Wallowing in the Shallows

Rebecca and Tori chat about 'Project Hail Mary.' If the audio is weird, we apologize but we recorded right after we left the theater and have done minimal editing to keep it real, i.e., like you're listening to us talk about the movie live. We still manage to include spoilers.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Brothers in Arms clip | Dire Straits | Brothers in Arms (Official Music Video) | 23 Feb 2010 | YouTube

Project Hail Mary clip

Amazon MGM Studios | Project Hail Mary | “Roommates” - Official Clip...

Rebecca and Tori chat the 1999 film, 'Dogma,' directed by Kevin Smith. We talk the impact of the movie on us, our thoughts about beliefs and organized religion (don't come for us--it's our opinions based on our personal experiences). We tangent, so be prepared.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Podcast Jazz Bossa Nova Acoustic Guitar Good Mood Music | by Denis-Pavlov-Music from Pixabay

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by StudioKolomna from Pixabay

...

Rebecca and Tori continue their Recommended By series, Picks from the Criterion Closet, with the 2011 documentary, 'pina.' Recommended by Katya Zamolodchikova, we venture on a journey to interpret contemporary dance. As self-professed dance Luddites, we can only discuss our interpretations using our meager knowledge of the language of dance. Forgive us if we get it entirely wrong.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Podcast Jazz Bossa Nova Acoustic Guitar Good Mood Music | by Denis Pavlov music on Pixabay

Sound Effects

Shining Star Flourish: Sound...

Rebecca and Tori chat the 1998 Kirk Jones film, 'Waking Ned Devine." We discuss community, morality, and our mutual love of Maurice.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Podcast Jazz Bossa Nova Acoustic Guitar Good Mood Music | by Denis-Pavlov-Music on Pixabay

Clip

Kev Walsh | Waking Ned Devine (1998) BluRay | 17 Dec 2024 | YouTube

Sound Effects

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by StudioKolomna from Pixabay

Explicit

We somehow wander...

Rebecca and Tori chat their next Recommended By flick from the Criterion Collection, 'The Watermelon Woman.' We discuss issues related to the social construct of 'race,' queerness, identity, and white privilege and gatekeeping.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Sound Effects

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by StudioKolomna from Pixabay

Clips

Minnie Riperton clip: Minnie Riperton - Topic | 7 Aug 2018 | ‘Lovin’ You’ | YouTube

'The Watermelon Woman' | Criterion Channe...

Rebecca and Tori chat about the recent Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Oscar Best Picture nominee, 'Hamnet.' Spoiler alert: we love it!

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Podcast Jazz Bossa Nova Acoustic Guitar Good Mood Music | by Denis Pavlov Music from on Pixabay

Sound Effects

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by StudioKolomna from Pixabay

Leaves Rustling in Wind: Sound Effect by storegraphic from...

Rebecca and Tori don't chat, we dive deep into Ousmane Sembene's 1966 classic, 'Black Girl.' This is the next installment of our Recommended By series based on the Criterion Collection Closet Picks. In this podcast, we get political as we discuss colonialism, post-colonialism, economic slavery, racism, and abuse.

For the first time, we are spoiler-free for the first 25-ish minutes because we encourage you to listen to us for the spoiler-free segment, go watch the film if you haven't seen it, then come back and listen to the rest of the podcast. We were so engrossed in...

Rebecca and Tori chat about Blake Edwards' 1963 classic, 'The Pink Panther,' and its follow-up, the 1964, 'A Shot in the Dark.' In our most spoiler-free episode to date, we discuss Peter Sellers' life, scenes that made us laugh the most, what didn't age well, and what was ludicrous. We kind of sing too.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by StudioKolomna from Pixabay

Podcast Jazz Bossa Nova Acoustic...

Rebecca and Tori celebrate the anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth by chatting about the 2001 flick, 'Evolution.' We discuss some high points and some low points, overuse a couple of catch-phrases, and question some of the science.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by StudioKolomna from Pixabay

Smooth Criminal clip: Michael Jackson | Michael Jackson - Smooth Criminal (Official Video - Shortened Version) | 2 October 2009 | YouTube

Evolution clip: UltraScheiben...

