Escape Hatch (formerly Dune Pod)

After 6 years, we finally have the Voltron style crossover we’ve always dreamed of: Dune Pod x Gom Jabbar! We’re joined by their co-host and producer, Abu Zafar! He’s also the super producer of our beloved sister pod X-Ray Vision. We keep Hot Nolan Summer going with Christopher’s under-rated 2017 war epic, Dunkirk!

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Jason drops a bombshell announcement on the podcast! Plus: we talk romantic three-ways with Grok and then keep the romance theme going with Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart’s 3rd outing together, 2010’s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. We’re joined by Chief Instigator of Bad Movies, co-host of the X-Ray Vision podcast, Rosie Knight!

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It's the return of two of our favorite Lucasfilm friends — ILM's Lorelei David and Lucasfilm Animation's Nico Anastassiou! The SUMMER OF JASON continues with Joel Schumacher's 1987 dark and sexy vampire classic, The Lost Boys.

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2 years ago we tried to do Iron Giant, and Haitch crashed his car. This week we tried again, but were blocked by a guest’s shooting schedules. The universe is trying to hold us back, but the SUMMER OF JASON persists, as we pivot to the hilarious and fantastically fun 2023 adventure movie, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

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It’s the return of our scream queen, Senior Editor at FANGORIA and author of First in Fright: The FANGORIA Compendium, Meredith Borders! The SUMMER OF JASON continues (whereby Jason learns that even I don’t actually get to pick the movies) as we finally cover David Cronenberg's 1986 absolutely disgusting and goopy, body-horror classic, The Fly.

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It’s Shark Week on Escape Hatch as we welcome back the director of Sharksploitation, producer of Jodorowsky's Dune, co-host of Best Movies Never Made, Stephen Scarlata. He last joined us with @dale_a for Jaws, and this time we cover ‘the #2 most important shark movie of all time”, LL Cool J’s Deep Blue Sea. Haitch gets rekt for his take.

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We’re back from our late summer vacation and we're joined by the CEO of Particle News, Sara Beykpour. We catch up on the last 2 weeks with updates on the Democratic Civil War, dispatches from the AI wilds, and why these insufferable tech bros won’t stop being so insufferable. Then, the SUMMER OF JASON continues with Christopher Nolan's 2008 superhero epic, The Dark Knight.

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Look, when you’re discussing one of most beloved films in the history of cinema, you want to make sure you have your bases covered. So we turned to the man who literally wrote the book (Stranded on Earth: How Night Skies Became E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), film journalist and author Max Evry.

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The SUMMER OF JASON continues as we finally cover the Coen Brothers' 1991 Hollywood writer’s block nightmare starring John Turturo and John Goodman, Barton Fink. Joining us is the showrunner of Veep, writer/director (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, White House Plumbers) and co-host of The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of, Dave Mandel. We discuss San Diego ComicCon's biggest highlights, DNC missteps, and this fantastic film.

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The Summer of Jason continues our long journey as we're joined by Homeric teacher and scholar Bijani Mizell! Bijani has taught The Odyssey for over 10 years to high school kids, so she was a lock to help us tackle Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus take.She covers (in language you can understand!) the history of the poem, how Nolan relates to the translators who have come before him, and digs deep into the themes of the story. Join us for this very special episode.

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The Summer of Jason goes on a long journey as welcome long lost, yet most frequent Escape Hatch recurring guest, co-host of the Cinenauts podcast, ctcher! In preparation for Christopher Nolan’s magnum opus The Odyssey next week, we revisit one of the greatest adaptations of Homer’s classic work, the Coen Brother’s 2000 masterpiece starring George Clooney, O Brother Where Art Thou?

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The Summer of Jason blasts off as we're joined for the FOURTEENTH time by [REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED] and co-host of the Twin Vipers podcast, Jonesy Loves Beer. We discuss the highs and lows of the World Cup, Jason and Jonesy revel in their new blade purchases, and then we boldly go on the original crew's final voyage, and discuss Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

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The Summer of Jason heats up, as we welcome romance storytellers, editor Liz Tingue and the author of bestsellers Dreamology, and Literally, Lucy Keating. We tackle one of the all-time great lo-fi sci-fi films, Michel Gondry’s 2004 stunning classic starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

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The Summer of Jason rolls on and now we’re really getting into it as we begin our run of Coen Brothers classics, starting with their first huge breakthrough hit, 1996’s thriller Fargo. We’re joined by co-host of Nobody Knows Anything, Rob Flaherty.

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'Poooooooooddss out... for... SUMMER!!!' - Extremely Alice Cooper voice. We try and hang in for one final episode before taking a week off to celebrate the start of summer. With our high priest of cinema Stephen Spielberg returning to the holy theater of Summer Blockbusters this weekend for Disclosure Day, we figured what the heck, let’s finally cover one we’ve talked about for years, Minority Report. Boy is this a movie. We’re joined by the host of the podcast Channels, Peter Kafka and make a mad dash out as the bell rings.

