigirla toda yo mismo”.“
¿Qué pasó con la parte del guión de Avary, que quizás recuerdes se titulaba “The Pandemonium Reigns”? Como dijo Avary, los escritores “tomaron mi guión [to ‘Pandemonium Reigns’] Y lo volvimos a doblar, y luego fuimos a Ámsterdam y tomamos todas las escenas que habíamos escrito y que aún no se habían llevado al cine. Años más tarde, Tarantino trabajó en una película de dos partes con Robert Rodríguez (“Grindhouse” compuesta por “Death Proof” de Tarantino y “Planet Terror” de Rodríguez), pero una película de varias partes. Claramente, el proyecto de historia que concibió originalmente con Roger Avary no estaba destinado a ser así.
Quentin Tarantino consiguió un productor principal en Pulp Fiction al presentar un guión larguísimo
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Como cuenta el productor ejecutivo Danny DeVito en su artículo de Variety, tuvo la oportunidad de leer el borrador final del guión de Pulp Fiction y le gustó, aunque le sorprendió un poco su extensión. “Hablé con [Tarantino] Durante ese año, al registrarme, simplemente “¿Cómo va todo?” ¿Viene él? “Entonces sonó el timbre y había un paquete, un sobre manila con 155 páginas dentro”, recordó DeVito. “Lo juro por Dios, siempre me gusta pensar que todavía hace calor. Y la primera página decía: 'Pulp Fiction de Quentin Tarantino, borrador final'.
DeVito se sentó a leerlo e inmediatamente se unió a él, aunque su extensión ciertamente le preocupaba. “Me recosté en el sofá con una taza de té y me reí muchísimo”, dijo el actor, director y productor. “Me encantó de principio a fin. La gran pregunta es que tenía 155 páginas. Tenía a una mujer con la que trabajaba, Wilma, que era mi supervisora de guión, y ella cronometraba las cosas por mí. minuto, y fue. La duración final de la película es de 154 minutos. Afortunadamente para DeVito, no leyó un borrador anterior del guión ganador del Oscar de Tarantino; Aparentemente, uno de estos tenía unas 500 páginas.Entonces no tuvo suerte.
Este artículo contiene una discusión sobre agresión sexual.
Una nueva retrospectiva se centra en La obra maestra de Quentin Tarantino “Pulp Fiction” en diverso Ella reveló que el notorio (y deshonrado) productor Harvey Weinstein tenía una idea muy clara sobre el casting de la película, que finalmente fue anulada.
El periodista Todd Gilchrist habló con una amplia gama de personas involucradas en la película ganadora del Oscar y aprendió del productor ejecutivo Danny DeVito (Sí, Cual Danny DeVito), el productor ejecutivo Michael Shamberg y el productor Lawrence Bender, quien interpreta a Weinstein realmente Daniel Day-Lewis quería interpretar a Vincent Vega, papel que finalmente recayó en John Travolta. DeVito tenía un contrato de desarrollo general con TriStar Pictures y recibió el montaje final de sus proyectos allí. Según recuerda, habló con Weinstein, quien insistió en que Day-Lewis, que acababa de ganar un Oscar por “Mi pie izquierdo”, interpretara a Vincent.
“Dije que el director quería a John Travolta”, le dijo DeVito a Gilchrist. “Le dije a este chico que tenía la copia final, además de la aprobación del personal. Creo que me llamó con todos los nombres del libro, pero por supuesto, Quentin consiguió lo que quería, y tenía toda la razón, y el resto es historia.” DeVito ciertamente recuerda que Weinstein fue particularmente duro durante su enemistad; En 2017, se supo que Weinstein abusaba sexual, verbal y mentalmente de todos, desde poderosos actores de Hollywood hasta secuaces de la industria. (Actualmente está cumpliendo condena en prisión por agresión sexual y tiene más juicios pendientes). Desafortunadamente, Pulp Fiction se hizo durante el apogeo de Weinstein… y él tenía el poder y el dinero para intimidar y abusar de la gente.
El presupuesto de Pulp Fiction era tan bajo que Harvey Weinstein tuvo problemas para intervenir
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Como revelan Michael Shamberg y Lawrence Bender en el artículo, trabajaron duro para mantener el presupuesto bajo… lo que significó, muy probablemente, que las demandas y la supervisión de Harvey Weinstein pudieran ser ignoradas con frecuencia. Desafortunadamente, cuando llegó el momento de encontrar un patrocinador para la película, solo había un productor: Weinstein. “Sólo Harvey [Weinstein] “Harvey pensó que estaba en una guerra de ofertas, pero no era así”, dijo Shamberg al medio. “Hasta el día de hoy, si ves… [Hollywood film producer] Bob Shaye me dirá que desearía no haber rechazado nunca Pulp Fiction. Quentin quería hacerlo. [producer, former TriStar chairman, and Orion co-founder] “Mike Medavoy porque Mike hizo todas las grandes películas de Orión, pero, irónicamente, cuando salió del armario, Mike pensó que era demasiado violento”.
Bender señaló que al final, él y Shamberg lograron mantener el presupuesto lo suficientemente bajo como para mantener el control creativo en sus manos. “Queríamos que el presupuesto estuviera entre 6 y 8 millones de dólares”, recuerda Bender, “porque de esa manera podríamos mantener un mayor control sobre la película en sí, porque el presupuesto era lo suficientemente bajo”. “Y cuando hicimos la película, lo creas o no, el presupuesto para esta película era literalmente de 8,5 millones de dólares con contingencias. Cuando terminó, recuperamos 500.000 dólares y eran exactamente 8 millones de dólares”.
John Travolta está muy agradecido de que Harvey Weinstein no se saliera con la suya
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En lo que respecta a John Travolta, él es realmente Me alegro de que Harvey Weinstein haya sido anulado en lo que respecta a Vincent Vega y Daniel Day-Lewis, porque Pulp Fiction, como todo el mundo sabe, fue un gran paso en su carrera. (No dijo específicamente que se alegraba de que se rechazara la idea de Weinstein, pero seguí adelante y concluí eso). [I’d experienced] Antes de “Pulp Fiction” era una película de “Mira quién habla”, por lo que conseguir un programa de “Pulp” era definitivamente una oportunidad de siguiente nivel, de la misma manera que “Saturday Night Fever” y “Saturday Night Fever”. de lo hizo. “La integridad de Blow Out”, dijo Travolta a Variety.
Travolta también reveló que Quentin Tarantino le dijo que le encantaban las actuaciones del actor, desde “Welcome Back Kotter” hasta “Grease”, y que siempre esperó que los dos colaboraran. Además, Travolta dijo que tenían una gran cosa en común: “Creo que ayudó que él fuera un gran admirador de Pauline Kael y que fuera uno de sus actores favoritos, así que elevó el listón para mí y me dio una segunda oportunidad en una película. carrera de alto perfil, una carrera que él siempre quiso que tuviera”. (No hace mucho, Circularon rumores de que Tarantino estaba haciendo su “última” película sobre KylePero todo esto parece haber terminado por ahora).
