Turek Books Podcast

"Burden of Joy" author Lexi Kent-Monning joins host Joshua Turek to discuss her novel that Joshua loved. She talks about coming from a long line of book readers and writers and her Esalen hot springs adventures growing up in Central California. Lexi shares a wide ranging selection of books from the Divorce novel "Liars" to a YA novel that she hopes will make Josh fall in love with Los Angeles agai...

Poet Laureate of Pomona, CA, Ceasar K. Avelar joins Joshua to talk about reading poems on your lunch break and finding moments to be creative even when the world is encouraging the opposite. He and Joshua speak to the revolutionary act of reading and how the nerd stigma is only there to oppress the working class. Bozeman, Montana! Joshua is headlining two shows this friday 11/22/2024 at the Last B...

Hollywood Talent Manager at Mosaic Entertainment and local journalist (@officialplayadelrey), Drew Shenfield talks with Joshua about becoming better men through reading books whose passages they can't remember, navigating a day and age ripe with conspiracy, and westerns. They discuss bell hooks "The Will to Change", the early 2000's book "Them" by Jon Ronson, and Adam Curtis documentaries. Also me...

Author of new book "Country Fail" Irish comedian, Killian Sundermann joins Joshua to talk about Irish authors, how he learned parents are people too, In-N-Out Burger, his time living in New York City and the process of writing his first book for a legendary publisher. To find Killian's work visit his instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/killersundy/?hl=en Hosted by Joshua Turek Books Talked A...

Danielle Henderson, author of the memoir "The Ugly Cry" and tv writer on shows like "Maniac" starring Emma Stone, joins host Joshua Turek to talk about living on a farm in upstate New York to keep her grandmother company. She revisits the toxic time capsule that was the 80's by reading the Motley Crue tell-all and how she found an awakening in intersectional feminism after going back to school at...

Poet Darby Hudson joins host, Joshua Turek one day in the future from Melbourne, Australia to discuss giving into books that are like "ice cream for the mind." He speaks of how he was raised by divorced parents, one who indulged the low brow while the other sought more challenging reads. The two poets and instagram video dudes discuss their remote friendship and get into everything from David Lync...

Seinfeld writer and Curb director Larry Charles who also directed Borat, Bruno, and Dangerous World of Comedy, sits down with host Joshua Turek to discuss growing up in Brooklyn and how the books he read in his younger years expanded his sense of the world. Larry talks working with Bob Dylan and Larry David and the similarities between the two men. Larry discusses how through career successes he m...

Sundance Award Winning Screenwriter, Ruby Caster joins Joshua to talk Miranda July's new book "All Fours" and the quest for mutual understanding. The two find an agreed upon reality as they discuss how one goes about that. Books Talked About Include: All Fours Miranda July The Ego Tunnel by Thomas Metzinger Bluets by Maggie Nelson Star Child Joshua Turek Stand up Tour Updates: SEATTLE on 10/25 Jos...

Dan Wilson is the lead singer of Semisonic and writer of hit songs like Closing Time, Someone Like You (with Adele), Not Ready to Make Nice (with the Chicks) and also a prolific reader. He and host Joshua Turek discuss how Dan revisits "Lord of the Rings" and discovers new meanings according to where his own life is at the moment. He talks of reading voraciously as a child and the books that were...

Writer Aubrey Bellamy joins host Joshua Turek to discuss books about grief, growing up in L.A., and how Buy Nothing groups on Facebook might be the only hope for humanity. Aubrey and Josh are longtime friends on Twitter who meet for the first time. Chicago and Seattle! Joshua is going to be headlining comedy shows in your cities CHICAGO Nov. 8 & 9 he will be headlining at The Comedy Bar ticket...

Dress Up Gang Member (TBS, Cute House) and Molly Bro comedian, Cory Loykasek joins host Joshua Turek to talk Shawshank Redemption, Cormac McCarthy, Sapiens, and an ill-titled self help book called "The Way of the Superior Man". The longtime friends get deeper into books than they ever have in all their professed long conversations. Cory rightfully gives Josh crap for his terrible intro, Joshua tel...

Comedian, Venice Surfer, Bar Owner, Chris Gorbos starts with Anton Chekhov short stories and ends with Jack Reacher headbutting his way through cheap paperbacks. He and Joshua talk the passive joys of public transportation and how being in a good place in life helps with their reading. The two friends exchange ride sharing experiences they felt were unexpectedly profound and how they relate them t...