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This one is something special. We have absolute legend of the animation and comicbook world, who has written episodes of Flash Gordon, Dungeons & Dragons, He-Man, Transformers, Star Wars: Ewoks, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Lost, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, PAUL DINI!Paul gives us the story of his career from starting at Filmation straight out of college, being one of the only people in the world working on Star Wars when it was dormant in 1986, all the way to inventing Harley...

Let’s talk about sex. At long last, we tackle the final movie from the master, Stanley Kubrick. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s sexual drama Eyes Wide Shut. Joining us for the conversation is New York Times bestselling fantasy author of The School for Good and Evil and the new hit novel Young World, Soman Chainani. We cover how today’s youth are going to save us and the dream that is this masterpiece movie.

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LOCK THE GATES! The SUMMER OF JASON rolls on, as we welcome Jason’s former co-worker, President Biden’s US Ambassador to ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Yohannes Abraham. We catch up on Trump’s China Summit, his wholesale pillaging of the US Government with his new slush fund, and Jason’s new project The Center for Shared AI Prosperity. Then we talk about Cameron Crowe's 2000 rock-and-roll memoir, Almost Famous.

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We swore we would never cover this movie. I mean just Haitch, really. Jason never cared either way - until our discord waged a multi-year campaign to break Haitch down. Now, we’re joined by literal rabble rouser, comic writer, and co-host of the X-Ray Vision podcast, the incomparable Rosie Knight, to finally cover Joel Schumacher's infamous 1997 superhero disaster, Batman and Robin. We also tackle Euphoria S3, sex workers rights, the comics that informed us, and whether camp can be good? You decide.

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It’s the return of the host of the movie prop podcast, The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of, and showrunner of Veep, Dave Mandel! We start out with a quick pass around the wheel of where things stand politically as mid-term primary contests start and look forward to 2028 and beyond. Then, we officially kick off the SUMMER OF JASON - where Jason gets to pick all the movies we cover, with his longstanding request for the 1984 cult sci-fi classic, The Last Starfighter!

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It’s the return of technologist and writer of Spyglass, M.G. Siegler. M.G.’s one of the pre-eminent experts on Apple, so we start with The Trial of Tim Cook™, with his analysis on how Tim Apple will be remembered. Then we look at where John Ternus might begin taking Apple in the future. We announce THE SUMMER OF JASON, where Jason finally gets to make all the picks for what movies we cover! Then we tackle Christopher Nolan's magical thriller masterpiece starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, The Prestige. Don’t miss the trick!

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Set Condition 1 Throughout the Fleet: it's the return of technologist, founder and CEO of Particle News, Sara Beykpour. We announce our new hire producer of Escape Hatch, get excited about CinemaCon’s previews of Dune Part Three and Avengers Doomsday, and have a real conversation about our relationships with our AI agents. Then we finally tackle one of the greatest reboots in television history, the 2003 Battlestar Galactica Miniseries. So say we all.

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It’s the return of New York Times Bestseller Dave Itzkoff. We kick off with a Spring Break update including reviews of Virginia rollercoasters, Icelandic ice caves, cleaning up absolute adorable dog s#!t for a week. Then we tackle the 80’s buddy classic, Midnight Run.

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It’s the return of the Senior Editor of Engadget and co-host of The Filmcast, Devindra Hardawar. We finally tackle John Woo’s final Hong Kong action masterpiece, starring the coolest motherf#%*ers in the world - Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung, in Hard Boiled. Plus, Haitch gets puppies!

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Dreams really can come true,but only if you make them happen. We are thrilled to be joined by the co-host of The Midnight Boys (PEW PEW!!) and Higher Learning, Van Lathan! We have a wide ranging discussion on comics, cinema, and tech policy. Then we cover Lord and Miller’s hopecore miracle of a movie starring the incredible Ryan Gosling, Project Hail Mary!

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It’s all been leading to this. Episode 300. The BIG one. The Dune Part Three trailer dropped 3 hours before we started recording. THEY KNEW. Plus It’s the return of the co-hosts of the movie prop podcast, The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of, show-runner of House of the Dragon Ryan Condal and the showrunner of Veep, Dave Mandel! And we’re going as big into The Big Ones as you can get…Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Also, be sure to stick around for the end of the letter segment. Our incredible voicemail cast created a 10 minute radio play that is ju...

Listen, we are all trying to make sense of our being led into another war, this time in Iran, and SHOCKINGLY have the complete imbeciles who run our country be woefully unprepared for the repercussions. Well, when former Deputy National Security Adviser and co-host of Pod Save the World, Ben Rhodes called us up and asked to come talk about it with us, we jumped at the chance! Plus we talk the Oscar winning Ben Affleck Iranian conflict classic, Argo. Do not miss this ep.

