The JV Club with Janet Varney

We know what you’re thinking- “Did Janet start a new All Dogs All the Time podcast? No, but JV and awesome guest, writer and standup Melissa Stephens (“Key and Peele”) go long and deep into canine biz early on in the episode, eventually begrudgingly opening up the conversation to other vital matters such as being a girl on the boys’ baseball team and coping with rejection when all you want is a cl...

Comedian and  You’re the Worst  writer Alison Bennett comes over for a sexily-lit evening of dissecting the strange magnetism of true crime, the wilds of rural Pennsylvania, and the appeal of a jacuzzi filled with chocolate pudding in episode 194 of the podcast. And watch out, Cyndi Lauper! You’ve got competition!

Get that myriad of plates spinning and put on all of your hats to keep up with the multi-faceted Tamara Krinsky (Marvel’s West Coast Correspondent), with tales of sleep-away camp, classical theatre and the wonders of science!

It’s time for the copious talents of Molly Lewis, who knows what it feels like to blow up the internet and suddenly find yourself in the company of your heroes. While, I might add,  handling it all with the grace and modesty of a total pro (which, of course, she has long since become). So tune your uke and sing along!* *It’s possible that no actual singing happens

We’re going to use this description as an opportunity to express deep regret that we did not ask the wonderful  Jessica McKenna  ( Party Over Here ) what she meant when she said “Lucky the Leprechaun knocks on your door" during the Irish Pride portion of the podcast. That may require a Part Two! In the meantime, throw on your matte black unitard and get dancing to Flogging Molly, and Happy St. Pat...

It’s the charming and delightful Amanda Lund, everybody! What can you expect from this episode? Some free association: wigs and corn mazes, princesses and guacamole,  ballet and boob-touching. In other words, the things that matter in life.

Enjoy the gentle rocking of this special live episode, recorded for the first time ever on a boat. Janet is joined by the immeasurably talented Kelly Sue DeConnick ( Captain Marvel, Pretty Deadly ) and cellist Zoe Keating ( Manhattan, The Returned ), who are so filled with sound advice and inspiring ideas, you’ll inevitably finish the episode and create your best work ever!

Release of Carla Gallo! It's an embarrassment of riches... or maybe just an embarrassment of embarrassments in episode 50 (Wow! We made it to 50!) with ridiculously fun guest Carla Gallo ( Bones ) - complete with revealing stories about prom nights gone awry, blooming late, and... um... cat lockets.

Get schooled on the sizable merits of ska by Lady to Lady podcast’s  Brandie Posey  in episode 188. And not to oversimplify Brandie’s amazing life stories, but I think she would approve of me saying there are some doozies to devour. Bon Appetit!

Janet marvels at the high school debate prowess of episode 188’s guest, Emily Heller (Baby Geniuses), the social politics of which office you run for in student council, and circus camp, circus camp, circus camp.

It's a special re-release of Kathleen Rose Perkins! The charming Kathleen Rose Perkins ( Episodes ) recounts the joys and challenges of being a certified bird-owner, being heard in a family of boys, and what we’re really doing when we’re eating eggs. Want more? Find out where Kathleen’s future home is, courtesy of another glorious game of M.A.S.H.!

Recorded in a cozy hotel room at SF Sketchfest, Janet and Janeane Garofalo sit wedged between the wall and the bed, following whatever tangent might present  itself. Does Janet get left in the dust in matters intellectual, political and otherwise? Sure. Is that okay? It’s going to have to be, because Janeane is smart, fast, and fantastic.

In a shocking and exciting break from tradition, Janet’s friend crush Charles W. “Chuck” Bryant from the beloved Stuff You Should Know podcast joins his fellow guest, the fiercely smart and funny Veronica Belmont as the first non-Boy of Summer in this live episode from SF Sketchfest! They’re joined by the sublime Matt Nathanson, who had everyone onstage and in the audience in love with him by the...

Janet is joined by the President of the American chapter of SWOP: Sex Workers Outreach Project and professional dominatrix Savannah Sly for a rapid-fire discussion of perception, experience, misconception and politics in this goes-by-way-too-quickly-and-could-have-been-three-hours-long episode. Thankfully there’s still time to talk about a mutual favorite female X-Men character and a good chance t...

Get ready for a San Francisco-style hair-buzzing with one of the shining stars of  You’re the Worst , Aya Cash, as we dash from Buddhism to dental care jewelry (yep) to the startling discovery of youth that not every citizen is a Bay Area liberal in this final episode of 2015! Happy New Year!

All-around badass journalist (and former sex/dating columnist) Jessica Ogilvie drops by, and the tangents are nothing if not feverishly robust and tendril-like. What can we say? She’s fascinating, brave, and funny… and she took her written M.A.S.H. results home to frame.

Not unlike making lemonade from lemons, learn how to make the best of learning to play the clarinet when your heart called out for a flute from  terrific guest Collette Wolfe (“You’re the Worst”). The woods of Virginia, a friend who tells you when your fashion’s bad, and Janet’s seeming inability to stop talking about post-Feminist Feminism also punctuate Episode 181.  

The absolutely splendid Ingrid Oliver ("Doctor Who”) can breeze seamlessly from evocative quandaries about politics to the wonders of a Whopper Junior in Episode 180 of the podcast, where the Janet-New-Friend-Swoon-O-Meter (previously not actually a thing, now very much a thing) goes off the charts.

Heads-up! We did things a little differently this week for a podcast mashup! Carla interviews Janet about doing improv as a teaser for Carla’s new improv podcast, Improv Yak… until the proverbial tables are turned and Janet gets back to the place she feels most comfortable: asking people about their weird teen habits.

Guys, it’s just two gals from Tucson, Arizona, talkin’ shop. A teenaged Kate Walsh ( Private Practice ) body-paints, yearbook staffs, and drama clubs her way through a couple of high schools, including the one Janet attended! Are these two connected by a magical Arizonan connection? Or is it a Vonnegut-esque granfalloon? Either way, they’re both in love with their new web series,  Everyone’s Crazy...

Throw on your band uniform and pick up that flute for a march with Mary Holland ( Blunt Talk ), whose people-pleasing teenage spirit went from a small bluegrassy town to the sexy seclusion of a boarding school in Episode 177, where Janet’s middling detective skills are put to the test.

It’s a Portland-tastic live episode from the delightful All Jane Comedy Festival in Oregon, featuring the brilliant talents of Sarah Mirk (Bitch Media), Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney), and musical guest Hutch Harris (The Thermals)!

Heads up, Akron! The simply superb  Rhea Butcher  arrives armed and ready for Episode 175 with a killer hairstyle, insightful thoughts on teenage sexuality and skateboarding, and a justified robust admiration of Claire Huxtable.

Show off your grungiest snowman with Episode 174’s guest, voice actor-virtuouso and author Tara Platt, who didn’t always rise to the top of the popularity heap in her youth as a practical atheist during her family’s many ramblings. Figure out where your own safety nets lie as Tara and Janet trapeze through fear, change, stability and a good  spoonful of harissa, which may or may not be the thing w...

Climb into your co-ed dorm’s shower and have a good laugh/cry with the fantastic Jessica Merizan (don’t worry, she knows you think it’s “marzipan”) as she and Janet slip and slide all over about 30 different tangents at once, including mafia (the game, not the crime syndicate) and Guillermo del Toro’s wonderful monsters. And! Janet finds out what Xanga is, which until this moment she didn’t even k...