Really? no, Really? with Jason Alexander & Peter Tilden

I'm looking at a robotic dog that's freaking me out because it's kind of acting like a real dog in the way it looks at you, the way it responds. And I wasn't sure how I would feel about an animatronic dog design. I think specifically for people who have issues, neurological issues like Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and what this dog can do for those people. And is it for those people, or is it fo...

We originally wanted to title this episode "How the worst day of life became the best day of life", but we realized it was better to let Pete Holmes explain everything that happened to him leading up to his stand-up career and the creation of his HBO show, Crashing, that he made with Judd Apatow. On this episode of Really? no Really? Jason and Peter do a deep with Pete on how an incident liking ca...

When comedian Rick Glassman was first diagnosed with autism, he loved talking about it in his act because it was a new discovery for him. But then he became more self-conscious about it because of people's preconceived ideas of what being on the spectrum is. On this episode of Really? no Really?, Rick explains to Jason and Peter how he found himself in these positions where he was teaching, explai...

Steven Cyr, long time Las Vegas casino host, Vegas Insider, and a man who spent decades standing at the intersection of money, addiction, psychology, ego, luxury, and absolute human madness. That's a six way intersection, by the way. On this episode of the Really? no, Really? Podcast, you're about to hear the secrets of Vegas revealed, including whether casinos use coolers. The cooler. That's the...

Chad Maisel and Neale Mahoney, authors of the report, Taking On The Annoyance Economy, explain why every app, website, airline, pharmacy, streaming service, grocery store and parking meter now feels like it's determined to break you on this episode of the Really? no Really? Podcast. We used to think companies wanted loyal customers. Now it feels like companies want hostages. Everything is designed...

Jason had an emergency this week and could make this episode but Peter held down the fort. With the Olympics heading to Los Angeles in 2028, the issue on how cities bid to hold the Olympics is one that drives Peter crazy. On this episode of Really? no Really? Podcast, Peter speaking economist, Andrew Zimbalist, author of the book, Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and...

Gary Gulman is one of the sharpest and the most respected stand up comedians working today. Known for his brilliantly detailed observational comedy, Gary has built a career turning the smallest human anxieties into epic philosophical events. Whether he's talking about state abbreviations, Trader Joe's childhood misunderstandings or the emotional collapse triggered by a routine email, he somehow ma...

You know you've made it in the music industry when "Weird Al" Yankovic requests to parody your song. "Weird Al" has spent more than four decades turning hit songs into time capsules that often outlive the originals. In a career that includes Grammy Awards, Platinum records, best-selling tours and the number one album decades. On this episode of the Really? no Really? Podcast, Jason and Peter sit d...

Eighty-seven million households in the United States own pets. Over $147 billion in spending for the pet food industry and related services, such as grooming. But we bet of the 87 million pet owning households, nobody feels confident that they're feeding their pet the right food. On this episode of Really? no Really? Jason and Peter speak with Bonnie Wertheim, Cultural Bureau Chief for the Wall St...

Alcohol consumption globally has hit it's lowest rate since the 1930s. This has resulted in $830 billion of liquor stocks being wiped off. Multiple US distilleries have filed for bankruptcy. There's supposedly a lake of 220 million gallons of alcohol somewhere that can't be sold. Wineries all over the world are backed up resulting in wine revenue down over $1 billion last year. So who's to blame f...

You have to appreciate the guys who are getting hit for the love of the game, not for the money. And you know what's funny about it? It's just taking one. On this episode of the Really? no Really? Podcast, Jason and Peter learn more about the psychological and biological rational behind UFC Founder, Dana White's latest phenomenon, Power Slap. Writer and Essayist, Ander Monson, wrote about how Powe...

Director Barry Sonnenfeld joins Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden on this episode of the Really? no Really? Podcast with more true stories from his career as both a Hollywood director and cinematographer. Peter discovered a TED Talk that Barry did called How to Get People to Do What You Want, that was fascinating, funny and very informative. Barry also has a new book out called, Best Possible Place...