We're re-releasing our episode for 'Best in Show' in honor of Catherine O'Hara.

We'll be back next week with a new episode!

Rebecca and Tori chat about their second recommendation from the Criterion Closet Picks, 'Black Narcissus.' Recommended by director Edgar Wright, we discuss British colonialism, emotional repression, and the many mirror representations between characters.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Podcast Jazz Bossa Nova Acoustic Guitar Good Mood Music | by Denis-Pavlov-Music | Pixabay

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star | by Maksym Dudchyk Music | Pixabay

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by StudioKolomna from Pixabay

...

Rebecca and Tori chat the 1942 classic film, 'Casablanca.' We cover some production history as well as character development and plot points. We chat some about the continuing relevance of the film.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by StudioKolomna from Pixabay

Sound Effect

Typing: from Pixabay

Movie Clip

Raindog's House of Oddities | Shocked that Gambling Is Happening - Casablanca (1942) | 16 Jun 2022 | YouTube

Rebecca, Tori, and returning guest host, Louise, chat the 1995 movie, 'Persuasion.' We can't believe it took us this long to get around to Austen!

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by StudioKolomna from Pixabay

'Persuasion' clip

Mistress of Pemberley | "Frederick Wentworth's Letter (full scene) - Persuasion (1995) ES/PT-BR | 15 Dec 2024 | YouTube

Rebecca and Tori begin a new series: Recommended By: Recommendations from the Criterion Closet. This week, our movie, "Room with a View,' is recommended by Nick Offerman. We rave about characters, performances, and production.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Sound Effects

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by StudioKolomna from Pixabay

Sources

Clip Source: Dwyer, Elizabeth | ‘Room with a View Clip’ | 19 Sep 2012 | YouTube | https://youtu.be/8eE7FR8q8tg?s...

Rebecca and Tori ring in the New Year chatting about the 1982 movie, Diner, written and directed by Barry Levinson. We discuss gender dynamics and the transition into adulthood, while Tori waxes nostalgic about how the movie relates to her family. We get into some character development, the portrayal of women, and the cultural context of the 1950s.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by StudioKolomna from Pixabay

Typing: Sound...

Rebecca and Tori along with guest host, Debra, wind up Scrooge-Off 2025. This final round finds us discussing the 1984 'A Christmas Carol,' starring George C. Scott and the 1951 version starring Alastair Sim. Who will take the crown?

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental by Sound Atelier licensed through Jamendo Music.

A Christmas Tale by Aleksey Voronin on Pixabay

Sound Effects

Record Scratch: Sound Effect free on Pixabay

Rebecca and Tori are joined by Debra to delve into Round 3 of the 2025 Scrooge-Off. This episode's contenders are the Patrick Stewart and George C. Scott. And, the winner is...

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental by Sound Atelier licensed through Jamendo Music.

A Christmas Tale by Aleksey Voronin on Pixabay

Sound Effects

Record Scratch: Sound Effect free on Pixabay

Rebecca and Tori are joined again by Debra to continue with Scrooge-Off 2025. Guy Pearce returns after trouncing Reginald Owens in Round 1. Pearce is up against Patrick Stewart. Who will emerge the winner of Round 2?

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental by Sound Atelier licensed through Jamendo Music.

A Christmas Tale by Aleksey Voronin on Pixabay

Sound Effects

Record Scratch: Sound Effect free on Pixabay

Rebecca and Tori are joined by Christmas movie aficionado, Debra, in our first ever Scrooge-Off. We pit a couple of versions of "A Christmas Carol" in a head-to-head competition. Round 1 finds the 1938 Reginald Owens version against the 2019 Guy Pearce version. The 2019 version takes us to some unexpected, dark places. Merry Christmas?

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental by Sound Atelier licensed through Jamendo Music

A Christmas Tale by Aleksey Voronin available on Pixabay

Sound Effect

Record Scratch available on Pixabay

Sources

Rebecca and Tori are joined by Nancy and Jeff to watch and chat about the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. The first part of the podcast has some of our live reactions and the last part is our discussion. If you want to skip the reaction, the discussion starts at 22:00.

