I'm Derek Thompson, long time writer with the Atlantic magazine on tech, culture, and politics.

There is a lot of noise out there, and my goal is to cut through the headlines, loud tweets,

and hot takes in my new podcast, Plain English.

I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know to give you clear viewpoints and memorable

takeaways.

Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Sean Fennese.

I'm Amanda Davin.

And this is the big picture a conversation show about D&D nerds.

Later in this show, I have a conversation with AV Rockwell, the writer-director of one

of the very best films I saw at Sundance this year, a thousand and one.

It's a story of a young mother fighting to survive with her young son in a rapidly

gentrifying New York at the turn of the century, brilliantly shot, heartbreaking movie.

It's out today.

Go see it, listen to my conversation with AV, she's really a filmmaker to watch.

But first, the big release of the weekend, Amanda, is Dungeons and Dragons, Honor Among

Thieves, a film that when it was announced before I knew anything about it, I looked at

it with a great degree of dread and cynicism, and then I saw the film and I thought, hey,

there's a reason to be hopeful about everything in this world.

So listen, I came into this studio today and I was like, I'm not going to be an asshole.

And I don't think that this movie is deserving of being an asshole at all.

I think it is successful at what it is.

...