Podcasts of the Month // Little Gold Men

Hosted by: Michael Hogan, Katey Rich, Richard Lawson, Joanna Robinson

Movies, Oscars // Condé Nast/Vanity Fair

With the Oscars being pushed to April 2021, you'd think Little Gold Men, Vanity Fair's elevated yet unpretentious podcast about Hollywood's award season, would sputter.

Instead, the episodes seemingly designed to fill time this fall have often been the most entertaining. Take their 2000 Oscar flashback for example, an episode that allows the co-hosts (plus guests from another great movie podcast, This Had Oscar Buzz) to talk Steven Soderbergh's historic year; how most Best Picture nominees would likely be TV shows today; and the insane idea that Al-Qaeda wanted to kidnap Best Actor winner Russell Crowe as part of a "cultural destabilization plot." Seriously, listen just for that.

In normal years, the podcast would lack the time to dedicate an entire episode to answering the question: "Does The Social Network Deserve an Anniversary Celebration?" But the pandemic has forced the format to slow down and thus innovate.

Made for those who find themselves deep-diving IMDB pages and who remember crazy "For Your Consideration" campaigns (I'm looking at you, David Lynch, and your roadside cow), the podcast is still setting up the 2021 Oscars, albeit at a more deliberate pace. Shoutout to their love for Maria Bakalova, the breakout star, and surprising Oscar potential from Borat 2.