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Everyone has something they love, but wouldn't feel comfortable recommending to the general public. This is a weekly series of fascinating chats about problematic faves, great trash, and our complicated relationships with art and culture.
89 Episodes
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"The Howling III: The Marsupials" (1987) was genuinely the stuff of schoolyard legend when I was in primary school in the early 90s, due to a notorious sequence involving a female lycanthrope giving birth to a "joey" who seeks refuge in her pouch. I did not, however, know what this rumoured movie was *actually called* until I came across author and journalist Asher Elbein (www.asherelbein.com) on Bluesky talking about it.
He very kindly agreed to come on the show to discuss it, and when I finally watched it I was *fascinated*. I had expected something good-bad and schlocky (and "The Howling III" is definitely both of those things) but this movie also has surprisingly deep and complex ideas on its mind about ecology and indigenous people's rights and struggles, and a strange and compelling folk-tale logic which is quite unique.
It is a very weird swerve for a franchise which already took a weird swerve between the first and second movie, and which established itself initially for (as well as having some great gnarly 80's transformation sequences) being the *horny* werewolf series - and if you watch it, you will find yourself thinking about it for quite some time.
A show about great trash, problematic faves, and difficult art hosted by Hugh Dingwall. Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
Originally started by Peter Furler and George Perdikis in 1985, Newsboys are such an enduring mainstay of Christian rock that the band is still going strong absent any of the original members. Over that 40 year career, their sound has changed so drastically that if you say that you either love or hate Newsboys, the only logical response is "which Newsboys?" In addition, if you are a Kiwi or Aussie of approximately my vintage, you probably know their song "Take Me To Your Leader" which was a brief crossover hit here, and will earworm you for weeks if you go and look it up.
For my first new episode of 2026, I'm joined by the illustrious Josh Boerman from Worst Of All Possible Worlds and Ill Conceived, who grew up in the evangelical world that spawned and nurtured this strange (and now kind of evil) band so that he can explain The Phenomenon.
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
Admittedly, I love me a novelty instrumental cover (ask me about my surf rock habit) but I've never really understood the cringe that greets the mention of ska music. Part of this is probably being a kiwi - we have a different relationship with the pop-punk side of ska music than Americans do - but I've always felt like people who didn't appreciate the genre just hadn't found the good stuff yet. Elana and John (last heard on the Hair Metal episode) return to the show to give me an American perspective, and we chat about the high points of ska and how to find your way in as a newcomer.
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
Prompted by last episode, in concert with a conversation about Normality the RPG, and a viewing of Cargo (2017), I talk about an idea cooking in the back of my head about the ways that people who say and do horrible things act like victims.
A show about great trash, problematic faves, and difficult art hosted by Hugh Dingwall. Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
In a rare "reversed recommendations" situation, I recommend something for someone else to watch! I talk to Ross Palethorpe (@rossthesedays) about Denis Villenueve's 2013 film "Enemy" - a strange, hostile, deeply yellow movie which I first encountered as an online movie reviewer back when it was relatively new. We really get into it on this one (once Ross gets past cursing me for making him watch "a work movie") because there's a LOT here. Two equally haunted and awful Jake Gyllenhaals encounter one another in a dreadful, poisonous, spider-haunted Toronto, and nothing is exactly what it seems.
CW on this one for discussions of misogyny and general masculine awfulness.
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is a very weird show indeed - a fact that is literally baked into its DNA as an adaptation of a Japanese costumed hero series which (as we'll hear) does not have a consistent plot or cast from series to series. It also has an odd relationship with New Zealand, as it was banned here very early on, and remained banned well into the period where it was actually being made here. To discuss all this and more, I'm joined by artist and author Bijhan Agha - our first ever guest based somewhere other than the broader Anglosphere (she's in Uruguay)!
Find Bijhan at @bijhan.bsky.social, and her art, books, and comics at jamsheedstudios.com.
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
This episode I chat to Dr Lewis Tennant (lately the host of Verbal Highs, and also the brains behind the annual NZ Podcasting Summit) about an era of reggae music from the 1990s, exemplified by artists like Sizzla and Capleton. We go deep on the history of the music, its underlying philosophy, and the factors that give this specific era its unique sound.
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
"Phenomena" (1985) is a movie that is hard to describe without sounding insane. Jennifer Connelly (aged 14, one year out from breaking through in "Labyrinth") stars as a high school girl with the mysterious ability to commune with insects. When she is sent to an exclusive Swiss boarding school for girls, she becomes embroiled in a series of gruesome murders of students which she must investigate with the aid of an eccentric entomologist played by Donald Pleasance and his assistance chimpanzee. The chimpanzee is significantly more important than you'd expect.
The movie was directed by incredibly prolific Italian director Dario Argento (best known for hallucinatory fever dream giallo like "Suspiria" and "Deep Red") and is significantly more chaotic than his usual style.
Morgan Davie, last heard discussing "Under The Skin" way back in Episode #7, joins the show to talk through this very strange, kind of fascinating movie.
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
Nightbreed (1990) is an absolutely fascinating movie. It's Clive Barker flexing his muscles after the massive success of Hellraiser (1988) and really letting loose with an elaborate dark fantasy full of implications about complex mythology and cosmology, a gorgeously-stylised world, and many MANY weird little guys. It's also an incredibly ambitious movie that never quite manages to realise its ambitions, and a tortured project that was compromised and undercut by executive meddling. There's a lot in here that shares DNA with other dark/Gothic fantasy/horror projects of the 90s like The Crow, or the more adult works of Tim Burton - so why are those things cult hits, and this is a cult failure? Shaun Duke of The Skiffy and Fanty Show (https://skiffyandfanty.com) joins the pod to discuss this strange and powerful film!