1978 Star Wars Holiday Special clips

Star Wars Coffee | The Star Wars Holiday Special 1978 (Full) (No Commercials)| 9 Oct 2021 | YouTube

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental by Sound Atelier licensed through Jamendo Music.

A Christmas Tale by Amaksi free on Pixabay

Sound...

Rebecca and Tori wrap up their chat about Marvel Zombies season 1. We discuss the animation style, character connections, and the intense themes of hope and despair. We love it.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental by Sound Atelier licensed through Jamendo Music.

The Epical Trailer: Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov free on Pixabay

Sound Effects

Record Scratch: Sound Effect free on Pixabay

Celebratory Music: #Uppbeat (free for Creators!) | Upbeat.io

B’Max | Thor Ragnarok | It's my birthday | 23 Jan 2018 | YouTube

Sources

Rebecca and Tori chat about Marvel Zombies, season 1, episodes 1 and 2. We mispronounce several names and get on a tangent about Mahershala Ali. We skim the major themes, ponder the various characters, discuss the animation design, and school ourselves on zombie lore.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental by Sound Atelier licensed through Jamendo Music.

The Epical Trailer: Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov free on Pixabay

Record Scratch: Sound Effect free on Pixabay

Rebecca and Tori chat about Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. We compare it to the original and talk about the scenes and cameos that we liked. We bring in some information from a number of interviews with the cast.

WITS chats Mocktober | This Is Spinal Tap

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Sources

Rebecca and Tori chat about the mockumentary, "What We Do in the Shadows." We discuss the origins of the movie, chose a word to describe each of the main characters, vampire tropes, and production style. Throughout the podcast we talk about what we loved about the production style and revel in the mundanity.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Sound Effects

Flight of the Conchords clip: Kenneth Lloyd | Flight of the Conchords - The Most Beautiful Girl (in the Room) | Jan 30, 2011 | YouTube

Sources

Rebecca and Tori chat the 2003 mockumentary, 'Incident at Loch Ness.' We discuss cameos, characters, the funny, and we tangent. We land on "...it's a movie."

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Sound Effect

'We Interrupt' by Otto from Pixabay

News clip: Alaska’s New Source | The Winner of Fat Bear Week 2025 Has Been Chosen | Sep 30, 2025 | YouTube

Sources

Rebecca and Tori continue Mocktober with a chat about the iconic mockumentary, 'This Is Spinal Tap.' We discuss each of the band members and highlight our favorite lines. We also manage a tangent about David Hasselhoff. In general, we laugh a lot.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

WITS starts off Season 3 with Mocktober, a series of chats about mockumentaries. Rebecca and Tori begin with the classic 'Best in Show.' We take a wee dive into each of the main characters (including the dogs) and rave about Fred Willard's performance.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Sources

Hello WITSy people, Rebecca and Tori have work and family obligations to take care of this week, so we are re-releasing our Richard III episode to wind up Shakespeare in September. In the second week of October, we'll be back with new episodes created especially for the month of October and in November and December, we'll be doing some Jane Austen and a few Christmas podcasts. We hope you'll join us!

We're late posting our latest episode...life. What can we say. This week, Louise joins us again to chat about two productions of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' Grigori Kozintsev's 1964 and Gregory Doran's 2009 productions. We talk about the different approaches the directors and actors take, what our expectations are for productions of Hamlet, and relate Hamlet to 'Gilligan's Island' (iykyk).

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Remember the way | by Mid-Air Machine; licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License available on Free Music Archive

Sound Effect

Record Scratch...

Rebecca, Tori, and special guest, Louise, return to chat about the 1993 Kenneth Branaugh and 2013 Josh Whedon productions of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing." We delve into some character analysis, performance comparisons, and Shakespearean themes. We discuss gender dynamics, visual aesthetics of the adaptations, and identify our spotlight scenes and shining stars. And, we have a lot of fun.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Remember the way | Mid-Air Machine | licensed under a Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License at Free Music Archive

Sound Effects

Record Scratch: Sound Effect...

