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Welcome to Kicking the Seat!

Ian Simmons launched Kicking the Seat in 2009, one week after seeing Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia. His wife proposed blogging as a healthier outlet for his anger than red-faced, twenty-minute tirades (Ian is no longer allowed to drive home from the movies).

The Kicking the Seat Podcast followed three years later and, despite its “undiscovered gem” status, Ian thoroughly enjoys hosting film critic discussions, creating themed shows, and interviewing such luminaries as Gaspar NoéRachel BrosnahanAmy Seimetz, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Ian is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. He also has a family, a day job, and conflicted feelings about referring to himself in the third person.

Ep165: Shambala

This week, the Kicking the Seat Podcast gets metaphysical with a raucous roundtable review of Doctor Strange! Joining Ian on this jam-packed installment are David Fowlie of Keeping it Reel, Emmanuel Noisette of Eman's Movie Reviews, and Don Shanahan of Every Movie Has a Lesson.

Is the latest comic-book movie more than just an Inception-y feast for the eyes? Has Disney/Marvel finally broken its losing streak of ill-conceived antagonists? And where do all the Avengers, Spider-Men, and Black Panthers go from here, now that Benedict Cumberbatch has dilated the pupil of the MCU's collective third eye?

All these questions will be answered (or at least considered), in an episode that's as strange as its namesake. Leading off the conversation is a memorial for legendary comic-book artist Steve Dillon, who passed away a couple weeks ago. Also, Ian has a stack of updates more tantalizing and intimidating than Eman's side of pancakes, including:

Episode 165 is sure to live your head spinning and your mouth grinning. Let's get strange! 

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Ep166: November Surprise

Ep164: The Mysterious Ways of John Fallon