You Must Remember This – Karina Longworth

With the news that You Must Remember This, the premier Hollywood history podcast, will be returning after a nearly nine month unplanned hiatus when its funder and distributor – Panoply – shut down out of nowhere, I’ve been very excited. It’s an extensively researched and long-running podcast dedicated to the stories of Hollywood’s past and those within it, ranging from Silent Era star to Judy Garland to Isabella Rossellini, as well as providing a more critical eye on figures like Frank Sinatra and Joan Crawford. After gaining fame for the Charles Manson’s Hollywood series, Karina Longworth has taken on the infamous Cold War-era Blacklist, and fact checking various long-running rumours and stories that have persisted in the decades since some of these stars walked the earth. Almost entirely narrated, and compiled, by Longworth herself, it’s a massive undertaking that is backed up by Longworth’s extensive history in the field. I wish she would be more critical, as she seems starstruck by history itself, but it’s rare that I feel that You Must Remember This doesn’t live up to her own standards. For anyone remotely interested in Hollywood in any decade, from the studios to the stars themselves, or even the technical or social histories behind various movies, there’s something for you. 

8/10: tl;dr everyone was gay in old Hollywood