Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma

🇷🇺😵‍💫🌀 Paul Giamatti shares a crazy Havana syndrome-like experience he had at the Russian Embassy in Budapest, which somehow leads to his love of acting on stage and sharing that mass-delusion with an audience. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. 🇷🇺😵‍💫🌀 ========= 📋 Please h...

😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 Paul and Stephen strive to understand the phenomenon of mass panic and incidences of collective delusion throughout history. Learn the difference between mass panic and mass hysteria, how our minds influence our physical reactions, and the power of the media in escalating these events. What caused the hysteria that surrounded the Beatles and Elvis, or the outbreak of panic after th...

🤠🤠🤠 During Paul and Stephen’s first Chinwag with delightful author and historian Sarah Vowell (go back and listen to that episode from 10/4/23 now!), the term “10 gallon hat” came up. Both hosts, as well as Sarah, were stymied on the origin of the term. What does it really mean? Does it refer to the size of a cowboy hat? A measurement of water? Does it have to do with how much water a cowboy ha...

🌺🌺🌺 Author and historian Sarah Vowell may have spoken a little too soon in her first Chinwag with Paul and Stephen. Behold the incredible tales of coincidence that challenge her literal mind and make Sarah question her woo-woo-ness. From Sacagawea’s chance meeting with her long-lost brother, to John Adams’ and Thomas Jefferson’s shared date of death, and odd details about the Lincoln assassinat...

👻🥞🥤 Natasha shares her beliefs in the possibility of aliens, ghosts and Bigfoot, introduces the Fermi Paradox to the conversation with Paul and Stephen, enjoys a pancake lunch, and tells the story of her life with Rootbeer the dog.  Bonus: Did Natasha’s dog Rootbeer get plastic surgery or consult a psychic? Tune in to this week’s Bonus-Wag to find out! Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor an...

⚛️⚛️⚛️ Paul and Stephen read a letter from Keith, an airline pilot in Idaho who shares his incredible UFO sighting and belief in Interdimensional Sasquatch Travel. Then.... Natasha Lyonne joins, and that’s when things get weird and quantum-physical. Listen in as Paul and Stephen follow Natasha around her house, feed Rootbeer the dog, and learn why she’s comforted by the dulcet sound of quantum phy...

🏺🌊🐆 More Cryptid lore for your listening pleasure. Meet one of Stephen’s favorites, the legendary Hodag of Wisconsin. The horned Hodag that never reclines, liked the taste of humans, and just might’ve been a hoax that stoked tourism in 1890s Oneida County. The Hodag conjures Native American folklore of the underwater panther, Mishipeshu, who lives in the water and fights Thunderbirds (a favorit...

🫎🫎🫎 Paul and Stephen reveal some of their favorite American cryptids. Skip by the oft-told stories of Sasquatch and Chupacabra and follow Paul into the dark primeval forests of Maine to meet the Spectre Moose. Hear the legend of this mysterious prehistoric-looking giant of the Maine woods. Some sightings recall the Spectre Moose’s faint white glow and an ability to walk through solid objects. A...

🦬🦬🦬 Paul and Stephen’s interest in history is deep and windy, so who better to get a riveting lesson from than award-winning documentarian, Ken Burns. Hear why the master auteur has wanted to tell the tragic story of the American Buffalo for 30 years, and trace the path of its near extinction in the late 19th century. Was the buffalo saved by the captive gates of zoos? What is man’s moral respo...

🕯️⏳🚇 Recorded live from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), Paul and Stephen field questions from our brilliant and inquisitive Chinwag audience. Paul and Stephen offer insights on precognitive dreams, past lives and reincarnation. The chains of causation and LaPlace’s Demon gets a mention, and what do prophecies in art and science fiction actually reflect? Paul and Stephen...

🔮🔮🔮 Recorded live from the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), Paul and Stephen discuss the power and historical impact of Nostradamus, prophets and clairvoyants. Who was Nostradamus and how did his vague predictions make him a legend in his time? Paul and Stephen reveal his cure for the plague and explain Nostradamus’s popularity in times of crisis. Was he just a shitty astro...

☸️🙃⚛️ Paul, Stephen and fiction writer Ted Chiang discuss the pros and cons of our fallible memories and the human technological interface. Is that fight with your partner about “who said what” an essential part of developing a human relationship, or is none of that even the point? Is adopting a pact of truth and reconciliation the path forward in relationships as it is in some countries’ politic...

🦾🦾🦾 In this Chinwag, Paul and Stephen are thrilled to be subject to fascinating thought experiments by award-winning fiction writer Ted Chiang. Up for the discussion? The difference between fact and fiction when it comes to the existence of alien life, and whether Paul is indeed an assassin because he played one in an action film Ted once saw. Imaginations are running amok and people can’t diff...

