Beginnings

On today's episode I talk to musician Nora Singh. Originally from Texas, Nora nee Anna Barie started playing music over a decade ago with the Brooklyn experimental noise band These Are Powers. They released a number of albums on HOSS Records and Dead Oceans. In 2012, Nora moved to France and started the electronic duo DUBAI, and eventually ended up in LA, where she founded the "queencore" band Hit...

On today's episode I talk to TV writer Adam Zwar. Originally from Cairns, Queensland, Adam is an award-winning Australian actor, voice artist, and writer. He is best known for co-creating the Australian comedy series Squinters, Lowdown, Wilfred and creating the popular factual series Agony Aunts, Agony Uncles, The Agony of Life, The Agony of Modern Manners and Agony. In addition to all this, he wa...

On today's episode I talk to writer and podcaster Kara Brown . Kara started out writing for magazines and websites like Glamour, Vanity Fair, Billboard and The Cut, and was a senior writer for Jezebel. She's written for the Black-ish spin-off grown-ish, contributes to Shondaland.com, is the co-host of Crooked Media's pop culture podcast Keep It, and this year, was named one of the "30 under 30 in...

On today's episode I talk to musician Colleen Green. Based in Los Angeles (where she was voted best solo artist by LA Weekly), Colleen has recorded three albums in the last seven years, her first, Milo Goes to Compton, in 2011, and two subsequent albums Sock It To Me and I Want to Grow Up, which were both released by Hardly Art. She has toured all over the world, and this summer is playing all aro...

On today's episode I talk to Cecil Castellucci. Based in Los Angeles, Cecil is the author of books and graphic novels for young adults including Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, Soupy Leaves Home, The Year of the Beasts, Tin Star, and the Eisner nominated Odd Duck. In 2015, she co-authored Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure, and currently is writing Shade, The Changing Woman (formerly Shade, The...

On today's episode I talk to James McCall AKA Nocando . Born and raised in Los Angeles, Nocando got his start rap battling in Leimert Park in the Crenshaw District of South Central, and In 2007, he won the MC Battle at Scribble Jam, the largest hip-hop festival in the nation. Since 2004, he's released a ton of EPs, mixtapes and featured on dozens of songs, as well as a number of collaborations inc...

On today's episode I talk to Amy Aniobi . Amy is a TV writer originally hailing from North Texas. She is a co-executive producer on HBO's groundbreaking comedy,  Insecure starring Issa Rae, and she also served as head writer/EP for the 2 Dope Queens stand-up specials on HBO. In addition, Amy has written for Silicon Valley, The Michael J. Fox Show and Trial and Error. Amy has a number of projects i...

On today's episode I talk to actor D'Arcy Carden . Originally from Danville, CA, D'Arcy got her comedy start at UCB where she was on a number of house sketch and improv teams. She's appeared on shows like Comedy Bang Bang, Veep, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Broad CIty, and currently, she is one of the members of the acting class on the incredible HBO show Barry and one of the stars of the fantastic NBC...

On today's episode I talk to Julia Wertz . Julia is a professional cartoonist, amateur historian and part time urban explorer/photographer. She made the comic books The Fart Party vol 1 and vol 2 (collected in Museum of Mistakes) and the graphic novels Drinking at the Movies, and The Infinite Wait and Other Stories, both of which were nominated for Eisner Awards. Her newest book, Tenements, Towers...

On today's episode I talk to Dan Gregor . Dan is a TV and film writer and director, who got his comedy start as one of the founding members of the (now) long-running NYU sketch group Hammerkatz and as a performer at UCB. He's written feature films for Disney, Paramount Studios, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment; for shows like How I Met Your Mother, The Comedians, and NTSF:SD:SUV; and h...

On today's episode I talk to  Aisling Bea . Originally from County Kildare, Ireland, Aisling has been acting and performing stand-up for over a decade. She's appeared on almost every TV panel show in the UK including 8 Out Of 10 Cats (where she was the first ever female team captain), Taskmaster, Qi, @Midnight and many others. As an actor, Aisling has been in many shows, both drama and comedy, inc...

On today's episode I talk to Wayne White . Born and raised in Chattanooga, Wayne is an artist, art director, illustrator, puppeteer, and much, much more. After graduating from Middle Tennessee State University, Wayne traveled to New York City where he worked as an illustrator for the East Village Eye, New York Times, Raw Magazine, and the Village Voice. In 1986, Wayne became a designer for the hit...

