The Lou Perez Podcast

My friend and jazzman  Steve Salerno returns to show me his major-league wood and talk about the gift of baseball, Chet Baker, getting canceled over Charlie Kirk, and my thoughts on John Leguizamo's new play The Other Americans .   Check out my book, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: On the Death and Rebirth of Comedy https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r       Watch my sketch comedy streaming on Red Coral Univers...

Today on  The Lou Perez Podcast I am joined by Ibrahim Pataudi, the co-founder and chief revenue officer of Armanet . We talk about gun censorship, James Bond censorship, the prevalence of doom, hunting in Pakistan, and drones for personal defense.   Check out my book, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: On the Death and Rebirth of Comedy https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r       Watch my sketch comedy streaming o...

For you louvers on the go, here's a quick hit of  The Lou Perez Podcast . I talk with Próspera 's vice president of growth, Lonis. What is Próspera — and how many ways do I manage to pronounce it in 30 minutes? Listen to find out. We talk about the startup zone on Honduras's island of Roatán, its many challenges, and overall what it's like to run a libertarian experiment of a free city. Check out...

My friend Rob Montz of Good Kid Productions stopped by to talk to me about his latest documentary,  Paradise Abandoned: Inside the Pacific Palisades Fire , in which Rob tells the tale of losing his childhood home in the fires and unearths some deeper scandalous truths about the blaze. The doc is screening on November 23, 2025 at Santa Monica's Morgan-Wixson Theater in Los Angeles . ( RSVP here )  ...

On this episode of  The Lou Perez Podcast I talk to the old man at the end of the bar, The Common Sense Cowboy: Patrick Dorinson . We talk cowboy-hat etiquette, the global reach of cowboy culture, the rugged history of California (with a nod to Joan Didion's The White Album ), and his new book, The Common Sense Cowboy's Guide to Life: Stories from the Old Guy at the End of the Bar . Check out my b...

This episode of  The Lou Perez Podcast is a collaboration with The Matt Balaker Podcast . We talk about blocking cowards on Facebook, Charlie Kirk, living in bubbles, and my roadtrip with Scott Thompson ( The Kids in the Hall , The Larry Sanders Show , Buddy Cole)—a highlight of my life that I still haven't fully processed. Check out my book, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: On the Death and Rebirth...

I talked with author  Raymond E. Foster about his new book, Chasing The Surge: Ten Thousand Rides into The American Night , his time as a police officer in the LAPD, the Free Masons, and his 10K rides as an Uber driver. What's it like to be on the job at the same time as your cop father? What is The Temple Within ? And who would be stupid enough to try to steal a cop's car? (This bad decision lead...

I talked with author  Raymond E. Foster about his new book, Chasing The Surge: Ten Thousand Rides into The American Night , his time as a police officer in the LAPD, the Free Masons, and his 10K rides as an Uber driver. What's it like to be on the job at the same time as your cop father? What is The Temple Within ? And who would be stupid enough to try to steal a cop's car? (This bad decision lead...

What I like about Substack is that its algorithm doesn't feed me things that will only make me angry — unlike some other social-media platforms,  where you should totally be following me . If I'm not angering you here — I most definitely will over there. So I have the Sub coders to thank for feeding me Jason Noto. On this episode of The Lou Perez Podcast , I talk with the filmmaker about getting a...

I'm joined by comic-book artist and colorist  Brett R. Smith , who's worked with DC Comics, Marvel, and Rippaverse. We talk about the problem with comic books today, Val Kilmer's greatest performances, and why Romancing the Stone works and The War of the Roses doesn't. Check out my book, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: On the Death and Rebirth of Comedy https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r     Watch my sketch c...

I talk with my friend, author, filmmaker, and pop culture historian,  Mathew (with one "t") Klickstein about Troma and Lloyd Kaufman 's connection to Shakespeare; accessible asexuals; the one lack of representation you never hear about; and The Kids of Widney High. Check out my book, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: On the Death and Rebirth of Comedy  https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r     Watch my sketch come...

I had a great time talking with  Lisa De Pasquale about life after losing 170 pounds and her new book, The Gen X Handbook for Middle Age . Ozempic means lots of thin women with fat-girl personalities. What a fun time to be a single guy! Check out my book, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: On the Death and Rebirth of Comedy https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r     Watch my sketch comedy streaming on Red Coral Univ...

