Brett Rader
Guest Appearances
November 13, 2017
Remember the LOST pilot? It was basically an incredible JJ Abrams movie with plane crashes, polar bears, and dreamy Matthew Fox. If only that first episode aired– it would’ve been a cult phenomenon– an all-time pop-culture “what-if?” But instead we got LOST– the time-traveling, island-hopping sci-fi adventure of diminishing returns.
On this week’s podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by Carmen Angelica and Brett Rader, the two hosts of Cracked’s newest podcast series Best Episode Ever, to talk about 10 innovative TV pilots that almost made it to series but will forever be “what-ifs.”
And make sure to subscribe to Cracked’s newest podcast Best Episode Ever, where Carmen and Brett will dissect your favorite TV series and try to find each show’s best episode ever. Tomorrow they’ll discuss Friends with Cracked favorite Katie Willert. Search for “Best Episode Ever” in your podcast app of choice or click on the footnotes below to find links to it on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher.
Footnotes: https://goo.gl/G8GfYZ
October 23, 2017
Aside from a couple original standouts, horror movies seem to trot out the same 5 or 6 monsters/killers/haunted board games each year. It’s The Fourth Life-Partner of Chucky (they’re not putting labels on things). Saw 3.14: Circular Saw! Oui-3: Revenge of the Ouija!
The ‘Saw’ joke isn’t even a joke. The 8th ‘Saw’ movie is coming out this year. There are no remaining Hollywood actors who haven’t been murdered by the Jigsaw killer.
To end the stale repetition put forth by the horror industrial complex, Alex Schmidt is joined by a panel of Cracked’s David Christopher Bell and Brett Rader, as well as comics Hallie Cantor, Greg Edwards and Danielle Radford to talk about 15 real life urban legends and folk monsters that deserve their own horror franchise that runs about four films too long.
Footnotes: https://goo.gl/Ra9XKN
This episode is brought to you by Squarespace (www.squarespace.com code: CRACKED).
October 9, 2017
New York. Paris. Tokyo. Miami. Even if you’ve never been to these cities (and sometimes, even if you have) the visions that come rushing to your mind at the mere mention of their names are images from movies. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton on a park bench in front of the Queensboro Bridge, Scarlett Johansson wandering through Shibuya Crossing, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy doing Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy things in a boat on the Seine.
It’s a cliché, but certain world cities become characters in the movies in which they are set. And sometimes, **cough cough Judd Apatow**, movies are just set in the Los Angeles suburbs for no discernible reason other than the actors and director didn’t want to travel very far to get to work.
On this week’s podcast, inspired by and recorded in New York, Alex Schmidt is joined by Cracked’s Daniel Dockery, Brett Rader and Michael Swaim, as well former Cracked columnist Cher Martinetti, to discuss their 9 favorite movie locales and lay a city-sized crown on the one they think is the best place to set a movie.
Foot notes: https://goo.gl/xyX2qM
September 18, 2017
If you’re a movie fan in 2017, you’re hard pressed to find many original sci-fi films. There are a lot more Alien: Covenants and Blade Runner: 2 0 49s than Ex Machinas. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just sometimes sci-fi fans want to experience something new, something fresh, something that’s not in the Transformers expanded universe.
I mean, it’s 2017. There are new planets and technologies being discovered every day. Surely some of them would make for the basis of a good sci-fi movie.
So on this week’s podcast, Alex Schmidt puts together a panel to research as many new and groundbreaking science stories as possible and pitch them as sci-fi movies. He’s joined live in New York at the Now Hear This podcast festival by Cracked’s Brett Rader and Michael Swaim, and comedians Claudia Cogan and Negin Farsad to discuss sense vests, head transplants, robot vines and more.
Links, footnotes and more: https://goo.gl/1NdCEy
This episode is brought to you by Stamps.com (www.stamps.com code: CRACKED) and Casper Mattresses (www.casper.com/cracked).
July 17, 2017
All the hip young kids are using a thing called the internet these days. In fact, if you’re reading this summary or listening to this episode, odds are you’re using the internet right now. But what if it all just went away? No podcasts, no turn-by-turn directions, no swiping for romantic partners, hell, most of us wouldn’t even have jobs if there were no internet (see: everyone at Cracked).
It’s an interesting thought experiment to…think about…and experiment on. What would you do for a living; how would you get by day-to-day without the comfort, the convenience, the necessity of the internet?
