This week we are joined by legendary actor and comedian Matt Walsh, who you may know from his work with Upright Citizens Brigade, his role as Mike McLintock on "Veep" or a million other hilarious appearances. Together we discuss the career trajectory of Steven Seagal from actor to cop to guy who gets mocked in Brian Cox's memoir, the time Jonah and his friends threw a block of ice on his car engine, and Matt's experiences using a sock as a gas cap. Vanessa also gives her thoughts on the return o...
May 23, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 35
In this episode the Bayers welcome nineties icon and Grammy Award-winning musician Lisa Loeb! We talk (so all the time) about landline phone etiquette from growing up including prank calls and Vanessa's love for calling the numbers on catalogs with a pretend accent. We also get into Lilith Fair and guitar shredding and when Lisa toured with Sarah McLachlan. And don't worry, not only do we talk about Lisa's famous cat eyeglasses and her current line of glasses, but Vanessa does a deep dive into t...
May 16, 2022•58 min•Season 2Ep. 34
This week on HOW DID WE GET WEIRD? Jonah and Vanessa are joined by musician and longtime friend of the Bayers, Chris Farren. We discuss our favorite iteration of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well as Chris's childhood toy preferences. We also get into Chris's amazing ability to create viral merch and Vanessa chimes in with her own expert opinion of how to price band merchandise. Finally, we debut a new segment called CEO TAKEDOWN where we critique the all-CEO band The Moderators who you pr...
May 09, 2022•54 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Thirty years in the making, this episode of HOW DID WE GET WEIRD? sees Jonah and Vanessa catching up with their long-lost cousin and the former host of the MTV's Headbangers Ball, Riki Rachtman. We discuss how Riki is related through marriage to the Bayers, the time Jonah almost invited Riki to his Bar Mitzvah and the time Axl Rose flew to New York with Riki to get our cousin his first hosting job on MTV. We also talk about our first bands, what it was like owning the Sunset Strip's most infamou...
May 02, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Benjamin Gibbard may follow you in the dark, but he will not follow you in the trendy brunch spot in your neighborhood. On this episode on HOW DID WE GET WEIRD?, we catch up with the frontman for Death Cab For Cutie and The Postal Service to discuss 20 years of random Bayer hangouts ranging from breakfast to Bonnarroo, what being vegan was like during DCFC's early years and why he is unlikely to become the spokesman for Dunkin' Donuts anytime soon. We also discuss taping songs off the radio as a...
Apr 25, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 31
You may know JD Samson as the musician in critically acclaimed acts like Le Tigre and MEN, but did you know she also went to high school with Jonah and Vanessa? On this episode we discuss Jonah's brief stint working for JD's parents, what it was like being a teenaged outcast in Ohio in the nineties and how going to an outdoor expedition summer camp changed JD's life. We also get into our first jobs, why flavored-coffee is disgusting and lament the demise of our favorite regional theme park growi...
Apr 18, 2022•46 min•Season 1Ep. 30
This week we could not be more psyched to be joined by comedian, writer and actor Solomon Georgio, who you may know from his work on Shrill and High Fidelity. On this action-packed episode, we discuss whether we keep in touch with people from our childhood and debate the need for adult-sized Lunchables. Plus, we get in-depth about the history of the beloved childhood juice, squeezits, and if we really want to see snack foods advertised as sentient beings. Finally, we revisit our change.dork segm...
Apr 11, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 29
We are overjoyed to have director, writer, actor, comedian and producer Michael Showalter on the podcast this week—who is also a director and executive producer of Vanessa's upcoming Showtime series "I Love That For You" which debuts April 29th. Full disclosure: we told Showalter that we were going to talk to him about John Hughes movies, but we ended up inundating him with questions about his beloved comedy troupes The State and Stella as well as what we refer to as "the Wet Hot American summer...
Apr 04, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 28
This week on the podcast, Vanessa and Jonah do a deep dive analysis of the 1998 Farrelly brothers film, "There's Something About Mary." Despite its all-star cast, there is a lot of questionable aspects of the film that are rooted in the broader context of comedy movies in the nineties. We've heard about suspending disbelief but you've got to attain anti-gravity levels of suspension to accept Matt Dillion's spy technology, the film's convoluted stalker backstory and the way that the Farrelly Brot...
Mar 28, 2022•45 min•Season 1Ep. 27
This week's guest Shalita Grant has not only been nominated for a Tony Award, she's also an actress who you know from Search Party, NCIS: New Orleans and You. We hear about her experiences as a drama student at the prestigious Juilliard School and the "Juilliard Curse," deep dive into the history of Funyuns and reminisce about our childhood pets. Jonah also reveals that he occasionally looks at his the lunch menu at his old high school and we explore the hidden relationship between the education...
