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It's a movie podcast! One host loves a movie, the other has never seen it. They watch. They discuss. Why do we call it a Load Bearing Beam? Because it's a movie you love so much that it holds up the foundation of the very structure that is you. Laci Roth and Matt Stokes are a married couple that needs to find stuff to watch together. On this show, they take a look at movies loved by one but unseen, disliked, or forgotten by the other. With open hearts but exhausted and cynical minds, they wi ...
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The Summer of Spielberg continues as Laci and Matt were able to buckle their seatbelts in time for their helicopter could land on Isla Nublar, where they meet up with AJ & Kristie from the In Love With Horror podcast to talk about Jurassic Park (1993). The four team up for a rollicking podcast so good it’ll have you shouting “Hello John!” at total …
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Molly talks with Travis Baldree about his book, "Legends & Lattes". About Legends & Lattes After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time. The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention t…
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The Summer of Spielberg begins with Spielberg’s biggest hit, the classic 1982 alien/divorce family film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Adjusted for inflation, this is the fourth-highest-grossing movie of all time. Beloved by generations, it is a lot of fun, yes… but it’s also some dark, dark shit. Laci explains why it’s always been so difficult for he…
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Molly talks with Chandler Morrison about his book, "American Narcissus". ABOUT "AMERICAN NARCISSUS" The American dream is dead, and Los Angeles is burning. Stoned and porn-addicted surfer Baxter Kent is terrified of women and anxious to make things work with a sex robot. Acid junkie Arden Coover has a useless philosophy degree and a doomed relation…
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We're taking the week off as we prepare for the Summer of Spielberg, which starts next Friday (June 14) with an episode about E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. But to hold you over, we have this episode where Matt will take you through some of our favorite moments from our back catalogue. Thank you for your support of Load Bearing Beams! The listenership…
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Hey folks, here's an audio recording from a TikTok livestream we held to discuss Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge (2001) as a companion to our Romeo + Juliet episode. Thanks to everyone who attended the stream! You can follow us on TikTok and catch future livestreams at https://www.tiktok.com/@load.bearing.beams And we have plenty of good stuff in addit…
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Love me, love me, fish tank you love me. Load Bearing Beams takes you to Verona Beach, America to talk about Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. The year is 1996, and two great business families are feuding in the streets, but that won’t stop our two child protagonists from falling in big-eyed love with each other and hastily getti…
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Molly talks with Travis Richey about his book, "The Vampires’ Curse (Decimus Book 1). You can purchase Travis' book here, directly from his publisher. Buying through this link means he gets more than through other sources. https://4horsemenpublications.com/product/the-vampires-curse-decimus-book-1/ ABOUT "THE VAMPIRES' CURSE" Since he was turned ce…
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Matt, Laci, and their unnamed dog are on a quest for as much guzzoline as they can carry in this episode covering one of the all-time great action movies, George Miller’s Mad Max 2 (1981). In this wonderfully weird film that we yanks tend to call The Road Warrior, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) is enlisted against his will by a ragtag band of oil ref…
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Matt and Laci are mysteriously missing, so this episode is brought to you by replacement hosts Sister Anastasia Killian and Friar Jacob Aloysius Clement, who have the required expertise to talk you through the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg vehicle Sister Act. Is it an accurate portrayal of convent life? Do nuns really have this much fun? Anyway, the show ha…
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Molly talks with Diego Báez about his book, "Yagueareté White: Poems (Camino del Sol). ABOUT YAGUEARETÉ WHITE: POEMS In Diego Báez’s debut collection, Yaguareté White, English, Spanish, and Guaraní encounter each other through the elusive yet potent figure of the jaguar. The son of a Paraguayan father and a mother from Pennsylvania, Báez grew up in…
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As we face the dawn of the new Planet of the Apes, the podcast takes a look at Tim Burton’s ill-fated 2001 “reimagining” of the original classic. Charlton Heston gave one of the most captivating leading man performances in sci-fi history back in 1968, so how does Mark Wahlberg’s performance stack up here? And why is Tim Roth doing... that... in thi…
