Podcast
Curated by Chance
Hosted by Neal E. Fischer and Lauren Tagliaferro · EN
Join filmmaker Neal E. Fischer and art curator Lauren Tagliaferro as they dive into the unpredictable world of ‘Curated by Chance,’ a podcast where creativity meets serendipity. Each episode, Neal and Lauren harness the power of a randomizing algorithm named Chance to generate unique prompts that drive their discussions. From exploring the unexpected intersections between film and visual art to dissecting the curious ways randomness shapes artistic expression, this dynamic duo invites listeners to ponder the influence of chance in the creative process. Whether dissecting a random film scene or analyzing an art piece through a whimsical lens, ‘Curated by Chance’ promises a fresh perspective with every episode.
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Episodes
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I Thought it was Pearl!
3d ago01:10:12Tap to summarizeEpisode 93: I Thought it was Pearl! Prompts: Neptune, Pastel Blue, 991 This week's episode begins with Lauren recounting her conference that felt like a night out in Las Vegas complete with backlit menus and highly priced steak! Neal talks about handing in his book and making a video for Colleen's students before our dynamic duo hop into their respective topics. Neal begins and takes the word Neptune to inspire a conversation about Veronica Mars, the Rob Thomas-created (no, not that Rob Thomas) television show that had early 2000s TV viewers in a chokehold and thrust Kristen Bell into superstardom. He highlights the origins of the project, talks about the heart of the show (the father-daughter relationship) and covers how the TV series became a movie and then a reboot. Lauren then admits that she completely botched one of the prompts Chance provided last week and could have sworn that the word "pearl" was one of them. She goes in-depth on Vermeer, his painting The Girl with the Pearl Earring, the documentary Tim's Vermeer and how it's received in the art community, and even tells us an absolutely fascinating factoid about the famous portrait that you won't want to miss. If you'd like to support Neal on his new book Mission Impossible: The Ultimate Fan Guide please pre-order a copy and spread the word to your friends or loved ones who might like it for a holiday gift as it comes out December 1st! Pre-order here: https://www.globepequot.com/9781493096152/mission-impossible/ Next Week's Prompts: Tin, Cream, Mark, 487 Join in supporting the show with our listeners by becoming a member of our Patreon at www.patreon.com/curatedbychance for ad-free episodes, book clubs, stickers, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Three Sports Cars in a Culver's
1w ago01:07:09Tap to summarizeEpisode 92: Three Sports Cars in a Culver's Prompts: Beast, Emerald, 9 Welcome to an all-new and endlessly entertaining (we hope) episode of Curated by Chance. The episode starts off with a bang, or, more literally, a CUT, as Neal accidentally cuts himself and shows blood. He's okay, but after you hear the rest of the episode, it actually all comes together in relation to his topic and it was unplanned. Neal talks about a freaky moment watching the new movie APEX on Netflix and a quick NYC update, and Lauren gives an update on her house hunting. Both of the hosts send out the call to help them reach 50 reviews on Apple and Spotify and 50 patrons! To start this week, Lauren takes us on a deep dive into the Fauvist art movement and how artists like Henri Matisse used color with emotion rather than realism. LT talks about controversial paintings like Blue Nude and The Green Stripe and breaks down the themes of gender ambiguity, colonialism, sexuality, and color. This movement, evolving out of Impressionism and Pointillism rejected realism and inspired negative reactions from audiences at the time but ultimately became influential in modern art. Neal then takes the word beast very literally, chronicling the infamous cult film Roar (1981) often called "the most dangerous movie ever made." Neal talks about producer Noel Marshall living and filming with real lions, tigers, and other big beasts and talks about the absolutely insane behind-the-scenes stories of a years-long filming process that resulted in dozens of serious injuries, near-death experiences, escaped animals and more. The film did result in a real-life big cat sanctuary but what happened on set seems too crazy to be true and is something you have to witness at least once in your movie going journey! Next Week's Prompts: Neptune, Pastel Blue, 991 Join us on Patreon and help us reach 50 patrons!: www.patreon.com/curatedbychance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Mother's Book Club
