Lee Enterprises Podcasts

•

Channel • 7 Shows

Society & Culture

Society & Culture

Updated weekly
True Crime

True Crime

Updated 05/02/2024
Film Interviews

Film Interviews

Updated weekly
Investing

Investing

Updated weekly
Daily News

Daily News

Updated daily
Earth Sciences

Earth Sciences

Updated weekly
News

News

Updated fortnightly

19/09/2023

What causes wives and mothers to kill?

This episode continues the conversation with Dianne Berg, author of What's behind our enduring fascination with wives and mothers who kill. In this episode, Nat Cardona and Diane talk about what causes wives and mothers to commit murder and how the public, judicial system and medical fields contribute and/or react to these criminal events. To listen to the first half of the interview with Dianne, click here. To learn more about Dianne Berg, click here. Episode transcript Note: The following transcript was created by Slack and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically: Welcome to Lee Enterprise's Late Edition Crime Beat Chronicles. I'm your host Nat Cardona. In this episode, we're continuing the exploration of a niche area of true crime stories, the obsession that fans seem to have with killer wives and mothers. We're back with Diane Berg, a professor at Clark University and author of the article What's behind our enduring fascination with wives and mothers who kill? She is very much an expert on this complex topic. If you haven't listened to the first episode, go back and listen to the first half of my interview, please. Otherwise, we pick up the conversation back up by discussing some causes of what makes mothers and wives kill. I'm a mother myself and I'm, I'm actually pregnant. So I'm gonna have a baby in four weeks. I'm actually pregnant, but I'm having a baby in four weeks. Thank you. So I'm kind of like, you know, going through all these things and, you know, very much in the, you know, what makes me different from these other women who have done this historically or in more recent history. But the thing that comes to mind is there is just something so grabbing about when women do this, because you carry the child for so long and you birth the child and it's so much more intimate than the father who's removed and can kind of clean his hands in the sense of when there is a murder, you can go. You know, and that's because he's not involved. So in the natural process of pregnancy and birth. So, yeah, when there are these women historically or modern day that do this, it's like, well, you know, you just sit there and go, how how could this happen? How could this happen? And you do. The next point I want to get at is the openness nowadays that we have about talking about postpartum depression, because there seems to be a link with that postpartum psychosis. And you mentioned it's Lynsey Clancy who's kind of the most recent with that. So in your research and I is something you mentioned, I just want to clarify. Have you you've seen a difference between, let's say, 20, 30 years ago media coverage and nowadays media coverage of like like just jump into that. Okay. I mean, I kind of want to take those in order, if I may. So, yeah. First, going back to what you were talking about, how okay, when a man does it. Yes, that's terrible and bad and they're they're bad people. But when a woman does it, when a mother does it, especially, there's all this kind of language of the unnatural and the monstrous. And again, going back to, you know, right now, I've been rereading Euripides Medea all week to get ready for this class, because Medea is like the her murderous mother. Right. And a lot of times these these early modern mothers who kill their children, who, as you point out statistically are fewer than men who kill their children. It is then is now like men commit way more domestic violence than women do. But women do it. It gets more attention. And it's because of this unnatural list. Right? Women mothers are supposed to be, as you say, it's the natural process whereby we actually think we incubate the child. And there's a lot of that kind of language of like, how could she like a bloody like a bloody tiger? A tiger wouldn't do a thing like this. A snake wouldn't do a thing like this. The child that she nursed in her body for 40 weeks and fed with her breasts, and there's all this kind of language of like how unnatural this is that you would destroy your own creation in this way. And I think that's really deep. Obviously, that plays it. I think at a really macro level, it plays into fears about like God destroying the earth. But I think on the more kind of social and cultural level, it just flies in the face of everything that women are supposed to be. We're supposed to be kind and gentle and nurturing and giving and selfless, and all of these things are intimately tied up with our concept of the mother, right? The mother just gives and gives and gives. The mother is is a a you know, a vessel that never runs dry. Right. That's what it's supposed to be. And so if a mother not only fails to deliver on all those counts, but actually turns on her children and even destroys them, this