This Is Rad!

Author, father, groovy guy. Has come to us from Nebraska sky. And thus we three, a podcast had. Mike Bockoven talks Vincent Price on This Is Rad!   This week we welcome FantasticLand author Mike Bockoven to the podcast. As anyone listening in the last few months know, Mike's book FantasticLand is one of Kyle's new favorite books. Mike was in SoCal for a wedding and we were lucky enough to convince...

Rad me with a spoon! This week, Kyle and Matthew welcome comedian and musician Lisette Alvarez to chat about the wild world of teen movies. From the early days of delinquent films in the 40's and 50's through the genre's golden age in the 80's and 90's the trio break down some of their favorite movies and break down what elements you need to make a classic teen movie. The conversation of course br...

200 Episodes! Hello everyone and welcome to this very special episode of This Is Rad! Today we celebrate 200 episodes! 4(-ish) years of podcast radness! To mark the occasion Kyle, Matthew, and Laura sat down to chat about life and reminisce a little about the past four years. Plus, we have a very special guest for the episode. Back in November Kyle had the opportunity to chat with the founder of T...

Rad to the hills! Rad for your life! This week Kyle and Matthew are joined by comedian Nat Baimel and musician( and Kyle's former roommate) Eric Bryan for a chat about one of the greatest heavy metal bands of all time Iron Maiden. Everyone talks about their first exposure to Maiden and they gives a few tips on how to approach the band's daunting discography. They explore the unspoken rivalry betwe...

Who let the rads out? Who? Who? Who!? This week Kyle and Laura are joined by hilarious Las Vegas comics Jozalyn Sharp and Tyler Jolley to discuss man's best friend. We talk dogs. We talk about em a lot. Because we love them. We talk about our experiences with our own pets and tell some pretty great stories about dogs being dogs. Plus we chat about dogs in movies and answer listener questions about...

When a problem comes along, you must... sit down and have an in depth conversation about Devo. This week Kyle sits down with his best friend Jarrod Gilbreath to discuss Jarrod's favorite band, the one and only Devo. They go album by album exploring the development of the band. They talk about the trend in the late 70's of art collectives that accidentally turned into rock bands. Plus they explore...

School is in session and todays lesson: Radness. This week Kyle and Burnside sit down with Kyle's cousin Drew Donnelly who is a high school physics teacher. While he has the most experience, both Kyle and Matthew has spent time in the teaching trenches and each of them have some pretty amazing stories to share. They discuss using snark in the classroom as a tool to fight mean teenagers. Drew recou...

It's time to d-d-d-d-duel! This week we have Connor McSpadden of the Mean Boys podcast and LA comic Atlas Novack for a chat about the insane world of Yu-Gi-Oh! Both boys spent the bulk of their teen years playing this collectible card game and them attempt to explain it to Kyle and Burnside. Burnside has a little bit of advantage as he has spent some time playing the Pokemon card game (along with...

Porgs, space race horses, and a planet made of meat. Rad returns for our yearly Star Wars state of the union with our resident Star Wars experts Klee Wiggins and Ed Greer. For our fourth installment the gang have gathered together a little over a month after the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi for a round table discussion of what they loved, what they hated, and everything in between. SPOILER...

You cannot be told what is rad. You must be shown. This week on the show we have comedian Ken Garr discussing the films and general radness of Keanu Reeves. They work through the classics like Point Break and Speed along with a few of their personal favorites that you might not be as familiar with. Ken and Kyle also talk about their odd friendship, for two guys who live in the same city they only...

Seriously rad Steven Universe episode... ACTIVATE! This week Kyle and Laura hold down hosting duty as they welcome the truly delightful Kyle Shire. That's right, Laura gets to deal with two times the Kyle as they break down the Cartoon Network show Steven Universe. Kyle (our Kyle) has seen the show but does not have the deep deep knowledge that Laura and Kyle (guest Kyle) have. And boy does he get...

As 2017 draws to a close, the gang meet up and Burnside and Laura's house to reflect on the past year. Now, before you run away screaming, we did a pretty good job of trying to find plenty of good that happened this year in and amongst some of the crappier parts of the year. We chat about movies, we let Burnside really go nuts talking about games (after all, this might be one of the best years for...

Beer. Billiards. Rad. This week on the show Kyle and Burnside sit down with comedian Doug Fager to break down what makes a good dive bar. In the process they go on a pretty sweet side tangent about Doug's yearly Nightmoon party. It gets weird and Matthew and Laura are definitely going to have to join Kyle and Doug next year. The gang discuss the proper music and décor for a dive bar. They share st...

