Bryan sits down with comedian, actor and podcaster, Jimmy Shubert. He's been seen on his own Comedy Central Special, King of Queens, Italian Job, Go!, and countless other movies and television shows. He has his very own podcast show, called "The Jimmy Shubert Show," which is produced on The Network Studios." Be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.
"Big Mike" Callen, aka Bryan's dad, brings his many years of experience in banking and foreign policy to to a discussion of the government shutdown and the state of Washington today.
Bryan Callen sits down with comedian and podcaster, Tom Segura. They talk about stand-up comedy and much more. Also, be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.
In a very special episode of The Bryan Callen Show, Mike Callen joins Bryan and Hunter in interviewing the authors of one of his very favorite books: Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. Detailing the combined atrocities of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union, Professor Snyder's book views these events not as separate phenomenon but as different facets of the same tragedy. More than an important piece of scholarship, Professor Snyder's book is our best defense in assuring that at...
Bryan and Hunter sit down with comedian and SNL Alumni, Jon Lovitz. They discuss their experiences doing comedy and sketch shows. Jon spoke about his personal experience coming up as a comedian as well as auditioning for SNL, not to mention getting the gig. Also, be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.
Sarah Rose is the author of For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History. At the beginning of the 19th century, China had a global monopoly on tea. One of the most valuable export products in the world, China carefully guarded every part of tea's production: the techniques, the workers and, most of all, the plants. So, when the British East India Company went looking for someone to steal every part of tea production and bring it to their plantations ...
Bryan sits down with good friend and comedian, Bret Ernst. They discuss comedy, acting, entertainment, sports and Bret marriage plans. This is our first installment of comedy Thursdays. Be sure to check us out on Mondays and Thursdays for new episodes. Also, be sure to Rate and Comment on iTunes.
The New York Times called Karen Karbo "a very funny writer" something that becomes abundantly clear in her wit-filled Kick-Ass Women series of books. Examining the lives of women who lived life on their own terms Karbo's treatment of Coco Chanel, Georgia O'Keefe and Katharine Hepburn goes beyond mere biography to discover the truths to making the most of every day. In her latest book Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savoring Life, Karbo gives not just the most personal view of Julia Child yet but m...
Kim Dower is fast becoming acclaimed in the poetry world for her humor and "turns." The Los Angeles Times described her first collection Air Kissing on Mars as, "sensual and evocative lyrical snapshots of life's bittersweet moments, seamlessly combining humor and heartache." Recently, one of the poems in her latest collection Slice of Moon was selected by Garrison Keillor for his show, The Writer's Almanac, which broadcasts on 320 radio stations throughout the United States.In this episode, Brya...
In 2006, Josh Foer became the U.S.A. Memory Champion and yet he insists his memory is totally average…and so do other memory champions like Ben Pridmore. In fact, as Foer recounts in his New York Times bestselling book Moonwalking with Einstein, memory champions are just like the rest of us. Sure they can memorize the sequence of a deck of 52 cards in under 20 seconds or vast strings of random numbers, but it's not because they have better memories. It's because they use their memories better.Fr...
Daniel N. Robinson is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University and a Fellow of the Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University. According to Bryan, he's also probably the smartest man alive. Beginning his career in the biological sciences, Professor Robinson transitioned into studying everything from law to philosophy to the classics. In this episode, Professor Robinson, Bryan and Hunter discuss everything from the most brilliant but least known of the Founding Father...
Larry Flynt is America's most controversial and perhaps most effective living defender of the First Amendment. However, by his own admission, Larry Flynt did not set out to defend the Bill of Rights. He set out to have some fun and make some money. By the time he hit thirty, he had turned an $1,800 loan from his mom into a chain of eight strip clubs and founded the Hustler newsletter to promote his clubs. A couple of years later, that newsletter would become a full-fledged national magazine and ...
Listening to the news or hyperlinking our way through blog posts, it might seem like the end is nigh. Whether the coming crisis is environmental, economic or some intoxicating mix of the two, the message is always basically the same: humanity is about to screw everything up…forever! As Matt Ridley reveals in his 2010 prize-winning, bestseller The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves this eternal pessimism has more to do with human psychology than it does with the facts of the situation. Thr...
Imagine a bank that operates in 67 countries around the world, has one employee, has made thousands of loans with an average value of $25 a pop and is committed to never making a profit but believes it can help eradicate poverty through capitalism. You just imagined The International Bank of Bob. And Bob Harris thinks what he's done is so easy and so rewarding that it won't be long before you decide to set up The International Bank of "Your Name Here".While jet setting around the world as a writ...
For over 120 years and across three separate wars, Rome and Carthage battled for control of the Mediterranean in a no-holds barred conflict that would see Hannibal march his elephants across the Alps, terrorize the Italian mainland for fifteen years but ultimately be utterly defeated. When the Romans defeated Carthage, they not only sold its people into slavery but also razed it to the ground until the city, the civilization and its written records were wiped from history. To this day, many of u...