like, taps into, I think, some really elemental fears. And I think that's why we're so interested in it. And I think that's why we stay interested in it. And as a mother, I'm a mother as well. I think it's it strikes a particular chord because it's that on the one hand, yes, there's that schadenfreude or. Right, There's that. Well, I didn't do that. You didn't do that? Yeah. My, my, my kid cried all day, too, but I didn't, you know, throw him out a window. There's that. But there's also the more interesting thing is that on some level, I think anyone who has ever had to care for a small child, an infant, especially if you have recently given birth and your own body and your own mind are still you know, you're not yourself yet. I think anyone who's been in that position has been that exhausted, that frustrated, felt that inadequate, felt how hard it is to live up to all those things. I just enumerated that mothers are supposed to be can understand how it happens. And that's terrifying that there but for the grace of God go. I write that if I hadn't had my support network, if I hadn't had my level of education, if I hadn't known how to find help. Right. That the I might have done a thing like that. And I think that's why we can't look away. I think that's a big part of it. Yeah, that is actually one of the notes that I was just rereading here is that it's hard to make peace with that because, you know, whether it be it's like take guys who who commit murder, there's often the you find out that they had childhood trauma they were abused but then there's plenty of people say, well, so was I. But I didn't it you know kill five people. It's kind of the same thing here. It's there's there's so many women who deal with postpartum depression and then it's very easy to say, well, I didn't do that and I would never think of doing that. But it's exactly what you say. It's when you stare in the face, it's like, well, it's a really thin line of what, you know, the possibility of it. It's just it's a weird thing to kind of I just grapple with an iron out. Yeah. And if there's actually, you know, things out of whack that would respond to medication, this isn't just even a this goes beyond just being exhaustion of being overwhelmed, feeling inadequate, all of which are incredibly legitimate things that, you know, I certainly experienced as a mother of three children. But then you actually add in some sort of, you know, chemical balance or mental illness or, you know, various factors. Women have no resources. They have no help, they have no money, no one cares about them. We have a government that cares very much about fetuses or at least claims to care very much about fetuses. It doesn't care so much about babies or their mothers. You know, if they wind up needing extra help. So in answer to your question about the sort of coverage of these things, I do think and I hope I'm not being optimistic, I do think that I'm seeing a shift in the coverage. It's not that there wasn't any mention when the when the Yates murders happened in 2001 or maybe it was. Yes, it was one. There was talk of the fact that this woman hadn't for one reason or another, she didn't get the care that she needed. And there were a lot of factors at play there. She and her husband were evangelical Christians. They were part of this quiver full movement, which basically they want you to have as many children for Jesus as possible. It's God's will. You just keep having children as long as God sends them to you. She was homeschooling them all she had already had. I can't remember now if it was after her second or third child. She'd had a pretty serious case of postpartum depression to the point where her her gynecologist said she shouldn't have any more children. This is going to happen again. It's going to get worse. But they had, I think, two more children after that. Anyway. She was being insufficiently monitored. I mean, there was a lot of talk about the fact that this woman was, in her own way, a victim. And there was a lot of finger pointing at the husband. His name was Rusty. Rusty Yates for continuing to, you know, have children with her and allowing her to homeschool the children. She had five children under the age of seven and, you know, wasn't taking her medication. And there was a lot going on there. So it wasn't that the coverage of her was completely unsympathetic, but there was an awful lot of she's a monster. She she couldn't have done it if she because the insanity defense, they're doing same thing with Lindsey Clancy. The prosecution is saying, well, no, no, she can't have been insane because she knew what she was doing. She was able to make a plan and carried out both Lindsey Clancy, Andrea Yates and Margaret Robinson, for that matter, wait until their husbands were away and they knew they had a window in order to commit the crimes. And the prosecution in Clancy's case and in this case have argued that that's impossible, because if she was insane, she couldn't have made a plan, she couldn't have carried it out, etc., etc.. Of course, we know that's not true. People, people suffering from psychosi
05/09/2023

