Category Archives: books

Frotcast Bonus: YouTubers and The Movie Brats, with Paul Fischer

July 2, 2026books, moviesbonus, books, Interviews, Last Kings of Hollywood, paul fischerfrotcast

PLEASE SIGN UP ON PATREON, EVEN IF IT’S FOR FREE! Posting everything here has become a burden, and if you’re only listening to this feed you probably aren’t getting all of the episodes. Sign up now at Patreon. It’s two podcasts (Pod Yourself and the Frotcast) for the price of one! Patreon dot com slash frotcast! This episode is free, but $5 a month gets you all the premium ones (two a week!).

Movies looked irrelevant and corny before, until some kids brought it back from the dead. Are there signs that it’s happening again? ‘Last Kings of Hollywood’ author Paul Fischer explains.

This week’s interview is with Paul Fischer, author of The Last Kings of Hollywood, Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg―and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema, which could not possibly be more relevant to the current state of the film industry, and not just because there’s a new Spielberg movie out and Marcia Lucas just died.

With Zoomer (Gen Alpha?) filmmakers breaking out (Obsession, Backrooms) while The Mandalorian and Supergirl flop bigly, there are signs that the paradigm has shifted. This, mind you, is not unprecedented. People thought the movie business was dead in the 1950s and 1960s as well, until some filmmakers changed film executives’ ideas about what they thought they could sell. In this bonus interview, I talk to Paul about the modern parallels to the early seventies, the difference between how Coppola, Spielberg, Lucas thought about directing, and the story of Melissa Mathison, who went from Coppola’s friend’s babysitter to his mistress to one Spielberg’s most important collaborators (writer of the best of his alien trilogy, ET). Good chat! Hope you like it!

Some other books I drew from and may have referenced:

The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir, You’ll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again, The Friday Afternoon Club: A Memoir, Adventures in the Screen Trade, and Pictures at a Revolution.

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Pod Yourself A Gun Bonus/Frotcast 630: ‘Gandolfini’ Author Jason Bailey

May 16, 2025books, comedy, movies, TVbooks, GANDOLFINI, Jason Bailey, Jim Gandolfini, POD YOURSELF A GUN, SOPRANOSfrotcast

This week we are pausing the Mad Men talk and rewinding to back when this was a Sopranos podcast. We have a special episode all about the life of actor James Gandolfini, where we talk to Jason Bailey who just released an amazing biography called Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend.

It’s a joy of an episode. A true throwback. And we will return with more Mad Men next week!

-Matt Lieb (who is now 40)

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Frotcast Bonus: Zeke Faux Talks ‘Number Go Up,’ Crypto Scams, Fake Texts, and What SBF Eats

May 12, 2024books, comedybooks, Interviews, Number Go Up, SBF, Zeke Fauxfrotcast

Here’s a bonus pod for your eager snouts, Vince interviews financial journalist Zeke Faux about his book, Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall. It’s a fascinating read containing a number of surprising revelations, like that all those fake text messages you get every day are part of a billion dollar scam carried out by human trafficking victims in Cambodia, which arguably wouldn’t exist without crypto (I’ve written an explainer all about that part, which you can read here). Of course, there are also way more anecdotes than could ever fit in an article, which was why a podcast made perfect sense. I picked Zeke’s brain about all the stuff Sam Bankman-Fried ate, how a former child actor with connections to a pedophile ring was central to the establishment of crypto currency, and in what ways crypto guys are similar to Juggalos. Hope you enjoy, buy the book, subscribe to all the things and you’re welcome for the extra slop.

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Interview: Killers of the Flower Moon Author David Grann (from 2017)

October 20, 2023books, comedy, moviesbonus, david grann, Interview, killers of the flower moon, martin scorsesefrotcast

As loyal Frotcast listeners may have already known, I interviewed David Grann, author of the best-selling book on which the new Martin Scorsese movie was based, back in 2017. We got deep into what the book meant, the characters involved, why he wanted to write it, what it means, and how he reported it. At the very least, it’s a nice little background/companion piece for the film (which is much different than the book, even if most of the facts are the same).

Here’s how I described the book in my review that I haven’t finished writing:

Flower Moon the book is a lot of things, but mostly it’s the story of a genocide told through the structure of a true crime tale. Grann delivers a barn burner of a murder mystery about a greedy landowner, his cat’s-paw nephew, his nephew’s Osage wife, and the FBI agent who uncovers it all, before zooming out to reveal that it was all part of a larger-scale plan of dispossession and erasure in which virtually the entire state of Oklahoma was complicit.

Anyway, enjoy the interview, I certainly did.

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Bonus Frotcast: Steve-O From Jackass On Sex Addiction, And ‘A Hard Kick In The Nuts’

October 8, 2022books, comedy, moviesbonus, books, FROTCAST, Interviews, Jackass, Steve-Ofrotcast

Hey, what’s up, gang. It’s Vince here, and boy have we got a treat for you guys on the free feed today! Not that you deserve it. In fact, you should definitely stop listening right and go sign up for the Patreon at Patreon dot com slash frotcast. Are you still listening? God dammit. Oh well. Anyway, this week, I’m talking to Steve-O. You know, from Jackass. You know Steve-O! Steve-O has a book coming out. The Book is called A Hard Kick In THe Nuts, What I’ve Learned From A Lifetime of Terrible Decisions, and it’s available everywhere books are sold. It’s about Steve-O’s sex addiction, his recovery from sex addiction, his relationships, what he’s learned in recovery… All that stuff! Anyway, that’s the context of the interview today, and I hope you enjoy it, even if you think you’re too damn good to sign up for our Patreon. Do it! Matt’s baby just got born! Congrats, matt! Sign up for the Patreon so she doesn’t go hungry. Okay, love you all, enjoy.

