Emerson Collective Podcast ‘Technically Optimistic’ Wants to Save Your Digital Soul

On the eve of the start of the Cannes Film Festival, embattled Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof is gaining support from others in the film industry.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Julie McNamara, one of Spotify‘s top podcast content execs, is leaving the company, Variety has confirmed. McNamara, who joined the company in 2021, most recently served as VP and global head of podcast studios. She oversaw Spotify Studios, which consolidated the Parcast and Gimlet groups producing original podcasts, as well as licensed podcast deals with partners including Joe Rogan, Alex Cooper (“Call Her Daddy”) and Emma Chamberlain.

Naman Ramachandran After the well-received “Joyland” in 2022 and “In Flames” last year, Pakistan is debuting a central hub at the Cannes Film Festival this year. The Pakistan Crescent Collective, set up by Modoxy Media, will represent the country’s official presence at the festival, with a mission to “discover and nurture the next generation of talent, preserve film, andpromote Pakistani and diaspora films globally, thereby advancing Pakistan’s visual culture.” The collective consists of a global team of film industry professionals based in London, Karachi, New York and Los Angeles.

Editors note: Running until the final general election results come in, the Deadline ElectionLine podcast spotlights the 2024 campaign and the blurred lines between politics and entertainment in modern America. Hosted by Deadline’s political editor Ted Johnson and executive editor Dominic Patten, the podcast features commentary and interviews with top lawmakers and entertainment figures. At the same time, you can follow all the news in the Biden & Trump rematch and more on the ElectionLine hub on Deadline.

EXCLUSIVE: David Duchovny is getting in the rink and into the podcasting business.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor More than three decades after they co-starred in hit sitcom “Cheers,” Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson are getting back together — going into the audio booth for a new podcast from SiriusXM. “Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson (Sometimes)” is set to premiere June 12, with new episodes releasing weekly on Wednesdays on all major podcast platforms.

Jon Stewart will take an extended dive into current events in a new The Weekly Show With Jon Stewart a Comedy Central podcast set to launch in June.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Jon Stewart is upping his output with Comedy Central to bring a weekly audio show to your earbuds. Stewart — after exiting “The Daily Show” in 2015 — rejoined the Comedy Central show as host on Mondays and as an executive producer this February.

Many mortgage holders that are due to renew later this year will be frustrated with the news that the Bank of England has decided to hold interest rates at 5.25 per cent for another month, as the UK continues to battle the high inflation that has pushed up everyone's cost of living. But there is some good news.

Naman Ramachandran The 50-strong cohort for the fourth iteration of the TV Collective’s groundbreaking Breakthrough Leaders program has been unveiled. The initiative is in partnership with Fremantle, BBC Studios, Amazon, SKY, and ITV Studios. The program has identified and will empower 50 exceptional individuals from Black, Asian and global majority (a collective term for people of Indigenous, African, Asian, Latin American descent, who constitute some 85% of the global population) backgrounds who are poised to become the future leaders of the U.K.

EXCLUSIVE: This Sunday’s BAFTA TV Awards will “celebrate and remember the power of storytelling” at a “challenging” time for the industry, according to the new chair of the 77-year-old body.

Dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been sentenced to eight years in prison as well as flogging, a fine and confiscation of his property, his lawyer Babak Paknia announced in a post on X on Wednesday.

The Cannes Film Festival has shared its first official statement in response to plans for a proposed strike during this year’s event by festival workers over pay. 

EXCLUSIVE: 7EQUIS, the creative team behind the comedy podcast Bad Friends with Bobby Lee and Andrew Santino, is launching its newest comedy series Almost Alpha with rising comics and long-time friends Taylor Williamson and Joey Bragg.

Alex Ritman Project Brazen, the Peabody-nominated global journalism studio founded by former Wall Street Journal reporters and bestselling authors Bradley Hope and Tom Wright, has launched a new podcast about the unsolved gas attack at the 2014 MidWest FurFest convention in Chicago. The six-part “Fur & Loathing,” the first episode of which releases today, investigates what happened on the final night of the convention for furry fandom — a frequently misunderstood global internet subculture centred around anthropomorphic animal characters — when poisonous levels of chlorine gas swept through the corridors of the Hyatt Regency in Rosemont, Illinois.

EXCLUSIVE: Nate Silver, the founder of FiveThirtyEight, and Maria Konnikova, the author of The Biggest Bluff, are launching a new weekly podcast about making good decisions — in poker, in politics, and in everyday life.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Iranian authorities are exerting heavy pressure on director Mohammad Rasoulof to pull his latest work “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” from the Cannes Film Festival by harassing the film’s producers and actors who have been summoned for questioning and banned from leaving the country. Human rights lawyer Babak Paknia, who is Rasoulof’s lawyer, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that several unspecified actors and producers on “Sacred Fig” were summoned and questioned last week by authorities.

Apologies to Thomas Wolfe, but it appears you can go home again. 

Angelique Jackson Inevitable Foundation has announced the winners of its partnership with the Loreen Arbus Foundation to support disabled women and nonbinary writers. The recipients are Matilda Feyiṣayọ Ibini, Melanie Abrams Fierstein, Natalia Temesgen and Anne Hamilton, who will each receive an $8,000 grant as well as mentorship, coaching and professional connections.

EXCLUSIVE: UTA has signed Walter Woodman, Patrick Cederberg, Matthew Hornick and Sidney Leeder, the filmmakers behind the creative collective shy kids, for representation in all areas.