🎟️🎟️🎟️ What’s that? You say you want to see your favorite Chinwag hosts live? We thought you’d never ask! Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma are coming to SF Sketchfest 2024 on January 27th, and they’ll leave no urban myth untold! Join them and special guest, comedian, author and host of the Beautiful/Anonymous podcast Chris Gethard. Explore the weird and wondrous intrigue of the City by the Bay. We’d love to see you and we’ll even take all your weird-ass questions! So, get your tickets to this l...
Jan 18, 2024•59 sec•Transcript available on Metacast 🫎🫎🫎 Paul and Stephen reveal some of their favorite American cryptids. Skip by the oft-told stories of Sasquatch and Chupacabra and follow Paul into the dark primeval forests of Maine to meet the Spectre Moose. Hear the legend of this mysterious prehistoric-looking giant of the Maine woods. Some sightings recall the Spectre Moose’s faint white glow and an ability to walk through solid objects. And if that’s not trippy enough, Paul recalls the time he took elk velvet to add some pep to his step...
Jan 17, 2024•56 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast 🦬🦬🦬 Paul and Stephen’s interest in history is deep and windy, so who better to get a riveting lesson from than award-winning documentarian, Ken Burns. Hear why the master auteur has wanted to tell the tragic story of the American Buffalo for 30 years, and trace the path of its near extinction in the late 19th century. Was the buffalo saved by the captive gates of zoos? What is man’s moral responsibility to nature in its quest towards advancement and a global economy? And as savior and destroy...
Jan 10, 2024•1 hr•Ep 41•Transcript available on Metacast 🕯️⏳🚇 Recorded live from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), Paul and Stephen field questions from our brilliant and inquisitive Chinwag audience. Paul and Stephen offer insights on precognitive dreams, past lives and reincarnation. The chains of causation and LaPlace’s Demon gets a mention, and what do prophecies in art and science fiction actually reflect? Paul and Stephen talk about their visit to the creepy Hoosac Tunnel of North Adams, MA (also known as the “bloody pi...
Jan 08, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast ⏱️⏱️⏱️ On the 12th Day of Christmas, Paul Giamatti has a gift for Chinwaggers! Gather round for this dramatic reading of O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi... The moving story of a young couple who long to give each other meaningful Christmas presents and the sacrifices they make to do so. The story was originally publised on December 10, 1905 in The New York Sunday World and subsequently published in O. Henry's 1906 short story collection The Four Million. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor a...
Jan 05, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🔮🔮🔮 Recorded live from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), Paul and Stephen discuss the power and historical impact of Nostradamus, prophets and clairvoyants. Who was Nostradamus and how did his vague predictions make him a legend in his time? Paul and Stephen reveal his cure for the plague and explain Nostradamus’s popularity in times of crisis. Was he just a shitty astrologer and what’s he got to do with Hitler? What’s the difference between clairvoyance and prophecy, ...
Jan 03, 2024•45 min•Ep 40•Transcript available on Metacast ☸️🙃⚛️ Paul, Stephen and fiction writer Ted Chiang discuss the pros and cons of our fallible memories and the human technological interface. Is that fight with your partner about “who said what” an essential part of developing a human relationship, or is none of that even the point? Is adopting a pact of truth and reconciliation the path forward in relationships as it is in some countries’ politics? Ted discusses the question of self-identity; are we defined by our memories and shared experience...
Dec 29, 2023•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🦾🦾🦾 In this Chinwag, Paul and Stephen are thrilled to be subject to fascinating thought experiments by award-winning fiction writer Ted Chiang. Up for the discussion? The difference between fact and fiction when it comes to the existence of alien life, and whether Paul is indeed an assassin because he played one in an action film Ted once saw. Imaginations are running amok and people can’t differentiate between what’s real and what isn’t. Is social media to blame or was The National Enquirer ...
Dec 27, 2023•55 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast 🏴✍🏼🇺🇸 Welcome to the Bonus-wag with Neil Gaiman! Neil's got a needy actor story that Paul relates to and understands. How being a Brit helps Neil write about America with the perfect amount of detachment to see it clearly. And is America the land of the trickster and huckster? How are George Santos and Donald Trump perfectly American creations and why are they celebrated? All this and John Wayne Bobbitt comes up (Google him, ywsm!). Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and pro...
Dec 22, 2023•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🎄🎄🎄 Wanna go on a tour of fringe places to visit with Paul, Stephen, and award-winning author Neil Gaiman? Paul, Stephen and Neil love a weird outing and this episode introduces you to a bevy of greats. From Wisconsin’s own House on the Rock, to the Winchester Mystery House. Hear about the Museum of Jurassic Technology in LA, the Soviet Arctic Exploration Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania. If these sound like a dream vacation itinerary, then this is the C...
Dec 20, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast 🏦 💰 🚔 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•Transcript available on Metacast 🌌🌌🌌 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•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast ⏳⏳⏳ 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•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast 🍠🍠🍠 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•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast ☥🪦🍕 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•Transcript available on Metacast 🤳🏽🤳🏽🤳🏽 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•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast ✨🤩🌟 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•Transcript available on Metacast 🛋️🛋️🛋️ 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•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast 🏛️🏛️🏛️ 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•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast 🌺💀🌹 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•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast 🧱🧱🧱 As the weather cools and the light grows dim, Paul and Stephen are possessed by the need for macabre ghost stories to match the ominous mood in the air. Enter Edgar Allan Poe’s classic and haunting The Cask of Amontillado. Pour yourself a glass of Sherry, or a poison of your choice, and tuck in for Paul’s first dramatic reading on our maiden voyage of Chinwag Storytime. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philoso...
Oct 30, 2023•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast 🎴🎴🎴 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•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast 🐦🐦🐦 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•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast 🍄🍄🍄 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•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast ✍🏼✍🏼✍🏼 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•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast 🧙🏻♂️🧙🏻♂️🧙🏻♂️ 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•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast 🐟🐟🐟 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•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast 🪐🪐🪐 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•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast 🪄🪄🪄 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•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast 📯📯📯 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•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast 
