The Sport of Life: Chats w/ Comedians, Filmmakers, Sports Figures, Musicians, & Intellectuals

Award-winning filmmaker Sean Baker, whose credits include THE FLORIDA PROJECT and TANGERINE, chats with Trey Elling about RED ROCKET . The dark comedy stars Simon Rex as an aging porn star who returns to his hometown and a cadre of people from his past, most of whom are leery of parasitic ways. Questions include: Why did he chose Texas City, TX as the film's locale? (01:32) How did he land on Simo...

Journalist and science writer Emily Willingham chats with Trey Elling about THE TAILORED BRAIN: FROM KETAMINE, TO KETO, TO COMPANIONSHIP, A USER'S GUIDE TO FEELING BETTER AND THINKING SMARTER . Questions include: Why does the brain burn so much energy, even when it isn't doing much? (03:04) Can brain game apps translate to increased performance in real life? (10:41) Do any drugs enhance cognitive...

Durham University psychologist and neuroscientist Amanda Ellison chats with Trey Elling about SPLITTING: THE INSIDE STORY ON HEADACHES . Topics include: The common mechanism of most headaches Brain freeze Why sinus congestion causes headaches Snot Cluster headaches Migraines Dehydration as a catalyst for headaches

Award-winning professor and writer Bart Elmore chats with Trey Elling about SEED MONEY: MONSANTO'S PAST AND OUR FOOD FUTURE . Questions include: What does Coca Cola have to do with Monsanto's earliest days? When did Monsanto get into agricultural chemicals and pesticides? Was Monsanto actively covering up the potential harms of the chemicals the produced 50+ years ago? What is the Technology Use A...

Environmental & social justice advocate, journalist, and bestselling author Michael Shellenberger chats with Trey Elling about SAN FRANSICKO: WHY PROGRESSIVES RUIN CITIES . Questions include: What caused San Francisco's problem with homelessness to worsen over the past decade? (00:47) Why did then-mayor Gavin Newsom's  10-year plan to combat homelessness fail so miserably? (03:00) How do...

Standup comedian, director, actor, and bestselling author Bob Saget chats with Trey Elling for episode #4 of our NO BOOKS REQUIRED series, ahead of his show at Austin's Paramount Theatre on Friday night . Questions include: How did it feel when Mitzi Shore passed him at the Comedy Store in the late 1970s? What are his memories of the late Bill Hicks? Why did he end up in one of the most memorable...

Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone chats with Trey Elling about JFK REVISITED: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS . The documentary organizes revelations from the most recent batch of declassified documents of Kennedy's assassination, combined with prior evidence, to debunk the Warren Commission's final report on the killing. while also showing who did it and why. JFK REVISITED premieres on Showtime on t...

Paul A. Offit, MD, an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases & the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a professor of vaccinology and pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, and member of the FDA's vaccine advisory committee chats with Trey Elling about YOU BET YOUR LIFE: FROM BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS TO MASS VACCINATION, THE...

Renowned film critic and historian Leonard Maltin chats with Trey Elling about STARSTRUCK: MY UNLIKELY ROAD TO HOLLYWOOD . Topics include: What was the first film that made him fall in love with movies? (02:47) How did he start expressing his passion for tv and cinema through the media? (07:15) How did he land the Entertainment Tonight gig in the 1980s? (14:06) Why did Burt Reynolds threaten to pu...

Renowned psychiatrist and medical director of Stanford Addiction Medicine Dr. Anna Lembke chats with Trey Elling about DOPAMINE NATION: FINDING BALANCE IN THE AGE OF INDULGENCE . Questions include: What is dopamine, and what does popular culture get wrong about it? (01:27) How does the dopamine economy play into the compulsive abuse of substances and activities? (03:59) How has helicopter parentin...

Tony-winning actor of stage and screen, singer, activist, and writer Alan Cumming chats with Trey Elling about BAGGAGE: TALES FROM A FULLY PACKED LIFE . Questions include: Why was he in such a bad headspace at the age of 29, and what led him to changing his course? (04:46) Around this time, he and his brother confronted their dad about the abuse he subjected them to. How'd that go? (07:03) How big...

Cartoonist, illustrator, writer, and former circus clown Joe Lee chats with Trey Elling about the graphic novel he wrote and illustrated, titled FORGIVENESS: THE STORY OF EVA KOR, SURVIVOR OF THE AUSCHWITZ TWIN EXPERIMENTS . Joe shares the details of Eva's life, which proves inspirational as a result of unfathomable trauma and tragedy at the hands of the Nazis during World War II.

