Special agent Payton McCarthy-Simas joins Candy to discuss David Cronenberg’s new movie THE SHROUDS.

Payton McCarty-Simas is a an author, programmer, and film critic based in New York City. They hold a Masters in film and media studies from Columbia University, where she focused her research on horror film, psychedelia, and the occult in particular. Payton’s writing has been featured in The Brooklyn Rail, Metrograph’s Journal, Rue Morgue, Film Daze, and others, and she is the author of two books, One Step Short of Crazy: National Treasure and the Landscape of American Conspiracy Culture, and the forthcoming All of Them Witches: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film (July 2025). Payton is also a member of the Online Association of Female Film Critics and GALECA, the Society for LGBTQ Film Critics. She lives with her partner and their cat, Shirley Jackson.

In the wonderfully complicated new Cronenberg movie there is a motif of dogs. This motif occurs between three characters and possibly one AI avatar/assistant. We talk about several dog scenes within the movie. Something extra to consider is gods and dogs.

The protagonist's wife is wearing a collar for cancer treatment that helps monitor her procedures and needs and presumably the progress or slowing of cancer. Her twin sister is a dog groomer. A future date is blind and has a seeing eye dog. Some scenes occur in a. dog park. There are a few goddesses associated with dogs, Hecate, a goddess of magic, and witchcraft portrayed with dogs and sometimes as being part dog herself.(the wife?) Kali is a Hindu goddess whose portrayal with a dog symbolizes her loyalty. (The sister-in law?) And there is Artemis a goddess of the hunt portrayed with dogs hunting. (The new lover?)

Iamma, goddess associated with fertility, love, war also associated with a dog. Gula was a deity associated with dogs and healing. So was Ianna.So...it seems like there could be further exploration in The Shrouds about the dogs.

Special Agent Sarah and I saw Black Bag recently. A fantastic movie by Stephen Soderberg about a company of spies. We also both listened to the podcast series "Behind The Bastards" Oprah 6 part edition.

Thanks for listening...forgive our initial sound challenges but it smoothes out after a couple of minutes.

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Raconteur, herpetologist, and Cormac McCarthy scholar Rick Wallach joins Special Agent Sarah and Candy to discuss his forthcoming book IN SEARCH OF GODZILLA: MYTH, STAGECRAFT AND POLITICS IN ISHIRO HONDA'S MASTERPIECE.

Everything monster in this episode folks. Did you know the connections between Kurosawa and Honda? Did you know women were liberated to equality in Japan before the USA...by the USA? What was the migration feeding path of Godzilla?

Thank you for listening!

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the agency.podcast@gmail.com

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