“Pulp Fiction” está disponible para transmitir en Paramount+ y Amazon Prime.
Samuel L. Jackson es la estrella de cine más exitosa de todos los tiempos y tiene los ingresos de taquilla para demostrarlo. Sin embargo, su racha ganadora no comenzó cuando Jackson comenzó a actuar en la década de 1970, pero ciertamente aumentó unos 20 años después cuando interpretó al asesino filosófico Jules Winnfield en Pulp Fiction de Quentin Tarantino.
oh claro, Jackson ya tuvo algunas actuaciones memorables a su nombre.desde “Haz lo correcto” hasta “Parque Jurásico”. Pero “Pulp Fiction” es cuando Samuel L. Jackson (y Quentin Tarantino, de hecho) se convirtió en un nombre familiar. Eso es lo que hace que el pequeño papel de Jackson en Goodfellas hace unos años (como un criminal apenas presente que es asesinado rápidamente) sea tan surrealista hoy. Gracias a Pulp Fiction, Jackson ya no desempeña esos papeles.
Pero el papel de Jules, que le valió a Jackson su primera y única nominación al Oscar, estuvo a punto de no ser su papel en absoluto. Tarantino originalmente escribió Jules con Laurence Fishburne en mente para interpretarlo (Además de Michael Madsen, también conocido como Mr. Blonde de “Reservoir Dogs”, como Vincent, reemplazando a John Travolta en el final). Fishburne se negó diciendo años después“,”[He] Realmente no respondí a [‘Pulp Fiction’] Guión.” como Tarantino recuerda en el podcast “The Rewatchables”.Los representantes de Fishburne aparentemente le dijeron que “Pulp Fiction” no sería un buen paso en su carrera mientras su estrella estuviera en ascenso: “Boyz N The Hood” de 1991 fue un gran éxito, luego “Deep Cover” de 1992 fue un éxito menor que demostró Fishburne fue un pionero en el campo material.
Con Fishburne fuera, Jackson ganó el papel con una audición apasionante. ¿Fishburne pudo hacer eso? ciertamente. Es tan genial y aterrador como debería ser Jules, pero creo que su estilo será muy diferente al de Jackson. El estado de ánimo de Fishburne es más de ira gélida que de fuego, mientras que Jackson siempre parece estar nervioso. El monólogo final de Jules en la cena, pronunciado por Fishburne, será más tenue y firme, del tipo que se escucha en la voz de Morfeo preparando a Neo (Keanu Reeves) para aprender la verdad sobre Matrix.
A falta de un clavo, podría haber sido Laurence Fishburne en Pulp Fiction
Nueva línea de cine
¿Puedes creer que sucedió exactamente lo mismo en “Die Hard With A Vengeance” también? A Fishburne se le ofreció originalmente el papel de Zeus Carver, el coprotagonista de John McClane (Bruce Willis), un papel que finalmente también fue para Jackson. Según Tarantino (de nuevo a través de “The Rewatchables”), este Switch está relacionado con la película “Pulp Fiction”. El precio que pedía Fishburne para interpretar a Zeus era demasiado alto para el productor Andrew Vajna, por lo que Vajna (mientras asistía al estreno de Pulp Fiction de Welles) le ofreció el papel a Jackson. (Fishburne, a su vez, demandó a Cinergi Pictures, la productora de “Die Hard With A Vengeance”).
Episodio del podcast Blank Check sobre “Dying Hard with a Vengeance” Contiene una sección ampliada sobre esta historia y cómo estas películas sucesivas dieron forma a las carreras de Jackson y Fishburne. Si bien Jackson fue utilizado dos veces como reemplazo de Fishburne, Pulp Fiction y Die Hard With A Vengeance fueron tales éxitos que su estrella Eclipse Quemadura de pescado. Esto no significa que Fishburne haya caído en el olvido ni nada por el estilo; El papel de Morfeo en The Matrix aseguró su lugar en la historia de Hollywood. Algo por lo que está muy feliz.
Pero la mayor decepción en esto es Fishburne. Aún Aún no ha trabajado con Tarantino. pescado quemado el era Tarantino eligió interpretar al superhéroe de Marvel Luke Cagepero está claro que este proyecto no tuvo éxito. Dudo que Tarantino desperdicie su décima y supuestamente última película en una película de Marvel, pero sea lo que sea que termine siendo esa imagen, tal vez pueda encontrar un lugar para Fishburne.
Hasta el día de hoy, Jackson y Fishburne siguen confundidos entre sí; Fishburne firmó al menos un autógrafo Para un fan confundido con Sam Jackson. Poner a Fishburne y Jackson juntos en la pantalla podría hacer que las personas (blancas) finalmente comprendan que no son la misma persona.
An alien civilization spying on humans using quantum entanglement. A planet chaotically orbiting three stars. Nanofibres capable of slicing through Earth’s hardest substance, diamond. Despite being chock-full of hardcore science, 3 Body Problem, a television series released on 21 March by the streaming service Netflix, has been a hit with audiences. So far, it has spent five weeks straight in Netflix’s list of the top-three programs viewed globally.
The science of Oppenheimer: meet the Oscar-winning movie’s specialist advisers
The story follows five young scientists who studied together at the University of Oxford, UK, as they grapple with mysterious deaths, particle-physics gone awry and aliens called the San-Ti who have their sights set on Earth. But how much of the science in the sci-fi epic, based on the award-winning book trilogy Remembrance of Earth’s Past by the Chinese writer Cixin Liu, reflects reality, and how much is wishful thinking? To find out, Nature spoke to three real-world scientists.
Xavier Dumusque is a planetary scientist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland who has studied the three-star system Alpha Centauri. Younan Xia is a materials scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta who has worked with cutting-edge nanotechnologies. Matt Kenzie is a particle physicist at the University of Cambridge, UK — and was the scientific adviser for 3 Body Problem.
Kenzie originally met two of the show’s creators, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, 14 years ago, while the pair were filming the popular fantasy saga Game of Thrones. Kenzie’s father was a director of photography for that series, and Benioff and Weiss chatted to Kenzie on set. “I was doing my PhD at the time,” Kenzie recalls, and they seemed interested in his thesis project. More than a decade later, “they e-mailed me sort of out of the blue, asking about some of the particle-physics stuff” in 3 Body Problem.
Full disclosure: spoilers ahead.
What do you think of the portrayal of scientists and their relationships in the series?
Kenzie: The lazy way of portraying scientists on screen [in other programs and films] is as lone geniuses. For a lot of modern research, it’s not like that. The fact that the characters all know each other and are very friendly because they did their PhDs together in the same group seems very plausible. I also think most physicists are socially very capable. We work in bigger and bigger teams. You need to be able to communicate, you need to be able to lead if you’re in a successful academic position, you have to be able to basically convince someone to fund your research, whether it’s by hiring you or by giving you funding.
