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On this episode of Sound Sessions, host Tom Hoots welcomes back singer-songwriter Todd Sparks into the studio for a tiny desk concert adn conversation about what's going on in his performance career. From Florida's panhandle to the Tampa Bay region, he is all over the place.

On this episode of Sound Sessions, host Tom Hoots and his zany crew have Kathryn Roberts & Sarah Whitehead in studio for a tiny desk concert and to talk about what they're up to in their music careers. 

On this episode of ReelTalk, we review Sam Raimi’s newest movie Send Help followed by a countdown of top three Raimi movies.
Ever so often, scheduling—or simple reality—forces you to rethink how you talk about a movie. This episode is one of those occasions. Send Help is a film I’ve seen, but my guest hasn’t—so instead of a traditional review, we’re flipping the format. I’ll be responding to questions, prompts, and curiosities, letting the conversation guide the critique rather than delivering a straight monologue.
That approach actually feels fitting for Send Help, a film that plays with expectation, tension, and survival—forcing characters, and by extension the audience, to reassess what matters moment to moment. I’ll save the specifics for the discussion.
Then, we’ll pivot to celebration—counting down our Top 3 Sam Raimi films. Raimi is a filmmaker whose career spans horror, superhero cinema, studio spectacle, and gleeful excess—and tonight we’ll be narrowing that eclectic filmography down to the three titles that best define his voice.
So we’ll begin with survival… and end with splatter, style, and Sam Raimi at full tilt.

On this episode of ReelTalk, we take a deep dive into the history, present state, and future of The Oscars, which held its first ceremony in 1929,  and has recently made waves with its announcement that its moving the broadcast of the ceremony to YouTube in 2029.
For nearly a century, the Academy Awards have functioned as Hollywood’s grand mirror—reflecting not only what the industry celebrates, but what it values, what it fears, and what it is willing to forget.
At their best, the Oscars can spotlight artistry, elevate careers, and preserve a cinematic legacy. At their worst, they become a symptom of a larger cultural drift—away from craft, complexity, and adult storytelling, and toward visibility, virality, and brand alignment.
In my recent article, I argue that the Oscars have not simply “lost relevance,” as the popular refrain goes, but that they have been reshaped by the same forces transforming film culture itself: social media amplification, algorithmic attention economies, and a growing emphasis on content over cinema.
Awards campaigns now unfold less as conversations about artistry and more as extended exercises in optics, momentum, and narrative control.
Following the announced move to YouTube in 2029, I wrote an article titled “The Oscars are big. It’s the Oscars that got small.”
I argue that the ceremony’s move toward platforms like YouTube is not merely a distribution decision, but a symbolic capitulation—an institution founded to celebrate cinema’s grandeur and communal ritual now flattening film into algorithmic content, where immediacy and engagement metrics outweigh reverence, craft, and artistic risk.
The shift raises a fundamental question about what the Oscars still stand for in a culture increasingly willing to trade ceremony and meaning for convenience and reach.
Which brings us to this episode’s guest. Debbie Pawlak’s book, Bringing Up Oscar: The Men and Women Who Founded the Academy, approaches the Academy Awards not as a red-carpet spectacle, but as a living cultural institution—one shaped by history, tradition, contradictions, and change. It’s thoughtful and accessible exploration of the Academy Awards.
Together, we’re not here to scold the Oscars, nor to romanticize them, but to ask a more productive question: what do they still mean—and what could they mean again?
Enjoy the show!

On this episode of Sound Sessions, join host Tom Hoots and his crew as they welcome back Tim Parish to the studio for a tiny desk concert and to talk about the latest in his musical career. 

Ever so often, a genre film comes along that knows exactly what it is—and more importantly, what it is not trying to be. Primate is not interested in prestige horror, elevated allegory, or winking irony. It is an unapologetic “when nature attacks” movie, and refreshingly, it commits to that premise with confidence, craft, and conviction.
To my surprise, I liked Primate quite a lot. It delivers spine-tingling chills, nightmare-fueled thrills, and a steady sense of dread that never collapses into camp or self-parody. The pacing is solid, the set-pieces are effective, and—perhaps most importantly—we actually find ourselves rooting for these characters to survive. In a genre where human beings often exist merely to be dispatched, that matters.
Are there a few paper-thin characters? Yes. But most are developed just enough to create investment, tension, and consequence. Primate may not operate on the same psychological or thematic level as something like Cujo, but it is very much in that ballpark—lean, mean, and built around the primal terror of losing control when nature decides to push back.
On this episode, we’re talking about what Primate does right, why “when nature attacks” movies still work, and what this film suggests about the enduring power of straightforward genre storytelling.
Joining me for this episode's discussion is returning guest, friend of the show, and fellow film critic Sean Boelman.

Fifty years ago this November, Network arrived in theaters as a blistering satire—a provocation aimed squarely at television news, corporate power, and a culture increasingly addicted to spectacle. Today, it no longer plays as satire at all. It plays as documentation.
Sidney Lumet’s Network didn’t just predict the future of media—it diagnosed the mechanics of our present. A world where outrage is currency, truth is negotiable, and authenticity is something to be branded, monetized, and discarded. What was once a cautionary tale has become an instruction manual we never stopped following.
At its core, Network is not simply about television—it’s about systems. Systems that reward noise over nuance, attention over accountability, and performance over principle. And perhaps most unsettling of all, it asks us to confront not only the institutions that enable this decay—but our own role as willing participants.
2026 marks the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most prescient films ever made, so we’re not just looking back. We’re holding up a mirror. And the reflection is… unsettling.

On this episode of Sound Sessions, host Tom Hoots and his crew invite singer-songwriter Nora Bass into the studio to perform a tiny desk concert for you and talk about her career and upcoming ventures.

This week on ReelTalk, host R.L. Terry and special guest Brad Biewer (of The Cinema Speak Podcast) continue their Top 20 Christmas Movies countdown with their picks for the TOP 10 Christmas Movies of all time.
Last week, they set the stage with picks twenty through eleven—the warm-ups, the curveballs, the cult favorites, and the holiday staples that help make the season bright. But now…now they’re stepping into the main event. If picks 20 to 11 filled the stockings, our Top 10 is where they unwrap the big gifts.
These are movies that don’t just feature Christmas, but define what Christmas feels like—the stories that have shaped traditions, sparked debates, inspired rewatches, and—let’s be honest—triggered more than a few emotional avalanches. From heartwarming to nightmare fuel, there are many movies that define the cinema of the season.
You’ll hear the heavy hitters, the genre-definers, and yes, one or two entries that have become perennial conversation starters. Christmas isn’t merely the backdrop today—it’s the fuel, the fire, the conflict, the catharsis, or the unmistakable heartbeat driving every frame.
These films capture what the season means at its core: connection, compassion, hope, chaos, reconciliation, and—occasionally—creative uses of improvised weaponry in a skyscraper.
So buckle up your sleigh belts. It’s time for the Top 10!

On this episode of Sound Sessions, host Tom Hoots welcomes back returning guest musician Leanna Carter to talk about her upcoming concerts, appearances, and more.