In this age of insurmountable consumption of media where bad news travels fast from all directions, comedian Tom Papa wants to remind us to take care of ourselves, embrace who you’ve become, and absorb the beauty of life in his new Netflix special Tom Papa: You're Doing Great! In this February 2020 interview, Tom reveals where his trademark optimism comes from, why he rejects the cynicism often associated with standup comedy, and what he learned about being true to your comedic voice while touri...
Feb 15, 2021•51 min
True crime documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, Paradise Lost) discusses his new Netflix docu-series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel that deconstructs the mythology and mystery surrounding infamous locations in contemporary crime. He explains the dark history of the Cecil Hotel and why the socio-economics of downtown Los Angeles have made it a haven for the downtrodden, desperate, and despicable, including Richard Ramirez aka the Ni...
Feb 11, 2021•38 min
In this 2018 interview with David Mamet, the Pulitzer-winning writer/director discusses how the old gangster stories he heard as a child inspired him to write CHICAGO: A NOVEL. He talks about his love of classic noir and hot jazz, and dislike of social media, computers, and flowery prose. He shares why famous figures are better felt than heard in historical fiction, why he says Hollywood is dead, and why he never reads his own reviews. He teases his latest play about Harvey Weinstein, and reveal...
Feb 11, 2021•35 min
Jay Duplass and Zackary Drucker discuss their new docu-series The Lady and the Dale about the rise and eventual fall of automaker and trans trailblazer Elizabeth Carmichael. We talk about Carmichael's three-wheeled car that claimed to get 70 per gallon and how the 70s gas crisis fueled incredible interest in "the Dale." We Carmichael's shady past, and life on the run from the law, and how it inevitably caught up to her. We also cover some of the prejudices she faced and what her trial meant for ...
Feb 02, 2021•43 min
Five-time Tony Award-winning director George C. Wolfe talks about his acclaimed new motion picture Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the legacy of the original the original Mother of the Blues, and what went into transforming Oscar-winner Viola Davis into this larger than life icon. He discusses what the Chicago jazz scene meant to black musicians who migrated from the Jim Crow South in the 1920s and some of the creative ways that he found to visually depict the foreignness of the urban north for those ...
Jan 28, 2021•44 min
In this 2017 interview, basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talks about his 50 year friendship with the "Wizard of Westwood" UCLA Coach John Wooden. He says Coach Wooden was more concerned with his players’ grades than with winning basketball games, he shares some of the wisdom that Coach Wooden imparted, and talks about the time Coach helped Abdul-Jabbar forgive another one of his early mentors who used a racial slur. He talks about how he felt when the NCAA banned dunking and how Coach Woode...
Jan 26, 2021•32 min
Dr. Robert Ballard is the famed ocean explorer responsible for some of the greatest undersea discoveries including the RMS Titanic, the German battleship Bismarck, and John F. Kennedy's WW II boat PT-109. Today Dr. Ballard reveals that he was actually on a top secret government mission when he found the Titanic, what it was like the first time he physically went down to visit Titanic, and his outrage at those who are looting this sacred burial ground for profit. We also discuss what really sank ...
Jan 22, 2021•50 min
Bulletproof founder Dave Asprey talks about his latest book Fast This Way: (How to Lose Weight, Get Smarter, and Live Your Longest, Healthiest Life with the Bulletproof Guide to Fasting). He discuss why diets and New Year's resolutions never work, the difference between fasting and dieting, and why science is just starting to take intermittent fasting seriously. He shares how fasting can reduce inflammation, increase your sharpness and productivity, boost your immune system, and even add years t...
Jan 18, 2021•47 min
Mike Rowe has handled some of the toughest and most disgusting jobs during his nine seasons as host of Discovery's Dirty Jobs. Now he's putting that same work ethic to work to prove once and for all that everything in the world is connected for his discovery+ series Six Degrees with Mike Rowe. Mike reveals how he faked his way into his first job as an opera singer, some of the strangest products he used to pitch as a late-night host on QVC, and the hardest thing he ever had to do as host of Dirt...
Jan 14, 2021•45 min
Documentary filmmaker Ryan White (The Case Against 8, The Keepers) talks about his new film Assassins about the murder of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un's half brother Kim Jong-Nam. He recounts how Kim Jong-Nam was killed in broad daylight with the deadly VX nerve agent, questions the press’s sensational portrayal of two young Southeast Asian women as diabolical black widow assassins, and reveals that the truth of what happened is even more bizarre than anything that the media could make up. ...
