Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Being able to make light of extremely heavy topics is what makes Atsuko Okatsuka a brilliant comedian. Her new comedy special Father aired on Hulu last month. Atsuko chatted with us about how recording videos on social media with her family brought them closer together, what it was like bringing her grandma on her honeymoon and much more! See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection an...

Actor and comedian Cole Escola has written and starred in some of the funniest TV comedies: Difficult People , Hacks , and At Home with Amy Sedaris . Cole recently took their writing from the small screen to the stage with Oh, Mary! , a one act play that examines the forgotten life and dreams of Mary Todd Lincoln. Cole joins Bullseye to talk about Oh, Mary! , gender, and all things Mary Todd Linco...

The one and only Mark Hamill joins us this week. He chats with us about his latest role in the epic, life-affirming drama The Life of Chuck . He also tells us about what inspired him to take his acting skills to Broadway after Star Wars . Plus, he shares what got him into voice acting and does his iconic voice as the Joker from the animated Batman series for us. See pcm.adswizz.com for information...

What was it like to work with Paul Reubens? The man behind Pee-wee Herman. Pee-wee as Himself is a beautiful, touching documentary about one of the most talented and unique voices of our time. He died in 2023. We're joined by filmmaker Matt Wolf. He talks about what made Paul Reubens a dream subject for a documentary and how he got Paul to open up about difficult topics. Plus, Jesse talks about hi...

This week on Bullseye , we talk to Ego Nwodim! She just wrapped up her seventh season as a cast member on Saturday Night Live . She talks with us about her roundabout path to comedy, including nods to her hometown in sketches, and a whole lot about her incredible SNL character: Lisa from Temecula. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and...

Mary Randolph Carter is an expert on all things junk. She's written many books on the topic including her latest called Live With the Things You Love: And You'll Live Happily Ever After . We asked Carter if there was ever one piece of junk she acquired over the years that stuck with her so much and lived inside her head rent free for so long that she wishes she made it. The object that came to min...

Questlove, drummer and bandleader for The Roots joins us on the latest episode. The legend. Lately, he's been working on music documentaries: Sly Lives! and Summer of Soul were both fantastic. He joins us to talk at length about Ladies & Gentlemen... 50 Years of SNL Music . Questlove gets into his early memories of Saturday Night Live as a kid and gets into how he's been involved with the show ove...

This week on Bullseye, we talk to Carson Lund, director of the new slice-of-life baseball film, Eephus . The movie is about two rec league baseball teams meeting to play their final game on a field, which will be torn down the next day to make way for a middle school. Lund talks to Bullseye about representing downtime in baseball, and rejecting the grand finale you might expect in a movie about a...

Alexander Skarsgård joins us to talk about the new Apple TV + sci-fi series Murderbot . He also gets into his upbringing and what it was like growing up around different artists and performers. Plus, he'll chat with us about some of his most memorable red carpet outfits. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast spo...

Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey will be forever linked together – thanks to one show: The Office . The sitcom is celebrating its 20th anniversary. They were strangers when the show started, but soon formed a friendship that has lasted long after the show wrapped, including their podcast Office Ladies and their book The Office BFFs . They joined Bullseye to talk about seeing the show through a new...

Jane Borden is a writer with bylines in Vanity Fair, the Washington Post, and the New York Times Magazine. Jane is kind of obsessed with cults. She enjoys reading books on them, watching documentaries, and vintage news pieces on the subject. Jane's obsession has become her latest book. She joins us on Bullseye to talk about Cults Like Us . The book is not just a study on the history of cults, but...

Rapper and producer Dezzy Hollow is a master of modern day West Coast funk. Earlier this year he released an album called OCEANSIDE , which he named after his hometown. He chats with us about the record, what he hopes his music can bring to the city and much more. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorshi...

Video game creator Keita Takahashi joins us to talk about how he got into designing video games and how he pitched the idea for his popular game Katamari Damacy to the folks at Namco. He also talks with us about his new game, to a T , which comes out soon. A version of this interview originally ran in April of 2024. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data...

Lisa Kudrow's big break was on the massively successful sitcom Friends . She portrayed the street-wise, but kind of clueless Phoebe Buffay. She's one of Friends ' most beloved characters. Before she broke out on that show she envisioned a very different future. Kudrow on her early career in science research, the cruelty of middle-schoolers that set her on the path to acting, and being mentored by...

Jean Grae is back on the show! The interdisciplinary artist just wrote a collection of personal essays called In My Remaining Years . She joins us to talk about the new book, why she distanced herself from rapping, her upbringing and much more. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR P...

This week, it's Bob Mackie! Mackie has made a career out of dressing big personalities in kinetic, sparkling garb. His life and career were profiled in an incredible documentary late last year. Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion covers the era-defining design work he did and the extraordinary life he's lived. Mackie talks to Bullseye about his early affinity for performance outfits, marrying costumes and...

The Craziest Day of My Entire Career is a segment where folks join us to talk about some truly unbelievable stories. Comedian Mike Drucker has had his fair share of crazy days – he's work for Full Frontal with Samantha Bee , Adam Ruins Everything , and Saturday Night Live . But his craziest day? It all happened at a paintball game when he was working for a little company called Nintendo. Good Game...

Writer, director and showrunner Tony Gilroy joins us to talk about the new season of Andor and what makes the show so different than any other Star Wars program. He also shares what his plans are after the series concludes, and tells us about how he almost entered a career in music instead of film. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship an...

This week on Bullseye, we talk to filmmaker Charles Burnett. His most famous film, Killer of Sheep , was part of his Masters' thesis at UCLA Film School in 1977. Now, it's in the Criterion Collection and the Library of Congress. His 1999 romance film, The Annihilation of Fish , has just been restored and set for its first theatrical release. He talks to Bullseye about representing communities auth...

Rapper Fat Joe is charming, verbose, and direct. He is a man who radiates confidence. You wanna make a banger for the club? Fat Joe's got em – Lean Back , What's Luv? ft. Ashanti, and All The Way Up. The Bronx legend joins us on the latest episode of Bullseye to talk about collaborating with KRS-One , LL Cool J and his latest record The World Changed On Me . He also gets into his childhood, his fa...

The Song That Changed My Life is a segment that gives a chance for musicians and artists to tell us about the song that made them who they are. This week, we talked to Casual – he was a founding member of underground Bay Area rap crew Hieroglyphics. Casual talks about Ride the Rhythm from Chill Rob G's debut album. The track helped Casual visualize his own flow when he was coming up. Casual breaks...

Josh Gad joins us to talk about his new memoir In Gad We Trust: A Tell Some. He also gets into what life was like growing up in South Florida, the one time he refuses to use his Olaf voice and winning three national titles in teen oratory competitions. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preference...

Bruce Vilanch wrote for countless TV variety shows dating back over 50 years. Sometimes, those shows turn out great! Think of Billy Crystal at the Oscars! The stuff that's not so great, you can read about in his new book: It Seemed Like A Bad Idea At The Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote . Vilanch tells Bullseye stories from behind the scenes of the Oscars, The Brady Bun...

Christina Hendricks joins us this week to talk about the new Hulu series Good American Family . She also chats with us about her time as a model and a ballet dancer, and what life's been like for her after starring on one of the biggest shows ever – Mad Men . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship pre...

Jesse talks with one of the greats: Laurie Metcalf. For nine years she played Jackie on the hit TV show Roseanne . These days, she's starring in The Conners , the ABC produced spinoff of the show. The Conners is wrapping its 7th and final season right now. On the latest episode, Laurie talks about her Oscar-nominated role in Lady Bird as well as her role on Roseanne and The Conners . See pcm.adswi...