Death is a Photograph

It's the new year, and Sam and Chase have returned to their PMC day jobs in force. Less mind-numbing conversations by the water cooler, less pizza parties, less boredom — but far more existential dread and precarity (who said things couldn't get better).
In today's episode, we're joined by sociologist and writer Dan Evans to discuss two Gen X films about work and working: Joel Schumacher's Falling Down (1993) and Mike Judge's Office Space (1999).
During a period of steady wage growth, relatively low asset prices, declining (but still powerful) labour union power, and porous gatekeeping practices — why did Gen X hate work so much? We find out in this week's DPP.
Evans is the author of the brilliant A Nation of Shopkeepers: The Unstoppable Rise of the Petty Bourgeoisie (you can watch him talking about it here).
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This week John Dolan, co-host of Radio War Nerd, joins the DPP boys to discuss Sam Raimi's closer to the Evil Dead trilogy, Army of Darkness (1992). Dr. Dolan regales your co-hosts with tales of late 80s-early 90s masculinity in all its nerdy, machismo-laced infamy. Before the Marvel movie, before 4chan, there was the comic book shop and the 80s-blockbuster action superstar. How did these tropes shape and ground the youth of the 80s and 90s? John, as always full of wisdom and anecdotes, has answers.
John's newest book, They Should Have Been Hanged, is out now!

This week, DPP is joined by Jacobin film critic and host of the Filmsuck podcast: Eileen Jones.
We gather in the police station break room over coffee and doughnuts to discuss Errol Morris's 1988 film, The Thin Blue Line.
Morris's documentary has been incredibly prescient — bringing to the fore big 21st-century questions about 'fake news,' 'polarisation,' and state power.
Sam, Chase, and Eileen contemplate a few questions — "what even is the truth, man?" and "what if justice just serves the system, dude?" as they discuss the rise of postmodernism and narrativisation in late 20th century documentary making.
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This week DPP is joined by filmmaker William Garcia Bigelow of Sometime the Wolf (2025), Attrition (2013) and The Couple.
Chase and Will discuss Danny Boyle's directorial debut Shallow Grave (1994). Sam, who once briefly lived in a massive flat in Edinburgh as a toddler, (many heinous crimes were committed there), is off sick.
In his absence, Chase and Will try to figure out why young professionals in the 1990s were flat sharing and whether Gen X is innately doomed to murder each other.
In what ways does Shallow Grave foreshadow the nihilism and violence of later generational films like Trainspotting?
Find out in today's episode.
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DDP is joined today by cultural historian Shalon van Tine to discuss Martin Bell's Streetwise (1984) and Larry Clark's Kids (1995).
As of two months ago — all the hosts of DPP are now on the wrong side of thirty. Consequently, there couldn't be a better time to dive into the archives and explore some youth culture both Chase and Sam are too young to remember — 1980s streetkids in Seattle and 1990s skaters in Manhattan.
Was Gen X really as independent as they say they were? And where did this latchkey ethos come from: family breakdown, liberation, austerity, neoliberalism, outsourcing, the corrosion of the counter culture, the end of social democracy?
With Gen Z dubbed, rightly or wrongly, 'puriteens' by the mainstream press (with teen pregnancy, drug use and drinking down), why were their parents, in contrast, so darn hedonistic?
Find out in today's episode.
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