The Best Stuff In The World

It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights. It’s time to do this podcast on The Best Stuff In The World, the podcast for people who like things! Today we’re talking about The Muppets. Jim Henson’s beloved troupe of puppet character goes back decades: at one point The Muppet Show was one of the most popular tv shows in the entire world and Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and the rest have gone on to appear in movies, Disney theme park attractions, comics, cartoons, and more that I can’t think of while I’m...

We’re talking about John Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic The Thing. When it came out, critics hated it and audiences mostly stayed home but over the following decades it was reappraised as one of the greatest horror movies ever made, and I feel that reputation is well deserved.

It’s the story of a team of researchers at a remote Antarctic station who take in a stray dog, which turns out to be a shape-shifting alien that can imitate any living thing it absorbs. Kurt Russell leads a cast of fantastic character actors who slowly realize that a...

Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice came out in 1813, and it has basically never stopped being popular. We get into what we think the reasons for that are during the episode, but it’s smart, it’s funny, it’s romantic, and it still holds up over 200 years later. Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Elizabeth Bennett, one of the great protagonists in English literature, a character who is witty, intelligent and wrong about every judgement she rushes to make in the first half of the book, and her strange relationship with the wealthy and prideful Mr. Darc...

I’m back after my little break for Dragon Con to talk about the greatest of all television shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

On the face of it, Buffy is ridiculous: a show about a teenage girl who fights vampires and demons on top of a literal hellmouth in suburban California and yet somehow it wound up being one of the smartest, funniest, and most emotionally devastating shows ever made. The early seasons had a central metaphor of high school as literal hell, the later seasons got into more ambitious long-form storytelling, and the whole thing wa...

It's the return of our occasional segment where guests come on to talk about albums that changed their lives - the last time we did this was about a year ago when Gary Mitchel joined to talk about Portishead’s Dummy and this time I’m welcoming back to the show writer and musician Andre Salles to talk about two of his favorite records, Tori Amos’ Little Earthquakes and Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock!

We get into why Andre chose these particular albums in the episode, and there are links to Andre’s bandcamp and old music blog...

I’m joined by author Michael Blanding to talk about his fascinating new book THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO HOBBY LOBBY.

Hobby Lobby is the multibillion-dollar craft store chain you may have wandered through for picture frames and fake flowers at some point, founded and owned by the Greens, an evangelical Christian family who have spent decades quietly using their fortune to push their religious beliefs into American law and culture, from a Supreme Court case that gutted contraception coverage, to a Bible museum blocks from the Capitol, to a long, well-funded campaign to remake the country in...

AMC's The Vampire Lestat is based on the popular novel by the late Anne Rice, part of her VAMPIRE CHRONICLES series and continuing on from Interview with the Vampire, which is what the previous two seasons of the tv show were called.

It’s a really bonkers show where Lestat, played by Sam Reid, forms a rock band where he sings about vampire stuff and goes on tour and kills people and has sex with people, not necessarily in that order. Joining me to unpack all of it are Hanako M. Ricks from the Fandom Hybrid Po...

We're talking with writer, director, producer, and actor Julia Campanelli!

Julia is the founder of SHELTER FILM and SHELTER THEATRE GROUP in New York City, companies built around a simple but urgent mission: changing the narrative through visually provocative, genre-expanding, socially impactful projects by and about women.

As a filmmaker, she's written, directed, and produced a string of award-winning short films, including 116, Choose to Love, and A Day in November. She's currently developing her feature script The Paisley Witch Trial (winner of Best Screenplay at Raindance) for production in Scotland and she is...

Put down that chainsaw and listen to me! My guests and I are spending this episode talking all about the life and career of a singular American artist: "Weird Al" Yankovic!

"Weird Al" has been making music for over forty years now and I think his story is genuinely one of the most interesting in music - he's outlasted pretty much everyone he's ever parodied, he's won five Grammys, and he seems to be more popular than ever, selling out Madison Square Garden on his most recent tour. I’m joined by returning guests and "Weird Al...

We are talking to writer, designer, filmmaker, editor and other multi-hyphens I can’t come up with right now Rachel Lichtman!

Rachel’s latest project is Programme 4 - a multimedia video project that creates an entire world centered around the fictional tv station Programme 4. Rachel has been touring with a roughly 90 minute Programme 4 compilation featuring ads, music videos, and opening credits to shows that don’t exist. Rachel’s able to bring to bear her design skills and her filmmaking skills on Programme 4 and I can honestly say there’s not really much like it.

Rach...

This time out I am talking to musician Chris Principe about his time in the band Hooray for Earth and his new solo digital release under his own name - Judge and Jury and Us vs. Them!

