I'm A Sophisticate and So Can You!
If you've ever wanted to be more cultured, but you're pressed for time, then you've come to the right place. Join co-hosts Sydney Painter and Anthony Pinggera, two queer millennials with ADHD, as they review all the books, movies, and musicians that you've been meaning to get to but haven't made time for yet. And until now, neither have they! Let's all become more sophisticated together, shall we?
Recent Episodes
John Wick & Paramore
Jan. 24, 2023
Happy 2023, y'all! We're back from our holiday break with our thirtieth episode. This time, we're sitting down to watch our third Keanu Reeves movie: John Wick! Then, we spin up the prodigies of pop punk, Paramore! This epis…
Nina Simone and North By Northwest
Dec. 13, 2022
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life, and we're feeling good. This week, we talk about Nina Simone, a woman whose work is so influential and so singular that even though she's beloved, she's still underrated! The…
Taylor Swift - Midnights & Carly Rae Jepsen - The Loneliest Time
Nov. 15, 2022
Where were you October 21st?
Halloween (1978) (with Anthony Bellantoni)
Nov. 1, 2022
How better to celebrate Halloween than by releasing an episode on (the day after) Halloween about the archetypical slasher movie, Halloween? If you think of anything, don't tell us, because this is what we've got. To give us…
Psycho & Alien
Oct. 18, 2022
From Ridley Scott to Alfred Hitchcock, we're continuing our celebration of Spooky Season with our first two-movies episode! First, we watched the film that started the slasher genre (and one of Anthony's favorite movies) and…
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About the Hosts
Anthony Pinggera
Anthony (they/he) is a co-host of the podcast, a recovering film bro, and an unapologetic, massive dork. You can count on them for wild analogies, weird trivia, and a laugh that sounds like a donkey falling down a hill.
They're the one who (usually) manages the Envelope of Chaos, the Lovecraftian text from which most of the ideas for episodes spring. They're also the one who edits the episodes, so if something sounds odd in an episode, it's probably their fault.
Sydney Painter
Sydney (she/they) is a co-host of the podcast and a screenwriter who prefers television to movies. She knows that even (or especially) "silly" things like pop music and reality television have cultural value, and that we're depriving ourselves of fun by pretending that they don't. Also, even "serious art" is pretty silly.
She's also the one who...well, okay, here's the thing: she trails off and restarts sentences a lot. She is canonically not sorry about it.