5AM StoryTalk

Today, I'm joined by MIKE JACKSON, co-founder of the Get Lifted Film Co. (with John Legend and Ty Stiklorious), the Emmy-winning producer of films and TV series like ‘Underground’, ‘Rhythm + Flow’, ‘Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey’, ‘Southside with You’, 'Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children', 'Stand Up & Shout: Songs from a Philly High School', the 2019 ‘Jesus Christ Superstar Live and Concert’ event, and so ma...

Today I'm joined by SOPHIE HYDE, one of my favorite contemporary Australian filmmakers – director of numerous documentaries, short films, and TV series and feature films such as ‘52 Tuesdays’, ‘Animals’, ‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’, and the upcoming ‘Jimpa’ starring Olivia Coleman and John Lithgow and ‘The Ideal Wife’ starring Emilia Clarke. Her filmmaking is deeply collaborative, structurally challenging, and very often transgr...

The Hunger Games, "The Handmaid’s Tale", Blade Runner, "Black Mirror", "The Walking Dead", Mad Max…. Today we’re going to be discussing the question: Did science-fiction help make our 21st century dystopia inevitable? But the question could just as easily be: When did we stop dreaming of a better future? The answers might be deeply connected, as I’ll posit. It’s going to be a provocative conversation, to say the least, one that wil...

Today I'm joined by MIKE RICHARDSON, founder and CEO of Dark Horse Comics (Sin City, The Umbrella Academy, Hellboy), founder of the Things from Another World store chain, film/TV producer, and prolific comic book writer. He’s a legend in the comic book industry, not just for the iconic titles he’s published – but for how he revolutionized creators’ rights in a game previously rigged to only enrich publishers in success. Let’s find ...

Today I'm joined by Australian First Nations artist BLAK DOUGLAS to discuss his highly political art, censorship in the Australian arts with regard to speaking out about Palestine, and the legacy of colonization in Australia, his identity, and his work. Blak has won numerous major prizes, including the Archibald Prize (2022), and his paintings hang on most major museum walls in the country where his ancestors have been custodia...

Let’s reconsider the Prequel and Original STAR WARS trilogies through the lens of “ANDOR” and what it has to say about the 21st century society, our blind devotion to ancient religions and their ideas of good and evil, and why the Jedi maybe (probably) had it coming. This is going to be a provocative conversation, but I believe we can better understand who we are as a culture and as individuals by constantly interrogating our most ...

Today I'm joined by British screenwriter JOE BARTON – creator of TV series such as “Giri/Haji”, “The Lazarus Project”, and, most recently, Netflix’s smash hit “Black Doves” starring Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, and Sarah Lancashire. We’re going to dissect why I love his work so much – revealing creative DNA from Steven Spielberg to “The West Wing”.

A bonus episode, exclusive to 5AM StoryTalk’s amazing paid subscribers, is also ...

I'm joined by epidemiologist DR. ANNE RIMOIN, who will be discussing her scientific work and art’s role in our relationship to disease, pandemic potential viruses like H151 (avian flu), and what if anything we learned from COVID. She’s a Professor of Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health where she is also the Gordon-Levin Endowed Chair in Infectious Diseases and Public Health and the director of the Center f...

Today we’re going to be discussing three game-changing lessons you can learn from interviewing others - both to enrich your writing and your life.

This skill, which I developed as a freelance arts journalist for Village Voice Media amongst others, has directly impacted my screenwriting and fiction writing over the years. But it's also helped bring me closer to loved ones I was struggling to understand better.

5AM StoryTalk would...

Welcome to 5AM StoryTalk! I'm joined by screenwriter LIZ HANNAH whose script for The Post was so phenomenal it was sold and released in just 15 months - with Steven Spielberg as the director. Her credits also include the films Long Shot and Lee, TV series like "Mindhunter", and co-creating “The Girl from Plainville”.

A bonus episode, exclusive to 5AM StoryTalk’s amazing paid subscribers, is also available here. If you...

Welcome to 5AM StoryTalk! Today I'm joined by ERICA LEE (partner, Thunder Road Films; producer, the John Wick universe, Sicario, Monkey Man) and BLYE PAGON FAUST (partner, Story Force Entertainment; Oscar-winning producer, Spotlight, Belly of the Beast,“LulaRich”). They’re two of my favorite Hollywood, and I’ve asked them to discuss the state of the Hollywood film/TV industry – are they as scared as I am? – and their advice for...

Welcome to 5AM StoryTalk! I'm joined by screenwriter, author, and ScriptNotes co-host JOHN AUGUST (Go, Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and many more). John is one of the most influential screenwriters of the 21st century, educating scores of people around the globe about the medium for 14 years now, so it is with no small sense of pride that I welcome him to my own podcast this week to talk his life, ...

Welcome back to 5AM StoryTalk — a place to talk about stories in all their forms, the craft that goes into them, and the role that art plays in our lives. Today we’re going to be discussing how I broke into the Hollywood film/TV industry and how I learned to trust myself in a business where nobody knows anything, but everybody insists they know everything.

Put another way: I’m going to tell you about my first script sale, how it alm...

Welcome to 5AM StoryTalk! I'm joined by the brilliant AMBER TAMBLYN ("Joan of Arcadia", Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, "House", Paint It Black). Amber is an actress, writer-director, author and poet, Substacker, and activist who doesn’t sleep. You can learn more about her and her work at her website, but you can also find links to what we discuss in the links list below.

Oh, and be sure to listen to my bo...

Welcome to 5AM StoryTalk! I'm joined by VERONICA SULLIVAN – the director of the 2025 Melbourne Writers Festival. You can learn more about her extensive career in fiction, publishing, and the arts in general at her website, but you can also find links to what we discuss in our artist-on-artist conversation in the links list below.

5AM StoryTalk would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which this podcast is ...

Today I'm joined by DR. KEVIN PETER HAND, director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab’s Ocean World’s Lab and one of the scientists leading the hunt for life elsewhere in our solar system – especially on icy moons such as Europa and Enceladus. He’s a planetary scientist, an astrobiologist, and real-life adventure. His wonderful book, Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space, was published in 2020. And oh yeah, he’s ...

Welcome to 5AM StoryTalk! I'm joined by screenwriter and author HART HANSON, best known as the creator of “BONES” – a TV juggernaut that ran for 12 seasons. But he’s created multiple other series and had his name on almost 20 over the course of his 35-year career. He has two novels out, too, which you should check out. You can learn more about him and his work at his website, but you can also find links to what we discuss in ou...

Today I’m joined by actor, filmmaker, and comic book creator THOMAS JANE (BOOGIE NIGHTS, DREAMCATCHER, THE PUNISHER, THE MIST, “HUNG”, “THE EXPANSE”, and a little Amazon show I recently wrote on called “TROPPO”). This is a wide-ranging conversation about the power of art as a way to save ourselves and the next generation of freaks and weirdos as lost as us.

A bonus episode will follow, in which Tom and I interrogate a seminal film i...