It was great talking to Chris about the music that inspired him and the music he’s making. You can find the new single on Bandcamp here: https://chrisprincipemusic.bandcamp.com/album/judge-jury-us-vs-them

Find out Chris's various goings-on over at his Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/chrisprincipemusic/

Per usual, You can email th...

I’m excited to talk to musician and playwright Alexia Rowe! Alexia describes herself as an award-winning third-culture kid playwright and singer-songwriter who got her first production professionally produced while still in college.

Alexia is currently running a crowdfunding campaign for her House Plays initiative - an attempt to make theater more affordable and accessible by embracing diverse performances, community engagement, and unique venues. Check out the link to her kickstarter in the show notes - in addition to House Plays Alexia is a musician, and wrote the award winning site-specific show This Is Not A Bi...

I’m excited to talk to Micah Huang about the upcoming course he’s teaching at Tufts University: Punk Rock: History, Theory, and Practice!

The punk rock class was what brought Micah to my attention - I love talking about the punk scene with people and I was curious about how someone builds a syllabus for a course like that (what do you include, what do you leave out?) but in addition to his punk course Micah’s a musician, storyteller and community advocate so we also talk about how he took what learned from the punk s...

For our 50th episode I'm welcoming back Kellian Adams Pletcher and her husband Brian Pletcher to talk about the new immersive mystery puzzle show they are helping to put on in Boston along with the Secret City Group: The Wedding Party!

The Wedding Party is a 2.5-hour mystery dinner experience at The W Hotel in Boston - it runs from May 1 to June 14. Six live actors play the wedding party, and you, the attendee, play an old friend of the bride who gets pulled deeper into the story as the night unfolds. Expect puzzles, hidden messages...

Babylon 5 was a science fiction television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski. The show ran in syndication for its first four seasons before moving to TNT for its final season.

Babylon 5 was a hugely ambitious show, and sometimes its reach was more than its grasp but I love that it was going for something big. When it worked there was nothing like it on television and I’m so excited to discuss it with returning guest Denise Lhamon, who you may remember from our Charlie Chaplin episode, and with Nathan Laws from the po...

Athena Z. Peters from Incantrix Productions joins us to discuss the company's work and their upcoming shows. Incantrix Productions have been putting on immersive/interactive shows in the Boston area for about 10 years and they have two shows coming up in the near future: Romancing Jan, which is coming out the Saturday after this episode releases (so hopefully you haven’t let this sit in your queue for too long) and TAVERN CRAWL, a Dungeons & Dragons pub crawl in Malden. Links for tickets to both events are below:

Romancing Jan: Buy Tickets!

Tavern Cr...

I am delighted to be talking with Hudson Leick - yoga teacher, intuitive astrologer, dance instructor, and so many other things. In the nerdy circles I sometimes run in Hudson is perhaps best known for portraying Callisto, the best and most iconic villain on the classic television show Xena: Warrior Princess. We talk a little bit about Xena and a lot about all of the amazing things Hudson is doing now, from hosting yoga retreats to emotional healing talks to 5 Rhythms Dance seminars. This one went deeper than I thought it would - Hudson is clearly someone who has...

For this episode I have gathered a panel of weapons-grade music enthusiasts to discuss some of our favorite holiday music songs - mostly Christmas tunes but a few more general “it’s wintertime” numbers.

The picks run the gamut from beloved songs almost everybody knows (Johnny Mathis! Darlene Love!) to oddball novelty numbers (Max Headroom! Weird Al!) to songs that should be more well-known because they’re so great. I’m joined in this endeavor by returning guest Guy Benoit, who has written and directed independent films and plays, was the singer for the amazing Providence, RI bands V...

I am talking to Jaina Cipriano: photographer/experiential designer/filmmaker/Executive Director of the Arlington International Film Festival!

Jaina and I talk all about her art and the film festival, including the immersive experience that Witch Hunt Theatre staged at this year’s event. (You may remember that I chatted with Witch Hunt’s artistic director Taylor Stark earlier this year.)

Jaina is working on a ton of interesting stuff and it was great chatting with her about the art she makes and the art she loves.

Per usual, You can...

On this edition of The Best Stuff in the World my guests and I are diving into our collective love of MAD Magazine! 

For decades, MAD skewered politics, pop culture, advertising, television, and almost anything else you can think of. Joining me to discuss MAD and the "usual gang of idiots" who wrote and drew it are two of The Best Stuff in the World’s usual gang of idiots, returning guests Kevin Eldridge from the great podcast The Flopcast and Michael Brousseau, who I co-host the skateboard movie podcast Gleaming the Tube with and who wro...

I am BACK ON MY BULLSHIT talking to a former cast member of SLEEP NO MORE - I am delighted to welcome the great Tori Sparks to the podcast this week.

