Razor's Ink Podcast with Jonathan B. Ferrini
Razor's Ink Podcast is a weekly show hosted by Jonathan B. Ferrini, a published author with an MFA from UCLA. The podcast covers movies, television, and music, offering the host's personal take on entertainment. Ferrini also promotes his own fiction story collections and encourages listener donations.
Episodes
Helpless (Song. 1970)
Neil Young’s ballad echoes across the decades, reading in 2026 like the daily newspaper of life in America. A song that still knows how we feel.
“Substitute” (Song. 1966)
The Who wrote a song about a human question: am I the real thing, or merely a substitute for what someone really wants. Well, what say you?
ANYTHING (Movie 2017)
A movie that was released ten years too early about two broken hearts and gender identity. A film we may finally be ready for.
Folk Music
The music that prepared us before the sixties exploded.
Tracks (Movie 2013)
A meditation on solitude, where silence becomes the true protagonist until civilization arrives to interrupt it
“The Wasp Woman” & “The Killer Shrews”
A double-feature metaphor suggesting America Wasn't Afraid of Monsters; It Was Afraid of Itself.
Play Misty for Me (Movie 1971)
Paradise with a Warning
Rosemary’s Baby (Movie 1968)
An iconic horror film reveals something far more unsettling than Satanism: modern themes of betrayal, ambition, a woman’s control over her body, and unconditional maternal love.
Discovering Bill Evans (Music)
Step into the intimate emotional world of Bill Evans, where every note feels like a private confession.
Revisiting The Pope of Greenwich Village (Movie 1984)
Where the lost world of old New York was the soul of the movie.
Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" (Movie 1951)
Underneath a Murder, find Obsession, Identity, and the desires No One Talks About.
Dreamland (Movie 2019)
Breaking down the story and finding the anatomy of a near-great film.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (Movie 1999)
The Art of Becoming Someone Else
Why I Keep Coming Back to "Baby Driver" (Movie 2017)
Sound, Style, and Precision: The Secret Engine of Baby Driver
Revisiting "A Single Man" (Movie 2009)
Cinema by Design; Style as Survival.
Greatest Electric Guitarist of All Time?
What “Greatest” Really Means. You'll know it when you hear it.
“The Studio That Discovered Everyone”
A long overdue, "Thank you".
Why Does Bonnie and Clyde Still Work Today?
“Two beautiful outlaws, a broken system, and a country ready to rebel."
Why Can’t I Stop Watching "The Last Picture Show" (Movie 1971)
Still Watching, Still Seeing a Black‑and‑White Memory of America
Four Singer-Songwriters in Terminal C (Music)
“How Four Singer-Songwriters Might Write One Song”
Why "Fitzcarraldo" Still Matters in 2026” (Movie 1982)
Opera in the Jungle; Dreams; Delusion; and a War of Egos on the Set.
Transactional Masculinity inside "American Gigolo" & "Sweet Bird of Youth" (Movies)
Find out inside my podcast what happens when being wanted becomes a man's only currency.
The Story of Boxing Movies
Training for the Fight and "The Sweet Science".
No Country for Old Men (Movie) Part II
Comparing two bookend movies: No Country for Old Men and The Last Picture Show as portraits of the American west where meaning fades, then vanishes entirely.
No Country for Old Men (Movie 2007)
Darkness, Silence, Fate, and Chance create the antithesis of a western movie.
Five Hundred Miles (Music)
Where Love Is Worth the Distance
Hollywood After the Studio Moguls
The Funeral Before the Film: What the Logos Are Really Telling You
“Mexican Radio” (Music 1982)
A complex song about a radio signal that didn’t ask permission to cross the border.
The Movie Director in the Frame
The Psychology of the Director Cameo
The Righteous Brothers (Singer-Songwriters)
Blue Eyed Soul. Still righteous, still soul.
Judgment at Nuremberg (Movie 1961)
A film analysis including the terrifying idea of "evil by procedure" and contemplating was justice complete?
Warren Zevon (Singer-songwriter)
Songs written like news dispatches filed after midnight from the field, providing no comfort or a way out, but staying with the damage reported.
Broderick Crawford (Actor)
Breaking Hollywood’s Mold: Broderick Crawford’s Enduring Influence.
The Heart of Films About Love
Lessons from Midnight Cowboy and Moonstruck
Five Easy Pieces (Movie 1970)
Silence as damage; masculinity; male withdrawal; and class identity.
Boogie Nights (Movie 1997)
Casting, characters, and critique of a film about pornographic movie making.
Nazis on the Run: 1970’s Cinema’s Reflection on Justice, Trauma, and Survival.
The Odessa File, The Boys from Brazil, and Marathon Man explore post-war anxieties, unfinished justice, and the lingering effects of history.
Boiler Room (Movie 2000)
Ambition, Ethics, and the Cost of Belonging in Wall Street’s Get-Rich-Quick Culture
Seventies Cinema: Hollywood’s Golden Decade
Creative Freedom; Cultural Shifts; Gutsy Studio Chiefs; and Rebel Filmmakers spark innovation.
Humor and Division: Lessons from 1970s Television
All in the Family; The Jeffersons; Sanford and Son; Good Times; Chico and the Man.
