Somebody Feed Phil: 5 Ingredients That Make Phil Rosenthal's Netflix Travel Show a Delicious Treat
Somebody Feed Phil, returning for Season 8 this Wednesday on the streamer, follows comedy writer and Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal as he travels the world making friends and trying exotic new cuisines. Travel shows are a dime a dozen, of course, and Somebody Feed Phil does hit a lot of the familiar notes we know so well from the genre. But there's something exceptional about it, too: a special sauce, if you will, that makes it one of the most consistently satisfying and uplifting shows anywhere on television.
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With Somebody Feed Phil serving up a new season that takes him everywhere from Amsterdam to Guatemala to Las Vegas, we thought we'd take a closer look at the five ingredients that make the show such a joy to watch. If you're already a fan, you may be able to guess what's on the menu. And if you haven't watched yet? You're in for a treat. Plus, join us in the comments below for a buffet of your favorite memories.
The success of any travel show hinges on its host, and luckily, Somebody Feed Phil has an excellent one in Phil Rosenthal. Goofy and enthusiastic, Phil brings an everyman approach to his travels: He's not a food expert, but he's a food lover, diving into strange local delicacies with an infectious curiosity. (His wide-eyed stares and delighted yelps when sinking his teeth into a new dish are a staple of the show by now.) He's also a veteran sitcom writer, so he knows how to tell a joke, and Phil never fails to crack up strangers on the street who don't even speak his language. Food and laughter are two international languages, and Phil speaks both fluently.
Somebody Feed Phil's cinematography is top-notch, with gorgeous shots of delicious food being prepared and served that could double as glossy magazine spreads. (Try to get through an episode without drooling.) Phil's adventurous palate leads to some amazing discoveries as well, with him trying everything from feijoada stew in Rio de Janeiro to deep-fried hot dogs in Chicago. He doesn't always love what he tries, to be honest, but along the way, he's introduced us to dozens of far-flung foods that we'd love to sample.
Through seven seasons so far, Phil has traveled the world and back, heading to more than 40 cities around the globe and exposing us to cultures we'd never be able to see at home. At least once per season, Phil's travels have shown us a beautiful international location that goes straight onto our travel bucket list, from Bangkok to Madrid to Kyoto. And it's heartwarming to see Phil instantly make friends with people from another land and find ways to connect with them despite their many differences. Travel is an unparalleled education, and Somebody Feed Phil is certainly an education in the myriad ways humanity can thrive.
Phil might travel solo, but he's not really alone: His brother Richard is the showrunner and travels with him, and the two have a hilarious sibling rivalry that pops up in just about every episode. Phil also checks in with famous friends on his travels, with cameos from Patton Oswalt, Tracy Morgan and NBA legend Dwight Howard.
His most reliable travel companions, though, were his parents Helen and Max, who Phil checked in with every episode via laptop video for an endearingly awkward chat. Helen and Max passed away in recent years, and the show paid tribute to them in a lovely Season 6 episode, and since then, Phil's friends like Ray Romano and Ted Danson have joined him on video to keep the tradition alive. It's that kind of heart that places Somebody Feed Phil a cut above the rest of the travel show pack.
A lot of Netflix shows have us reaching for the 'Skip Intro' button… but we wouldn't dare touch it when the Somebody Feed Phil theme song comes on. A boisterous tune from the band Lake Street Dive that lays out Phil's mission in hummable form, the theme song is a perfect introduction to the show and a fantastic warm-up for all the fun ahead. We love it almost as much as we love the show that follows it.
Are you a frequent flier with ? Let us know what you love about the show in a comment below.
