…with very bad impressions of British and French accents in what I’m guessing is an attempt at humor. I listened to the Hitchcock episode and found this technique of storytelling confusing and distracting. Am I supposed to laugh at the narrator’s ineptitude? Is this an appeal to US-centric xenophobia? Is she inverting the status of the directors by trying to project stupidity into their words by soundings stupid herself? I don’t know. Maybe I’m the dummy, but it didn’t work for me.

I listened to this because it was featured on “cautionary tales”. The story was really interesting but I had to stop halfway through because I could not take the narrators horrible over pronunciation (especially the letter T) and terrible accents. Looking at the reviews I’m clearly not alone. If she gets a clue and changes or is replaced by another narrator would love to make this pod part of my rotation

The Subject matter of this podcast seems interesting enough and the narrator does do a few interesting British and French accent to mix it up but her insistence on using hard Ts is absolutely insufferable making it completely unlisTenable

Couldn’t ask for a better podcast about old time Hollywood.

Troy recommended this show and now I’m binging the erotic 80s (season 8) 😻

Karina does great research. The (sometimes) silly production value is endearing.

Incredibly researched and informative stories of the old days (and some of the new ones) of Hollywood. The only detractor is the incessant use of poorly executed accents rendering some episodes challenging at best. Please, please, please just let the material stand on its own.

Excellent cultural criticism, thoroughly researched and beautifully written, often about how systems run by men and driven by money destroy human lives. After the episode on Jean Harlow, I had to pull over I was so devastated, and even though I knew the story, the episode on Buster Keaton had the same effect. So when subjects manage to survive by staying true to themselves and retaining their dignity, living long, happy lives, like William Haines or Boris Karloff, it’s a breath of fresh air.

Love the research & writing. Inconsistent & unnatural annunciation is annoying, but somewhat tolerable. But the accents (English, French, etc) are so awful that I’m literally wincing while listening. I’m sure you’re having fun, but please spare your audience.

Took me a while to decide I liked this, but the Polly Platt episodes were fascinating. It feels balanced and well-researched. Longworth’s carefully enunciating each “t” was annoying for a while.

I love the concept and content for this show. It’s well-researched and compelling. BUT. . . Ms. Longworth needs to take to heart all the people here who say that her overly articulated speech is distracting and annoying. It makes it difficult to enjoy this podcast. Listen to your audience—the extreme speech affectation adds NOTHING to the quality of the show—and actually detracts from it. I’m also struggling with her need to quote people born in other countries using what she feels is their “native accent.” it’s super-cringey and hard to listen to. Content is overall 10/10; her affected speech patterns, and awkwardness, however, get 2/10. Listen to your audience, Karina— we’re trying to help you improve your quality and listenability.

Incredible research, fascinating facts, curious themes each season. A really interesting way to not just learn Hollywood history but to understand overall history/the times/POVs/parallel political, social, and cultural themes. 5 stars.

This show has super interesting content regarding old Hollywood, covering its beginnings in early 20th Century. The host, Karina Longworth, for some reason, feels she needs to over-enunciate every consonant, which makes listening to the well researched episodes at best endurable, and at worst a painful chore. Her diction is like bad A.I., and nothing like natural speech.

I love this podcast and all of the great research that into it. A really fun listen, except for the accents (hopefully she ditches those next season).

I have been listening to this pod for years. It’s great. I even bought her book. But for the love of cats, PLEASE STOP WITH THE TERRIBLE FAKE ACCENTS! They’re offensive and cringe. They distract from the quality of the show. You’re better than this.

Keep up the great work!!!

You’re a talented film historian but a terrible mimic. Stick to what you do best. I couldn’t even get through the Hitchcock show. Otherwise this is one of the best podcast.

I couldn’t finish the latest episode on Henry Hathaway. I am sick of hearing her distracting and unnecessary accents. I like the research but I won’t be back.

I love the content, but enough with the accents!

I love the podcast; however I find myself dreading the next episode if it features a non-American director, because I know a terrible accent/impression is coming. The Otto Preminger and Alfred Hitchcock episodes were particularly painful. I hated the impressions when the series started and was happy when they disappeared. The accents/impressions in this season are even worse. They are distracting from the good information being presented. I can look past the over enunciation of words if these godawful accents and impressions would just stop.

