EP 502: John Lithgow Takes on Trump in Rhyme and Verse
John Lithgow shares some of his favorite poems from his new book Trumpty Dumpty Wanted a Crown: Verses for a Despotic Age and how a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most famous song inspired him to express his political voice through rhyme and verse. He reveals that he originally wanted to go into fine art instead of acting, how his poetry books have returned him to his childhood love of drawing, and why the motley cast of characters around Donald Trump serve as endless
EP 501: Jeff Daniels and Billy Ray on Capturing the Real James Comey
Based on James Comey's memoir A Higher Loyalty, The Comey Rule is a two night television event that is written/directed by Oscar-nominee Billy Ray and stars Emmy-winner Jeff Daniels as the embattled FBI Director. They join me on the podcast to open up about their own initial anger at James Comey over the 2016 Hillary Clinton probe and why they want to set the record straight about the man behind the two most controversial investigations of the 21st Century. Jeff reveals wha
EP 500: Actor Richard Jenkins Discusses His Long Path to Hollywood Success
Oscar-nominated actor Richard Jenkins talks about his prolific career as one of Hollywood’s most reliable character actors and achieving fame later in life on the hit HBO series Six Feet Under. He talks about some of his favorite films including Step Brothers and The Shape of Water, how director Guillermo del Toro gives actors a whole bible of background information on their characters, and the difference between working with the Coen Brothers and the Farrelly Brothers. Ric
EP 499: Actress Carrie Coon Is Riding a Hot Streak
The past 5 years have been an amazing ride for actress Carrie Coon with a near constant string of excellent performances in some of the best film and television of the past decade including The Leftovers, Fargo S3, The Sinner S2, Gone Girl, and The Post. Now she says quarantine is the longest period of time that she has spent in her own house and it may be the first opportunity she has had to process the incredible leap that her career has taken over the past half-decade. S
EP 498: Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D
For more than 25 years, actors and musicians Jack Black and Kyle Gass have been performing as the rock satire band Tenacious D. They’ve toured around the world, recorded Grammy-winning albums, started a music festival, made a tv show, made a movie, then made an animated movie, and now they’ve even put out a new graphic novel. Today Kyle and Jack join me on the show as we get into how they’ve managed to outlast the lifespan of most bands and how satirizing rock bands has led
EP 497: Former White House Photographer Pete Souza
As Official White House Photographer under Ronald Reagan and then Barack Obama, Pete Souza was an eyewitness to the unique and tremendous responsibilities of being the most powerful person on Earth. Now he's the subject of a new documentary film titled The Way I See It. Pete discusses the life of a White House photographer and what it was like to go from being a journalist on the outside looking in to being at the President’s side all day, every day. He talks about the del
EP 496: Dr. David Eagleman on our Ever-Changing Brain
Dr. David Eagleman is creator/host of PBS's The Brain, a professor of neuroscience at Stanford University, and CEO/founder of Neosensory, a company that builds the next generation of neuroscience hardware. He overturns science's traditional understand of brain plasticity and explains how the mind is able to constantly adapt to suit different circumstances. He shares how a child can still function with half his brain missing, how babies start modeling the world from the mome
