The Big Hit Show Higher Ground

There were two verdicts on Fight Club: the opening-weekend box office numbers (spoiler alert: yikes) and the judgment of history. We’ll look at how Fight Club channeled the anti-consumerist politics of its moment, and explore some of the more provocative arguments made in the ensuing years about this still-contentious cult classic and its take on modern men.
TRANSCRIPT: HERE
CREDITS:
Host, Writer: Alex Pappademas
Showrunner: Colin McNulty
Producers: Sabrina Fang and Taylor Jones
Production Assistant and Fact Checker: Stella Hartman
Composer, Sound Designer, Mix Engineer: Alex MacInnis
Studio Direction and Theme Music: Dan Leone
Executive Producer for Western Sound: Ben Adair
Editor: Jamie York
Executive Producers for Higher Ground: Dan Fierman, Anna Holmes, Mukta Mohan, Janae Marable
Editorial Assistant for Higher Ground: Jenna Levin
Executive Producers for Spotify: Daniel Ek, Dawn Ostroff, Julie McNamara, Corinne Gilliard
Special Thanks: Joe Paulsen and Eric Spiegelman 
Archival tape provided by: WTF with Marc Maron
Pawn Stars footage courtesy of A+E Networks
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Seriously, though— how did a movie as unashamedly anti-capitalist and absurdly homoerotic as Fight Club get made by a major studio, let alone a studio owned by Rupert Murdoch? In this episode, an unlikely piece of material— and an uncompromising director’s vision for that material— somehow survives the Hollywood machine, some potentially disastrous PR, and the disdain of a billionaire who doesn’t care for movies.
TRANSCRIPT: HERE
CREDITS:
Host, Writer: Alex Pappademas
Showrunner: Colin McNulty
Producers: Sabrina Fang and Taylor Jones
Production Assistant and Fact Checker: Stella Hartman
Composer, Sound Designer, Mix Engineer: Alex MacInnis
Studio Direction and Theme Music: Dan Leone
Executive Producer for Western Sound: Ben Adair
Editor: Jamie York
Executive Producers for Higher Ground: Dan Fierman, Anna Holmes, Mukta Mohan, Janae Marable
Editorial Assistant for Higher Ground: Jenna Levin
Executive Producers for Spotify: Daniel Ek, Dawn Ostroff, Julie McNamara, Corinne Gilliard
Special Thanks: Joe Paulsen and Eric Spiegelman 
Archival tape provided by: BAFTA
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There would be no Fight Club without Chuck Pahlaniuk, the diesel mechanic turned novelist who dreamed up the concept during a shift on the assembly line. In this episode we’re diving into the wild life of Fight Club’s author and the people, places and experiences that shaped his most famous creation, from his traumatic childhood to culture-jamming shenanigans in ‘90s Portland.
TRANSCRIPT: HERE
CREDITS:
Host, Writer: Alex Pappademas
Showrunner: Colin McNulty
Producers: Sabrina Fang and Taylor Jones
Production Assistant and Fact Checker: Stella Hartman
Composer, Sound Designer, Mix Engineer: Alex MacInnis
Studio Direction and Theme Music: Dan Leone
Executive Producer for Western Sound: Ben Adair
Editor: Jamie York
Executive Producers for Higher Ground: Dan Fierman, Anna Holmes, Mukta Mohan, Janae Marable
Editorial Assistant for Higher Ground: Jenna Levin
Executive Producers for Spotify: Daniel Ek, Dawn Ostroff, Julie McNamara, Corinne Gilliard
Special Thanks: Joe Paulsen and Eric Spiegelman 
Archival tape provided by: The Tim Ferriss Show and Armchair Expert
This episode includes discussion of suicide. Please keep this in mind when deciding if, how and when you’ll listen. For resources on these topics, visit resources.byspotify.com
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It’s easy to reduce Fight Club’s legacy to a few pop-cultural bullet points: The First Rule, the Second Rule, Brad Pitt’s abs. But in 2022 hindsight, this radical 1999 sleeper hit feels more relevant than ever. We’re looking at the messed up crystal ball that is Fight Club and what it still has to tell us about capitalism, masculinity, and the human yearning to f**k shit up.
TRANSCRIPT: HERE
CREDITS:
Host, Writer: Alex Pappademas
Showrunner: Colin McNulty
Producers: Sabrina Fang and Taylor Jones
Production Assistant and Fact Checker: Stella Hartman
Composer, Sound Designer, Mix Engineer: Alex MacInnis
Studio Direction and Theme Music: Dan Leone
Executive Producer for Western Sound: Ben Adair
Editor: Jamie York
Executive Producers for Higher Ground: Dan Fierman, Anna Holmes, Mukta Mohan, Janae Marable
Editorial Assistant for Higher Ground: Jenna Levin
Executive Producers for Spotify: Daniel Ek, Dawn Ostroff, Julie McNamara, Corinne Gilliard
Special Thanks: Joe Paulsen and Eric Spiegelman 
Archival tape provided by: SBIFF (Santa Barbara International Film Festival)
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The Big Hit Show Season 3 debuts on July 13th. Making satire is hard. And what if the satire you make is so cool, so star-studded, so subversive that the audience takes the wrong message from it? In Season 3 of The Big Hit Show, we’re breaking the first rule of Fight Club to dive deep into David Fincher’s 1999 film, tracing its journey from box office flop to cult classic. In the 90s, the story it told seemed far-fetched to a lot of folks, but these days Fight Club can be seen as an eerily prescient warning about the disaffection of young American men and a crystal ball for where we are today. 
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Kendrick communes with ghosts—specifically the ghost of Tupac Shakur—as he faces the central questions about leadership and responsibility that drive To Pimp a Butterfly.
TRANSCRIPT: HERE
CREDITS:
Host, Writer: Alex Pappademas
Showrunner: Colin McNulty
Producers: Taylor Jones and Sabrina Fang
Production Assistant: Stella Hartmann
Composer, Sound Designer, Mix Engineer: Alex MacInnis
Theme Song: Dan Leone
Fact Checker: Savannah Wright
Archival Audio Provider - Joshua Mellin
Executive Producer for Western Sound: Ben Adair
Executive Producers for Higher Ground: Dan Fierman, Anna Holmes, Mukta Mohan, Janae Marable 
Editorial Assistant for Higher Ground: Jenna Levin
Executive Producers for Spotify: Daniel Ek, Dawn Ostroff, Julie McNamara and Corinne Gilliard 
Special Thanks: Joe Paulsen and Eric Spiegelman
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