A Fresh Face in Hell with Jonathan Evison

This month, Hachette Publishing cancelled distribution of their book Shy Girl after it was reported by The New York Times that large portions of the text had been created by AI. When the author originally self-published the novel, it garnered rave reviews with 4,900 ratings on Goodreads and an average of 3.52 stars. Eventually, readers started to notice the tell-tale signs of AI slop: repetitive p...

Excited to talk to my old friend, Roger "Buzz" Osborne, King Buzzo, or as I like to call him, Buzz Melvin. Buzz is the founder and front man of the seminal punk band The Melvins. As the punk sound of the late '70s evolved into '80s hardcore, the tempo accelerated aggressively. The Melvins, inspired by Black Sabbath, decided instead to slow things down. This unique combination o...

Thrilled to talk to one of my punk rock heroes today, Exene Cervenka. In 1977 Exene, along with John Doe, Billy Zoom, and D.J. Bonebrake, formed the seminal LA punk band X. We talk about those early days and how her music evolved over the years with collaborators like Dave Alvin, Mojo Nixon, and Ray Manzarek. We also talk about how art and punk overlapped in the '70s and how that time taught...

Today I talk with a musician I have mad respect for--Built to Spill frontman Doug Martsch. I’ve seen Built to Spill a bunch of times, along with another one of his bands, Treepeople. Doug and I rap about the origins of BTS and Treepeople, along with the two Bretts—Netson and Nelson. We discuss the musical influences that helped shape his signature sound, while I profess a love of Boise’s annual Tr...

Noah Giansiracusa is a professional mathematician who has figured out how to use his super powers to hack into the algorithms that rule our lives. From social media to credit scores to online shopping, Noah encourages his devotees to understand how math is used to manipulate you at every point of decision-making in modern life. Remember saying in school, "When am I ever going to use this?&quo...

Marco Collins is a seminal figure in both the San Diego and Seattle alt-rock music scenes of the '80s and '90s. As a radio DJ, Marco was instrumental in introducing new artists to eager listeners at 91X (San Diego) and later at KNDD, The End (Seattle). Many bands, like NIN, The Pixies, and the Cocteau Twins, only got airplay because Marco fought with his stations to play them. He leaked...

If you like hearing stories from Gen X postal workers, you have come to the right podcast. Today I talk with my second mail carrier, Stephen Grant. At the beginning of the pandemic Stephen lost his job as a strategist for a Manhattan ad agency. He decided to return to his family home in West Virginia where he took a job as a mail carrier. Stephen wrote a book about his experiences called "Mai...

When I get called a boomer, it’s usually because I’m trying to explain to someone much younger why collecting vinyl records and making mixtapes is so satisfying. A Spotify playlist may be more efficient and time-saving, but what do you lose in the digital process? Organic discovery that’s not based on an algorithm. Record store curation (High Fidelity, anyone?). Listening to a whole album while re...

Tim Mays has been promoting shows and owning clubs in San Diego for 47 years. His most famous club, The Casbah, is celebrating 37 years in business this year. Tim talks with me about the early, often violent, days of the San Diego punk scene. We also talk about the early '90s when San Diego was thought to be "the next Seattle," with bands like Drive Like Jehu, Rocket from the Crypt,...

Craig Lancaster is a prolific author, playwright, and journalist who wrote the award-winning "600 Hours of Edward," as well as its sequels "Edward Adrift" and "The Summer Sun." Tired of the publishing game, Craig has decided to hang it all up and become a nomad. He sold his belongings, rented his house out, bought an RV, and has now charted a path across America. My g...

OK, I'm a homer for the Hawks, I'm a 12. One of my favorite Seahawks analysts is the co-host of the Man2Man podcast, Mike Dugar. Mike recently published a book on the Seahawks called "The Franchise - Seattle Seahawks: A Curated History of the Legion of Boom Era." Today we talk about how our Seahawks have evolved over the last 15 years, as well as some highlights along the way,...

Excited to be returning for our second calendar year of the podcast! After a couple of weeks of quiet contemplation, I've decided that we need to ramp up our optimism mission. Today, I talk with bus driver, author, and filmmaker Nathan Vass about his 18 years of driving the No. 7 Metro bus through some of the toughest neighborhoods in Seattle. Nathan is unique in that he approaches his job wi...