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One thing that’s probably not true to reality is that there are quite a few women — about half women — and a good mix of ethnic backgrounds in the actual cast of the show. The truth, sadly, is that [physics graduates] probably would be 70% white males at a place like Oxford. But, you know, we hope that that is improving. And I don’t think there’s any harm in the show trying to progress standards by displaying something a little bit more diverse.
Dumusque: Something that I liked, and it’s a little bit true, is that there are five former physics PhD students, and, in the end, there are only one or two that are still doing fundamental physics. All the others are doing other things — they are all successful. That’s the reality. I had ten close friends finishing PhDs, and now we are only two left in academia. The others are doing plenty of super-interesting things.
The San-Ti emerge from a planet in the three-body Alpha Centauri system. We’re told this means they’ve had a chaotic existence as their planet was flung between stars. Would aliens actually survive this?
Dumusque: Alpha Centauri is indeed a triple system, which has two bright stars, Alpha Centauri A and B, and a tiny star, Proxima Centauri, which is closest to us [at 1.3 parsecs away]. In fact, it was not clear for a long time if the third star, Proxima, was bound to the system — because it’s very, very far away, really at the limit of the system. The gravitational interaction of Proxima on the two main stars is extremely small. So what they’ve shown in the show — you have all this instability due to the third body — in reality, it doesn’t happen in this system.
There is a planet around Proxima, and it’s an interesting planet because the star is much smaller and cooler than our Sun. So although the planet is orbiting it with a period of just around 15 days, the surface temperature of the planet is more or less 0 °C. In terms of temperature, it could be habitable [although not comfortable]. But small stars like Proxima have a lot of magnetic activity and flares, and give out a lot of X-rays, all of which does not favour life.
The way Earth initially contacts the San-Ti is by amplifying a radio signal using the Sun. Is that possible?
Dumusque: I think it should be possible, but not in the way the 3 Body Problem shows. We can use the effect of gravitational lensing — if there is an object passing behind the Sun, we could use the mass of the Sun to amplify the [radio signal]. But it would be amplified just in one specific direction [rather than in all directions, as shown in the program].
The San-Ti, called Trisolarans in the books, unleash high-tech particles called sophons that use quantum entanglement to observe and communicate with Earth in real time. Is this feasible?
Kenzie: The mechanism shown has been proven, and I think will soon be deployed in what is known as quantum satellite technology. You’re basically sending signals incredibly fast using entangled particles, where, when you measure the state of one, you immediately know the state of the other. However, there is still a caveat to that, which is that you cannot communicate faster than the speed of light.
[To ‘read’ the distant particle] you still need to send an electromagnetic signal to decode the information [which travels at the speed of light]. Trisolarans circumvent this by knowing about hidden dimensions. They have a way of tunnelling through or exploiting those dimensions. So it appears like they’re communicating faster than light in our three- or four-dimensional Universe (if you include time as the fourth dimension).
Younan, you haven’t seen the series yet, but you’ve watched a clip in which nanofibres made by one character slice through a huge chunk of diamond as if it were cake. Are we there yet?
Xia: First, the size of the diamond you saw in that clip, that’s impossible! If you can make that size of a diamond, I’m sure you can easily become a billionaire. As far as I know, no material has been made that’s harder than diamond. Scientists have dreamt about finding a material to beat diamond for decades. They have even identified some compounds, like [a particular type of] carbon nitride, using computer simulations, that could work, but these materials cannot be synthesized in the lab. Maybe there are some formulations of compounds that would work, materials we just don’t know of yet.
People have also thought a carbon nanotube could be stronger than diamond. But that kind of strength is a ‘stretching’ strength and is not really suitable for cutting applications. Carbon nanotubes are rolled up sheets of graphene. But most of them are pretty short in terms of length. So far, it’s been difficult to make them even a few centimetres long without defects; I don’t know how they could’ve made these fibres [in the program].
Matt, as the scientific adviser, were you happy with how the series turned out?
Kenzie: The writers of this show really know a lot about science. They’re very well read, and they think about things very carefully. They’re not just asking [me for advice] to make themselves feel better, they really think about things. The level of attention to detail that they showed was something that impressed me. I was not really expecting it, to be honest.
Podcasts are to radio as streaming services are to television, and we are lucky enough to be living through the golden age of both. You can find a podcast about almost anything these days, but with great choice comes great mediocrity—you might need a helping hand to find the podcasts worthy of your ear. Our expertly curated list will entertain and educate you, whether you’re doing the dishes, working out, commuting, or lazing in the bath.
Updated March 2023: We added several podcasts, including Your Undivided Attention, Mobbed Up: The Fight for Las Vegas, Dead Eyes, and My Therapist Ghosted Me, plus a new health and wellness section.
Table of Contents
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Courtesy of ABC News
The Dropout
Sneak a peek behind the curtain, as this podcast follows the trials and tribulations of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, the tech startup that promised to disrupt blood testing but disintegrated in the face of whistleblowers, inaccurate results, and fraudulent claims. John Carreyrou’s reporting broke the scandal, and his book Bad Blood also spawned another interesting podcast. But The Dropout is a refreshingly clear recounting of the sordid tale, with season two tackling the trial.
Courtesy of Darknet Diaries
Darknet Diaries
Anyone with an interest in hacking and cybercrime will appreciate this investigative podcast from Jack Rhysider. Densely packed and tightly edited, the show covers topics like Xbox hacking, a Greek wiretapping Vodafone scandal, and the impact of the NotPetya malware. Rhysider skillfully weaves informative narratives to unravel some complex issues and keeps things mostly accessible, though it may occasionally get a little too technical for some folks.
Courtesy of Center for Humane Technology
Your Undivided Attention
Ex-Googler Tristan Harris, who you may recognize from the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, talks with Aza Raskin about the dangers of living your life online. Cofounders of the Center for Humane Technology, they delve into the ethics of Big Tech, unpack the potential pitfalls, and try to imagine ways to harness technology for the good of humanity.
Courtesy of Dallas Taylor
Twenty Thousand Hertz
Painstakingly researched, this podcast dives deep into the world of sound to explain everything from those sounds you always hear in movie trailers to car engines, choral music, the Netflix intro, and way beyond. Learn how iconic sounds were created, why certain sounds make us feel the way they do, and how sound enriches our lives in myriad ways.
Other Great Tech Podcasts:
WIRED’sGadget Lab: Want to catch up on the week’s top tech news? Listen to our very own podcast hosted by senior writer Lauren Goode and senior editor Michael Calore.
The Lazarus Heist: This captivating investigation starts with the Sony hacks, digs into the involvement of North Korean hackers, and moves on to a billion-dollar cyber theft.
Rabbit Hole: What is the internet doing to us? New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose investigates things like the impact of algorithms on radicalization with a dreamy soundscape backdrop.
Reply All: The beautifully paced, always convivial, and sorely missed Reply All dragged us down internet rabbit holes to investigate long-forgotten songs, phone scammers, hacked Snapchat accounts, and Team Fortress 2 bots.