Mar 21, 2022•53 min•Season 1Ep. 26
In today's episode we talk to our friend and one of the funniest people in the world, Mike O'Brien. We hear the stories behind Mike's epic tattoos, plus he and Vanessa discuss their early Chicago comedy days, and he and Jonah discuss the trials and tribulations of being hghly acclaimed brand ambassadors. We also hear about the time Mike's family got a free day trip to Boston by eating a year's worth of Cheerio's. Was it worth it? You'll have to listen to find out...but obviously it was not. Lear...
Mar 14, 2022•53 min•Season 1Ep. 25
We are thrilled to have good friend and talented musician Brian Fallon from Gaslight Anthem and also known for his wildly successful solo career. We talk about Jonah's missed opportunity of flipping his cash and still not buying a winter jacket, what musicians get a "punk pass", and what generation we technically fall under (we just know Phoebe Bridgers isn't making fun of us). We discuss the power ballads that gave us all the feels and determination of our lives. Another exciting game of change...
Mar 07, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 24
The super talented and friend Kate Berlant graces us with her charming whit on the podcast. You may know Kate from her work on "Netflix: The Characters" and the film "555". We discuss her origins such as going to an all girls school, being the president of the Thespian Society (or Vice President?) and doing stand-up in the New York comedy scene. We take a trip down memory lane discussing AOL chat rooms allowing us to be "someone else" behind a screen and trolling people in chat rooms, especially...
Feb 28, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 23
In this episode, good friend and amazing musician Tony Thaxton stops by the podcast this week. Tony is the drummer for Motion City Soundtrack and a podcaster himself, what can this guy not do?! We talk about our deep fondness of Muppet Babies and how we do not care for the reboot, especially the theme song. Diving into celebrity voice-over actors on the show like Howie Mandel and Dave Coulier and learning that Skeeter was not an original muppet. Plus discussion of celebrity albums and talking ab...
Feb 21, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 22
We are so lucky to have comedian, actor and singer Cole Escola drop by the podcast this week. You may know Cole from their scene-stealing roles in "Search Party," "At Home With Amy Sedaris" and "Difficult People," but before all that they were learning about sophisticated, cosmopolitan female leads on nineties shows like "Fired Up" and "Mad About You." We also get into how the calcium industry hijacked TV commercials in the nineties to the point where Cole ate so many Kraft single slices it made...
Feb 14, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 21
We feel honored to have nostalgia expert, SNL cast member, and our good friend Kyle Mooney on the pod this week! Of course, we discuss eighties cartoons and how Kyle embodies that aesthetic so flawlessly on his hilarious new Netflix show, Saturday Morning All-Star Hits! We also get deep into the short-lived primetime series Saved By The Bell: The College Years. Was it weird that the Bayside Crew had an ex-football player as their dorm's RA? Absolutely. Along the way we also discuss Kyle's childh...
Feb 07, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 20
The Bayers' longtime friend and iconic musician Jenny Lewis stops by the podcast this week to discuss the time that she and Vanessa took Jonah to get his first ever pedicure! If that story isn't exciting enough, we also discuss Jenny's childhood acting roles in everything from Troop Beverly Hills to The Wizard and her musical career and recent tour with Harry Styles. Plus, we talk about the perils of online dating, and dig deep on Jenny's love of Strawberry Shortcake and the rest of her badass c...
Jan 31, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 19
In this episode, the phenomenal writer and actress Sudi Green stops by the pod! We talk about after school sports with subtopics ranging from but not limited to the harrowing journey of finding your track event, Vanessa's odd cross-country hack and the moments we each realized sports just weren't for us. We also reminisce about burning CDs and curating our music tastes to impress our older siblings while Jonah recounts winning the prestigious Carrier Pigeon paper plate award. As if that wasn’t e...
Jan 24, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 18
In this episode, our incredibly talented friend Bridget Everett stops by the pod fresh off the premiere of her new HBO show “Somebody Somewhere” and a feature in The New Yorker. Together we question why anyone ever thought dodgeball was a good idea for kids and reminisce on the glory of being a tall kid playing tetherball. We also dig deeper than ever on a favorite topic, the rampant misuse of change.org, and discuss varied topics ranging from pyramid schemes to the origins of P.F. Chang himself...
Jan 17, 2022•59 min•Season 1Ep. 17
We could not be more thrilled to have our friend and comedy icon Amy Schumer on the podcast this week! We discuss the international adventures Amy had with Vanessa and Jonah on the Trainwreck European press tour, her musical connections ranging from Taking Back Sunday to Madonna, and what a dream it would have been to belong to The Baby-Sitters Club. We also get nostalgic about Skip-It and in the process discover that it may be the loneliest toy of the nineties. Learn more about your ad-choices ...
