Best IDFA Podcasts (2025)

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Ep. 360: Abby Sun on IDFA 2025: A Fox Under a Pink Moon, December, Silent Flood, The Kartli Kingdom, Air Horse One 42:28

16d ago42:28

42:28

Ep. 360: Abby Sun on IDFA 2025: A Fox Under the Pink Moon, December, Silent Flood, The Kartli Kingdom, Air Horse OneWelcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. In November I make my annual visit to the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and for the 2025 edition, I sat down again with Abby Sun, editor of D…

1
#1682: Preview of IDFA DocLab’s 2025 Selection of “Perception Art” & Immersive Stories 1:26:20

22d ago1:26:20

1:26:20

IDFA DocLab is the immersive selection of non-fiction digital and immersive stories that is a part of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and they're having their 19th selection this year. DocLab founder Caspar Sonnen has been doing an amazing job of tracking the frontiers of new forms of digital, interactive, and immersiv…

1
Ep. 104 - Building Resilience in the Modern Supply Chain 37:17

3d ago37:17

37:17

How are emerging risks shaping the dairy supply chain today? What technologies are strengthening supply chain security and agility? How can companies reduce risk and future-proof their operations? This week on The Dairy Download, we hear from a panel of experts at the recent DairyTech conference about all things risk, innovation, and supply chain r…

1
Ep. 361: Amy Taubin on Richard Linklater’s Fall Doubleheader, It Was Just an Accident, The Secret Agent, Mr. Scorsese, Cover-Up, BLKNWS, Kontinental ’25 1:18:27

12d ago1:18:27

1:18:27

Ep. 361: Amy Taubin on Richard Linklater’s Fall Doubleheader, It Was Just an Accident, The Secret Agent, Mr. Scorsese, Cover-Up, BLKNWS, Kontinental ’25Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As the week of Thanksgiving begins, I give thanks for... Amy Taubin! She returns to The Last Thing I Saw to discuss some new releases…

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Ep. 103 - The Rise of Protein Products and Ready-To-Drink Beverages 40:04

18d ago40:04

40:04

How is protein setting dairy beverages apart in this space? How are ready-to-drink beverages appealing to today's consumers? What can we expect to see in the future of this category? This week on The Dairy Download, we hear from two experts in the ready-to-drink beverages: Emily Johnston, vice president of brand marketing for Quest Nutrition at Sim…

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Ep. 359: Ira Sachs on Peter Hujar’s Day 27:33

26d ago27:33

27:33

Ep. 359: Ira Sachs on Peter Hujar’s DayWelcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This week I spoke with filmmaker Ira Sachs about his latest movie, Peter Hujar’s Day. It’s a fascinating chronicle of a 1974 conversation between New York photographer Peter Hujar and writer Linda Rosenkrantz, whose asks Hujar to recount a day in…

1
#1681: VRChat Worldbuilder DrMorro on His Epic & Dreamlike Masterpieces 1:09:25

26d ago1:09:25

1:09:25

The VRChat worlds by DrMorro are truly incredible. They're vast landscapes made of surreal mash-ups of various architecture styles and symbols that feels like you're walking through a waking dream. His Organism Trilogy (Organism, Epilogue 1, and Epilogue 2) is a true masterpiece of VR worldbuilding. And his latest Ritual is one of the biggest and m…

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#1680: Charlie Melcher’s “The Future of Storytelling” Book Surveys Over 50 Living Stories 1:17:56

1M ago1:17:56

1:17:56

Charles Melcher's new book "The Future of Storytelling: How Immersive Experiences Are Transforming Our World" was released on November 4, 2025, and I had a chance to take an early look and interview Melcher. The book is broken up into six main chapters where Melcher argues that the future of storytelling is agentic, immersive, embodied, responsive,…

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#1679: The Matrix at Cosm Expands Film Beyond the Frame with Cinematic Shared Reality 31:28

1M ago31:28

31:28

The Matrix at Cosm in LA opened on June 6th, 2025, which leverages Cosm's 87-foot, 12K+ LED immersive dome to show this classic film within a 16x9 frame while the additional space beyond the frame was filled with over 50 different scenes thereby expanding the worldbuilding beyond the frame. I finally had a chance to see it last month, and was reall…

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#1678: Wevr on VR LBE as a “New Cinema,” a 10-Year Retrospective 52:57

