Podcast Episodes

Play It Again: Jeff Daniels

Today, for your holiday week, we’re returning to one of our favorite 2024 conversations with actor Jeff Daniels.

Daniels is always writing. Plays, songs, a script or two. Even in interviews you get t…

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago

Jesse Eisenberg Steps Into His Past

Actor, writer, and director Jesse Eisenberg’s latest project, A Real Pain, is perhaps his most personal to date.

He joins us today to unpack the journey that shaped the film (9:18), memories from his…

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago

Actor Josh Brolin: A Life in Vivid Color

Since the turn of the century, actor Josh Brolin has had quite a run. From No Country for Old Men and Hail, Caesar! from the Coen Brothers, to Inherent Vice from Paul Thomas Anderson, to Sicario and …

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago

What Can Be, Burdened By What Has Been (with Astead Herndon of NYT)

It’s been a week. To help us through it, we’ve enlisted The New York Times political reporter Astead Herndon.

We start with election night 2024 versus election night 2016 (6:35), what Astead discover…

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago

Ta-Nehisi Coates (‘The Message’) is Live in Los Angeles

On the heels of his latest book The Message, author Ta-Nehisi Coates joins Sam for a conversation in Los Angeles.

At the top, we discuss how his Atlantic piece The Case for Reparations guided these t…

Published on 1 year, 1 month ago

Actor and Director Anna Kendrick: Life Imitates Art

Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air) has been a fixture in Hollywood for the past fifteen years. She joins us this week to discuss Woman of the Hour, her directorial debut and most revealing …

Published on 1 year, 2 months ago

This Conversation with Author Jason Reynolds is a Gift

For the past decade, Jason Reynolds has become an inspiring voice in the literary world. He’s a New York Times bestselling author and as of this month, a 2024 MacArthur fellow.

Reynolds sits with us …

Published on 1 year, 2 months ago

Wesley Morris Returns with ‘The Wonder of Stevie’

Today, culture critic Wesley Morris (The New York Times) returns to Talk Easy for a conversation about The Wonder of Stevie, his new podcast with the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions.

At the top, We…

Published on 1 year, 2 months ago

Director Jason Reitman’s Love Letter to ‘Saturday Night’

Since his directorial debut in 2006, Jason Reitman has made the kind of films they say Hollywood doesn’t make anymore.

Today, we sit to discuss his latest project Saturday Night (9:09), the influence…

Published on 1 year, 2 months ago

Francis Ford Coppola Stays in the Picture

Director Francis Ford Coppola doesn’t just want to make movies. He wants to change them. This was true in 1969 when he co-founded Zoetrope Studios with George Lucas, and it remains true today at age …

Published on 1 year, 2 months ago