Curated by Chance

To Couture a Mockingbird

Episode 75: To Couture a Mockingbird This week's prompts: Paper White, 1962, Glasses Neal takes 1962 straight to To Kill a Mockingbird, the landmark film adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel that somehow manages to be both gentle and devastating. He talks about Gregory Peck’s towering, quietly radical performance as Atticus Finch; why the movie still holds emotional power decades later; and how its moral clarity feels almost shocking in a modern landscape full of irony and cynicism. Neal also touches on the book’s long history of bans and challenges, why that still matters, and how the film’s restraint — its refusal to sensationalize — is exactly what gives it weight. Meanwhile, Lauren unspools the life and legacy of Yves Saint Laurent, the fashion prodigy who permanently changed how women dress. From his early paper-doll designs and meteoric rise at Dior to the creation of ready-to-wear as a democratizing force, Lauren breaks down how Saint Laurent blurred gender lines, mainstreamed women in pants, and fused art, business, and rebellion into a single brand. She digs into his partnership with Pierre Bergé, his friendships and rivalries (Warhol, Lagerfeld), and the darker side of genius — addiction, burnout, and a career that flickered between brilliance and collapse. Along the way, we get couture history, fashion-week mechanics, and why Saint Laurent’s influence still shapes what hangs in our closets today. PLUS:📚 Why To Kill a Mockingbird still lands — and still gets banned⚖️ Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch as moral north star👖 Yves Saint Laurent and the radical act of putting women in pants🧵 Couture vs. ready-to-wear, and how fashion actually makes money🎨 Genius, excess, and the cost of changing culture Next week’s prompts: Peach, 309, Necktie Join our show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/curatedbychance Lauren's substack: 👉 https://ltlikesthis.substack.com/ Follow the creators: 🎧 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! 🌐 And for more Neal in your life:www.linktr.ee/nealefischer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Down Ghibli Road

Episode 74: Down Ghibli Road This week’s prompts: Bath, Paper White, 70 It’s New Year’s Eve at Curated by Chance, and Neal and Lauren settle into a quieter, cozier kind of chaos — the kind fueled by lingering colds, holiday brain fog, and the strange emotional clarity that tends to arrive between December 26 and January 1. What starts as a low-key check-in turns into a surprisingly tender conversation about memory, comfort, and the stories that show up exactly when we need them. Lauren takes the prompt “Bath” straight into the warm, surreal waters of Spirited Away (2001). What begins as a rewatch with her son becomes a meditation on growing up, fear, and transformation. She explores Chihiro’s journey from frightened child to quiet hero, the dream logic of the bathhouse, and why Miyazaki’s world never explains itself — it simply invites you to exist inside it. From No-Face’s eerie longing to the film’s gentle emotional pacing, Lauren reflects on how Spirited Away trusts its audience in ways most Western animation never dares to. Meanwhile, Neal brings in Down Cemetery Road, the moody British mystery series that’s become his latest obsession. Set in a quiet English neighborhood with secrets simmering just beneath the surface, the show taps into a very specific kind of storytelling pleasure: slow-burn tension, intimate character work, and the creeping sense that something is deeply off. Neal talks about the show’s measured pacing, lived-in performances, and why British crime dramas hit differently — less spectacle, more unease. It’s less about “whodunit” and more about the emotional fallout of knowing too much. Next week’s prompts: 1962, Glasses, AstroTurf Join us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/curatedbychance 👉 https://ltlikesthis.substack.com/ 👉 https://app.musicleague.com/l/6704df400ff1429186ef8bb85e56a488/ 🎧 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! 📘 Order Neal’s newest book Law & Order: SVU – Confidential (out October 14):👉 https://geni.us/HPgeZ 🌐 And for more Neal in your life:www.linktr.ee/nealefischer Check Out Lauren’s SubstackJoin The Curated By Chance Music League (Round 4 Sign Up)Follow the show and its creators on Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Johnny Galecki is My Wingman

