With the release of her new special, Douglas, Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby sits with us this week. We discuss life after the success Nanette (5:49), how she deals with sensory overload on stage (9:11), why the pandemic hasn't been so bad for her (11:42), how she was shaped by her mother's feisty energy (19:47), living in a world where we don’t know how to let go (26:17), being a keen observer (35:34), and whether or not she ever considered quitting stand-up comedy (43:49). Learn more about ...
Jul 26, 2020•50 min
Legendary American author and public speaker Fran Lebowitz joins us via landline. In conversation, there's nothing off-the-table for the famously persnickety sexagenarian. We discuss how she's weathering the COVID crisis as a tried-and-true New Yorker (12:28), her clear-eyed views on race and racism (15:53), the impact of her friendship with the late Toni Morrison (28:23), her lifelong disinterest in domesticity (38:04), the hostility she received as a literary wunderkind (44:12), the impact of ...
Jul 19, 2020•1 hr 21 min
Run The Jewels is an American hip-hop super duo that features the talents of Brooklyn rapper/producer El-P and Atlanta emcee Killer Mike. This week, they sit down with us to talk about the labels the media has placed on them (7:15), the value of dreaming (16:16), the inner-workings of how they create together (21:35), their philosophies on the purpose of rap (28:00), why the night of November 24th, 2014 changed them (32:17), their role in this precarious moment (38:20), and, finally, whether the...
Jul 12, 2020•55 min
Documentarians Bill and Turner Ross have been painting portraits of American life for over a decade. Their latest film, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, marks a step in a bold, new direction, blurring the line between fact and fiction. Now available through Film at Lincoln Center, the movie unfolds during the final 24hrs. of a Las Vegas dive-bar. Regulars regale one another with memories of the shuttering institution– a home away from home. It's a story of a surrogate family, bound together by this b...
Jul 09, 2020•51 min
Hasan Minhaj is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, and television host. Best known for his Netflix show, “Patriot Act”, he sits down with us this week to discuss the difference between living through history and reading it (4:30), having his second child in the midst of a pandemic (6:22), trying to find his footing in stand-up and the little signs of encouragement that kept him going (11:55), why political comedy felt so radical as a Muslim teenager (17:10), a post-college period of ...
Jul 05, 2020•57 min
Dr. Ashish Jha (Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute) joins us this week to give us science-based updates on the global pandemic. We discuss the federal government’s inconsistent approach to COVID-19 (9:40), the truth about transmission rates (13:00), the affect masks can have on numbers country-wide (20:55), the restlessness of the older generation (32:24), predictions of the second wave (36:50), and his hope of overcoming the pandemic (40:24). Learn more about your ad-choices at htt...
Jun 28, 2020•45 min
A bonus episode! And a personal one at that. Back in February I directed a music video for Radnor & Lee, the folk duo created by artists Josh Radnor and Ben Lee. Today we discuss using their platforms to take a stance on the ongoing social injustices (3:20), the process of making their latest record, Golden State (11:00), finding a balance within each other (23:00), living a life full of passion (31:09), the expectations between creators and consumers (40:02), and why their working relations...
Jun 24, 2020•58 min
Today we celebrate Father's Day with the great Dolores Huerta! An icon within in my Latino family, she's a trailblazing labor leader, civil rights activist, and community organizer. At age 90, she joins us this week to share her mother's words of wisdom that compelled her to fight for people (15:34), how she co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez (22:06), our civic duty to lend a helping hand (42:37), persevering after being brutally attacked by the police (54:31), working with tho...
Jun 21, 2020•1 hr 14 min
Holland Taylor is an American playwright and actress best known for her television roles on The Practice and Hollywood; films like Legally Blonde, Romancing the Stone , and The Truman Show . This week, she walks us through her storied career, from her days as a playpen baby (8:08) to the college experience that solidified her choice to place career ahead of motherhood (12:51). Having moved from coast to coast, she discusses her early years in New York with Anne Bancroft on Broadway (17:00), less...
Jun 14, 2020•1 hr 13 min
Hank Willis Thomas believes the past is the present. Now more than ever. As a conceptual artist, he focuses on race, identity, and popular culture. His work (sculptures, photography, installations) has been exhibited around the world, from New York to Paris to Hong Kong. Today, since we can't stroll through museums, we offer a kind of guided listening experience. At our website (talkeasypod.com) you'll find a visual companion to this conversation with Hank. These are selected works- all of which...
