Brent shares his newest project—being a digital nomad! He and his husband Michael are traveling the world as digital nomads. They do their normal writing work, except they get to do it from Miami, Italy,…
We haven’t checked in about our own writing and publishing. Brent talks about the possibility of a new Geography Club TV show and what it was like to be nominated for an Edgar Award for…
What Does Stephen King Have That We Don’t? – Episode 087
- April 12, 2017
- Tagged as: 11/22/63, carrie, dolores claiborne, misery, on writing, stand by me, the green mile, the mist, the shining, the stand, under the dome
Writers exist on a sort of continuum: the best selling phenomenons at the top, and then a long tail of writers of various success as you go lower and lower on the continuum. What truly…
What Is The Otto Digmore Difference? – Episode 086
- February 24, 2017
- Tagged as: the otto digmore difference
This special bonus episode of Media Carnivores is about Brent’s new book, The Otto Digmore Difference. Otto is a recurring character from the Russel Middlebrook series (he appears in both the original series and the…
What Do Movies Get Right (And Wrong) About Love? – Episode 085
- February 14, 2017
- Tagged as: 500 days of summer, beyond the lights, brokeback mountain, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, frozen, groundhog day, husbands and wives, moana, moonstruck, pretty woman, sixteen candles, sleepless in seattle, the american president, the princess bride, trick, twilight
Movies can make us fall in love all over again. But they also can show us terribly inaccurate stories about love. Brent and Erik talk about movie love stories—the good, the bad, and the fantasy. Brent and…
Does The Lord of the Rings Hold Up? – Episode 084
- January 26, 2017
- Tagged as: harry potter, the lord of the rings
The Lord of the Rings was an important moment in recent cinema: the scope of its filmmaking and audacity in filming three movies at once, the elevation of the fantasy genre, its pioneering special effects,…
“Political correctness” is an unfortunately-named shorthand description for how we talk about gender, race, privilege, and more. As it applies to stories like movies and TV, questions can arise about how certain tropes, characters, or stereotypes…
How technology and science are portrayed in movies and TV is always changing. Science fiction writers have dealt with this for years, but what about non-science fiction stories. How are these things treated in stories…
Why Do We Spend So Much Time Watching Food? – Episode 081
- November 16, 2016
- Tagged as: chef, eat pray love, garlic and sapphires, indiana jones and the temple of doom, julie and julia, kitchen confidential, lady and the tramp, last tango in paris, moonstruck, my life in france, ratatouille, the boy who harnessed the wind, the long winter, the marinara murders, wild, willy wonka and the chocolate factory
Food is everywhere in movies, TV, and books. Why does the camera linger so much on a grilled cheese sandwich in the movie Chef? Why do meals create such good drama? In preparation for Thanksgiving, Brent…
Why Do Alien Invasions Make For Good Movies? – Episode 080
- November 2, 2016
- Tagged as: 2001 a space odyssey, avatar, close encounters of the third kind, dark city, district 9, edge of tomorrow, ender's game, evolution, independence day, invasion of the body snatchers, men in black, signs, star trek, star trek first contact, starship troopers, the andromeda strain, the arrival, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the three body problem, the twilight zone, the worlds end, war of the worlds
In this episode, Brent and Erik talk about alien invasions—when are the aliens the monsters and when are we the monsters? We cover the fear alien invasions inspire, and the deeper issues about how aliens can force us to…