Actually Good

Mike and Justin return from a completely excusable hiatus with guest Matthew Jay in tow to try and convince everyone that the extremely 2003 superhero film Daredevil is more than just a bunch of weird fight scenes and Evanescence songs.

Lace up your Peruvian marching boots and join the hosts on their ethically and legally fraught journey toward justifying recreational use of a drug that has directly and indirectly contributed to thousands of deaths.

Comedian and Empire writer Cameron Johnson (@cameronjawesome) brings the topic of the San Fernando Valley to the podcast, along with an almost alarming amount of knowledge on the subject. Could we, like, all be wrong or something about Southern California's favorite regional punch line?

The most controversial figure in Hollywood, Jack Allison (@jackallisonLOL) joins us to defend the gritty three-hour Zach Snyder fever dream that pits the Dark Knight against the Man of Steel. Are the critics and fans wrong? Is BVS AVG? Listen and find out.

Youtuber and comedian Josh Mattingly (@JoshMattingly) tailwhips into the AG studios with our most contemporary topic yet, Bird scooters. Are these flocks of electric vehicles more VC-funded Silicon Valley trash, or are they potential planet savers? 

Chappie was a flawed but great film and shame on all of you for not recognizing its merits. We have thoughts.

Writer, comedian, and lefty-about-town Josh Androsky (@shutupandrosky) takes us back in time to the discuss the one sub-genre of of music that white people successfully appropriated, Dixieland.

Though a self-proclaimed jerk, comedian and podcaster Esther Ku (@EstherKuKu) was very nice to us as she tried her best to defend the final boss of capitalism, Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary.

We brought on the incomparable multi-hyphenate Caroline Goldfarb (@officialseanpenn) to discuss the living Jimmy Buffett song that is Guy Fieri. If you don't appreciate Guy by the end of this, you're officially banished from Flavortown.

Writer, comedian, and—as you'll soon learn—human Wikipedia page Grant Pardee (@grantpa) joins us on the podcast today. His topic is Wings. (The post-Beatles McCartney project kind, not the TV show. That topic is still up for grabs.)

Mike and Justin, free from the shackles of hosting duties, let their hair down and really dig in on the merits of Reddit dot com, one of the most popular websites in the world, and a foremost hub of racism, sexism, fascism, and other sorts of unchill mindsets. Is the front page of the internet redeemable or will it forever make us go "FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU?"

Eric Downs is a busy touring drummer, and the composer/creator of the Actually Good theme song. When Eric's not making music, he enjoys Soylent, a notoriously colorless, flavorless food-esque liquid. Eric says he's always pined for something he can sip from an old tuna can in order to stay alive after the apocalypse, but when all life on Earth is sustained by Soylent, will that be a blessing, or will the living simply envy the dead? 

Champions writer (and Mike's girlfriend) Paige Devitt joins us to defend the family-friendly sitcom that helped her through childhood, Full House.

It looks like we've settled upon Monday as our release date for this podcast, and what better a way to celebrate that commitment to a set schedule than with an episode about an unfrozen caveman familiarizing himself with the scheduling rigors of high school. Hell of a segue, right? This week, our guest contrarian, @AllegraRingo, took a break from talking about pups on her podcast, Can I Pet Your Dog, to try and convince us that, despite its myriad problems, the 1992 Brendan Fraser and Sean Aston comedy, Encino Man, at least deserves a higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Author, podcaster, and Instagram's leading curator of inappropriate DMs (@byefelipe) Alexandra Tweten talks about her how being a punk, emo-hating kid in the smallest town in America's frozen northlands somehow turned her into an Ashlee Simpson fan.

A goateed Justin Timberlake, The Rock twiddling his fingers like Mr. Burns, and cars having sex. Richard Kelly's sprawling Bush-era epic, Southland Tales, may sound like a fever dream, but our guest, Dave Schilling (@dave_schilling), thinks the unintentionally prescient movie deserves your time and maybe even your adoration.

In our third ep, LA Times film reporter Jen Yamato (@jenyamato) brings a strong case for the handbrake-induced turning point of the Fast & the Furious film franchise. But does she have enough nitro to win over Justin and Mike and bring them into the family of Tokyo Drift fans?

iTunes no longer hates us so you get to hear Jack Wagner (@jackdwagner) struggle with the Actually Good studio's unorthodox mic setup as he attempts to defend third wave ska and the genre's top acts. Songs fairly used in the ep: The Aquabats - "Red Sweater" The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - "The Impression That I Get" Less Than Jake - "Sugar in Your Gas Tank" Bad Manners - "Lip Up Fatty" Sublime - "April 29, 1992" Sublime - "Slow Ride" We also used this Youtube vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVziIDyqdAo

In Actually Good, hosts Mike Pearl and Justin Caffier bring on a guest to help resuscitate a universally reviled cultural artifact. In our inaugural episode, tv writer and podcaster Demi Adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) attempts to defend the Now You See Me film franchise.   Are these performance-packed prestidigitation pictures poorly-penned and problematic piffle or are they perhaps the pinnacle of popcorn pleasure? Listen or ask one of us in person to find out. Big thanks to Eric Downs for our jingle and Zoe-Zoe Sheen for our logo.