Jan 11, 2021•42 min
Academy Award-winning director Bryan Fogel (Icarus) discusses his gripping new documentary thriller The Dissident about the 2018 execution of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul. He discuss how Jamal Khashoggi went from being an insider in the Saudi royal family to a harsh critic of the House of Saud, how a sophisticated cyber hack and the ultimate Twitter war put Khashoggi squarely in the cross hairs of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (aka MBS)...
Jan 07, 2021•43 min
Madeleine Albright fled fascists during her childhood and faced them down as Secretary of State, and today she comes on the podcast to warn that fascism is once again on the rise. She shares how her own refugee experience during World War II and the Cold War shaped her worldview and recalls her meetings with with authoritarian strongmen like Kim Jong-il, Slobodan Milošević, and Vladimir Putin. She reveals that most fascists come into office through democratic elections or a constitutional transf...
Jan 06, 2021•40 min
After eight years as a comedy writer on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Bess Kalb recently wrote and produced a new comedy special that "eulogizes" the year 2020. Yearly Departed is available on Amazon Prime Video beginning 12/30. Bess comes on the podcast to talk about her own trials and tribulations over the past year, including a recent Covid-scare at the pediatrician, how she finds catharsis through laughter, and how that inspired her to bid adieu to 2020 with a rollicking roast-style memorial service. ...
Dec 31, 2020•39 min
Joel McHale (Community, The Soup) shares his excitement for his first time co-hosting a New Years Eve special and how he’s looking forward to relentlessly roasting his pal Ken Jeong for a full three and half hours on Fox’s New Year’s Roast & Toast 2021. Joel reveals why he and Ken just can’t quit each other and the origins of their recent pandemic themed podcast The Darkest Timeline. We also discuss how Netflix has breathed new life into Joel and Ken’s series Community, what it was like to L...
Dec 28, 2020•32 min
Loudon Wainwright III is best known as a folk singer and songwriter, but now he is lending his unique interpretation to the music of the great American songbook on a new album that he recorded with big band bandleader Vince Giordano and his Nighthawk Orchestra. They talk about their deep affection for the music of composers like Irving Berlin and Rodgers & Hart and some of their favorite tracks from their album I’d Rather Lead a Band. Loudon recalls fond memories of his father playing these ...
Dec 24, 2020•50 min
Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank and filmmaker Deon Taylor talk about their new film Fatale and their love of classic film noir directors from Alfred Hitchcock to Brian Depalma. Hilary explains what drew her to finally play an antagonist on screen and how she found a way into that character that strikes right at the heart of worst fears and most basic instincts. Plus we talk about expanding the range of female villains beyond shallow "psycho woman" roles and the social responsibility of depict...
Dec 21, 2020•30 min
Bestselling author, professor, and leading public intellectual Dr. Michael Eric Dyson talks about his decision to address race in America through a series of letters to black martyrs, why we all know the name George Flloyd, but we might not know the name Elijah McClain, and how he’s seeking to educate white people about the centuries violence against blacks that have led up to this moment in his new book Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America. He explains the origins of what he calls t...
Dec 17, 2020•44 min
Jon Hamm talks about making his first trip to Ireland for his new movie Wild Mountain Thyme, filming in the ancestral hometown of President-elect Joe Biden, and why he was blissfully relieved that he didn’t have to attempt an Irish accent. Jon recalls his childhood growing up in St. Louis, the unusual side job he had when he was starting out as a struggling actor, and the deadline he gave himself to make it in Hollywood. Jon discusses the lengthy audition process for the role that made him famou...
Dec 14, 2020•37 min
In his more than 50 years in music, drummer John Densmore has played with and gotten to know some of the greatest musicians of our time, from Janis Joplin and Paul Simon to Ravi Shankar and Willie Nelson, as well as some inspiring non-musicians from the Dalai Lama to screenwriter Joseph Campbell. He has managed to learn something from many of those interactions - lessons he writes about in his new book THE SEEKERS: MEETINGS WITH REMARKABLE MUSICIANS (AND OTHER ARTISTS). John Densmore discusses t...
Dec 10, 2020•43 min
Acclaimed actor, writer, and theatre director André Gregory joins me on the show to talk about his unusual life from his Jewish father’s possible collaboration with the Nazis and his mom’s affair with Errol Flynn to the 14 year rehearsal for his production of Ibsen’s The Master Builder and the time the local Sheriff escorted him out of his own repertory theatre and dumped him across the state line in the middle of nowhere. We get into his longtime collaboration with actor/writer Wallace Shaw Lea...
