🧿🧿🧿 More Chinwag with DEVO’S co-founder, and author of the beautiful new book “Apotropaic Beatnik Graffiti”, Mark Mothersbaugh. Mark shares his earliest memory of AI which happened to involve Timothy Leary’s AI therapist! Then, DEVO’s frontman takes us back to a memorable church trip when he hears people speaking in tongues. And what’s all that got to do with The Flintstones? What’s the importance of collecting stuff, and how does it contribute to AI? Also, a discussion on the significance an...
Jul 31, 2024•38 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast 🤖🖼🎸 This Chinwag welcomes Mark Mothersbaugh, DEVO’s co-founder and author of the fascinating new book “Apotropaic Beatnik Graffiti.” Come along and reminisce about DEVO’s first live appearance on SNL, thanks to the legendary Blues Brothers, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. Mark is tickled to learn Paul and Stephen were spooked by DEVO as kids, and Mark explains why he thought rock ‘n’ roll was dead by 1964. Then, the art movements that inspired DEVO, and Mark shares a pivotal moment during the K...
Jul 24, 2024•41 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast 🦾🐕🦺🦻🏼 On this riveting Chinwag, Paul and Stephen speak to Riva Lehrer, an award-winning artist, writer, and curator with an unconventional approach to portraiture. Together they explore the nuances of living with a disability, stigma, defining beauty, and the complexities of human interactions. Riva shares the importance of representation and the burden of standing out in a world that often overlooks diversity. Talk then turns to “inspiration porn”, reclaiming narratives, and an overview o...
Jul 17, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast 📰🛸🕵🏼♀️ Fortean Times has been bringing weirdness into people’s lives for over 50 years and Paul’s been reading its pages since he was a mere Chin-cub. Now join Paul and Stephen as they meet the man behind the mag, esteemed News Editor, Ian Simmons. What follows is a mind-bending exploration of the weird and wonderful including a colorful sketch of the life and work of Charles Fort—a guiding spirit of this humble Chinwag podcast. Fort, known for his unique style of collecting and presenting ...
Jul 10, 2024•1 hr•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast 👨🏼🏫🍏🕰️ The Professor is in for Chinwag Office Hours! Professor Stephen Asma offers his rarefied time and detours into more of the unusual topics you crave. This week on Office Hours, Stephen drops his knowledge on the Mothman and the psychology of creepiness. What is the purpose of creepy feelings and eerie sensations? Are they interdimensional beings of energy that exist to warn and protect us? Hear the first sightings of the Mothman, classic stories of Mothman, and question whether this ...
Jul 05, 2024•24 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast 🏐🏐🏐 Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma were delighted to speak with the wonderful Kathryn Hahn in this early Chinwag gem. They were fascinated by Hahn's deep knowledge of cults, con men, hypnosis, brainwashing dogs, and the power of late night volleyball sessions. Hear about Travis the chimpanzee, radical nuns, lice couches, whether the Popes "Netflix and chill," and that time Paul fought off kidnapping Krishnas in Northern Ireland! Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer, and the se...
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast 📚🧐🏛 Paul’s been studying up on Western philosophy and has even more burning questions for our exceedingly patient resident expert, Professor Stephen Asma. Lean in to these bite-sized lessons about rationalists, empiricists and idealists, and Stephen’s explanation of the notoriously difficult to understand German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Then it’s on to romantic thinkers like Arthur Schopenhauer, or as Paul describes him “the pessimist.” Next are key figures in the philosophy...
Jun 26, 2024•58 min•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast 😊🎙️👽 It’s the audience’s turn to ask Paul, Stephen and the hilarious Bill Hader anything at this Chinwag recorded live from Dynasty Typewriter in L.A., and things go off the rails pretty quick! If aliens land on Earth, what movie would this trio show them first? Then at the audience’s prodding, hear their favorite alien abduction movies, which cryptids they’d most want to be, and their most common soup order. Is it Split Pea? Tomato? Borscht? You know you want to know! Also the guys meet a su...
Jun 21, 2024•25 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast 🎬🍿🎞 Recorded live at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles, Paul and Stephen are joined by comedy legend Bill Hader for a night of hilarious and obscure impressions, a rundown of insane B- movies, their shared fear of the school bus, and so much more! What did Hader overhear director Sam Raimi say walking out of a screening of Cannibal Holocaust? What advice did Arnold Schwarzenegger offer young production associate Bill Hader? You know you’re dying to know - and hear Hader’s uncanny Schwarzenegg...
Jun 19, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast 📓✍🏽🛢️ In this captivating Bonus-Wag, hosts Paul and Stephen sit down with investigative historian David Grann for a cerebral exploration. Grann’s journey began as a journalist with an insatiable passion for storytelling. How did he transition from reporting facts to weaving gripping narratives? Then, imagine a man unfairly sent to death row, despite evidence screaming his innocence. How could prosecutors ignore the truth? Paul, Stephen, and Grann dissect this real-world mystery, questioning j...