2w ago01:04:57Tap to summarizeEpisode 91: Mother's Book Club Prompts: Hell, Gray, 106, Baby Blue This week's episode starts out with a joyous exclamation by LT that she is FREE from classes for the summer! Well, at least she thought so, but that'll be on next week's episode. Neal then recounts babysitting his two nieces with his wife, Colleen, and how quickly caring for your nieces can turn expensive. We've all been there right? Anyone? Bueller? Since Neal pulled Chance last week, he's up first, and he discussed Hell of High Water the 2016 neo-noir Western crime drama with great performances from Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Jeff Bridges, and Gil Birmingham. Neal takes the time to talk about the film's themes of economic collapse and predatory banking, the moral gray areas of the film (no true heroes or villains) and how generational struggle affects small-town America. He then turns the discussion over to an exploration of Taylor Sheridan, the film's writer whose career has absolutely blown up and taken Hollywood by storm. LT takes the mantle and gushes about a book she's recently read called Catabasis by R.F. Kuang, a dark academia/fantasy/horror that's inspired by Dante and mythology and absolutely enraptured her. The story follows two grad students who travel to hell to retrieve their dead professor for a recommendation letter of all things. LT talks about the themes of language, math, and magic and gives us the tea on her "Mother's Book Club" which actually isn't called that. Oh, and Chance is definitely in a dark and brooding mood. Next Week's Prompts: Beast, Emerald, 9 Thank you to all of our patrons who make this show possible! We're on a road to 50 patrons, and 50 reviews on Spotify and Apple, give us a hand if you're willing and able! And come join us by donating today for the price of a cup of coffee a month! www.patreon.com/curatedbychance Listen to Neal on Triviality! Listen to Lauren on Miss Information! Follow us on Instagram: @curatedbychance Or follow Neal and LT: @nealefischer & @paisleylo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Rain Pains
3w ago01:05:55Tap to summarizeEpisode 90: Rain Pains Prompts: Wound, 1300, Walnut Wow! We are 10 episodes away from 100. Crazy that we've come this far and we cannot thank YOU, the listener, enough! On this week's episode Neal is battling an oncoming migraine from the huge weather shifts (that have given him six days of migraines) and Lauren coins the best description of it ever. Hint: It's the title. After a little catch-up, the episode goes full speed. Lauren starts with The Side Wound of Christ (Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg) and discusses how the side wound wasn't just artwork, but was used for deep devotion and carried unexpected erotic and queer interpretations which have since challenged modern assumptions of medieval beliefs. Lauren's lesson shows us that the Middle Ages were actually full of complex, layered thinking about gender and were far from the “dark ages” stereotype we see in popular media. Neal goes to the 1300s, but in film form, and breaks down The Seventh Seal the highly regarded film from arguably Sweden's greatest filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman. Here, Neal talks about Swedish cinema, the behind-the-scenes magic, and filming perhaps the most famous chess scene of all time that itself, was inspired by a piece of artwork! And he surprises Lauren with that fact. Next Week's Prompts: Hell, Gray, Baby Blue, 106 Help Support Our Summer of "50" by getting us to 50 reviews on Apple and Spotify and 50 patrons on Patreon! To join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/curatedbychance Thank you for all you do for us Patrons. We are making this show for YOU! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Swimsuits and Social Revolutions
Apr 1501:17:51Tap to summarizeEpisode 89: Swimsuits and Social Revolutions This week’s prompts: Bathing Suit, Mint Green, 1964 This week, Lauren and Neal kick things off by reading YOUR suggestions for open-house names and Neal comes up with a million dollar idea for a book villain that he may or may not use. Only time will tell. The pair then talk about movies that turn your brain off, and Neal recounts trying to watch a Jason Statham movie in six minute increments. To start the episode off, Neal takes the reigns and uses 1964 and bathing suit to talk about the creation and evolution of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue from its beginnings as a January filler to becoming a billion-dollar cultural juggernaut. He talks about the first cover mode, the female editor who helped build the franchise and make it a household name, the controversies, and of course, the supermodels the magazine minted. Lauren picks up the conversation with a deep dive into Rudi Gernreich, the Austrian-born American designer whose fashion inspired social critique. Gernreich is perhaps best known for the topless monokini but throughout all of his work, saw clothing not just as style, but a way to challenge repression, rethink gender, and push modern fashion. Lauren details his refugee background and anatomical eye to his futuristic unisex looks and even talks about the unforgettable, very real, pubikini. And yes, it's what it sounds like. Thank you to all our patrons for your support. We LITERALLY could not do this without all of you. Please support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/curatedbychance Follow the show and its creators on Instagram: The Show: @curatedbychance Lauren: @paisleylo Neal: @nealefischer E-mail us: curatedbychance@gmail.com Hear Neal each week on Triviality Podcast Listen to Lauren on Miss Information Podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Willem DeFoal