As a professor at the University of Virginia, Jonathan Haidt uses the scientific method to study human morality…which leads to asking people some pretty screwed up questions. Would it be wrong if a man bought a chicken from the store for dinner, had sex with it and then ate it? A brother and sister are on holiday together and they decide it would be fun to have sex. The sister is already on the pill, but the brother decides to use a condom just to be safe. They enjoy it, but they decide to just ...
Dr. Ken Chase is the author of Firearms: A Global History to 1700, which legendary historian William McNeill described as "a great achievement." In Firearms, Ken does much more than summarize how firearms develops; he asks why China was the first to develop gunpowder but failed to turn that early lead into an effective gun. Popular explanations tend to focus on culture and race, but Ken has delved deep into the records of the time and in an engaging narrative reveals that not developing the mode...
While working as a vet and running a practice with fifteen employees, James began writing again. Beginning with short stories, he built his confidence and his skills until eventually he felt ready to tackle a full novel. As a huge fan of spelunking--or caving--it was natural that his Freshman effort should take place in a cave. Using the beats of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park as a template, he created a story set deep in the bowels of the earth called Subterranean. After 50 rejections, he fin...
When Mark Kurlansky wrote Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, he was not only publishing a New York Times Bestseller but also creating a whole new type of book. Since then books focused on everything from coffee to bananas to the color purple have tried to capture Kurlansky's ability to narrow in on one aspect of history and show us that contained within that seemingly tiny story we can see the entire world. Bryan and Hunter discuss Kurlansky classics such as Salt, The Big Oyste...
As a reporter for ABC and Bloomberg Television, Lara Setrakian crisscrossed the Middle East reporting live as the Arab Spring spread throughout the region. Her first-hand experience of what was happening in the region left her increasingly frustrated with the rift between what was actually occurring and what the American people were hearing. Breaking away from a burgeoning career in TV news, Lara took a cue from the digitally-savvy young Arabs who were transforming the region and set out to use ...
In 2009, Jim Rickards was invited by The Pentagon to participate in a new kind of war game where the only weapons to be used would be financial. From the lessons of The Great Depression to the possibility of returning to the gold standard to what's really wrong in Washington, Bryan Callen, Jim Rickards and Hunter Maats pick apart the state of the financial world today. In addition to his work as a lawyer and investment banker, Jim Rickards is the author of The New York Times-bestseller Currency ...
Hunter Maats sits in with Bryan Callen on this episode. Bryan interviews magician David Kwong. Called the "Illusunist for Intellectuals," by the Wall Street Journal also known as Hollywood's Favorite Trickster. A scholar of the history of magic. They discuss a variety of different topics focused around the magic industry.
In this episode, Bryan interviews strength training coach, Elliott Hulse. He's been blogging and creating videos about building strength, increasing vitality and about how to become the strongest version of yourself since 2006. His website is simple, it is to share powerful ideas that help us all to become stronger in every way possible.
David Blaine opens up about what motivates him to succeed and where it all comes from in the first place. I've known the guy for 23 years and it was a privilege to bring you the man behind the magic. You can't succeed without failing. Period.
Dave Asprey, asks Why do I do this? Because I'm happier when I get to help people, and because it took nearly 20 years and $250k to learn how to do things that aren't supposed to be possible and then to use them to be a better entrepreneur, husband, and father. Things like how to upgrade my brain (12 IQ points!), get lean quickly (after weighing 300 lbs 15 years ago), have more energy, or just give a press conference in 4 different countries in 4 days without getting sick. If you'd like to take ...
Bryan sits down with best friend and Prince of New York, Jimmy Burke. They discuss a variety of different topics, focusing around the fighter life. Jimmy Burke comes from a fighter family. His father was a boxer and is in the Boxing Hall of Fame in New York.
Back by popular demand, Michael Callen, father of Bryan Callen, is making his 4th appearance on the show. They discuss how Mike is relearning Algebra, in an effort to exercise the brain, from the standpoint of thinking and logic. Mike offers up a book called, "How To Win Every Argument," by Madsen Pirie. This book describes the foundations of how the brain rationalizes thoughts and emotions. How people arrive at a specific place in their mind. If you're in the mood to learn a lot in an hour long...
Kurt Schwengel has been teaching Kindergarten for over 17 years at the Franklin elementary School in Santa Monica. Franklin school. This former D1 baseball player is considered the rock star of Kindergarten teachers and he travels across the U.S. teaching other teachers how to teach. We talk about what's wrong with education in this country, how to fix it and his philosophy on learning in general. We also touch on the Newtown shootings and what went through his mind that terrible day. Fascinatin...
You were born to achieve greatness, to be a man. But somewhere along the way you started to live an ordinary life. Fitness experts John Romaniello and Adam Bornstein developed a system that targets hormone optimization; their approach is specifically designed to transform you into the Alpha you were always meant to be. Strong. Confident. Powerful. Based on cutting-edge, scientifically validated methods known only to the fitness elite, Man 2.0 provides a step-by-step road map to regaining your he...
Stoney Curtis is an American pornographic actor, director and producer. He founded the adult film companies Celestial Productions in 1998, and Lethal Hardcore in 2004. In 2010 he was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame.