Jun 07, 2020•43 min
Jelani Cobb is a professor, historian, and staff writer for The New Yorker, where he covers race and politics. He joins us to discuss the “dimension and contours” of this moment in America (6:00), the intersection of Amy Cooper's phone call and George Floyd's death (12:05), how to engage those with whom you disagree (18:30), Ahmaud Arbery and the age of the black-panic defense (24:00), why body cam videos may objectify instead of humanize (28:45), Twitter's sudden censorship of President Trump (...
May 31, 2020•51 min
In the midst of a global pandemic, two artists emerge with new projects. Art for your hearts and minds. First we call up multi-hyphenate talent Terence Nance (4:07), known for his HBO series Random Acts of Flyness, to discuss his healing debut EP: Things I Never Had. After that we ring up director Malik Vitthal (31:00). His new film, Body Cam, stars Mary J. Blige and is available on VOD today! We'll see you back here on Sunday with the legendary Holland Taylor. Learn more about your ad-choices a...
May 27, 2020•1 hr 7 min
For the last 20 years, journalist Brooke Gladstone has been making sense of the news. Her Peabody-winning show, On the Media , says to examine the “myths and media narratives that shape our worldview—for better or for worse”. This week Brooke join us to put this moment of ours in context. We discuss her ability to “take the long view”, the need for civility in journalism, lessons learned from the 2016 Presidential election, how we are hardwired to be guided by instinct over reason, and why she c...
May 24, 2020•1 hr
A self-described “contract player”, Ted Danson has been a staple on television for the past 40 years. Cheers. Becker. Bored to Death. Damages. Curb Your Enthusiasm. In that time he's been, at least for me, a stabilizing force. A welcomed, recurring presence. On the heels of The Good Place's final season, Danson takes this unusual moment of ours to slow down and reflect. We discuss how his love of basketball translated into his love of acting; his memories of making Body Heat ; the enduring influ...
May 17, 2020•1 hr 13 min
Back in 2017 I invited my mother on the podcast. She (reluctantly) accepted the invitation. What follows is that conversation, in full. A very special thanks goes out to Theresa Meyers this week. She has helped me more than she knows. A beacon, even when I've been a pain the ass (which has been often). I love her so. Happy Mother's Day to you and yours. Stay safe everyone. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information...
May 10, 2020•1 hr 19 min
Roxane Gay may be a self-described introvert, but she's not one to shy away from a public fight. As a contributing writer for The New York Times, Gay has taken aim at President Trump, modern misogyny, racial discrimination within the police force. But it's her two best-selling books– Bad Feminist and Hunger– that cemented her place in the public discourse as a singular talent, someone able to write personally and politically in equal measure. She does the same on this week's episode, alternating...
May 03, 2020•1 hr
For the next month I'm co-hosting a new podcast! It's called “The Last Dance Aftershow”, a weekly program on the 10-part documentary of Michael Jordan and the 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls. Upcoming guests include Adam McKay, Chuck Klosterman, Heidi Gardner, Sam Smith, Steve James, Jason Hehir, Bill Cartwright, and many more! Listen/rate/subscribe wherever you do your listening. https://the-last-dance-aftershow.captivate.fm/ - All proceeds go to Feeding America , the nation's largest hunger-relief org...
Apr 30, 2020•2 min
Four years ago Sam stumbled upon a book called “Big Magic”. From it, Talk Easy was born. Today we come full circle in sitting with beloved writer Elizabeth Gilbert. Both in her fiction and non-fiction work, Gilbert seeks a kind of radical honesty. She’s irrepressibly curious, a searcher of stories. On this week’s podcast, those stories come in all different shapes and sizes: an appreciation for her current solitude; a re-examination of how her parents shaped the woman she is today; why she felt ...
Apr 26, 2020•1 hr 26 min
Four years ago W. Kamau Bell joined us on Talk Easy. It was a different time, before Donald Trump was President Trump. This week the sociopolitical comedian returns to provide some light and laughter in these trying times. He discusses being a parent during the pandemic, the insensitive comments made by the U.S. Surgeon General, going back to Mobile, Alabama for his CNN show ( United Shades of America ), and the life lessons learned from his father and Chris Rock. We also answers some listener q...
Apr 19, 2020•1 hr 12 min
Who better to guide us through this darkness than Noam Chomsky? The esteemed linguist, author, and political activist joins us this week to provide a historical perspective to the pandemic (44:02). He also offers his diagnosis of the Trump administration and its failure to effectively respond to COVID-19. At 91, Chomsky is a beacon of hope in these trying times. Before speaking with Noam, Sam calls up Dr. Ashish Jha, Director of Harvard Global Health Institute (2:57) to walk us through life on t...