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Frotcast 404: Abducted In Plain Sight, With Francesca Fiorentini

March 1, 2019books, comedy, interview, movies, music, pop culture, relationships, sex, TV, Uncategorizedfrotcast

Hello Frotland! Matt Lieb here and we’ve got your weekly fix of the Filmdrunk Frotcast. This week, we had the hilarious and beautiful and my girlfriend Francesca Fiorentini in the LA Frotquarters and we discuss everything from Jussie Smollett, Jacob Wohl, to our nice little day trip to Palm Springs that we just got back from where she and I lounged by the pool all day. She’s my girlfriend. Eventually, Vince and I discuss Netflix’s Abducted in Plain Sight about a super sexual predator who will seduce an entire family just to get to a little girl. It’s pretty amazing and horrifying. So have a listen! And give us some stars and a review on iTunes, if you want. THANKS!

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Frotcast 369: Fahrenheit 451 (2018) with Red Scott and Jeff Anaya

May 24, 2018books, comedy, moviesFAHRENHEIT 451, FILMDRUNK, FROTCAST, HBO, JEFF ANAYA, MICHAEL B. JORDAN, RED SCOTT, ROYALTY FREESTYLEfrotcast

This week on the Frotcast, comedians Red Scott and Jeff Anaya join Vince and Matt Lieb in the Frotquarters to discuss HBO’s remake of Rad Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 starring Michael B. Jordan and Michael Shannon. Other topics include the Royal Wedding, vocal tics of liberal talk radio, PFT Commenter, and of course, the Royalty Freestyle, in which Matt tries to improvise song lyrics on the fly to royalty free songs. This week, a baby announcement! Enjoy, Frot on, do it for the #content, and don’t forget to donate at Patreon.com/Frotcast

3:00 – Vocal tics of liberal talk radio
19:08 – We get a visit from “Liam Hemsworth”
25:00 – Discussing Fahrenheit 451. Is… it just that the book is bad? Is the movie worse than the book or accurate?
39:50 – “Michael Shannon” pops by
52:08 – Your emails. One about an awesome otter experience, and a question about PFT Commenter getting “doxxed” this week.
1:11:01 – Royalty Freestyle, including songs for $10 Patreon donors Ed and Kim, Ryan Mc, and Wes R.

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BookDrunk Radio: The Disaster Artist, With Greg Sestero And Michael Rousselet

December 14, 2017books, comedy, moviesfrotcast

Greg Sestero is perhaps best known for playing Mark in The Room (“Oh, hi, Mark.”). He’s also the co-author of The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, The Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made. Michael Rousselet is co-director of Dude Bro Party Massacre III, which also stars Greg Sestero. Rousselet also happens to be one of the first people to discover The Room, helping to make it a cult hit, who’s credited for starting many of The Room’s now familiar audience participation trends, like throwing spoons at the screen. I got them together 12 years almost to the day after the first The Room screening, to ask Greg what it was like being Tommy Wiseau’s producing partner and roommate, his teenage modeling days in Europe, and what it’s like having had his life inexorably tied to Tommy Wiseau’s for close to 20 years now. And to ask Mike about the first time he saw The Room, and what possessed him to force everyone he knew to watch it. How old is Tommy Wiseau? Where is Tommy Wiseau actually from? How did Tommy Wiseau get so rich, and how could afford to blow $6 million on The Room? What does it all mean? We answer all or none of these questions on this week’s BookDrunk Radio.

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343: The Unified Theory Of Taylor Swift

September 1, 2017books, comedy, moviesfrotcast

This week on the Frotcast, Justin Halpern joins for a quick story about his friend farting in Anne C0ulter’s drink one time. Then comedians Joey Avery and Allison Mick join Vince Mancini in the studio, to interview Steve Bramucci about dragging Vince to Oregon Eclipse Festival/Symbiosis/Burning Man lite, as well as his new book, Danger Gang and the Pirates of Borneo, and the time he hitchhiked through Australia and almost got murdered by a drug dealer during a shark dive. Then, official Frotcast Taylor Swift correspondent Allison gives us her unified theory of Taylor Swift. Donate at Patreon dot com slash Frotcast.

00:00 – Justin Halpern’s story about his friend farting in Anne C0ulter’s drink
9:30 – MOVIE NEWS! The all-female Lord of the Flies remake, Ed Skrein dropping out of Hellboy because of white washing
20:00 – Uproxx Life editor and author of Danger Gang and the Pirates of Borneo Steve Bramucci joins us
34:28 – Steve’s story about thinking he was going to get murdered by an Australian drug kingpin
47:17 – Allison Mick’s Unified Theory of Taylor Swift
1:10:10 – The Black Bloc vs Neo-Nazis, and not feeding the trolls vs. zero tolerance.

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