Doc Talk: A Deadline and Nō Studios Podcast
Hosted by Oscar-winning filmmaker John Ridley and Deadline’s Documentary Editor, Matt Carey, Doc Talk features weekly interviews with filmmakers, storytellers, and industry leaders about creating critical content with the power to move the genre forward – and possibly change the world.
Episodes
January 27, 2026 • 68 mins
Hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey react to the Oscar nominations — dominated in the Best Documentary Feature category by films that premiered at Sundance. We also report from the 2026 edition of Sundance, speaking with the makers of Ghost in the Machine (premiereing in the NEXT section) and Joybubbles (premiering in U.S. Documentary Competition).
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
January 20, 2026 • 54 mins
Sundance documentary programmers Basil Tsiokos and Sudeep Sharma share insights on the nonfiction film lineup for the 2026 festival, the final one to be held in Park City, Utah. They share their picks for must-see documentary features in competition, NEXT and other sections.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
January 13, 2026 • 62 mins
We're joined by several filmmakers hoping to earn an Oscar nomination for their documentary features: Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman, directors of The Alabama Solution; David Borenstein, director of Mr. Nobody Against Putin, and Richard Ladkani, director of Yanuni. In the Yanuni segment, we'll also speak with the producer and protagonist of the film, Brazilian Indigenous activist Juma Xipaia.
Learn more about your ad choices...
Mark as Played
January 6, 2026 • 66 mins
We explore three shortlisted documentaries: from Come See Me in the Good Light, director Ryan White joins us; director Amber Fares of Coexistence, My Ass! visits Doc Talk studios with the protagonist of her film, Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi; and from the short documentary We Were the Scenery, we welcome director Christopher Radcliff.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
December 23, 2025 • 51 mins
Hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey dissect the documentary shortlists for the 98th Academy Awards. There were major snubs (a NatGeo darling and a celebrity-oriented HBO doc) — and surprising inclusions (numerous films without U.S. distribution). Oscar winner Ridley (12 Years a Slave) gets into the documentaries that should have made the cut but didn't.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
December 17, 2025 • 74 mins
Filmmakers Victor Kossakofsky and Lynne Sachs join us for a conversation about their latest documentaries, which premiered at IDFA. Kossakovsky's Trillion unfolds in lustrous black and white, without dialogue. Sachs' film, Every Contact Leaves a Trace, begins with her going through a stack of 600 business cards she has collected over decades, and reveals what happens when she reaches out to some of those contacts. Hosts John Ridley...
Mark as Played
December 9, 2025 • 53 mins
We report from the 41st Annual IDA Documentary Awards in Los Angeles, speaking with newly-minted winners as they come off stage. Joining us are Tamara Kotevska (The Tale of Silyan); Petra Costa and Alessandra Orofino (Apocalypse in the Tropics); Brittany Shyne (Seeds); Alex Megaro (WTO/99), and Jenny Raskin of Impact Partners (winner of the IDA's Pioneer Award). We explore what the IDA validation means for these creatives, as well ...
Mark as Played
December 2, 2025 • 61 mins
We speak with the filmmakers behind three of the top contenders in the Oscars' Best Documentary Feature category: The Tale of Silyan, directed by Tamara Kotevska; Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, directed by Sepideh Farsi, and Cover-Up, directed by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus. We caught up with them at SFFILM's Doc Stories in San Francisco, a 4-day film festival that has become a critical stop during awards season.
Learn m...
Mark as Played
November 25, 2025 • 67 mins
Doc Talk travels to Amsterdam for IDFA, the world's biggest docmentary festival. We speak with new Artistic Director Isabel Arrate Fernandez about assuming leadership of the festival after many years heading up the IDFA Bertha Fund. Arrate Fernandez discusses reaction to the festival's controversial decision to ban Israeli organiations that accept money from Israel's government to support their activities. We also visit with Brazil...
Mark as Played
November 18, 2025 • 35 mins
Wisdom of Happiness executive producers Richard Gere and Oren Moverman join us for a conversation about their documentary focusing on the Dalai Lama's insights into finding happiness in a world that seems full of chaos and uncertainty. Gere tells us how a technique borrowed from filmmaker Errol Morris helped transform the film into "pure magic."