Click Here: With a focus on cybersecurity, this podcast unravels tales of hacking, misinformation, cyberterrorism, and more, with interviews and insight from experts in episodes that usually come in under half an hour.
Waveform: Laid-back chats about the latest gadgets and developments in the world of tech with Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) and co-host David Imel.
Courtesy of Audible
The Last Days of August
Jon Ronson brings an inquisitive, empathetic, and slightly neurotic intelligence to bear on fascinating and often surprising tales. Following The Butterfly Effect (only on Audible), which delves into the collision of tech with the pornography industry, The Last Days of August investigates the untimely death of porn performer August Ames. All of Ronson’s other podcasts are equally excellent (we recommend Things Fell Apart and So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed), but this is a great place to start.
Courtesy of Apple
Wild Things: Siegfried and Roy
Famous German duo Siegfried and Roy were a mainstay on the Las Vegas show scene and performed about 30,000 times over five decades with an act that included white lions and tigers. When Roy was attacked live on stage, it made headlines everywhere. This podcast unravels their rise to stardom, touches on their controversial handling of wild animals, and digs into what really happened that fateful night.
Courtesy of Pushkin Industries
Revisionist History
In this eclectic mix of quirky stories, Malcolm Gladwell tackles misunderstood events and rarely discussed ideas, veering from subjects like Toyota’s car recall to underhand-throwing basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain, and even the firebombing of Tokyo at the end of World War II. Gladwell freely mixes research and opinion and enjoys challenging conventional views, but every episode serves up facts and stories you have likely never heard before.
Other Great Society Podcasts:
Run Bambi Run: The riveting story of ex-Milwaukee police officer and Playboy Club bunny Laurie Bembenek, who was convicted of murdering her husband’s ex, despite conflicting evidence, and subsequently escaped prison and fought to have her conviction overturned.
Missing Richard Simmons: Ebullient fitness guru Richard Simmons used to be everywhere, and this podcast charts an investigative reporter’s attempts to find out why he disappeared.
The Moth: This podcast offers random folks the chance to tell deeply personal stories to a crowd of strangers and reinforces just how weird and wonderful humans are.
The Trojan Horse Affair: This tale unpacks the British scandal over an alleged attempt by Islamist extremists to take over a Birmingham school and radicalize its students.
Day X: A sobering look at the neo-Nazi specter in modern-day Germany, its possible infiltration of police and government, and a plan involving a military officer and a faked refugee identity.
Project Unabom: Delving into the life of Ted Kaczynski, this podcast interviews his brother and recounts the FBI investigation to try to make sense of Kaczynski’s terrifying bombing spree.
Will Be Wild: Curious about the January 6 insurrection? This podcast interviews people from both sides, examines the struggles of law enforcement and intelligence under Trump, and charts the anti-government extremism that led to this dark day for democracy.
Courtesy of Imperative Entertainment
The Cost of Happiness: Tony Hsieh
The online shoe store Zappos made Tony Hsieh a billionaire, and this podcast investigates his $350 million investment in the Downtown Project in Las Vegas. His utopian vision of a happy worker village promised to revitalize the depressed heart of Sin City. The experimental community generated much excitement, but the charismatic and eccentric Hsieh soon ran into trouble.
Courtesy of Novel
The Superhero Complex
Part of the way into this investigation of the Rain City Superhero Movement, a real-life group of self-proclaimed superheroes active in Seattle a few years ago, I had to stop listening and check that this wasn’t fiction. The podcast focuses on the arrogant Phoenix Jones, an ex-MMA fighter turned violent vigilante, and his fall from grace. But there is also a fascinating glimpse into the friendlier side of the movement, with some heroes handing out water to homeless folks and helping people in distress.
Courtesy of The LoudSpeakers Network
The Read
Brutally honest comedians with chemistry, Kid Fury and Crissle West recap and review the latest pop culture news and offer their opinions on everything. Insightful, funny, challenging, and refreshingly different from the podcast pack, these sprawling conversations run for a couple of hours, covering recent events and frequently touching on social justice, mental health, race, and sexual identity.
Courtesy of Forever35
Forever35
Like eavesdropping on conversations between relatable besties, Forever35 started as a physical self-care podcast but expanded to discuss mental health, relationships, and any other topic that appeals to LA-based writers Doree Shafrir and Kate Spencer. They go from chatting about serums and creams to seasonal affective disorder and how to deal with a new stepmother as an adult—but always in a fun, inclusive, and down-to-earth way.
Other Great Culture Podcasts:
Sounds Like a Cult: Fanatical fringe groups have never been so prevalent, and there’s something more than a little cultish about celebrity stans, multilevel marketing, and marathon runners—just three of the subjects this lighthearted podcast unpacks.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard: Now a Spotify exclusive, this often funny and always insightful podcast seeks out human truths and sometimes finds them.
Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy: Ably hosted by author David Barr Kirtley, this sci-fi fantasy extravaganza digs into fascinating topics with the help of accomplished guests like Neil Gaiman, Brent Spiner, and Steven Pinker.
The Allusionist: If you are interested in words, this witty but accessible show will delight you as it charts the evolution of slang, explains euphemisms, and generally celebrates language.
Courtesy of Las Vegas Review Journal
Mobbed Up: The Fight for Las Vegas
This fascinating tale, told through interviews with old gangsters, law enforcement, politicians, and journalists, charts the symbiotic rise of organized crime and Las Vegas. The first season recounts the FBI’s attempts to take down the “Hole in the Wall Gang” and reveals the true-life inspiration for movies like Casino. Season two tackles Jimmy Hoffa and the battle to oust the mafia from the Strip’s casinos.
Courtesy of Vox Media
Criminal
Soothing host Phoebe Judge unravels captivating tales with reverence in this polished production about the spectrum of crime. Criminals, victims, lawyers, police, historians, and others whose lives have been altered by crime voice their stories as Judge carefully avoids the sensational and exploitative by respectfully teasing out the heart of each subject.
Courtesy of WBEZ
S-Town
Give this compelling mystery five minutes and you’ll be hooked. The talented host, Brian Reed, investigates a small town in Alabama at the behest of eccentric horologist John B. McLemore, who claims the son of a wealthy family has gotten away with murder. The script, pacing, editing, music—basically everything about this production—are perfect.
Courtesy of Lava For Good
Bone Valley
Painstakingly researched, thoughtfully told, and skillfully produced, this true-crime podcast hosted by Gilbert King focuses on a 1987 Florida murder. After an incompetent police investigation and distinctly dodgy trial, Leo Schofield was convicted of killing his wife. Despite fresh evidence and a confession from someone else, Schofield remains in prison.
