Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey isn’t just a movie right now — it’s a cultural event. And news/talk radio hosts have a rare shot at proving the format is more than outrage on a loop. Instead, most of them are blowing it.
The numbers don’t lie. This film posted a bigger opening weekend than The Dark Knight and Oppenheimer, and both of those were considered can’t-miss cultural moments in their own right. Some 70mm IMAX screenings have been sold out for months. I watched it on a Tuesday night in my small town, and the theater was as packed as I’ve seen it in years. I had to park two blocks away in a downtown that’s only four blocks long.
People aren’t lining up because they hate this movie. They’re showing up because it’s a familiar story told in a way that still feels new, and that tension between the two is exactly why everyone’s talking about it.
The Wrong Conversation
The problem is so much of the news/talk commentary I’ve seen boils down to three topics: DEI, race, and gender identity. Elliott Page, the actor formerly known as Ellen Page, is a trans man, and he’s in this three-hour film for roughly five minutes. Five minutes doesn’t deserve to define an entire conversation, yet that’s exactly what’s happening across the format.
Then there’s Lupita Nyong’o playing Helen of Troy. Critics on the right have framed her casting as historically inaccurate, since Helen is traditionally depicted as white. But accuracy arguments get shaky real fast when you remember Helen’s father was Zeus, who took the form of a swan to conceive her. Nyong’o is stunningly beautiful, talented, and every bit as compelling as the character she’s playing. Focusing only on her skin tone misses the point entirely.
Being a contrarian can absolutely work for a host. It grabs attention, and it can build a brand. But real skill shows up when a host takes a popular topic somewhere unexpected instead of somewhere predictable. Hand me a list of news/talk hosts right now, and I’d guess their The Odyssey opinions with something close to 90% accuracy. That’s not talent. That’s a format stuck on autopilot.
A Better Way Forward
When an audience loves something, tearing it down just to be different doesn’t make a host look sharp. It makes them look grumpy and disconnected. Nobody wants to spend two hours with someone who’s grumpy and disconnected, so why would a radio audience feel any different?
There’s so much untapped material here. Where does this rank among the best films of the decade, or even the century? How does Nolan stack up against history’s greatest directors? Which stories from our own era will still matter 2,500 years from now, the way Homer’s story has? The production spanned six countries — which one would a host or the audience actually want to visit, and why?
None of that requires abandoning opinion or edge. It just requires curiosity instead of a script everyone’s already read. Audiences crave discovery, and hosts who can deliver it will separate themselves from a pack that’s currently indistinguishable.
The perception of news/talk radio is that it’s a bunch of old guys angry for hours at a time. And honestly, the genre has earned plenty of that reputation fairly. The Odyssey was — and still is, by the way — a chance to challenge it. Instead, most hosts reached for the same three grievances before the opening score even hit the silver screen.
Hosts don’t need permission to enjoy something. They don’t need a political angle attached to every cultural moment, and they certainly don’t need to force a three-hour epic into a culture-war box it was never built for. Sometimes the smartest move on the air is just enjoying the ride, and letting the audience enjoy it too.
That’s a test this format keeps failing. The Odyssey offered an easy pass, and somehow, radio still found a way to flunk it.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.