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Yahoo
27 minutes ago
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2025 Las Culturistas Culture Awards: How to watch Bowen Yang and Matt Roger's first televised LCCAs
Culturistas, brace yourselves, because for the first time ever, the Las Culturistas Culture Awards, hosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, are going to be televised! That's right, this Tuesday, Aug. 5, you can find out who wins for 'Worst Sticky Feeling,' 'We Could See Boop! Award For Best Thing To See,' and more when the LCCAs air on Bravo (and then stream the following day on Peacock). 'The word 'culture' is defined as 'the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively,'' Rogers and Yang said in a statement. 'We are so thrilled to eliminate that whole 'intellectual' part entirely with the LCCA's airing on Bravo and Peacock this August, alongside our partners at Lionsgate," the pair added. "Because while what the world needs now might be love sweet love, it also needs to see an Oscar-winning actress and a Real Housewife come together to present a very heavy award to Oprah, if we can book her. Oprah, u up?!' The awards show was prerecorded in July and will feature appearances from Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Reneé Rapp, Remi Wolf, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jack Quaid and more. Here's how you can tune in to the 2025 LCCAs. The channel: The 2025 Las Culturistas Culture Awards will air on Tuesday, Aug. 5, on Bravo from 9-11 p.m. ET. You can stream them the following day on Peacock. How to watch the without cable: What is ? Las Culturistas is a podcast hosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers. The dynamic duo discuss pop culture and interview celebrity guests like Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Sarah Jessica Parker, Chappell Roan and Michelle Obama. The 2025 nominees: There are over 100 categories for the 2025 LCCAs, including "Best Breakfast" and "Filet Mignon Award For Best Beef." 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Best Breakfast • Egg McMuffin • Yogurt and berries • A banana if you don't have really time, necessarily, to do a whole thing • Crab cake Benedict • Just a black coffee, I'm actually intermittent fasting Best Lunch • Half soup (tomato) half salad (Caesar) • Fries and Caesar • Half soup (tomato) Half grilled cheese (American) • Pret A Manger (UK selection) • Free Best Dinner • Chicken parmesan • Korean food – All • Tahdig • 'I actually heard the burger is really good here' (it's 46 dollars) • You get home and your new lover cooked for you, again. So far, they are amazing. Best Beverage • Dr. Pepper • Whole milk • Martini that you order by saying 'FILTHY' with way too much sauce • Big Airport Essentia • Celsius Moon Award For Shining Brightly • Michelle Williams – Death Becomes Her • Michelle Williams – Dying For Sex • Sarah Sherman in a wig • Dreamworks moon with the boy on it who fishes • Chase Sui Wonders – The Studio Sun Award For So F***in' Hot • Lucy Dacus • Cate Blanchett • Dr. Orna Guralnik • Bad Bunny – Calvin Klein • Coffee that your new lover just brought back from the store and oh my god he should have told me this was gonna be so hot? Things are starting to go south. Filet Mignon Award For Best Beef • Ribeye • Miss Piggy defending herself using the art of karate • Hilary Duff vs. Faye Dunaway • Benito Skinner – Overcompensating • Bulgogi Canada Award For Canadian Delicacy • Alanis Morissette • All Dressed chips • Maple syrup on a stick on ice • Bowen Yang – Age 8 • Celeste Yim – Age 21 (got legal and moved to US) Worst Sticky Feeling • Jolly Rancher on hand, hate that. • When you touch a child's hand and it's like, 'What was that?' • Various surfaces at Sephora. Women know about that. • Toiletry bag after a long flight. What is that? What IS that?! • That one you still have for your ex. The relationship is over now, even after all that. Borders Award For Store That Should Come Back • Delia's • American Apparel • RadioShack • Hale and Hearty • Quiznos. But now we're hearing it might still be around? Let us know. Sport We Would Love To Know More About • Pickleball, since y'all are so obsessed… • Women's Rugby. WOMEN'S • Men's Cheerleading. 