Have you ever felt an urge to just drop out? Break away from the norm and live on your own terms? This episode explores that feeling, drawing from the film "The Arrangement" and the documentary "Alone in the Wilderness." We discuss midlife crises, searching for meaning, and the value of making things by hand. It's about questioning if we're truly living our own lives or just following someone else's plan. We also examine how documentaries balance truth and the filmmaker's perspective, especially in films like "Past Lives" that make us think about our surroundings and what shapes us. We explore how films featuring historical events and personal stories challenge our beliefs and values. The episode takes a more personal turn with a story about a day of street photography that becomes unexpectedly intense. This leads to a debate on the ethics of photography and how art can change us. We wrap up with thoughts on how our experiences color our creativity. -Ai Show Notes: The Arrangement (by Elia Kazan) - https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-arrangement-1969 The Arrangement Trailer - https://youtu.be/9txF5Ma6G68?si=4LAldm6A6wXqIdNx Alone in the Wilderness - https://shop.pbs.org/WA0792.html My Self Reliance - https://www.youtube.com/@MySelfReliance Walden & Civil Disobedience - https://bit.ly/3TDIsvM Fargo - https://letterboxd.com/film/fargo/ John Prine - https://store.johnprine.com/collections/john-prine-vinyl Ned’s Atomic Dustbin - “Kill Your Television” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaTcIzLk880 The Zone of Interest - https://a24films.com/films/the-zone-of-interest Past Lives - https://a24films.com/films/past-lives The Kennedy Films - https://drewassociates.com/films/the-kennedy-films/ Stephen Shore - http://stephenshore.net/ Miami Vice (Michael Mann) - https://bit.ly/3VmAad1 Tetragrammaton with Dr. Jack Kruse - https://bit.ly/43jYsGv If you enjoyed this episode, please consider giving us a rating and/or a review. We read and appreciate all of them. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode. Links To Everything: Video Version of The Podcast: https://geni.us/StudioSessionsYT Matt’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/MatthewOBrienYT Matt’s 2nd Channel: https://geni.us/PhotoVideosYT Alex’s YouTube Channel: https://geni.us/AlexCarterYT Matt’s Instagram: https://geni.us/MatthewIG Alex’s Instagram: https://geni.us/AlexIG