James is the artistic director of the Dallas International Film Festival, which runs from April 25 through May 2. We talked about how many movies he had to watch to pick the 145 (so far) that will screen this year. We talked about how much he cries and why his back is giving him so much trouble and whether Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn get back together at the end of The Break-Up. But James also made us talk about this year's DIFF lineup, which features a bunch of world premieres, including a "30 for 30" documentary about—ugh—Dude Perfect. (Not to be confused with Dude, Sweet.) Get in here and get your ears all over it.
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Megan spent four years researching and writing her new book, City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America's Highways. Here's what Richard Florida said about it: "City Limits is a triumph. Megan Kimble echoes Robert Caro exposing how powerful groups like TxDOT are able to take away people’s homes, destroy their neighborhoods, and run roughshod over communities with virtually no accountability.” So yeah. We talked about highways and I-345. And about how Megan went on a fishing trip to the Eisenhower Library and discovered something amazing. Oh, also, we talked about her high school basketball career.
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Mike used to work at D Magazine. Now he doesn't. But he's got a new podcast that dropped April 11 on Audible. It is titled Hold Fast. Over nine episodes, Mike and two other journalists (Sam Eifling and Trevor Aaronson) chronicle the rise and fall of Backpage.com, the Dallas-born classified ad site that a federal prosecutor called "the world’s largest sex trafficking operation." Mike spent three days interviewing Mike Lacey, the founder of the New Times chain of alt weeklies and the man the feds say ran a criminal operation with Backpage.com. In addition to all that, we talked about why Mike escaped Oak Cliff for the suburbs.
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Greg is an SMU professor who hails from Pumpkin Bend, Arkansas. He's also the lead singer for Beekeeper Spaceman and the editor of the Southwest Review. It is under the auspices of the latter that he is launching a new literary festival. Frontera runs April 12 and 13 in three Oak Cliff venues (Wild Detectives, the Texas Theatre, and the Kessler Theater). So we talked with Greg about how you stage a lit fest that feels less like homework and more like a party. And we talked about one of the most amazing physical feats ever performed in the city of Arkadelphia (by him).
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