Absolutely 5 stars for content. -2 stars for the absolutely grating, languidly drawled attempts at German and French accents. I’ve listened to this podcast for several years, and Longworth’s over-pronounced narration style never bothered me. Then The Old Man Is Still Alive season came. There is so much good information in this series, but the terrible attempts at accents have been so annoying I’ve taken to listening to the podcast at 1.25 or 1.5 in some episodes just to get past them. I’d recommend others do the same because these are good stories, and worth listening to despite the curiously bad narrative choices.

very interested in the content of the show but just tell the very interesting stories of these folks.

I love Hollywood history, and Karina Longworth’s way of storytelling, tone, and humor has made me extremely picky on everything else to which I listen. She is serious and fun all at once. I have learned so much. During the pandemic I got her Howard Hughes book in order to not blow through this podcast too quickly. After that I started listening to many more old Hollywood bios, but none are as good listening as Karina Longworth. I can even enjoy re-listening to her episodes. I just wish she could take on a 2nd job of reading Old Hollywood bios for audiobook. There are many out there I would love to listen to, especially if she was the one reading.

I think the voice impersonations are purposefully bad and love the podcast because of that. It’s a good break from speaking in one voice and in a way, almost contextualizes the quotes with the characters imagined voices. It’s comic relief and I appreciate that. I value how much research goes into each podcast. I have listened for years and I could listen to this podcast for years to come. The voice impersonations? I’d say, if you don’t like them, fast forward or skip this podcast altogether.

Longworth frequently has something worthwhile to say, but she’s using the wrong medium to say it in. This is the first podcast I’m un-following because the host has so many verbal delivery issues that to listen to her is cringeworthy. Clearly not comfortable as a speaker, Longworth’s initial awkwardness pronouncing certain consonants could be written off as merely quirky. Now that she’s getting deeper into film history, particularly non-Hollywood history, she’s referencing numerous French and German names, places, and terms, which she invariably clumsily mangles. Any researcher or historian should know Google Translate is quick resource for correct pronunciation. (Case in point: in the current episode, she mentions William Wyler was born in Alsace, which when Longworth says it, rhymes with the intentionally comic mispronunciation of Versace in “Showgirls’) But the straw that broke the camel’s back, for me at least, is that in the current season of the show she started ‘doing’ accents. Weird, bizarre, distracting accents that bear no resemblance to the native languages of figures she’s quoting (or paraphrasing). It’s distracting in the extreme - a listener can only be embarrassed for her. Longworth has also started doing ‘voices’ when quoting sources and celebrities, an awkward and unsuccessful attempt at acting. Speaking as a former film journalist, historian and critic: actors are a subject of your research. You are not an actor. For the love of god, stop trying to be one. I wish I could continue on with this podcast. The subject matter is interesting and the research is generally solid. But I literally can no longer listen to Longworth.

I agree— PLEASE STOP!!! I couldn’t listen to the Hitchcock episode at all. And I was really looking forward to it…

Please stop w the accents. I had to quit Hitch because I couldn’t handle Hitch and couldn’t understand Truffaut. Your deep dives and intense research is so appreciated but overshadowed by mispronunciation of words - Shey-ahn instead of Cheyanne - and oosurp rather than yusurp- and the aforementioned accents.

YMRT is the best! Deeply researched, beautifully written, and wonderfully insightful.

I’ve learned so much from this intelligent well-researched podcast, thank you! Lot of snowflake lFacsict , misogynistic, racist, weird, MAGA freaks in the comments. Hey MAGA, go back to your rural inbreeding, racism, pedophilia, lies, and ignorance. We won’t miss you.

This is a great podcast I’ve been listening to for years and love. But please, Karina, research pronunciation of celebrity names before you record. Joel McCrea is pronounced McCray not McCray-a. Just takes away from your otherwise obvious expertise.

Please stop

Karina love your show for years. Please stop doing accents and impersonations. It nearly ruined the hitch podcast.

I have always loved the movies and have been getting into film history more lately. This is a great pod for anyone interested in classic Hollywood history (and gossip). A great listen.

Very in-depth entertaining podcast about Hollywood.