Rebecca, Tori, and special guest, Louise, chat about two different productions of Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar,' the 1953 Joseph Mankiewicz classic film and the 2019 Phyllida Lloyd all-female cast based on the 2012 adaptation. We compare the two productions, touching on what we identify as high and low points in each, character relationships, and production.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Remember the way | Mid-Air Machine; from Free Music Archive

Sound Effect

Record Scratch: free on Pixabay

Sources

Rebecca and Tori continue their wallow in the Apple TV+ series, Chief of War. We chat about the politics, colonialism, cultural representation, and the various personal relationships. Rebecca continues to bring in the wisdom of the hosts of the podcast Feathers and Fire.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental by Sound Atelier licensed through Jamendo Music.

Sound Effects

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by Dzianis Honczarow from Pixabay

Print Source

Linnekin, Jocelyn. "Hawaiians." In Oceania, 95-97...

Rebecca and Tori finish Marvel's series, Ironheart, episodes 3-6. We discuss representation, moral choices, and the impact of father figures. We delve into our thoughts about criticism of the show, and we talk about Casey Kasem.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental by Sound Atelier licensed through Jamendo Music.

The Epical Trailer: Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov free on Pixabay

Sound Effects

Record Scratch: Sound Effect free on Pixabay

Shining Star Flourish: Sound Effect by u_it78ck90s3 from Pixabay

Spotlight Flourish: Sound Effect by Dzianis Honczarow...

Rebecca and Tori chat about AppleTV's 'Chief of War.' We apologize for butchering the Hawai'ian names. We're going to practice. We talk some of the buzz about the series, work on getting the characters' relationships and story lines straight, and discuss what is historically accurate and inaccurate based on our own research and that of the podcast, Feathers and Fire.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental by Sound Atelier licensed through Jamendo Music.

Sources

Rebecca and Tori chat about Marvel's Ironheart, season 1, episodes 1 and 2. We do make a bit of social commentary so if that's not your jam, we understand. We discuss casting, characters, along with strong and weak points. Overall, we both enjoyed the first two episodes.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental by Sound Atelier licensed through Jamendo Music.

The Epical Trailer: Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov free on Pixabay

Record Scratch: Sound Effect free on Pixabay

Rebecca and Tori chat about the newest Fantastic 4 flick, 'The Fantastic 4: First Steps.' We introduce a couple of new segments to the podcast (we experiment, what can we say). We do a little comparison with the older Fantastic 4 movies, discuss the character dynamics, and educate ourselves a little on the comics.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental by Sound Atelier licensed through Jamendo.

The Epical Trailer: Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov free on Pixabay

Interstitial music generated by Vozart.ai

Sound Effects

Record Scratch: Sound Effect free on Pixabay<...

Rebecca and Tori wind up their wallow in Apple TV's Murderbot. We chat about how we feel about the final episode and spend some time doing a character arc review. We discuss what we hope to see in Season 2.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Sound Effect

Crickets | Sound Effect by felix_quinol from Pixabay

Sources

Rebecca and Tori chat episodes 8 and 9 of the Apple TV series, Murderbot. We discuss the differences between the two episodes and the novella and touch on what we consider the high points. We also try to figure out when Murderbot began to obtain his humanity.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Tori is joined by Nancy and Jeff to chat about Rogue One post-Andor and wrap-up their discussion of Andor season 2. We go off the rails a couple of times, but manage to convey our thoughts about how Rogue One was different after the Andor series.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Star Wars Style March & Battle Music | Humanoide Media Music by Luis Humanoide from Pixabay

Sound Effect

Record Scratch: Sound Effect free on Pixabay

Rebecca and Tori continue their wallow in the Apple+ series, Murderbot. We chat about differences between the series and the novella, especially Leebeebee. We dive into a discussion about Arada's and Ratthi's character development.

Music

Apache Rock Instrumental | by Sound Atelier; licensed from Jamendo

Sources