onefjef

David Brown grew up moving between thirteen houses in Louisiana, taught to believe heaven was exclusive and his queerness was wrong. He survived Katrina, broke from his family, and somehow turned all that pain into the Harmony Project—a five-hundred-voice choir where everyone belongs. In this conversation, we talk about what happens when people who would never meet start singing together, why musi...

I’m selling everything, leaving Ohio, and moving to Mexico City in six weeks. This episode is a raw montage about fear, nostalgia, politics, anger, and why staying comfortable finally felt worse than leaving. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Instagram: @onefjefpod Facebook: https://www.f...

I talk with Essie Baird about anxiety, creativity, filmmaking, and the experience of realizing—years later—that a relationship with a teacher was abuse, what happened when she finally told her story, and the complicated aftermath of coming forward. Follow Essie on Instagram at @essielikethestar , and watch her films Red & Orange on her YouTube Channel @flood_me_up If you or someone you know ha...

Jesse Cale is a musician, poet, and the founder of hOm Sound Baths , whose work explores sound as a doorway into presence, healing, and altered states of awareness. In this conversation, we talk about his upbringing in evangelical Christianity, leaving the church, mental health, music as ritual, the rise of sound baths, money and meaning, community, and what happens when you build something from t...

A short bonus episode to ease my guilt about not releasing something every week, share my plans for 2026, and reflect on the universal admiration people have for my puffer coat. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Instagram: @onefjefpod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onefjefpod X: @onef...

A random Christmas episode about flawed Santa myths, childhood memories, unhinged holiday parties, and the pressure to find joy in a season that carries so much weight. And me singing! It's like Christmas morning, but in the form of a podcast episode. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Ins...

This episode is a cult-classic Christmas radio show I recorded while in film school in 2006. It’s performed in character and marks the first appearance of Feffrey, then called Nigel. Weird, unhinged, and very much a departure from my usual episodes. Listener discretion advised. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://...

This week’s episode is a conversation I recorded with Chris Ryan for his podcast, Tangentially Speaking . He let me share the full audio here. We sat outside his place in Crestone, Colorado and talked about desire, death, politics, art, Korea, hitchhiking, cancel culture, the weirdness of the moment we’re living in, and why connection feels so hard and so necessary Subscribe to Tangentally Speakin...

I turned 52 in Mexico City and recorded the whole strange week: biking through Condesa, wandering the Tianguis de Comonfort, drinking giant micheladas, eating the world’s least subtle tongue taco, and chasing the legendary camote man’s whistle across Parque México. Patricia joins me, of course, and tries to make me a braver eater. Airports, mariachi chaos, numerology, and one very pink gringo — it...

A short Thanksgiving episode about gratitude, perspective, and pausing to pay attention. Thank you to everyone who participated in this episode – I'm sorry I couldn't use everything. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Website: https://onefjefpod.com Instagram: @onefjefpod Substack: @onefje...

In this milestone episode, Chris Casey guest-hosts and interviews me about my life — my childhood in Ohio, discovering theatre, living in London & Korea, going to film school at SCAD, making Coverage and After You Left , getting into Sundance, editing in NYC, working for The Lincoln Project and then creating onefjef. A deep look at my creative path and how this podcast began. Here are links to...

I sit down with with my 14-year-old cousin Mia — a high-school freshman, wrestler, and alto sax player — to talk about what it’s like to grow up in 2025. We talk social media, family, school, friendship and Phantom of the Opera, and why adults don’t always get what it’s like to be a teen today. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patr...

In which I ramble about Icelandic grocery stores, job search fatigue, generational swearing, Hurricane Sandy, social media burnout, and the origin of my crayon costume collection. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Instagram: @onefjefpod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onefjefpod X: @on...

I talk to Gary Clarke, who is currently in Huaraz, Peru—cold mountains, thin air, and 7,500 kilometers left before he reaches Tierra del Fuego. We talk about bad Spanish classes, hot air balloons, oil rig sunrises, why most people don’t chase the life they want, and why the best way to see the world is on the seat of a bicycle. You can follow Gary's travels on Instagram @gary_clarke Please show so...

I sit down (virtually) with my old friend — actor, musician, writer, and unapologetic decaf drinker — Nicholas Webber. Nicholas and I have made a lot of things together over the years, and this time the thing we made is a conversation about fatherhood, faith, AI, and why technology might be the new religion. We get into logic and mystery, and the strange comfort of the small rituals that hold a li...

In which I ramble about overwhelming media, disappointing plants, mind-bending mushrooms, Trader Joe's, and which hand Vishnu would hold a microphone with. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Instagram: @onefjefpod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onefjefpod X: @onefjef TikTok: @onefjefpo...

A solo episode from a quick trip to Colorado: Garden of the Gods, a hot tub under the stars, a guy at a bar who says he was kidnapped by the cartel, and an unsuccessful hunt for Crestone’s outdoor funeral pyre. Mostly me sorting through middle age, altitude, and a string of strange detours. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon...

In this semi-milestone episode, I enter the onefjef multiverse and sit down with… Jef Taylor. We talk about the odd intimacy of sharing an identity, the pretension & justification behind dropping the superfluous f, and what happens when you realize another version of you is out there working at a zoo, documenting Hot Wheels jousting, and looking for little pockets of joy wherever he can find t...

This week I talk with writer and former Capitol Hill staffer — and my old co-worker — Evelyn Quartz about the strange afterlife of political work: how two people who once believed in “hope and change” ended up disillusioned with the system they helped run. We trade stories about burnout, ideology, and how a job that’s supposed to “change the world” can quietly drain your sense of meaning. Evelyn t...

This week I sit down with my first teenage guest, Millie Matyjasik. We talk about driving lessons, ballet, cold plunges in the Pacific, social media brainrot, situationships, and what teenagers wish adults would understand. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Instagram: @onefjefpod Facebook...

In this bonus episode of onefjef , I welcome back my dear friend Chris Casey—the very first listener to email the show, thereby winning the infamous email contest. Chris shares a heartfelt “acceptance speech,” a story about proving his mother wrong, and a perspective on seizing one's destiny (with AirPods and a $6 coffee in hand). We play his original voice memo, talk about prizes, party-crashing...

In my first post-road trip interview, I talk to Anastasia Katsina, who grew up in post-Soviet Lithuania, immigrated to Columbus, Ohio as a teen, and eventually found her path as a yoga teacher and somatic therapist. We talk about resilience, Lithuania's spiritual traditions, living in Switzerland and Norway, and how the pandemic unexpectedly brought her back to Columbus. And also how it's hard to...

In the seventh and final episode of my road trip, or at least this road trip, I visit the Great Sand Dunes National Park in the rain, experience the weirdness of Branson, get pulled over in Santa Fe, and get the hell out of Dodge City. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Instagram: @onefjef...

In this, the penultimate episode of my road trip saga, I experience the horrors of California's Central Valley, the solitary magic of Joshua Tree, and the disturbing thing called Las Vegas. Here's a link to my film COVERAGE , which I mention in the episode: https://vimeo.com/13490966 Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: h...

I took a break from my road trip last week so I'm releasing an interview with my friend, filmmaker Alex Mallis, whose feature film The Travel Companion is now in theaters. We talk about the highs and lows of getting a first feature into a major festival, what happens after Tribeca, politics in New York, the joy of creating something for its own sake, and (yes) selling fart sounds as NFTs during CO...