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Lol anyways Best Gift For Dad • Golf • Rather Nice Pen • Apple Watch • Evergreen ticket to The Sphere – Las Vegas • Book about war he already owns Best Gift For Sibling/Cousin • Earrings • Onesie for a baby you're almost positive they have • Blank journal that says 'I know nothing about you, fill these pages' • Bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from corner • 'Vintage' shirt which is really just something you hate that you got from your mother, who is also their mother/aunt 'In This House We Believe In' Award For Best Yard Sign • 'BEWARE OF DOG' • 'FOR SALE – BONNIE SALATI for RE/MAX' • 'NO SOLICITING UNLESS YOU HAVE A BIG FAT ASS AND A GREAT WARM SMILE' • 'IN THIS HOUSE, WE BELIEVE: BLACK LIVES MATTER, WOMEN'S RIGHTS = HUMAN RIGHTS, NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL, SCIENCE IS REAL, LOVE IS LOVE, DIVERSITY MAKES US STRONGER, AND INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE' • Technically not a sign but a themed flag for the season like pumpkin, bunnies, etc. so you know what time of year it is when you glance upon the sign Best City — Up And Coming • Bentonville, AR • Sayville, NY • Saskatoon, SASKATCHEWAN • Reykjavík, Iceland • Oh, trust! 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AKA Award For Other Way To Say That • 'They passed" aka they died • 'She did the damn thing' aka she did well • 'Doing the deed!' aka knocking boots aka kissing and more aka sex • 'You freaked that!' aka you did well • 'Smashed it' aka someone did well – British Walking Home Alone Award For What Women *Have* To Do • Purse (heavy, too big) • Purse (so small, not functional) • Just go talk to him to make sure he's okay • Learn about 'Toxic Shock Syndrome' and then worry about it until you die • Heels on the grass at a wedding Hypochondriac Award For Illness We Think We Have This Time • Norovirus • Fungal infection/Staph infection • Depression that apparently REQUIRES ketamine the way Y'ALL do it… • Strep, AGAIN • This is not a sickness but my foot is broken 'Right Hand Arm… Man' Award For Nicknames • Best Friend • Confidante • Silly Rabbit • 'Jules' for Julia • 'QUEEN BEY' for Beyoncé Hags Award For Abbreviated Thing To Say • Devo (devastated) • Defo (definitely) • TKTK (later we are going to get to this but not right now) • DYHAWHTM (Did You Hear About What Happened To Marie?) • RHOSLC (???) 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At the Disco • Into the Groove — Madonna • Rich Girl — Gwen Stefani • Higher — Creed • Rich Girl — Hall & Oates 'Hunger Games' Award For Best Huge Franchise • BOOP! • Shrek • Crest • The Hadids • Yo Gabba Gabba! Lindsay Lohan In Award For Twins Excellence • Michael B. Jordan – Sinners • Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson – Dicks: The Musical • Lisa Kudrow – Friends/Frasier • Zooey Deschanel (married to a twin) • Soap operas – evil and normal The Sweat Tour Award For Best Live Indoor Performance • The Sweat Tour • Brat Tour • 'KIllah' — Lady Gaga — SNL • BOOP! • Bowen Yang, Lady Gaga — 'No More Slay' — SNL More ways to watch the Las Culturistas Culture Awards:
Geek Tyrant
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STRANGER THINGS Final Season Kicks Off with "The Craziest Cold Open We've Ever Done" — GeekTyrant
Stranger Things Season 5 is almost here, and the Duffer Brothers are hyping it up big time. According to Ross Duffer, the beginning of the end for Hawkins is 'our favorite, most eventful first episode since Season 1.' That's a big claim, considering what the series opener delivered! The co-creator dropped the update on Instagram, confirming that episodes 1 and 2 are officially complete. 'Chapters One and Two: locked, mixed, scored, colored, DONE,' he wrote, sharing title cards for the episodes, 'The Crawl' and 'The Vanishing of [redacted].' That second episode title is a direct nod to 'The Vanishing of Will Byers' from Season 1, and Duffer's caption only fuels fan speculation: 'The Vanishing of… (yeah yeah you think you know who blah blah).' Could Will be going MIA again? Duffer als teased that episode two features 'by far the craziest cold open we've ever done. One of the sequences we're most proud of this season.' So, it sounds like we're in for something intense, and probably pretty traumatic, right out of the gate. While fans are itching for more details, Duffer is keeping most info under wraps, and in regards to runtimes, noted: 'I would tell you runtimes, but I was told not to. At a later date, I guess.' That follows some recent viral fake news about every episode being two hours long, with a nearly three-hour finale. So yeah, best to wait for the official word. Created by Matt and Ross Duffer, Stranger Things has been a genre-defining series for nearly a decade. Now, it all comes to a close in Season 5. Set in the fall of 1987, this final chapter finds Hawkins under military lockdown, the government hunting down Eleven, and Vecna looming large for one last showdown. Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 drops on Netflix November 26, Volume 2 hits on Christmas Day, and the grand finale lands on New Year's Eve.
