A joy to go on this show and talk about this book and IAWL more generally!
HAPPY SUNDAY! NEW EPISODE!
@emilystjams.bsky.social and @laurentheisen.bsky.social wrote an incredible book, EVERY TIME A BELL RINGS, about my favorite movie of all time, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, and we were lucky enough to have them on the show to talk about it:
pod.link/1274489817/e...
@emilystjams.bsky.social and @laurentheisen.bsky.social wrote an incredible book, EVERY TIME A BELL RINGS, about my favorite movie of all time, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, and we were lucky enough to have them on the show to talk about it:
pod.link/1274489817/e...
September 20, 2026 at 6:11 PM
A joy to go on this show and talk about this book and IAWL more generally!
(I love IaWL. Different strokes!)
December 7, 2024 at 10:59 PM
(I love IaWL. Different strokes!)
When pitching Capra-esque films to promote the IAWL book, one came immediately to mind!
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION w/ @emilystjams.bsky.social!!!
Hope, defiance, cosmic injustice, Stephen King... Listen below or wherever you get your PODCASTS
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1...
Hope, defiance, cosmic injustice, Stephen King... Listen below or wherever you get your PODCASTS
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1...
September 19, 2026 at 6:35 PM
When pitching Capra-esque films to promote the IAWL book, one came immediately to mind!
God bless Alex Winter but the idea that IAWL is “treacley dross” is perhaps the best evidence we have that he has successfully avoided ever watching it.
December 7, 2024 at 6:01 PM
God bless Alex Winter but the idea that IAWL is “treacley dross” is perhaps the best evidence we have that he has successfully avoided ever watching it.
The question was: name some great conservative art. The Kinks and IAWL are two terrific choices in the now-forgotten sense of conservatism as a commitment to conserving things rather than a movement predicated on paranoia and hatred
For the modern batshit definition of conservative, Cerebus.
For the older, more reality-compatible definition, the collected works of the Kinks 1964-74. Or It's A Wonderful Life.
For the older, more reality-compatible definition, the collected works of the Kinks 1964-74. Or It's A Wonderful Life.
[discourse voice] what’s the best conservative work of art
September 17, 2026 at 11:49 AM
The question was: name some great conservative art. The Kinks and IAWL are two terrific choices in the now-forgotten sense of conservatism as a commitment to conserving things rather than a movement predicated on paranoia and hatred
In the alternate IAWL, Mary ended up with Violet.
December 26, 2024 at 12:49 PM
In the alternate IAWL, Mary ended up with Violet.
i saw the fonts and thought it was spongebob does IAWL, i clearly have had a rough holiday season already
December 14, 2024 at 1:19 PM
i saw the fonts and thought it was spongebob does IAWL, i clearly have had a rough holiday season already
December 22, 2024 at 12:07 AM
IAWL 2: Bedford Rises
February 18, 2025 at 2:07 PM
IAWL 2: Bedford Rises
IAWL holds the audience's hand through every single story beat then pats them on the back for getting it afterwards and every audience that's seen it for 80 years loves it anyway. There's a lesson here!
December 25, 2023 at 5:24 AM
IAWL holds the audience's hand through every single story beat then pats them on the back for getting it afterwards and every audience that's seen it for 80 years loves it anyway. There's a lesson here!
Steven Moffat & Russell T. Davies on “It’s A Wonderful Life”, from Dec 14th 2024’s Radio Times. I’m always baffled when IAWL is labelled sentimental fare. It really isn’t. A thin but precious silver lining arrives, but the world remains a nightmare factory. That’s one thing that makes IAWL great.
December 3, 2024 at 12:18 PM
Steven Moffat & Russell T. Davies on “It’s A Wonderful Life”, from Dec 14th 2024’s Radio Times. I’m always baffled when IAWL is labelled sentimental fare. It really isn’t. A thin but precious silver lining arrives, but the world remains a nightmare factory. That’s one thing that makes IAWL great.
hi hullo!! i wanna meet more creators, so here’s some of my favorite things!!
✧ Minecraft (obvi)
✧ Palia
✧ Harvest Moon: IAWL
✧ art (traditional/digital and crafts!!)
✧ tarot and zodiac
✧ herbal medicine
✧ reading
✧ world lore building
✧ making ocs!!