Sidekicks of Subversion Inside Early Television
How Eddie Haskell (Leave it to Beaver) and Maynard G. Krebs (Dobie Gillis) shaped American television of the fifties to early sixties.
“Lyrics, Life, and Legacy: My Trio of Timeless Albums”
Simon and Garfunkel; Dylan; and Steely Dan.
The Bedford Incident (Movie. 1965)
Brinkmanship at sea during the cold war offering enduring lessons for a world on edge.
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood (Movie 2019)
What the film got right and wrong about Hollywood of 1969.
Glengarry Glen Ross (Movie 1992)
What does the character “Ricky Roma” teach us about dialogue?
“Best Actor” to character actor
How did winning the OSCAR affect two acting careers?
Bac Sai “Physician” (Short Story)
Listen to me “set the stage” from the opening pages of a dying surgeon’s tattered diary revealing an extraordinary life filled with love and loss.
Money “Madness” inside Songs
What lyrics teach us about the “mean, mean, mean, mean, mean green.”
Hawaii Five-O (Television series 1968-1980)
What the series got “right” about the cultural and ecological mosaic of the 50th state.
Lyrics Are The Calculus of Writing
A redux of an early episode of The Razor's Ink Podcast, in which we explore the daunting task of writing music.
Apocalypse Now (Movie 1979)
What’s the real reason Colonel Kurtz was assassinated?
Fail Safe (Movie 1964)
Two movies about nuclear war were released in the same year: one farcical, the second, “deadly” serious. Join me as I discuss the latter.
Midnight Cowboy (Movie 1969)
I describe the significance of this legendary movie which has nothing to do with its “X” rating.
A Clockwork Orange (Movie 1971)
Let’s examine the socio-economic subtext to the movie and surmise why reprehensible Alex may appear sympathetic at film’s end.
The Limey (Movie 1999)
My memorial to the death of British actor Terence Stamp (1938-2025) whose acting genius melded with exquisite filmmaking resembling the Vesper Martini.
British Film Studios
Visiting marvels of movie magic; historic Shepperton and Pinewood studios.
Route 66 (Television 1960-64)
Imagine reading Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” inside a speeding Corvette.
Shaft (Movies 1971 & 2000)
Two movies about a Black detective seeking justice thirty years apart with a new spin on racism.
Who Is Herb Alpert? 2.0
Check out a music genre bending composer, musician and brilliant businessman at my podcast.
70's Network Television Detectives
Let’s explore three very different detective shows who helped re-define an entire genre
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Movie 1974)
The 1970’s New York City subway system serves as a protagonist with a New Yorkers attitude: “Just another day inside the subway”.
“Rendition Rock” (Music)
Listen to four revered performers covering two hit songs including Wilson Pickett and The Four Tops delivering inspired covers.
Leaving Las Vegas (Movie 1995)
A raw story concerning suicide by alcohol, perfectly served “neat”, but marred by “on the rocks” or with a “back”. Find out inside.
Remembering Brian Wilson and Sly Stone (Singer-Songwriters)
Let’s examine two lyricists and performers with different styles but sharing the same happy heart pumping lyrics of love and understanding.
The Gong Show (Television 1976-1980)
The antithesis of a talent show you must see to believe.
The Dirty Dozen (Movie 1967)
A World War II film showcasing condemned military convicts unleased against the German high command including themes about nonconformity with an antiwar message.
Ballad of a Thin Man (Music 1965)
Deconstructing one of Dylan’s most abstract compositions.
On the Beach (Movie 1959)
The last vestiges of humanity inside Australia following worldwide thermonuclear war.
Rediscovering the Batman Television Series (1966-1968)
Escapism written for kids with adults in mind
The Swimmer (Movie 1968)
A movie about midlife crisis provides us the opportunity to imagine a timely remake.
Unrequited Love Inside Lyrics from a Gender Perspective.
“Linger” by The Cranberries (1993) and “Carrie Anne” by The Hollies (1967)
The Defiant Ones (Movie 1958)
Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis play convicts. The chain that binds them rattles with racial hatred but reveals "we (all) come from the same side of the tracks".
The Shoes of the Fisherman (Movie 1968)
The election of a Pope whilst the world readies for war. Art imitating life?
Rediscovering David Bowie
Brilliant lyricist, iconic performer, and astute businessman.
I Want to Live! (Movie. 1958)
Susan Hayward portrays the life of Barbara Graham executed in CALIFORNIA’S gas chamber. I discuss the movie and what I name “The Criminal Justice-Media Complex” surrounding the trial and execution.
The Conversation (Movie 1974)
Gene Hackman delivers a minimalist approach performance he considered the pinnacle of his career in this film where “sound” serves as a protagonist.
My Rx for Network Television, Part IV: Variety Shows
I examine four variety shows from past decades and recommend television networks reinvent the variety show, "cure" declining ratings, and enjoy the intended “side effect” of “healing" the nation.
My Rx for Network Television, Part III: The Movie of the Week
I examine “original” movies made for television as my “treatment” for declining network television entertainment programing ratings.
My Rx for Network Television, Part II: The Late-Night Edition
Let’s examine Hugh Hefner’s “Playboy after Dark” for a clue to my “fix”.
My Rx for Network Television
Your heart monitor is about to flatline, television networks. Open my podcast serving as your medicine cabinet and find the cure sitting inside for over fifty years.
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