🏦 💰 🚔 More behind-the-scenes chat and wisdom with actor, filmmaker, and author Bruce Campbell! Bruce’s Christian Science upbringing and how it led him on his own spiritual journey. Why humor and horror are a winning combination, and old school Hollywood yarns about Lee Majors, Larry Fine, the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Harry Houdini, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis (including impressions). Paul and Bruce lament their many close-calls on TV and film sets, and why they’ve reluctantly stopped ...
Dec 15, 2023•26 min
🌌🌌🌌 Paul and Stephen are joined by raconteur, actor, author and Hawaiian shirt expert, Bruce Campbell. Tune in to hear about the first time he smoked weed on the set of Evil Dead (yes he got high), how moonshine was used to keep warm, and how Bruce keeps himself amused at horror film conventions. Plus, that time he went in search of the BigFoot trap near his house in Oregon, and heard an eyewitness account from a Sasquatch true believer (he met in a bar). Go deep with our hosts as Bruce expla...
Dec 13, 2023•55 min•Season 1Ep. 37
⏳⏳⏳ Part 2 of Paul and Stephen’s chat with Academy Award winning actor, writer, and author Tom Hanks. Why are time travel fantasies perfect escapes and where does Tom dream of going? What’s the logic of time travel and what would be better: going back to the past or going forward into the future? Tom shares cautionary food for thought from Thornton Wilder and Charleton Heston, and lessons gleaned from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes. Also, what are the rules of infidelity in time-travel and ...
Dec 06, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 36
🍠🍠🍠 Academy Award winning actor, writer, author and all-around wonderful human Tom Hanks joins Paul and Stephen to help unload specious facts about Quebec, Canada (lowest marriage rate in the world!), Blue Zones and the importance of purple yams. Paul, Stephen and Tom discuss the speed of information, Chat GPT, cognitive dissonance in AI, and question the use of Waze to beat traffic. How have our memories changed since the advent of cell phones? Are acting skills useful when it comes to writi...
Nov 29, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 35
☥🪦🍕 Bonus time with comedian, writer, director and author Mike Birbiglia. The guys discuss their thoughts on leaving a legacy, art as a path to immortality, and the enduring comedy of Charlie Chaplin and W.C. Fields. Also, what’s the career advice one should never pass on to others? Lastly, Mike’s love of pizza (and the word “plaza”) leads to the end of the debate on the country’s best pizza. Is it New Haven, NYC, or Chicago? And what’s the correct amount of pizza for one person? Hint: it’s no...
Nov 24, 2023•13 min
🤳🏽🤳🏽🤳🏽 Tune in as comedian Mike Birbiglia, also our resident Swiftie expert and anti-hero, explains the Taylor Swift phenomenon to Paul and Stephen. Also, why is TikTok so addictive, and which host shares this obsession with Birbigs and 420 million Gen Zers? Then, how to talk to your kids about death and scary stuff (hint - don’t ask Paul!). Hear about Birbigs’ new Netflix special Old Man & The Pool, his sleepwalking disorder, and his fascination and fear of bears. And don’t sleep on his b...
Nov 22, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 34
✨🤩🌟 Recorded live at the Murmrr Theater in Brooklyn, NY on Oct 17th with the incomparable Paul Rudd. Chinwag’s studio audience jumps in on the action with their burning questions. More in-depth answers about fears, recurring dreams, pretend play and how improv plays a role in one’s success. Plus: Does I Love You Man mirror real life? And what’s its connection to Only Murders in the Building? Which Paul is actually a fan of the Almond Joy? What are Rudd’s favorite tunes from his Bar Mitzvah DJ ...
Nov 17, 2023•32 min
🛋️🛋️🛋️ Recorded live at the Murmrr Theater in Brooklyn, NY on Oct 17th. Paul and Stephen welcome Paul Rudd to discuss the genesis of his childhood fears, the difference between fears and phobias, and list all the things that give them the willies (puppets, clowns, and cockroaches OH MY!). Join our rapt studio audience as Rudd regales with his creepy childhood bedroom decor (velvet Charlie Brown portrait anyone?), explains why his recurring nightmares always took place in grocery stores, and h...
Nov 15, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 33
🏛️🏛️🏛️ Like the popular TikTok meme says about men, Paul thinks about Ancient Rome every 7 seconds. Stephen’s never counted but nonetheless our Chinwag hosts love to talk about the Roman Empire, and there’s one heralded scholar they’ve been wanting to meet: Professor Mary Beard. Sure, Dame Mary Beard has debated former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but now she enters the Chinwag! How much power did Emperors like Caesar, Caligula, Severus, and Nero, actually wield? And how much was just ima...