Courtesy of Campside
Chameleon: Hollywood Con Queen
Murder may dominate this genre, but there are other fascinating stories worth telling in the world of crime, like this one, which is about a scammer posing as a Hollywood mogul. This weird, compelling, investigative podcast unwinds a satisfyingly twisty tale that’s mercifully free of blood and violence. The third season, Wild Boys, tells a completely new story, and the fifth tackles hypnotist Dr. Dante.
Other Great True-Crime Podcasts:
Who Killed Daphne: Investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered by car bomb in Malta, and this podcast delves into her work exposing the unscrupulous elite to identify her killers.
The Clearing: The families of serial killers often seek obscurity (understandably), but that means we never hear their stories. That’s something this podcast about April Balascio, daughter of American serial killer Edward Wayne Edwards, rectifies.
The Trials of Frank Carson: Police and prosecutors go after the defense attorney who has been beating them in court for years, sparking accusations of conspiracy and one of the longest trials in US history.
Sweet Bobby: This British catfishing tale charts successful radio presenter Kirat’s relationship with handsome cardiologist Bobby, and things get impossibly weird.
Dr. Death: A gripping podcast that focuses on incompetent or psychopathic (maybe both) ex-surgeon Christopher Duntsch and exposes terrifying institutional failures.
Crimetown: Taking a forensic approach to organized crime in American cities, this slick podcast comes from the supremely talented makers of The Jinx.
Hunting Warhead: A journalist, a hacker, and some detectives go after a chilling child abuse ring led by a criminal known as Warhead in this tactfully told and thorough podcast.
Love Janessa: Catfishing scams are big business, but why do so many use photos of Janessa Brazil? This podcast tracks her down to find out.
The Evaporated: Gone With the Gods: Journalist Jake Adelstein dives deep into Japanese culture, pursuing his missing accountant and exploring the mysterious disappearances of thousands of people in Japan every year.
Courtesy of Aubrey Gordon & Michael Hobbes
Maintenance Phase
The worlds of wellness and weight loss are awash with questionable products and advice, so a podcast to debunk fads and junk science with reasoned argument and research is welcome. It’s more fun than it sounds, thanks to the entertaining hosts, and there’s even a fascinating episode on “snake oil” that recounts the history of health scams.
Courtesy of NPR
Hidden Brain
An absorbing deep dive into human behavior with the help of psychologists, sociologists, and other experts, Hidden Brain is densely packed with informative nuggets. The host, NPR’s accomplished science correspondent Shankar Vedantam, renders complex ideas accessible and offers insight into the inner workings of our minds.
Courtesy of BBC
The Infinite Monkey Cage
This whimsical show, hosted by physicist Brian Cox and comedian Robin Ince, poses questions like “Does time exist?”—which are then debated by a diverse panel of three guests, usually a mix of experts and entertainers. Definitive answers are in short supply, but it’s always articulate, enthusiastic, and thought-provoking.
Other Great Science Podcasts:
Science Rules!: Bill Nye, the science guy, teams up with science writer Corey Powell to grill experts on all sorts of interesting science-related topics.
Stuff You Should Know: Prizing knowledge for its own sake and provoking healthy curiosity, this podcast is comical, charming, and full of interesting conversational nuggets.
Courtesy of NPR
The Indicator
This Planet Money spin-off delivers digestible, fast-paced, well-told stories about business and the economy, tackling topics that range from TikTok marketing to opioid nasal sprays and ticket scalpers. Each enlightening episode comes in under 10 minutes and serves as a quick primer that will leave you feeling well informed.
Courtesy of Freakonomics Radio Network
Freakonomics Radio
Promising to delve into the “hidden side of everything,” this long-running, data-driven show is hosted by Stephen J. Dubner, coauthor of the Freakonomics books, and it regularly features economist Steven Levitt. It’s a clever mix of economics and pop culture that flows easily and balances entertainment with education, presenting both sides of debates while consulting relevant guests.
Courtesy of Macro Musings
Macro Musings
If you long to understand the economy better, this topical show, hosted by David Beckworth of the Mercatus Center, interrogates a diverse line-up of economists, professionals, and academics to bring you invaluable insights. It takes a serious look at macroeconomics and monetary policy, but the guests do a solid job of unpacking complex topics.
Other Great Economics Podcasts:
Planet Money: This top-notch podcast has entertaining, digestible, and relatable stories about the economy, unraveling everything from health care to income taxes.
EconTalk: This no-frills show sees economist Russ Roberts engage in sprawling conversations with writers and academics on a range of economics topics.
Courtesy of Wondery
How I Built This
This NPR podcast hosted by Guy Raz explores the stories behind some of the biggest companies in the world from the perspective of the innovators and entrepreneurs who built them. Expect cautionary tales, nuggets of wisdom, and business lessons galore in probing and insightful interviews that reveal a lot about their subjects and what drove them.
Courtesy of Steven Bartlett
The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
Serial entrepreneur Steven Bartlett built a successful business from nothing and is now an investor on Dragons Den (the UK’s Shark Tank). He talks frankly about his own experiences and interviews various CEOs to find out why they started their businesses and how they guided them to success. Sprawling discussions range from personal life challenges and mental health to business strategies and advice.
Courtesy of TED/Audio Collective
WorkLife with Adam Grant
Expertly hosted by organizational psychologist Adam Grant, this podcast offers practical advice on tackling various issues you are sure to encounter in the average job. The show features interesting psychological perspectives on everything, from how to rethink a poor decision to crafting a great pitch to dealing with burnout. The podcast also boasts insightful interviews with business leaders.
Other Great Business Podcasts:
The Pitch: Fans of Shark Tank will enjoy this podcast, which features entrepreneurs pitching investors to secure real money for their startups.
Ask Martin Lewis: Personal finance guru Martin Lewis has been helping folks in the UK save money for years and provides straightforward financial advice here.
BizChix: This podcast from business coach Natalie Eckdahl is aimed squarely at female entrepreneurs and is packed with no-nonsense expert advice.
Teamistry: With a focus on teams and what they can achieve, the latest season of this podcast tells the fascinating story of the supersonic passenger jet Concorde.
Best Celebrity Interview Podcasts
Courtesy of Adam Buxton
The Adam Buxton Podcast
Consummate conversationalist Adam Buxton is always witty and well prepared, and he has interviewed many interesting people over the course of his long-running show, from Charlie Brooker to Jeff Goldblum. Ostensibly rambling, Buxton skillfully pulls fascinating insights from his interview subjects, bouncing between their personal lives, work, and popular culture with seeming ease.
Courtesy of Wondery
Life Is Short With Justin Long
Likable actor Justin Long and his brother Christian host this enthusiastic and sprawling interview show, where they chat with guests like Zack Snyder, Kristen Bell, and Billy Crudup. The siblings get sidetracked by nostalgic reminiscences and occasional bickering, which sort of makes the show, but they are always generous and kind to their guests.
Courtesy of Wondery
SmartLess
Charming and goofy, this conversational podcast stars Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes, and they always have a surprise celebrity guest, like Ryan Reynolds or Reese Witherspoon. It is warm, gentle, and often laugh-out-loud funny, but don’t expect challenging questions or bared souls.