Alex Schmidt and Kristi Harrison ask the Cracked staff that very question in this episode. They chat with Abe Epperson, Tom Reimann, Ann Smiley, Saundra Sorenson and Brett Rader about the unthinkable–how could we live 21st century life without the internet?
East Coast! The Cracked Podcast is coming to you! The Cracked Podcast will be a part of the Now Hear This podcast festival in New York, taking place September 8th-10th. For $20 off your ticket, head to NowHearThisFest.com and enter code ‘CRACKED’ at checkout.
Guys. Gals. Aliens. Did you miss the premiere of Cracked’s newest podcast, Cracked Movie Club? Don’t worry. There’s plenty of time to catch up. Hosts Tom Reimann and Abe Epperson feature a new director each month as they do a deep into four of the director’s films with jokes, insane behind-the-scene stories and crazy fan theories. And July is devoted to none other than Steven Spielberg.
Listen to their episode about Raiders of the Lost Ark here: https://goo.gl/ygBfW1
Listen to their episode about Jurassic Park here: https://goo.gl/FK9gV4
And to hear the newest episode each and every Thursday, search for Cracked Movie Club in your podcast app of choice or click here to find it on Apple Podcasts: https://goo.gl/fQ2o72
Footnotes:
Data: Pew Research: Internet/Broadband Fact Sheet: https://goo.gl/zc7G2e
Article: Pew Research: How US Tech-Sector Jobs Have Grown, Changed In 15 Years: https://goo.gl/KfE5sx
Data: TechCrunch: Unicorn Leaderboard: https://goo.gl/QhMzds
Article: Mashable: Twitter’s Massive 2008: https://goo.gl/64sLFp
Book: Seneca: On The Shortness Of Life: https://goo.gl/sRJS3c
Article: MIT Technology Review: First Object Teleported From Earth To Orbit: https://goo.gl/dvhKiq
Article: New York Times: ‘Manspreading’ on New York Subways Is Target of New M.T.A. Campaign: https://goo.gl/BkS5r2
May 8, 2017
The script is different but the wording is always roughly the same. Every few months some retiring journalist, former tech-mogul or aspiring Tomi Lahren-type goes viral because they’ve had it up to *here* with these gosh darn millennials. Between their clamoring for single-payer healthcare and their complaining about unpaid internships, it’s like they hate America or something. Why can’t they appreciate what they’ve got and be exactly what the generation before wants them to be?
We’ve heard it a million times and, frankly, it’s all bullshit. You know how we know? Because every generation has been lodging the same 4 complaints about their successors since the beginning of the written language (and probably before that too). Grug and all the other teens don’t care about hunting mammoths like their fathers, they just sit around playing with those newfangled *wheels* all day. As long as we keep having kids, this will happen until the end of time.
On this week’s podcast, resident Gen-X’er-in-chief Jack O’Brien welcomes young upstarts Katie Goldin, Brett Rader and Josh Sargent onto the show to discuss why this never-ending argument is bullshit. They discuss some flaws in logic behind popular anti-millennial rants and call out some shady statistics that news outlets circulate to prop-up these arguments.
And make sure to get tickets to our next LIVE Cracked Podcast, coming up on Saturday, May 13th at 7pm at the UCB Sunset Theatre in Los Angeles. Jack O’Brien is joined by Cracked’s Carmen Angelica, Alex Schmidt and Michael Swaim, and comedian Blake Wexler to combine the podcast’s two favorite topics: great moments in history and binge drinking.
They’ll discuss the drafting of the US Constitution, the Russian Revolution and other famous moments in history where everyone was completely sh*tfaced. Tickets are only $7 and available here: https://goo.gl/PWmm2y
Footnotes:
Article: Cracked: This Millennial Rant Deserves A Trophy For Being Most Wrong: https://goo.gl/7xeex8
Article: The Society Pages: Adventures in Garbage-Millennial Confirmation Bias: https://goo.gl/cri4JA
Article: Cracked: 5 Lies Millennials And Baby Boomers Believe About Each Other: https://goo.gl/lFWuCt
Article: Cracked: 4 Terrible Parts of Pop Culture (With Weird Bright Sides): https://goo.gl/fIEPXj
Article: The New Yorker: The Big Uneasy: https://goo.gl/RyCzrx
Article: The New Yorker: The “Founder” Generation’s Creation Myth: https://goo.gl/Fn73e8
Book: Morley Winograd: Millennial Momentum: https://goo.gl/PfxdRb
This episode is brought to you by Audible (www.audible.com/CRACKED) and Adam and Eve (www.adamandeve.com code: CRACKED).