EP048 - Criminally Open Minded w/ Daniel Lombroso

Let's talk about MANHOOD—specifically, Daniel Lombroso's startling new doc about the growing world (haha) of penis girth enhancement. You heard that right. This is the penis injection movie that SXSW audiences (& DocWalks guests) won't stop talking about. At 33 years old, the Brooklyn-based Lombroso considers himself to be "criminally open minded" (his words, then immediately walked back), and the kind of filmmaker who waits seven months in a D.C. parking lot to get one lunch meeting. He's done it before. With WHITE NOISE, his 2020 alt-right portrait, he embedded with Lauren Southern, Mike Cernovich, and Richard Spencer for years, as a Jewish grandson of two Holocaust survivors. With NINA & IRENA, his New Yorker short, he hovered around Errol Morris until Errol called him back: "Daniel, your grandmother's a fucking incredible character." We dig into MANHOOD start to finish: the Dallas entrepreneur trying to make girth injections as common as Botox, the OnlyFans model who got botched and bared everything anyway, and the standup-dad of five whose reckless choices break our hearts. Daniel maps the access game—turns out women and queer execs got the pitch instantly, while straight guys at the top kept killing the deals—his journalism roots at The Atlantic and The New Yorker, the Sheila Nevins stamp of approval at 87, and how Penny Lane and World of Wonder rallied around him when he was unemployed, depressed, and flying Spirit Airlines back to Dallas to film alone. He's funny about his Republican father calling MANHOOD "a beautiful commentary on modern America." But he's serious about the male loneliness epidemic, the manosphere, and the smartphone-induced inadequacy that pushes men to spend their savings on the one thing they don't need more of.  Plus: how to bother Errol Morris in a parking lot, the lightning-round answer that made us laugh—"give yourself reps"—and a brief detour through 2 Girls 1 Cup we did not see coming.     Discussion Links MANHOOD (2026) | WHITE NOISE (2020) | NINA & IRENA (2023) | HAIL SATAN? (2019) | LISTENING TO KENNY G (2021) | CONFESSIONS OF A GOOD SAMARITAN (2023) | THE FOG OF WAR (2003) | GATES OF HEAVEN (1978) | RAISING ARIZONA (1987) | WINNEBAGO MAN (2009)     Timestamps 00:00 Two girls, one cup, and a high five 02:31 Meet Daniel and MANHOOD 03:34 Inside the girth enhancement boom 06:36 Daniel's Republican dad weighs in 10:12 Why straight execs kept killing the deal 11:19 33 and prolific 12:00 WHITE NOISE and the alt-right embed 13:02 Self-taught from age 14 14:10 Bothering Errol Morris in a parking lot 17:12 Meeting Penny Lane at Big Sky 20:19 From journalism to documentary in Istanbul 24:28 The access question 25:44 "Criminally open minded" 26:21 Lauren Southern's seven-month chase 30:23 Cernovich, Spencer, and the contradictions 32:33 The Kid Rock movie that fell apart 34:37 Meeting Bill, David, and Ruben 38:50 The throuple twist 40:30 David's reconstructive journey 42:11 World of Wonder breaks David open 44:13 The smartphone inadequacy machine 47:51 Ruben and the male loneliness epidemic 52:53 Lightning round 53:38 How Sheila Nevins came aboard 57:39 Give yourself reps 58:53 What keeps Daniel up at night 01:01:34 Where to find MANHOOD 01:02:27 The state of documentary 01:04:10 Sharon Liese is up next