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Talkhouse

Podcast

Transmissions :: The Autumn Defense

667: This Pasta Conversation Will Change Your Home Cooking Life with Joshua McFadden

854. – Penn Badgley

Cassandra Peterson was born in Manhattan, Kansas. At age 17, she became the youngest showgirl in Las Vegas history, and after receiving advice from the King himself, Elvis Presley, she traveled to Europe where she pursued a career as a singer and actor. Upon returning to the States, Peterson toured America as star of her own musical-comedy show, Mama’s Boys. She eventually settled in Hollywood, where she spent four years with the Groundlings, Los Angeles’ foremost improvisational comedy group. In 1981, she created the character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, for a local Los Angeles television station. Elvira and her show, Movie Macabre, became an overnight sensation and was soon picked up by stations across the country. Peterson cowrote, produced, and starred in two feature-length films, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark and Elvira’s Haunted Hills. In 2021, she published her memoir, Yours Cruelly, Elvira, which became a New York Times bestseller. Peterson has spent over four decades solidifying the Elvira brand, one that has become synonymous with Halloween and the horror genre. Her latest book, <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/cassandra-peterson/elviras-cookbook-from-hell/9780306832864/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elvira’s Cookbook from Hell: Sexy, Spooky Soirées and Celebrations for Every Occasion</a>, is published September 30 by Grand Central.

Cassandra Peterson

Film

Three Great Things: Cassandra Peterson (aka Elvira)

853. – Flynn McGarry

666: Vittles Editor Jonathan Nunn Is Redefining UK Food Media

Burn After Reading with Fran Hoepfner

665: Queer Eye Was a “Middle-Aged Boy Band” with Antoni Porowski

Lizzie Borden is an independent writer-director of films such as Born in Flames (1983) and Working Girls (1986). Born in Flames was re-released in a 35mm restoration print by the Anthology Film Archives in 2016 and shown worldwide, including the London and Edinburgh Film Festivals, MOMA and BAM. Working Girls has been restored by the Criterion Collection and written about extensively. Whorephobia, her anthology of stories written by strippers with interviews by them, published by Seven Stories Press, including pieces by Kathy Acker, Cookie Mueller, Chris Kraus, Antonia Crane, Lily Burana, Reese Piper and 18 additional writers, was published in December 2022. Her new film, Rialto – set in 1953, about a woman running a movie theater and attacked by the Legion of Decency for showing foreign films, but hiding a dark secret – is in pre-production. She also works as a script consultant and teach screenwriting.

Lizzie Borden

Three Great Things: Lizzie Borden

Nick Dawson talks with filmmakers, musicians and comedians whose work he loves, avoiding the mundane, predictable questions they&#8217;ve heard numerous times and instead asking substantive, thoughtful questions that get to the heart of who they are.

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That: Tim Blake Nelson

664: Food Writers Talking About Food Writing with Elyse Inamine & Matt Rodbard

852. – Gene Pressman

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