the arc.fm

About the arc.fm

Join three very different storytellers with three very different personalities, as we bring each other stories to break apart and celebrate. In every episode, we're having the best time exploring what makes a story work, why it moves us, and why we can't stop talking about it. It's not analysis. It's not review. And it's something more than just a conversation about one of the things that makes life worth living... stories.

Publisher

Robby, Jaclynn, Cole

Category

arts · comedy · tv & film

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Sept 2025

Latest episode

8 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

30 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Oct 2026

   Hope (2026) - An Action Movie from Art House Film Director, Na Hong-jin

   We went in bracing for a horror movie and got an art house director's monster epic, one we place in the DMZ in the 1990s, and we spend the episode working out how far our expectations were from what Na Hong-jin made. EPISODE SUMMARY Hope (2026) is Na Hong-jin's first film since The Wailing in 2016, starring Hwang Jung-min, Alicia Vikander, and Michael Fassbender. On The Arc (thearc.fm), we talk about going in expecting a horror movie and finding a long, mostly-chase monster film that adds new movies near the end. Jaclynn calls it three movies stitched together, Robby disavows the horror label, and we land on the idea that our expectations were off, because Na Hong-jin comes from art house films. WHERE TO WATCH Streaming availability starts Tuesday 10/13! New To The Show? New episodes of The Arc arrive roughly once a month, but they are ephemeral beings that sometimes take longer. You're encouraged to start from the beginning with Episode 01: The Princess Bride (https://thearc.fm/episode/the-princess-bride). RSS (https://feeds.captivate.fm/thearc-fm/) A Long Summary Hope is Na Hong-jin's first film since The Wailing in 2016: a 156-minute South Korean film that premiered in competition at Cannes in May 2026 and opened in the US that September. It's reportedly the most expensive Korean film ever made, shot by Hong Kyung-pyo. A village police chief and his rookie deputy defend their town from a mysterious creature, and the creatures turn out to be aliens. From the director of The Chaser and The Yellow Sea, that premise caught us off guard. We showed up expecting horror, and Robby spends a good part of the episode disavowing that label, at one point in a full Southern accent, which detours us into British and Southern accents and some fun at Cole's scones. Most of our conversation is the three of us working out what the plot was. Jaclynn's take is the sharpest: it's long, mostly a chase, and introduces two new movies near the end, so it feels like three movies stitched together. Her metaphor for the film is a highlight, so we'll let you find it: it involves a three-year-old half-sibling, a crayon, and an art thesis you have to present as if the monsters were always the plan. From there we debate whether a mystery counts as a plot, whether the alien chasing the child is its mother or a servant, why the sun seems to sit at noon, and whether a cat a driver swerves to avoid was real. One of us felt for the alien during a shot of it in obvious pain. Jaclynn also tells us about living in Asia and visiting the DMZ. We also hear from Na Hong-jin, in translated Q&As (recorded in Los Angeles and Seoul). In the first, he describes a film that grew and grew, and talks about how Korea's small surface area shaped where this story could be set. A second clip, in the chapter "on the real story," comes later in the episode. The turn comes when we talk about who made it. Knowing Na Hong-jin's art house background made us reconsider what we'd watched, and it leads to a question we keep circling: what's the contract with a movie like this? In the end, we expected a horror movie and got an art house director's monster epic. You don't need to have seen Hope to follow along. Dad will explain linear. WHAT WE DISCUSS 00:34 - THE MANY (OR FEW?) PLOT(S) OF "HOPE" Robby is asked to say what he thinks the plot of Hope is without bending to the will of Jaclynn, who sees three movies stitched together around one long chase. We go back and forth on whether a mystery without a clear hero's-journey structure still counts as a plot. 08:36 - THE PLOT OF HOPE (FROM THE ALIENS' PERSPECTIVE) We try to untangle the alien backstory, including whether the alien chasing the child is its mother or a servant, and we don't fully agree. We compare the way the story spirals outward to a Sam Spade movie. 