Fix Your Plate
We Talkin’ Bout Practice
KJ Kearney and Anela Malik are both social media influencers, but they want to do more than serve up food porn. Malik, of travel and recipe blog Feed The Malik, and Kearney, founder of Black Food Fridays (an initiative encouraging people to order from Black-owned restaurants each Friday), have collaborated on Fix Your Plate to bring listeners behind the scenes of their work and discuss food from a Black perspective. They’re not starting off with softballs either: Their third episode dives into the difference between receiving anti-racism training and actually putting those ideas into practice. One way this dissonance can manifest, Malik points out, is when Black creators are asked to stretch themselves thin across several projects during Black History Month—but are then largely shrugged off by outlets the other 11 months of the year. As many companies that instituted anti-racism training last year continue to lack actual diversity among their staffs, Kearney puts it this way: “You’re telling me what’s important to you by telling me what you are, or are not, measuring.” Wherever the podcast takes them, Malik and Kearney will make sure you think about the business owners, chefs, photographers, and bloggers behind all the eye-catching edibles you encounter on Instagram. [Marnie Shure]
Forbidden Fruits
Big Guns, Small Dick
“We offer a glimpse into a world you normally wouldn’t have access to.” Uncut Gems’ breakout star Julia Fox has launched a new, Patreon-only podcast (originally titled Fantasy Hour), and if the first episode is any indication, she will be getting very candid and intimate with her guests. The debut episode sees her and co-host Niki Takesh in conversation with an unnamed NYPD cop who used to be a client of hers back when Fox was a dominatrix-for-hire. Along with learning that the dude has a micro-penis that apparently rejected a penile implant, you’ll also hear this cop go to bat for his fellow boys in blue, saying how Breonna Taylor and Eric Garner wouldn’t have lost their lives if they complied with the law. Fox and Takesh team up to knock some sense into this guy, both figuratively and literally. After an hour of them hitting him with various accounts of police corruption and systemic racism, they both start hitting him for real during a down-and-dirty BDSM session. “Say ‘Black Lives Matter,’” Fox demands of him, which he still can’t say even when he’s being choked and whipped. You gotta salute these ladies for busting a cop’s balls—in more ways than one. [Craig D. Lindsey]
The Movies That Made Me
Jakob’s Wife & Depraved’s Larry Fessenden
Each week on The Movies That Made Me, director Joe Dante (Gremlins) and scriptwriter Josh Olson (A History of Violence) invite their guests to discuss the films that they find essential. In this episode, cult director and patron saint of indie horror Larry Fessenden (Habit) reminisces about his childhood in the ’60s and ’70s in which he spent entire days at the movies and nights watching creature features on local TV. Fessenden speaks with reverent nostalgia about his generation’s relationship to media. Without computers or videotapes, Fessenden says, films and television were an ephemeral experience that attained an almost mystical quality. He seems to yearn for those days when he planned his life around the TV schedule and snuck audio recorders into theaters so he could listen to the movie at home. Fessenden’s love of film is so great that he has an entire DVD shelf dedicated to extreme movies that he will never watch again. He may not like Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible or Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, but he respects their nihilistic visions. With Dante’s encyclopedic knowledge of cinema and Olson’s warm curiosity, The Movies That Made Me is always a fascinating trip down memory lane. [Anthony D Herrera]