The true crime fascination with killer wives and mothers

The Pew Research Center found in 2022 that nearly 25% of top-ranked podcasts were true crime-related. In the next set of episodes, host Nat Cardona speaks with Dianne Berg, college professor and author of What's behind our enduring fascination with wives and mothers who kill, to explore why this niche of true crime fascinates so many. In this first episode, we discuss the history of the public's nearly-fanatical interest in mothers and wives who commit murder and why societies are particularly fascinated by these stories. To learn more about Dianne Berg, click here. Episode transcript Note: The following transcript was created by Slack and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically: Hey there, as a listener of this podcast, you must be at least somewhat into the whole true crime genre. But did you know that True Crime is the most common topic among top ranked podcasts? To be specific? The Pew Research Center reports that in 2022 almost a quarter of top podcasts are primarily about true crime. Welcome to Lee Enterprise's Late Edition Crime Beat Chronicles. I'm your host Nat Cardona. In the next two episodes, we're going to explore a very niche area of true crime stories. The obsession that fans seem to have with killer wives and mothers. But how does one even begin to tackle such a complex topic? Enter Dianne Berg. She's a professor at Clark University and the author of the article, what's behind our enduring fascination with wives and mothers who kill her? Research traces this phenomenon back to literature from the 15 hundreds and 16 hundreds with clearly printed details of the early fascination that people had with murderesses. And here's my interview with Dianne just to kick things off. Why don't you just tell me a little bit about yourself and your background and what you do? Nowadays. Ok. I, that's kind of hard to answer. I mean, where he, ok. Well, once upon a time before I decided to become an academic, I, was, the education program manager at a Museum of Medieval and Renaissance Arms and Armor, in Worcester, Massachusetts, called the Higgins Armory Museum, which is now sadly defunct. I left years before, it, it went out, sort of went out of business. But while I was there, I learned a great deal about, armor and, and weapons and warfare and medieval politics and things. I was always very interested in medieval renaissance, history and literature. But not so much that side of it. But it kind of opened up, a different window in, into these things for me doing that work. And when I left there, I realized that what I had enjoyed most about that job was researching and developing education programs. So, essentially, you know, going down research rabbit holes and writing things up. So I went and I got a master's degree and I did the master's degree basically to see if I wanted to get a phd. And after I had finished that, then I decided that I did indeed want to get a phd. So, my dissertation, my doctoral dissertation focused on kind of, literary representations of true crime between about 1550, 1650. And it was very interesting because the thing that jumped out at me when the project first started, the sort of germ of the project came about by accident when I was researching something completely different. And I came across this pamphlet about a woman named Margaret Vincent. And in 1616, she strangled two of her Children. She had 31 was away at the wet nurse and so was spared and she did so because she believed that she was saving them, she was saving them. She was taking them out of a sinful world. And her reason for this was that she wanted to convert to Roman Catholicism. And she thought if they didn't do that, then they were going to be damned. And her husband was not on board with that because basically being a Catholic was illegal was essentially illegal in early 17th century England. So she did this bad thing for what she believed were good reasons and this just rang a bell in my head because back in 2001, this woman named Andrea Yates in Texas who was an evangelical Christian. She strangled all five, she strangled and drowned all five of her Children. And like Margaret Vincent laid them out neatly on a bed and said afterwards that she had done so in order to save them. And so the, you know, this really kind of struck me and I wondered how many other cases where they're out there like this because we always hear about mothers who kill their Children as being, you know, evil monsters or, they want to get rid of the kids because they want to start a new relationship or, there's all these kinds of lurid stories that have been in the news just in the past 30 years or so. I think someone like Casey, Anthony. Right. But what about good mothers? Right. What about good mothers who do this terrible thing for what they believe at the time are good reasons. And then of course, we've just had this Lindsay Lacy