10:20 - WHEN WERE EACH OF US IN OR OUT We each name the moment we felt pulled into or pushed out of the film. One of us nearly walked out when the third movie began, and we talk about whether viewers should be warned that the film keeps restarting with new movies. 11:13 - WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW GOING TO "HOPE (2026)" Some context before you go in: this is Na Hong-jin's first film in about ten years, it's reportedly the most expensive Korean film ever made, and we wonder whether he set out to make a blockbuster. We also marvel that the production built its sets on top of a real town. 16:02 - THE #1 THING WE WANT TO SAY ABOUT "HOPE (2026)" We each give a short take on Hope, including a comparison to a jigsaw puzzle you assemble before noticing pieces are missing. Then we talk through how we'd critique it if a student had turned it in, and agree we'd put it more gently to a real student. 18:01 - JACLYNN'S AMAZING ANALOGY FOR "HOPE (2026)" Jaclynn explains her mixed feelings with an extended analogy: a three-year-old half-sibling draws crayon monsters all over your art thesis, and you present it as if they were intentional. We then discuss what the contract is with a movie like this, and what viewers are owed. 22:53 - ON "FOCUS" IN STORYTELLING (EXPLAINED BY THE QUESTION 'HOW DO YOU EAT A SALAD?') A conversation about focus in storytelling, explained through the question of how you eat a salad, and about how a story earns the audience's acceptance of its characters and plot. That leads into what we would ask the director. 37:23 - THE OVERALL FEELING OF "HOPE (2026)" We poke fun at the chase's internal logic, from the time of day jumping around to the gas tank that never runs out, and we debate whether the cat a driver swerves to avoid was real and what that says about which lives are worth saving. CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - COLD OPEN AND VERY SHORT TRAILER BECAUSE "HOPE" IS A KOREAN LANGUAGE ACTION FILM 0:34 - THE MANY (OR FEW?) PLOT(S) OF "HOPE" 3:21 - JACLYNN ON LIVING IN ASIA & VISITING THE DMZ BETWEEN North Korea and South Korea 4:58 - SET DESIGN 5:59 - SKETCH - CEO INTRODUCES THE DIRECTOR 7:22 - THE DIRECTOR SPEAKS 8:36 - THE PLOT OF HOPE (FROM THE ALIENS' PERSPECTIVE) 10:20 - WHEN WERE EACH OF US IN OR OUT 11:13 - WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW GOING TO "HOPE (2026)" 12:12 - STORIES OF WALKING INTO FILM SETS ACCIDENTALLY 16:02 - THE #1 THING WE WANT TO SAY ABOUT "HOPE (2026)" 18:01 - JACLYNN'S AMAZING ANALOGY FOR "HOPE (2026)" 21:47 - THE DIRECTOR OF "HOPE (2026)" ON THE REAL STORY 22:53 - ON "FOCUS" IN STORYTELLING (EXPLAINED BY THE QUESTION 'HOW DO YOU EAT A SALAD?') 23:59 - WHAT WOULD WE SAY TO THE DIRECTOR OF "HOPE (2026)" IN AN INTERVIEW? 26:37 - MAKING FUN OF COLE'S SCONES 27:38 - WHEN DID EACH OF US CRY DURING "HOPE (2026)" 30:14 - THINGS JACLYNN LOVES IN VISUALS 34:14 - BEHIND THE SCENES THOUGHTS (ESPECIALLY THE CAR) 37:23 - THE OVERALL FEELING OF "HOPE (2026)" RECOMMENDATIONS If you want to keep going on this one, a couple of other stops are worth your time. The InSession Film Podcast devoted an episode to Hope, a good companion listen if you want more voices on the film: InSession Film Podcast: Review - Hope (https://insessionfilm.com/movie-podcast-review-hope/). The Certified Forgotten podcast also dedicated an episode to the film, for another take on it: Certified Forgotten: 'Hope' Gets Uncertified (https://certifiedforgotten.com/hope-podcast). RELATED ARC EPISODES Or consider starting from the beginning: Episode 01: The Princess Bride (https://thearc.fm/episode/the-princess-bride) is where we became friends. SOUND DESIGN ATTRIBUTION Sound design via Freesound.org and Envato. Downloaded on October 8th, 2026 S: Medium Crowd Clapping 5 (https://freesound.org/people/jentlemen/sounds/432334/) by jentlemen (https://freesound.org/people/jentlemen/) | License: Creative Commons 0 (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) S: (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)Light, slow uncomfortable clapping (https://freesound.org/people/TurboFool/sounds/561020/) by TurboFool (https://freesound.org/people/TurboFool/) | License: Creative Commons 0 (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) S: (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)Room Tone: McFarlin Auditorium (https://freesound.org/people/lakewoodsound/sounds/705421/) by lakewoodsound (https://freesound.org/people/lakewoodsound/) | License: Creative Commons 0 (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) S: (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)CRWDApls_Unenthusiastic...