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿✍🏼🇺🇸 Welcome to the Bonus-wag with Neil Gaiman! Neil's got a needy actor story that Paul relates to and understands. How being a Brit helps Neil write about America with the perfect amount of detachment to see it clearly. And is America the land of the trickster and huckster? How are George Santos and Donald Trump perfectly American creations and why are they celebrated? All this and John...

🎄🎄🎄 Wanna go on a tour of fringe places to visit with Paul, Stephen, and award-winning author Neil Gaiman? Paul, Stephen and Neil love a weird outing and this episode introduces you to a bevy of greats. From Wisconsin’s own House on the Rock, to the Winchester Mystery House. Hear about the Museum of Jurassic Technology in LA, the Soviet Arctic Exploration Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Museu...

🏦 💰 🚔 More behind-the-scenes chat and wisdom with actor, filmmaker, and author Bruce Campbell! Bruce’s Christian Science upbringing and how it led him on his own spiritual journey. Why humor and horror are a winning combination, and old school Hollywood yarns about Lee Majors, Larry Fine, the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Harry Houdini, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis (including impressions). Pa...

🌌🌌🌌 Paul and Stephen are joined by raconteur, actor, author and Hawaiian shirt expert, Bruce Campbell. Tune in to hear about the first time he smoked weed on the set of Evil Dead (yes he got high), how moonshine was used to keep warm, and how Bruce keeps himself amused at horror film conventions. Plus, that time he went in search of the BigFoot trap near his house in Oregon, and heard an eyewit...

⏳⏳⏳ Part 2 of Paul and Stephen’s chat with Academy Award winning actor, writer, and author Tom Hanks. Why are time travel fantasies perfect escapes and where does Tom dream of going? What’s the logic of time travel and what would be better: going back to the past or going forward into the future? Tom shares cautionary food for thought from Thornton Wilder and Charleton Heston, and lessons glean...

🍠🍠🍠 Academy Award winning actor, writer, author and all-around wonderful human Tom Hanks joins Paul and Stephen to help unload specious facts about Quebec, Canada (lowest marriage rate in the world!), Blue Zones and the importance of purple yams. Paul, Stephen and Tom discuss the speed of information, Chat GPT, cognitive dissonance in AI, and question the use of Waze to beat traffic. How have o...

☥🪦🍕 Bonus time with comedian, writer, director and author Mike Birbiglia. The guys discuss their thoughts on leaving a legacy, art as a path to immortality, and the enduring comedy of Charlie Chaplin and W.C. Fields. Also, what’s the career advice one should never pass on to others? Lastly, Mike’s love of pizza (and the word “plaza”) leads to the end of the debate on the country’s best pizza. Is...

🤳🏽🤳🏽🤳🏽 Tune in as comedian Mike Birbiglia, also our resident Swiftie expert and anti-hero, explains the Taylor Swift phenomenon to Paul and Stephen. Also, why is TikTok so addictive, and which host shares this obsession with Birbigs and 420 million Gen Zers? Then, how to talk to your kids about death and scary stuff (hint - don’t ask Paul!). Hear about Birbigs’ new Netflix special Old Man &...

✨🤩🌟 Recorded live at the Murmrr Theater in Brooklyn, NY on Oct 17th with the incomparable Paul Rudd. Chinwag’s studio audience jumps in on the action with their burning questions. More in-depth answers about fears, recurring dreams, pretend play and how improv plays a role in one’s success. Plus: Does I Love You Man mirror real life? And what’s its connection to Only Murders in the Building? Wh...

🛋️🛋️🛋️ Recorded live at the Murmrr Theater in Brooklyn, NY on Oct 17th. Paul and Stephen welcome Paul Rudd to discuss the genesis of his childhood fears, the difference between fears and phobias, and list all the things that give them the willies (puppets, clowns, and cockroaches OH MY!). Join our rapt studio audience as Rudd regales with his creepy childhood bedroom decor (velvet Charlie Brown po...

🏛️🏛️🏛️ Like the popular TikTok meme says about men, Paul thinks about Ancient Rome every 7 seconds. Stephen’s never counted but nonetheless our Chinwag hosts love to talk about the Roman Empire, and there’s one heralded scholar they’ve been wanting to meet: Professor Mary Beard. Sure, Dame Mary Beard has debated former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but now she enters the Chinwag! How much power...

🌺💀🌹 Paul and Stephen are into learning about death. Not just what happens after one departs, not just about ghosts and spirits and the afterlife, but what happens in the days that follow - to the bodies, and to the workers in the trenches of the death industry. Enter journalist and author Hayley Campbell, who after a lifelong fascination with death, sought these answers from the hardworking peo...