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
What happens when Dan Aykroyd at the absolute peak of his popularity as both a comic powerhouse and a dramatic actor gets a vast budget, and more or less total creative control to make a movie? He makes "Nothing But Trouble" - an ambitious, star-studded, and (to be charitable) tonally-confused horror comedy which flopped at the box office and is more or less universally panned to this day. A pair of yuppies played by Chevy Chase and Demi Moore fall foul of a deranged 106 year old judge (played by Aykroyd himself under some impressively vile prosthetics and makeup) and hi-jinks ensue. Returning guest Bitter Karella is one of this movie's few defenders, and joins the show to talk us through what the hell is going on here.
Find most things Bitter Karella at www.midnightpals.com, and her new book "Moonflow" at www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/bitter-karella/moonflow/9780316581936 (or wherever you get books on the internet!)
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
David Cronenberg's 1986 movie "The Fly" is among his best-regarded, and is an absolute classic in the canon of gnarly, gloopy, practical-effects mostly-80s body horror movies. It's also an oddly poetic tragedy about watching someone you love succumb to something awful and inevitable, and a character study that follows a sympathetic oddball's transformation into an absolute monstrosity. Erin MClean, local Palmerston North actor, director, and general creative-person-about-town joins the show to discuss all of this and we have a lot of fun getting deeply in the weeds.
A show about great trash, problematic faves, and difficult art hosted by Hugh Dingwall. Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
Scottish author Iain Banks is probably best known (under the name Iain M. Banks) for his iconic Culture novels, which had a titanic impact on far-future "space-operatic" science fiction. His debut novel, 1984's "The Wasp Factory" is significantly less well-known. It is an INCREDIBLY divisive book which, love it or hate it (early editions published four full pages of both rabidly positive *and* negative reviews), will leave a massive impact on any reader. Ross Palethorpe rejoins the podcast to talk about this Gothic nightmare fairytale of a book.
CW for (not especially detailed) discussion of murder, animal abuse, child abuse and neglect.
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
I ruminate on useful ways to think about one's enemies' motives, prompted by considering the obscure horror movie "Jugface" (2013) in contrast with other depictions of fictional "death cults".
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
In the absence of a new mainline episode, I decided to do a parallel upload of this special I recorded for Waitangi Day this week.
Waitangi Day and the Treaty of Waitangi occupy a complicated place in New Zealand's public consciousness, especially in light of the current debate around David Seymour's Treaty Principles Bill. In this special longform interview for Waitangi Day 2025, Hugh talks to Dr Peter Cleave about this complex and difficult history. Dr Peter Cleave has been involved with retention and development of Te Reo Māori since the 1970s, holding numerous teaching roles at all levels. He has been both an academic and a broadcaster in Te Reo Māori, and was named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2025 for services to Māori language education.
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
"Hair metal" is, right off the bat, a disputed term. It began as a way of disparaging the pop glam metal of the 80s in comparison with the more "authentic" grunge movement that was becoming more fashionable in the early 90s, but was embraced by some fans of the genre as a catch-all term for groups who wouldn't necessarily have considered themselves part of the same scene at the time. However you slice it, hair metal was much MUCH bigger than you remember it, and its demise was far less total. Elana Levin (Graphic Policy Radio, Deep Space Dive) and returning champion John Cecil join the show to school me on an era and genre I know shamefully little about.
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
I'm back! I decided I'd like to get to ep 100 before I wrap this thing up, so that's nice. In this episode I have a bunch of thoughts prompted by the passing of David Lynch, and witnessing other people's takes on his life and work. I also get a bit into That Vulture Article re: the evolving Gaiman situation but I don't say anything very graphic or descriptive. Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
On the last episode of the year (possibly the last ever?) I return to the solo minisode format to talk about the plague of "common sense" which I think is seriously damaging our current political climate.
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
I've recently started messing around with VCV Rack (www.vcvrackcom) a virtual modular synth environment, so the time seemed right to have a chat to James Lissette. James has had a long history in Palmerston North music, and a lifelong fascination with modular synths. We chat about the history and principles of modular, all while listening to a generative patch on James's hardware modular setup.
NB: this episode is (unusually) in stereo - so may reward listening on nicer headphones than usual!
The thing about doing a show about problematic faves is that sometimes your own faves become problematic. Neil Gaiman is an author whose work has meant a lot to me at various times, and who now has (at time of writing) 5 credible accusations of historic sexual assault, detailed in the podcast "Master" (https://www.tortoisemedia.com/listen/master-the-allegations-against-neil-gaiman). On my first solo episode, I talk through my feelings about Gaiman, the similar case of Warren Ellis (https://www.somanyofus.com), how these issues arise, and what we do next.
Due to a confluence of factors, the early 00's saw a massive explosion of creativity in online comics. I talk to Karella, author of Midnight Pals (www.midnightpals.com) host of A Special Presentation, or Alf Will Not Be Seen Tonight (https://apple.co/3zACns8), and Person Cursed To Know About Sinfest, about all of this. We cover the general landscape and taxonomy of 00's online comics, the factors that led to their proliferation, and where they ended up going.
Produced by Manawatū People's Radio with the support of New Zealand On Air.
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