Conclave (2024) (w/ Brandon Taylor)
Added 2025-05-08 11:00:09 +0000 UTCWith the papal conclave convening in Rome to pick Pope Francis's successor, Matt and Sam are joined by novelist Brandon Taylor to discuss the 2024 film Conclave, directed by Edward Berger and starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini. The film, as you might guess, depicts the shabby and conspiratorial inner-workings of a (fictional) College of Cardinals as they go about picking a new pope. Fun movie! Great chat!
Furthering Reading:
Brandon Taylor, Real Life, (2020)
— Filthy Animals, (2021)
— The Late Americans, (2023)
— "Is it even good? Two Years with Zola," LRB, April 4, 2024.
Ben Munster, "Cardinals are watching ‘Conclave’ the movie for guidance on the actual conclave," Politico, May 6, 2025.
Dan Walden, "Gender, Sex, and other Nonsense," Commonweal, March 1, 2021.
Watch:
"Shirtless Acrobats Dance for Pope," Associated Press, Dec 15, 2010.
Comments
"The 30 Years War was an attempt to destroy the universal church" is a low key insane take haha I think you guys might be getting a little to deep into Catholicism when you pull one like that out. But more seriously I do kind of wonder if some of the ways the Church is discussed here might be a bit apologistic, or at least something of a gloss over it. Like it is fun to talk about the queeny Cardinals and the campy ceremony, bit the reality of the Church is deeply homophobic and misogynistic institution. Maybe one day it won't be, and I am not saying it is irredeemable, bit today it is, and has been for 2000 years. This is obviously something that Matt, as a gay Catholic, has to navigate much more than I do. But it is a note of discomfort I have in conversations like these.
Charlie
2025-05-13 22:42:30 +0000 UTCwhile understanding & sympathyzing with matt's & sam's avoidance of bsky (although puzzled you both seem to still be on formerly known as twitter?) i commend to you & everyone else reading this looong but very interesting thread on bsky - https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3lorau2fxx22b & would love a show discussing its contents.
Deborah Quick
2025-05-09 20:26:42 +0000 UTCAdded the Benedict video to the show notes, but here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Ajga1VLtk
Know Your Enemy
2025-05-09 17:53:20 +0000 UTC