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Molly talks with Lou Kemp about her book, "The Wyvern, the Pirate, and the Madman". You can order Lou Kemp's books at https://4horsemenpublications.com/our-authors/lou-kemp/ Order now and use the Promo Code 4HP10 for 10% off! Support the author by ordering from the 4 Horsemen Publications directly. By ordering at www,4horsemenpublications.com, you …
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We held a Listener Choice Lottery, and the winning selection was 1986’s Howard the Duck, brought to us courtesy of Smash Trivia John. So we dive in—beak first—to unpack the history of this notorious disaster of a movie. Then we go through the movie itself, excruciatingly thoroughly, to figure out if this movie is too sexy or not sexy enough. Plus, …
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Molly talks with Matthew Phillion about his book, "The Indestructibles". About "The Indestructibles" A solar powered girl. A ballerina vigilante. A boy with an alien sharing his brain. A girl with a black hole for her heart. And a werewolf with confidence issues. This is the next generation of heroes Doc Silence has gathered together, a random coll…
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NOTE: Boy do we say some stuff in this episode. As always, please keep in mind that the language on this podcast is rated R. For pirates. As adults in their late thirties, Laci and Matt are just the right age to play the “teenager” characters in the sexy cult classic Cruel Intentions (1999). Together, your hosts unpack how differently the movie pla…
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Content warning: We discuss the sexual assault allegations against director Bryan Singer. As adults in their late thirties all around the world gush about X-Men 97 on Disney Plus, we take a look back at a movie widely considered one of the high points of superhero cinema: 2003’s X2 (a.k.a. X-Men 2, a.k.a. X2: X-Men United). We begin by unpacking ou…
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Molly talks with Veronica Roth about her book, "When Among Crows". About "When Among Crows" Step into a city where monsters feast on human emotions, knights split their souls to make their weapons, and witches always take more than they give. Pain is Dymitr’s calling. To slay the monsters he’s been raised to kill, he had to split his soul in half t…
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Look, you shouldn’t kidnap a woman who has suffered a traumatic brain injury and then imprison her for months, lying to her about who she is in order to get her to clean your house and raise your kids. It’s not an ideal way to start a relationship. That is something we believe. But when you're Kurt Russell and you do it? Well then we're having a di…
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Molly talks with Stacy Stokes about her book, "The Darkness Rises". About Stacy Stacy Stokes is a lifelong lover of stories, a former improv comedy geek, and a marketing professional by trade. She graduated with a BBA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. Her debut novel, Remember Me Gone, was a Juni…
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Howdy everybody. We're still exhausted after our epic Easter Egg Hunt earlier this week. That's right, like Parzival and all his Ready Player One friends, we're Gunters. Anyway, we're taking this week off. We'll be back on Friday, April 12, 2024 with an episode about Overboard (1987), starring that adorkable couple, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.…
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It’s Springtime for Laci and Matt as film historian Harry Marks (@lobbyintros on TikTok) joins the show to go over Mel Brooks’s first movie: the classic comedy The Producers (1968). Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder give two of the funniest performances ever… but what about the rest of the movie? Is it laugh-out-loud-funny in 2024? Or is it hopelessly da…
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As the world prepares to embrace its new Frozen Empire, lovingly brought to us by the good people at Ghost Corps, we take a look at a movie that was kind of Ivan Reitman’s unofficial Ghostbusters 3: 2001’s Evolution. Um, so… yeah, this movie is something else, I tell you what. David Duchovny trying to be Bill Murray. Julianne Moore falling down. Se…
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The week Robert Downey Jr. has finally secured his coveted Oscar, we take a trip back in time. The year is 1993. A movie called Heart and Souls is released, in the aftermath of what Downey must have assumed was his Academy Award for the movie Chaplin (1992). We take a big long look at RDJ's career and also examine the curious '90s phenomenon of ang…
