Rico Gagliano

Rico Gagliano is the host of MUBI Podcast (former co-creator of The Dinner Party Download.) Follow him on Twitter here. Follow MUBI on Twitter here.

How did you become the host of MUBI Podcast?
Luck!  Or, well, by working with enough cool people that something this lucky was even possible.  

See if you can follow this twisty trail of connections: I produced Amy Nicholson’s great but short-lived movie podcast for Focus Features called “Zoom.” (This was pre-pandemic, when that title could evoke something other than video conferencing.) Our music composer was a Brit named Martin Austwick. Martin does music for lots of podcasts, including “90 Minutes or Less Film Fest” — hosted by a sweet gent named Sam Clements. Because Sam knew Martin, Sam listened to and became a fan of “Zoom.”  So when he learned the streaming service MUBI was interested in starting a podcast (MUBI is headquartered in Sam’s hometown of London), he recommended they talk to me, a guy who produced movie pods.  Turns out MUBI were hoping to find someone who could both produce and host… and I’ve basically been waiting my whole life for someone to ask me to produce and host my own movie show.

By the way, Martin now does the music for the MUBI Podcast, too — and not just because I owe him for the connection!  My word his stuff is great.

What makes MUBI Podcast different from other movie podcasts?
There’re a lot of great chat podcasts about movies, but very few documentary-style shows.  We’re telling stories about movie culture and bringing them to life, with deep research, multiple voices, archival sound, and the aforementioned kickass music.  “You Must Remember This,” TCM’s “The Plot Thickens,” and the Ringer’s “Halloween Unmasked” are among the few shows that come to mind in a similar vein.  But they all set the bar insanely high!

It’s also important to us to make the show not just for film nerds like me, but for anyone who likes a good tale.  You don’t have to be familiar with the movies or theaters we focus on, ‘cause regardless, every episode is basically about interesting people trying to create something fantastic, against the odds.  And then my dearest hope is that after you listen, you’re excited to check out these things for yourself.

Why the focus was movie theaters and not movies? I love it, just curious.
When we started planning season two late last year, we were like a year and a half into COVID lockdowns, and cinemas were closing all over the place, sometimes permanently.  A lot of folks at MUBI (including me) have at some point worked in cinemas and have intensely fond feelings for them, and I’ll go out on a limb and wager moviegoing was a formative experience for almost everyone in the company, at some point in their lives.  So talk turned pretty quickly to the idea of doing a season that would remind people of the awesomeness and importance of cinemas.  That morphed into the idea of picking one theater per episode that contributed something amazing to the culture, and telling those stories.

Was there one episode of MUBI Podcast you were particularly excited about?
This season, the main thing I wanted to avoid was a kind of PBS “Look at this grand old cinema” vibe.  Again, there had to be some cool story associated with each place, that would grab you even if you’re not a theater buff. 

My favorite example is probably the episode about the Westgate theater outside Minneapolis, which arguably saved the movie HAROLD AND MAUDE from oblivion back in the early ‘70s.  The movie was a flop when it first came out, but then this shaggy second-run neighborhood theater — which itself had actually struggled for decades — scored a huge hit with it, screened it for years, and that launched the movie’s rise as one of the biggest cult flicks of all time.  It’s just a classic underdog story — you’re rooting for the movie, and the theater, and this endearing community of people who loved both. I think it’s the sweetest of the episodes.

By the way, once we started focusing on story instead of physical grandeur, a lot of movie palaces ended up falling out of contention as possible subjects of episodes.  Almost all the theaters we cover in the season were as humble as the Westgate, and some were really small.  Like, the first episode is about one of the most important cinemas ever, the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris, and its original incarnation had 38 seats! But what all these theaters had in common were founders who were passionate about movies, and who created places where other passionate crazy people would come and find each other.

How has the podcast space changed since you started Dinner Party Download?
I’ve often described it as something akin to what people must’ve experienced in the early days of Hollywood: One day it’s this relatively new thing that a few people are doing and everyone kind of knows each other, and then suddenly a couple years later it’s like, “Whoa, where’d all these other people come from? With all this money?!”  I mean, today there’s a standalone podcasting industry with networks and production companies and a career path.  None of that existed when we launched DPD; we were working for public radio and doing the podcast as just a percentage of our day jobs.

But the upside was we had the luxury of being paid to basically workshop DPD for years, while we were airing it.  I mean, the early episodes are kind of embarrassing for me to listen to and were full of stuff that totally didn’t work.  But Brendan and I were given the time (and a living wage) to tweak the show, get comfortable being hosts — something neither of us had done much of before — and build a substantial audience that actually enjoyed being along for the ride with us.  I don’t think any major audio company (including our former bosses) would give newbies that much runway now; I’ve been on shows that were killed two months after they first aired.  I get it — there’s way more money at stake, and way more competition.  But I’d like to see a world where new shows and creators get more time to learn on the job.

Do people recognize your voice in public?
It’s happened very rarely. Once I was buying something at a store and the guy saw my name on my credit card and was like, “I thought I recognized your voice!” But one of the things I love about audio is it can bring just the right amount of celebrity. The very few folks who’d think of me as some kind of “star” probably couldn’t pick me out in a crowd — it’s not like I’ve ever been hassled by a fan!

What does podcasting need to be better about?
Editing.

Thanks, Rico!