2. 

   18 Sept 2026

   Field of Dreams - Making Grown Men Cry Since 1989

   We argue that Field of Dreams isn't really about baseball or fathers so much as the elaborate lengths men will go to instead of just going to therapy, and it all starts with Robby who has cried through it on his birthday every year for more than thirty years. EPISODE SUMMARY We believe Field of Dreams isn't really about baseball, or farming, or even fathers and sons in the way you'd expect. It's about what men will do to avoid going to therapy. Robby has watched it on or near his birthday for more than thirty years and still cries every time. Jaclynn only saw it as a baby, so it's effectively new to her, and she didn't even know the famous line right. Our guests are Joe Connor (Mr. Sports Travel) (https://mrsportstravel.com/) and Patrick Fleming, and this one gets more emotional than a group of people talking about a cornfield has any right to. Patrick's late father, Mike Fleming, was a Triple-A umpire everyone expected to make the majors until he went home to Iowa at 23 to run the family printing company. That is Archie "Moonlight" Graham's story all over again: two men at the edge of the big leagues who gave it up for someone else. WHERE TO WATCH Streaming availability as of 2026-09-18. Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/title/499612) (streaming with subscription) Prime Video (https://watch.amazon.com/detail?gti=amzn1.dv.gti.aca9f763-4d96-23c2-dca8-7bba5922f5c4) (rent or buy) Apple TV (https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/field-of-dreams/umc.cmc.4cquzatxd6kupenv237e1tkww) (rent or buy) Fandango At Home (https://athome.fandango.com/content/browse/details/Field-of-Dreams/5930) (rent or buy) New To The Show? New episodes of The Arc arrive roughly once a week, but they are ephemeral beings that sometimes take longer; you're encouraged to start from the beginning with Episode 01: The Princess Bride (https://thearc.fm/episode/the-princess-bride-how-has-anyone-not-seen-this-fairytale-masterpiece). RSS (https://feeds.captivate.fm/thearc-fm/) A Long Summary Field of Dreams is the 1989 movie where Kevin Costner hears a voice in his Iowa cornfield, plows under his crop to build a baseball diamond, and watches the ghosts of banned White Sox players walk out to play, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, and eventually his own late father, young again and asking for a catch. It is, on paper, a movie about baseball. It is also a movie about farming, and about kidnapping a reclusive author, and about a small-town doctor who gave up his one shot at the majors. None of that is what it's actually about, which is the thing Robby has known since he was 20 or 21 and cried, unexpectedly, the first time he saw it with a college friend who shared his birthday. He's watched it on or near his birthday almost every year since, more than thirty of them now, and he brought it here, which makes this his birthday movie and, fairly, makes him the star of it. What we found is that Field of Dreams makes men cry, and it makes them cry at their keyboards: when we went looking for baseball experts to explain why the game matters, we got back dozens of very macho men writing in, choked up, needing to talk about this film. Two of them are here. Joe Connor has seen live sports in 176 countries and finished all 30 major-league parks the year his father died, in his memory. And Patrick Fleming, an Iowan and an indie musician, wrote Cole an email, read aloud in full, about his father Mike, a Triple-A umpire whose school booklet said "Mike will go all the way." Mike didn't. His own father died, and at 23 he went home to run the family printing company while every one of his umpire-school friends made the majors. Archie "Moonlight" Graham, in the movie, is that exact story: one at-bat away, then a small-town doctor for the rest of his life. Mike Fleming and Moonlight Graham lived the same life, and now the Little League fields Patrick grew up on are named Mike Fleming Field, his family's little field of dreams. One of the hosts argues that the movie melts people because it lets a man have closure with a dead parent, and that closure only exists in fiction, which is what fiction is for. Another host pushes back that you don't even need the closure; you just need to watch someone you loved live out their happiest moment and get to stand in it with them. Somewhere in there we argue, at genuine length and without resolution, over whether James Earl Jones's character walks into the corn to die or to become a ghost or just to go look around and come back and write about it; one