I had a great time talking with  Lisa De Pasquale about life after losing 170 pounds and her new book, The Gen X Handbook for Middle Age . Ozempic means lots of thin women with fat-girl personalities. What a fun time to be a single guy! Check out my book, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: On the Death and Rebirth of Comedy https://amzn.to/3VhFa1r     Watch my sketch comedy streaming on Red Coral Univ...

Kendric Tonn is a painter. He paints. Not houses. Oil painting. On this episode of The Lou Perez Podcast I talk with Kendric about classical painting, Florence (the city, not my mother), El Museo del Prado, art collecting, and how he sees the world as a painter vs how I see the world as a comedian. Kendric gives a helpful tip on how to appreciate a Mark Rothko painting: Understand them, in a sense...

Kendric Tonn is a painter. He paints. Not houses. Oil painting. On this episode of The Lou Perez Podcast I talk with Kendric about classical painting, Florence (the city, not my mother), El Museo del Prado, art collecting, and how he sees the world as a painter vs how I see the world as a comedian. Kendric gives a helpful tip on how to appreciate a Mark Rothko painting: Understand them, in a sense...

Today I'm joined by  The Radicalist David Josef Volodzko, news editor and senior writer at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression . If you have the means, FIRE is a great place to donate to. (Don't let the fact that I used to work for them sully your view of the premiere free-speech organization in the world .) David and I talk about his list of The New Yorker 's racist staff writers,...

This week's episode is a collaboration with comedian  Michael Regilio , host of Regilio v Everything . We talk about being dumb, young, and punk—which for Michael meant being a young Republican in high school. I take a trip down memory lane of that time I was cancelled in Dallas. And Michael shares with me all the insane things I had no idea were happening in the world. Did Michael scare me? Yes....

The Free Press's  Lucy Biggers went from climate-crisis influencer to climate-alarm denier. I have no clue how big this episode's carbon footprint is, but it's worth all the coal we burned to make it happen. Lucy and I talk about her beginnings at NowThis, why climate change doesn't scare us anymore, hipsters bringing back dung stoves, and how all that money celebrities raised to aid the victims o...

Today's episode starts out on a disappointing note. My guest Rian Stone,  video essayis t and author of the novels Softbone: Down and Out in New Kowloon and The Dog Walker , thought he was coming on to talk to his professional-wrestling hero, "Lightning" Lou Perez. I'm sorry I had to break the kid's heart—I am not that Puerto Rican guy—but I think I made up it up to Rian. We talked about culture a...

A few weeks back I had former Detroit Piston Scot Pollard on the pod and this week I have current…Piston fan  Kirk Wilcox . Both men have Piston jerseys with their last names on them. To which I wonder, is it tougher as an adult to wear a personalized jersey? Kirk and I talk about Warped Tour, the '04 "Going to Work" Pistons (appropriating blue-collar costumes), Marc Maron's Doug Allen act, and Fr...

Gaby Blanco from the Dissident Project was born and raised in Havana, Cuba. She joins me today to talk about the communist island American leftists love to defend— while living in the United States, of course. What's it like to grow up with food rationing, no freedom to criticize the state, and with Cuba's big business of medical slavery? Gaby separates truth from propaganda. I hope you enjoy it....

Gaby Blanco from the Dissident Project was born and raised in Havana, Cuba. She joins me today to talk about the communist island American leftists love to defend— while living in the United States, of course. What's it like to grow up with food rationing, no freedom to criticize the state, and with Cuba's big business of medical slavery? Gaby separates truth from propaganda. I hope you enjoy it....

On this episode I had the pleasure of talking with Scot Pallard, NBA veteran and survivor of both the reality-TV show ( Survivor season 32) and a heart transplant. Scot's the subject of the ESPN documentary Heart of Pearl (streaming now on ESPN+) and a volunteer spokesperson for Pearls of Life , which advocates for organ donations. In addition to discussing the near impossibility of finding a hear...

This is a special episode of  The Lou Perez Podcast . So special, in fact, that it's not even an episode of The Lou Perez Podcast . No, it's my appearance on Isaac Simpson's podcast, The Carousel. Isaac was kind enough to have me on to take a deep dive into possibly the most important article to come out this year,  Jean Garnett's "The Trouble with Wanting Men ," as published in the New York Times...

On this episode of the podcast I try to persuade disabled award-winning filmmaker and President of  The Mobility Independence Foundation , Thomas Quiter, to go to war with Shaquille O'Neal. (That would be a real power move .) In the meantime, enjoy our conversation and more importantly, check out Thomas's doc, The Power to Move . Check out my book, That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore: On the Death and R...