Nov 08, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 32
🌺💀🌹 Paul and Stephen are into learning about death. Not just what happens after one departs, not just about ghosts and spirits and the afterlife, but what happens in the days that follow - to the bodies, and to the workers in the trenches of the death industry. Enter journalist and author Hayley Campbell, who after a lifelong fascination with death, sought these answers from the hardworking people who make their living working with the dead. Learn about alkaline hydrolysis (water cremation), ...
Nov 01, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 31
🎴🎴🎴 THIS IS PART 2 of Paul and Stephen’s wild time with Amy Sedaris -- which finds them debating the definition of a few choice sexual terms, discussing their love and appreciation of the grotesque, and hearing about the southern charm she’s cultivated in her home of New York City. Her thoughts on Marie Kondo’s book, which she ALSO got rid of during her great purge to raise money for Diabetes research. Explore the reasons behind Paul’s manic collection of books and why he wants a human skull....
Oct 25, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 30
🐦🐦🐦 David from Burlington, VT writes in about Paul and Stephen’s obsession with the famed Loch Ness Monster but elevates the discourse to regale us with the lore of his local lake monster, Champ. This Chinwag explores various theories on cryptids and ponders: has there been a fold in time and are these sea creatures ghostly time-jumpers from the future? Or are they from the past? What’s the famous Mansi photo? Stephen invokes Occam’s razor and for some reason Paul relates all this to the poor...
Oct 18, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 29
🍄🍄🍄 Ever wonder about the real medicinal uses of psychedelics? Wanna hear tales from the guy who did time training in the bad trip tent at Burning Man? Paul and Stephen do, so they go to the tip of the spear - straight to Johns Hopkins’ foremost psychedelics expert, Dr. Matthew Johnson. In this mind-expanding chat, hear about Dr. Johnson’s trailblazing work to help advance the therapeutic use of psychedelics to treat depression, addiction, cancer, trauma, and PTSD. Find out how psychedelics a...
Oct 11, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 28
✍🏼✍🏼✍🏼 Paul and Stephen love their history, so who better for this Chinwag than brilliant essayist, author and historian, Sarah Vowell? Listen in as they contemplate the tricky business of retelling history that doesn’t live up to the current moral code. Which President is the biggest zero? The least sexy? And what did Benjamin Harrison – our 23rd president – actually do while in office? You know you want to know! All that and a front row seat to Sarah’s midlife crisis spent watching a diffic...
Oct 04, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 27
🧙🏻♂️🧙🏻♂️🧙🏻♂️ Catch PART 2 of Paul and Stephen’s dip into the profoundly thoughtful mind of Mr. Stephen Colbert. Explore the power of prayer and magical thinking, the importance of unlearning what you know, and Paul and Colbert’s shared love of sci-fi, or as Stephen Asma calls it, “Gandalf and sh*t.” What’s the difference between sci-fi and fantasy, and can Lord of the Rings help process one’s grief? Tune in for musings on improvisation, zen master Amy Sedaris, and the fantastic conclusi...
Sep 27, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 26
🐟🐟🐟 Paul and Stephen get their daily dose of happiness during PART 1 of this illuminating and hilarious chat with writer, comedian, late night host, Mr. Stephen Colbert. Have you ever wondered why some spell Stephen with a V, while others with a PH? No? It’s great party fodder, trust us! Mr. Colbert captivates with his love of fishing, the evolution of the flounder, the consequences of unaddressed grief, and the religious sermon that changed him forever. Stay tuned for talk of Jungian archety...
Sep 20, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 25
🪐🪐🪐 Welcome to Paul’s happy place, discussing the ins and outs of the Hollow Earth Theory! Listen in as Paul and Stephen go deep to the chewy center of this fringe theory that the earth is not a solid sphere but a hollow shell with its own universe living within it. This is not your mama’s flat earth theory, or any of that fake moon landing stuff – welcome to the Hollow Earth. And what’s all this got to do with Nazis, UFOs, AI and the Imp of Perversity? Learn about Cyrus Teed (the hero of the...
Sep 13, 2023•58 min•Season 1Ep. 24
🪄🪄🪄 Paul and Stephen are fascinated by magic and the art of deception and they’re thrilled to take this extraordinary ride into the wondrous mind of master illusionist Derek DelGaudio. Listen in as they explore themes of reality, deception, imagination, morality, manipulation, and belief with the sleight of hand maestro. Is authenticity even possible anymore? Is Tik Tok just a series of mini-Shakespearian tragedies? And what’s the fix for the absence of human connection in an online world Bon...
Sep 06, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 23
📯📯📯 Your fan mail gets answered this week! Arthur from Japan writes in and asks Paul and Stephen to discuss Thomas Edison’s spirit phone, a little known device to contact the dead. What happened with Edison’s quest to prove life after death, and what’s TikTok got to do with it? Also learn about a ghostly human voice recording from the 1840s (predating known technology)! Add to that a bonus visit with William Shatner musing about ghosts and paranormal activity. Your takeaway? As usual, none of...
