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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.

Ep300: Keys to the Future

Today, the Kicking the Seat Podcast celebrates 300 episodes with co-directors Harriet Gordon Getzels and Peter Getzels, whose documentary, Zuzana: Music is Life, had its Chicago debut yesterday at the Illinois Holocaust Museum. The movie tells the story of famed harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková, who survived Nazi death camps only to be trapped in Communist Czechoslovakia for several decades. Zuzana's love of Bach and a belief in music's connection to a higher order sustained her through unspeakable horrors and adversity.

Ian talks with Harriet and Peter about their film's unusual origin; the experience of sharing their subject's world; and their plans to help bring Zuzana's story to wider audiences in a time when her message of hope, perseverance, and understanding are perhaps more relevant than ever. Chicagoans can see Zuzana: Music is Life this coming weekend, as part of the JCC Chicago Film Festival.

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Ep301: Less Human Than Human

Ep299: WRINKLE Cream