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 181 Episodes.
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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.'
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The Last of Us
Episode | February 6th, 2023 | 1 hr 30 mins
anna torv, grogu, hbo, naughty dog, pedro pascal, star wars, the last of us, the mandalorian, video games, zombies
Colby returns to talk with us about 'The Last of Us'--the video game and the HBO adaptation starring Pedro Pascal!
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MoMBl Book Club: January 2023
Episode | January 30th, 2023 | 1 hr 28 mins
anatomy a love story, authentic books, before i let go, bloody jack, bonnie garmus, book challenge, dana schwartz, david simon, heir to the empire, homicide a year on the killing streets, iain banks, isabel allende, kennedy ryan, l.a. meyer, lessons in chemistry, matthew stover, raw spirit, reading challenge, regency romance, shatterpoint, star wars, star wars essential legends collection, storygraph, the house of the spirits, the wire, timothy zahn, vanessa riley
Ryan joins us for the first-ever MoMBl Book Club!
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'90s British Girl Groups
Episode | January 23rd, 2023 | 1 hr 50 mins
1990s, 90s, all saints, bananarama, boy bands, british girl groups, girl groups, music, music podcast, pop, pop music, r&b, spice girls, sugababes, wannabe
If you wanna be our lover...then you gotta get with our friends. Lozy joins Tessa and Sam to talk '90s British girl groups as well as to dissect the stigma of "manufactured" pop.
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The Sopranos
Episode | January 16th, 2023 | 1 hr 53 mins
edi falco, gabagoolfia, james gandolfini, jamie-lynn sigler, jersey, lorraine bracco, michael imperioli, new jersey, the mafia, the mob, the sopranos, tony sirico, tony soprano, tv
To continue our mob duology, Elyse joins Sam and Tessa to talk about the HBO drama 'The Sopranos.'
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The Godfather (1, 2...AND 3!!!)
Episode | January 9th, 2023 | 2 hrs 12 secs
al pacino, andy garcia, diane keaton, eli wallach, francis ford coppola, james caan, joe mantegna, mario puzo, marlon brando, michael corleone, robert de niro, robert duvall, sofia coppola, talia shire, the death of michael corleone, the godfather, the godfather coda, the godfather part ii, the godfather part iii, vito corleone
Call it 'The Godfather Trilogy.' Call it a saga. Call it a duology plus a coda. Call it whatever you want, Melissa is here to talk with Sam and Tessa about Francis Ford Coppola's epic mob saga.
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MoMBl 2.0 Trailer
Episode | January 2nd, 2023 | 15 mins 36 secs
book club, books, film, monkey off my backlog, music, podcast, podcasting, pop culture, popular culture, reading challenge, tv
Welcome to Monkey off my Backlog, the podcast where we expand our pop culture horizons by exploring movies, music, television, and books that are new to us. Today’s episode is a preview of what’s to come on Monkey off My Backlog. Or as we’re calling it, MoMBl version 2.0. Don’t worry—we’re still tackling backlogs and exorcizing pop culture demons—but we’re excited for some of the changes that we have in store, and we hope that you will be as well!
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11 Days of Star Wars: 'The Rise of Skywalker'
Episode | December 22nd, 2022 | 2 hrs 33 mins
bad robot, bb8, c3po, carrie fisher, chewbacca, daisy ridley, episode ix: the rise of skywalker, films, finn, george lucas, han solo, harrison ford, holiday, holiday series, industrial light and magic, j.j. abrams, john boyega, kelly marie tran, kylo ren, leia organa, luke skywalker, mark hamill, oscar isaacs, princess leia, r2d2, rey, reylo, rose, star wars, the millennium falcon, the rise of skywalker
It's that time of year where Sam and Tessa tackle one of their favorite franchises for the holiday season! Ryan is back to talk with us about the infamous final film in the Skywalker Saga, 'The Rise of Skywalker.' Plus, find out what next year's holiday limited series will be about!