The Guide #166: If 2024 is the year of the podcast, here’s what still sucks about the medium

What a year it has been for the podcast, which has a decent shot at being considered the most important cultural medium of 2024. Once the scrappy underdog of broadcasting, podcasts now sell out arenas and set the political agenda. They are inescapable.They are also at times teeth-grindingly annoying. We first shared our podcast pet peeves – from live episodes to paying for pods – a few years ago, but since then the irritations have only piled up further

Seth Meyers on Trump: ‘His staffing picks have been obscene’

Late-night hosts expressed surprise and glee as Matt Gaetz withdrew himself from the attorney general confirmation process.The Late Night host Seth Meyers said that Trump’s presidential comeback hit its “first major roadblock” with his pick for attorney general taking himself out of the process.Matt Gaetz removed himself after just eight days with Meyers joking that “once again, he can’t even make it to 18”.The “accused sexual predator” had already been in the centre of a scandal involving sex with a 17-year-old and was now being accused of the same thing with another teenager.Gaetz “saw the writing on the wall” and stepped down after he was asked to respond to the second allegation

Seth Meyers on Trump’s cabinet picks: ‘Billionaires are effectively running the government now’

Late-night hosts talked Donald Trump’s cabinet of billionaire donors and the House ethics committee stalemate over an investigation into Matt Gaetz.On Wednesday’s Late Night, Seth Meyers offered a dire pronouncement on the state of American politics. “Our political system is dominated by billionaires. Both sides are captive to wealthy interests,” he said. “It should be noted that Kamala Harris had plenty of billionaires’ support of her own

Stephen Colbert on Trump: ‘Continuing to shovel steaming piles of nominee into his cabinet’

Late-night hosts talked Donald Trump’s nomination of Dr Mehmet Oz to his administration, and the ongoing scandals around his attorney general pick, Matt Gaetz.Donald Trump “is continuing to shovel steaming piles of nominee into his cabinet”, said Stephen Colbert on Tuesday’s Late Show. On Tuesday, Trump announced the pseudoscience advocate and former TV host Mehmet Oz as the administrator of Medicare and Medicaid. “OK so he’s still just picking people he sees on TV,” said Colbert. “Next up, the head of Amtrak goes to Thomas the Tank Engine

Jon Stewart to Democrats: ‘Exploit the loopholes’

Late-night hosts talk Donald Trump’s “White House Tinder” cabinet selection process and Republicans’ willingness to exploit loopholes to get their way.Jon Stewart returned to his Monday evening perch at The Daily Show to urge Democrats to act like Republicans and “exploit the loopholes” to thwart Donald Trump’s agenda.“Even those putting up resistance to Trump’s agenda don’t seem to understand who they’re dealing with,” said Stewart before a clip of Elizabeth Warren accusing the president-elect of breaking the law by failing to sign an ethics pledge before the deadline.“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Republicans are playing chess, and the Democrats are in the nurse’s office because they glued their balls to their thigh,” said Stewart

Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Francis Ford Coppola’s very horny vampire epic

This year marked the long-awaited return of the American film-making legend Francis Ford Coppola to the cinema, with Megalopolis: a $120m self-financed “fable” with a go-for-broke sensibility, about a time-defying architect trying to build the city of the future in the wake of his wife’s untimely death. Fans of its deranged overtures may do well to revisit Coppola’s other maximalist fable about a time-defying man grappling with his wife’s untimely death: Bram Stoker’s Dracula.It was lead actress Winona Ryder who first brought the project to Coppola – as an apology after she abruptly quit Coppola’s third Godfather film (to be infamously replaced by his daughter, Sofia). Coppola’s version of the gothic novel brings the bloodthirsty Count (a brilliant Gary Oldman) out of the shadows and into the forefront, reimagining the character as a tragic war hero, who – in renouncing God after the suicide of his wife, Elisabeta (Ryder) – is condemned to eternal life as a vampire. Years pass, and the shape-shifting Dracula discovers that the reincarnation of his wife, Mina (also Ryder), resides in 19th century London, where he eventually seduces her at the exhibition of a newfangled entertainment: the cinematograph