case here in Massachusetts, which is unbelievably tragic and it is kind of still evolving in, in Andrea Yates case. Postpartum psychosis was at play in Lindsay Clancy's case. It certainly sounds as if postpartum psychosis was at play. We can't know what was going on with Margaret Vincent in 16 16, but she did have a new baby at the time. So, you know, I can't prove it. But I have, but I have my theories. So anyway, that particular story, stumbling upon that particular story was the kind of impetus for my doctoral work. And for most of the things that I've published since, and I'm actually about to teach a class focused on these, these kinds of stories and that leads us here today, which is why I'm talking with you. We had found that piece, the what's behind our enduring fascination with wives and mothers who kill because of all the things you said. It's just the, the women as the monsters and it's such a, there's so few and far between that. Yeah, it, people latch on to it and are fascinated by it. So we'll just kind of jump into, the piece that you've written today. Thank you for that all that back story leading us up to Margaret Vinson, Andrea Yates. And we'll get more into the modern day examples and parallels that you drew even with that Utah mother, which is how you started your article. But I kind of just want to jump into and maybe this is just me fan girling. But the the tolstoy quote that you popped in there, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way was a really good way to kick off. Why this could be a source of interest for a lot of people looking at, you know, other people and being like, oh, that's another family's problem and that, that can't happen here and we'll get into all of that. The first thing I wanna jump into is you mentioned how true crime is. Nothing new. It's always been a tale as old as time that people are fascinated with it and devour it in different ways. Nowadays, we've got the podcasts and the documentaries and novels and this and that. But from your background and the you know, 15, 50 16 50 that, that time range, it was not, obviously those things you mentioned, ballads, domestic tragedies and these penny pamphlets. Can you, like, explain what those are like? Like, what the hell are those? Yeah, it's really interesting. So, you know, there's no, news reporting in this period, right? Like what we would think of as, you know, news reporting. But news does get disseminated obviously. So, you know, if there's a big scandal, there is going to be ways for people to find out about it. So we're, it's very interesting because we're also kind of in the early days of print, right? The printing press arise in England in 14 75 William Caxton is the first guy to use the printing press in London in 14 75. And he starts printing, aside from obviously religious things, you know, we're gonna are gonna get kind of priority. He printed the Canterbury Tales and he, he printed Thomas Mallory's more Arthur. It sort of like gives us some sense of what people were interested in reading, right? So think about like, what were the first websites, right? Because you can really make the printing press analogous to the internet. Like, so what were the first things that started appearing on the internet? It tells us something about what people were interested back in those like embryonic. It, you know, information superhighway days. So by the middle of the 15 hundreds. You're getting more kind of political tracks being printed And starting to see chronicles. So basically, these are what pass for. They're not really news, they're kind of somewhere between like the encyclopedia Bria or something. There's several chronicles that are very famous and their names aren't, aren't really important for our conversation. But Rafael Hole and, and John Stow several others and they print these sort of big chronicles that are gonna give you the history of England, everything important that ever happened. And, and mostly they just talk about kings and queens and battles and the usual things you would expect. But this murder that happened in 15 51 which I write about in the article Thomas Arden, he was murdered on Valentine's Day 15 51 by his wife Alice and she conspired with her lover, a guy named Mosby, and some of some of their servants and a couple of hired killers. The whole thing is actually kind of slapstick when I teach this. When I teach the, the text that's based on the play Arden and my students are always like, I've had these murders compared to the wet Bandits in home alone, they're kind of incompetent. That was good. But but I can't get it out of my head. But anyway, so this is, these are just middle class bourgeois people living in a London suburb. And there's nothing important or famous or particularly interesting about them except the woman conspires to murder her husband. And this winds up in one of these chronicles, it winds up in Holland. It's chro
14/04/2023

