Pod Casty For Me

May the pods be ever in your feed-ver. Or whatever! We're screwing with the chronology a little bit today because we decided Steven Soderbergh's second unit work on Gary Ross's 2012 YA adaptation THE HUNGER GAMES was worth doing on the main feed after all. And we were right! There's a ton to talk about, from the film's style and what it means to try to find Soderbergh in it to the whole series's depictions of class, political struggle, war, and propaganda, to the popularity of dystopian young adult fiction, to the effectiveness of "political" art like ANDOR and ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, to the surprisingly enduring legacy of Hunger Games imagery in real protest movements around the world, to how much this film (and later ones in the series especially) remind us of Gaza. Good stuff, please check it out.
Further Reading:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution by Vincent Bevins
"A Radical Female Hero From Dystopia" by Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott
"Suzanne Collins Talks About 'The Hunger Games,' the Books and the Movies"
"'Hunger Games': The Real Story Behind Steven Soderbergh's Involvement" by Philiana Ng
"Hunger Games: Israel Forces Gazans to Choose Between Starvation and Risking Their Lives" by Nir Hasson
"'The Hunger Games' Turns 10: Director Gary Ross Reflects on Filming, Story's Resonant Themes" by Lexy Perez
"Mark of the (Mr.) Beast" by Veronica Phillips
Further Viewing:
THE RUNNING MAN (Glaser, 1987)
VOCES INOCENTES (Mandoki, 2004)
THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lawrence, 2013)
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY - PART 1 (Lawrence, 2014)
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY - PART 2 (Lawrence, 2015)
ANDOR (Various, 2022-2025)
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Anderson, 2025)
THE LONG WALK (Lawrence, 2025)
REALITY CHECK: INSIDE AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL (Loushy & Sivan, 2026)
 
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Support us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe
Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.
Attention all Thieves, Gray Mages, Unbidden Warriors, Dark Avians, Riverwynders and Sappers: it's MICHAEL CLAYTON time. Tony Gilroy's 2007 corporate thriller vehicle about fixers, cover-ups, mental breakdowns, and baguettes was produced by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney's production company Section Eight, and has become a bonafide New Dad Classic. Joining us to talk all things Gilroy are Rusteen Honardoost and Alex Wolinetz of the wonderful Andorks podcast - and you're never gonna believe this, but we found some connections to ANDOR here. Plus we learn about the paper Ian wrote on this movie in high school. Really great conversation, check it out!
Follow Rusteen and Alex:
https://www.andorkspod.com/
https://x.com/rusteenh
https://bsky.app/profile/alexwolinetz.com
Thanks as always to Jetski for our theme music and Jeremy Allison for our artwork.

TV time! Almost immediately after "retiring" from feature films, Steven Soderbergh directed ten episodes of THE KNICK, a period medical drama for Cinemax about the early days of modern surgery. Joining us to talk about nearly ten hours of television is comedian and host of the podcast This Is Your Afterlife, Dave Maher! We have a wide-ranging discussion covering everything from prestige television antiheroes to addiction to chronic illness to racial disparities in medical care to what Kimi would like to do with Dave if she ever gets him alone. It's a real fun extra-long episode, and still probably our lowest ep-length-to-subject-length ratio ever. Take off your white shoe and dig in!
Further Reading:
"No Leeches, No Rusty Saw, But Hell Nonetheless" by Alessandra Stanley
The Knick: Anatomy of a Series by Steven Soderbergh et al.
"The Binge Director" by Matt Zoller-Seitz
"Meet the Man Who Makes Sure The Knick Is Medically Accurate" by Marcus Jones
"Syphilis Noses and Finding the Right Dirt: The Knick's Production Designer on Making the Show Look Real" by Matt Patches
"'The Knick' Creators on How They Went From Writing Studio Rom-Coms to Steven Soderbergh's New TV Show" by Ben Travers
Further Viewing:
ER (1994)
GANGS OF NEW YORK (Scorsese, 2002)
MAD MEN (2007)
THE PITT (2025)
Follow Dave Maher:
https://thisisyourafterlife.com/
https://x.com/ThisIsDaveMaher
https://www.instagram.com/thisisyourafterlife/
https://www.instagram.com/thisisdavemaher/
Follow Pod Casty For Me:
https://www.podcastyforme.com
https://twitter.com/podcastyforme
https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/
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Support us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe
Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart

This is a preview of a premium episode from our Patreon feed, Paid Costly For Me! Head over to Patreon.com/PodCastyForMe to hear more for just $5 a month.
How come nobody told us there was a 2023 Tamil film with a fully CGI Clint Eastwood?! Well, at least our guest did - so luckily we're joined today by Gigi aka Girl aka @SummerOfFilm to talk Karthik Subbaraj's 2023 "Pandyaa Western" JIGARTHANDA DOUBLEX. Hop on board for a crash course in Desi cinema and its political contexts, what Clint means to Desis, and why we all have to stop Getting RRR Vibes From This. We cannot stress enough how nuts the CGI Clint is in this movie, folks. And the rest of it is great too! It's on Netflix right now, go watch it! And listen to the ep!
As always, thank you to Jetski for our theme music and to Jeremy Allison for our artwork.
Follow Gigi:
https://x.com/SummerOfFilm
https://letterboxd.com/moviehideen/
Gigi's Further Viewing List:
AURAT (1940)
NADODI MANNAN (1958)
AAYIRATHIL ORUVAN (1965)
SHOLAY (1975)
DAKU HASINA (1987)
KODAMA SIMHAM (1990)
KUSHI (2000)
KANCHANA (2011)
JIGARTHANDA (2014)
Gigi's Further Reading List:
Cut-outs, Caste and Cine Stars: The Word of Tamil Politics by Vaasanthi
Conversations With Mani Ratnam by Baradwaj Rangan
https://letterboxd.com/nrh/
https://muckrack.com/subha-rao/articles
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/critics/anupama-chopra/movies

Shine up those rhinestones, everybody: it's the BEHIND THE CANDELABRA episode. We're talking Soderbergh's sort-of-final film before his sort-of-retirement, a 2013 Liberace biopic starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon - and we're joined by writer and Liberace expert Eva Anderson! We talk Vegas, camp, Douglas's infamous throat cancer disclosure, plastic surgery, palimony, the closet, Eva's absolutely insane experiences touring Liberace's home and other associated places, and lots more. You know what they say... too much of a good thing is wonderful (also unfamiliar to listeners of this show).
Further Reading:
Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace by Scott Thorson and Alex Thorleifson
Liberace: An American Boy by Darden Asbury Pyron
The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies by Vito Russo
"Michael Douglas on Liberace, Cannes, cancer and cunnilingus" by Xan Brooks
"The Boy Toy's Story" by David Segal
Further Viewing:
DRACULA (various)
SUNSET BOULEVARD (Wilder, 1950)
THE INFORMANT! (Soderbergh, 2009)
THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES (Greenfield, 2012)
SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (Tyrnauer, 2017)
Follow Eva Anderson:
https://www.instagram.com/evafay/
https://bsky.app/profile/evafay.bsky.social
Follow Pod Casty For Me:
https://www.podcastyforme.com/
https://twitter.com/podcastyforme
https://www.instagram.com/podcastyforme/
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Support us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/PodCastyForMe
Artwork by Jeremy Allison:
https://www.instagram.com/jeremyallisonart