David Ehrlich (IndieWire) returns for our mini-series&#8217; namesake episode on 2014&#8217;s walking castle fantasy, Howl&#8217;s Moving Castle! Together they examine analog versus digital animation effects, a talking fire, being a bird warrior and more!  Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and X! Buy some real nerdy merch. Connect with other…

Howl’s Moving Castle with David Ehrlich

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Ep. 304 | A Tapesetry of World Building and Characters w/ Jennifer L. Armentrout

Special Highlight: Bryan Cranston and Alan Hart on “The Chemistry of Breaking Bad”

Episode 342-2026 Mid-Year Review

Mike Campbell

796: Founder in the Field with Fishwife’s Becca Millstein

Transmissions :: Don Was

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Talkhouse

Ash Mayfair was born in Vietnam and educated in the UK and the US. She received a BA from Oxford University for English Literature, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London for theatre directing and received an MFA in filmmaking at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her first feature, <a href="https://www.filmmovement.com/theatrical/film/the-third-wife" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Third Wife</a>, is in select theaters through Film Movement from May 17. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the NETPAC Jury Award, and also won awards at the San Sebastian, Milano, Chicago, Minsk, Kolkata and Cairo film festivals. Ash is working on her second feature, tentatively titled Skin of Youth, about an all-consuming love story between a transgender singer and a dog-cage fighter set in 1990s Saigon, Vietnam.

Ash Mayfair

Film

Transgender / Transcendence

CS Cleaners is an art punk band based in Brooklyn. Their latest record, What’s This?, is out June 26, 2026 on Wharf Cat.

CS Cleaners

Lathe of Heaven is a post-punk/new wave band from Brooklyn. Their latest record, Aurora, is out now on Sacred Bones. 
(Photo Credit: LJ Ripley)

Lathe of Heaven

Music

CS Cleaners and Lathe of Heaven Talk Their Favorite, Most Busted Shows

Avalon Fast’s new film <a href="https://darkskyfilms.com/film/camp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CAMP</a> hits theaters on June 26. They hail from Vancouver Island, BC, and their first film, Honeycomb, which was selected for the 2022 Slamdance Film Festival and went on to screen at Boston Underground, Calgary Underground, Etheria LA, Fantasia, and many more. In 2026, they premiered Drinking and Driving &#8211; co-directed, co-starring, and co-written with Jillian Frank &#8211; at the Los Angeles Festival of Movies. In addition to writing and directing, Fast recently starred in Louise Weard’s cultural breakout trans DIY epic Castration Movie Anthology, co-starred in prolific young filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay’s sapphic horror The Serpent’s Skin, and appeared in Jane Schoenbrun’s recent Cannes sensation Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

Avalon Fast

Everything is Ending, Everything is Ending

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961. – Matt Spicer