It's the end for 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.' Hear from Rachel Brosnahan, Michael Zegen and other stars

It's the end of the road for an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning comedy series. “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is back for its fifth and final season, with episodes dropping weekly starting April 14 on Amazon Prime Video. For this episode of Streamed & Screened, hosts Bruce Miller and Terry Lipshetz, provide a (mostly) spoiler-free analysis of the the program, which is a favorite of both. Also hear from the stars, including clips from Rachel Brosnahan (Miriam "Midge" Maisel), Alex Borstein (Susie Myerson), Tony Shalhoub (Abraham "Abe" Weissman) and Kevin Pollak (Moishe Maisel) who reflect on the characters, the series and whether we might see them all reprise their roles in the future as part of a feature-length movie. Bruce also has an interview with Michael Zegen, who plays Midge's ex-husband Joel Maisel, who offers thoughts of his own on the program. Whether you're a longtime fan of the show or looking for an introduction before you binge the whole thing over a long weekend, you'll want to give this episode a listen. About the show Read more: REVIEW: 'Mrs. Maisel' ends with marvelous update Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video Cast: Rachel Brosnahan as Miriam "Midge" Maisel Alex Borstein as Susie Myerson Michael Zegen as Joel Maisel Marin Hinkle as Rose Weissman Tony Shalhoub as Abraham "Abe" Weissman Kevin Pollak as Moishe Maisel Caroline Aaron as Shirley Maisel Luke Kirby as Lenny Bruce Jane Lynch as Sophie Lennon Created by: Amy Sherman-Palladino Executive producers: Amy Sherman-Palladino, Daniel Palladino Producers: Dhana Gilbert, Matthew Shapiro, Salvatore Carino, Sheila Lawrence About the show Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin. Episode transcript Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically: A lot of young women trying standup comedy for the first time, which is so awesome and long overdue. It's been incredible to hear how his legacy has already affected people, and I'm really excited to see how she lives on. That voice you just heard was Rachel Brosnahan, who stars as Miriam ‘Midge’ Maisel in ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee Enterprises and a co-host of Streamed and Screened, an entertainment podcast about movies and TV. Joining me, as always, is the incomparable Bruce Miller, editor of the Sioux City Journal and a longtime entertainment reporter. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is back for its fifth and final season with episodes dropping weekly starting April 14th on Amazon Prime Video. Bruce It will be an end of an era for one of the most popular shows on that platform. Certainly big shoes to fill. First of all, why was it not the marvelous Bruce Miller? This is now this is how this should be. This is how he introduced me. Right. It's interesting because this is a show that I think people lost track of because of the big gaps between seasons. Was it over? Is it over? And when they see this fifth season and I've seen the whole thing, they will go, Oh my God, there's so much in that fifth season because they do a lot of time jumps. So you're not going to just see one season, one year play out. It goes into the future and you find out things about her children. You find out things about her husband, her ex-husband, her friends, Susie. All of those people come into play at some point. And so it flashes back and forth and it's I think it pays. It rewards the people who have been loyal. And you get to see a lot of fun. So there is and I you know, I'm really I should say nothing. But there is one kind of cute thing where they're showing, you know, did she have a lot of dresses? And they show the racks of her clothes all. My God, what is this? She did have it because I don't think she ever wore anything twice. No, I don't remember it. And you also, I think, see growth in Mrs. Maysles comedy career, how she's able to tell, you know, I always thought, is she making this crap up on the fly? And every night, is she not writing this down so that she can, you know, retell it at another place? It seemed like every every routine she did was just of the moment. And you see how she does all that. And there is a scene in the last episode that is on Be Livable, and that's as much as I can tell you on the spoiler end of things. But okay, no spoilers. You know, when you first watched it, what surprised you most about it? For me personally, I was sucked in because I'm a native of New York City, okay? And for me, my wife is from just outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin. And it's been an interesting ride because she's she's Catholic. I was raised Catholic, but my dad was Jewish. But for me, it's kind of seeing that cultural the cultural phenomenon of New York, the Jewish