Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchRoy Wood Jr.: "People Just Want to Feel Good."
In this special Christmas Day edition, Mike gives the gift of Roy Wood Jr., a comedian who embodies the "profundities in punchlines" ethos. Wood join…
5 months, 4 weeks ago
Django Gold: The Comedian Who Wants to Dim Your Shine
In a special Christmas Eve edition, Mike brings you a "gift" from the comedy vault: an interview with the brilliantly off-kilter Django Gold. A veter…
5 months, 4 weeks ago
Thomas Chatterton Williams: Why the Summer of 2020 Wasn't Inevitable
Thomas Chatterton Williams joins to discuss his new book, The Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse. He argues t…
5 months, 4 weeks ago
Quico Toro: "Charlatans Burrow Into Your Life and Don't Leave."
Quico Toro joins to discuss Charlatans: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Hucksters Bamboozle the Media, the Markets, and the Masses, distinguishing the "…
6 months ago
Rob Reiner: "I Just Viewed My Child in Pain"
In light of the recent tragedy, Mike unlocks a 2016 interview with the late Rob Reiner. It is a conversation that now plays differently: Reiner discu…
6 months ago
Jay Jurden: High Profundities Per Minute
Comedian Jay Jurden explains why nine years of theater training is his "superpower" on the stand-up stage—and why he treats every punchline like a li…
6 months ago
Nicholas Wright: When Ancient Brains Meet Modern War
Neuroscientist Nicholas Wright explains why big powers "lose" wars they dominate on the kill ratio—and why counterinsurgencies (Vietnam, Afghanistan,…
6 months ago
James Clyburn: "The World Would Much Rather See a Sermon Than Hear One."
Clyburn discusses The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation, explaining how Reconstruction-era Blac…
6 months ago
Mikhail Zygar: From Glasnost Whiplash to Social-Media Smog
Russian journalist in exile Mikhail Zygar traces an information system so sealed even Gorbachev couldn't get the facts in The Dark Side of the Earth:…
6 months ago
Chris Dalla Riva: "Billboard's become a Christmas chart."
Data journalist Chris Dalla Riva brings charts, facts, and plenty of fight to Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us About the Biggest Hit Songs a…
6 months, 1 week ago