This is my favorite podcast about cinema. Karina’s insight is truly on the level of a Criterion booklet or a great article in Vanity Fair or The New Yorker. It’s always an entertaining listen and her love and knowledge of film is evident in every episode. It’s reverent and irreverent in equal measure. And I learn from it. I really love this season and the final films by the great directors is a genius topic to explore.

Really great stories and history, but, man, stop stop STOP the bad vocal imitations/intonations of the main players. It undermines everything.

I listened to a LOT of podcasts, and this is my favorite one. I’ll admit, her voice threw me at first, but once you get past that, you’ll enjoy some of the most well researched, well reasoned, and well written shows available. What a joy!

The host has now started sprinkling jabs at Trump and republicans into her historic look at Hollywood. Too bad. It was a decent podcast.

I have always enjoyed this podcast. I got very excited when I heard about this new season, The Old Man is Still Alive. I thought it was going to be an interesting dive into the less remembered, late career work of some of our great filmmakers. When I was coming of age, discovering the works of these filmmakers meant a lot to me. I still remember the feeling I would get when putting in an old VHS cassette of an Alfred Hitchcock movie I’d heard about, but hadn’t yet seen. Nowadays, it seems the only thing left to do is dig up the less than appealing traits of these filmmakers, judge them according to today’s standards, and cancel them. I’m left to wonder why Karina wanted to make this particular series. Based on her caricaturistic impressions, she clearly doesn’t like these guys. So why bother?

One of the best researched and most interesting podcasts out there. If the fact that the host pronounces her consonants clearly and sometimes does a goofy voice for a second is enough to turn you off of it, then I kindly invite you get a grip!

This is a uniquely well researched podcast, and I can appreciate Karina’s efforts to create something special with her voice. However, I feel compelled to say something about the recent Hitchcock episode. The amount of time spent with the impressions of Hitch and Truffaut truly felt like Karina was making fun of those people, and I do not believe that was the actual intent. I’m sorry, I can tell this was a choice and effort went into it, but I sincerely feel the impressions take away from what the podcast aims to achieve.

YMRT is an impeccably researched podcast designed for cinephiles. A few nits: The accents are an odd choice but it’s not frequent enough to truly bother me. The latest season about the old directors is fascinating, but taken as a whole, many of the episodes seem like hit pieces. Audiences implicitly know that directors from that generation had tendencies ranging from cringe to downright disturbing, but we can say the same about our grandparents. I find there to too much emphasis on their flaws and not enough appreciation for their contributions to the industry. We will all be old and out of touch someday (Karina Longworth included), so I’m not sure we have much to gain from highlighting the defects of long-dead artists who one, aren’t around to defend themselves, and two, contributed greatly to cinema, the medium listeners of YMRT love.

(wow people on the internet can be mean!) I love this podcast. Wear my baseball hat nearly every day. I LIVE for new episodes! Karina has her own way of delivering her (impeccably researched) episodes, and maybe it doesn’t land with everyone. But.. that’s ok! It’s a podcast, and one made by a unique person! Thanks for everything, KL!

This podcast is so smart and I love it. I learn something every time and I’m always entertained. I love Karina’s voice work as well, it’s so goofy and humanizes the utter genius that she is.

Excellent Tbh as annoying as I find the accents, i respect the persistence in doing them despite all the criticisms and I’ve grown to … well maybe not like them but at least tolerate them. The ongoing season is incredible

The show used to hire actors to do voices, and they were consistently hilarious. Love the host for taking a risk, and it sounds like she’s having a lot of fun doing all the voices herself this season. I hoped it might grow on me like the AI voice she used back in the Hollywood Babylon season, which was annoying at first but made sense thematically. But this isn’t working, I’m crying uncle. Please stopppp lol

This is a perfect podcast and truly one of my favorite things ever. Keep bringing that A1 research and analysis, Karina!

Why would you mention “ oppressed Palestinian people” in your discussion of Otto Preminger? The Jews have always been an oppressed people. 20% of Israel are Arab Israelis. Unsubscribing.

Please!!!!

karina’s accent work is ICONIC and i giggle every time. y’all are a bunch of haters with no sense of humor for criticizing the accents!!! this podcast is a delightful… sly, witty, well-researched and engaging. karina, plz never change! your accents are everything lol