✧ cosplay
✧ plants
✧ cottagecore decor!!
✧ Minecraft (obvi)
✧ Palia
✧ Harvest Moon: IAWL
✧ art (traditional/digital and crafts!!)
✧ tarot and zodiac
✧ herbal medicine
✧ reading
✧ world lore building
✧ making ocs!!
✧ cosplay
✧ plants
✧ cottagecore decor!!
October 20, 2024 at 5:53 PM
hi hullo!! i wanna meet more creators, so here’s some of my favorite things!!
✧ Minecraft (obvi)
✧ Palia
✧ Harvest Moon: IAWL
✧ art (traditional/digital and crafts!!)
✧ tarot and zodiac
✧ herbal medicine
✧ reading
✧ world lore building
✧ making ocs!!
✧ cosplay
✧ plants
✧ cottagecore decor!!
✧ Minecraft (obvi)
✧ Palia
✧ Harvest Moon: IAWL
✧ art (traditional/digital and crafts!!)
✧ tarot and zodiac
✧ herbal medicine
✧ reading
✧ world lore building
✧ making ocs!!
✧ cosplay
✧ plants
✧ cottagecore decor!!
I feel as though TLOAS is, in a way, like It’s A Wonderful Life…but like opposite? IAWL showed the protagonist what everyone else’s lives would look like if he had never been in it. TLOAS, I think, shows us the audience, what Taylor’s life would look like if she chooses the Showgirl path.
Imagine listening to this album and not realizing the thesis is right there in the lyrics "but that's not what showgirls get. THEY LEAVE US FOR DEAD."
March 21, 2026 at 10:55 PM
I feel as though TLOAS is, in a way, like It’s A Wonderful Life…but like opposite? IAWL showed the protagonist what everyone else’s lives would look like if he had never been in it. TLOAS, I think, shows us the audience, what Taylor’s life would look like if she chooses the Showgirl path.
As a long time devotee of IAWL, this article states my view completely.
"'Isn’t it wonderful?' says Uncle Billy. 'Mary did it, George, Mary did it.'"
There Is No Mary Problem in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’
George’s vision of his wife without him is essential to the film, but critics continue to miss its true—and profound—meaning.
lnk.thebulwark.com
December 25, 2025 at 1:06 PM
As a long time devotee of IAWL, this article states my view completely.
What actor’s expression in a movie will stay with you the rest of your life?
May 21, 2025 at 1:03 PM
What actor’s expression in a movie will stay with you the rest of your life?
I was thinking IAWL too
April 7, 2026 at 4:14 PM
I was thinking IAWL too
Van Helsing Boombox
YouTube video by Man Man - Topic
www.youtube.com
August 22, 2026 at 2:16 AM
Someday there’ll be a tcmparty IAWL watch.
December 24, 2024 at 6:03 PM
Someday there’ll be a tcmparty IAWL watch.
Eagerly awaiting, even more so after seeing the Winesburg epigraph. Made the same connection when I wrote about IAWL long ago. Cheers!
September 22, 2026 at 5:24 PM
Eagerly awaiting, even more so after seeing the Winesburg epigraph. Made the same connection when I wrote about IAWL long ago. Cheers!
Thank you for sharing this. I rewatched IAWL last week and had so many similar epiphanies, including about how our relationship with the movie changes over time, and also the realization that Mary's spinsterhood felt incongruent. BUT I also wasn't fully sold on that, because it was the only blemish.
December 24, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Thank you for sharing this. I rewatched IAWL last week and had so many similar epiphanies, including about how our relationship with the movie changes over time, and also the realization that Mary's spinsterhood felt incongruent. BUT I also wasn't fully sold on that, because it was the only blemish.
My kids and I figured out that George never being born was just another universe in the IAWL Multiverse. In another universe, she marries George and still has bad eyesight but they take Sam's tip and invest in plastics and are super rich and out out Potter.
December 26, 2024 at 7:47 AM
My kids and I figured out that George never being born was just another universe in the IAWL Multiverse. In another universe, she marries George and still has bad eyesight but they take Sam's tip and invest in plastics and are super rich and out out Potter.
How do you cut *that* from IAWL? That's the part of the movie people actually remember/parody!
December 26, 2025 at 12:26 AM
How do you cut *that* from IAWL? That's the part of the movie people actually remember/parody!