PODCAST · tv
The Kulturecast
by Weirding Way Media
The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts, and a founding member of Weirding Way Media. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Three series live inside the feed: Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study, with media scholar Dr. David D. Perlmutter Kulture Meltdown, with Bryan Renfro of Movie Meltdown Changeover, with Mike White of The Projection Booth New episodes weekly. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY Back the show → https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulture
Episodes
-
Required Viewing 06: The Eiger Sanction
A spy spoof written by a film professor, played dead straight by Clint Eastwood, with a mountaineering film inside it that cost a man his life. This week on Required Viewing, we rope up for The Eiger Sanction (1975), Eastwood's fourth film as director, which casts him as Jonathan Hemlock, an...
-
Three Days of the Condor (1975) — "They'll print it."
The Doctor of Podcasting is joined by Karl Mamer and Dr. David D. Perlmutter for Sydney Pollack's Three Days of the Condor. Robert Redford's Joe Turner is a CIA "reader" who steps out for lunch and comes back to find his whole office murdered. He spends three days running from his own agency…
more -
Required Viewing 05: Contagion
It opens on Day 2, with a cough in the dark. This week on Required Viewing, we put Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (2011) under the microscope — the cold, procedural pandemic thriller that spent a decade as a well-made what-if, then climbed back up the rental charts in the spring of 2020 as the…
more -
Kulture Meltdown: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2025) — "All of this is going to go horribly wrong."
We'll be honest; neither of us expected the AI apocalypse to be fought from a diner booth. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, Gore Verbinski's first film in nearly a decade, sends Sam Rockwell's ragged Man From the Future into a Los Angeles diner for his 117th attempt to recruit the world's least...
-
Changeover: Digger (2026) — "When all else fails, you hit 'em with the truth. Hit 'em with the hard truth."
We'll be honest; it's fashionable to hate Tom Cruise, and neither of us ever has. Digger, the latest from Birdman director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, stars Cruise as Digger Rockwell, an oil baron racing to prove he's the only man who can fix the catastrophe he set in motion. Chris loved it; Mike…
more -
Kulture Meltdown: Primetime (2026) — "You see how this looks, right?"
We'll be honest; we both spent a good chunk of the 2000s watching grown men sit down at a kitchen table they'd regret, and neither of us thought much about the man holding the clipboard. Primetime, the narrative debut from Ren Faire documentarian Lance Oppenheim, does — casting Robert Pattinson…
more -
Required Viewing 04: Jaws
You're gonna need a bigger boat. This week on Required Viewing, we wade into Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975) — the film that invented the summer blockbuster, emptied the beaches of an entire generation, and pulled it off precisely because the shark wouldn't work. We get into the happy accident at...
-
Kulture Meltdown: Resident Evil (2026) — "You're hiring a glorified Postmates driver to hand you the cure, are you dumb?"
Video game movies rarely earn high expectations, and the Resident Evil franchise alone had offered seven reasons to keep them low. However, Zach Cregger, the director behind Barbarian and Weapons, has done the unthinkable: he throws out Leon, Claire and the games' plots entirely and sends Austin...
-
Required Viewing 03: Barry Lyndon
Is it even a movie? That's the question Barry Lyndon has provoked since 1975 — three hours of scenes so composed they look less like cinema than oil paintings that happen to breathe. This week on Required Viewing, Dr. David D. Perlmutter — "the Prof" — drags Stanley Kubrick's most beautiful, most...
-
Halloween II (2009) — "Man was meant to eat meat. We, all of us, have a little bit caveman in us."
If you missed last week's Rob Zombie goes to Haddonfield edition of the show, this one will make about as much sense as watching this movie without having seen the first. Part two of our look at the Zombie reboot series takes on Halloween II, his 2009 sequel, which picks up with Scout...
-
Required Viewing 02: Waterworld
It was the most expensive movie ever made, the punchline of a thousand headlines, and a flop so infamous it got its own nickname. This week on Required Viewing, we bail out Kevin Reynolds and Kevin Costner's Waterworld (1995) and study it from every angle — separating the film that's actually on...
-
Halloween (2007) — "Behind these eyes one finds only blackness, the absence of light. These are the eyes of a psychopath."
The last thing the world needs in 2026 is another Halloween film, but to be fair, the last thing the world needed in 2007 was another Halloween film, especially one directed by Rob Zombie. Given that it does in fact exist, we kick off an oversized two-part look at the Zombie reboot series with…
more -
Required Viewing 01: Sideways
Two guys, a week in wine country, and a whole lot of avoidance. This week on Required Viewing, we uncork Alexander Payne's Sideways (2004) and study it from every angle — why a shaggy road-trip comedy about a failed novelist and a fading actor became the defining midlife-male-sadness movie of its...
