Sarah Silverman is one of the funniest humans I know. Lauded, if not, encouraged by her dad to curse as a baby, Silverman honed her mischievous antics the minute she started speaking. She was born to two natural performers, although they lived in New Hampshire, a far shlep from Hollywood. Her dad ran a clothing store and did all of his own commercials in his thick Boston accent, while her mom, who was far more sophisticated in her diction, did the voice-overs for the local movie theater in New H...
Feb 10, 2016•34 min
There are musicians who say they can play any genre, melody, tune, with or without reading sheet music, and then there are a handful of the real deal. Enter Binky Griptite, one of the most versatile, graceful, and finest guitarists out there. He can play it all. Funk and soul are the Brooklynite’s bread and butter. You don’t have to take it from me. Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones knew how brilliant Binky is and seized on his talent. Griptite doesn’t care if most people don’t know who this sly, s...
Jan 27, 2016•11 min
After writing dialogue for a teen comedy as a teletype operator at Columbia Pictures, Kramer, who was barely into his twenties, lapped up the chance to adapt D.H. Lawrence’s revered novel Women in Love. Leave it to Larry to not only score an Oscar nomination, but manage to get the first nude sex scene in theaters in England, a couple years after sodomy was even considered legal in the United Kingdom. You know that phrase "Full Frontal Nudity?" In our interview, you'll hear where it comes from. Y...
Jan 27, 2016•28 min
With a wry smile, shrewd reporting, and exquisite detail, Ada Calhoun distills America’s signature triumphs in music, theater, commerce, activism, politics, and its transgressions-- including drug abuse, prostitution and, yes, slavery, in her latest book St. Marks is Dead. She chronicles the history of three short blocks in New York from when the land was grassy and feral to now, where you can count the number of trees on two hands. It is still feral and Calhoun revels in the beauty and ugliness...
Jan 19, 2016•49 min
Jason Biggs got his first headshot at age five. Twenty years later, he went onto became world famous for his role in the hilarious comedy American Pie. He went onto star on Broadway, get a recurring role in the hit dramedy Orange is the New Black, and currently co-hosts a radio show with his wife Jenny on Sirius XM. Like many actors, Biggs did theater and, yes, got fired off his first sitcom, only he was still in middle school. The sitcom Drexel's Class was cancelled after one season, so, as Big...
Jan 14, 2016•28 min
It shouldn’t be entirely surprising that Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator at MoMA for Architecture and Design, was into punk rock in her twenties. She says the scene wasn’t hard core in Italy. She dipped her toes, without becoming subsumed by the genre, which is in part, what she does daily, as she travels the world over to assess the multiple ways, designers, architects, inventors, technologists, entrepreneurs, and multi-disciplinary hyphenates are impacting culture. We spoke about the creativit...
Jan 06, 2016•24 min
After completing shooting his first starring role for HBO’s upcoming 10-episode series VINYL, BOBBY CANNAVALE sat down with Catie Lazarus at a live taping of Employee of the Month at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater. We spoke about the “ease” one feels when doing what your meant to do, whether it’s social work, which is what his mom does, or acting, which Bobby says, “Is all he ever wanted to do.” He says his son Jake has inherited Bobby’s “ease” and we spoke about their acting together in NURSE ...
Dec 30, 2015•30 min
As 2015 draws to a close, as soon as I started to feel stressed about getting the right gifts, never mind affording them, hoping to see friends and family, dealing with fraught relationships, and my unmet hopes and dreams. To accept what is and the messiness of life, I found solace in listening to meditation teacher Tara Brach's podcast, often on the subway. Luckily, I got to speak to the person who had offered me the space to sit with all of the above and more. I met with Tara Brach at the Unit...
Dec 23, 2015•50 min
Tony Award winning actor Billy Crudup spoke to Catie Lazarus about portraying a polarizing character, lawyer Eric MacLeish in the phenomenal film Spotlight, which chronicles The Boston Globe's Spotlight Investigative Team as they reveal the Catholic Church's systemic cover up of sexual abuse. Eric MacLeish is alive and does not like how he is depicted, although he supports the film. Eric MacLeish's real life saga, which The Boston Globe is also chronicling, could be its own Lifetime Movie. Crudu...
Dec 14, 2015•33 min
DAVID CROSS on Tats, Hitler, Heroine, and the late Beastie Boy's Adam Yauch by Catie Lazarus
Dec 05, 2015•41 min
After running iconic campaigns as an Ad Exec, Cindy Gallop decided to create a campaign for a subject dear to her heart. In 2009, she gave a now legendary Ted Talk and launched MakeLoveNotPorn.com. Since then she has gained a cult fan base for speaking about the myths surrounding pornography and real sex. We spoke about renting out her massive black apartment for rap videos, including for Notorious B.I.G.. We also spoke about whether Mad Men resonates for Ad Executives today and how she balances...