Other Great Celebrity Interview Podcasts:
WTF With Marc Maron: Self-deprecating, sardonic, supremely skilled interviewer Marc Maron interviews some of the world’s most famous people, from Barack Obama to Paul McCartney.
Grounded With Louis Theroux: A soothingly gentle facade belies Louis Theroux’s ability to draw fascinating insights from his subjects with tact and humor.
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wake: Kathy Burke laughs in the face of death, asking guests like Stewart Lee and Dawn French how they’d like to die, what sort of funeral they want, and who they plan to haunt.
Courtesy of Wondery
Sports Wars
Epic rivalries and long-anticipated showdowns are a massive part of the enduring appeal of sports, and this slick production homes in on them. Rivalries like Federer vs. Nadal in tennis and Tyson vs. Holyfield in boxing are unpacked over a few episodes apiece by host Dan Rubenstein, who digs into their backgrounds to understand why some face-offs get so highly charged.
Courtesy of The Ringer
The Bill Simmons Podcast
This hugely popular sports podcast features fast-paced roundtable conversations with athletes and celebrities that usually focus on the NFL or NBA. Unfiltered opinions, witty remarks, and encyclopedic sports knowledge collide, but this is enthusiastic and accessible enough for casual sports fans to enjoy.
Courtesy of The Athletic
The PosCast
Primarily focused on baseball, this long-running podcast sometimes covers other sports and often meanders into comical conversations. Guests offer amusing anecdotes, but the chemistry between hosts Joe Posnanski and Michael Schur, who can debate endlessly about any old nonsense, is what makes this show so special.
Other Great Sports Podcasts:
Undr the Cosh: Open and honest banter from ex-professional soccer (football) players, as they talk to current pros and recount hilarious on- and off-pitch anecdotes.
Around the NFL: This funny, fast-paced look at the National Football League runs through all the latest football news, blending anecdotes and analysis.
32 Thoughts: A slickly produced, insightful dive into all the latest hockey news and controversy from knowledgable hosts who bounce off each other.
Courtesy of Earwolf
How Did This Get Made?
We have all asked this question of a movie at some point, but hosts Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas invite guest creatives to engage in heated and hilarious chats about some of the worst films ever. Movies that are so bad they are entertaining, from Face/Off to Junior to The Room, are dissected and thoroughly ridiculed.
Courtesy of BBC
Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review
Respected film critic Mark Kermode has an infectious love of movies and an incredible depth of knowledge about the world of film, and Simon Mayo is a veteran radio presenter. Together they discuss the latest movies, interview top-tier directors and actors, and invite views from their listeners. While the podcast ended earlier this year, the duo have a new show called Kermode & Mayo’s Take.
Courtesy of You Must Remember This
You Must Remember This
Diving into Hollywood myths to investigate and uncover the truth about infamous secrets, scandals, and legends from Tinseltown is a compelling premise, and talented creator and host Karina Longworth makes the most of it. Among the best shows are the “Dead Blondes” series, which includes Marilyn Monroe; the run on Manson; and the “Frances Farmer” episode.
Other Great Movie Podcasts:
The Director’s Cut: Listen to directors like Benicio del Toro, Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron being interviewed about their latest movies by their peers in roughly half-hour episodes.
The Rewatchables: Bill Simmons and a rotating cast of cohosts discuss and analyze beloved movies and dig up interesting nuggets of trivia.
Lights Camera Barstool: Reviews, interviews, rankings, and accessible chats about the movies with pop culture debates thrown in.
Black Men Can’t Jump [in Hollywood]: This comedic movie review podcast highlights films featuring actors of color and analyzes the movies in depth, with an eye on race and diversity.
Courtesy of Headgum
Dead Eyes
Join comedian and actor Connor Ratliff on his mission to discover why he got fired from Band of Brothers. His amusing and honest account of how his big break went bad, reportedly because Tom Hanks thought he had “dead eyes,” is often very funny. An easy listen, peppered with celebrity guests like Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, and Zach Braff, Dead Eyes affords listeners an insight into the world of auditions, acting triumphs, and humiliation.
Courtesy of HBO
HBO’s Succession Podcast
Whether you’re new to this captivating show or a long-time fan, the official podcast affords you a peek behind the curtain as it dissects episodes and explores character motivations. Roger Bennett interviews the main players from the show and then Kara Swisher steps in for the third season to interview the makers and various guests, from Mark Cuban to Anthony Scaramucci, to examine its impact and where it mirrors world events.
Courtesy of Wondery
Harsh Reality: The Story of Miriam Rivera
Recounting the tragic tale of the exploitative 2004 reality TV show There’s Something About Miriam, this podcast reveals just how cruel reality TV can get. Six young men set up house in an Ibizan villa to compete for the affections of Miriam and a £10,000 ($12,100) cash prize, but the show producers failed to tell them Miriam was trans. It’s a story that ended badly for everyone.
Courtesy of Steve Schirripa
Talking Sopranos
Hosted by actors from the show, Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti) and Steve Schirripa (Bobby Baccalieri), this podcast is essential listening for fans. It runs through every episode with big-name guests, most of whom worked on or appeared on the show. It’s candid about the entertainment industry and absolutely packed to the brim with behind-the-scenes anecdotes and insider revelations.
Other Great TV Podcasts:
Shrink the Box: Actor Ben Bailey Smith talks with psychotherapist Sasha Bates as they put some of the best TV characters of all time (like Walter White and Omar Little) on the couch for analysis.
Obsessed With…: This BBC podcast is hosted by celebrity superfans of various TV shows, including Killing Eve, Peaky Blinders, and Line of Duty.
Fake Doctors, Real Friends: Rewatching Scrubs with Zach Braff and Donald Faison is a joyous experience that’s every bit as entertaining, poignant, and silly as the TV show.
Welcome to Our Show: A warming dose of nostalgia and comfort for New Girl fans as Zooey Deschanel, Hannah Simone, and Lamorne Morris rewatch the show together.
Courtesy of The Paragon Collective
Darkest Night
Horror fans will enjoy reliving the last gruesome moments of various corpses that have landed at the mysterious Roth-Lobdow Institute in this deliciously creepy and occasionally gross chiller. Wonderful narration from Lee Pace; acting from the likes of Denis O’Hare, Missi Pyle, and RuPaul; and clever sound design make for a memorably thrilling ride that you just know is going to end badly.
Courtesy of Hello from the Magic Tavern
Hello From the Magic Tavern
Thoroughly absurd, this fantasy improv-comedy show is the brainchild of Chicago comedian Arnie Niekamp, who falls through a portal at a Burger King and ends up in the magical world of Foon. The role-playing game and fantasy references come thick and fast, guests play bizarre characters of their own creation, and loyal listeners are rewarded with long-running gags and rich lore.