culture, even though I'm I didn't grow up in the fifties or sixties, I was born in the mid seventies, but for me I could relate to it. And I thought that they kept this show like it's fiction, but it's also really easy. And I think it was that reality that kind of kept bringing me back. So a couple of things, if you don't mind me throwing these out, because we're going to be talking a lot about I mean, we're basically going to just talk about the show with Mrs. Basil. Yes, this is the Mrs. Maisel episode. So first off, the beauty of streaming is if you have not watched this show yet, just go back and watch it. You know, go get Amazon Prime if you don't have it already and start cranking through them. My wife and I didn't start this until the 2020 lockdown. There was already in between season three and seven season for that really long gap they were talking about. But we had nothing to watch during it. So we're kind of crushing through Netflix and Hulu and anything we could find. And we hopped into Mrs. Maisel and for some reason I didn't know much about it at the time. I was saying, What is this like some superhero thing? Because it kind of played with some of those Marvel titles that you hear. But it's a it's a comedy. It takes place, I guess, you know, like late 1950s, early 1960s. Rachael Brosnahan plays Miriam Midge Maisel. She's a housewife with very strong Jewish personalities in her life. Between her her husband and her parents and her in-laws. Alex Borstein plays Susie Myerson. She manages The Gaslight Cafe. Becomes a manager. She wants to be a manager. She's there. Michael Zegen is Joel Maseil while her husband and there's a Tony Shalhoub is in it as her father. There's a lot of actors you will know. Kevin Pollak is her father in law. It was a Jane. Lynch turned up as. Jane Lynch. Yeah. So it's it's an awesome ensemble cast. So and it's also a lot of reality. So Luke Kirby plays Lenny. Bruce. Right? So he's a real person, very controversial comic of the time, but becomes Midge's friend over time and helps guide her career. Midge Maisel, a fictional character, but she's based on Joan Rivers, who had a relationship with Lenny Bruce and started at the Gaslight Cafe, which was a real location. It's where, if you've ever heard of a musician named Bob Dylan, you've heard of Bob Dylan before.Bruce Never heard of him. Never heard of him. So he was a young man. Robert Zimmerman out of Hibbing, Minnesota. Probably did. Well, is he did. He did well. So he came to New York City and was kind of brought under the wing of a folk singer named Dave Van Ronk, who is who is the mayor of MacDougal Street down in the village of New York City. They performed at the Gaslight. This is a real location. So it's the beauty of this show is, you know, you're getting a little bit of a history lesson of the time and it but it's still a fictional comedy. It's hilarious. I love it. It's very you know, some of it is kind of on the surface kind of comedy and you pick it up really quick. But some of it's very deep, too, and it kind of gets into, you know, the place of women at the time in the 1950s and, you know, kind of being you're the housewife. Take care of the kids. Joel wants to be the comic. He's the one that's going to be the comedian. And of course, the tables get turned. But yeah, you're right. I mean, with the dresses, even as the show progresses and, you know, she's short on cash, sometimes it's like, how can you afford this apartment? Where are all these dresses coming from? It's ridiculous. The clothing budget does not suffer. She will always have a great outfit. What I find fascinating was each year it got bigger. You know, you start out and it's kind of like, Oh, this is doing a period show is expensive. And they didn't. They just threw it out there. They went to a summer camp, you know, and that can't be easy to recreate, particularly of that era. Then they go to a USO show, which is huge in an airplane hangar. They go to Paris, for God's sakes. This season, you're going to see them in New York and you're going to see a lot of landmarks in New York, particularly Rockefeller Center, which they use like a drum. They are around that building all the time. So that's that's fascinating to see. And the cast, there are so many people over those four seasons that get a return visit in the fifth. So it's it's kind of like a reunion. And you go, Oh my God, That was from remember when they did that? And she was in that. And then there's also a bit of, Oh, how can I how can I say this without saying this? It reminds you of if you saw my favorite year, if you saw laughter on the 23rd floor, if you saw any of those kind of looks at what Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris did during the early days of television. With your show of shows, there are references to those kinds of things, so you get a real sense of the time. I think you really get to see wh
04/09/2024