of us is very sure he's fine. We also take a hard look at what the movie asks of Costner's wife, at how much a very handsome man gets away with, at whether following your dream at all costs is exactly how we got where we are, and at the fact that the cars flooding in at the end were real Iowans answering a call on the radio, flicking their brights on and off so it would look like more of them. You do not have to have seen the film to follow any of it. But by about five minutes in, you'll want to have a catch. WHAT WE DISCUSS 01:23 - WHO BROUGHT "FIELD OF DREAMS" AND WHY? Robby brought this one, because it's his birthday movie. He has watched it on or near his birthday almost every year since he was 20 or 21. It started in college, watching with a friend named Mark, when Robby cried without warning at the "want to have a catch" moment. He was shocked by his own reaction. So he watched it again the next year, and the year after that. 07:55 - PATRICK'S EMAIL ABOUT HIS FATHER Patrick Fleming reads us the email he sent Cole before the taping. His father, Mike, was a professional umpire everyone thought would go all the way to the majors. Then Mike's own father died suddenly, and at 23 he went home to Iowa to run the family printing company. Patrick draws the line straight to Moonlight Graham: two men at the edge of the big leagues who gave it up for someone else. Today, the Little League fields Patrick grew up on carry his dad's name. 20:57 - ROBBY READ LITERALLY ALL OF HIS NOTES ON FIELD OF DREAMS Robby has seen this movie more than 40 times, and he brought notes. We let him read them, scene by scene: the three times Ray hears the voice, Ray's fear of turning into his own father, the PTA meeting over the Terence Mann book. It's not a review. It's a man showing us how much he loves a movie. 23:50 - ROBBY CRIES And then Robby cries, right in the middle of the moment Ray's father shows up and the catch begins. We talk about what got to him, and about realizing your parents are their own people, which brings us right back to Patrick's dad. 28:41 - SONS MATCHING FATHERS Patrick tells us his father never got a traditional retirement, because he worked until he died. But he got a version of the dream in his 20s, traveling to games with his umpire friends, and Patrick compares that to his own years touring as a musician at 30. Then we turn to the ending and that sudden line of cars headed for the ballfield. It doesn't quite make sense. It works anyway, because the movie tells us it will happen and asks us to go along. 33:48 - TERRENCE MANN IS A GHOST We talk about how the film makes small, deliberate choices, including a long cross-country drive that bonds Ray and Terence Mann without showing us most of what they say. Then we get lost in a real argument: when Terence Mann walks into the cornfield, does he die, become a ghost, or just look around and come back? One of us is very sure he's fine. The rest of us aren't buying it. 41:06 - THIS MOVIE IS SO MIDWESTERN Everyone in this movie meets the impossible with calm, polite understatement, and we decide that makes it very Midwestern. One of us shares a story about saying a blandly cheerful "oh, cool" to someone whose job was scooping eyeballs out of corpses, which proves the point. We wonder what else makes it feel so Midwestern, and land on its father and son heart. 43:23 - ARCHIE MOONLIGHT GRAHAM'S STORY WRAPS UP WITH PATRICK'S DAD We come back around to Patrick's dad. His umpiring career was cut short, and a Little League field back home was renamed Mike Fleming Field in his honor. It's the other half of Moonlight Graham's story, and it leads us back to Ray and the catch he and his own father never had. CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS 0:00 - COLD OPEN 1:23 - WHO BROUGHT "FIELD OF DREAMS" AND WHY? 2:27 - WHAT'S THE NUMBER ONE THING WE WANT TO SAY ABOUT "FIELD OF DREAMS" 5:17 - WHAT SHOULD YOU KNOW GOING INTO "FIELD OF DREAMS" 6:35 - A VERY FUNNY INTRODUCTION OF PATRICK 7:55 - PATRICK'S EMAIL ABOUT HIS FATHER 10:14 - WHEN WERE WE IN AND OUT OF "FIELD OF DREAMS" 13:42 - JOE HAS VISITED EVERY BASEBALL STADIUM IN THE US 20:57 - ROBBY READ LITERALLY ALL OF HIS NOTES ON FIELD OF DREAMS 23:50 - ROBBY CRIES 28:41 - SONS MATCHING FATHERS 30:42 - HOW THEY GOT THE TRAFFIC JAM IN "FIELD OF DREAMS" BEFORE CGI 33:48 - TERRENCE MANN IS A GHOST 41:06 - THIS MOVIE IS SO MIDWESTERN 43:23 - ARCHIE MOONLIGHT GRAHAM'S STORY WRAPS UP WITH PATRICK'S DAD FUN FACTS / PRODUCTION TRIVIA The corn grew almost too well, so when Costner first hears "If you build it, he will come," he had to walk onto a foot-high platform. <a...