Courtesy of Battle Bird Productions
We Fix Space Junk
Short and sweet episodes of this sci-fi comedy-drama fit neatly into gaps in your day and whisk you away to a nightmare corporate dystopia in a galaxy fraught with evil artificial intelligence and monstrous aliens. Struggling repair technician Kilner gets stuck with a rich murder suspect, Samantha Trapp, after accidentally smuggling her across the galaxy in this polished show with a distinct 1980s feel.
Other Great Fiction Podcasts:
DUST: This podcast started as an anthology of audio sci-fi stories from the likes of Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury but has changed things up with each new season.
The Bright Sessions: The therapy sessions of mysterious psychologist Dr. Bright, bookended by voice notes, form intriguing short episodes, as all of her patients seem to have special abilities.
Welcome to Night Vale: This pioneering creepy show is presented as a community radio broadcast from a desert town beset by paranormal and supernatural happenings.
Courtesy of Vox Media
Nice Try!
Utopian ideals have led to the development of some fascinating communities over the years, and season one of Nice Try! delves into their history, the hope that drove them, and why these communities ultimately failed. Season two moves on to lifestyle technology, from doorbells to vacuums, all designed to help us realize a personal utopia in the ideal home.
Courtesy of Revolutions
Revolutions
The modern world was shaped by some of the ideas that drove revolutions, and this deeply researched series runs through the English Civil War and American, French, Haitian, and Russian revolutions; Simon Bolivar’s liberation of South America; and more. The writing is concise, the narration is engaging, and host Mike Duncan does a fantastic job contextualizing revolutionary events and characters.
Courtesy of Radiotopia
The Memory Palace
A dreamy, emotional quality elevates these tales of seemingly random moments from the past, expertly told by the eloquent Nate DiMeo and backed by wonderful sound design. These distilled stories serve as historical snapshots of rarely discussed events, and it’s hard to think of another podcast as artful and poignant as this one.
Courtesy of Grim Mild
Noble Blood
Assured in their divine right to rule over everyone, royal families were often incredibly dysfunctional. Author Dana Schwarz examines tyrannical regimes, murderous rampages, power struggles, and dynasty deaths. The madness of monarchs from various nations is concisely dissected in tightly scripted half-hour episodes that will leave you questioning the idea that there’s anything noble about their bloodlines.
Other Great History Podcasts:
Something True: Enjoy utterly bizarre true stories, as every episode of this podcast explores a seemingly forgotten historical footnote.
Lore: Spooky and witty, this classic podcast plumbs history to uncover horrifying folklore, mythology, and pseudoscience.
Medieval Death Trip: An enthusiastic and well-researched look at medieval times, this podcast offers a witty analysis of the primary texts left behind.
Hardcore History: Relatable and endlessly fascinating, Dan Carlin brings history to life with his own riveting narratives on notable events and periods, peppered with facts and hypothetical questions.
Courtesy of Ramble
A Hotdog Is a Sandwich
Whatever side of the titular, age-old debate you stand on (I’m with the British Sandwich Association), this fast-paced, often funny show will suck you in as it poses tough food-related questions and then debates them. Chefs Josh Scherer and Nicole Enayati decide whether American cheese is really cheese, if Popeye’s and In-N-Out are overrated, and what the best pasta shape is.
Courtesy of Gastropod
Gastropod
If your love of food extends to an interest in the history and science of everything from the humble potato to a soothing cup of tea to ever-polarizing licorice, then this podcast is for you. Knowledgeable cohosts Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley talk to experts and serve up a feast of delicious bite-size facts that surprise and delight.
Courtesy of The Ringer
The Dave Chang Show
Celebrity chef Dave Chang, whom you may know from his Netflix show, Ugly Delicious, talks mostly about food, guilty pleasures, and the creative process with other chefs and restaurateurs. There is plenty here to satisfy foodies, but some of the funniest moments come when the show covers other random topics, like the perfect email sign-off or wearing shoes indoors.
Other Great Food Podcasts:
Out To Lunch With Jay Rayner: This podcast seats you at a top restaurant to eavesdrop on consummate food critic Jay Rayner with a celebrity guest at the next table.
The Sporkful: You can learn a lot about people and culture through food, and this podcast proves it by serving up delectable bite-size insights.
Best Health and Wellness Podcasts
Courtesy of Lionrock
The Courage to Change: A Recovery Podcast
Whether you are struggling with addiction, childhood trauma, eating disorders, or something else, or you know someone who is, this accessible and inspirational podcast can help you examine why. Host Ashley Loeb Blassingame speaks from experience and offers practical advice to help you onto a healthier path. This podcast is honest, insightful, and emotional but ultimately heartwarming and uplifting.
Courtesy of LYT Yoga
Redefining Yoga
Hosted by Yoga leader and physical therapist Lara Heimann, this podcast is a mix of Q&A sessions, interviews with experts, and motivational advice. It focuses on understanding your body and mind, but you will also find practical advice for chronic pain sufferers and different kinds of injuries, explanations on why and how yoga is good for you, and firsthand accounts of the positive impact yoga has on many lives.
Courtesy of Great Love Media
My Wakeup Call With Dr. Mark Goulston
Each episode sees psychiatrist Mark Goulston interview a notable person about the wakeup call moment that changed their path forever. He encourages them to interrogate what sparked their drive, made them want to be a better person, and led to their success. Some guests are better than others, but the podcast is closing in on 500 episodes, so there are plenty to choose from.
Other Great Health and Wellness Podcasts:
The Big Silence: Host Karena Dawn has conversations about mental health with an eclectic mix of therapists, psychologists, and ostensibly successful folks.
Spiraling With Katie Dalebout and Serena Wolf: Candid chats about anxiety with advice on how to cope. The relatable hosts are open and honest about the anxious feelings that modern life can evoke.
Huberman Lab: Host Andrew Huberman, a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine, interviews various experts to offer advice on optimizing your health and fitness.
Courtesy of Global Player
My Therapist Ghosted Me
Irreverent Irish chat with comedian Joanne McNally and TV presenter Vogue Williams as they put the world to rights. It feels like eavesdropping on brutally honest best pals as they discuss relationships, work woes, health issues, awkward social situations, and sometimes recent news. The down-to-earth pair liberally dole out a mix of sound and questionable advice that is frequently laugh-out-loud funny.
Courtesy of Shiny Ranga
Wolf and Owl
Comedians and friends Tom Davis (the Wolf) and Romesh Ranganathan (the Owl) chat aimlessly and expertly poke fun at each other for around an hour. It’s often nostalgic, sometimes offers decent advice for listeners, and is always warmhearted and laugh-out-loud funny.
Courtesy of Team Coco
Why Won’t You Date Me? With Nicole Byer
Perennially single stand-up comedian Nicole Byer is every bit as charming and funny here as in Netflix’s Nailed It baking show, but this podcast delves into some adult subjects. Byer is disarmingly open about her insecurities and struggles and seamlessly stirs in vulgar humor. She also hosts hilarious conversations with guest comedians.