Nov 17, 2015•23 min
JOSH RADNOR is currently appearing as a brilliant, but afflicted and drug addicted, doctor in PBS’s civil war drama MERCY STREET. In our interview, we discussed his range as an actor and found out why the Dalai Lama picked Josh to speak at the beloved spiritual leader’s 80th birthday extravaganza. Josh reveals whether the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso needs a flu shot. When not writing or directing, Josh often speaks to colleges and audiences, like at the INK Conference in India. Josh speaks abo...
Nov 17, 2015•28 min
While at Columbia, Nigerian born and New York raised Inyang Bassey was giving her first concert. Well, she was singing in her shower and her roommate suggested, they get a bigger shower. Actually, her roommate advised her to audition for one their university's productions. She did and decided to giving a singing career a real go. A couple years later when Moby was looking for a back up. An extraordinary singer Jenny Wasserman recommended Inyang. Before she knew what had happened, Inyang found he...
Nov 16, 2015•14 min
NATE SILVER may be best known as political pollster, but he describes himself as "well rounded" and talks about the perils of having, what I call, a halo effect. In our interview for Employee of the Month, which was taped live at Joe’s Pub in New York, we spoke the day before Halloween on everything from how he deals with his own confirmation basis to how 538 differs from Ezra Klein's Vox Media, and why Silver feels more free to do what he wants as a journalist at a gigantic corporation, i.e. Wa...
Nov 06, 2015•33 min
After appearing in TV shows like Broad City to VH1's Best Night Ever, writing for TV shows, like The Newly Wed Game, stand up comedian Katina Corrao just released her first stand up comedy album HOT DATE. You can go to www.katinacorrao.com to get it and see her hilarious web series, THE GOOD NEIGHBOR MINUTE, which chronicles her antics as a nosy neighbor. You can also catch her live, as she performs stand up all over the country. If you're in New York, she co-hosts the weekly stand up show Laser...
Nov 04, 2015•36 min
A recent Law & Human Behavior study found that female lawyers are penalized for displaying anger. It may explain why Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg chose to picked her battles from the get go. Considering she’s successfully advocated for gender equality, among other civil liberties, since 1959, her tactics paid off. Instead of getting angry, she got even. Ruth Bader Ginsburg continues to be one of our nation's greatest social justice crusaders. Still her career hasn't shielded her from personal...
Nov 04, 2015•51 min
It's not just Barack Obama who is drawn to Will Sheff's music, Lou Reed was a massive fan as well. Like his mentor Lou Reed, Sheff is a bit of a polymath, but best known for being the lead singer for the indie darling rock band Okkervil River straight out of Austin, Texas. Sheff is also an artist and prolific and pithy writer. You can check out his drawings on his website and read his essays on art and fiction in McSweeney’s, The Talkhouse, Magnet, Billboard, and the Austin Chronicle, where he w...
Oct 28, 2015•22 min
Candice Wiggins was a toddler when her father, Alan Wiggins, a professional baseball player died due to complications from AIDs. He passed away ten months before Magic Johnson boldly came forward about his own status. Once Johnson did, Candice’s mother decided to take her three children out of basketball where Alan had faced racism, and became, what Candice calls, a “basketball family.” Those three children went onto college on basketball scholarships. Candice ended up at Stanford, where she gra...
Oct 21, 2015•26 min
When I wanted to switch to a meditation practice that felt accessible, a former boss and now genuine friend recommended her therapist, Tara Brach. By that time, Brach had segued to focusing on being a meditation teacher. I became a fan of Brach's dharma talks, joining about 200,000 other folks from over 150 countries who download and listen to her regularly. You can as well at www.tarabrach.com. In 1998, Tara founded the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, D.C. (IMCW), which is now one o...
Oct 16, 2015•27 min
Journalism is tough to break into for anyone, particularly if you can't afford to work for less than minimum wage. Freelancing requires constantly pitching, not taking rejection personally, and ingratiating yourself to editors, who already have a stable of staff writers and hungry former colleagues. No matter how talented you are, it's a low paying racket, but a truly gratifying one when you see your name in print or get to work with a fantastic editor or write about an enticing subject. It's wh...
Sep 21, 2015•38 min
When NPR launched it became a vital American resource offering reliable news coverage and nuanced analysis. Its first generation groomed and passed the baton to a remarkable crew, including Blumberg, who worked his way up the ladder at the public radio darling This American Life. There his coverage of the subprime mortgage crisis earned him a Peabody Award, and he went onto produce their television spin-off for Showtime. In our interview, we spoke about how the cable network wanted to continue t...
