Surprise! The Christmas season may technically be over, but that's not stopping us from sharing our second annual episode on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the source material that keeps on giving! No, we still haven't read the book, but we are discussing three sitcom episodes that borrowed the famous three-part arc. We're comparing episodes from Family Ties, Martin, and Boy Meets World, and, as ever, asking who did it better: the ghost of Christmas past, present, or future? Follow us on Instagram @thepodcastwasbetter for episode announcements, extras and polls! Email us [email protected] if you have thoughts or suggestions!Rate and review us on iTunes, thank you!! -- Mix and music by Brent Nettles. Follow Brent and listen to more of his work at brentnettlesmusic.com.

Joyce Carol Oates is probably one of the most prolific writers to ever live, and yet, in our experience, it is a very short story she wrote back in 1966 that first comes to mind when we think of her work. Oates was inspired to write "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" after reading about serial killer Charles Schmid. Her story was adapted into the 1985 film Smooth Talk, directed by Joyce Chopra, and starring Treat Williams, Mary Kay Place, and a teenage Laura Dern in her breakout role. How did the filmmakers do translating this allegorical story onto screen, considering Oates herself has called the story "unfilmable"? Join us as we discuss body language, the titular smooth talk, and mothers and daughters.

Take a ~*trip*~ down the road of enlightenment with us as we discuss Liane Moriarty's novel Nine Perfect Strangers, and its Hulu series adaptation of the same name. We're talking about character development, the performances from an all-star cast, and why Viv feels so left out of the party. The goal is wellness, but what is the result? Tune in as we discuss the very different choices the series made, and how this show made Sarah think of a certain dancing baby. Follow us on Instagram @thepodcastwasbetter for episode announcements, extras and polls! Email us [email protected] if you have thoughts or suggestions! Rate and review us on iTunes, thank you!! -- Mix and music by Brent Nettles. Follow Brent and listen to more of his work at brentnettlesmusic.com.

After an unexpected hiatus, we are back and not just back—back with one of your favorite childhood heroes: Harriet M. Welsch. Who can forget the brightly-colored Nickelodeon VHS tape, let alone such a precocious protagonist? Harriet the Spy, the book, was written by Louise Fitzhugh and published in 1964. The film adaptation was released in 1996 and directed by Bronwen Hughes.  Both feature mad scientists, dancing vegetables, and  great outfits, but which iteration did Harriet better? Tune in as we make our grand (or at least light-hearted) return. Follow us on Instagram @thepodcastwasbetter for episode announcements, extras and polls! Email us [email protected] if you have thoughts or suggestions! Rate and review us on iTunes, thank you!! -- Mix and music by Brent Nettles. Follow Brent and listen to more of his work at brentnettlesmusic.com.

Wrap yourself in polyester and join us at the 2001 Odyssey for a night of dancing and violating journalistic ethics! The year is 1976, it's the heyday of disco, and we're heading to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, the scene of the New York magazine article "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" by Nik Cohn. The article that gave the world the John Travolta film Saturday Night Fever and, more importantly, that film's soundtrack. BUT Nik Cohn revealed 20 years after the article's publication: he made the whole thing up. Listen in as we discuss how the article reads as a work of fiction, how the film made its cultural impact, and how we can't stop listening to the Bee Gees. Trigger warning: This conversation includes discussion of rape and suicide. Follow us on Instagram @thepodcastwasbetter for episode announcements, extras and polls! Email us [email protected] if you have thoughts or suggestions! Rate and review us on iTunes, thank you!! -- Mix and music by Brent Nettles. Follow Brent and listen to more of his work at brentnettlesmusic.com.

Do you remember where you were on October 27, 2015? That was the day that #TheStory was born. A'Ziah "Zola" King, in 148 tweets, typed out a saga that immediately hooked readers everywhere, and included more than one filmmaker! Now, almost six years later, the film her tweets inspired has been released. Zola was adapted by Janicza Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris, and also directed by Bravo, and stars Taylour Paige and Riley Keough. Join us as we discuss the difficulty in adapting the Twitter thread's tone, the film's cinematic characterizations, and importantly: how does Twitter stand up to the big screen? Follow us on Instagram @thepodcastwasbetter for episode announcements, extras and polls! Email us [email protected] if you have thoughts or suggestions! Rate and review us on iTunes, thank you!! -- Mix and music by Brent Nettles. Follow Brent and listen to more of his work at brentnettlesmusic.com.

Colson Whitehead won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for his 2016 novel The Underground Railroad. The novel is both a recreation and a reimagining of the institution of slavery and the miraculous network that helped free enslaved people from its bonds. Colson Whitehead builds an entire world—with hints of magical realism, anachronisms, and plenty of very real history. No small task, then, to translate it to the screen. Barry Jenkins, in his own words: "I did my best. I mean I gave this one... EVERYTHING." Join us as we talk about what the series gets so right, and what we think literature may be able to do that the screen cannot. Follow us on Instagram @thepodcastwasbetter for episode announcements, extras and polls! Email us [email protected] if you have thoughts or suggestions! Rate and review us on iTunes, thank you!! -- Mix and music by Brent Nettles. Follow Brent and listen to more of his work at brentnettlesmusic.com.

This week we are joined by writer and co-host of the podcast Boys Watching Girls, Vance Tucker, to discuss Ted Chiang's short story "Story of Your Life" and the 2016 film adaptation from director Denis Villeneuve, Arrival. We discuss linguistics, the unexpected global bent of the movie, and whether or not the movie should have spent so much time on the aliens', um, arrival?? Tune in to find out whether this adaptation was a non-zero-sum game or whether one iteration was a clear winner. Follow Vance on Twitter @IsThatVance Follow us on Instagram @thepodcastwasbetter for episode announcements, extras and polls! Email us [email protected] if you have thoughts or suggestions! Rate and review us on iTunes, thank you!! -- Mix and music by Brent Nettles. Follow Brent and listen to more of his work at brentnettlesmusic.com.

This week is very meta as we put two movies about head to head combat in a head to head combat. Which was better? Only the strongest fighter in the land will survive. It's Mortal Kombat 1995 versus Mortal Kombat 2021, and our favorite finishing move is trash talking and yelling about them both. Thanks to some of our listeners, we will also hear from people who actually played the iconic video game and didn't just sit on the sidelines and spectate. Find out which movie will have a . . . FLAWLESS VICTORY. Follow us on Instagram @thepodcastwasbetter for episode announcements, extras and polls!Email us [email protected] if you have thoughts or suggestions!Rate and review us on iTunes, thank you!!--Mix and music by Brent Nettles. Follow Brent and listen to more of his work at brentnettlesmusic.com.

Hello listener! For an upcoming episode, we'll be discussing the Mortal Kombat film from 1995 and the remake released this year. However! Neither of us ever played the video game! Did you? We would love to compile listener responses to the game to include in the episode, and so we can learn something! Did you love the game? What do you remember most about playing it? Who was your favorite character to play as?  Or fight against? Tell us  what we need to know about the game to better appreciate the movie(s)! Send us a voice memo (30 seconds is perfect) to [email protected] by Friday, June 18. Thanks! We're excited to hear from you!