A Fresh Face in Hell with Jonathan Evison

Lachi is an American singer / songwriter, record producer, media personality, author, and disability culture advocate. She is legally blind and neurodivergent, but don't call her differently abled, she doesn't play that. As her book title says, Lachi proudly identifies as a blind woman. She is confident, fiercely independent and wildly creative. Lachi is also full of grace and gratitude...

Before grunge had a name, Kim Thayil was helping invent it. As the founding guitarist of Soundgarden, he spent four decades building one of rock's most singular sounds. Today we talk about those early Seattle days, and the punk and metal collisions that became the Seattle sound. He opens up about the brotherhood he built with Chris Cornell, Matt Cameron, Ben Shepherd, and Hiro Yamamoto — and...

Today I talk with journalist and author, Jasper Craven about his book, God Forgives, Brothers Don't: The Long March of Military Education and the Making of American Manhood. Jasper explores how military culture has come to define American values. From the Graham Platner's sordid past to cage matches at the White House we talk about our culture of violence and how the lasting traumas of w...

As a novelist, I firmly believe that the defining characteristic of a remarkable character lies in their capacity for transformation, whether it be for the better or the worse, as a direct consequence of their choices. In his book, “You’ve Changed,” author and journalist Benoit Denizet-Lewis delves into the very essence of self-transformation. Through a series of case studies, Benoit explores our...

Do you love hearing me rant about late-stage capitalism and the struggles of the American working class? Well, grab your hammer and sickle, comrade, I have an episode for you! Today, I talk with journalist Ann Larson about her experience of working as a checkout clerk at a supermarket in Utah. Ann's book "Cleanup on Aisle Five“ dives deep into supermarkets and how they operate, from the...

In an effort to get some of our older episodes up on YouTube we've decided to revisit the episode on Grudges with my friend, journalist and radio host, Danny O'neil. Danny has a newsletter called Grudgery.com where he explores famous grudges, as well as some of his own. This episode was intended to be light fun fare but ended up being a little more therapeutic than expected. We dig in de...

I've spent a fair bit of time talking about early 80's hardcore on the West Coast.  In past episodes, we've covered Seattle, San Diego, and Los Angeles, but today we head east. Nancy Barile's memoir "I'm Not Holding Your Coat" is about her experience in the 80's punk scenes of Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey, DC, and Boston. As a disaffected Catholic scho...

Friday, May 16th, 1980, author and nature enthusiast, Stacy Carlson, attended a school camping trip just 35 miles from Mount St. Helens. She was just 5 years old and had no idea that she was camping at the base of an active volcano. Sunday morning, they woke up and got ready to head out for a hike when suddenly the world turned upside down. Stacy and I talk about her harrowing experience as their...

Andrea Suarez, founder of "We Heart Seattle", claims that Seattle doesn't have a homeless problem, it has a serious fentanyl problem. Why is this an important distinction? For Andrea, it comes down to where we, and our elected officials, decide to focus our resources. Will more affordable housing slow the rampant theft, sex trafficking, and overdoses that plague Seattle? Does low-ba...

Recently, several people recommended to me a limited series podcast called Adults in the Room, which deals with a series of sexual abuse allegations at Garfield High School in Seattle in late 90s. The story, told largely by show's creator, Isolde Rafferty, the managing editor at KUOW and a former reporter at the New York Times , follows a young Isolde as she and a friend, students at Garfield...

In the summer of 2024, we recorded our first Fresh Face interview with Steve Turner, the trailblazing guitarist of Mudhoney. We initially planned on being an audio-only podcast, but we quickly realized that America prefers to watch people talk, so we started the YouTube channel. We wanted to re-release some of the early episodes that didn't get the video treatment on the channel, so we'r...

Francis Weller is a retired psychotherapist and renowned author of "The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief". Francis believes that grief and gratitude are inseparable, and that our capacity to feel loss is proportional to our capacity to love. Believing that communal grieving is essential for genuine healing, Francis hosts weekend retreats in Northern Ca...

If I were tasked with creating a soundtrack for the Evison family, Eric D. Johnson would definetly be featured. My kids would know the lyrics already from repeated listens. From Bonnie Light Horseman to The Shins to Fruit Bats, Eric has amassed a discography of indie folk-pop amazingness that few could rival. Eric has also created scores for films such as Wild , Our Idiot Brother , and Spivak . A...

We're all a little vain and self-involved at times, does that make us narcissists? Today’s guest, therapist and writer Vanessa Reiser, posits that although we may all be guilty of manipulation and self-aggrandizing, most of us are not, clinically speaking, narcissists. In today's episode Vanessa breaks down the telltale signs of a proper malignant narcissist. We discuss the crossover of...

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,...