1M ago52:57

52:57

I had a chance to catch up with Wevr's CEO and co-founder Neville Spiteri, which has been making location-based VR experiences for the last decade in what he calls a "New Cinema." See more context in the rough transcript below.This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.Music: Fatality…

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Ep. 358: Michael Leader of Ghibliotheque on The Animation Atlas 55:28

1M ago55:28

55:28

Ep. 358: Michael Leader of Ghibliotheque on The Animation AtlasWelcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Michael Leader co-hosts The Ghibliotheque Podcast with Jake Cunningham, and we originally connected when my book The Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki was published. And so I was delighted to learn of The Animation Atlas, the lovel…

1
Ep. 102 - Fall Flavor Trends in Dairy 37:43

1M ago37:43

37:43

What fall-inspired flavors are dairy companies and brands offering? How do seasonal flavors appeal to consumers? And what goes in to developing unique flavors? This week on The Dairy Download, we hear from two experts about all things fall flavors: Ryan Murphy , senior director of marketing with Prairie Farms; and Jessica Dillon, senior brand direc…

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Ep. 357: Radu Jude on his new film Dracula, plus One Battle After Another, shooting his next film, and more 28:38

1M ago28:38

28:38

Ep. 357: Radu Jude on his new film Dracula, plus One Battle After Another, shooting his next film, and moreWelcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. Radu Jude’s latest film, Dracula, is a fervidly imaginative, joyously profane look at this enduring myth through multiple stories, riffing on past tellings, a dinner theater, Fra…

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#1677: Snap’s AR Developer Relations Plan for 2026 Specs Consumer Launch with Joe Darko 47:35

1M ago47:35

47:35

I did an interview with Joe Darko, Global Head of Developer Relations at Snap, at Snap's Developer Conference of Lensfest. See more context in the rough transcript below.You can also check out all 11 episodes in this Snap Lensfest series here:#1667: Kickoff of Snap Lensfest 2025 Coverage & SnapOS 2.0 Announcements#1668: Snap Co-Founders Community Q…

1
#1676: 1st Place Spectacles Lensathon Team: Decisionator Object-Detection, AI Decision-Maker 32:52

1M ago32:52

32:52

At Snap's Developer Conference of Lensfest, I did an interview with 1st place team in the Snap Spectacles Lensathon named Decisionator including Candice Branchereau, Marcin Polakowski, Volodymyr Kurbatov, and Inna Horobchuk. I also summarize the other 10 Spectacles Lensathon projects after serving as a preliminary judge for the competition. See mor…

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#1675: 2nd Place Spectacles Lensathon Team: CartDB Barcode-Scanning Nutrition App 42:16

1M ago42:16

42:16

At Snap's Developer Conference of Lensfest, I did an interview with 2nd place team in the Snap Spectacles Lensathon named CartdB including Guillaume Dagens, Nigel Hartman, and Uttam Grandhi (the other team member Nicholas Ross had some prior commitments). See more context in the rough transcript below.This is a listener-supported podcast through th…

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#1674: 3rd Place Spectacles Lensathon Team: Fireside Tales Collaborative Storytelling with GenAI 30:54

1M ago30:54

30:54

At Snap's Developer Conference of Lensfest, I did an interview with 3rd place team in the Snap Spectacles Lensathon named Fireside Tales including Stijn Spanhove, Pavlo Tkachenko, and Yegor Ryabtsov. See more context in the rough transcript below.This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.Music: Fatality…

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#1673: Snap Lensfest Announcement Reflections from AR Gaming Studio DB Creations 26:47

1M ago26:47

26:47

I did an interview with DB Creations co-founders Dustin Kochensparger and Blake Gross at Snap's Developer Conference of Lensfest. See more context in the rough transcript below.This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.Music: FatalityBy Kent Bye

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#1672: Niantic Spatial’s Project Jade Demo Shows Latest Location-Aware, AI Tour Guide Innovations 30:22

1M ago30:22

30:22

I did an interview with Alicia Berry, Executive Producer at Niantic Spatial, and Asim Ahmed, Head of Product Marketing at Niantic Spatial, at Snap's Developer Conference of Lensfest about their latest Project Jade Spectacles demo. See more context in the rough transcript below.https://twitter.com/tweetsfromasim/status/1981830288771887606This is a l…

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#1671: Reflecting on Snap’s AR Platform & Developer Tools Past and Future with Terek Judi 41:52