Apr 801:15:33Tap to summarizeEpisode 88: Willem DeFoal Prompts: Natural, Currency, LXXXV Today's episode goes from house hunting to Russian realism to a sweaty 80s crime thriller with some serious C.S.I. nudity! In a pre-prompt discussion, Lauren gives listeners an update on her house-hunting journey and decides, along with Neal, that they need fake open house names from YOU to help them as they peek around listings and hopefully don't see a Todd in the way. IYKYK. Neal talks about one of his radio shows and how terms like HELOC are going right over his head. But today's prompts inspire some fun discussion on two different topics. Lauren starts off talking about Ilya Repin’s 1885 painting Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan and its devastating portrait of rage, regret, and political fallout. She talks about Repin's lifestyle, Ukrainian roots, and how this work became one of Russia's most controversial canvases and evolved throughout history and was even subjected to vandalism. Neal goes a different direction and uses LXXXV (85) for 1985, and tells us all about William Friedkin's underrated classic, To Live and Die in LA. It's based on a novel by a Secret Service agent, features currency, burning paintings, William Peterson full frontal, and a fantastic performance from Willem Dafoe. The infamous wrong-way car chase is covered at length, but what Neal and Lauren decide to fixate on is the genius of Wang Chung and their score for this film. We even get a review from the porch from Lauren's dad... sort of. Make sure to send us your fake open house names and perhaps we'll use them! Next week's prompts: Mint Green, Bathing Suit, 64 Help Support Us On Patreon: Subscribe Here! Follow the show on instagram: @curatedbychance Follow the show's creators on instagram: @nealefischer & @paisleylo Thank you for supporting our show each month! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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LT's 1940s Pick-Up Lines
Apr 101:09:59Tap to summarizeEpisode 87: LT's 1940s Pick-Up Lines Prompts: 1940s, Orange, Linguist Lauren and Neal are EXCITED to be back on the moving train that is Curated by Chance. This week's brand-spanking-new episode covers two topics that were all the rage in the 1940s. Neal kicks things off, firmly back in the co-host chair, with a deep dive into the Transatlantic or Mid-Atlantic accent, otherwise known as the old-timey voice you hear in old movies! The polished "old Hollywood" voice was made famous by stars like Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn and Neal explains why it started, how it flourished, and why it just disappeared like nothing ever happened. He speaks about Edith Skinner, Marlon Brando, James Dean, and how, spoiler alert, the accent was never real! Lauren takes the 1940s mantle and talks all about one of America's most celebrated artists, Edward Hopper. She takes us from lonely diners to sunlit windows and explores Hopper's captured isolation, stillness, and everyday life in a way that to fans new and old still resonates. But the biggest reveal (are we surprised?) is that Hopper probably wouldn't be Hopper without his wife, Josephine. Also on this episode, Lauren and Neal figure out fashion trends, talk about Pickleball, and Lauren let's Neal know she's happy that he isn't recording from a moving car this time. Next Week's Prompts: Currency, Natural, LXXXV (85) If you'd like to support our show on Patreon (and help us continue to grow) please visit: www.patreon.com/curatedbychance Follow the show and its creators on Instagram: The Show: @curatedbychance Lauren: @paisleylo Neal: @nealefischer E-mail us: curatedbychance@gmail.com Hear Neal each week on Triviality Podcast – Subscribe now! Listen to Lauren on Miss Information Podcast – Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile
Mar 2501:07:14Tap to summarizeEpisode 86: Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile Prompts: Brick, 9399, Poison Guess who's back? Back again. Well, it's not Slim Shady, but Neal did have frosted tips early on in his high school career! Neal finished his latest book under a TIGHT deadline and is happy to be back. He thanks Lauren for holding down the podcast with solo and guest episodes, and thanks the listeners for their patience. He even shares an anecdote about writer brain and how it led to making a BIG mistake in the book, but thankfully he fixed it later. In honor of his return, Neal goes first and gives Lauren a much deserved break by talking about the story behind Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison," one of the most famous examples of New Jack Swing. The discussion ranges from the origin of the song, the original group that birthed