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Where psychology meets films. We dissect and analyze popular films and their psychological content.
Episodes
2 days ago
2 days ago
Join Alex and guest host Dr. Jill Swirsky as they enter the world of musical theater put to film in Robert Wise's wonderful adaptation of The Sound of Music (1965)! A musical about a man (played by Christopher Plummer) who treats his kids like sailors and woman (played by Julie Andrews) who just wants to sing with Nazism as a backdrop is a perfect exploration of psychology! From developmental theories, to grief and loss, to identity and relationships, this wonderful musical with amazing songs offers a great exploration of basic psychological concepts. This podcast episode is one of my favorite things!
Read Dr. Swirsky's Psi Chi blog Psychology Pop Culture Corner contributions on more musicals!
Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), or Threads/Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you!
Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on! Don't forget to check out our MERCH STORE for some great merch with our logo and other designs!
Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by half.cool ("Gemini"). Used under license.
3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0.
Monday Jan 13, 2025
Monday Jan 13, 2025
Join Alex and returning guest host Dr. Anthony Zoccolillo as they discuss both Twister (1996) and its remake/redo/spiritual sequel, Twisters (2024), under the guise of the psychology of nostalgia, and why Hollywood makes these remakes or long-gapped sequels. As people age, why do they seek comfort or lionize art that reflects a different time? Do the film compare in story and spectacle? The pair also explore how both films deal with PTSD and surviving trauma with how the characters progress through the natural disasters in the films. One thing they know for sure: that's going to be a no on storm-chasing!
Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), or Threads/Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you!
Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on! Don't forget to check out our MERCH STORE for some great merch with our logo and other designs!
Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by half.cool ("Gemini"). Used under license.
3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0.
Monday Dec 02, 2024
Monday Dec 02, 2024
Join Alex and returning guest host Dr. Ed Hansen in a festive discussion of a recent, but to-be-considered a holiday classic, Alexander Payne's The Holdovers (2023). This is a story of a young, ne'er-do-well (Dominic Sessa as Angus Tully) who meets an immovable force in an old, curmudgeonly boarding school classic teacher (Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham). They're both "heldover" the winter holidays at the prestigious Barton Academy, with a grieving mother played by Da'Vine Joy Randolph. Over the course of the break, the three learn more about each other and how to navigate an unforgiving landscape of adolescence and obsolescence. Psych concepts explored include generativity vs. stagnation, identity, isolation and grief, the stages of grief/death, and because Ed joined us, of course there's always some I/O psych involved. Because it's so random, we also speculate how Hunham would deal with the current wave of Generative AI taking over the education landscape! Stay for the fellowship, hold over with us!
Follow Ed at several places on social media: @EdHansen_PhDAD
Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), or Threads/Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you!
Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on! Don't forget to check out our MERCH STORE for some great merch with our logo and other designs!
Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by half.cool ("Gemini"). Used under license.
3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0.
Monday Nov 11, 2024
Monday Nov 11, 2024
Join Alex and returning guest host Dr. Wind Goodfriend in a discussion of the psychological concepts found in the amazing psychological thriller Gaslight (1944) — THE origin of the word de jour "gaslighting" ! The film stars award-winning Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer, as woman who's reality is being warped by her conniving and selfish husband, respectively. Within the psychological manipulation of gaslighting, the hosts also explore the ways emotional and psychological abuse is carried out in these kinds of relationships and even discuss a new scale that aims to help folks determining if they/re under the gaslighting spell!
Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), or Threads/Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you!
Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on! Don't forget to check out our MERCH STORE for some great merch with our logo!
Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by half.cool ("Gemini"). Used under license.
3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC BY 3.0.
Monday Oct 21, 2024
Monday Oct 21, 2024
Join Alex as he takes a solo look at the sequel to a film that lives in our hearts and our heads, Inside Out 2 (2024). While the film has a lot to live up to from its predecessor, this new entry into Riley's head isn't a slouch. A new dynamic and new emotions enter the picture as Riley turns 13 years old and beings puberty during a summer hockey camp. Of the new emotions, Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke), butts heads with Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler), and well, lots of wild and crazy events happen as they try to put the best self-concept of Riley forward. More great gags about the brain, as well as fun play on Blue's Clues, fill the runtime, which culminates into an anxiety attack both inside and outside of Riley's brain. Alex also shares his personal journey with clinical anxiety in this episode!
Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), Twitter (@CinPsyPod), or Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast) and Threads (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you!
Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on! Don't forget to check out our MERCH STORE for some great merch with our logo and other designs!
Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by half.cool ("Gemini"). Used under license.
3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0.
Monday Sep 30, 2024
Monday Sep 30, 2024
Join Alex and returning guest host Nic Baldwin as they chat about the job analysis required to fly fighter planes on a super dangerous mission against an unnamed enemy in Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Tom Cruise returns to the role of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, with a new crop of young Top Gun pilots, including Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, among others, as they figure out how to complete this really hard... nay, "impossible" mission in F-18s against 5th generation fighters (which mat or may not be AI-controlled airplanes). With amazing visual combined with an original story that hits several of the original's beats, this sequel has a number of psychological, as well as industrial-organizational concepts, including an in-depth conversation on AI-controlled military vehicles and what the future might hold. Take a listen is you have the need... the need for speed! Take the Highway to the Danger Zone!
