Don't Get Me Started

We talk to artist Liz Rodriguez about her lifelong obsession with Studio Ghibli - the Japanese animation/production house behind My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away. Beautiful illustration! Female protagonists! A lack of formulaic storytelling! And just... it's good! Plus Will gives a poorly organized telling of the baseball mishaps of "Snodgrass' Mu...

Comedian Todd Fasen talks to us about the music festival institution Coachella! Why is it good? How has it changed? What are the best ways to enjoy it? What's the deal with the camping? Plus Will discusses Vertigo comics editor Karen Berger and Anthony raves about a newfangled device he has - the Fidget Cube.

Vulture.com writer Jesse Fox talks to us about watching SNL as a sport. Good episode, bad episode, good season, bad season -- you keep watching at least partly because you want to see how the "team" does. We love this theory and talk forever about it. Also, Will talks about some computer programming thing (PHP framework called Laravel) and Anthony talks about the forgotten 1980 film "How To Beat T...

Comedian Brandon Gardner talks about his interest in comedian/filmmaker Woody Allen. Heard of him? Genius comedy writer and stand-up comedian? Maker of brilliant films (both comedies, dramas and some that are in-between)? Oh yeah, and the guy who dated and then married the 19 year old daughter of his longtime girlfriend, and then later was publicly accused by his daughter of molesting her? Uh, yea...

A very cool and interesting personal episode. We talk to comedian Luke Kelly-Clyne about Zoloft and how this anti-depressant ended up being the thing that helped him handle his clinical depression. We talk a lot about the stigmas of anti-depressants, and therapy and admitting that you're dealing with depression at all. We also get into some of the basics of medications. Please note that we are not...

Comedian Billy Merritt returns to discuss BIRDS. "I'm ready to talk about birds now," he emailed us, and even though we didn't know what he meant by "ready" and "now" we scheduled a podcast immediately. We get into bird watching, birding, and going birding. We get into sparrows and swallows and cardinals and titmouses and California condors. We get into how Billy is an excellent "animal spotter" a...

Nicole Erb (actor, comedy writer, you know the drill) talks to us about Shakespeare's "problematic plays." This includes the "problem plays" (neither comedies nor tragedies) but also any play which either drops plot threads, or makes enemies suddenly decide to get married, or has tragic scenes in the middle of otherwise happy acts, ET CETERA! Nicole likes the awkwardness they creates, but many dir...

WE FIND OUT THAT CHARLES PRANKED US AT 19:30. Charles Rogers, co-creator of the TBS show "Search Party" and the South by Southwest winning film "Fort Tilden" comes on the podcast to discuss PRANKS. But not little pranks like you're thinking of. These pranks sometimes involve months of setup, or elaborate fictional characters, or daring phone calls, and sometimes even outright lies. Charles talks a...

We talk to returning guest/comedian/madman Connor Ratliff about the comic strip PEANUTS. We get into how it changed over its 50 year run, how amazingly devoted creator Charles Schulz was to it, why Connor likes drawing so much, the TV specials and MORE! Plus Will talks about the book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" and Anthony talks about his new Alexa Dot from Amazon.

Comedian/writer Lauren McGuire discusses the tv show "RuPaul's Drag Race." What is so compelling about it? How is it different than other reality/competition shows? Where does the positivity come from? What is it about drag queens that are so compelling and inspiring? And what are the factors that let someone win? EDITED TO ADD: LAUREN MEANT TO SAY THAT SEASON 7 IS LACKLUSTER, NOT THE TERRIFIC SEA...

We talk to writer/director Robbie Pickering about BOXING. How did he get into it? What do you learn about yourself? Are you, the listener, intrigued by the idea of being hit in the face? Then BOXING could be for you! Also Will talks about Batman: The Animated Series (yes the 90s one) and Anthony discusses indie video game "The Swapper."

We talk to comedian / director Clay Larsen about game structure. "Game" like board games, party games, things-you-play games, and "structure" meaning the stories you get into while you play games. Like if you play Risk and start acting like a tyrant, you know? Oh, you'll see. Also, Anthony talks about the mash-ups of our friend Daniel "Chambaland" Chamberlin and Will talks about the super-exciting...

