HBO

From the Sideshow Podcast: “Game of Thrones” is the most pirated TV show ever — and it’s most beloved character is Hodor, the tall, strong, and slow-on-the-uptake man who valiantly protects the offspring of the Stark family. It’s always been a mystery why Hodor can only say one word, “hodor,” but the most recent episode of GoT gave us a major reveal — and electrifying plot twist. 

Last fall, producer Sean Rameswaram talked with Kristian Nairn, the musician-turned-actor who plays Hodor. Nairn shares some surprising behind-the-scenes details (those are dozens of real rabbits on his cloak), as well as how he ended up taking the role. 

WARNING: THIS EPISODE INCLUDES SPOILERS FOR GoT SEASON 6 EPISODE 5.

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.

From Broadway to television and the big screen, Mike Nichols was a prolific director. His success put him in an elite group of people—he earned an Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, and Tony award, among numerous other accolades.  

His screen and stage career spanned decades. His early film classics included “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Graduate,” which helped launch Dustin Hoffman’s big screen career.

On the stage, he directed Neil Simon’s comedies  like “The Odd Couple” and “Barefoot in the Park.”  He helped launch another career in 1984 with his one woman show called “Whoopi Goldberg.”  Nearly three decades later, at the age of 80, he would accept a Tony award for his direction of “Death of a Salesman.” 

The documentary “Becoming Mike Nichols,” which premieres tonight on HBO, is a tribute to Nichols’ career and legacy. Shot interview style over the course of two nights at Broadway’s Golden Theater, it’s a revealing look at the early life of Nichols, who died, at age 83 a few months after it was shot.

Directed by his friend and filmmaker Douglas McGrath, it’s an intimate look at Nichols talking about his earliest beginnings from childhood, to directing and his entertaining start as an improvisational actor with actress Elaine May.  

Check out a trailer for the film below.

1. School Discipline: When Local Police Call the Shots | 2. Tornado Rips Through Northern Illinois | 3. How the NRA Twisted Gun Science and Silenced Researchers | 4. ‘Game of Thrones’ Won the Internet This Week | 5. Movie Date: Films to See and Avoid This Weekend | 6. Actor Oscar Isaac on the Robert Takeover
Editor’s Note: To see all the things mentioned in the ‘Game of Thrones’ segment visit this link: http://bit.ly/1aeko9w

1. Race, Class and Baltimore: Inside the History of a Divided City | 2. Why Israel is The World’s Toughest Beat | 3. ‘Oregon Trail’ Creator Discusses The Video Game Hall of Fame Finalists | 4. Wendell Pierce aka Bunk from ‘The Wire’ Reflects on Baltimore’s Real-Life Struggle

1. School Discipline: When Local Police Call the Shots | 2. Tornado Rips Through Northern Illinois | 3. How the NRA Twisted Gun Science and Silenced Researchers | 4. ‘Game of Thrones’ Won the Internet This Week | 5. Movie Date: Films to See and Avoid This Weekend | 6. Actor Oscar Isaac on the Robert Takeover
Editor’s Note: To see all the things mentioned in the ‘Game of Thrones’ segment visit this link: http://bit.ly/1aeko9w

1. Race, Class and Baltimore: Inside the History of a Divided City | 2. Why Israel is The World’s Toughest Beat | 3. ‘Oregon Trail’ Creator Discusses The Video Game Hall of Fame Finalists | 4. Wendell Pierce aka Bunk from ‘The Wire’ Reflects on Baltimore’s Real-Life Struggle

In a special extended interview, actor Wendell Pierce of “The Wire” discusses the unrest in Baltimore, inequality, and police brutality. The New York Time Jerusalem Bureau Chief also drops by to weigh in on her search for empathy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

How hard is it for Latinos to get inside the writer’s room of a television hit show like HBO’s Girls? Just how hard is it to get Hollywood to step beyond the usual Latino stereotypes? We were curious, so Daniel Alarcón talked to someone who would know: playwright Tanya Saracho.

The internet was supposed to kill TV, but the two have become BFFs. Superfans turn to entertainment sites, YouTube, and podcasts to sustain the experience of their favorite shows. Episode recaps have been driving traffic to Entertainment Weekly, Slate, and Rolling Stone for years, but the form has evolved from a plot summary to an art with video series like Funny or Die’s Gay of Thrones, in which a Los Angeles hair stylist waxes outrageous on medieval mayhem. Sean Rameswaram speaks with Gay of Thrones host Jonathan Van Ness and Vulture’s Margaret Lyons.

Actor Wendell Pierce on Acting, Entrepreneurship, and Social Justice in New Orleans