Voiceover: Movies that Move Us podcast

59 episodes

Apollo 13: Career Day
07/27/2026 | 29 mins.
Sarah Ruiz, aerospace engineer, describes how Apollo 13 (Ron Howard, 1995) propelled her toward a career with NASA.

Apollo 13 was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won for Best editing and Sound. Based on the 1994 book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, the film details how the three astronauts on Apollo 13 were forced to abandon their mission to land on the Moon and instead return to Earth because of an equipment failure that lead to reduced oxygen and electrical power.

The film stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, and Gary Sinise as astronauts and was a huge career boost for Ed Harris who played the Houston Control Center Flight Director.

Sarah Ruiz currently works in private industry on a new rocket program. In December 2025, she retired from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where she worked for more than 28 years, including as a flight controller for the space shuttle from 2005-2011.
Empire of the Sun: Fantasy & Erasure
07/20/2026 | 23 mins.
Jenny Chan of Pacific Front Untold podcast joins Heather to discuss Asian representation--they focus their remarks on Empire of the Sun (Spielberg, 1987).

Empire of the Sun stars a young Christian Bale in a historical war drama about the Japanese invasion of Shanghai in 1941 and a boy caught in a concentration camp with other British colonials. But the film is emblematic of challenges in other American films that should include characters from a variety of Asian nations but instead uses Asians as background set dressing.

Jenny Chan is Director at Pacific Atrocities Education. Based in the Bay area, she is an alum of University of Illinois.
The Hunger Games: Gen Z Canon
07/13/2026 | 28 mins.
Two Gen Z all-stars join Heather to discuss whether the Hunger Games influenced them or not as young people.

Claire and Cyrus were once members of the high school chess team and they bring with them a long-term friendship that informs today's chat. Watch them react to each each other as much as they react to the films under discussion.

Claire Cirelli is a software engineer in Phoenix, with a Bachelors from Arizona State University.

Cyrus Kirby is a philosopher turned data engineer in Boston who just finished a MS in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Ikiru: Sustaining Change
07/06/2026 | 30 mins.
Gareth Higgins, a Reconciliation scholar from Belfast, Ireland, talks to Heather about Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru (1952), a film about a city bureaucrat who decides to build a playground for a local women's group.

While Akira Kurosawa is best known for his samurai films, Ikiru won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Gareth Higgins' most recent book, co-authored with Kathleen Norris, is A Whole Life in Twelve Movies: A Cinematic Journey to a Deeper Spirituality. He also helped found the Wild Goose, New Story and Movies & Meaning festivals. Gareth leads retreats in North America and Ireland; he co-founded The Porch community, and is deeply involved in transformative men’s work through The Storyteller and the Firekeeper. He holds a PhD in Sociology from Queen's University Belfast.
Bonus. Chief of War: Hawaiian Spirituality
05/25/2026 | 33 mins.
Kawika Allen and Leone Saaga joined Heather for a bonus discussion about Chief of War (2024) and Hawaiian spirituality.

Chief of War is a limited series created by Jason Momoa for Apple TV that tells how the Hawaiian islands were unified under Kamehameha in the face of encroaching Western colonialism.

Chief of War has won multiple awards, including from the Critic's Choice for Social Impact.

Leone Saaga teaches Hawaiian Language courses at Brigham Young University. Previously she has taught in multiple Hawaiian Language Immersion programs. She holds a Masters in Education with an emphasis on Teacher Leadership.

Kawika Allen is the founder of and leads the Polynesian Psychology Education Research Team at BYU’s McKay School of Education. He is a co-editor of the Handbook of Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapies from the APA. He holds a PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

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About Voiceover: Movies that Move Us

What movies taught you about life? Showed you truths you didn’t know you needed to hear? Join Heather Bigley, a former academic and film teacher, and the host of Voiceover: Movies that Move Us—the podcast where films have an impact. Each episode, our guests share the cinematic moments that changed their lives. We want to learn from those silver screen experiences, and so we share those moments with you, looking at the films from a whole new perspective. With a Doctorate in Film Studies and a passion for storytelling, Heather brings a little history, a little philosophy, some behind-the-scenes know-how, and her whole life to the movies she watches. From Wild Strawberries to The Wiz, Terminator 2 to Tree of Life, we’re finding the films that moved us when we least expected it—golden age classics, recent blockbusters, and even the tiny indie film that barely anyone noticed. While Cosmo Brown might just want to Make ‘em Laugh, we’re interested in the films that make you cry, too. Movies that revealed something about ourselves. Mentored us when we needed mentorship. Maybe even illuminated the Divine. Join us for Voiceover: Movies that Move Us for cinematic epiphanies, reel recommends, and maybe some self-revelations. Don’t miss a moment. Subscribe to us now on BYUradio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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