Check out Nic's podcast with his wife: In Love, with Movies
Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), Twitter (@CinPsyPod), or Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast) and Threads (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you!
Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on! Don't forget to check out our MERCH STORE for some great merch with our logo and other designs!
Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by half.cool ("Gemini"). Used under license.
3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0
Monday Sep 09, 2024
Monday Sep 09, 2024
Join Alex and guest host Dr. Jane Halonen as they creepily peer into Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller Rear Window (1954). The film stars James Stewart and Grace Kelly, with minor roles from Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey, and Raymond Burr. Another character in this film is the set, which was a meticulous reconstruction of a small Greenwich Village courtyard, meant to evoke paranoia and claustrophobia. In the addition, the duo reflects on voyeurism, scopophilia, and the various psychological ideas surrounding watching others when you can't do anything else in the heat of a dreary summer. Perhaps your thoughts will run wild with murder! Jane also explains her Psychology through Film senior seminar course and modern college student audience reactions to a film now 70 years old!
Check out Jane's Wikipedia page here. Jane's most recent The Chronicle of Higher Education piece with Dana Dunn.
Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), Twitter (@CinPsyPod), or Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast) and Threads (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you!
Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on! Don't forget to check out our MERCH STORE for some great merch with our logo and other designs!
Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by half.cool ("Gemini"). Used under license.
3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0.
Sunday Aug 18, 2024
Sunday Aug 18, 2024
Join Alex and returning guest host Dr. Ed Hansen in a discussion of cognitive-behavioral therapy and socio-developmental psychology in the Oscar-winning writer/stars Matt Damon and ben Affleck breakout Good Will Hunting (1997). But let's not forget the runaway star of this movie, the other Oscar-winner of this film, Robin Williams! In a film directed by Gus Van Sant, Matt plays Will Hunting, a troubled but brilliant young adult who eschews therapy but ultimately benefits from Carl Rogers' ideas embodied in cognitive-behavioral therapy. Join them as they pahrk the cahr at Hahvahrd Yahrd and chat! Wicked ahwesome!
Follow Ed on Twitter: @EdHansen_PhDAD
Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), Twitter (@CinPsyPod), or Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast) and Threads (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you!
Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on! Don't forget to check out our MERCH STORE for some great merch with our logo and other designs!
Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by half.cool ("Gemini"). Used under license.
3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0.
Monday Jul 29, 2024
Monday Jul 29, 2024
Join Alex and guest host Dr. Simon Rogoff as they explore the blatant narcissism in Damien Chazelle's jazz drumming masterpiece Whiplash (2014). Starring Miles Teller as Andrew Nieman, the jazz student, and J.K. Simmons as Fletcher, the jazz teacher, this film goes hard. Fletcher is the worst of the worst teacher, who justifies his actions by thinking he'll one day create the best jazz musician, while Andrew will top at nothing to become the next Charlie Parker. Explorations include, narcissism, of course, but also resiliency, perfectionism, and whether there are two narcissists in the movie, or just the one (Fletcher). Come fort he amazing jazz and jazz drumming, stay for the psychological exploration!
Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), Twitter (@CinPsyPod), or Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast) and Threads (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you!
Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on! Don't forget to check out our MERCH STORE for some great merch with our logo and other designs!
Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by half.cool ("Gemini"). Used under license.
3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0.
Monday Jul 08, 2024
Monday Jul 08, 2024
Join Alex and returning guest host Dr. Jordan Wagge as they wax poetic and deep on one of Bill Murray's best, Groundhog Day (1993). Written and directed by comedy ace Harold Ramis and also starring Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, and Stephen Tobolowsky, this movie has become timeless with the question: what would you do with a day that repeats over and over? The concepts explored in the episode feature heavily in behaviorist and learning principles, as well as a discussion of research methods and hypothesis testing. Of course Phil needs to learn how to be a better human, and what better way to learn than testing his hypotheses about death, skills, and love? There's surely no better way than to repeat the same day over and over!
Please leave your feedback on this post, the main site (cinemapsychpod.swanpsych.com), on Facebook (@CinPsyPod), Twitter (@CinPsyPod), or Instagram (@cinemapsych_podcast) and Threads (@cinemapsych_podcast). We'd love to hear from you!
Don't forget to check out our Paypal link to contribute to this podcast and keep the lights on! Don't forget to check out our MERCH STORE for some great merch with our logo and other designs!
Legal stuff:
1. All film clips are used under Section 107 of Title 17 U.S.C. (fair use; no copyright infringement is intended).
2. Intro and outro music by half.cool ("Gemini"). Used under license.
3. Film reel sound effect by bone666138. Used under license CC-BY 3.0.