-
The End of Oak Street (2026) — "God's not gonna let us die here."
From suburban horror to the back end of the Cretaceous, the American genre picture keeps finding new ways to burn down the cul-de-sac. The End of Oak Street, the latest from It Follows director David Robert Mitchell, is a studio tentpole carrying an arthouse thesis, offering Anne Hathaway and…
more -
Required Viewing 00: Syllabus
Every film says more than whether it was good. Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study is a brand new sub-feed within The Kulturecast, where we take one film, TV series or pop culture topic each Thursday and look at it from every angle: theme, craft and cultural fallout, with the star ratings thrown...
-
Mickey 17 (2025) — "I messed with a lab frog. I just figured this all must be my punishment."
From Train to Busan to the far-flung future of cloning and fascism, Korean cinema spans the genre gamut. Mickey 17, the latest from Parasite director Bong Joon Ho, adapts Edward Ashton's novel Mickey7 and casts Robert Pattinson in two roles, as Mickey 17 and Mickey 18, a pair of disposable clones...
-
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) — "Are you Peter Parker, or are you Spider-Man?"
As the MCU barrels toward its next ultimate crossover event, Avengers: Doomsday, we first check in on everyone's friendly neighborhood webhead. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, brings back Tom Holland for the fourth MCU take on Spidey, this time with 100% less...
-
Battle: Los Angeles (2011) — "That was some real John Wayne shit, staff sergeant."
Some sci-fi films vanish from the conversation almost as soon as they leave theaters, and Battle: Los Angeles is one of them. Jonathan Liebesman's 2011 film drops Aaron Eckhart's Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz and a Marine platoon, including Michelle Rodriguez's Technical Sergeant Elena Santos…
more -
BlackBerry (2023) — "You want to be great, you need to sacrifice. The more painful the sacrifice, the greater you'll be."
It may be simplistic to say the BlackBerry died at the hands of the iPhone, but it wouldn't be entirely inaccurate. What a beautiful corpse it made, though: the device became so ubiquitous it earned its own nickname, the "CrackBerry". Matt Johnson's BlackBerry stars Jay Baruchel as Mike Lazaridis...
-
Supergirl (2026) — "Let's be honest. It's not a very high bar to clear."
Last year's Superman was a genuine surprise, especially for those of us who had soured heavily on the previous attempt at a unified DC Universe in Zack Snyder's Darkseriousverse, and the hope was real that James Gunn would point the ship in a new, more interesting direction. Unfortunately,...
-
Jackass: Best and Last (2026) — "Welcome to the first day of our final film."
Jackass has been a part of pop culture since the show first aired on MTV back in the pastoral days of 2000. Twenty-six years later, the boys are a bit older but still up to, for the most part, their old tricks. The crew has shrunk (and grown) over two decades, but the rambunctious stunts and…
more -
Forbidden Planet (1956) — "We're all part monsters in our subconscious, so we have laws and religion!"
Sci-fi has taken many forms as a genre, and since it's one both Dr. Perlmutter and Chris have an affinity for, why not cover one of the true classics? Fred M. Wilcox's Forbidden Planet sends Leslie Nielsen's Commander Adams to a distant world where Walter Pidgeon's Dr. Morbius, his daughter…
more -
Train to Busan (2016) — "At a time like this, only watch out for yourself."
Zombie films are a dime a dozen these days, for good and for bad; for every Shaun of the Dead there are a hundred Walking Deads, everyone's favorite show to hate-watch. There's no hate-watching with Train to Busan, however. Yeon Sang-ho's film traps Gong Yoo's workaholic fund manager, his young...
-
Disclosure Day (2026) — "Full disclosure, to the whole world, all at once."
At this point in his career, a Steven Spielberg film should be an event worth heading to the local multiplex for; should being the key phrase. Couple that with a return to aliens, and it seems like an equation for cinematic success... right? Disclosure Day, written by David Koepp from Spielberg's...
-
Backrooms (2026) & Scary Movie (2026) — "I like it in here. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm..."
Chris may not be a Gen-Zer, but he can most definitely get down with their brand of horror, if Backrooms is any indication of the quality and concept of their take on the genre. Kane Parsons' feature debut for A24, adapted from his own viral YouTube series, follows Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate...
-
The Witch (2015) — "Wouldst thou like the taste of butter? A pretty dress? Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?"
We're running it back on some films we've already watched, starting with a Robert Eggers film that has become a modern-day classic: The VVitch. Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Thomasin, who lives with her exiled Puritan family on the edge of the woods in 1630s New England, and that family may or may not...