BBD, and the famous group that BBD helped form! Plus, the most famous use of this song on television and the videogame that stole it! Then, Lauren takes the mic and talks about the danger behind beautiful colors and how poisonous colors have a place in fashion and color history. From sea snails to expensive garments worn by royalty to colors literally causing illness and death! On this week's episode, you get creativity under pressure, the evolution of art through experimentation, how innovation have often come with unintended consequences, and the cultural ripple effect of one song. Next Week's Prompts: Orange, 1940, Linguist Please consider supporting us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/curatedbychance Follow the show and its creators on Instagram: The Show: @curatedbychance Lauren: @paisleylo Neal: @nealefischer E-mail us: curatedbychance@gmail.com Hear Neal each week on Triviality Podcast – Subscribe now! Listen to Lauren on Miss Information Podcast – Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Steve is Camp Blind
Mar 1800:51:27Tap to summarizeEpisode 85: Steve is Camp Blind This week’s prompts: Stripe, 97, Green In the last episode without Neal (who finished his book) Lauren, relaxed on the couch, invites a very special guest: her husband, Dr. Stephen Polly. Together they provide an intimate, deep dive conversation into Steve's favorite movie of all-time, The Fifth Element. This episode, Lauren highlights Steve's total camp blindness, Steve talks about Moonstruck totally breaking him, and they both comment on how Luc Besson's candy-colored sci-fi spectacle feels lived in. But before they talk about Chris Tucker's unhinged but beautiful performance, Bruce Willis acting his ass off in plastic, and Milla Jovovich's star-making performance (in a made-up language) Lauren and Steve delightfully take us behind the curtain to when they met, a story that starts with bar trivia, bonding over documentaries, and ends up with being married with a kid. Plus, we get to hear from the designer of our very own algorithm, Chance, talking about the deeply unnecessary but very appreciated physics calculations. Why? When you have an expert on the show, you get the expert analysis! Next week’s prompts: Brick, 9399, Poison Please consider supporting us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/curatedbychance Follow the show and its creators on Instagram: The Show: @curatedbychance Lauren: @paisleylo Neal: @nealefischer E-mail us: curatedbychance@gmail.com Hear Neal each week on Triviality Podcast – Subscribe now! Listen to Lauren on Miss Information Podcast – Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Scrolls, Shrines, and Spring Break Delusion
Mar 1200:41:46Tap to summarizeEpisode 84: Scrolls, Shrines, and Spring Break Delusion This week’s prompts: 458, Salmon, Sleep Lauren is back solo again — slightly overbooked, a little raspy, and fully in the thick of spring-semester chaos — with an episode that moves from museum donor events and teaching highs and lows to ancient Japan, Buddhist scrolls, and the enduring power of visual storytelling. After a little life update from the MAG, the classroom, and the general circus of adjunct-professor existence, Lauren takes the prompts in a different direction and dives into Japanese art before 1333. Using a single extraordinary hanging scroll — The Death of the Historical Buddha — as a starting point, she explores Buddhist imagery, grief, animism, shrine rebuilding, narrative scrolls, and the long visual history behind everything from manga to robot dogs. Along the way, she unpacks the spiritual and aesthetic traditions that shaped early Japanese art: the solemn beauty of Buddhist nirvana paintings, the Shinto reverence for objects and ritual, the rebuilding of the Ise Shrine every 20 years, the gendered distinction between “masculine” and “feminine” art forms in the Heian period, and the lively, sketchy animal scrolls that feel like proto-manga centuries before manga existed. It’s a wide-ranging, deeply visual episode about how art, ritual, storytelling, and national identity evolve — and how some of the most ancient forms still feel startlingly modern. PLUS:🖼️ A gorgeous Buddhist hanging scroll full of grief, gold, and symbolism⛩️ Why Japan rebuilds one of its most sacred shrines again and again🧵 Broken needles, animism, and the spiritual life of everyday objects📖 The Tale of Genji and the rise of “feminine” narrative art🐸 Frolicking frogs, monkeys, and rabbits as the ancient ancestors of manga Next week’s prompts: Stripe, 97, Green Please support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/curatedbychance Check Out Lauren’s Substack:👉 https://ltlikesthis.substack.com/ Follow the show and its creators on Instagram:🎧 The Show – @curatedbychance🎨 Lauren – @paisleylo🎬 Neal – @nealefischer 📧 E-mail us: curatedbychance@gmail.com Hear Neal each week on Triviality Podcast – Subscribe now!Listen to Lauren on Miss Information Podcast – Subscribe now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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