Dec 07, 2020•42 min
In 2019, Chef Magnus Nilsson closed Fäviken, his one-of-a-kind Michelin-starred restaurant in remote Sweden at the peak of its success. He shares how Fäviken became one of the top restaurants in the world, how the industry it was a part of has changed, and why he eventually elected to pursue new projects. He talks about his reliance on fresh local seasonal ingredients, the difference between great produce and "exceptional produce," and why he’d rather eat an exceptional carrot than imported kobe...
Dec 03, 2020•50 min
Matthew McConaughey is an Academy Award-winning actor, but he is also a poet, philosopher, husband and father of three, global traveler, writer, occasional orchestra conductor, and passionate student of life. Today he shares some of things he's learned about himself, others, and the world around him. He discusses what he calls the "wild rodeo marriage" of his mom and dad, the moment when he became a man in his father’s eyes, and the long line of cattle rustlers, hustlers, and river boat gamblers...
Nov 30, 2020•55 min
This is a rerun of my interview with astronaut Captain Scott Kelly. He talks about his year on the International Space Station, including how it pushed his body the limit, why the hardest physical test was re-adjusting to life on earth, and how his experience could get NASA one step closer to a manned mission to Mars. He reveals how he combatted boredom in space, what he missed most about earth, and how he got along with his Russian crew-mates amid strained US-Russia relations. Plus Scott tells ...
Nov 26, 2020•42 min
We’re doing something a little different today. Instead of a regular episode of KickAss News, we wanted to share a clip from our friends over at the Get Wired podcast. Get Wired is produced by Wired and hosted by senior writer Lauren Goode. It’s all about how the future is realized. It’s the news of tomorrow, delivered to you today. The show is nerdy, innovated, and heavy on research. They’re stories you can trust on everything from the rise of virtual beings and the science of fire torn Learn m...
Nov 24, 2020•2 min
I talk with Joe Scarborough, host of Morning Joe on MSNBC, about our mutual affection for the politician dismissed as the “strange little man” from Missouri, why Harry Truman couldn’t even get respect from his own wife and mother-in-law, and how historians have gradually rehabilitated the legacy of our 33rd President. Joe tells the story of the twin crises that kicked off the Cold War and the speech redefined US foreign policy. We discuss how Truman pulled America out of its isolationist past, t...
Nov 24, 2020•51 min
Director Steve McQueen won an Academy Award for Best Picture for telling the dramatic true story of a free African-American who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in his film Twelve Years a Slave. Now he’s addressing a form of racial oppression that hits a lot closer to home for him in a new anthology of films called Small Axe, which collectively captures the lives of London’s West Indian community in the 1970s and ’80s and their force of will against systemic racism and discrimination. Stev Le...
Nov 19, 2020•33 min
Legendary FBI criminal profiler John Douglas talks about some of the 5000 cases with which he has been involved and his chilling face to face encounters with the worst monsters in recent memory from Edmund Kemper to Ted Bundy. He reveals why he first began interviewing serial killers without the FBI’s knowledge or permission, how he prepared for these deeply disturbing meetings, and he and his colleagues found commonalities that would help the FBI catch the most horrific of murderers of our time...
Nov 17, 2020•1 hr 2 min
David Sedaris returns to the podcast to talk about his pre-election anxiety, his lifelong blackout of all social media, and the time he got bullied while testifying before the British House of Commons. He discusses what it was like the comb through 25 years of material for his new collection of essays The Best of Me, the strangeness of putting out a book without the traditional book tour, and the essay that got him in hot water with bear activists. Order David's latest book The Best of Me on Ama...
Nov 12, 2020•39 min
New York Post theatre columnist Michael Riedel shares his thoughts on Broadway's uncertain future, what New York theatre may look like whenever it emerges from the pandemic, and some hopeful lessons from Broadway’s dramatic recovery in the wake of the attacks on 9/11. He says he didn't intend for the title of his new book Singular Sensation: The Triumph of Broadway to be ironic, but a tribute to boom in American theatre in the 90s and the enduring influence of one of America's greatest cultural ...
Nov 09, 2020•48 min
With Joe Biden taking a razor thin lead in George and a run-off election expected to decide who controls the Senate, many credit Stacey Abrams with making sure that every vote gets counted and likely delivering Georgia for the Democrats. Today's episode is a re-release of my 2019 interview with Stacey Abrams in which she discusses why she refused to concede defeat in the 2018 gubernatorial race, why she believes widespread voter suppression tipped that election to her opponent, and how she's con...
Nov 06, 2020•37 min
