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From Pivot Magazine

Pivot recommends: What to read and watch right now

A podcast about remarkably bad movies, a show about an unethical psychiatrist’s long con and the latest book by Michael Pollan

Two men with beards are shown standing on a streetPaul Rudd and Will Ferrell star in the podcast-turned-tv series, The Shrink Next Door (Courtesy of Apple TV+)

LISTEN

Sit through any terrible movie and it’s a question that will likely pop into your mind: How did this get made? It’s precisely what comedians Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael and Jason Mantzoukas have been asking since their Earwolf podcast, How Did This Get Made? launched way back in 2010. Each episode, the trio dives into another of Hollywood’s most regrettable—yet strangely unforgettable—disasters, ranging from Grease 2 to a film called Ninja Terminator and everything in between.

WATCH

Wondery’s podcast series The Shrink Next Door told the real-life story of a Manhattan psychiatrist who, among other ethical transgressions, manipulated one of his patients, Marty, into handing over his business, Swiss bank account and Hamptons, N.Y., home as part of a decades-long con. The unbelievable story has now been adapted for an eight-episode series penned by Succession writer Georgia Pritchett and directed by Michael Showalter that will star Paul Rudd (the shrink) and Will Ferrell (Marty). Nov. 12, AppleTV+

READ

Why are some plants legal and others not? In his latest book, This Is Your Mind on Plants, author Michael Pollan unpacks the socioeconomic and scientific history of plant cultivation, bringing the nature of psychoactive drugs and human nature under the microscope to help decipher why we treat plants the way we do.