Stacey Abrams has become a political superstar since running for governor of Georgia in 2018 and delivering the Democratic response to President Trump's State of the Union this February. We talk about her recent meeting with Joe Biden, the rumors of a Biden-Abrams ticket in 2020, and what issues she’d campaign on if she does run for national office. She discusses making history as Georgia House Minority Leader and her party’s nominee for governor, why she refused to concede defeat in the 2018 gubernatorial race, and why she believes widespread voter suppression tipped that election to her opponent. She explains the careful balancing act of being a woman of color in a position of power, wh

Jeff Bridges discusses his 6 decades in Hollywood and what he learned about acting from dad Lloyd Bridges. He recalls the "Little Rascals" version of Tucker that he and Francis Ford Coppola made prior to filming, laughing it up with Robin Williams and Terry Gilliam on the set of The Fisher King, and how he and his brother Beau tested each other in The Fabulous Baker Boys. He shares stories about making The Last Picture Show, King Kong, Heaven's Gate, The Contender, and True Grit. He talks about his The Big Lebowski fandom, how he feels about being identified with his iconic character "the Dude," and why he says the Dude is a zenmaster. Then Jeff Bridges gets zen about the environment wit

Bestselling authors Dr. Warren Farrell (Why Men Are The Way They Are) and Dr. John Gray (Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus) warn that boys around the world are in crisis and say it's largely the result of a crisis of fathers who suffer from a "purpose void" as their traditional role is being diminished. They reveal how moms and dads parent differently and how fathers use things like rough-housing with their kids to establish boundaries. They discuss how the lack of boundaries can lead to ADD and ADHD in young men and caution parents to focus on the root cause of ADD before they resort to drugs like Aderall. They talk about the difficulty they’ve had in getting lawmakers to take the b

Alyssa Mastromonaco spent 6 years in the Obama White House as assistant to the president, director of scheduling and advance, and deputy chief of staff for operations. She says working in the West Wing is a lot like VEEP and recalls some of the lighter moments including getting down on the dance-floor with Michelle Obama, impersonating a hedge hog for President Obama, and the time the leader of the free world tried to play matchmaker. She opens up about her at times comical struggles with irritable bowel syndrome including a few close calls at the most inconvenient moments and the time that she contracted something called "beaver fever" (yes, it’s a real thing) during a state dinner in Tan

Actor/comedian Bryan Callen (THE GOLDBERGS, SCHOOLED, HANGOVER I & II) shares how his childhood growing up in countries all over the world inspired him to question labels and defy categorization, and he discusses his particular issue with the catch all term "asians" to describe 48 different nationalities. We talk about the polarizing effect of political parties, why he believes that liberals and conservatives share the same fundamental values, and why everyone should demand to be treated "like a verb instead of a noun." Bryan gets into the problem of political correctness and says that standup comedy is probably the last bastion of free speech in America. We talk about how he became assoc

Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, returns to the podcast to call on Americans to reject the culture of contempt and the outrage industrial complex. He talks about the event that woke him up to the ugliness of our political discourse two and a half years before the 2016 election. He pulls back the curtain on how political parties are pushing us farther apart and how talking heads in the media are profitting from stoking divisiveness and hate. Arthur reveals the connection between frequent commenting on social media and personality disorders and how he handles angry emails and twitter trolls. He shares what we can learn about civility from the Dalai Lama and a

On the 50th Anniversary of the Navy's legendary fighter pilot school known as Top Gun, the founder Captain Dan Pederson discusses how the pilot losses he witnessed in the Vietnam War led to the formation of Top Gun, how he and the other original "9 bros" got it up and running in just a matter of weeks with little or no funding, and what they looked for in new recruits. He recalls the days before Top Gun when aerial combat training was banned by the military and how he and his fellow pilots learned their skills at a secret fight club in the sky off the coast of San Diego. He talks about getting to train against real Russian MIG fighter jets at the most classified location in America, the me

Roger McNamee was a mentor to a young Mark Zuckerberg and an early investor in Facebook, but now he warns that the social media platform has become a threat to democracy, privacy, competition, and even public health. He talks about when he noticed the first signs that not all was well at Facebook and what happened when he brought his concerns to his old friend. He discusses the role that Facebook played in the 2016 election, how its algorithms are actually designed to polarize and spread disinformation, and how Russian trolls and companies like Cambridge Analytica were able to exploit those flaws. Roger shares how Facebook employs tricks from psychology and slot machines to keep us coming