For this special Rewind episode, Kyle Meredith talks with DJ Shadow and Black Eyed Peas’ Taboo and apl.de.ap about pushing their artistry into bold new directions. DJ Shadow takes us inside The Mountain Will Fall, his first “artist show” in four years, the rediscovery of long-lost multi-tracks, and how staying forward-thinking keeps his music vital. Taboo and apl.de.ap discuss “Street Livin” as a raw diagnosis of America’s social and political climate, their continued activism from Standing Rock to schools in the Philippines, and Masters Of The Sun, a Marvel-published graphic novel expanded into augmented and virtual reality with an all-star voice cast and a Hans Zimmer-assisted soundtrack.

Listen to DJ Shadow and Black Eyed Peas’ Taboo and apl.de.ap chat about all this and more. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.

Legendary animator Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Hotel Transylvania) talks with Kyle Meredith about his new Netflix film Fixed, a raunchy, 17-years-in-the-making adult animated comedy about a good dog’s wild final 24 hours before being neutered. Tartakovsky gets into the pitch’s “Seinfeld feature” origins, why dogs made the best cast, pushing boundaries without crossing his own comedic lines, and how Idris Elba went full James Bond-to-balls with his voice performance. He also reflects on the long fight to get adult animation in feature form and why this might be the perfect time for its return.

Listen to Genndy Tartakovsky chat about all this and more or watch it on YouTube. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.

The Alien franchise has never been short on xenomorphs, but FX’s Alien: Earth proves there’s plenty more to fear than acid blood and chestbursters. In a conversation with Kyle Meredith, showrunner Noah Hawley, producer David W. Zucker, and cast members Timothy Olyphant, Sydney Chandler, Samuel Blenkin, Alex Lawther, and Babou Ceesay unpacked the series’ deeper bite: AI ethics, corporate dystopias, and what happens when humanity hardwires itself into machines. Listen to all of the conversations now.

Hawley says his entry point wasn’t just the monster, but “the moment Sigourney Weaver leans back and Ian Holm is revealed to be an android,” sparking a story about “being trapped between the primordial past and an AI future you created that’s now turning on you.” Chandler adds that Alien: Earth doesn’t “feed the audience answers,” but leaves space for viewers to chew on questions long after the credits roll. And while the genre demands a little running-and-screaming, the cast was just as invested in the subtler moments. “I’m rooting for us,” Olyphant quips about his stance on AI, “but yeah, I’m a little iffy on it all.”

Even in a universe built on corporate greed and hybrid consciousness, the performers resisted the urge to play cyborgs and synthetics as soulless automatons. Ceesay framed his character’s dead-eyed determination as a coping mechanism for trauma, while Blenkin relished his Peter Pan–inspired villain’s warped morality: “He’s completely misread the book… He sees himself as a superhero.” Lawther sums up the on-set energy as being “like a magpie, collecting things” about AI, even if none of them could actually explain how it works. All agreed the humanity—flawed, obsessive, or childlike—is what makes the terror hit harder.

Listen to cast of Alien Earth chat about all this and more. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.

Documentarian Amy Berg has tackled powerful subjects before — from clergy abuse to the West Memphis Three — but this time, she's turned her lens on one of music’s most luminous and elusive figures: Jeff Buckley. In a conversation with Kyle Meredith, Berg opens up about It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, a documentary that traces the short, brilliant life of the Grace singer through rare archival footage, intimate interviews, and a narrative woven with personal depth. It’s a project that took over a decade to come together, and one that goes beyond the myth to reveal a complicated, driven, and beautifully human artist. Listen now.

“There’s only going to be one time this is going to happen,” Berg explains, referencing the trust it took for Buckley’s mother Mary Guibert to allow the project to move forward. “I’ve wanted final cut since 2009, and she just finally felt ready.” The result is a film shaped just as much by vulnerability as by sound. Buckley’s infamous self-doubt, perfectionism, and emotional openness are front and center. “He knew he was great, but he didn’t really accept that he was great,” Berg says. “He was hard on himself because it had to be perfect.” The documentary dives deep into his relationships — not just with family or lovers, but with his gift, which Berg calls his greatest challenge.

The conversation also touched on Buckley’s kindred connection with Chris Cornell — another powerhouse vocalist who blurred the lines between vulnerability and intensity. “Some singers become method actors when they perform,” Berg notes, recalling a recent interview she did with Euphoria Morning producer Alain Johannes. “That’s what Jeff did, and that’s what Chris did, too.” She also reveals that her next documentary will focus on Cornell, making It’s Never Over feel like the first part of a larger conversation.

Bonus footage and even a possible Buckley biopic may follow, but for now, this film stands as a haunting, graceful tribute to an artist who never stopped feeling.

Listen to Amy Berg chat about all this and more our watch it on YouTube. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.