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
November 11, 2025 • 64 mins
Doc Talk heads to San Francisco for SFFILM's Doc Stories festival, where we speak with SFFILM Executive Director Anne Lai and Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks. We also visit with young filmmaker Tasha Van Zandt whose documentary A Life Illuminated closed the Doc Stories festival.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mark as Played
October 21, 2025 • 50 mins
We report from the 34th Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas, the longest running nonfiction cinema festival in North America. Festival Executive Director Ken Jacobson joins us to talk about highlights from this year and the festival's Filmmaker Forum, which confronted a crisis in documentary filmmaking after the defunding of a key entity that supports PBS. And we talk with Natchez director Suzannah Herbert and produce...
Mark as Played
October 14, 2025 • 45 mins
We visit with a couple of emerging filmmakers -- Paige Bethmann, director of Remaining Native, and Juanjo Pereira, director of Under the Flags, the Sun. Bethmann's film centers on a teenage Indigenous athlete, Ku Stevens, who dreams of running track for the University of Oregon, a goal that would take him away from the Nevada reservation where he grew up. Pereira's film reframes archive footage to explore the military dictatorship ...
Mark as Played
October 7, 2025 • 63 mins
Two new Oscar-contending documentaries explore the peril of conflict photojournalism: Love+War, directed by Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, and Armed Only with a Camera, directed by Craig Renaud. Love+Warfocuses on Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Lynsey Addario who has captured unforgettable images from Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones, while trying to balance her work life with raising two kids with her husband. ...
Mark as Played
September 30, 2025 • 65 mins
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck discusses his new film Orwell: 2+2=5, about 1984 author George Orwell. We caught up with him at the Camden International Film Festival, one of the most important events on the calendar for the documentary community. At Camden, we also visited with the leaders of the Points North Insitute which puts on the festival: Executive Director Elise McCave and Artistic Director Sean Flynn. They share thei...
Mark as Played
September 23, 2025 • 57 mins
Director Mike Figgis made the most of his opportunity to follow Francis Ford Coppola as the octogenarian filmmaker poured heart and soul, not to mention tens of millions of dollars, into making his 2024 narrative feature, Megalopolis. Figgis tells us what he observed behind the scenes as Coppola attempted to bring his cinematic vision to life, beset by creative issues that led to firings and resignations, and conflict with one of h...
Mark as Played
September 16, 2025 • 47 mins
Doc Talk ventures into the disturbing territory of The Yogurt Shop Murders with director and executive producer Margaret Brown, her first foray into the true crime genre. The HBO series examines the shocking execution-style slaying of four teenage girls in 1991 in an Austin, Texas frozen yogurt store, a shocking crime that remains unsolved. Brown tells us about the impact of the documentary on friends and family of the young victim...
Mark as Played
September 9, 2025 • 47 mins
German director Andres Veiel joins us to discuss his expected Oscar-contending documentary Riefenstahl, about Leni Riefenstahl who was known as Hitler's favorite filmmaker. After World War II Riefenstahl tried to play down her role in furthering Nazi ideology through her 1930s films including Triumph of the Will and Olympia, claiming she was just an artist who had taken on assignments from Hitler and his minister of propaganda, Jo...
Mark as Played
September 2, 2025 • 53 mins
Ahead of the 50th Toronto International Film Festival kickoff on Thursday, we get a preview of the documentary lineup from doc programmer Thom Powers. He tells us about the Paula Deen film by Bill Corben, Michèle Stephenson's True North, two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot's feature documentary and much more. He also shares insights on his new book, Mondo Documentary, a collection of his TIFF program pieces from his 20 years with t...
Mark as Played
August 26, 2025 • 59 mins
As Emmy voting nears its conclusion, we talk with creators — and a key participant — of two of the top contenders. Will & Harper director Josh Greenbaum joins the show along with Harper Steele — the Harper of Will & Harper — whose story of going on a road trip with her pal Will Ferrell after announcing her transition is told in the Netflix film that's nominated for five Emmys. We also speak with Nyle DiMarco and Oscar winner Davis ...
Mark as Played
Popular Podcasts
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
It’s the history of business. How did Hitler’s favorite car become synonymous with hippies? What got Thomas Edison tangled up with the electric chair? Did someone murder the guy who invented the movies? Former Planet Money hosts Jacob Goldstein and Robert Smith examine the surprising stories of businesses big and small and find out what you can learn from those who founded them.
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.