I first saw Tori perform in the Boston production of Sleep No More, which is the show that sparked my interest in immersive theater and, in my opinion, was the big bang for what we call “immersive theater” in the U.S. If you’re a person who follows that art form it’s hard not to notice that Tori has been possibly the most signific...

We're joined by R. Alex Murray, a cast member of Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern!

Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern bills itself as a live, onstage game of Dungeons & Dragons where YOU control the action. By calling out suggestions and making decisions on your smartphone, you’ll determine which heroes appear, where they explore, and ultimately how their story ends. The show is now on tour after an off-Broadway run - I caught it in Boston last month and I had a total blast seeing it and I had a total blast talking to Alex about it...

The time out we’re discussing the films of Alfred Hitchcock!

For over half a century, Hitchcock reshaped how we experience fear, tension, and surprise in movies. He was able to turn ordinary setting (a shower, a staircase, a crop-dusted field) into unforgettable cinematic nightmares. At his best, he made us complicit in our own voyeurism, could make us laugh at danger, and had audiences at the edge of their seats wanting to know what would happen next. His title as THE MASTER OF SUSPENSE was totally earned.

So today, we’re going to t...

The Best Stuff in the World is back from summer break! I’m talking to Taylor Stark, the founder and artistic director of Witch Hunt Theatre, a Boston-area company that specializes in immersive site-specific horror theater. Taylor and Witch Hunt have a new show called HER RITES opening in Brookline Massachusetts this month and it was great talking to her about the upcoming show and Boston-area theater in general.

Check out Witch Hunt Theatre and get tickets to HER RITES here: www.witchhunttheatre.com

You can email me at [email protected]

It's our season finale episode and I'm excited to be chatting about the glory days of public access television with two folks who have first-hand experience in that world. Writer Keith DeCandido is best known these days for his novels and comics but back in the early 90s he was one of the hosts of the New York City science fiction public access show THE CHRONIC RIFT and Calvin Watts has been talking about science fiction on Rhode Island cable access for the past 30 years, first as one of the cohosts of the legendary STAR TREK THE UNOFFICIAL FAN...

I’m excited to talk to writer and musician Luke MacPherson! Luke’s work explores the connections between music, film and philosophy and one of his most recent books, PRIME FORCE DIRECTIVE, draws connections between four cultural forces that shaped his life - the science fiction franchise Star Wars and Star Trek and the heavy metal bands Metallica and Iron Maiden. Luke’s also the lead singer and guitarist in the music project Iron Reverb (who did the cover of our theme song that you hear opening and closing the show this week) as well as the author of severa...

The second installment of our series of episodes focusing on a single album - I put out the call on social media for folks to get in touch with albums that changed their lives to possibly discuss on the show (with the caveat that I have to like the record as well) and the redoubtable Gary Mitchel (of A Podcask of Amontillado) suggested we discuss Portshead's Dummy. Naturally, I was delighted by this suggestion.

When Dummy came out I hadn’t really heard anything like it - the phrase trip-hop wasn’t really in my vocabulary but...

We are talking to Emily Arkin and Bridget Duggan from Identical Cousins about their upcoming event THE FILTY FORMAL AND TRASH TALENT SHOW, an immersive tribute to the work of the film director John Waters!

The Filthy Formal is a dance party / variety show / excuse to wear your most vile, stupid, and repulsive formal fashions and it’s Saturday night, June 21st, in the Crystal Ballroom of the Somerville Theatre in Somerville Massachusetts!

You can get tickets to the Filthy Formal and Trash Talent Show here: https://www.crystalballroomboston.com/events/filthy-formal-trash-talent-show-a-john-waters-tribute/

...

We are discussing one of the most famous and successful movies of all time - Raiders of the Lost Ark!

Do I even need to go into a little intro spiel about Raiders? Producer George Lucas, director Steven Spielberg, and star Harrison Ford team up to create one of the most iconic characters in the history of cinema - a swashbuckling archeologist named Indiana Jones who, in the 1930s, is in a race with the Nazis and his rival, the French archeologist Rene Belloq, to discover the lost ark of the covenant.

Joining...

We're discussing the musicals of lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim and also talking about the current state of musicals on Broadway - has the supermusical killed the chance for smart shows like Sondheim's to find an audience? Where can his influence be found today? Where should you start with such a vast and acclaimed body of work? I'm joined by the mighty Sue Kisenwether from the Star Trek podcast Women at Warp and by returning guest Cash the Composer (who previously joined to talk about their own immersive musical Fantasmagoriana.)

You can hear 10 years of awesome...