'Reagan' falls short and 'The Chicken Sisters' arrive

One of the biggest movies during this sluggish weekend at movie theaters was "Reagan," the life-spanning look at former President Ronald Reagan starring Dennis Quaid in the title role and Penelope Ann Miller as Nancy Reagan. Co-host Bruce Miller shares his disappointment in the film that simply covers too much ground, while he and co-host Terry Lipshetz reflect on previous films about presidents (real and fictional). Bruce also has an interview with Leah Thompson of "Back to the Future" fame and Schuyler Fisk, the daughter of Sissy Spacek, who talk about their new Hallmark+ series "The Chicken Sisters," based on the book of the same name. The show premieres Sept. 10. Contact us! We want to hear from you! Email questions to podcasts@lee.net and we'll answer your question on a future episode! About the show Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin.
26/09/2024

The mystery of 'Grotesquerie' and Travis Kelce

When it comes to "Grotesquerie," there is a lot of mystery surrounding the horror drama that just premiered on FX with episodes heading to Hulu the next day. The latest series from Ryan Murphy ("Nip/Tuck," "Glee," "American Horror Story," "9-1-1") features Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in some capacity, but the showrunner and the program's stars are not revealing much. In this episode, co-host Bruce Miller has two sets of interviews, first with Micaela Dimond and Nicholas Chavez, and then with Courtney B. Vance and Raven Goodwin. Miller and co-host Terry Lipshetz then talk about the biggest movie in theaters right now, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" that is a bit underwhelming. The hosts also chat about another sequel, "Transformers One." Contact us! We want to hear from you! Email questions to podcasts@lee.net and we'll answer your question on a future episode! About the show Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin. Theme music Thunder City by Lunareh, used under license from Soundstripe. YouTube clearance: FV694ULMCJQDG0IY
25/03/2024

How weather affects your electricity

Thunderstorms, hurricanes, and heatwaves all impact how electricity is generated and how it gets to your home. But not all weather impacts it equally. Plus, as renewable energy continues to scale up, how is high-precision weather forecasting going to ensure reliable power to homes and businesses? Meteorologists Jeff Mock and Erin Guidry Hurd from Dominion Energy in Virginia join us to talk about how weather impacts the power grid and how they work with other power companies to minimize disruptions and get people back online after a storm. We want to hear from you! Have a question for the meteorologists? Call 609-272-7099 and leave a message. You might hear your question and get an answer on a future episode! You can also email questions or comments to podcasts@lee.net, subject line: Across The Sky. Check out our sponsor, WeatherCall NexGen! Receive precise, location-specific weather alerts via phone, text, or email. With over a decade of experience, WeatherCall delivers pinpoint accuracy for your exact address, ensuring no surprises. Explore the WeatherCall difference today! Visit: https://weathercallservices.com/lee-enterprises About the Across the Sky podcast A weekly podcast discussing all things weather and climate. The podcast is hosted by the meteorologists of the Lee Weather Team: Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.
08/04/2024

Hurricane Outlook '24: Why a busy season is expected

Colorado State University, one of the premier organizations behind hurricane seasonal forecasting, has issued its most aggressive April hurricane outlook on record — with 23 named storms forecast for the 2024 Atlantic season. Alex DesRosiers from Colorado State joins the team this week to talk about why this season is expected to be so active. He also discusses his research that looks deeper into what causes hurricanes to undergo rapid intensification. We want to hear from you! Have a question for the meteorologists? Call 609-272-7099 and leave a message. You might hear your question and get an answer on a future episode! You can also email questions or comments to podcasts@lee.net, subject line: Across The Sky. Check out our sponsor, WeatherCall NexGen! Receive precise, location-specific weather alerts via phone, text, or email. With over a decade of experience, WeatherCall delivers pinpoint accuracy for your exact address, ensuring no surprises. Explore the WeatherCall difference today! Visit: https://weathercallservices.com/lee-enterprises About the Across the Sky podcast A weekly podcast discussing all things weather and climate. The podcast is hosted by the meteorologists of the Lee Weather Team: Matt Holiner of Lee Enterprises' Midwest group in Chicago, Kirsten Lang of the Tulsa World in Oklahoma, Joe Martucci of the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., and Sean Sublette of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia.
27 May

Why do people need challenge more than comfort?