There are both economic and cultural issues why young people would opt into living with their parents. But with today's housing affordability crisis, the number of young people living with their parents has gone up 33%. This has contributed to the rise of the trend known as stay-at-home sons, made popular by influencer, Luke Parkhurst, but there's also a cultural aspect behind the stay-at-home son...

Thomas Smith is a Johns Hopkins trained artificial intelligence expert who was was hailed as a veteran veteran programmer by The New York Times for his work with human in the loop AI, and served as an OpenAI beta tester and a co-founder for 12 years of AI driven photography agency. He also gave ChatGPT money to invest $500. Jason and Peter sit down with Thomas to find or more about using ChatGPT a...

Sadhguru is a spiritual leader who has billions of views, has at least 14 or 15 million followers on YouTube. Do people come to him for a fix to change or just for comfort? On this episode, Jason and Peter speak with Sadhguru about a prescription to change a world that seems challenged to take two minutes to turn inward. Can we be optimistic about humanity? Jason discovered Sadhguru during the pan...

You ever notice in podcast interviews, everyone's all comfortable? There's soft chairs, bottled water. The lighting that says you are important. Everybody's relaxed. Everybody's polished, and everything's lying just a tad or even more than a tad about who they are. Then there's Kevin Nealon. Kevin Nealon has done more episodes of Hiking show than Jason and Peter have of Really? no, Really?. But it...

Late Night talk shows are a unique art form that started with Jack Paar, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson and then continues today in whatever form it's in. But what made Carson special was because you got to see actors who weren't out there with the internet and take a look into their personal lives. In this episode, Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden sit down with Mark Malkoff, comedian and author of th...

With prediction market apps and sites like Polymarket, Kalshi and WagerWeb, you can literally bet on anything: Labubus, criminal case verdicts, Stephen Hawkings black hole theories, natural disasters. You can even bet on when a celebrity is going to die. But prediction markets aren't just about making money from gambling, there's a darker truth here. On this episode, Jason and Peter talk to Jonath...

Credit Card Churners are people who repeatedly open and close credit card accounts to primarily earn sign-up bonuses like cash back, points, or travel miles. Is this type of hack strategy illegal? On this episode, Jason and Peter ask financial expert and senior advisor at Magnetar, Roger Hochschild, to explain how this process works. We'll also have Roger clear up a few myths and answer some quest...

Some AI data centers known as "hyperscalers" need to consume as much water as the whole city of Philadelphia. On this this episode, Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden ask Eric Olson, the assistant professor of finance and the director of the Center of Energy Studies at the University of Tulsa, to not only reveal how much much water it takes for ChatGPT to answer one question but to also address why...

What makes Seinfeld feel more alive in 2026 than half the shows made today? In this episode, Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden sit down with Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (author of Seinfeldia) to unpack why the show’s jokes, catchphrases, and “no one learns anything” mandate still shape comedy—and culture. They dig into the streaming afterlife, the wild ratings era (including the infamous 78 million ...

Hollywood’s latest “anxiety hack” isn’t a new miracle drug — it’s an old medication with a new spotlight. Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden dig into the celebrity buzz around beta blockers with Dr. Nasser Ghaemi, an academic psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at Tufts University. They break down what beta blockers (like propranolol) actually do, why actors and musicians use them for performan...

Waymo’s self-driving cars look futuristic — but what’s really happening behind the scenes may surprise you. On Really? No, Really., Missy Cummings — former U.S. Navy fighter pilot, MIT-trained engineer, and one of the world’s leading AI and robotics safety experts — explains why true self-driving cars don’t actually exist yet, how human “remote operators” may be quietly stepping in, and the hidden...

How do art heists actually work — and why do so many stolen masterpieces disappear forever? On Really? No, Really?, Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden talk with art-theft investigator Anthony Amore about the real mechanics of modern art crime. Amore cuts through the Hollywood myths, explaining why museums are more vulnerable than people think, how routine and insider knowledge get exploited, and why...

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Tom Petty died in 2017, but his music continues to live on thanks to hits like "Refugee", "Here Comes My Girl", and "Runnin' Down a Dream." But recently Jason and Peter were stunned to learn that Petty didn’t write those songs alone. Really, no Really! Mike Campbell was an original member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and co-wrote many of the band's legendary hits an...