Sep 12, 2015•57 min
It's easy to mistake Lisa Kron for a comedian due to her wry wit, self effacing nature, and comic timing, but Kron is a rarity in the theater word as she doesn't take herself too seriously. An actor and Tony winning playwright, Kron prefers to write and perform characters who can roam emotionally. She grounds comedy in reality and she can depict her own characters and others with equal dexterity and vulnerability. In our interview, Kron talks about writing her first musical Fun Home with compose...
Sep 01, 2015•56 min
TNT’s MURDER in the FIRST garnered an Emmy nod, but The New York Times critic Mike Hale wanted to know how Hollywood forgot to nominate LAILA ROBINS for Best Supporting Actress. He is not alone. Laila Robins has steadily worked in film and television for decades since her breakout role in John Hughes’ PLANES, TRAINS and AUTOMBILES with Steve Martin and the beloved John Candy back in 1987. Most recently she did a stint on Showtime’s Homeland. But New York theater directors and producers may not w...
Aug 19, 2015•23 min
Former CIA agent Joshua Katz first signed up to the army when most of his peers were contemplating whether to they'd go to law or business school. His nice Jewish parents were baffled, but it didn't stop Katz. He went onto serve as a Squad Leader in the Special Operation Command (SOCOM), where he trained his unit for special combat. Despite his parent’s fears, Katz thrived. He says his military stint offered him a nuanced sense of how counterterrorism efforts "are used and misused." The CIA (Cen...
Aug 19, 2015•31 min
After winning The Moth, a mecca for those who love storytelling from the last bastion of true freaks and geeks, actor David Crabb spoke to me about transforming his coming-of-age stories as a gay, goth kid in Texas in the 1980's and 1990's into a live one man touring show and debut memoir. David has the rare ability to suck you into 80s pop-culture and the closeted, bigoted world, without sentimentalizing or glorifying debauchery and anomie. His gift as a pithy, hilarious storyteller are as palp...
Aug 07, 2015•18 min
I got my start in life in stand-up, I mean not counting that time when I swam, some say was yanked, out of my mom's womb. Anyway, I miss being in stand up because I don't get to spend enough time with performers, like Hari Kondabolu. (Obviously, your thank you letters begging me to stop softened the blow.") Anyway, Hari Kondabolu is hilarious. You don't have to know that The New York Times described him as “one of the most exciting political comics in stand-up today,” because you can figure that...
Aug 06, 2015•22 min
To know Corn Mo is to love Corn Mo. The singer, composer, and musician Jon Cunningham, who goes by Corn Mo, spoke to me about why he decided not to be a preacher and, instead, joined a sideshow circus. A musician's musician, Corn Mo has performed solo shows, along with his band .357 Lover, Nick Offerman, Ben Folds, Wheatus, They Might Be Giants, and The Polyphonic Spree, when they toured with David Bowie. Once you hear him sing and play the accordion, you'll gras his remarkable range, mischievou...
Jul 31, 2015•19 min
This summer I've walked by numerous psychics fanning themselves as they sit in various dilapidated New York storefronts, leading me to wonder why they don't use their psychic powers to manifest air conditioning. Sure I'll read my horoscope if I'm on an airplane flipping through a magazine, but am wary of self proclaimed experts who overestimate what they know about the world's fate. Yet, I took an immediate shine to astrologers and entertainers Stella Starsky and Quinn Cox, a husband and wife du...
Jul 23, 2015•19 min
Comedy writers ELISA ZURISTKY and JULIE ROTTENBERG got a big break when they landed a job on the already successful HBO series SEX-And-The-CITY. In our interview, which was recorded at the WGA (Writers Guild), the duo discuss what made working for their boss and SATC's show's head writer Michael Patrick King so fulfilling and, unfortunately, rare in TV writing. They didn't find another boss like him, and when it was time to become head writers on Bravo's Odd Mom Out, they tried to emulate what t...
Jul 23, 2015•33 min
DAVEED DIGGS is back! We spoke at the WGA-East (Writers Guild) during his brief vacation between starring in Hamilton at The Public Theater and, now, on Broadway. We talked about everything from east coast vs. west coast rap vs. regional rap, napping to making sure you don't eat anything that may land you in the loo before curtain call, to why he worships his pop. Daveed's mom was such a good DJ, back in Oakland, that she wooed his dad, amongst others, and their shared love of music and life cer...
Jul 21, 2015•48 min
