Beginnings

On today's episode I talk to singer, bass player, model and actress Adeline Michèle. Born and raised in Paris to a French mother and a father hailing from the Caribbean island of Martinique, Adeline started singing at the ripe age of five and was accepted in a professional choir and grew up performing live around Europe and on T.V. In 2006, Adeline moved to New York City to more actively pursue he...

On today's episode I talk to Katherine Paul of Black Belt Eagle Scout. KP grew up in a small Indian reservation, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. From an early age, she was singing and dancing at powwows including her family's own powwow, called the All My Relations Powwow. In 2007, KP moved to Portland, OR, to attend college and get involved with the Rock'n'Roll Camp for Girls. Inspired by...

On today's episode I talk to actress Kether Donohue. Originally from New York, Kether has been a working actress for over twenty years. She began doing voiceover for anime like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! as a teenager, and since then has been in a number of great shows and movies including Pitch Perfect, High Maintenance and unsung sitcom LA to Vegas. Currently, Kether stars on one of the best shows on...

On today's episode I talk to filmmakers and musicians Brocker and Chapman Way. Originally from Thousand Oaks, CA, Brocker and Chapman, along with their third brother MacLain, are responsible for the wonderful documentary The Battered Bastards of Baseball, as  well as the six part Emmy Award-winning documentary Wild Wild Country about the controversial Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his com...

On today's episode I talk to musician and rapper Nnamdi Ogbonnaya. The child of Nigerian immigrants, Nnamdi mostly grew up in Chicago, where he has been a member of the DIY music underground for many years. This includes drumming in bands like Monobody and Ittō, playing bass in groups like Nervous Passenger and Teen Cult, and rapping under his own name as well as Nnamdi's Sooper Dooper Secret Side...

On today's episode I talk to actress Becky Thyre. Originally from Louisiana, Becky got her real start in theater in Chicago. Eventually moving to Los Angeles, she's acted and lent her vocal talents to a number of amazing shows and films including PCU, The Oblongs, Six Feet Under, The Sarah Silverman Program, Parks and Rec, Weeds, Arrested Development, Transparent, and nearest and dearest to my own...

On today's episode I talk to musician Maria Taylor. Originally from Birmingham, AL, Maria's been playing music for a majority of her life. Her first band, Little Red Rocket, which she formed with Orenda Fink as a teenager, was signed to Geffen in the mid-'90s and eventually morphed into Azure Ray. As Azure Ray, Maria and Orenda released four albums and numerous EPs, mostly on Saddle Creek Records....

On today's episode I talk to stand-up and actress Amber Nelson. Born in Saudi Arabia and raised mostly in Louisiana, Amber has been performing comedy for many years, as both a stand-up and a sketch performer on numerous house teams at UCB as well as as a member of one of the best sketch groups of the last decade Murderfist. In addition to all this, Amber's appeared on Netflix's The Characters, Guy...

On to day's episode I talk to cartoonist, illustrator and author Tony Millionaire. Originally from Gloucester, MA, Tony's been drawing for most of his life, but it was his early-1990s comic strip Maakies that really put him in the public eye. Starting in the New York Press, Maakies was soon syndicated and became one of the most popular weekly comic strips in America, running in many of the largest...

On today's episode I talk to Howard Feibusch of the band Howard. Howie is a composer, producer and engineer and has produced, mixed, and engineered records for many artists as well as composing for film and television, where his work has been featured on networks like CBS, MTV, A&E, and more! As the band Howard, Howie's recorded three albums and his latest Together Alone was released earlier this...

On today's episode I talk to Sima Cunningham and Macie Stewart of the band Ohmme. Based in Chicago - where they've been hailed as "the heart of Chicago's music community" - Sima and Macie are both classically trained musicians and established players within the Chicago music scene who have collaborated with everyone from Richard Thompson to Jeff Tweedy to Chance the Rapper to Ken Vandermark. Thoug...

On today's episode I talk to writer and performer Cirocco Dunlap. Originally from San Francisco, Cirocco was a child actor for a short time, most notably in the movie James and the Giant Peach. As a writer, she's written a number of humor essays for places like the New Yorker, as well as a children's book and also for a number of TV shows including Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Tick, and Man S...