Jun 14, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🌊🏴☠️⚓ Paul and Stephen embark on a deep-sea exploration of maritime history with David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon, The Lost City of Z, and most recently, The Wager. The trio unravel tales of mutinies, scurvy, and the enigmatic allure of failure. Did you know most seamen couldn’t swim? How were sailors selected or found aboard these vessels? David shares how kidnappings were common too—people snatched and pressed into service aboard these floating wooden death traps. Join Paul...
Jun 12, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast ☠️🤝☠️ Join Paul and Stephen for a special bonus episode as they sit down with investigative journalist Leslie Kean. The topic? Spirit hands—ethereal entities that connect the living and the dead. Leslie describes witnessing famed British spirit medium Stewart Alexander conjuring spirit hands seemingly from nothing – conjuring a black amorphous goo into undead hands. But…these experiences are not just anecdotal. As Leslie explains, the proof lies in the pudding, which, in this case, are hot wax ...
Jun 07, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🎺🎺🎺 Open your mind as Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma talk about accessing the spirit world with investigative journalist Leslie Kean — the very journalist who broke the groundbreaking 2017 UFO story to The New York Times and introduced the world to the Pentagon’s UFO videos. The trio delve into the esoteric world of ectoplasm and explore its weightlessness, spider-webby texture, and the peculiar sound it emits through spirit trumpets. But the questions don’t stop there. Can spirits possess a ...
Jun 05, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast 🪐🕰️💫 Paul, Stephen and Chuck Bryant on being a strict materialist, natural evolution, Olaf Stapledon, and more Stuff You Should Know. Plus, Chuck shares a creepy ghost story that challenges his skeptical nature to this day. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer, and the self-proclaimed Emperor of Neptune. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. He also is the acting Minister of Triton for the Chinwag. Chuck Bryant is ...
May 31, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast ☢️☢️☢️ Paul and Stephen are joined by Stuff You Should Know’s Chuck Bryant for a deep wag on lizard people, the importance and impermanence of what we leave behind, the rarity of finding dinosaur bones, nuclear semiotics, and of course, the Silurian Hypothesis. How do we know advanced civilizations didn’t exist before us and what does that mean for life on other planets? How can we be sure that proof of past civilizations hasn’t decayed without a trace? And why does it even matter if intelligent...
May 29, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast 📻✋🏼♆ It’s back to the WagBag we go! This week, Chinwag listener Scott S. writes in with an account of his grandfather’s panic during Orson Welles’s famed 1938 The War of the Worlds broadcast. Paul recalls his own grandfather’s memory of that fateful broadcast, as well as that of the Hindenburg! Then, Barbara C. writes us with a fascinating tutorial of different types of intuitives. There are so many ways folks deign to read the future, including tarot cards, palms, crystal balls, and yes, peni...
May 24, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast 📿📿📿 Paul and Stephen are honored to welcome the esteemed Dr. Khy Sovanratana, dear friend of Dr. Stephen Asma, and former monk in the Theravada tradition in Cambodia. After 34 years as a monk, Dr. Sovanratana removed his robe and left the monastery to become the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Cambodian government. Many think they know Buddhism, but Paul and Stephen go straight to the source for enlightenment. This in-depth Wag explores Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths, the five different bud...
May 22, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast 🤖🌭🏦 Recorded at Spotify Studios... Elizabeth Banks reflects on her collegiate aspirations to become the next Diane Sawyer, and whether AI could make its own Everything Everywhere All At Once. But…could it replicate the hot dog fingers fight scene? Among other topics, our hosts and Ms. Banks ponder why so many actors are introverts? And what does checking “I’m Not A Robot” really mean? You can take this interview to the "Banks"! Tune in, Chinwaggers! 🤖🌭🏦 ========= Make sure to follow us @ch...
May 17, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast ❄️🐻👻 Recorded at Spotify Studios... Join Paul and Stephen as they sit down to discuss death and their paranormal encounters with Paul’s Fred Claus co-star Elizabeth Banks. They discuss what drove Elizabeth to make her 2023 hit film Cocaine Bear, the omen of the white owl on her doorstep, and how they would all like to be buried or in Stephen’s case— shot into space! Prepare yourself for Elizabeth’s chilling interaction with the ghost of the woman in the black dress, while Paul shares what he f...
May 15, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast 🧀🌝🛰️ Paul and Stephen explore more moon theories…is the moon made of cheese? Might the moon be a spacecraft? Are we all descendants of moon-people? And can someone claim the moon? All this and H.P. Lovecraft, burgeoning schools of space law, and real estate on the moon (not to mention Pluto!!) Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer, and the self-proclaimed Emperor of Neptune. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. He ...