Victor M. Sweeney splits his time between raising four children, running a small town funeral home, writing books and being the most famous mortician on the internet. Victor hosts a podcast called Death And as well as highly entertaining YouTube channel where he answers, with immense patience, questions on all things death. He took time today to answer some of my questions, from the poignant . . d...

A couple of years ago I came across an article in the New York Times titled "Inside the Adolescence Mental Health Care Crisis" written by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Matt Richtel. The piece was an amazing exploration of the mental health landscape for teenagers and parents in modern times. When Matt came out with his new book, "How We Grow Up: Understanding Adolescence"...

Kevin Hazzard's 2016 book, "A Thousand Naked Strangers", was described to me as "Kitchen Confidential" for paramedics. An insider's account of one of the hardest, most traumatic jobs in America, an EMT. We dive into the world of first responders to hear some harrowing stories of heroism, resilience, and outright horror. Kevin talks in depth about how paramedics cope m...

Larry Reid is curator by trade and Seattle icon by reputation.  He co-founding Rosco Louie gallery in Seattle’s Pioneer Square in 1978. He has since served as director of Graven Image gallery and the Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA), and as a curator for Experience Music Project (EMP). He currently works as the curator of Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery. Today we talk about Larry's ori...

Today marks our 52nd episode! I couldn’t be happier to round out year one with our guest, Lee McIntyre. Lee is a philosopher by training, a research fellow at Boston University, and a lifetime member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. In this episode, we discuss how to reason with people who believe in theories that make zero sense—from flat earth and the hollow moon to faked moon landings, 5G towers, vacc...

Ever wonder why there are so many cults in American history? From religious cults to success cults to wellness cults—we’re lousy with them. Author Jane Borden argues that this is no surprise when you consider that the Pilgrims and Puritans were both doomsday cults. With metaphorical red yarn, she lays out a compelling argument that throughout our history, we keep returning to our culty origins. Fr...

Every few months I like to run some fun ideas I see on YouTube by a couple of renowned scientists who then puzzle over me like a talking chimpanzee. This week I talk with author and astrophysicist Mario Livio and Nobel Prize-winning biologist Jack Szostak about their book Is Earth Exceptional: The Quest for Cosmic Life. We discuss the possibility of life in the universe and what that might look li...

Today I sit down with author Thomas Kohnstamm to talk about his wild ride from grocery store deli worker to grad student, Lonely Planet travel writer, and now celebrated novelist. In the early 2000s, Thomas made global headlines after an Australian tabloid twisted an interview claiming that he'd written about places he'd never visited. While what he’d said about the truth of travel writi...

Raising a teenage boy today is not easy. Young men face intense pressure to navigate conflicting models of masculinity. They're told that a real man should strive, win and dominate but one misstep could lead to being cancelled online without recourse. For many teenager boys, isolation feels safer than engagement with the world. Today I talk with author Ruth Whippman about what it means to rai...

Get ready for a good laugh. Today I talk with my friend, beta reader, piano man - Bryan Roper. Bryan spent years sailing the seas as a piano bar entertainer on all manor of cruise ships. From bargain savers to billionaire yachts, from blues cruises to nude cruises he's seen it all. For 18 consecutive months Bryan tickled the ivories and sang the American songbook for thousands of drunken fant...

When I was living in Los Angeles in 1993-94, I was homesick for the Pacific Northwest. I missed my friends, I missed the rain, and the small-town charms of the Olympic Peninsula. One thing got me through: reruns of Northern Exposure, which reminded me of home. The show was filmed in the town of Roslyn, just over the mountains from Seattle. The whole vibe of the show just hit me in my comfort zone,...

Jess Walter is one of my favorite modern authors. I love his voice, his sense of humor and the way his characters stick with me long after I finish one of his books. Today we discuss his new novel, "So Far Gone." The story follows our reclusive hero, Rhys Kinnick, as he engages a Christian Nationalist militia to recover his kidnapped grandchildren from his conspiracy addled son-in-law, S...

Today I talk with legendary rock guitarist, Stone Gossard. Stone's distinct guitar sound has become synonymous with what we understand as the other Seattle sound of the '90s. On one hand, there were the more chaotic, big fuzzy guitar sounds from Steve Turner, Kurt Cobain, and Kim Thayil, and then on the other, there was Stone's rock/glam-influenced power chords that defined Mother L...