How does watching a film with others fundamentally change our emotional experience compared to viewing it alone? Can the collective cinema experience reveal hidden social dynamics and help us understand the very nature of human connection? And what does our laughter in a crowded theater tell us about our deepest desires for belonging?

Today's guest is Julian Hanich, Professor of Film Studies at the University of Groningen, where he specializes in the emotional and collective dimensions of film experience. His research investigates how movies elicit powerful feelings in viewers and how these responses are shaped by the shared experience of watching films in groups. As a phenomenologist, Hanich uses detailed analysis of experiential structures to understand what happens when we sit together in darkened theaters. His work on fear, laughter, and collective spectatorship has contributed significantly to our understanding of cinema as both an individual art form and a fundamentally social medium.

In this conversation, we explore Hanich's fascinating research into why watching films with others creates entirely different emotional experiences than viewing them alone. From his groundbreaking work on the "paradox of pleasurable fear" to his taxonomy of ten different types of laughter in movie theaters, Hanich reveals how cinema becomes a laboratory for human social dynamics. We examine how collective viewing can either amplify or suppress our emotional responses—why a horror film might feel less scary with friends, but a comedy becomes funnier with strangers. This isn't just academic theory; it's about understanding how we use shared cultural experiences to negotiate social norms, find belonging, and sometimes discover uncomfortable truths about ourselves and our communities. As streaming services isolate us in individual viewing experiences, Hanich's insights become crucial for understanding what we lose when we abandon the collective ritual of cinema—and what it reveals about our fundamental need for shared emotional experiences in an increasingly fragmented world.