Journalists Jeb Lund and David J. Roth step away from real world anxieties and step into the gentle, cornball, consequence-free world of the Hallmark Channel. Each time, we discuss a different Hallmark original movie—from Christmas cheer, to wedding jitters, to junk-store detectives—and break it down into recognizable components of angels, moms, moppets, sugary foods and themed sweaters, and try to make sense of when the stories veer away from comfort films and land in the uncanny valley. Welcome to a sweet, stilted vision of the world—not an escape from modern life, but a relaxing trip to an alternate universe where everyone is silly, chaste, nice, and mostly doing fine.
Holly Anderson and Ryan Nanni discuss the Buffalo Bills' stadium's cultural impact and holiday movie tropes in this interview episode.
30 May 2026TRANSCRIPT
144 - Reverse Seinfeld for Phlegmless People
Maura Quint, Charles Star, and Aaron Kleinman discuss the holiday movie "Oy to the World," exploring its interfaith themes and memorable characters in this interview.
22 Apr 2026TRANSCRIPT
143 - A God-Prank Christmas: The Miracle of Obstinacy!
We're astrally projecting into an aldis lamp to tell CHRISTMAS BEDTIME STORIES (2022), but we are absolutely not dead, we're just… TEASER: In Florida, ok? … Top 10 JACKED-UP Movies … Call the General THEME: "Fuck You If You Don't Like Christmas," from Crudbump, by Drew Fairweather PART ONE DEAD DAD … Please do not perceive us … Too disturbing for civvies … Cast Rundown … Escaping the NXIVM Cult … Heat, again … The Expositional Challenge … Listen to "Jeb & Maura's Awful Party" … Plot Mop-Up: Stepdad solution; Baxter (mutual) breakup … Rules-free ass-sliding nougat … Not a modeling-behavior movie … Detail-free resurrection … Never quit mourning … Destructive, waste of time, video game … Christmas astral projection … A prank … Nancy Grace's #PotTot … "Pet Sematary"… PART TWO No-shoes Wine Clown … Ominous Hallmark: Stalker vibes; Dead Dad varsity jacket; "sure"; speaking to the captors … The Odyssey and Pazuzu … Spot the Angel: "The Troop"/no angel … The Humor Side … Eat Your Heart Out: Good cake, normal drinks, not Newcastle, elevated s'mores, gas-station lunch swap … The Hallmark Expanded Universe: RIP (the universal troop)… PART THREE Overdetermined: All; (Wig crime); magical trooping; "don't give up" plus "bring my daddy's voice back to life" … Crossover: "The Fort Bragg Cartel" vs. Pierce's Special Investigators … The Hallmark Voight-Kampff Test: Everyone on Danielle's journey; Pierce, the silk-shirt pleader; "it's the holidays, stuff's crazy!"; LLM-prompt daughter Audrey … Great Moments in Moppetry: 4.5 … Whoa! Wife Chat: "I wanted to try again" … The Maxell ad… PART FOUR Who's the Real Villain: The American way of (class) war … Rating: 1 … Jordon Hudson … The Leftovers: Snowstorm oat of nowhere … Special Ops infiltration in Yemen … A relic of solemnity about American troop death … Everything that sucks makes this suck more … Brigadier, 18 soldiers … Fake snowball doink … Off-brand American filler music … Steve Lund: Jarhead III … "Kill All the White Man" … "Detachable Penis" and John S. Hall … Halfway ≠ Close … Merry Christmas! • All other music by Chris Collingwood of Look Park and Fountains of Wayne, except: "Orchestral Sports Theme" by Chris Collingwood and Rick Murnane. Jeb & Maura's Awful Party (LINK) Fever Dream (LINK)
Inside a recent episode
145 - Football Psyop at Fubu Stadium
Published 22 Aug 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] Their families all get along. Nobody has an inconvenient partner. Nobody has an inconvenient job. Everyone around them is supportive of the idea. It's like, why don't you just say this and get over with it? And I can't decide if that makes it like a really weird choice for a Hallmark plot or if it just props up the fact that, oh, we don't want you guys to worry about this too much because we want you focused on easing the birth of the stadium. Yeah. We are midwifing this stadium. So much of this stuff about them, about everybody giving Gabe or giving Morgan a pep talk about being like, you know, you should try it. […]
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