Aug 30, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 22
👨🏻🚀👨🏻🚀👨🏻🚀 Paul and Stephen are obsessed with UFOs and life beyond earth–so who better to add to the conversation than a guy who’s been to space twice? This week, our intrepid Chinwaggers are joined by former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, a man who decided that a fear of heights would be best overcome by a trip to space. In this week’s classified file: space toilets, robot arms, and why there should never be more than one comedian per space shuttle. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning ...
Aug 23, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 21
🌍📚✍🏾 Award-winning science fiction writer Nnedi Okorafor, who coined the term "Africanfuturism" joins co-hosts Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma on this episode of CHINWAG. Tickling mice, javelin-throwing nuns and making friends with sentient AI are just some of the detours their conversation takes this week. Can Stephen and Nnedi finally bridge the gap between cat people and dog people and bring long-lasting peace to civilization? Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen As...
Aug 16, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 20
📨📨📨 Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma asked for your thoughts, your burning questions, your weirdest musings, and you responded - in droves! Stephen from St. Louis asks, do watershed moments exist and is the term actually overused and misunderstood? Paul and Stephen discuss and wonder what history actually IS after all? And somehow, American soldier Boston Corbett makes an appearance. Then - are you superstitious? Anna from Belfast writes in about the Irish Fairy Thorn Tree which some believe to...
Aug 09, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 19
💭💭💭 Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma are fascinated and confounded by dreams and the act of dreaming. Enter renowned dream and hypnosis expert, Dr. Deirdre Barrett and hear Paul and Stephen question the very meaning and purpose of dreams. Are they precognitive? Can dreams tell of past lives? Does imagination and intuition play a role? Do recurring dreams help protect us? What is dream incubation and can we manipulate our dreams to find answers to life’s pressing questions? Answers are revealed ...
Aug 02, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 18
🦶🏽🦶🏽🦶🏽 Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma go deep with Don Cheadle and explore the importance of improv to combat aging, miming to Zapruder films, religion to tame the ego, gorilla trekking, and Paul’s desire to be considered for foot fetish sites. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. Don Cheadle is an award-winning actor, director, activist, musician and golfer. His new Marvel...
Jul 26, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 17
👹👹👹 This week, Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma go down a wild rabbit hole on Satanism, a topic they find endlessly fascinating. They ruminate on everything from atheism to Aleister Crowley, pentagrams to Frankenstein. Also hear about sex magick (with a "K"). Bonus: Jimmy Page’s purported Satan worship! You don’t want to miss this deep dive into the diabolical. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science,...
Jul 19, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 16
🚇🚇🚇 Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma host a candid chat with the always effervescent and inventive Amy Sedaris. Hear about Amy’s love of Japanese subways, why she finally broke down and got a phone, her impression of Dolly Parton, and love for the artistic works of George W. Bush, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. Amy Sedaris is a comedian, ...
Jul 12, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 15
🎭🎭🎭 An encore presentation of Paul Giamatti’s and Stephen Asma’s chat with Patton Oswalt recorded at SXSW 2023 in Austin, TX. Paul and Stephen learn about Oswalt’s current obsession with the Mandela Effect and take an unexpected wild detour through Shakespeare, demons, horror movies and goo pods. Bonus: Paul and Stephen read fan mail and debate a suggested explanation for the Mandela Effect. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializ...
Jul 05, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 14
🛸🛸🛸 More shocking revelations from Paul Giamatti’s and Stephen Asma’s chat with Mutual UFO Network’s (MUFON) Star UFO investigator Katie Paige. What IS Project Looking Glass, and has this secret operation been part of a cover-up? Hear more about the trauma associated with the purported alien abductions of Whitley Strieber and Betty Andreeason. Bonus: Paul and Stephen learn about the hat man, shadow people, alien cadavers and lizard people. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer....
Jun 28, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 13
👽👽👽 Katie Paige, Mutual UFO Network’s (MUFON) Star UFO investigator, joins Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma for an enthralling, deeply weird chat on paranormal unknowns like Travis Walton’s alien abduction, crop circles, and cattle mutilation. Bonus: Government involvement and cover-ups, Skinwalker Ranch, disembodied electrical voices, and a connection between UFOs and Bigfoot! Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philo...
Jun 21, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 12
🍴🍴🍴 More lively excerpts from Paul Giamatti’s and Stephen Asma’s chat with Academy Award winner and musician, Billy Bob Thornton. This time Billy Bob talks about his psychic mom, his intense dislike of old silverware, Fettuccine Alfredo, and the genesis of Paul’s childhood bug phobia. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. Billy Bob Thornton is an Academy Award-winning actor, sc...
Jun 14, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 11