On today's episode I talk to Carson Mell . Originally from Arizona, Carson is a writer based in Los Angeles, who's worked on a number of shows including Eastbound & Down, Room 104, Silicon Valley and many others. Carson also created the webseries Tarantula, and in 2017, the first season of a show based on the webseries debuted on TBS. (It's great!) In addition to his TV writing, Carson is also an...

On today's episode I talk to Anna Waronker . Anna is a singer/songwriter, composer, and producer originally from Los Angeles. After graduating from high school, Anna formed the band that would eventually become That Dog. While the band was only active for six years, they released three great albums on DGC Records (That Dog, Totally Crushed Out and Retreat from The Sun) and toured with everyone fro...

On today's episode I talk to Josh Ruben . Josh is a 5-time Webby award winning actor, writer, and director, best known for appearing in and/or directing thousands of shorts for comedy megasite, CollegeHumor. Josh's podcast, The Mindhouse, is a part of fellow CollegeHumor alums Jake & Amir's HeadGum network, and as an actor, he appeared opposite Adam Devine in Season 3 of "Adam Devine's House Party...

On today's episode I talk to artist Ian Davis . Born in Indianapolis in 1972, Ian now lives in Los Angeles, after a long stint in New York. He has participated in exhibitions at museums and galleries throughout the U.S. including a solo exhibition in 2010 at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. Ian's works are in the collections of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland...

On today's episode I talk to Rachel Browne . Rachel is a musician, writer and visual artist living in Philadelphia, PA. She earned a Bachelor of Music with a concentration in studio composition from Purchase College and has been writing and performing in the band Field Mouse since its formation in 2009. The band self-released their first album You Are Here in 2010, and Topshelf Records released th...

On today's episode I talk to actress DeWanda Wise . Originally from Maryland, DeWanda graduated from the Tisch School at NYU in 2006, and began her professional acting career soon after with small roles on shows like Law and Order: SVU and The Good Wife. This led to larger parts on Underground and Shots Fired, and in 2017, she was the lead in Spike Lee's Netflix remake of his seminal film She's Go...

On today's episode I talk to musician Dean Wareham . Originally from Wellington, New Zealand, Dean's family moved to New York in 1977 when he  was a teenager. In college at Harvard, he formed the seminal indie rock band Galaxie 500 with Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang. They recorded three albums - Today, On Fire and This Is Our Music, which were released on Rough Trade - but broke up in 1991, when...

On today's episode I talk to comedian and writer Jo Firestone . Originally from St. Louis, Jo is a stand-up and the creator of dozens of live shows, including the pun competition Punderdome, the Inner Beauty Pageant, and the Unexpectashow at UCB. As an actor, Jo's been in everything from Broad City to Search Party to the Mike Birbiglia film Don't Think Twice, and as a stand-up, she's performed on...

On today's episode I talk to actor and comedian Griffin Newman . Raised in New York, Griff has been writing and performing for a lion's share of his life. In 2007, he started college, but left in his first year to pursue acting, and since then has appeared in a number of films and TV shows including Law and Order, Blue Bloods, Fort Tilden, Vinyl, Cop Show, Difficult People, Draft Day, Search Party...

On today's episode I talk to composer and musician Ryan Lott . Born in Denver, CO, Ryan began playing music when he was relatively young. His first album as Son Lux,  At War with Walls & Mazes, was released by Anticon in 2008, and since then they've recorded three other albums, We Are Rising in 2011, Lanterns in 2013, and Bones in 2015. In 2014, Ryan collaborated with Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti...

On today's episode I talk to TV writer Amy Hubbs . Originally from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Amy began her TV career as a writers' assistant on the original run of NBC's Will & Grace, and since then has worked on numerous shows including Raising Hope, The Crazy Ones, Ugly Betty, and Great News. Currently she is a writer and producer on the new Freeform show Alone Together, which stars Esther Povits...

On today's episode I talk to comedian and musician Tawny Newsome . Originally from California, Tawny got her start in comedy in Chicago, where she was part of the Second City Mainstage, as well as the Second City National Touring Company. More recently, she was one of the stars of the wonderful Seeso show Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ and is a recurring character on BET's The Comedy Get Down. In add...

On today's episode I talk to painter and illustrator Brandon Bird . Originally from Sacramento, CA, Brandon paints pop culture figures in absurd situations, like Christopher Walken building a Transformer in his garage or the cast of Frasier in a 1970s pulp fantasy series. He's organized a number of arts shows around these ideas and created a Law and Order coloring book called Law & Order: An Adven...