Zoologist and bestselling author Bill Schutt chats with Trey Elling about PUMP: A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HEART . Their discussion starts the importance of the hearts and circulatory systems of blue whales, horseshoe crabs, squids and octopuses, giraffes, crocodiles, and bats. Plus the ins and outs of the human heart, including the evolution of our understanding of this crucial muscular organ.

Cannabis journalist Josiah Hesse chats with Trey Elling about RUNNERS HIGH: HOW A MOVEMENT OF CANNABIS-FUELED ATHLETES IS CHANGING THE SCIENCE OF SPORTS . The guys discuss the physiology behind "the runner's high", the comprehensive nature of our internal cannabinoid system, the demonization of cannabis in the early 1900s after it had been used as a plant medicine for thousands of years, research...

Dr. Cassandra Leah Quave, who serves as the herbarium curator and associate professor of dermatology and human health at Emory University, chats with Trey Elling about THE PLANT HUNTER: A SCIENTIST'S QUEST FOR NATURE'S NEXT MEDICINES . The book chronicles Dr. Quave's efforts to unite Eastern and Western medicines through an understanding of the medicinal powers of plants, a path inspired by her ow...

Adventurer, mountaineer, writer, filmmaker, and environmentalist Rick Ridgeway chats with Trey Elling about L IFE LIVED WILD: ADVENTURES AT THE EDGE OF THE MAP . Rick tells Trey about numerous jaw-dropping experiences he's gone through in the mountains, oceans, and everywhere in between. Occasionally these expeditions would literally become life-and-death, with Rick surviving while his friends did...

Intel, military, and law enforcement veteran and bestselling author Myke Cole chats with Trey Elling about THE BRONZE LIE: SHATTERING THE MYTH OF SPARTAN WARRIOR SUPREMACY . In both the book and this chat, Cole explains why much of what modern society believes about this seemingly-superhuman group of people in ancient times is greatly exaggerated.

Former FDA high-ranking official and expert on food safety and nutrition Richard A. Williams chats with Trey Elling about FIXING FOOD: AN FDA INSIDER UNRAVELS THE MYTHS AND THE SOLUTIONS . Williams provides a comprehensive look at the bureaucracy behind  decisions made at the agency responsible for food and drug safety in the US. The rationale and influence behind policies aren't always pure,...

New Yorker staff writer and bestselling author Susan Orlean chats with Trey Elling about ON ANIMALS . Questions include: Why does she feel a lifelong connection with animals? (01:10) Why is she most interested in animals that straddle the line between domesticated and wild? (03:03) How does someone get comfortable enough with a lion to keep it as a pet? (14:54) What impresses her most about mules?...

Writer and editor Laurie Woolever chats with Trey Elling about BOURDAIN: THE DEFINITIVE ORAL BIOGRAPHY . Laurie spent nearly a decade working as Anthony Bourdain's assistant and co-author, before his suicide in 2018. BOURDAIN is a result of conversations with a multitude of important people in Tony's life as a child, aimless college student, lover, cook, addict, writer, tv personality, father, cel...

Investigative storyteller and bestselling author Mary Roach chats with Trey Elling about FUZZ: WHEN NATURE BREAKS THE LAW .

Villanova political science professor Mark Lawrence Schrad chats with Trey Elling about SMASHING THE LIQUOR MACHINE: A GLOBAL HISTORY. The guys discuss the history of temperance and prohibition as a tool of the oppressed in: Russia Sweden Germany Great Britain India The United States And as a bonus, Mark shares a story of drinking too much vodka, on a train from Russia to the Ukraine, that you don...

Science journalist Leigh Cowart chats with Trey Elling about HURTS SO GOOD: THE SCIENCE AND CULTURE OF PAIN ON PURPOSE . Questions include: What is pain? (01:26) Why do endorphins help explain why pain can feel good? (02:25) How do fMRI scans differ between the brains of masochists and non when dealing with pain? (08:11) What do people get wrong about capsaicin, the chemical that causes the hot sp...

Clinical neuropsychologist William Stixrud and PrepMatters founder Ned Johnson chat with Trey Elling about WHAT DO YOU SAY? HOW TO TALK WITH KIDS TO BUILD MOTIVATION, STRESS TOLERANCE, AND A HAPPY HOME . The book serves as the follow-up to their 2018 bestseller, THE SELF-DRIVEN CHILD .

Particle physicist Dr. Harry Cliff chats with Trey Elling about HOW TO MAKE AN APPLE PIE FROM SCRATCH: IN SEARCH OF THE RECIPE FOR OUR UNIVERSE, FROM THE ORIGIN OF ATOMS TO THE BIG BANG . Questions include: Why is carbon the David Bowie of the periodic table? (09:58) How did Einstein prove the existence of atoms in 1905? (11:56) What makes Ernest Rutherford one of the greatest experimental physici...