1M ago41:52

41:52

At Snap's Developer Conference of Lensfest, I did an interview with Terek Judi who is working on Spectacles Product at Snap focusing on SnapOS, Platform, and Developer Tools. See more context in the rough transcript below, and if you'd like to check out the two interviews with Matt Hargett that I reference in the intro, then be sure to check out ep…

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#1670: Snapchat’s Embodied Gaming Innovations with AR Developer Relations Head 24:41

1M ago24:41

24:41

I did an interview with Raag Harshavat, AR Developer Relations at Snapchat, at Snap's Developer Conference of Lensfest. See more context in the rough transcript below.This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.Music: FatalityBy Kent Bye

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#1669: Snap’s Resh Sidhu on the Future of AR Commerce & Developer-Centered Innovation 32:38

1M ago32:38

32:38

I did an interview with Resh Sidhu, Senior Director of Innovation of Specs and Developer Marketing at Snap, at Snap's Developer Conference of Lensfest. See more context in the rough transcript below.This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.Music: FatalityBy Kent Bye

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#1668: Snap Co-Founders Community Q&A about Specs 2026 Launch Plan 25:50

1M ago25:50

25:50

The snap co-founders of CEO Evan Spiegel and CTO Bobby Murphy typically have a community-driven Q&A after their Lensfest Keynote where they field over a dozen questions from Lensfest attendees. I'm including this in my coverage again this year as it's a really great set of questions about their consumer release of Specs AR glasses next year, some o…

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#1667: Kickoff of Snap Lensfest 2025 Coverage & SnapOS 2.0 Announcements 1:13:15

1M ago1:13:15

1:13:15

This interview with Spectacles Community Manager Jesse McCulloch kicks off my coverage of Snap's Developer Conference called Lensfest. Snap is gearing up for a consumer release of their Snap Specs AR glasses some time next year, and they've been busy frequently updating their underlying operating system and platform tools like Lens Studio. There we…

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Ep. 356: Alissa Wilkinson on The Perfect Neighbor, Is This Thing On, A House of Dynamite, Diane Keaton, Frankenstein, Sphere 41:53

1M ago41:53

41:53

Ep. 356: Alissa Wilkinson on The Perfect Neighbor, Is This Thing On, A House of Dynamite, Diane Keaton, Frankenstein, SphereWelcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As the fall season gets underway and movies make their way to screens and streaming, I was happy to talk with Alissa Wilkinson, a movie critic at The New York Ti…

1
Ep. 101 - Managing Cybersecurity Risks in Dairy 39:19

2M ago39:19

39:19

How can dairy companies identify and assess cybersecurity risks? How can professionals stay ahead of evolving threats? What emerging risks should organizations prepare for in the years ahead? This week on The Dairy Download, we are joined by experts on cybersecurity: Jonathan Braley, director of the Food and Agriculture I SAC; and Chris Gaucher, se…

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Ep. 355: Jafar Panahi on It Was Just an Accident 28:34

2M ago28:34

28:34

Ep. 355: Jafar Panahi on It Was Just an AccidentWelcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. This year during the New York Film Festival, I was extremely fortunate to speak with Jafar Panahi, director of It Was Just an Accident. The story concerns a prison survivor who runs into the man he believes to be his former tormenter, le…

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Ep. 354: Robert Daniels on Good News, Anemone, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, The Love That Remains 33:39

2M ago33:39

33:39

Ep. 354: Robert Daniels on Good News, Anemone, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, The Love That Remains Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. In the last week of the 2025 New York Film Festival I was pleased to catch up with Chicago-based critic Robert Daniels, who is associate editor at RogerEbert.Com and a regular co…

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Ep. 353: Sergei Loznitsa on Two Prosecutors at The New York Film Festival 25:13

2M ago25:13

25:13

By Nicolas Rapold

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Ep. 352: Kleber Mendonça Filho on The Secret Agent 27:21

2M ago27:21

27:21

Ep. 352: Kleber Mendonça Filho on The Secret AgentWelcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. At the 2025 New York Film Festival I was fortunate enough to speak with Kleber Mendonça Filho, director of The Secret Agent. Set during the military dictatorship in 1977 Brazil, his riveting film follows a man who must go into hiding u…

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#1666: VRChat CEO Graham Gaylor on Exploring Various UGC Monetization Strategies 38:23