May 10, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🌒🌒🌒 Ever since they tackled the hollow earth, Paul and Stephen have wanted to talk about weird moon conspiracy theories. Was the Apollo moon landing faked or was it really a movie set? Why does the American flag appear to be flapping on a windless moon? Where was Neil Armstrong’s camera in that famed picture and what about those eyewitness accounts of Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin playing the slots in Las Vegas? And then there’s filmmaker Stanley Kubrick’s interview with T. Patrick Murray that ca...
May 08, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast ⭐️📬🌎 Deep into the Chinwag Mailbag we go! Caroline writes about an incredible near-death experience that’s left her feeling like a ghost in her own life. Then, how almost dying can alter religious convictions and spiritual reality, DMT, the Bahá’í faith, and Victor Hugo! 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. ⭐️📬🌎 ========= 🚨🚨🚨 LIVE CHINWAG TAPINGS ANNOUNCED 🚨🚨🚨 CHINWAG i...
May 03, 2024•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast ⚾️⚾️⚾️ Part 2 of Paul and Stephen’s Chinwag turns to the religion of baseball with writer, comedian and passionate fan, Alex Edelman. If Paul is gonna talk sports, it’s bound to be about its spiritual pull and ability to expand space and time. They’ll get into all of it: superstition, Mark “the Bird” Fidrych, the legendary Bart Giamatti, George Grella, how “home” is a concept and not a translatable word. Then, baseball as a pastoral game and touchstone of American roots, and why the sound of bas...
May 01, 2024•50 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast 💬🛸🩻 We’re diving back into the Chinwag Mailbag! Billy C. wants to know how Paul would like to see UFOs portrayed in films. Should paranormal encounters be big and fantastical, or what about - no special effects at all? Then, Paul’s got some obscure film recommendations and of course, Betty and Barney Hill, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky make an appearance. Next, Chip writes in with a story about what happened in the ER after President John F. Kennedy’s ...
Apr 26, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🦈🦈🦈 Paul and Stephen welcome brilliant writer and comedian Alex Edelman for a deep chinwag on spirituality, religion, improvisation, and paranormal leanings. Listen as they dive right in with why the CIA should use Baby Shark in its interrogation program, the importance and virtue of repetition in the process of joke writing, the Socratic method in comedy, and how AI and Chat GPT will affect the future of humor. The conversation then turns to Romanian religious historian Mircea Eliade and the...
Apr 24, 2024•48 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast 📖🫱🏽🫲🏾👽 We’re diving into the Chinwag Mailbag! Paul in Australia writes to Paul and Stephen with a topic of biblical proportion! He brings to Chinwag the theory known as Paleocontact, which states that our ancient ancestors experienced contact with other non-terrestrial civilizations. Do ancient texts support the idea that paleocontact goes back to the Bible? Then, Chinwag listeners have asked, so behold, a peak at Paul and Stephen’s favorite sci-fi novelists. Piers Anthony, Ursula K. Le G...
Apr 19, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🐒🐒🐒 Paul and Stephen are thrilled to talk Bigfoot with acclaimed actor Jesse Eisenberg who stars in the fantastic new movie Sasquatch Sunset. Sasquatch Sunset is an unprecedented look at a year in the life of a family of Sasquatches, as they forage, mate, and hope to find others like them in the forest. What do Sasquatches do in private, and how do our stories and beliefs about Bigfoot relate to the thoughts of our ancestors? Then, Jesse details the day he spent with the smartest animal in th...
Apr 17, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast 🎭👻👯♂️ The origin story of Paul and Justin Theroux’s friendship, formed 30 years ago while messing around backstage and onstage in a depressing Chekhov play. Justin’s memory is razor sharp and deep, and he shares the moment Paul first experienced fame after his breakout appearance as Pig Vomit in Howard Stern’s Private Parts. Also, theaters are spooky places and Justin reminds Paul of the eerie ghost (with a woman’s enormous bloody head!) that may or may not have found a home in that Chekhov ...
Apr 12, 2024•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🧘🏻♂️🧘🏻♂️🧘🏻♂️ Paul and Stephen are joined by Paul’s old friend, perpetually youthful actor and screenwriter Justin Theroux. Learn all you ever wanted to know about the Oakwoods temporary housing in LA from former inhabitants Paul and Justin. Then rattlesnakes in Runyon Canyon, coyotes in Central Park, and how the Lindbergh kidnapping made pitbulls popular and led to Petey the dog on The Little Rascals. Stephen and Justin reveal a few delicacies they’ve enjoyed overseas, like coffee made ...
Apr 10, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast 👓🎥🐦 On this Bonus-Wag, Paul and Stephen ask Academy Award-winning director Errol Morris about his ground-breaking invention of the Interrotron camera and how it takes the viewer closer to a documentary subject. Also, what John le Carré says in Errol Morris’s film The Pigeon Tunnel that makes Stephen wonder if being a spy is similar to being an actor. And what separates a good actor from a bad one? All this and the Errol Morris STFU school of directing!? Enjoy this week’s Bonus-Wag! Paul Giama...
Apr 05, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
