Tell Me About Your Father

This week's Daddy Issues episode is centered around the recent New York Times documentary "Framing Britney Spears" and all of the heroes and zeros of the story, including her father Jamie Spears, Justin Timberlake, Diane Sawyer and 2000s media misogyny, and more. Get full access to Tell Me About Your Father at tellmeaboutyourfather.substack.com/subscribe

In May of last year, the artist Chris Santa Maria's uncle, Randall Jacobs, known to him as Uncle Bunky, finally lay down for what he referred to as the "dirt nap". The obit Chris wrote about his colorful uncle, who he described as a "living, breathing 'hang loose' sign," unexpectedly went viral on Twitter and Reddit, charming and resonating with readers who had, or wanted, an Uncle Bunky of their...

Listen as we discuss the dadness of a recent lurid pink offering from Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Kellyanne Conway’s horrific parenting, poet Amanda Gorman’s balletic hands, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s bravery in the face of a tyrannical, murderous Vladimir Putin, and the W.A.P. power of Senator Jon Ossoff’s Senate-floor wink. Get full access to Tell Me About Your Father at tellmeabout...

Last summer, 27-year-old Samantha Francine became the star of a viral photo of her staring down an enraged racist twice her age, Jay Snowden, at a Black Lives Matter rally in her hometown of Whitefish, Montana. In every subsequent interview Samantha, who is Black, credited her late father Brian, who was white, for instilling in her the mantra to always look a racist in the eye so they can see your...

It's Tell Me About Your Father's Daddy Issues' debut episode! Listen as we put everyone and everything in current events and recent pop culture—from actor Armie Hammer's deeply upsetting leaked DMs to top-shelf gummy candy snacks—under our patriarchal X-ray machine to determine whether they're a “massive disappointment" or have “big boss energy tempered by intelligence, compassion, and vulnerabili...

Singular, award-winning Australian actor and cabaret singer Paul Capsis grew up the child of Greek and Maltese immigrant parents who did not see eye to eye. On this episode, you’ll hear an intimate conversation between co-host Matthew and Paul about his emotionally unstable and abusive father, and how Paul learned to stand up to a family at cultural odds with itself. Speaking about him for the fir...

Our new season includes stories about fathers from fascinating guests including a beloved father whose mysterious murder remains unsolved, an eccentric uncle whose obituary went viral, a pioneering family of Black doctors in the Jim Crow South, a dad whose toupee defines his entire sense of self, and a candid conversation between Erin and her stepdad, who looks back on life as a father as he faces...

On this special episode, you’ll hear Erin and Elizabeth talk with environmental activist Kristin Urquiza about her father, Mark Urquiza, who died of Covid on June 30, 2020. Mr. Urquiza, who lived in Phoenix, Arizona, and voted for Donald Trump, believed the President and Arizona officials when they said COVID was no longer a threat to the state in May, 2020. Mark went out to sing at a karaoke bar...

In part two of this two-part episode of Tell Me About Your Father, Erin and Elizabeth look back on the last 5 seasons of the seminal TV series Mad Men, and explore the motivations of 1960s ad exec Don Draper, a father driven to escape a secret life, and the parallels we see in our relationships with our own fathers. Get full access to Tell Me About Your Father at tellmeaboutyourfather.substack.com...

In part one of this two-part episode, Erin and Elizabeth look back on the early seasons of the seminal TV series Mad Men, and explore the motivations of Don Draper, a father driven to escape a secret life, and the parallels we see in our relationships with our own fathers. Stay tuned for part two - coming next week! Get full access to Tell Me About Your Father at tellmeaboutyourfather.substack.com...

Critically acclaimed gay pornographer and Cocky Boys creator Jake Jaxson aka Jason Buchtel talks with Elizabeth and Matt about growing up the youngest of six in a conservative, religious household in Louisiana, distancing himself from his family as he came to accept his own identity, and how Adrian, his husband of twenty years, brokered a reconciliation between them that forever altered the way he...

Erin remembers her father, Jack C. Hosier; September 19, 1947 - November 10, 2001. "Every woman in my life said, 'What a tragedy that he'll never see you get married.'" Get full access to Tell Me About Your Father at tellmeaboutyourfather.substack.com/subscribe

The Editorial Director of iconic pop-culture magazine, Paper, talks to Erin, Elizabeth and Matt about growing up in Chicago with an addict for a father, having a family therapist who suggested he be taken to a prostitute, his own struggles with addiction, and how he and his father connect today. WARNING: This episode contains frank discussion about suicide. Get full access to Tell Me About Your Fa...

Elizabeth remembers her father, Edwin Clay Thompson; June 18, 1949 - April 22, 2018. "I think he was putting Kahlua in the Ensure." Get full access to Tell Me About Your Father at tellmeaboutyourfather.substack.com/subscribe

Sohaila Abdulali, the author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape, talks to Erin and Matt about growing up in an eccentric, upper-class Muslim family in India and how her father played a central role her in recovery from a sexual assault when she was a teenager. WARNING: This episode contains frank discussion about sexual assault. For confidential support, call RAINN 800.656.HOPE (4673) t...

Matt remembers his father, Ross William Phillp; November 6, 1946 - May 30, 1982. "I'll look at photos and stare and go, Who are you?" Get full access to Tell Me About Your Father at tellmeaboutyourfather.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Drew Pinsky, Adam Carolla, and the board-certified failures of the sex advice radio and MTV show, Loveline, that dared a generation to go fuck itself. Elizabeth and Erin remember. [Fact check: In this episode, Elizabeth says that Jimmy Kimmel has expressed regret over making his Comedy Central show "The Man Show" with Adam Carolla. Instead, Kimmel said in 2019 that though he would not particip...

The beloved star of Mel Brooks and Buck Henry's iconic television spy spoof Get Smart talks to Erin and Matt about growing up in the '30s and '40s with a distant but glamorous traveling salesman for a father, how her relationship with him led her to become obsessed with God and, later, marry a French sociopath. She talks honestly and openly about therapy and learning to shed her need for male appr...