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The written word... that's the real magic, isn't it, you guys? Don't you just love cracking open a great book and being transported to a wondrous world? The Pagemaster (1994) is going to insist that you do love this. Loudly, and repeatedly. Laci and Matt take a look at this bizarre '90s live-action/animation flop and try to figure out exactly what …
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Hey folks, as we announced previously, we are taking this week off due to work requirements. We're coming back and better than every on March 8, 2024 with a brand-new episode about the wild Macaulay Culkin book movie The Pagemaster (1994). As always, thanks for supporting our dumb podcast. If you haven't already, please check us out on YouTube: htt…
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Molly talks with Jody Hobbs Hesler about her book, "What Makes You Think You're Supposed to Feel Better: Stories". About Jody Jody Hobbs Hesler grew up between suburban Richmond, Virginia, and the mountains outside Winchester, Virginia. Experiences of both regions flavor her writing. She teaches at WriterHouse in Charlottesville, Virginia, and read…
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In what is quite possibly the most snoogans episode we've ever recorded, we examine Kevin Smith’s Dogma (1999). At Laci's behest, we take our maiden voyage into the View Askewniverse to see what this controversial, transgressive, downright RUDE film has to say about religion, politics, and the state of things in Clinton’s America at the end of hist…
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Wade Hymel and Matt Stokes sit down for a free-wheeling discussion about different approaches to songwriting, creativity, collaboration, and recording. Wade also talks about his experience as a working musician, what going on tour is like, and what it's like to play music on a cruiseship. Then they talk about Wade's great new album Who Said That? H…
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Hear Wade's amazing new album WHO SAID THAT? on Apple Music, Spotify, or wherever else music is streamed. Or you can purchase the album from Bandcamp. Load Bearing Beams welcomes back Number 1 Friend of the Show, “Jack” Wade Hymel, to reconsider GoldenEye (1995). Wade first brought this movie to the show's attention on an episode in 2017, when both…
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Hey folks! Laci and Matt here to tell you that we were just on the great In Love With Horror podcast, and you can catch that episode right now! It's a deep dive into the classic 1981 slasher My Bloody Valentine and its 2009 remake. If you're not already listening (In which case: the fuck?), it's a show hosted by a married couple, the lovely Kristie…
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At the suggestion of our friend StitchAndStoryTime, we take a look at 1991's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. This movie was a colossal hit in its day, and it's got a little something for everyone—tree houses and homemade gadgets and traps for the kids, sword battles for Dad, romance for Mom, and a healthy amount of the Dark Arts for Matt Stokes. Thi…
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Molly talks with Maria DeVivo about her book series, Dawn of the Blood Witch and The Aestrangel Trinity. About Maria Maria DeVivo writes horror and dark fantasy for both a YA and adult audience. Each of her series has been Amazon best-sellers and have won multiple awards since 2012. When not writing, she teaches Language Arts and Journalism to midd…
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We head back to good old Hollywood, USA: Golden Era for a look at one of the most beloved American films of all time, 1942's Casablanca. You hear this all the time about old, black-and-white movies, but this thing feels incredibly modern, and with much to say about the world of 2024. We discuss our personal histories with it, Matt's story of gettin…
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We take a trip to Montreal, to check in with the mild-mannered Dr. Nicholas "Oz" Oseransky (Matthew Perry) and his scary neighbor, Jimmy the Tulip (Bruce Willis). Can you even imagine what shenanigans these two get up to? We'll tell you all about them in our discussion of the 2000 hitman/dental comedy The Whole Nine Yards. Most of this episode is a…
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We have to postpone our episode this week because of some ridiculous weather events that basically threw our lives into chaos. Here's what happened: It got cold in Louisiana. No one knew what to do, so they shut down the schools, the roads, everything. Three days at home with the kids, unable to work, or think, or podcast. So we have to push back o…
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Once there was a time when Star Wars was just the name of a movie, and not the most toxic subject ever to hit the internet. Well, we yearn for that time, listener... so go with us on this journey back to the Skywalker homestead and get ready to harvest some moisture as we return to the very first movie we ever discussed on the show: Star Wars (1977…
