The most famous film critic in American history did not learn to dissect movies in a prestigious film school. He learned by obsessively reading parodies in Mad Magazine. This episode follows Roger Ebert from his childhood in Urbana, Illinois, where he published his own science fiction fanzines and worked as a sportswriter at fifteen, to the Chicago Sun-Times, where in 1967 the editors handed the film critic job to a young reporter still pursuing a PhD.

The conversation explores why his lack of academic film theory became his greatest advantage, his early defense of Bonnie and Clyde and the first published review of Martin Scorsese, his screenplay for Russ Meyer, and his historic 1975 Pulitzer Prize. It covers the rivalry-turned-brotherhood with Gene Siskel, the two thumbs up phenomenon, his philosophy of emotional honesty, his championing o ...