Episode 73: Johnny Galecki Is My Wingman This week’s prompts: Attic, Fur, 160 Neal and Lauren close out the holiday season with migraines, subzero temperatures, Christmas Eve recording energy, and an episode that somehow becomes both a love letter to seasonal chaos and a rom-com–worthy personal anecdote. Neal takes “Attic” straight to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) — the quintessential “everything goes wrong” holiday classic that turns good intentions into full-blown festive disaster. He walks Lauren (who has somehow never seen it) through Clark Griswold’s doomed quest for the perfect Christmas, unpacking iconic moments like the blinding house lights, Cousin Eddie’s RV arrival, the squirrel chaos, and that legendary Jelly of the Month Club rant. Along the way, Neal dishes out a sleigh-full of behind-the-scenes stories: a deceased trained squirrel, cue cards , an unscripted crotch grab into the final cut, and why this movie accidentally helped give us Home Alone. It’s pratfalls, pine sap, and pure holiday mayhem — with a surprising amount of heart. Meanwhile, Lauren picks up “Attic” in a very different way, launching into a sharp, funny, and surprisingly moving breakdown of The Husbands by Holly Gramazio — a magical-realist novel about a woman whose attic functions as a portal dispensing an endless supply of husbands. She unpacks the book’s clever metaphor for modern dating, choice paralysis, grief, and self-definition, spotlighting standout husbands, the running Netflix joke, and why the book’s ending lands with such emotional precision. It’s funny, thoughtful, occasionally dark, and deeply relatable — even when the premise is completely bonkers. And then — because this is Curated by Chance — Neal casually drops a real-life holiday rom-com story in which Johnny Galecki accidentally becomes his wingman. Yes, that Johnny Galecki. Sometimes the universe just hands you a third-act twist. PLUS:🎄 Why Christmas Vacation still feels painfully accurate🐿️ Dead squirrels, wild squirrels, and very nervous stunt warnings📖 Magical realism as dating allegory (and emotional survival guide)💍 The grief of losing a perfect husband… to an attic portal🍸 Johnny Galecki, Midwest bars, and the power of accidental celebrity proximity Next week’s prompts: Bath, Paper White, 70 Join 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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dancin' Slow

Episode 72: Dancin' Slow This week’s prompts: Goldenrod, 919, Hat Lauren returns — coughs muted, spirits high — and Neal officially hands the mic back after last week’s Bond-fueled solo outing. What follows is a cozy, conversational episode that blends modern art theory, eccentric geniuses, and a little bit of podcast navel-gazing as the two reflect on growth, gratitude, and why structure can sometimes be the ultimate form of freedom. Lauren takes Goldenrod and 919 straight into the world of Piet Mondrian, the Dutch modernist whose grids of black lines and primary colors became one of the most recognizable visual languages of the 20th century. She traces Mondrian’s journey from impressionist windmills to Cubist experimentation to the radical philosophy of De Stijl and neoplasticism, unpacking how horizontal and vertical lines were meant to represent nothing less than the underlying structure of the universe. Along the way: theosophy, occult philosophies, jazz clubs, secret flower paintings, rigid diets, racist pseudoscience, and the deeply funny revelation that Mondrian — stoic grid-master — loved dancing the Charleston. Meanwhile, Neal reacts in real time, connecting Mondrian’s self-imposed artistic rules to movements like Dogme 95, modern minimalism, and why restriction often produces innovation. The conversation drifts into Mondrian’s lasting influence on fashion (hello, Yves Saint Laurent), graphic design, architecture, and pop culture — including why his work keeps resurfacing every few decades as the ultimate visual reset. In between, the two share Spotify Wrapped–style listener stats, celebrate international fans, and marvel at the strange, wonderful overlap between art nerds, trivia lovers, audiobook obsessives, and people who just really liked an episode called Wash Your Damn Hands. Next week’s prompts: Attic, Fur, 160 Join our Patreon! www.Patreon.com/curatedbychance Check Out Lauren’s Substack: 👉 https://ltlikesthis.substack.com/ Join The Curated By Chance Music League (Round 4 Sign Up): 👉 https://app.musicleague.com/l/6704df400ff1429186ef8bb85e56a488/ 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! 📘 Order Neal’s newest book Law & Order: SVU – Confidential (out October 14): 👉 https://geni.us/HPgeZ And for more Neal in your life: 🌐 www.linktr.ee/nealefischer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Gold Standard

Episode 71: The Gold Standard This week’s prompts: Goldenrod, 919, Hat Neal’s flying solo this week — migraine hangover, holiday chaos, Lauren home sick — but he shows up with a gleaming, gadget-packed deep dive into Goldfinger (1964), the Bond movie that became the blueprint for all Bonds to come. From Ian Fleming naming his villain out of pure pettiness to the film’s choice to replace a convoluted Fort Knox heist with an elegant “poison the gold” scheme, Neal breaks down how Goldfinger sharpened every piece of the franchise into the gold standard. It’s a whirlwind of gold paint, gadgets, henchmen, and cinematic swagger — plus a look ahead at where Bond might go next under Amazon and who’s circling the 007 mantle now. PLUS: 🏆 The petty real-life inspiration behind Auric Goldfinger 🎶 Shirley Bassey, Jimmy Page, and the most iconic Bond theme ever recorded 🎩 Oddjob’s killer hat and Q’s weaponized DB5 💥 The laser table scene that redefined villainy Join 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! Order Neal’s newest book Law & Order: SVU – Confidential (out October 14): 👉 ⁠https://geni.us/HPgeZ⁠ And for more Neal in your life: 🌐 ⁠www.linktr.ee/nealefischer⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices