Paul Giamatti’s CHINWAG with Stephen Asma

🎴🎴🎴 THIS IS PART 2 of Paul and Stephen’s wild time with Amy Sedaris -- which finds them debating the definition of a few choice sexual terms, discussing their love and appreciation of the grotesque, and hearing about the southern charm she’s cultivated in her home of New York City. Her thoughts on Marie Kondo’s book, which she ALSO got rid of during her great purge to raise money for Diabetes r...

🐦🐦🐦 David from Burlington, VT writes in about Paul and Stephen’s obsession with the famed Loch Ness Monster but elevates the discourse to regale us with the lore of his local lake monster, Champ. This Chinwag explores various theories on cryptids and ponders: has there been a fold in time and are these sea creatures ghostly time-jumpers from the future? Or are they from the past? What’s the fam...

🍄🍄🍄 Ever wonder about the real medicinal uses of psychedelics? Wanna hear tales from the guy who did time training in the bad trip tent at Burning Man? Paul and Stephen do, so they go to the tip of the spear - straight to Johns Hopkins’ foremost psychedelics expert, Dr. Matthew Johnson. In this mind-expanding chat, hear about Dr. Johnson’s trailblazing work to help advance the therapeutic use o...

✍🏼✍🏼✍🏼 Paul and Stephen love their history, so who better for this Chinwag than brilliant essayist, author and historian, Sarah Vowell? Listen in as they contemplate the tricky business of retelling history that doesn’t live up to the current moral code. Which President is the biggest zero? The least sexy? And what did Benjamin Harrison – our 23rd president – actually do while in office? You kn...

🧙🏻‍♂️🧙🏻‍♂️🧙🏻‍♂️ Catch PART 2 of Paul and Stephen’s dip into the profoundly thoughtful mind of Mr. Stephen Colbert. Explore the power of prayer and magical thinking, the importance of unlearning what you know, and Paul and Colbert’s shared love of sci-fi, or as Stephen Asma calls it, “Gandalf and sh*t.” What’s the difference between sci-fi and fantasy, and can Lord of the Rings help process o...

🐟🐟🐟 Paul and Stephen get their daily dose of happiness during PART 1 of this illuminating and hilarious chat with writer, comedian, late night host, Mr. Stephen Colbert. Have you ever wondered why some spell Stephen with a V, while others with a PH? No? It’s great party fodder, trust us! Mr. Colbert captivates with his love of fishing, the evolution of the flounder, the consequences of unaddres...

🪐🪐🪐 Welcome to Paul’s happy place, discussing the ins and outs of the Hollow Earth Theory! Listen in as Paul and Stephen go deep to the chewy center of this fringe theory that the earth is not a solid sphere but a hollow shell with its own universe living within it. This is not your mama’s flat earth theory, or any of that fake moon landing stuff – welcome to the Hollow Earth. And what’s all th...

🪄🪄🪄 Paul and Stephen are fascinated by magic and the art of deception and they’re thrilled to take this extraordinary ride into the wondrous mind of master illusionist Derek DelGaudio. Listen in as they explore themes of reality, deception, imagination, morality, manipulation, and belief with the sleight of hand maestro. Is authenticity even possible anymore? Is Tik Tok just a series of mini-Sh...

📯📯📯 Your fan mail gets answered this week! Arthur from Japan writes in and asks Paul and Stephen to discuss Thomas Edison’s spirit phone, a little known device to contact the dead. What happened with Edison’s quest to prove life after death, and what’s TikTok got to do with it?  Also learn about a ghostly human voice recording from the 1840s (predating known technology)! Add to that a bonus vis...

👨🏻‍🚀👨🏻‍🚀👨🏻‍🚀 Paul and Stephen are obsessed with UFOs and life beyond earth–so who better to add to the conversation than a guy who’s been to space twice? This week, our intrepid Chinwaggers are joined by former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, a man who decided that a fear of heights would be best overcome by a trip to space. In this week’s classified file: space toilets, robot arms, and wh...

🌍📚✍🏾 Award-winning science fiction writer Nnedi Okorafor, who coined the term "Africanfuturism" joins co-hosts Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma on this episode of CHINWAG. Tickling mice, javelin-throwing nuns and making friends with sentient AI are just some of the detours their conversation takes this week. Can Stephen and Nnedi finally bridge the gap between cat people and dog people and bring...

📨📨📨 Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma asked for your thoughts, your burning questions, your weirdest musings, and you responded - in droves! Stephen from St. Louis asks, do watershed moments exist and is the term actually overused and misunderstood? Paul and Stephen discuss and wonder what history actually IS after all? And somehow, American soldier Boston Corbett makes an appearance. Then - are y...

💭💭💭 Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma are fascinated and confounded by dreams and the act of dreaming. Enter renowned dream and hypnosis expert, Dr. Deirdre Barrett and hear Paul and Stephen question the very meaning and purpose of dreams. Are they precognitive? Can dreams tell of past lives? Does imagination and intuition play a role? Do recurring dreams help protect us? What is dream incubation...

🦶🏽🦶🏽🦶🏽 Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma go deep with Don Cheadle and explore the importance of improv to combat aging, miming to Zapruder films, religion to tame the ego, gorilla trekking, and Paul’s desire to be considered for foot fetish sites.  Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, an...

👹👹👹 This week, Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma go down a wild rabbit hole on Satanism, a topic they find endlessly fascinating. They ruminate on everything from atheism to Aleister Crowley, pentagrams to Frankenstein. Also hear about sex magick (with a "K"). Bonus: Jimmy Page’s purported Satan worship! You don’t want to miss this deep dive into the diabolical.  Paul Giamatti is an award-winning...

🚇🚇🚇 Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma host a candid chat with the always effervescent and inventive Amy Sedaris. Hear about Amy’s love of Japanese subways, why she finally broke down and got a phone, her impression of Dolly Parton, and love for the artistic works of George W. Bush, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor...

🎭🎭🎭 An encore presentation of Paul Giamatti’s and Stephen Asma’s chat with Patton Oswalt recorded at SXSW 2023 in Austin, TX. Paul and Stephen learn about Oswalt’s current obsession with the Mandela Effect and take an unexpected wild detour through Shakespeare, demons, horror movies and goo pods. Bonus: Paul and Stephen read fan mail and debate a suggested explanation for the Mandela Effect.  ...

🛸🛸🛸 More shocking revelations from Paul Giamatti’s and Stephen Asma’s chat with Mutual UFO Network’s (MUFON) Star UFO investigator Katie Paige. What IS Project Looking Glass, and has this secret operation been part of a cover-up? Hear more about the trauma associated with the purported alien abductions of Whitley Strieber and Betty Andreeason. Bonus: Paul and Stephen learn about the hat man, sh...

👽👽👽 Katie Paige, Mutual UFO Network’s (MUFON) Star UFO investigator, joins Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma for an enthralling, deeply weird chat on paranormal unknowns like Travis Walton’s alien abduction, crop circles, and cattle mutilation. Bonus: Government involvement and cover-ups, Skinwalker Ranch, disembodied electrical voices, and a connection between UFOs and Bigfoot! Paul Giamatti is a...

🍴🍴🍴 More lively excerpts from Paul Giamatti’s and Stephen Asma’s chat with Academy Award winner and musician, Billy Bob Thornton. This time Billy Bob talks about his psychic mom, his intense dislike of old silverware, Fettuccine Alfredo, and the genesis of Paul’s childhood bug phobia. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in th...

🐿🐿🐿 Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma have their first-ever readings with the Long Island Medium herself, Theresa Caputo. Join as they post-game about everything from intuition to the afterlife, and hear how Theresa can not catch a break from the spirits, despite her dad’s pleading. Bonus: which pet animal visits from the other side the most? Hint, it’s not Fido.  Paul Giamatti is an award-winning ac...

🌟🌟🌟 Recorded Live in Denver at SeriesFest 2023, Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma talk to a live audience about the trendy topic of Starseeds, a cosmic mystery whose content has over 1 billion views on TikTok. Also in this episode: the reading of Akashic records, and Exorcism: is this still a thing? Bonus: Paul is left utterly baffled by the coronation of King Charles. Stephen Asma is a professor...

💊💊💊 Killer Psyche podcast host Candice DeLong spent two decades in the FBI as a criminal profiler tracking serial killers and working such notorious cases as the Unabomber and the Chicago Tylenol Murders. Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma explore the terrifying and tactical world of tracking murderers with Candice and learn that even psychopaths suffer career burnout. Bonus: learn about predictive...

🌼🌼🌼 Paul and Stephen engage with Preet Bharara on some unlikely topics: UFOs, conjugal relations with chickens, flowers on Mars, the opposable thumbs of aliens, stamp collecting, and the poetry of law. Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the philosophy of science, religion, and art. Paul Giamatti is an award-winning actor and producer. Preet Bharara is a former U.S. Attorney...

🏐🏐🏐 Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma are fascinated by Kathryn Hahn’s deep knowledge of cults, con men, hypnosis, brainwashing dogs, and the power of late night volleyball sessions. Bonus: Travis the chimpanzee, radical nuns, lice couches, do Popes Netflix and chill, and that time Paul fought off kidnapping Krishnas in Northern Ireland! Stephen Asma is a professor and author specializing in the p...