How do we stay optimistic when it seems like civilization is collapsing around us? The environment presented to us in The American President - of a Washington, DC in which smart people argue with each other in order to solve the country's problems - may hold the key. My guest Jonathan Paula talks with me about his love for this movie and why he is "a hopeless optimist."

Comic and television personality Abbi Crutchfield joins me to talk about the zany, deadly, and hilarious So I Married an Axe Murderer! You can find Abbi at @curlycomedy on Instagram, X, and YouTube.

Beloved television character Lizzie McGuire finds herself in Rome, and we are all going along for the ride! In this conversation, hear what Lizzie has to teach us about relatability, self-expression, and what dreams are made of (Hey Now, Hey Now).

A Christmas movie in June?! What the actual frost...? Don't worry, we haven't completely lost our minds - Elf is the movie my guest (Tiffany Stafford) wanted to talk about, and guests rule the roost in the Why This Movie? Podcast Studio. Listen to our conversation about the role holiday movies play in grounding us and setting annual markers in our lives, and the hidden nuances within the story of Buddy the Elf.

In this conversation about Forrest Gump, Trent Ashcraft and I mourn the loss of the monoculture and the time when a character-driven movie could become a cultural phenomenon without being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"The Dude abides..." What does that mean? And how do we - throughout life's hurdles (even when our rugs are micturated upon) - continue to abide? The Big Lebowski presents a philosophy of relaxed indifference and a focus on life's little pleasures that we may do well to embrace. In this conversation with Matthew Rand, we uncover the Dude's outlook and what we can glean from it as we trudge through our troubled world.

In this episode of Why This Movie?, listen to my conversation with my ex-wife about Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese's epic from 1990 about the reality of life in the mob.

What is it about the horror genre that lends itself to deeper meaning and morality tales? Join filmmaker Stefan MacDonald-LaBelle and me for this conversation on the 1981 horror classic Scanners and how film is sometimes the best messenger for complex social issues.