Revisit the time Kyle Meredith sat down with John Flansburgh and John Linnell of They Might Be Giants on this special Rewind episode. The crew chats about the albums Nanobots and I Like Fun, digging into how the band continues to find new ways to be weird 20 albums in. Listen to their insights now.

The Johns discuss the strange comfort fans find in their music during chaotic times, how short songs and dark characters let them explore new creative corners, and why they’ve never subscribed to the cliché rock lifestyle. Flansburgh shares how Jack Bruce’s homemade Mellotron choir helped shape “I Like Fun,” and both Johns reflect on writing about death, dread, and Peter Pan syndrome with equal parts humor and sincerity. Plus: opinions about James K. Polk, writing beats by email, and the eternal mystery of Louisville’s incredible junk stores.

Listen to John Flansburgh and John Linnell of They Might Be Giants chat about all this and more. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.

Luciane Buchanan joins Kyle Meredith With… to talk about her powerful role in Chief of War, the new Apple TV+ series created by and starring Jason Momoa. Set during the late 18th century, the show tells the story of the unification of the Hawaiian Islands—told through an Indigenous lens—and Buchanan plays Queen Ka'ahumanu whose political savvy and presence made the unification possible. It’s an expansive, lushly shot series about resistance, legacy, and the long shadow of colonization. Listen now.

“I had no idea about Hawaiian history at all,” Buchanan admitted. “I had heard of King Kamehameha, but that was about it.” Once cast, she took a deep dive into archives and oral histories, even tracking down the Queen’s birthplace in a cave on Maui. “I just kind of let her spirit know that I might not be the right person to do so… but I wanted to honor her in the best way I could,” she said of a solo pilgrimage that turned unexpectedly spiritual. “The trees started to shake. The wind picked up. And then it all went quiet.”

Beyond the emotional weight of the role, Buchanan had to tackle practical challenges—like learning the Hawaiian language and holding her own opposite 6’4” Momoa. “I required a lot of apple boxes because of our height difference,” she laughed. But the bigger challenge was mastering a language she didn’t grow up speaking: “There was a lot of pressure. You can’t ad-lib in another language. You can’t just get the gist of it.”

Listen to Luciane Buchanan chat about all this and more our watch it on YouTube. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.

The wait is over, and the most chaotic family reunion of the year has arrived. Happy Gilmore 2 sees Adam Sandler reprising his legendary golf-club-swinging man-child — only this time, he's got backup. Kyle Meredith caught up with the new generation of Gilmore lunacy: Conor Sherry, Ethan Cutkosky, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, and newcomer Philip Fine Schneider, who play Happy’s four sons in a long-awaited sequel that’s more absurd, more heartwarming, and somehow even more Sandler. Listen to the episode now.

“It just flowed into the movie,” said Sherry about the group’s chemistry, crediting the “banter and camaraderie” that emerged both on and off the set. “We kind of have that cartoonistic aspect,” Cutkosky added, describing the high-energy tone as something that “literally just flows through you.”

Friedman—better known as All Elite Wrestling's MJF—is also a classically trained actor who saw this as a homecoming of sorts: “Being able to go back to my roots here… it was really something else.” Schneider, meanwhile, had just come off performing Hamlet in college before getting cast as Bobby Gilmore, and while the jump sounds wild, he swears “the process was really quite similar.”

Listen to the cast of Happy Gilmore 2 chat about all this and more on YouTube. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.

Kyle Newacheck sat down with Kyle Meredith to talk about the long-awaited Happy Gilmore 2, which brings Adam Sandler’s hockey-stick-wielding everyman back to the green nearly 30 years after the original. The Workaholics alum and Murder Mystery director had the unenviable task of balancing nostalgia for one of the most quoted comedies of the ’90s with a modern polish. “It’s a comedy-first movie,” Newacheck explains. “There’s no genre overlay. It’s a family, fun, heartfelt comedy.” Listen to the episode now.

Newacheck calls the original Happy Gilmore “a fantastic building” and compares the sequel to being asked to construct a new wing on an iconic house. “There’s already so much love baked in,” he says, but he knew he had a winner when he read the screenplay: “You can’t improv a good story -- this script had it. It made me feel something — not just the laughs, but the heart.” He also speaks about striking the balance between the '90s and now: “We’re smoother at filmmaking, sure. But I didn’t want to lose that looseness, that joy. I wanted people quoting this the same way they quoted Anchorman and Billy Madison.”

Of course, part of the magic was bringing in new blood, including a surprisingly sharp performance from Bad Bunny. “Take one, I’m watching him thinking, ‘Wait — I believe this guy. Am I really feeling this much on take one?’” Newacheck recalls. “Bad Bunny is that good.”

Listen to Kyle Newacheck chat about all this and more our watch it on YouTube. Please take the time to like, review, and subscribe to KMW wherever you get your podcasts, and keep up to date with all our series by following the Consequence Podcast Network.