Episode 248: Human beings have spent centuries making life easier, safer and more efficient — so why do so many people still feel restless, disengaged or unfulfilled? Hosts Richard Kyte and Scott Rada examine whether comfort alone can ever provide a meaningful life. Drawing on examples ranging from artificial intelligence and social media to camping trips, hobbies and lifelong learning, the conversation looks at why people seem to thrive when they are moving toward something challenging, unfamiliar or difficult. Kyte argues that modern society presents a unique problem. For most of human history, survival itself demanded constant effort. Today, technology often removes many of those pressures, creating more leisure time and convenience than previous generations could have imagined. But while that progress has undeniable benefits, it also creates a new responsibility: finding purposeful ways to stay engaged with life rather than drifting into passivity and routine. The episode explores the difference between using technology as a tool for growth versus using it to avoid effort altogether. Kyte discusses how curiosity, social connection and learning new skills help people remain energized and mentally active throughout life. The hosts also reflect on aging, boredom and the danger of becoming too settled in familiar routines. Along the way, the discussion touches on everything from musical tastes and smartphones to woodworking, knife making and birdwatching apps — all as examples of how people can continue expanding their understanding of the world rather than retreating into comfort and repetition. The conversation also takes a personal turn as Kyte reflects on watching his father gradually withdraw from meaningful activity late in life, contrasting that experience with relatives who remained curious and engaged well into old age.
1 Jul

How would you respond to these four ethical dilemmas?

Episode 253: Hosts Richard Kyte and Scott Rada are off this week, so we looked back through our show's archives and are sharing four of our favorite ethical dilemmas from the past few months. Topics include how to respond when you catch a stranger in a lie, decline a destination wedding invitation you can’t afford, use technology appropriately while enjoying nature and handle a boss who doesn’t give you credit for your work. We will be back next week with a brand-new episode.
15 Apr

'The Testaments' brings viewers back to Gilead. Is it too soon?

The final season of "The Handmaid's Tale" wrapped less than a year ago, yet here we are, back inside Gilead. "The Testaments," Hulu's spinoff series based on Margaret Atwood's second novel of the same name, takes viewers several years past the events of the final season. The red cloaks of handmaids are nowhere to be seen. Instead, we follow Plum Girls and Pearl Girls as a new generation of young women navigates this dystopian future, in a show starring Chase Infiniti as Agnes MacKenzie/Hannah Bankole. Infiniti is coming off her starring performance in the Oscar-winning "One Battle After Another." In this episode, co-host Bruce Miller talks with Mattea Conforti (Becka Grove) and Rowan Blanchard (Shunammite), two of the new cast members, who share their thoughts on the current and former series. Additionally, co-host Terry Lipshetz shares his thoughts on the new seasons of "For All Mankind" and "Shrinking," the new film "Project Hail Mary," and AMC's switch from the annual popcorn bucket to its new Popcorn Pass. About the show Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is the retired editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin. The show was named Best Podcast in the 2025 Iowa Better Newspaper Contest. Theme music Thunder City by Lunareh, used under license from Soundstripe. YouTube clearance: FV694ULMCJQDG0IY

Our podcasts include: Hot off the Wire (daily news), Across the Sky (weather, climate and meteorology), Streamed & Screened (movies, television, reviews and interviews), Late Edition: Crime Beat Chronicles (true-crime), The Ethical Life (ethics and modern life), PennyWise (personal finance) and Behind the Headlines (stories behind the stories). Lee Enterprises is a leading provider of local news and information, and a major platform for advertising, with daily newspapers, rapidly-growing digital products, marketing services, innovative technology and nearly 350 weekly and specialty publications serving 73 markets in 26 states.

Website

Lee Enterprises Podcasts

Top Shows

Top Episodes

About