Courtesy of Athletico Mince
Athletico Mince
Ostensibly a soccer (football) podcast, this surreal show is brought to life by lovable British comedy legend Bob Mortimer, with support from sidekick Andy Dawson. Tall tales about real footballers, complete with strange voices and fictional personalities, are mixed with songs, silly inside jokes, and rambling conversations. You don’t really need to know anything about soccer to enjoy it.
Other Great Comedy Podcasts:
Locked Together: Only on Audible, this show features lockdown chats between comedian pals like Simon Pegg and Nick Frost or Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan.
My Neighbors Are Dead: The wonderful premise of this hit-and-miss improvised show is interviews with lesser-known characters from horror movies, like the caterer from Damien’s party in The Omen and the neighbors from Poltergeist.
The release of Claude 2.1 has caused some initial concern among writers, particularly due to difficulties in using established techniques from the previous version, Claude 2.0. Users have reported that Claude 2.1 seems less creative and more restrictive, often providing excuses for not generating the expected content.
However, upon further investigation, it appears that the issues may be related to how prompts are structured rather than an inherent problem with the AI’s design. By adjusting the prompting techniques and understanding Claude 2.1’s specific requirements, authors can effectively utilize the AI for their writing projects. The key is to provide detailed background information before asking the AI to perform tasks, which aligns with Claude 2.1’s improved functionalities.
“Claude 2.1 represents an improvement in specific capabilities and performance over Claude 2. With strong accuracy upgrades, double the context window, and experimental tool use features, Claude can handle more complex reasoning and generation while remaining honest and grounded in factual evidence.”
New features
Claude 2.1’s context window is 200K tokens
Leverage much richer contextual information to generate higher quality and more nuanced output
Reduced hallucination and greater reliability via improved honesty
Expanded context window, unlocking new use cases like longer-form content and RAG
Early access tool use and function calling for greater flexibility and extended capabilities
The ability to query and interact with far longer documents & passages
Improving RAG functionality with more retrieved results
Greater space for more detailed few-shot examples, instructions, and background information
Handling more complex reasoning, conversation, and discourse over long contexts
Claude 2.1 is a step forward in the field of AI-assisted writing, but it calls for a refined method of interaction. To get the most out of this tool, users must provide detailed and structured prompts. This requirement for precision doesn’t mean the AI is less capable; it reflects a change in how we must communicate with it to get the best possible outcomes. It is also worth remembering that using Claude 2.1 automatically enables you access to its 200K context window. Although processing prompts close to 200k will take several minutes to complete
Claude 2.1 tips and tricks for writers
Adapting to Claude 2.1 means being open to change. It’s helpful to break writing tasks into smaller, more focused parts, which allows the AI to concentrate and produce more precise content. For instance, rather than asking for a complete article, users could request an outline from Claude 2.1 and then guide it through each section with specific instructions. This step-by-step method can lead to significant improvements in the content generated by the AI.
Here are some other articles you may find of interest on the subject of AI tools for writing and improving your creativity
AI Claude 2.1 prompts
Fortunately, users are not left to figure out these changes on their own. There are numerous guides and resources available to help refine your prompts to match Claude 2.1’s style of operation. These tools are crucial for transforming your interactions with the AI, turning potential challenges into chances for more creative and efficient writing. A few examples are included below to help you get on the right track.
While Claude 2.1 might pose some initial hurdles, the key to unlocking its full potential lies in adjusting your approach to prompting. Embrace the AI’s need for detailed information and structured prompts. Utilize the support materials available, and engage with the community of users. With these strategies, Claude 2.1 can become an indispensable tool in your content creation arsenal.
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Fiction writers looking for something a little more refined than the general AI writing tools that have flooded the market over the past 12 months. Might be interested in Novel Crafter. you may have already experienced the feeling of sitting at your desk, the cursor blinking on a blank page, and you’re feeling that familiar mix of excitement and dread that comes with starting a new story.
Fiction writers know that crafting a compelling narrative is no small feat. But what if you had an AI tool that could help you weave your tales with more ease and creativity? Enter Novel Crafter, an AI-powered assistant designed specifically for storytellers like you, ready to transform the way you bring your fictional worlds to life.
Whether you’re the type of writer who plans every chapter in advance or one who lets the story unfold organically, Novel Crafter is there to support you. It can help you structure your plot, come up with creative ideas, refine story elements, and even review your manuscript with a critical eye. This tool is all about keeping your creative flow undisturbed, ensuring that your writing process is as smooth and personalized as possible.
Enhance your fiction writing with an AI assistant
Below the Nerdy Novelist, discusses advancements in AI tools for fiction authors. He introduces a new tool called Novel Crafter, which has piqued his interest due to its specific features designed for fiction writing.
Here are some other articles you may find of interest on the subject of writing using artificial intelligent tools and assistants :
Novel Crafter stands out with its deep understanding of the intricacies of fiction. Tools like Claude and ChatGPT and others are great for a variety of writing tasks, but they often miss the mark when it comes to the delicate art of storytelling. They might help you churn out content, but when it comes to the soul of a story—the twists, the emotions, the depth—they can fall short. That’s where Novel Crafter shines, offering a suite of features that resonate with the heartbeat of your narrative.
Whether you’re the type of writer who plans every chapter in advance or one who lets the story unfold organically, Novel Crafter is there to support you. It can help you structure your plot, come up with creative ideas, refine story elements, and even review your manuscript with a critical eye. This tool is all about keeping your creative flow undisturbed, ensuring that your writing process is as smooth and personalized as possible.
One of the standout features of Novel Crafter is the Codex. Imagine having a detailed encyclopedia for your story’s universe, where you can flesh out characters, settings, and even the lore of your world. For any writer who knows the importance of a well-built world, the Codex is a treasure. It helps you maintain consistency and depth in your storytelling, keeping all the elements of your world organized and accessible.
Right now, Novel Crafter is in its open beta phase, which means you can try out all these features without spending a dime. It’s a golden opportunity to see how well it fits into your writing routine. Keep in mind, though, that this is just a trial period, and the final pricing for the tool is still being decided. So, it’s a smart move to take advantage of the open beta while it lasts.
For those who are curious about diving deeper into the world of AI and writing, there’s the AI Storyteller membership. This is a community curated by Jason, known as the Nerdy Novelist, and it’s packed with resources for writers exploring AI-assisted storytelling. The membership is closing its doors to new members soon, so if you’re interested, now’s the time to join.
Novel Crafter is more than just a new tool—it’s a companion for your writing journey. It’s been thoughtfully designed to assist you in every stage of your story’s creation, from the initial planning to the final touches. And with the Codex as your guide to building rich, believable worlds, Novel Crafter is poised to become an indispensable part of your writing toolkit. As you explore what this tool has to offer during the open beta, consider its potential to elevate your storytelling to new heights. And if you’re looking for additional support and resources, the AI Storyteller membership might just be the key to unlocking your full potential as a writer in the age of AI.
Image Source : Novel Crafter
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