Our first in a possible series of sporadic episodes focusing on a single album - I put out the call on social media for folks to get in touch with albums that changed their lives to possibly discuss on the show (with the caveat that I have to like the record as well) and the first response I got was from Christian Campagna of the Talk About the Passion podcast to discuss the seminal hardcore punk album The Crew by Reno, Nevada's 7 Seconds.

Christian and I were are joined in the discussion by our mutual friend...

I’m excited to be talking to the frontman of one of Providence, RI’s greatest bands, Jason “King” Kendall from the Amazing Royal Crowns!

The Royal Crowns managed to combine rockabilly, garage, and punk rock energy into something that sounded both familiar and new and they recorded *great* songs - DO THE DEVIL is probably the most well-known one since the video played on MTV a few times - and put on an absolutely fantastic live show. Being a bystander in the Providence music scene while they conquered that city was a really cool experience and Jaso...

Our guest Kellian Adams Pletcher joins to discuss the new interactive, immersive tiki show she has written, Cthulhu Luau, in advance of its sold-out run! We also discuss Kellian's origin in the swing music scene, her long-running seasonal show Club Drosselmeyer, the immersive theater scene in the Boston area, and why she doesn't like Sleep No More as much as I do.

Check out Cthulhu Luau here: https://cthulhu-luau.com/

Get notified when Club Drosselmeyer tickets go on sale here: https://www.clubdrosselmeyer.com/

Our closing music this week is...

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K) can be a difficult show to explain to people who haven’t seen it. Wisecracking robot puppets making fun of cheesy movies, mad scientists, invention exchanges, and more. I could not believe something as smart and funny and silly as this show existed when I discovered it.

I’m joined to discuss MST3k by two people who are as smart and silly as the show itself.

Guest roll call!

Dan Toland podcasts about cheesy movies, cult films, midnight movies and more on CHANNEL 37’s MIDNI...

We're talking to a couple of the talented folks behind the new immersive theatrical company Artemis is Burning about their upcoming show The Death of Rasputin, which will begin performances at LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island on April 17, 2025, for a limited run. Ashley Brett Chipman, who conceived of the show, and her co-director Hope Youngblood discuss the inspiration behind the show and its upcoming run.

Whispers in the candlelight, shadows in the corridors— The Death of Rasputin is no mere play; it is a descent into decadence, a fever-dream of power, prophecy, and betrayal. This...

Fenway Park organist Josh Kantor joins Kevin to discuss his experience as a baseball organist for a team as beloved for the Boston Red Sox, the origins of his interest in both music and baseball, taking social media requests from fans, Stevie Wonder's "Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants" album, his pandemic-era streaming show "The Seventh Inning Stretch", playing onstage with his musical heroes, and - of course - KISS.

When not playing at baseball games, Josh is also a member of the band Jim's Big Ego

Josh is performing at the...

We're discussing the work of someone who may be America’s greatest living cartoonist - YEAH I SAID IT - Jaime Hernandez!

Jaime is best known for his groundbreaking work in the Love and Rockets comic book series and the LOCAS stories which are contained therein. LOCAS follows the tangled lives of a group of primarily chicano characters, from their teenage years in the early days of the California punk scene to the present day - the character themselves age in an approximation of real time. Most of the stories focus on two central characters - Ma...

Musician/filmmaker/artist Rebecca Kopycinski joins Kevin to talk about her recent installation/performance The Thotbot Implantation Center, which is one piece of a larger multimedia narrative. Rebecca has created an entire dystopian storyworld through podcasts, installation art, immersive theater and performance. As she explains on her website, the project unfolds through a series of multi-platform "Episodes." While each of these Episodes stands alone narratively, together they weave together the serialized saga of one protagonist, Reagan Esther Myer, across an sprawling post-apocalyptic timeline set in the mid-1990s. 

At the center of this world is ThotBot, a go...

We are discussing the work of the great David Lynch. A filmmaker, writer, visual artist, and musician, Lynch spent decades crafting a unique cinematic language that blends the unsettling with the poetic, the surreal juxtaposed with images that could be either nightmarish or heartbreakingly beautiful. There was no one like him and like a lot of people who were affected by his work I was devastated to hear of his recent death. I’m joined by two returning guests: visual artist Emma McDonnell and Greg Bell, who does a lot of work in and around live theater in Baltimore. Al...

Overture! Curtain! Lights! In this episode of The Best Stuff in the World we’re taking a look back at the classic Looney Tunes shorts. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were the umbrella titles for the short cartoons produced by the Warner Brothers studio from the early 1930s through the 1960s, although we’re mostly discussing the shorts released during what I think of as "the golden era" from the 1940s and 1950s, particularly the shorts starring the iconic characters from the studio - Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner, etc. The best of these shorts are among the...