Commercially successful and critically lauded, the P.U.L.C.H. Watchmen episode has been called "the moment podcasting grew up." The award-winning episode sees hosts Nic "Without the K" Riley and Joyce "Joyce" Kittenplan joined by comic writer R

Donations Update

Aug 27th, 2022 59s

While the show will go on, we're pausing donations for now and sending our cash to amfAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Check them out at https://www.amfar.org.

The Wire

Aug 27th, 2022 1h 8m

Seasoned media detectives Joyce and Nic return to investigate David Simon's hit police drama The Wire. They gather evidence and build their case against the leader of the prestige TV gang. Will they have enough to convict? Or will their superio

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

Mar 11th, 2022 1h 39m

Exactly as the stars predicted, Joyce and Nic return to chat about the Polish novel that shared the 2019 Nobel prize. Joyce entertains a new job offer and reads some Barth. Nic the Greek goes 2/2 on UFC predictions, calling the previous main ev

Ficciones by Jorges Luis Borges (Pt. 2)

Feb 13th, 2022 2h 15m

In a classic episode recorded just one month ago, we finish our series on Borges. DC writes a new one and Houellebecq threatens to do the same. Nic fails to apply to graduate school. Joyce travels to Spain. Lowtax travels to heaven. Listen clos

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (Pt. 1)

Sep 14th, 2021 1h 48m

P.U.L.C.H. is back. Listen, then listen again.

Me Too (Ya Tozhe Khochu) dir. Alexei Balabanov (2012)

Jul 2nd, 2021 1h 21m

We discuss Alexei Balabanov's last film, Me Too, in which some Russian guys drink and drive on their quest for happiness. Nic outdoes himself for malapropisms. Joyce's company institutes an irritating new policy. This episode was recorded in la

Staying Creative While Working a Job

Mar 25th, 2021 2h 19m

We didn't read nothin' for this episode. Instead, we chat about strategies to stay creative and engaged with art while working a full-time job that pays your way and corrodes your soul. Other topics include on-the-spectrum legend Glenn Gould, l

The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker (with Robin Parrish)

Feb 26th, 2021 1h 22m

Cartoonist and consultant Robin Parrish drops by to chat with the P.U.L.C.H. pals about Nicholson Baker's brief stream-of-consciousness novel The Mezzanine, but they derail the conversation to discuss working from home, David Cronenberg, and Da

Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia

Feb 9th, 2021 1h 14m

Your wayward hosts return from their hiatus to discuss Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae, the worst book we've ever read about cultural criticism. Curbstomp anyone who tells you to read it. Irredeemable midwit tripe.

P.U.L.C.H. is going on hiatus

Dec 7th, 2020 1m 15s

P.U.L.C.H. is going on hiatus until February 2021 so Nic can focus on his grad school applications. He's sure going to miss chatting with all you wild and crazy P.U.L.C.H.heads out there in radio land, but he knows the break will be over before

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Nov 26th, 2020 1h 16m

In our first guest episode, the great Leo Delmar joins us from Florida to discuss The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which he's read thirty-two times. Other topics include a young Nic's competition-losing Maoist essays and Cerebus the Aardvark.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

Oct 15th, 2020 1h 14m

My dearest audience,Never would I venture to suggest that your esteemed virtue is lacking in its expansive scope, and so I must naturally assume you are unaware of the great injury you do me by refusing to listen to my podcast. It therefore pr

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

Sep 23rd, 2020 1h 29m

We read A Handful of Dust. The audio quality is bad again because Windows is terrible. Joyce read some Kafka. Nic sings a bit of Memory from Andrew Lloyd Weber's hit musical Cats.

Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq

Sep 16th, 2020 1h 24m

America calling, America calling. Your fearless hosts delve into Michel Houellebecq's latest provocation, 2019's Serotonin. What will they think? What will they say? Only by pressing the play button on your podcast listening device can you be s

Cosmos by Witold Gombrowicz

Sep 10th, 2020 1h 50m

The PULCH team touch bases to network and brainstorm a content strategy raising awareness around Witold Gombrowicz's 1965 novel Cosmos. Nic gets a new microphone, and a young British boy's wristwatch torments him for years.

The Temptation of St. Anthony by Gustave Flaubert

Jul 18th, 2020 1h 38m

Gustave Flaubert spent his whole life writing The Temptation of St. Anthony, published finally in 1874. The P.U.L.C.H. hosts discuss it and many other topics to delight and surprise you in this week's episode. Don't wait--listen now!

Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans

Jul 7th, 2020 1h 11m

Joyce discusses a novel about an isolated, perfume-obsessed aesthete with an isolated, perfume-obsessed aesthete. Neither of them pronounce the French correctly.

The Looking Glass War by John le Carré

Jun 29th, 2020 1h 23m

Our friend in England converses with the short fellow about John le Carré's satirical spy thriller The Looking Glass War. Other topics include the boozy life of Malcom Lowry, the regrettable legitimization of TV as an artistic medium, and a yea

The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa

Jun 26th, 2020 1h 13m

In the fourth P.U.L.C.H. episode, Nic and Joyce discourse on cartoons, Hollywood pedophiles, and Giuseppe di Lampedusa's 1958 novel "The Leopard."

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover

Jun 25th, 2020 1h 13m

In this first excursion into the world of cinema, your hosts discuss Peter Greenaway's 1989 The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Jun 25th, 2020 1h 1m

Despite audio issues, the P.U.L.C.H.ers hold a lively discussion about survivalist llamas, Joseph Goebbels's novel, and Ursula Le Guin's 1969 "The Left Hand of Darkness," a germinal tale of androgyny, cold, Taoism, cold, dreadful-sounding food,

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