June - 2020

EP 482: Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says that America overuses (and often MIS-uses) the military to achieve its strategic goals while neglecting other (and often better) non-military options. He discusses how Congress and the last 5 Presidents have allowed many of those non-military instruments of power to wither and die in the three decades after the Cold War. He suggests that the United States needs to be "less monastic and more Madison Avenue" in how we talk about t

EP 481: Director Peter Medak on the Mad Genius of Peter Sellers

Director Peter Medak looks back on his filming of the famously disastrous Peter Sellers movie Ghost in the Noonday Sun for his new documentary The Ghost of Peter Sellers. He discusses emotional toll that working with Peter Sellers took on him, why he thought that he would be the one director who could tame Sellers, and why he wanted to revisit that painful experience all these years later. He talks about the mad genius and superstitions of Peter Sellers, and why Sellers was

EP 480: Father's Day Special with Mike Birbiglia

Comedian Mike Birbiglia discusses his new book The New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad including the seven reasons he originally never wanted to be a parent, the lies couples tell themselves when they decide to have a baby, and the scourge of parents who try to push babies on other people. He opens up about he and his wife's initial troubles conceiving, reveals that President Barack Obama was the first person to learn that they were pregnant, and shares some

EP 479: Malcolm Gladwell Explores the Overlooked and Misunderstood

Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers, Talking to Strangers, Revisionist History podcast) talks about growing up in a Mennonite community in Ontario, Canada, his brief flirtation with conservatism in his youth, and how his father’s boundless curiosity inspired him to always ask questions. We delve into the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the tragic George Floyd murder and some surprising parallels between African-Americans' relationship with the police and Britain’s heavy-ha

EP 478: Fox News Sunday Host Chris Wallace

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace talks his five decades in broadcast journalism, following in the very big footsteps of his father Mike Wallace, what he’s learned from interviewing 7 different U.S. Presidents, and what it was like to date Walter Cronkite's daughter when he was a 16-year-old intern at CBS News. Then he discusses his new book Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World. He reveals how Harry Truman agoni

EP 477: Michael Stuhlbarg Enters the Unsettling World of Shirley Jackson

Actor Michael Stuhlbarg (Boardwalk Empire, The Shape of Water) discusses his new film about the complicated marriage of horror writer Shirley Jackson and literary critic Stanley Hyman, how Hyman influenced Shirley Jackson’s work, and how the filmmakers of Shirley imbued the movie with a distinctively Jackson-esque style. Michael also talks about his prolific career on stage and screen from training in mime with Marcel Marceau to working with directors like Guillermo del Toro

EP 476: Lisa Napoli Celebrates 40 Years of CNN

On the 40th Anniversary of CNN, journalist Lisa Napoli discusses the founding and "wild west" early years of the upstart network that set out to change how the news gets delivered and consumed. Lisa reveals that few people to took Ted Turner seriously when he entered broadcasting and how Turner went from hating the news to founding the first all-news network in the basement of run-down former country club in Atlanta. She talks about the skeptics who questioned whether there

EP 475: Former U.S. Surgen General Vivek Murthy

Former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy says America is facing a loneliness crisis. He discusses the many physical and mental impacts of feeling lonely and reveals that chronic loneliness is just as bad for you as smoking and obesity. He opens up about his bouts of loneliness during his life, how he came to realize that it’s much larger problem than he ever realized, and the U.S. Congressman who confided in him about his own struggle with loneliness. Vivek explains the dif

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