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We welcome author and former Magic the Gathering Lead Game Designer, Brian Schneider. Brian talks about how to create a Magic set and explores the surprising convergence between professional Magic and Poker players! Then wWe cover Gen X’s apotheosis, John Cusack’s 2000 classic, High Fidelity! Spoilers, Jason thinks the soundtrack kinda sucks.

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We’re finally re-joined by our hero, the Silver Fox, the VP of Merch, the original Podcast BadBoy, and the co-host of the the co-host of the Bat and Spider podcast, dale_a. We tackle Ben Stiller’s 1996 cult classic the broke out Jim Carrey’s acting career, The Cable Guy. Plus we cover close-up magic, the Winter Olympics, looming military strikes in Iran, and whether Haitch committed m#*$er at gymnastics camp in 1984.

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We’re on winter break, so in this special Best of episode, we start with the current state of Dems trying to appeal to the youths, Jason tells us all about vibecoding some incredible new tools for the pod, and then we go all the way back to Episode 6(!) of Dune Pod. Relive how we were dealing with deeeep COVID and Jason’s nervousness about whether Dune Part 2 would even get made. Plus we’re joined by Ian De Borja as we tackle one of the GOATs, The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men!

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We’re joined by the host of the podcast Channels, Peter Kafka, as we go back to 1982’s Los Angeles, with Cameron Crowe and Amy Heckerling’s teenage masterpiece starring Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Phoebe Cates, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. We cover how The Pool Scene changed a generation, the first time Haitch got blue balls (after making out all night at a church lock in), why the Super Bowl sucked so hard, and just how sweet all those conservative tears taste right about now.

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This is a wild one. We’re joined by House of the Dragon S3 director Loni Peristere and the creator of John Wick, Derek Kolstad! We cover Lee Marvin’s 1967 classic, Point Blank! Other topics include a S3 HotD update, that one time when Loni REINVENTED modern sci-fi visual effects with his revolutionary approach on Firefly (and then Battlestar Galactica!), and creating a legendary modern action hero.

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t’s always a great time when we’re joined by the co-host of the X-Ray Vision podcast, the incomparable Rosie Knight! We tackle David Fincher’s 2002 taut thriller starring Jodie Foster, Forrest Whitaker, and Dwight Yoakim(?!), Panic Room. Other topics include how the Dems and ordinary citizens in Minnesota are effectively fighting back, and of course #hogtalk (on both Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and The Pitt)!

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It’s the dramatic return of our Scream Queen, Sr. Editor of Fangoria Magazine, Meredith Borders. Meredith is hot off the massive Kickstarter launch of her brand new book, First in Fright: The FANGORIA Compendium! We talk about John Carpenter’s forgotten masterpiece, Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen’s 1980s classic Starman. We also cover Greenland, the (gestures around) whole situation going on, #dunesday, Christopher Nolan v Denis Villeneuve, and our love for the first episode of Knight of the Seven Kingdoms!

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We kicked Jason to the curb to allow us to record when Escape Hatch film correspondent and co-host of the Cinenauts podcast ctcher was available. And he’s joined by the Mayor of the Freak Beat and co-host of The Austin Danger Podcast, Kev. By their command, we cover Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonez’ sophomore effort, the wildly inventive Adaptation.

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We’re back, baby! And joining us to kick off the new year in style it’s the 3rd living host of Escape Hatch, the co-host of the Twin Vipers podcast, Jonesy Love Beer. Not gonna lie, this was a tough one as we tackled Christopher Walken’s unhinged performance in Gregory ‘Highlander” Widen’s less successful effort, The Prophecy. (It does have a young, sexy Viggo Mortenson playing the devil, so it has that going for it.)

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Happy Holidays from us to you! Ring in the new year with a look back at where we’ve been in 2025 and what 2026 and beyond hold for us. Then join us for an INCREDIBLE Mailbag segment, featuring our amazing voicemail friends who have truly outdone themselves all year, and scale new heights tonight. Happy New Year!!

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Happy Holidays from our family to you! Hope you are warm and cozy and having fun recharging over the break, while Jason and I take time for ourselves and our families. To keep the home fires burning, we submit this classic Dune Pod episode from 4(!) years ago, covering our very first ever Christmas movie, Die Hard!

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It’s our first ever teamup episode featuring the director and producers of Banshee, Your Friends and Neighbors, and Lucky Greg Yaitanes and Jonathan Tropper! They talk about collaborating on projects for over 12 years, and Jonathan tells us about writing and filming the new movie Star Wars: Starfighter!!! Then since it’s the holidays, we cover Shane Black’s Christmas classic, The Nice Guys.

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We welcome one of our heroes, The New Yorker’s hard hitting political journalist, Isaac Chotiner. We discuss Sylvester Stallone’s 1985’s revenge fantasy classic, Rambo: First Blood Part II. Did you know it was written by James Cameron? Hear all about this and our take on the implications of late stage American hegemony in this episode.

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