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To celebrate finally getting to episodes 99 and 100, we're going back to the very first two movies we covered on Load Bearing Beams and give these two classics the full LBB treatment they deserve. First up, it's Dirty Dancing (1988), one of Laci's favorite movies. It's a charming dancey melodrama with some surprisingly poignant political commentary…
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Happy New Year, y'all. We're ringing in what promises to be the most cursed year ever with our very first mailbag! Time stamps: 00:04:40 — What are our new year's resolutions for the podcast and for our movie watching? 00:12:08 — Where's the weirdest place we've made whoopee? 00:12:57 — Which movie or TV show was the biggest waste of our time? 00:1…
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Fine. Fine. No problem at all. We'll talk about the actual movie. Also: Happy holidays! Thank you for a great year! We'd normally have an episode coming out on Friday, Dec. 22, but we're taking a break and shall return on Friday, December 29 with a very special mailbag episode. And after that, we're on to episodes 99 and 100, where we'll revisit th…
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When Laci wins a Golden Ticket, she invites Matt as her plus-one for her super-secret tour of Willy Wonka's factory... and she's violating her NDA by bringing you along too! Have you ever wanted to know the functional purpose of the Chocolate Room, where everything is edible? Or why the city of Munich seems to have such fanatical attachment to the …
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Get out your stapler gun and empty your shitter, because it’s time to look at the holiday classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) in extraordinary detail. Laci’s seen this film dozens of times, while Matt had only seen it once, decades ago. To prepare, he watched the entire Vacation series, and he has much to say about the merits of th…
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Molly talks with Patrick McDonough and R.J. Joseph about their anotholgy, "Hot Iron and Cold Blood: An Anthology of the Weird West". About "Hot Iron and Cold Blood" Desperados and yellow-bellies be warned: These ain’ t your typical westerns… Herein find legendary masters of anomalous Western and Horror stories— along with a posse of budding word-sl…
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Matt had Laci watch the “beloved” “family” Christmas-present-hunt movie Jingle All the Way (1996). So… did she have a good time? Listener, she did not. But you’ll have a good time hearing them commiserate about the experience for two hours. Why would a movie cast Arnold Schwarzeneggar to play a normal man? When is it inappropriate to buy a Christma…
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Hey folks! If you hadn't heard, we took this week off (on account of Thanksgiving). We'll be back in one week (Friday, December 1, 2023) with our episode about the Arnold Schwarzenegger family comedy Jingle All the Way, co-starring Future Darth Vader. Thank you so much for supporting our ridiculous show. Matt's been doing some video reviews of rece…
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Molly talks with author BettyJoyce Nash about her book, "Everybody Here Is Kin". About "Everybody Here Is Kin" On Boneyard Island, Georgia, where everyone's weirdly kin, 13-year-old Lucille is marooned when her mother goes AWOL with an old flame, leaving Lucille with only her father's ashes, two half-siblings, and Will, the misanthropic manager of …
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You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t cure its depression. We discuss this sad fact with our friend Drew (a.k.a. Drewbie Doobie’s Movies, @drewbiedoobiemovie on TikTok) by covering a movie he loved growing up, Wolfgang Petersen’s The NeverEnding Story (1984). Yes, this movie traumatized a generation of children, but to look upon it now is to…
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Molly talks with author Sariah Wilson about her book, "The Paid Bridesmaid". Order "The Paid Bridesmaid" from an independent bookseller at this link: https://bookshop.org/a/10588/9781542030564 or at Amazon right here https://amzn.to/3i9INWy About The Paid Bridesmaid Rachel Vinson is a bridesmaid for hire: part confidante, part wedding planner, and …
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Molly talks with author Kimberly Giarratano about her book "Death of A Dancing Queen: A Billie Levine Mystery" About Death of A Dancing Queen After her mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Billie Levine revamped her grandfather’s private investigation firm and set up shop in the corner booth of her favorite North Jersey deli hoping the free pickles and …
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Friend of the Show Cinematic Joshua (@CinematicJoshua on TikTok) joins us for a rollicking conversation about the cult classic Ashton Kutcher time travel picture The Butterfly Effect (2004). Laci, Matt, and Joshua discuss the career of Ashton Kutcher, the influence of the Final Destination series on this movie, and the many different time strands t…
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