Apr 12, 2020•1 hr 18 min
Beto O'Rourke entered politics because of people. He believes in their capacity for goodness and decency. He believes in their potential. And yet– what if his political brand is not exactly what the country wants in 2020? For the first time since suspending his Presidential campaign, Beto reflects on where he succeeded and where he failed these past three years. His strengths and weaknesses as a candidate, and the intense challenges one faces when running for President. We also discuss the circu...
Apr 05, 2020•1 hr 16 min
Naomi Klein is an author, filmmaker and climate activist. But above all– she is a journalist. She joins us to reflect on her natural instinct to run toward crisis; her decades long research of disaster capitalism; the striking systemic difference between her home country of Canada and the United States; the influence of her grandfather’s strike against Disney; and how this pandemic has asked her to slow down. It is important to note this interview was conducted remotely. Our guest, Naomi Klein, ...
Mar 29, 2020•58 min
Actress Juliette Lewis “lost her anonymity” with the movies. Movies you've probably seen. Cape Fear, Natural Born Killers, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, From Dusk Till Dawn. She's a visceral, singular performer, untethered to convention. This was true in 1989 and even more true in 2020. But it's what unfolds off-screen that Lewis keeps returning to these days. The larger, existential considerations one has as both a human and an artist. Ping-ponging between the past and present, we discuss the in...
Mar 22, 2020•1 hr 5 min
Dr. Ashish Jha is the Director of Harvard Global Health Institute and a Professor at Harvard T. H. Chan school of public health. If you've turned on your TV over the past few days, you've likely seen him discussing COVID-19. Today he joins us to talk about how the coronavirus spread; the necessity for social distancing; elderly discrimination; what we can learn from the Spanish Flu of 1918; and plenty advice on how to best keep you and your family safe in this critical moment.“We’ve got a common...
Mar 15, 2020•55 min
Actor Sam Waterston doesn't do many of these. In fact, this is his first podcast. To mark the special occasion the stage and screen performer reflects on his 60-year career, from his days at Yale in Waiting for Godot to breaking into Hollywood with the The Great Gatsby. But what most fascinates Waterston is reflecting on his life behind the camera, off-stage, as a husband and father. For years Waterston was reluctant to publicly give voice to his thoughts. Now that he's approaching 80, he's star...
Mar 08, 2020•1 hr 3 min
If it weren't for her singular acting abilities, Alison Pill would be best known for her boisterous laugh. (That is only kinda a joke.) The chameleonic actress– Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Midnight in Paris, The Newsroom– has been at it since the age of 10. And so we begin on set, unpacking her life as a child actor, and how she managed to find a voice as she grew up on (and off) screen. We also discuss her transcendent work on stage (from Blackbird to Three Tall Women), rejecting precocity, th...
Mar 01, 2020•1 hr 2 min
Actress Haley Bennett joins us this week for a reflective look at her life as an actress, starting with her role as a pop-star in Music and Lyrics to her newest film, the disturbing domestic thriller, Swallow . We discuss the serendipity of motherhood, the perils of acting at an impressionable young age, and how she managed to find her artistic voice amid Hollywood pressures. Plus, a Terence Malick story! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com See omnystudio.com...
Feb 23, 2020•56 min
Welcome back! This week, celebrated poet, author, and essayist Morgan Parker sits with Sam to discuss her latest book, Magical Negro. They talk about what poetry can look (and sound) like in the Internet era , the loneliness of being a writer in LA, Morgan's experiences of dating (and writing about) white men named Matt, the visceral intensity of her book readings, and how mass (predominately white) audiences engage with her work. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetw...
Feb 16, 2020•1 hr 18 min
From the Talk Easy team to you, happy holidays! We're closing out the year with our third annual holiday special, featuring a special group of guests who sat with us over the past twelve months. Throughout this episode, they reflect on their favorite art, memories, triumphs, lessons, and so much more from 2019. Randall Park – 4:22 Mary Holland – 5:45 Harrison Cameron – 25:25 Gary Gulman – 28:01 Jeff Garlin – 28:46 Chaz Ebert – 45:47 Pam Grier – 47:58 Tayarisha Poe – 1:01:45 Justin Simien – 1:04:...
Dec 23, 2019•1 hr 42 min
The trajectory of Gloria Steinem’s life and work is unparalleled. Her cultural and political impact, incalculable. With the release of “The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off”, the beloved author and activist reflects on a life-altering procedure she had completed at age 22, why she helped create the women's liberation movement alongside Dorothy Pitman Hughes and Flo Kennedy, and how she learned to become angry—on her own behalf—about race and gender bias throughout America....
Dec 16, 2019•1 hr 7 min
