Sam Morris
Co-Host of Monkey Off My Backlog
Sam Morris (she/they) is Monkey's resident Gen Xer. She is an assistant professor of English, specializing in young adult literature and secondary English education. Sam writes primarily about music (mostly pop), television, and movies. Elsewhere, she has written about John Green, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games; Hayley Williams as the anti-manic pixie dream girl; and Pearl Jam as utopian philosophers.
Here, she is your source for all things Taylor Swift, Keanu Reeves, Friday Night Lights, and all manner of pop culture trivia. She may not remember what he had for dinner last night, but she can tell you some obscure fact from an album’s liner notes that she read thirty years ago.
Sam Morris has hosted 188 Episodes.
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Björk: Debut, Homogenic, Vespertine, Biophilia, Utopia, and More!
Episode | May 8th, 2023 | 1 hr 48 mins
Are you ready for this? I'm not sure we were! Sam, Tessa, and Jarret talk about the Icelandic treasure that is Björk. We talked about several of her albums: 'Debut,' . All is full of love!
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MoMBl Book Club: April 2023
Episode | May 1st, 2023 | 1 hr 7 mins
book challenge, hannah gadsby, peter falk, phoebe robinson, reading challenge, storygraph
Elyse joins us to discuss what they read for the April book club prompt: read a book by a comedian, fiction or non-fiction.
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Verhoeven: Robocop, Showgirls, Starship Troopers, Elle
Episode | April 24th, 2023 | 1 hr 58 mins
elle, erotic thrillers, movies, paul verhoeven, robocop, showgirls, starship troopers
We finally did it...we made an entire episode about four of Paul Verhoeven's films. Matt joins us as we talk through 'Robocop,' 'Showgirls,' 'Starship Troopers,' and 'Elle.'
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Sam Watches Star Trek - Episode 25
Episode | April 21st, 2023 | 1 hr 11 mins
crusher, data, klingons, la forge, picard, recap, riker, star trek, star trek: the next generation, the next generation, tng, troi, tv, worf
A podcast devoted to Sam watching Star Trek: The Next Generation
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The Expanse
Episode | April 17th, 2023 | 1 hr 37 mins
adaptation, cara gee, dominque tipper, frankie adams, james a corey, science fiction, shoreh aghdashloo, space, space travel, steven strait, syfy, the expanse, thomas jane, tv, wes chatham
Emily from TVJawn joins us to talk about the first two seasons of the science fiction series, 'The Expanse.'
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Retro MoMBl: The New Mutants
Episode | April 10th, 2023 | 1 hr 18 mins
anya taylor-joy, cannonball, fox, illyana rasputin, magik, maisie williams, sunspot, the new mutants, wolfsbane, x-men
In our final Retro MoMBl episode, we revisit the end of the 13 Days of X-Men with 'The New Mutants,' featuring the always delightful Melissa.
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Retro MoMBl: Fast Five
Episode | April 3rd, 2023 | 1 hr 6 mins
dwayne johnson, elsa pataky, fast & furious, gal gadot, jordana brewster, justice for han, ludacris, michelle rodriguez, movies, paul walker, sung kang, the rock, tyrese gibson, vin diesel
Sam and Tessa are off again this week, so here's another retro MoMBl. This week, we're getting hyped for 'Fast X' by revisiting our episode on 'Fast Five,' which is the first to feature superfan Megan.
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MoMBl Retrospective: Camp
Episode | March 27th, 2023 | 1 hr 18 mins
abba, amanda seyfried, barbarella, camp, campy, cher, christine baranski, colin firth, films, gay, guy pierce, hugo weaving, jane fonda, jukebox musical, lily james, madonna, mamma mia, mamma mia! here we go again, meryl streep, musical, pierce brosnan, queen of the desert, queer, stellan skarsgård, terence stamp, the adventures of priscilla, trangender, trans
Sam and Tessa are off the next three weeks, so they decided to bring you three of their favorite retro episodes. To get you hyped for our upcoming Verhoeven episode with Matt, here is our Camp episode from last year for a refresher course on the camp aesthetic.
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The 2023 Academy Awards: Snubs!
Episode | March 13th, 2023 | 1 hr 56 mins
academy awards, daniel kaluuya, decision to leave, gina prince-bythewood, international films, jordan peele, keke palmer, nope, oscars, park chan-wook, snubs, tang wei, the woman king, viola davis
In the second part of our conversation about the 2023 Academy Awards, our producer Ryan joins us to talk about three films that were snubbed: 'Decision to Leave,' 'Nope,' and 'The Woman King.'
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Tessa Watches LOST - Episode 27
Episode | March 10th, 2023 | 51 mins 29 secs
bad robot, carlton cuse, damon lindelof, jj abrams, lost, recap, rewatch, tv
This week, we wrap up season 5 with the two part finale "The Incident."
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The 2023 Academy Awards
Episode | March 6th, 2023 | 2 hrs 15 mins
MoMBl goes back to Oscars! Our Academy Award correspondents, Jack and Megan, are back with us to talk about the nominees for the 2023 edition of the Academy Awards.
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Tessa Watches LOST - Episode 26
Episode | March 3rd, 2023 | 49 mins 51 secs
bad robot, carlton cuse, damon lindelof, jj abrams, lost, recap, rewatch, tv
This week, we're talking about season 5 episodes "The Variable" and "Follow the Leader."
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MoMBl Book Club: February 2023
Episode | February 27th, 2023 | 1 hr 24 mins
book challenge, reading challenge, storygraph
Matt joins us to discuss what he read for the February book club prompt: read a book about filmmaking or film history.
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Tessa Watches LOST - Episode 25
Episode | February 24th, 2023 | 56 mins 43 secs
bad robot, carlton cuse, damon lindelof, jj abrams, lost, recap, rewatch, tv
This week, we're talking about season 5 episodes "Dead Is Dead" and "Some Like It Hoth."
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The 2023 Grammy Awards
Episode | February 20th, 2023 | 1 hr 42 mins
abba, adele, bad bunny, beck, beyonce, bonnie raitt, brandi carlile, bts, camila cabello, coldplay, dj khaled, doja cat, ed sheeran, gayle, grammys, harry styles, kelsea ballerini, kendrick lamar, kim petras, lizzo, machine gun kelly, maneskin, maren morris, mary j blige, miranda lambert, muni long, ozzy osbourne, sam smith, steve lacy, taylor swift, wet leg
Tessa and Sam are here to talk about the nominees (and winners) for the 2023 Grammy Awards. We listened to a lot of music this week, and Jarret, Ryan, and Melissa all popped in to help us out.
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Spike Lee
Episode | February 13th, 2023 | 2 hrs 23 mins
40 acres and a mule, a spike lee joint, alfre woodard, clockers, crooklyn, delroy lindo, do the right thing, film, film podcast, isaiah washington, mekhi phifer, movie, spike lee
Ryan joins us again to talk about the one of the great directors of the last forty years: Spike Lee. We discuss three of his early films: 'Do the Right Thing,' 'Crooklyn,' and 'Clockers.'