This week’s show begins with an email from a loyal listener about the Bree Sharp song “David Duchovny” and the unofficial video for it in which Dean participated. Then, Phil talks about what is going on his beloved Siren Radio in the UK. A petition has been launched to try and save the station to which Phil has been contributing for more than 12 years (read and, if so moved, sign the petition at https://www.change.org/p/support-our-siren-saving-siren-radio-lincoln-s-first-community-radio-station). This leads to a discussion of curated experiences and supposedly outmoded media. From there, the conversation switches to the impact of Bicycle Thieves on the big screen and that classic’s influence on Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. The surprising good news of a just-released global box office smash hit gets cheered. Of course, “awards season” is reaching its climax, and Dean and Phil analyze what we can know will happen at the Oscars based on this weekend’s SAG Awards. The multi-award-winning miniseries “Beef”, its writing and its stars get hailed. Phil also shares a great story about Annette Bening and both her present, and one of her past, Oscar nominations. All that plus Phil regales with tales of the Autry Museum of the American West in the wake of emceeing a major event there. Finally, the lives of three fascinating music figures get remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”.

The return of The Oscars, celebrating a most unusual year in cinema, deserves to be celebrated, too! And so, this week, your friends in podcasting bring back their old Oscars smackdown style show for the first time in years! There will be wagering – for stakes both ridiculous and sublime. There will be critiquing of the Oscar show itself. There will be analysis of the winners and the snubs.

The first half of this week’s show is all about the art and craft and future of podcasting! Storyteller Dave Pickering joins us from his home in Lancaster in the north of England to talk about his brilliant podcasts (“Getting Better Acquainted”, “Down to a Sunless Sea”, “The Family Tree” and more), about college lectures he gives about podcasting, about where he sees the art form at present, and what he thinks the future might hold. Actress Lily Holleman drops by in the second half of the show to reveal her Screen Actors Guild Awards ballot and to discuss what she looks for in performances. A whole bunch of great movies and performers get discussed. Great podcasts and great movies – truly two of our favorite things!

This week’s show really puts the “Hollywood” into YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour! The cold open starts with a quick, wicked and insightful recap of the Writers Guild of America winners for Best Original and Best Adapted screenplays. Spring has sprung and your friends in podcasting are high energy, high-stepping their way through remembrances of 3 actors, a journalist, a beloved children’s book author, a Tuskegee Airman, and the inventor of cassette tapes, as well through a diversity-inspired round of their almost weekly celebration of vintage movie ads from the 1980s and 90s! From there, Dean and Phil set sail for the “Season of Self-Congratulation”, focusing on the forthcoming Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Oscars. They discuss such TV shows as “Ted Lasso”, “Dead to Me” and “The Crown” and such movies as Minari, The Father, Da 5 Bloods, Wonder Woman 1984, Zack Snyder’s Justice League and more! All that plus several of the best directors working in film today: Christopher Nolan, Chloe Zhao and Kelly Reichardt.

The Academy Award nominations were announced this week and of the eight films nominated for Best Picture, only five ranked highly with critics (“Roma”, “The Favourite”, “Black Panther”, “BlacKkKlansman” and to a far lesser degree, “A Star is Born”). Only one Best Picture nominee finished in the top ten at the box office (“Black Panther”, which was the biggest hit of the year) and only one other even finished in the top 25 at the Box Office (“Bohemian Rhapsody”). What does it all mean? Only that it’s Dean and Phil’s turn! Your friends in podcasting count down their respective Top Ten Films of 2019 during this week’s 88 minute installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!