CNN
42 minutes ago
- CNN
The Department of Homeland Security embraces a socialist anthem
People in entertainment Music Federal agencies Donald Trump FacebookTweetLink The Trump administration recently presented a vision for the country's future in song and video. 'The Promise of America is worth Protecting. The Future of our Homeland is worth Defending,' the Department of Homeland Security wrote on X. In the accompanying vintage-filtered montage, families gaze out wondrously at our national parks, Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty stand tall in all their glory, and law enforcement officers salute a horse-carried American flag. What caught some attention, though, was the music: The video was set to Sam Hunt's country cover of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land.' This version appeared on the soundtrack to 'Bright,' Netflix's 2017 Will Smith-fronted buddy cop movie about orcs and elves. The Promise of America is worth Protecting. The Future of our Homeland is worth Defending. Woody Guthrie fans who know the song's origins as a socialist protest anthem would find the Trump administration's embrace of 'This Land' an odd choice. Guthrie — a lifelong socialist, anti-capitalist and communist sympathizer — penned 'This Land Is Your Land' in 1940, irritated by what he felt was the blind patriotism of Kate Smith's late '30s hit recording of 'God Bless America.' He was also motivated by the stark poverty and social injustices that he witnessed during his travels throughout the country, as evidenced by the original lyrics that include two verses critiquing widespread hunger and the concept of private property. 'This Land Is Your Land,' was not — as it's often understood today — a paean to the country's natural beauty, said Will Kaufman, author of 'Woody Guthrie, American Radical' and two other books on the artist. 'Woody is writing about a different America,' he told CNN. 'He's writing about cops and vigilantes and barbed wire and bread lines.' CNN reached out to ask if the government was aware of the song's radical roots and history. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin answered in a statement that read, in part: 'Loving America may be a radical or foreign concept for CNN, in fact we're quite confident it is.' The song's final two verses weren't frequently reprinted nor did they make it to the more circulated recording of the song, Kaufman said. Over the years, as the shortened version made its way to elementary school classrooms and the greater national consciousness, it became increasingly divorced from its beginnings. (To that end, when Guthrie was honored by the US Department of the Interior in 1966, Kaufman said the artist's friend Irwin Silber retorted that 'they've taken a revolutionary and turned him into an environmentalist!') Though the more political verses made a resurgence in the 1960s and have been performed by such artists as Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger, 'This Land Is Your Land' is now embraced by both liberals and conservatives. It's also worth noting that many Indigenous people understand it to be a celebration of the dispossession of Native American lands. When asked about the Trump administration's use of 'This Land,' Guthrie's family replied in an email: 'Boy, did the DHS ever get it wrong! If they want to get it right they should watch Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen's performance at Obama's inaugural concert. That's the gold standard. So now, it looks like we'll all have to sing This Land Is Your Land right back at 'em, so they can re-learn it and get it right.' Over the years, Guthrie's estate has also resisted attempts to make the song public domain precisely over fears it would be used in ways he wouldn't wish. 'Our control of this song has nothing to do with financial gain,' the singer's daughter, Nora Guthrie, told The New York Times in a 2016 interview. 'It has to do with protecting it from Donald Trump, protecting it from the Ku Klux Klan, protecting it from all the evil forces out there.' There's plenty of reason to suspect Guthrie might have revolted at the Trump administration's use of 'This Land Is Your Land.' In his songs and his writings, the folk singer paid tribute to Mexican laborers who died on a deportation flight and criticized an illegal police blockade to keep Dust Bowl migrants out of California, Kaufman writes in 'Woody Guthrie, American Radical.' His guitar bore the inscription 'This Machine Kills Fascists,' and he even railed against Trump's father and his discriminatory housing policies. 'There is a personal venom that Woody Guthrie has for everything that Donald Trump represents,' Kaufman said. From Beyoncé to Celine Dion to The Rolling Stones, the list of artists who have objected to Trump's use of their work is so long that there's an entire Wikipedia page devoted to the subject. Just last week, Jess Glynne said she felt 'sick' over the White House using her song 'Hold My Hand' in a cruel meme about deporting migrants. And in another recent example, the Thomas Kinkade Foundation denounced DHS for using the artist's painting to promote the administration's immigration crackdown. 'We strongly condemn the sentiment expressed in the post and the deplorable actions that DHS continues to carry out,' the foundation wrote in a statement on its website. 'We stand firmly with our communities who have been threatened and targeted by DHS, especially our immigrant, BIPOC, undocumented, LGBTQ+, and disabled relatives and neighbors.'
