Feminist film criticism with bite.
The Bechdel Cast is a film conversation show built around how women are written, sidelined, desired, mocked, or allowed complexity on screen. Recent episodes range from family adventure and teen nostalgia to anime thriller, sports romance, horror comedy, and literary satire.
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The Bechdel Cast is a movie discussion show centered on representation, gender, and the cultural machinery around film. It is funny first, but not only funny. The show uses plot recap as a way into bigger questions about whose stories are treated as serious, whose desire is mocked, who gets complexity, and who becomes a symbol for someone else’s idea. Recent episode choices show a broad appetite: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Ready or Not, Challengers, The Luck of the Irish, American Fiction, Dazed and Confused, Perfect Blue, and Adventures in Babysitting. That range matters. The show can treat a mainstream family movie, a horror comedy, a sports romance, an anime psychological thriller, or a literary satire as material worth close attention. In the American Fiction excerpt, the conversation lingers on Monk, the Stagg Lee deception, Coraline’s reaction, the literary awards panel, Lorraine’s beach-house wedding, Cliff’s relationships, and the way white judges respond to a book built to expose their appetite for a narrow version of Black art. The episode does not just summarize the movie. It keeps asking why a scene lands the way it does. A throwaway beat can become a conversation about pretension, publishing, race, intimacy, or the comfort of liberal taste. The pacing is quick. The tone can be blunt. Jokes arrive alongside careful observations about character and power. People appear across the sampled episodes, including Jana Schmieding, Princess Weekes, Maris Kreizman, Giana and Chika of Shoujo Sundae, and Maebe A. Girl. The show’s best fit is a listener who enjoys film criticism that is conversational rather than academic, but still wants more than trivia or ranking talk. It is especially useful for people who rewatch movies with questions about what the camera, script, and cultural context are asking them to accept. The result is a lively archive of movies read through feminist and social criticism without sanding off the messier pleasures of movie talk.
Made for: For movie fans who like fast, funny conversations about representation, genre, race, gender, relationships, and cultural power. It especially suits listeners who enjoy plot recap when it leads somewhere sharper.
What sets it apart: The show pairs accessible movie talk with pointed social criticism, moving from character beats and jokes into broader questions about who gets depth on screen. Its range across mainstream, horror, comedy, and literary-satire titles keeps the lens flexible.
The Bechdel Cast is a podcast about the portrayal of women in movies hosted by Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus.
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sharp discussion of Monk's retitled book and the whiteness around its literary-award consideration.
The episode turns Monk's choice to rename his book "fuck" into a lively argument about provocation, authorship, and taste. The joke still has teeth because the book reaches number one on the New York Times bestseller list while Monk privately dismisses it as reductive slop.
A funny, specific read on The Blackening's women, Jigsaw echoes, and its lightly missed friendship subplot.
The Bechdel Cast treats The Blackening as a sharp, funny case study in how horror comedy makes room for women beyond boyfriends, husbands, and men more broadly.
A clear reading of how The Birdcage uses farce to expose the pressure to make family look acceptable.
The Birdcage is treated here as farce with a real argument underneath: what counts as family, and who gets pressured to make it look acceptable.
This episode is a promotional compilation for multiple iHeart podcasts, including The Clifford Show, Sports Slice Podcast, and a true crime series about a con artist, with a brief mention of a Bachelor scandal.
An interview with Tariq Ra'ouf discussing his role in The Little Rascals and his career.
Hosts Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus are joined by film critic Manuel Betancourt to analyze the 1996 film 'The Birdcage'.
The Bechdel Cast hosts Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus, with guest Nonye-Brown West, analyze the horror-comedy film 'The Blackening.' They discuss its plot, which involves friends playing a deadly trivia game about black culture during a Juneteenth reunion.
Taylor Garron says White Chicks (2004) became a coming-of-age movie for her after cousins screened it at a family party.
The Bechdel Cast analyzes Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with comedian and actor Jana Schmieding, focusing on the film’s weak female characterization, negligent parents, and practical effects.
Jamie from Bechdelcast asks listeners to vote for the podcast 'We the Unhoused' in the Webby Awards, highlighting its mission to amplify unhoused voices and combat harmful narratives.
The Bechdel Cast examines Ready or Not (2019), a wedding-set horror comedy about Grace, played by Samara Weaving, joining the wealthy La Domas game-making family.
A review of the film Challengers, discussing its themes of competition and relationships in the world of professional tennis.
The Bechdel Cast examines the 2001 Disney Channel movie The Luck of the Irish, which returned to public attention after Ryan Coogler discussed its influence on Sinners.
The Bechdel Cast examines Cord Jefferson’s 2023 film American Fiction, adapted from Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, with returning guest Ronald Young, Jr.
The Bechdel Cast examines Olivia Wilde's Don't Worry Darling with author and film critic Peyton McCarty-Simas, focusing on the film's feminist claims and its 1950s-style Victory community.
This episode of the Sports Slice Podcast features Eric Galco, director of the NFL's East-West Shrine Bowl, discussing insider insights on evaluating draft prospects.
Giana and Chika of Shoujo Sundae analyze the anime film Perfect Blue, discussing its themes, impact, and relevance.
A comedic storytelling episode about the chaotic and humorous adventures of babysitting with Maebe A.