On today's episode I talk to musician Allison Crutchfield. Originally from Birmingham, AL, Allison first started playing music with her sister Katie in the bands The Ackleys and then later P.S. Eliot. Eventually, the two felt the need to work on their own personal musical projects. Katie created Waxahatchee and Allison co-founded the wonderful indie rock band Swearin'. Allison has also recorded a...

I am traveling this week and weak from my Yom Kippur fast, so I thought I'd put up an old episode that people periodically ask about, my talk with musician  Mitski Miyawaki  from 2016. Originally from Japan, Mitski grew up all over the world, eventually settling in New York. Mitski has recorded five albums:  Lush ,  Retired from Sad, New Career in Business ,  Bury Me at Makeout Creek ,  Puberty 2...

On today's episode I talk to actor Johnathan Fernandez. Originally from the Poconos, Johnathan eventually moved to New York where he performed for many years at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre on numerous sketch and digital teams. As an actor, he's appeared on a number of shows including  Adam Ruins Everything, @midnight, GIRLS, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Younger and many more, and c...

On today's episode I talk to actress and musician Aleksa Palladino. Originally form New York,  Aleksa got her start acting as a teenager, performing opposite Scarlett Johansson in the movie Manny and Lo. Since then, she's acted in numerous films, most notably Storytelling, Mona Lisa Smile, and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Sidney Lumet's last film, as well as a ton of TV shows, which include...

On today's episode I talk to actor and author Keiko  Agena. Keiko is best known for the TV show Gilmore Girls, where she played Lane Kim for seven seasons and reprised the role in 2016 for the Netflix series. As a guest star, she has appeared on such shows as Bajillion Dollar Propertie$, Shameless, Scandal, House, ER, Better Call Saul and many others, and recently she has been recurring on Sweet/V...

On today's episode I talk to actor, writer and filmmaker Todd Berger. Originally from New Orleans, Todd has been making movies since he was a teenager. Professionally, he's acted in numerous TV shows and films including Parks and Rec, Maron, and Southland Tales, and has written and/or directed dozens of shorts, shows and films including the wonderful 2012 film It's a Disaster and his latest film,...

On today's episode I talk to author Brian Evenson. Based in Los Angels, Brian teaches in the Critical Studies Program at CalArts and is the author of a dozen books of fiction, most recently the story collection A Collapse of Horses and the novella The Warren. Brian's work has garnered many nominations and awards. Two of his recent books, Windeye and Immobility, were both finalists for a Shirley Ja...

On today's episode I talk to comedian Jon Gabrus. Originally from Long Island, Jon has been acting and podcasting for over a decade. He's been featured on MTV2's hit shows Guy Code, Girl Code, and Wild N Out, and recurs as Gabe on TVLand's Younger. He has also appeared on 30 Rock and one of the silent writers and has guest starred on numerous shows including Happy Endings, Workaholics, NewsReaders...

On today's episode I talk to musician Matt Pryor. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Matt has been playing music professionally for over two decades. First with The Get Up Kids, who are generally thought of as one of the quintessential bands of the second-wave emo movement. They've toured the world and released five critically and commercially successful albums over their career: Four Minute M...

On today's episode I talk to musician Liz Stokes. Based in New Zealand, Liz is the lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band The Beths. While a relatively new group - their debut EP Warm Blood was released in 2016 - they have a sense of self and chemistry that is utterly apparent from even a casual listen. Their first album Future Me Hates Me will be released on August 10th on Carpark Recor...

On today's episode I talk to musicians Colin Newman and Malka Spigel. Married since 1986, Colin and Malka are a post-punk power couple. Colin is a member of the seminal post-punk band Wire, whose early albums Pink Flag, Chairs Missing and 154 were the blueprints for decades of music. And Colin continues to be a vibrant creative voice with his solo albums, and his work with his wife Malka in Githea...

This week my new podcast Couples Therapy debuts, so I thought I'd give y'all a taste of that! If you like it, subscribe and follow us on social media! This is  the website  for  Beginnings ,  subscribe on Apple Podcasts , follow me on  Twitter .

On today's episode I talk to writer Glen David Gold. Glen is the author of the bestselling novels Sunnyside and Carter Beats the Devil, and his essays, memoir, journalism and short fiction have appeared in McSweeney's, Playboy, Wired, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, the Guardian UK and London Independent. He has written The Spirit for DC comics and The Escapist for Dark Horse and recently he h...