Spieling The Beans

My guest this episode is Kiran Deol, the Emmy-nominated, Oscar-longlisted comedian, actor, writer, director, filmmaker and documentarian. As an actor, she’s performed in shows like Sunnyside, How to Get Away With Murder and Modern Family, she’s a co-host on Crooked Media’s Hysteria podcast and has made films as a writer/director for HBO and Sundance. Over our conversation, we explore the differenc...

My guest is James Naughtie, one of the UK's most revered and recognisable journalists and broadcasters, perhaps best known for co-hosting the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 for 21 years. He’s been the Chief Political Correspondent for both The Scotsman and The Guardian, as well as the Laurence Stern Fellow for the Washington Post. During his career, he has won both Journalist of the Year at the Sc...

My guest this episode is Eden Sher, the Critics' Choice Award Winning Star of 'The Middle', on creating her sell-out Edinburgh Fringe show 'I Was On A Sitcom', on learning from her sitcom royalty onscreen parents, being directed by her onscreen brother, being plucked from obscurity as a child by Jay Leno's Tonight Show, and "Brand New Cards". Recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe.

My guest is the Peabody and Emmy winning comedy titan and icon of iconoclasm Craig Ferguson. Recorded in his dressing room at the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End, we discussed him interviewing Archbishop Desmond Tutu on The Late Late Show (for which the show won the Peabody), being mentored by Johnny Carson’s producer Peter Lassally, being the comedian for Bush’s final White House Correspon...

We're back. With STB history. My guests, plural, for the Season 5 premiere episode are the Emmy-nominated Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney - AKA BriTANick - on what makes a sketch a great sketch, the difference between writing for SNL and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Kurt Vonnegut's concept of Karass, opening for Robin Williams, writing comedy with the drummer from Imagine Dragons, and so muc...

My guest for this S4 finale episode is the father of QI himself, John Lloyd, on stories, holism, educational reform, Navajo proverbs, Douglas Adams, mysticism, humanity, producing, directing, Jeff Goldblum, the real answer to life the universe and everything, and why being fired is actually quite a good thing.

In the first of our 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Tapes, this week's guest is the magnificent multi-hyphenate Arthur Smith - the comedian-poet-Night-Mayor-of-Balham, on seafood, socks, storytelling, seventy-five years of Fringe, & so much more. Associate Producer: Zaffia Hussain

My guest for this Season 4 premiere episode is Helen Serafinowicz - co-creator of the International Emmy Award Nominated ‘Motherland’, one of my favourite comedies of the century so far. We talk about the difference in writing processes between 'Motherland' and her new CBBC series ‘Nova Jones’, what it’s like to be related to Darth Maul, and so much more.

My guest for this episode, the Season 3 Finale, is Professor Noam Chomsky. You know who he is.

My guest this episode is Sarah Mills - the award-winning writer-comedian-producer - on turning the boredom of chemotherapy into the joy of ‘The Chemo Chat Show', how she approached writing her first ever pilot script which went on to win the BAFTA Rocliffe award, how to go about booking experts for Philomena Cunk, and so much more.

My guest this episode is Joz Norris - Edinburgh Fringe Comedian’s Choice Award Winner and, quite simply, one of the finest comedic minds around - on how abstract comedy can help convey abstract feelings, the essential distinction between short films and sketches (and what makes a good one of either), the enigmatic excellence of Pierce Brosnan, and so much more.

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My guest this episode is Sadia Azmat, the brilliant and critically-acclaimed comedian, writer, producer, and podcaster. From reaching the final of Funny Women only 15 months after starting standup, her debut show ‘Please Hold - You’re Being Transferred To A UK Based Asian Representative’ was featured on BBC Front Row, followed up by her nationally-toured 2014 show ‘I Am Not Malala’. In 2018, she c...

My guest this episode is Charlie Dinkin - BBC Studios Comedy Staff Writer, Co-Creator of the BBC Audio Drama Award Nominated sketch show podcast SeanceCast, Edinburgh Fringe Award Nominated stand up director, and the first ever international student accepted into The Second City's Comedy Studies program, on what makes a great sketch, directing standup vs sketches, how anthropology relates to comed...

Welcome to Season 3 of what is now - officially - the World's 43rd Hottest Podcast, thanks to Podcast Magazine's voters! My guest this episode is Chris Yiu - Executive Director at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, where he leads leads the Technology & Public Policy programme - on how to create effective policy, why he's so optimistic about the decades ahead and why a 1999 episode of The...

A mini episode thanking you for listening and on the stories we tell ourselves. See you in 2021!

Recorded in 2015, my guest this week is the founding President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, The Right Honourable The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers. This episode examines the difference in the Supreme Courts and constitutions of the UK and the US, whether he’d ever considered a political career, media itself acting as a lobbyi...

My guest this week is Mary Houlihan, a New York based comedian, writer, animator and artist who's appeared on Broad City, Billy On The Street, Difficult People, The Chris Gethard Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Rachel Dratch’s Late Night Snack, as well as in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and Reductress. She also did the artwork for the Adult Swim show 'Joe Pera Talks With You'. Her work has also been c...

My guest, Professor A. C. Grayling, is a titan of British philosophy. The Bertrand-Russell-Award-winning author of over forty books - on everything from War to Friendship - is a representative to the UN Human Rights Council, was a Fellow of the World Economic Forum for several years, is fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts, a Vice President of the British Hu...

My guest this week is Don Roy King - quite simply, a titan of television. The director of Saturday Night Live since 2006, he has directed more live TV than anyone else in human history and won eleven Emmy awards for it. So far, he’s been nominated for 28 Emmys overall as a writer, producer and director. Beginning his career directing The Mike Douglas Show, he spent 21 years directing Good Morning...

My guest this week is Matt Koff, an Emmy-award winning comedian who has been a writer at The Daily Show, with both Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah, since 2013. He’s also written for The Onion and Hasan Minhaj’s barnstorming White House Correspondents' Dinner, toured with both John Oliver and Bo Burnham, and, at the end of 2019, released his excellent debut standup album, Who’s My Little Guy. (If you h...

My guess this week is Chloe Radcliffe - a writer for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, a twice national speech champion, a former corporate speechwriter for Target and a standup from Minnesota. Speaking transatlantically one Friday morning in April, we discussed why The Tonight Show is uniquely tailored to socially-distanced writing, how to characterise Minnesotan comedy compared to that of...

My guest this week is Jen Calleja, the 2019 International Booker Prize nominee and the inaugural Translator-in-Residence at The British Library, on why surrealism makes sense, translation vs writing from scratch, the publishing industry under a pandemic, viewing life through the lens of TV, and why Leonora Carrington is like Steve Martin. 

My guest this week is Daniel Matarazzo, a classically trained musical director who, just last week, created a Coronavirus parody of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to share with friends on Facebook. The song immediately became, ironically, a viral hit of its own – albeit in a very good way. Seen by millions and shared by leading figures in the entertainment world, the song has rapidly spread ac...

My guest this week is the 1988 Democratic Nominee for President of the United States of America, the first ever Greek-American US Presidential Nominee, the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history, a four-term member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and a professor of political science and public policy at Northeastern University and UCLA. Recorded in 2018, this episode look...