2M ago38:23

38:23

I did an interview with VRChat co-founder and CEO Graham Gaylor at Meta Connect 2025 where we talk about the various different monetization strategies that VRChat has been exploring with their user-generated content platform. VRChat announced layoffs for 30% of their employees back on June 12, 2024, and so this is the first time I've had a chance t…

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#1665: Resolution Games’ “Battlemarked” Blends Mixed Reality Social Features with Demeo and D&D Gameplay 27:42

2M ago27:42

27:42

I did an interview with Gustav Stenmark at Meta Connect 2025 talking about their latest game Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked, which enables some pretty interested co-located mixed reality social features, but also enables individual players to have their own mixed reality or VR POV. You can cee more context in the rough transcript below. T…

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#1664: Resolution Games CEO on Apple Vision Pro Launch + Gaze & Pinch HCI Mechanic in “Game Room” (2024) 27:43

2M ago27:43

27:43

I did an interview with Resolution Games CEO Tommy Palm soon after the Apple Vision Pro launch last year where we talk the in the Game Room game commissioned by Apple as well as the exploration of the relatively new gaze and pinch mechanic that's enabled with the eye-tracking of the Apple Vision Pro. After seeing the Neural Band at Meta Connect, th…

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#1663: ShapesXR Updates & Neural Band Design Implications of Transforming Your Hand into a Mouse 46:40

2M ago46:40

46:40

I did an interview with Michael Markman at Meta Connect 2025 talking about all of the latest updates to the VR design and prototyping tool of ShapesXR, and then we start to dive into some of his hot takes after getting a chance to try out the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses and associated Neural Band. He sees that the neural band is essentially transf…

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#1662: Meta Connect Highlights & Meta Horizon News with JDun and JoyReign 40:08

2M ago40:08

40:08

I did an interview with JoyReign and JDun talking about all of the latest announcements from Meta Connect 2025 focusing a lot on the biggest news from Meta Horizon including their new Studio and Engine. We also talk a bit about the other VR demos that were being shown at Meta Connect, and what they're the most excited about coming out of Meta Conne…

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#1661: State of VR Gaming with Jasmine Uniza’s Impact Realities and Flat2VR Studios 33:57

2M ago33:57

33:57

I did an interview with Jasmine Uniza at Meta Connect 2025 where we talk about her journey from being a robotics engineer for the Mars Rover to doing a career pivot into the VR games industry with the founding of Impact Reality marketing firm for games as well as Flat2VR Studios that is porting popular 2D games into VR. We also reflect upon the cur…

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#1660: Enabling JavaScript-Based Native App XR Pipelines with NativeScript, React Native, and Node API with Matt Hargett 1:09:08

2M ago1:09:08

1:09:08

I did an interview with Rebecker Specialties' founder Matt Hargett at Meta Connect 2025 about alternative open source and open standards, JavaScript-based pipelines for developing XR applications that he's been working on including React Native for VisionOS, as well as working with NativeScript for VisionOS, and also working to bringing Node API su…

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#1659: VR Gaming Career Retrospective of Chicken Waffle’s Finn Staber 26:12

2M ago26:12

26:12

I did an interview with Finn Staber at Meta Connect 2025 reflecting about on his journey into VR from co-founding The Wave VR to then forming Chicken Waffle to developing the games of Baby Hands, Cowbots and Aliens, Shadow of Valhalla, Blazer League, and MarsXR. We also reflect on the current state of VR gaming with Meta, and some of the feedback h…

1
#1658: Kiira Benz Part 3: Immersive Storytelling Career Retrospective (2025) 59:06

2M ago59:06

59:06

Here is my third and final interview of a trilogy of interviews with Kiira Benz. This was conducted at Meta Connect 2025, and serves as a sort of career retrospective of Benz's journey into immersive storytelling. You can check out our previous conversations with our interview about Runnin' from Sundance New Frontier 2019, our interview about Love …

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#1657: Kiira Benz Part 2: “Finding Pandora X” Bringing Immersive Theatre to VRChat (2020) 1:10:14

2M ago1:10:14

1:10:14

I did an interview with Kiira Benz and Joanna Popper during my remote coverage of Venice Immersive 2020, where her Finding Pandora X project won the Best VR Immersive User Experience award. This is a second in a trilogy of interviews with Benz, and you can check out our conversation about Runnin' and our latest interview conducted at Meta Connect 2…