Editor of erotic fine art books for Taschen, Dian Hanson has shepherded works from legends like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ren Hang along with numerous adult photo books of high repute. She brings a few books from her esoteric collection of adult oddities and attempted encylopedias. Dian and Joshua discuss everything from Gen Z to sexual dysfunctions of the 1800's. TW: Adult Content and possible gr...

Teen Vogue journalist Lisa Kwon joins Joshua to talk about her contempt for summer and the joys of winter as represented by her book choices. She tells of one novel about a Red Lobster closing (timely) while another one “The Guest” by Emma Cline follows one woman’s purgatory through a summer in the Hamptons. Lisa and Joshua talk about both growing up on the periphery of L.A. and their feelings abo...

Comedian and TV writer for "Dave" on FX, Biniam Bizuneh visits the podcast to talk about time travel, the power of the mind and placebo effect, coping with an unnatural world, the book "Fourth Wing" which he describes as "Harry Potter" meets "Game of Thrones" and starting an ayuhuasca smoothie bowl cafe. For Josh's poetry book and tour dates visit joshuaturek.com he'll be in Portland Oregon on Aug...

Comedian Simon Gibson has been seen on Amazon and NBC's Canonball, he joins Joshua to talk about the show they are co-headlining in Portland Oregon on Saturday night August 24th, 2024 so tell your Portland friends tickets are available here: https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/85326006/simon-gibson-joshua-turek-portland-mississippi-studios . They also discuss books, Simon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...

Writer on the Seth Rogen television series "Platonic", Noah Findling stops by to talk about how he rekindled his love affair with reading by bringing "Jurrassic Park" on his honeymoon. He and Joshua get into their anxieties over the future, doomsday prepping, and how 401k plans might not be necessary in 30 years. Joshua talks starting the famous sci fi L.A. dystopian novel "Parable of the Sower" a...

Co-host of the Tea Time podcast, comedian Harper-Rose Drummond joins Joshua Turek to talk about crying over books and finding security in having three of them on your bed at all times. She describes falling in love with reading again during the pandemic and doing acid with her dad at a Grateful Dead concert right before that. Joshua brings a couple of downer books about the decay of the American e...

Rolling Stone journalist Miles Klee brings a selection of French melancholia, Jamaica Kincaid, and tells how Mark Twain inspired Wil E. Coyote and Looney Tunes. He and Joshua briefly bond over riding the bus in L.A. to get to the podcast recording and delve into the joy of an Irish Goodbye. After listening to Miles tell of a story where the protagonist hates being at a party in one of his books, J...

Comedy Central Half Hour Comedian and Finding My Audience podcast host, Allen Strickland Williams joins Joshua to discuss books written by his friends including one he calls the best book about comedy since Steve Martin's "Born Standing Up". They get into the best French Dip sandwich in downtown Los Angeles, a little Mike Davis per usual for Joshua, and how Allen's favorite Kurt Vonnegut book seem...

"Dear White People" writer/director Justin Simien joins Joshua Turek to discuss the book "Hollywood Black" which was the source material for his new docu-series of the same name. At the top of the Hollywood ladder but still dissatisfied, it was the books of Hollywood historian, Donald Bogle, specifically his Black history pieces which inspired Justin to become conduit of untold contributions to ci...

Reservation Dogs and Fallout's, Dallas Goldtooth joins Joshua to discuss North American Indigenous history and his love of sci-fi. How his decades working as an organizer and activist taught him that a powerful story is a necessity to instigate change in the world. Dallas talks how books are a therapeutic escape but also a way for him to comb stories for morsels of imagining a more vibrant way of...

BoJack Horseman's, Aparna Nancherla joins Joshua to talk about her favorite formative books "A House on Mango Street" and "The Phantom Tollbooth". The comedian, author, and actor delves into the struggles she faced with Imposter Syndrome while writing her memoir "Unreliable Narrator" about the very trials of that very Imposter Syndrome. She and Joshua explore how the end result to a story about yo...

TV writer Jamie Lynn Harris joins Joshua to reminisce over the last time someone read erotica written by a radio DJ to her on a beach in Spain. She and Joshua bond over their shared love of "Anna Karenina" and Paul Beatty's "The Sellout". She goes into lush detail about the sapphic novel of race and identity in the late 1920's "Passing" by Nella Larsen. And tells of how she is catching up on the c...

Comedian, writer and co-host of the Grifthorse Podcast, Megan Koester joins Joshua Turek to discuss her favorite books about magazines and how to harvest the California state flower into opium. The two frequent collaborators recount climbing around the Hollywood Hills a couple months into the pandemic with a fruit picker to gather neglected avocados off rich people's trees and while making a video...