-
The Name of the Rose (1986) — "Have you ever known a place where God would have felt at home?"
Mike White May has been all Sean Connery all month long, and now it must come to an end, which it does with a monk murder mystery in The Name of the Rose. Jean-Jacques Annaud's adaptation of Umberto Eco's novel stars Connery as William of Baskerville, a thin facsimile of Sherlock Holmes, and...
-
The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) — "The old protect the young and the young protect the old. This is the way."
We take a break from Mike White May to talk about the latest entry in the forever franchise that Star Wars has become: The Mandalorian and Grogu. Directed by Jon Favreau, it features Pedro Pascal, at least some of the time, under the helmet as Din Djarin, alongside Grogu, as the space western...
-
Wrong Is Right (1982) — "The U.S. of A. may not always be right, but God knows we're never wrong."
Mike White May continues with more Sean Connery, except this time it's fake news, and he's the one selling it. In Richard Brooks' Wrong Is Right, adapted from Charles McCarry's novel The Better Angels, Connery plays Patrick Hale, a globetrotting TV newsman who gets tangled up with every US letter...
-
Sicario (2015) — "You will not survive here. You are not a wolf. And this is the land of wolves now."
Before Yellowstone made him a household name, Taylor Sheridan wrote Sicario. Denis Villeneuve directs Emily Blunt as an FBI agent pulled into a cartel task force whose rules nobody will explain to her, while Benicio del Toro's Alejandro quietly walks away with the entire film. It's a thriller…
more -
Mortal Kombat II (2026) — "Come with us, Mr. Cage, and discover the man you were meant to be."
We take another break from Mike White May to travel back to Netherrealm, Outworld and everywhere in between (looking at you, Orderrealm) with Mortal Kombat II, the sequel to 2021's COVID classic Mortal Kombat. With the first tournament in the books, Simon McQuoid's follow-up shifts focus to…
more -
The Paper Chase (1973) — "You teach yourselves the law, but I train your mind."
We take a break from Mike White May to go to college, specifically Harvard Law in the early 1970s, with James Bridges' The Paper Chase. Timothy Bottoms, a future presidential look-alike, stars as James Hart, a first-year law student who runs into one of the true titans of cinematic academia: John...
-
The Offence (1973) — "Nothing I have done can be one half as bad as the thoughts in your head."
Mike White May continues with more Sean Connery, this time with an edgier, more facial-hair-forward demeanor, in yet another Sidney Lumet joint, The Offence. Adapted by John Hopkins from his own stage play, it stars Connery as Detective Sergeant Johnson, a British cop who's had one bad day too…
more -
The Anderson Tapes (1971) — "What's advertising but a legalized con game?"
Mike White May continues with yet another Connery and Lumet joint, this time an adaptation of Lawrence Sanders' novel of the same name. Connery plays John "Duke" Anderson, a burglar fresh out of prison who decides to rob the luxury apartment building where his latest squeeze, Dyan Cannon's…
more -
The Hill (1965) — "We are all doing time, even the screws."
It's Mike White May here at The Kulturecast, and we're talking Sean Connery all month long! We kick things off with one of the many pairings of Sidney Lumet and Connery, 1965's The Hill. With an ensemble cast including Harry Andrews, Ian Bannen, Ian Hendry and Ossie Davis, it follows a group of...
-
Hell or High Water (2016) — "150 years ago, all of this was my ancestors' land. Everything you could see."
We begin our mini-look at Taylor Sheridan's cinematic works with one of his more Western-facing screenplays, Hell or High Water. Directed by David Mackenzie, it stars Chris Pine and Ben Foster as brothers robbing branches of the bank that's foreclosing on their family's land, with Jeff Bridges…
more -
Bugonia (2025) — "There's Andromedan code all over your Instagram. You're barely even hiding it."
It may not have won Best Picture or Best Actress at the most recent Academy Awards, but Bugonia was not only one of the best films of the last year, it was also one of the most thought-provoking. Yorgos Lanthimos' remake of Save the Green Planet! stars Jesse Plemons as a conspiracy-minded…
more -
Melania (2026) — "Here we go again."
Sometimes even we don't know why we do the things we do, but this time around it's because we have to do our due diligence as film critics and take a bullet for you, the listener. Instead of rewatching Vice or W., we subjected ourselves to Melania, Brett Ratner's film following Melania Trump...
-
Iceman (2017) — "Pitamei, Pitamos."
Big caveman energy abounds on this episode of The Kulturecast, as we dig into Ötzi the Iceman and a film told in a dead language all about him: Felix Randau's Iceman. Jürgen Vogel stars as Kelab, a Neolithic man who sets out across the Alps for revenge, in a story told with almost no dialogue and...