I'd like to teach the world to rad, in perfect harmony. On today's show we are chatting with Greg Smith and Bridgid Ryan about the fizzy and delicious world of soda. Bridgid and Greg worked on Shudder's new series The Core with Kyle and the discuss the importance of lunch in a writers room. The group reminisce about their early experiences with soda. They also look back fondly at sodas that are no...

Feel the Rad-thym! This week Kyle and Matthew travel to the exotic land of Marina del Rey to chat with comedian/playwright/salsa dancer Solange Castro. Kyle has known Solange for years through comedy and got super excited when she showed him her youtube series where she teaches comedians how to Salsa dance. They chat about Solange's history with Salsa dancing and how something can go from a curios...

What happens when five podcasters stop being polite and start being real? They talk about the Real World (and Road Rules!). This week on the show Kyle and Burnside have an all-star line up featuring Becky Joiner, Julia Prescott, and Tom Seiniger to chat about two of the seminal shows in creating the world of reality television. In the process, they unwittingly open the floodgates for their guests...

Welcome to Rad-burger, home of the rad-burger. Can I take your order? This week we have another full house as Kyle, Burnside, and Laura are joined by perenial show favorites Monika Scott and Tom Seiniger to talk about the great American culinary marvel: The Burger. They talk about what makes a good home made burger. They explore the highs and lows of fancy restaurant burgers. And they dig into the...

Body mod y'all. To the beat y'all. This week Kyle and Laura (and eventually Burnside) sit down to chat with returning guest J Gonzo and one of our new favorites, Stephanie Savage, to talk about the wild world of body modification. We get a history of modern piercing and tattoos. Kyle recounts just hours ago when J Gonzo gave him a new tattoo (the words "Slow Ride" on his back, check out our social...

Six rads forward and five rads back. We've got (an episode about) an angry inch! This week on This Is Rad, Kyle and Matt welcome back the always wonderful Julia Prescott for a chat about her favorite play "Hedwig and The Angry Inch". For those who don't know, this is a GREAT place to start if you want to know about this cult phenomenon. Julia recounts her first experience with Hedwig and how it ha...

You don't follow the rad, you go to where the rad is going to be. A deep cut quote for a hilarious (and shockingly informative) episode of This is Rad. Today we have Tom Goss (from The Mean Boys Podcast) giving us a history and state of the union for the great sport of hockey. Joining us as a bonus guest fellow Mean Boy Keith Carey, because if you have 2 co-hosts who don't know much about the spor...

This podcast was 98 pounds of solid rad until it became... The Toxic Rad-venger! This week Radtober comes to a close for another year with a visit from director/podcaster/fart enthusiast Joe Lynch! The guys have a nice chat about where is the best place in Disneyland to let out farts. They also talk about extreme cinema and the type of person that chases movies that give you a visceral reaction. Y...

"We recorded a podcast. We recorded a podcast for you. Oh, what a thing to do. And it was all Giallo…" This week Kyle, Matthew and Natalie sit down with Radtober alum and spooky movie aficionado Alex Jacobs to talk about the uniquely Italian horror movie genre: giallo. Beginning in the 1960s, Italian filmmakers inspired by pulp novels and murder mysteries created proto-slasher films known for thei...

Booooo...too! This week the rad crew revisits the topic of Ghosts, this time taking a Radtober field trip to a former speakeasy overrun with mobsters and murderers -- better known today as the World Famous Comedy Store! The Virgil to their Dante is return guest Steve Simeone, who managed the Store back in the day and has a lot of spooky stories to tell about the mysterious things he encountered wo...

Dim the lights and gather round, children, because Radtober has begun! Kyle, Matthew and Natalie start the spooky season right with a little outdoor podcast about the internet lore that all the kids love: Creepypastas. They are joined by comedians and creepy aficionados Brian Cox and Vanessa Gritton to break down some of their favorite stories. They point out that not all pastas are created equal,...

Yooooooou waaaaant a poooooodcast, but you can't have it... Actually, you can! This week Kyle and Matthew sit down with comedian and return guest Travis Clark to talk about one of rock music's weird and wonderful oddities: Mike Patton. For the uninitiated, Mike Patton was the singer for the band Faith No More, but his back catalogue is pretty incredible. If you've been listening for a while and th...