We talk to comedian Mark David Christenson about the band Deerhoof. How does one categorize their indie but epic but funky style? How did he get into them? Why does Anthony like them right away? In addition, Will talks about the two recorded versions of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" and Anthony discusses the deliciousness of a low country boil.

We talk to comedian/musician Bridgid Ryan about her love of JAPAN. Like Anglophilia, but for Japan. Japandamania? Japandamonium? We talk the language, the culture, the media, the style and more! Plus Anthony talks about trying to stay off of his phone and Will discusses the book Dracula.

We talk to comedian Shaun Diston about PRE-HISTORY, meaning the human civilizations that existed before current recorded history. We're talking lost coastal cities, a hypothetical EARLIER Egyptian dynasty, the people who first figured out how to build pyramids, the cities beneath the ancient ruins, the ships at the bottom of the Black Sea, and more! Plus Will talks about the British tradition of o...

Writer and stand-up comedian Amy Silverberg loves wiener dogs, and she tells us all about it. What breeds? What types of coats? What are her preferred names? What is the appropriate voice to make when you are addressing a wiener dog? How about if you are making a voice on BEHALF of a wiener dog? What instagram accounts should you follow? We cover all of this and somehow much more! Also Will and An...

We talk to comedian Jamie Lee about her obsession with MOVIES WHERE PEOPLE DIE. Tragedies, preferably involving a fatal disease and a group of tight-knit friends getting even tighter. We're talking "Steel Magnolias," we're talking "Boys on the Side" but we are NOT talking "Forrest Gump!" Why not? Listen to find out! Also, Anthony talks about the Garry Marshall memoir "Wake Me When It's Funny" and...

NOTE: The audio starts cutting in and out after 14 minutes. My recording error. It's ironic that a conversation about trying to communicate better is ITSELF having trouble communicating. We're leaving it up but it unfortunately skips. Our apologies. Mary Sasson returns as she, Anthony and Will do a follow-up to their Election 2016 episode, in which they all seemed pretty confident that Hillary Cli...

We talk to comedian Devin Field about FAST-TALKING WEIRDOS IN COMEDY MOVIES. Michael Keaton is the best example, and maybe the only example? No, there are others and we talk about them! Also, Anthony talks about The Seven-Year Itch and Will discusses musician Emilyn Brodsky.

We talk to comedians and Headgum network founders Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld about their obsession with DANCING. These guys get dressed up, hit the bar/clubs (but usually bars) and get into the music. We talk about what kind of bars they like, what kind of music, how the act of dancing fills you with joy, how they got into this and how they are honestly not being creepy but yes incidentally...

There's not enough talk about the elections, we figured, so here's our contribution. We talk to comedians Travis Helwig and Mary Sasson about the 2016 US presidential election. More than in previous elections, we are fascinating with the race this year. How did Trump get here? What went down with Bernie vs. Hillary? Why does everyone want to think everything is rigged? Will the president and congr...

We talk to comedian Casey Feigh about the radical idea that Facebook is good and fun. People love to criticize it, but Casey is here to defend it. We get into the main criticisms people have, and Casey has ideas of how one can get around those criticisms. We talk about getting in touch, and posting fun photos, and letting friends know how you're doing and even -- gasp -- having empathy for other p...

Comedian / writer / director Alex Fernie returns to the podcast to discuss ROBERT KENNEDY. We get into his strengths (committment to civil rights), he weaknesses (er, being real cool with Communist witch-hunting), his impromptu speech on the night Martin Luther King Jr. died, how he might have been a more transformative figure than JFK, and how his assassination in 1968 may have changed American p...

We talk to comedian Nicole Byer, star of the MTV shows "Girl Code" and her own "Loosely Exactly Nicole" about her obsessions STEALING and FAKE HAIR. It's our first two-obsession podcast, including one that is straight-up a criminal activity. First, Nicole talks about her (past) days as a shoplifter, how she got into it, how to do it right, how she eventually stopped. Then we just downshift into fa...

We talk to comedian Mike Carlson about comics writer Grant Morrison! He's written almost everything in the super hero world! He's into chaos magick! He's cerebral and laid-back and Scottish! We talk about what Mike likes about him so much. We get into several of his famous works, like All-Star Superman, The Invisibles, his run on Batman and X-Men, as well as some more minor but awesome things like...