-
The Bride! (2026) — "My darlings, a revolution is coming!"
Frankenstein's monster has had a century of remakes; his bride has had one great film and a whole lot of waiting. Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride! (2026) finally hands her the lead, with Jessie Buckley as the resurrected woman and Christian Bale as the lonely creature who asks for her, the pair set...
-
Déjà Vu (2006) — "I'd try."
Have you ever experienced déjà vu? Have you ever experienced déjà vu? On this episode of The Kulturecast, Dr. David D. Perlmutter returns for Tony Scott's Déjà Vu (2006), in which Denzel Washington's ATF agent Doug Carlin investigates a ferry bombing in New Orleans using a government surveillance...
-
An Unknown Compelling Force (2021) — "I think these theories are weird."
Nine experienced hikers set out into the northern Ural Mountains in 1959, and none of them came back. The Dyatlov Pass Incident is one of the most enduring mysteries in mountaineering, and the theories about what happened seem endless. On this episode of The Kulturecast, physicist Dr. Katharine...
-
The Visitors Trilogy (1993–2016) & Just Visiting (2001) — "Courage is my creed."
If you thought it was all going to be serious, introspective chats about films, worry not, dear listener: French comedies are still a thing that exists! The Projection Booth's Mike White joins the show for a four-film episode covering Jean-Marie Poiré's The Visitors trilogy, in which Jean Reno's...
-
"I contain multitudes"
To quote the immortal Bo Burnham "is it gonna end?" and I continue to wonder that myself; the last two months have been, yet again, another nightmare. But hey, let's get back to cinema with a look at The Life of Chuck, a film who's meaning and purpose seem unqiuely suited for this very special...
-
"You've got those Abbadon eyes..."
While Halloween may be behind us, there's still horror movies to talk about, especially ones that have been releasing almost parallel to the duration of this podcast, now with a fifth and totally unnecessary entry. As Hell House LLC: Lineage may be the least necessary of the entire series, it…
more -
Halloween Ends (2022) — "I've said goodbye to my boogeyman, but the truth is, evil doesn't die. It changes shape."
Halloween is the best holiday of the year, and every Halloween The Kulturecast marks it with a horror movie. This year it felt very apropos to cover Halloween Ends (2022), David Gordon Green's final chapter of his trilogy, with Jamie Lee Curtis back as Laurie Strode. It arrived in the middle…
more -
"I intend to enjoy the time I have left, and I suggest you do the same."
Similarly to Tron, Final Destination is a franchise that has been out of the game for almost fifteen years, but no longer with this year's immensely entertaining Final Destination Bloodlines, a new step in the right direction for the franchise. Featuring the final film performance of Tony Todd's...
-
Tron: Ares (2025) — "End of line."
Tron is a franchise that seems to come back every fifteen to twenty years for another swing at bat, usually with arresting visuals and a killer soundtrack in tow. Tron: Ares (2025), directed by Joachim Rønning, sends Jared Leto's program Ares out of the Grid and into the real world, with Greta…
more -
“I was a detective once. I know how to deal with you.”
If The House that Jack Built wasn't serial killer entertainment enough, South Korea cinema seems to be equally obsessed with the more depraved amongst us with 2008's The Chaser. A serial killer chase film set in the nightlife district of South Korea, it's as wild as it is creative with the...
-
"Don't look at the acts, look at the works."
If serial killer cinema is your bag, baby, and you've never seen Lars Von Trier's The House that Jack Built, let us tell you why you should change that immediately. Not only is it a career performance for Matt Dillon but it features what may be the most interesting and engaging serial killer...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts, and a founding member of Weirding Way Media. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other.
Three series live inside the feed: Required Viewing: A 360° Film Study, with media scholar Dr. David D. Perlmutter Kulture Meltdown, with Bryan Renfro of Movie Meltdown Changeover, with Mike White of The Projection Booth
New episodes weekly.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kulturecast/id931361376 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5wjxip9XVYapYuY12yEaGY Back the show → https://www.patreon.com/cw/kulturecast
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kulture
HOSTED BY
Weirding Way Media
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Kulturecast have?
The Kulturecast currently has 715 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Kulturecast about?
The Kulturecast is a film and culture podcast hosted by Chris Stachiw, the Doctor of Podcasting, alongside a rotating table of guest co-hosts, and a founding member of Weirding Way Media. Each week digs into where film and culture meet — and how each one bends the other. Three series live inside...
How often does The Kulturecast release new episodes?
The Kulturecast releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 715 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
Where can I listen to The Kulturecast?
You can listen to The Kulturecast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Kulturecast?
The Kulturecast is created and hosted by Weirding Way Media.
URL copied to clipboard!