Jan 10, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 16
In addition to playing drums for Superchunk, The Mountain Goats and Bob Mould today's guest Jon Wurster is one of the funniest people on the planet as evidenced by his work with former HDWGW guest Tom Scharpling on The Best Show. On this episode we discuss first instruments, why unearned confidence is such good comedy fodder and what it's like to punish your musical idols on the road. Finally, we discuss Jonah's history as a teenage scam artist. Did he ever get caught and did he single-handedly ...
Jan 03, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 15
In addition to having a very cool first name, Jonah Ray Rodrigues is a hilarious writer, comedian, actor and the current host of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Jonah and Vanessa caught up with Jonah Ray Rodrigues to discuss what it was like growing up in Hawaii, his adolescent insecurities and the psychic connection between Steven Seagal and punk rock. We also discuss our experiences renting videos during our formative years, how we discovered we're too old for mosh pits and what exactly is an NF...
Dec 20, 2021•59 min•Season 1Ep. 14
In this episode, comedian, podcaster and all-around great guy Chris Gethard stops by to reminisce with Jonah and Vanessa about lunch room food fights, food dares and physically challenging candy like Warheads. Meanwhile, Vanessa wonders what the hell was up with her elementary and middle school administrators being so obsessed with the noise levels in the lunch room. They also discuss the time Jonah and Vanessa were in the same high school French class, Chris's harrowing visits to Action Park an...
Dec 13, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 13
This week, Jonah and Vanessa welcome writer, producer, and former MTV VJ Dave Holmes to the pod to talk about radio and how it's transformed over the years, teen magazines, and Jonah's childhood love of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pies. We also discuss Dave's encounters with Pauly Shore as well as vintage perfume commercials and their incredible jingles. Spoiler alert- Vanessa nails her rendition of one of them. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnyst...
Dec 06, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 12
You know Tom Scharpling as the host of The Best Show and author of the bestselling book, It Never Ends: A Memoir with Nice Memories!, but he's also a friend of both of the Bayers. On this episode of the podcast, we discuss the origins of The Original Todd, Vanessa's onstage roasting of Jonah's bands and our favorite personal experiences with Papa Roach. We also reminisce about Reggie bars, the family sitcom Dinosaurs and Tower Records. From the dark history of the Baby Ruth Bar to the best Aeros...
Nov 29, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 11
You know Laura Jane Grace from Against Me! and her solo career, but we bet you don't know about her childhood obsession with action figures. This week Laura stopped by the podcast to discuss her decades-long relationship with G.I.Joes and the detailed storylines she would build around them. We also discuss getting cappuccinos at Lilith Fair, band reunions ranging from Genesis to the Black Crowes, and Vanessa and Laura's experiences hanging out with Cyndi Lauper and seeing her "true colors." (Spo...
Nov 22, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 10
On this week's episode, Vanessa and Jonah discuss all things birthdays with their good friend the wildly talented Taran Killam. Why you ask? BECAUSE IT'S VANESSA'S BIRTHDAY! They talk about the best birthdays, slumber parties, Taran's uncanny ability to summarize Breaking Bad, and who's behind the incredibly cool theme music and sound effects on the podcast. Plus some crucial updates and show feedback from former classmates at Orange High School. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.i...
Nov 15, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Friend of the pod Bowen Yang stopped by this week to discuss his childhood obsession with Pokeman's less popular but more badass peer, Digimon. Along the way Jonah pitches Bowen on a potentially lucrative business deal, Vanessa sings some of your favorite commercial jingles and we debate the return of Oreo Cakesters. We also discuss the pros and cons of curated subscription services, discuss Bowen's brief tenure as a fashion designer and get nostalgic about our favorite scents from childhood. If...
Nov 08, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 8
The one and only Fred Armisen (Portlandia, Saturday Night Live) stopped by the podcast this week to discuss his first concert experience: Seeing DEVO at Radio City Music Hall on October 31st, 1981, right down the street from where Fear were destroying the SNL set at 30 Rock. In this largely music-themed episode, we also discuss Fred's love of all things goth, playing drums alongside his heroes like The Clash and his personal connection with Halloween that goes back to childhood. Equal parts hila...
Nov 01, 2021•54 min•Season 1Ep. 7
In this episode, Jonah and Vanessa welcome the electrifying actor/comedian Matt Rogers (Las Culturistas, Haute Dog). They discuss the 1995 fantasy adventure film Jumanji and have their own fantasy adventure debating its logistics. Plus, they talk wacky family members, iced tea versus soda as a childhood status symbol, favorite pizza chains and dare to ask who can afford to buy an American Girl Doll in this day in age?! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See ...
Oct 25, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 6