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#1656: Kiira Benz Part 1: “Runnin'” Large-Scale Volumetric Music Video (2019) 41:07

2M ago41:07

41:07

I'm featuring a trilogy of interviews with Kiira Benz (formerly known as Kiira Benzing) with this first part covering her Runnin' music video piece that showed at Sundance 2019 and won the top prize at SXSW 2019. I'll follow up with an interview about her immersive theatre piece that won a prize at Venice Immersive 2019 called Finding Pandora X. An…

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#1655: Meta Horizon Studio News and Virtual Fashion with Paige Dansinger 34:24

2M ago34:24

34:24

I did an interview with prolific Horizon world builder Paige Dansinger at Meta Connect about the latest Meta Horizon news including the new Meta Horizon Studio as well as Meta Horizon Engine. She also was wearing some custom, hand-made pants that were inspired by virtual pants that she designed for her MetaversePaige avatar. See more context in the…

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#1654: CNET’s Scott Stein’s Reflections on Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses & Neural Band Implications 46:40

2M ago46:40

46:40

I did an interview with Scott Stein at Meta Connect 2025 reflecting on the biggest news of the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses and the associated Neural Band. Stein has been covering the XR industry since 2012, and always has some deep thoughts on the broader implications of the latest news. You can check out his hands-on first impressions in his CNET…

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#1653: XR Analyst Anshel Sag on Meta’s AI Glasses Strategy 51:24

2M ago51:24

51:24

I did an interview with Moor Insights and Strategy principle XR Analyst Anshel Sag at Meta Connect to hear some of this latest thoughts on the biggest announcements, but also a broader reflection of how Meta is focusing on how these new AI glasses wearables like the Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses as well as upgraded Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 and Oakley-bran…

1
#1652: Kick-off of Meta Connect Coverage with Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses Insights from Norm Chan 30:25

2M ago30:25

30:25

I did an interview with Norm Chan at Meta Connect about the Meta Ray-Ban Display Glasses and Meta Neural Band. Be sure to watch Chan's full 58-minute Tested.com report including an interview with Meta CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth as his hands-on impressions of the biggest announcement at Meta Connect 2025. You can also see more context in the rough tr…

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Ep. 351: Pre-Code Parade! Cristina Cacioppo & Caroline Golum on Supernatural, Night Nurse, and more 43:52

2M ago43:52

43:52

Ep. 351: Pre-Code Parade with Cristina Cacioppo and Caroline Golum: Supernatural, Night Nurse, Million Dollar Legs, and moreWelcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. For the latest episode I’m delighted to be joined by programmer Cristina Cacioppo and writer-director Caroline Golum for a celebration of pre-code films in all t…

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Ep. 100 - Inside the Organic Products Market 37:23

2M ago37:23

37:23

What's shaping the future of organic dairy products? How has demand for organic evolved and how has the marketplace changed? What are the challenges and opportunities faced by organic producers? This week on The Dairy Download, we are joined by experts with insights into the market for organic dairy products: Tom Chapman, co-CEO for the Organic Tra…

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Ep. 350: Tim Grierson on One Battle After Another, Hamnet, Wake Up Dead Man: Knives Out 3, The Lost Bus, Hedda 57:50

2M ago57:50

57:50

Ep. 350: Tim Grierson on One Battle After Another, Hamnet, Wake Up Dead Man: Knives Out 3, The Lost Bus, HeddaWelcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As we look ahead to the fall with movies from Venice and Toronto set for release, I was very happy to talk about some Big Fall Films with Tim Grierson, Senior U.S. Critic for …

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Ep. 349: Toronto 2025: Edo Choi on The Christophers, Wavelengths, The Currents, Two Pianos, Nouvelle Vague, plus Tuner 39:48

3M ago39:48

39:48

Ep. 349: Toronto 2025: Edo Choi on The Christophers, Wavelengths, The Currents, Two Pianos, Nouvelle Vague, plus TunerWelcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival had far too many movies for a single episode, and so I’m happy to talk through more titles with Edo Choi, f…

1
Ep. 99 - Five Years In: The Future of Dairy 39:30

3M ago39:30

39:30

We are celebrating five years of The Dairy Download with a very special episode featuring two dairy trade association leaders! How is the dairy industry evolving? What challenges and opportunities are dairy farmers and processors facing today? How are policy decisions being made in Washington, D.C. affecting the industry nationwide? This week on Th…

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