3. 

   3 Sept 2026

   Hobbes & Shaw - Fighting the Sun with an Actual Astronomer

   Hobbs &amp; Shaw has a climactic dawn battle that goes from pitch black to full daylight in about two minutes of screen time. Can the sun really rise that fast? We brought in actual scientist for an answer and a masterclass in using science for storytelling. As always, we're more than a film review podcast, and this is the proof: a years-long movie argument between Cole and Jaclynn gets settled by an actual astronomer. The Setup Jaclynn has been saying for years that the sunrise in this scene is impossible, a jump cut from midnight to noon. Cole has spent just as long insisting she's wrong, and this episode is him finally bringing in reinforcements. As Cole puts it going in, "I don't think it's about the sunrise." It's Virgo season, and this is what a Virgo does with a grudge: proves it with data. Meet the Astronomer Zoe Learner Ponterio manages the Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility at Cornell, the Ivy League school where Carl Sagan spent 25 years as a professor of astronomy and which still runs a Carl Sagan Institute today. She got there after years on NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers science team, working the Spirit and Opportunity missions. She almost went to Harvard instead. Her reasoning: "I at one point just looked at the Harvard dean and said, do you have a Mars rover? He was like, no. I was like, well, I guess it's a no." The Verdict Zoe does the actual math: the fastest a sunrise can physically happen is at the equator on an equinox, and it clocks in around 128 seconds. At the poles, a sunrise can effectively last forever. Hobbs &amp; Shaw is shot near the equator in Samoa, which gives the filmmakers real cover for a fast sunrise, just not one that stretches into full midday light the way the scene eventually does. The closest thing to a ruling: Jaclynn walks the scene beat by beat, cut by cut, and catches herself mid-sentence, she'd been misreading one key shot for years, mentally borrowing the framing from an old TV show. Cole, smelling blood, sums her own argument back to her until she has to say the quiet part out loud. He gets his line for the record too, repeated three times for emphasis: "You were not wrong." The Real Takeaway Zoe uses science the same way the hosts use cameras and editing, as a tool for telling a story people care about. Her closing bit ties it back to the episode's own cold open: imagining what an alien visiting Earth would find remarkable about something we take for granted, in her case, the size and closeness of our moon. Her line lands the episode: "Every single film shoot should have an astronomer." Around the Table Jaclynn goes in trying to prove Cole right instead of herself, and ends up seeing the sunrise shot differently for the first time in years. Robby never noticed the sped-up sunrise at all until Jaclynn pointed it out, and defends it from a pure craft angle: once the sun is up, the sun gets to be up. Cole sits on his own sunrise-shooting story from filming in the Galapagos until the very end of the debate, then finally uses it as backup. Zoe walks in to referee a movie argument and walks out making the case for why scientists and storytellers are sometimes doing the same job. Subscribe If You Like The Format This is the first in an occasional series bringing in people from outside film, people who aren't filmmakers or critics, to look at a scene through their expertise. Chapters 0:00 Cold Open 1:31 Introducing the Astronomer 4:05 The Problem With the Sunrise 5:14 Why the Astronomer Chose Cornell Over Harvard 8:04 Personal Nitpicks About Film Continuity 12:31 When Were We In or Out 16:01 What You Need to Know Going In 20:09 The Astronomer's Problem With the Moon in Movies 20:50 Sketch: All-Hands Stand-Up Moon Meeting 22:18 How to Tell if the Moon Is Right 25:25 The Shortest and Longest Sunrise, a Thought Experiment 29:50 The Number One Thing About the Climax 33:20 Filming Sunrise and Sunset at the Equator 37:06 Science in Film 41:30 What Is Science Fiction (Because Star Wars Isn't) 46:19 What Did We Learn 49:38 Going Beat by Beat Through the Sunrise 1:01:30 The Astronomer on Storytelling More Hobbs &amp; Shaw This isn't our first brawl in this particular light. Back when we just talked about the movie like normal people, before a Cornell scientist got involved, we did an episode called: Hobbes &amp; Shaw - Virgo Season Continues with a Story Told Almost Entirely in Visuals (https://thearc.fm/episode/hobbes-shaw-virgo-season-continues-with-a-story-told-almost-entirely-in-visuals)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.8 / 5

6 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Contact the arc.fm

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.