Airplane Mode

Listen and subscribe to One More Question with Zach Baron here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠swap.fm/l/gq-omq-feeddrop In this episode of GQ’s One More Question, Zach Baron sits down with Ethan Hawke to discuss his starring role in Sterlin Harjo’s FX series The Lowdown. Hawke reflects candidly on navigating fame from his days as a 1990s generational icon in films like Reality Bites and Before Sunrise to managing a relen...

Listen and subscribe to One More Question with Zach Baron here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠swap.fm/l/gq-omq-feeddrop In this episode of GQ’s One More Question, Zach Baron sits down at Artists Equity headquarters with director, actor, and producer Ben Affleck to discuss his film Animals. Affleck offers an unfiltered look at navigating public scrutiny, balancing parenthood with a demanding Hollywood schedule, and his eff...

Listen and subscribe to One More Question with Zach Baron here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠swap.fm/l/gq-omq-feeddrop In this episode of GQ’s One More Question, Zach Baron sits down with cult icon Kyle MacLachlan to chart the surreal highs and lows of his four-decade career following the release of his memoir, Fictional Selves. MacLachlan traces his unusual trajectory from an unknown theatre actor in Seattle directly to...

Listen and subscribe to One More Question with Zach Baron here: ⁠⁠⁠swap.fm/l/gq-omq-feeddrop In this episode of GQ’s One More Question, Zach Baron sits down with two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali for a deeply personal window into the realities of fame, artistic frustration, and navigating modern Hollywood. Ali candidly addresses the intense transition after his Academy Award wins, reflecting on...

Listen and subscribe to One More Question with Zach Baron here: ⁠⁠⁠swap.fm/l/gq-omq-feeddrop In this episode of GQ’s One More Question, Zach Baron sits down on the Warner Bros. lot with Tom Cruise for a rare conversation about his career and his newest film, Digger, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Cruise breaks down his approach to movie-making, his obsession with learning new skills, and why h...

Listen and subscribe to One More Question with Zach Baron here: ⁠⁠swap.fm/l/gq-omq-feeddrop In this episode of GQ’s One More Question, Zach Baron sits down with comedian, actor, and podcast host Stavros Halkias as he releases his Netflix special, Uncle Stav. Halkias candidly addresses his meteoric rise, navigating the chaos of modern fame, and his unexpected transitions from being a cult-favorite...

Listen and subscribe to One More Question with Zach Baron here: swap.fm/l/gq-omq-feeddrop Over a game of pool at Philadelphia’s Fitler Club, host Zach Baron speaks with Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts to break through his famously unyielding stoicism. What emerges is a fascinating window into a mind processing high-stakes NFL pressure, as Hurts candidly addresses roster turnover, adjus...

Election deniers are mobilizing their supporters and rolling out new tech to disrupt the November election. These groups are already organizing on hyperlocal levels, and learning to monitor polling places, target election officials, and challenge voter rolls. And though their work was once fringe, its become mainstreamed in the Republican Party. Today on WIRED Politics Lab, we focus on what these...

What do Beyonce, Kobe Bryant, Jimmy Iovine, and Jack Dorsey all have in common? They've all worked their asses off (duh)—and they’re all connected to Steve Stoute. As a longtime advertising and music executive (and a recently appointed consultant to the New York Knicks), Stoute made a name for himself by working creatively alongside some of the biggest names in sports, music, and business. Here, h...

Shea Serrano became a writer when, as a teacher in need of some extra money, he did a Google search for jobs you can do from home. “I didn't have any journalism experience. I didn't know anybody. All I had was the computer and the internet, and I figured that shit out,” says Serrano, who's now a staff writer at The Ringer. Along the way, he wrote three New York Times bestsellers and has establishe...

According to comedian Joel Kim Booster, a stand-up audience "can smell the blood in the water if you're not confident." Even though, at 31, Joel has been performing jokes for nearly a decade, he says he's only felt confident for part of that time. On this episode, he unpacks how he got comfortable being in front of a crowd, what comedy and humor have done for his confidence offstage, and why, of a...

Michael Gervais is a sports psychologist who works with athletes in “high stakes or consequential environments.” The experience with his clients—which range from the Seattle Seahawks (who he helped win a Super Bowl in 2014) to skydiver Felix Baumgartner (who he helped free fall from 130,000 feet as part of the Red Bull Stratos project in 2012)—has shown him that there's one skill that proves more...

With a legendary resume that includes everything from rock climbing to whitewater rafting to marathon mountain biking, Rebecca Rusch isn't just an ultra endurance icon—she has also been dubbed adventure sports' "Queen of Pain." (At 38, she won the first 24-hour bike race she entered, and has since gone on to complete the Ho Chi Minh Trail and part of the Iditarod Trail on a bike.) And yet she's al...

Dr. Barry Michels has spent decades helping his clients in the entertainment industry overcome the self-doubt holding them back from delivering their most compelling performances or writing their most nail-biting scripts. Drawing on years of experience as a psychotherapist, he explains why our society is in need of a radical reimagining of the idea of confidence, and why it all begins with accepti...

For a long time, Ari Leff made music that largely went unnoticed. But even after finding mega pop success writing and producing under the name Lauv, he still wrestled with self-doubt and struggled to work or create in the face of depression and anxiety. Now, with a debut album "How I'm Feeling" due out March 6th, he shares how he got his confidence back, how he calms his nerves and quiets negative...

Over the course of four years at Duke and 14 in the NBA, J.J. Redick has proven himself to be one of basketball’s deadliest sharpshooters. A few hundreds of thousands of jumpers later, he has some thoughts on building the self-belief that will keep you confident under immense pressure and through any slump. Plus: the power of preparation, the joy of exceeding your own expectations, and the key to...

Jill Heinerth’s life story is one of wild adventure, with more than 30 years spent scuba diving beneath glaciers and into dark, underwater caves (once spending 13 consecutive hours on a dive). Not all of those dives have gone well. For our second conversation on confidence, Heinerth explains what we can all learn about managing fear, staying calm, and beating panic from her three decades of surviv...

Jalen Rose has spent nearly 30 years being cool in public: first, as a basketball phenom and member of Michigan's famed Fab Five; then, as a 13-year NBA vet with a big game and bigger personality; now, as a beloved and unapologetic ESPN co-host for Get Up! and Jalen & Jacoby . On the first episode of Airplane Mode season 2, Rose explains why self-belief starts with convincing yourself you're t...

Airplane Mode is back! And this time around, host Clay Skipper is diving headfirst into the subject of confidence, that skittish little kitten of a feeling we're always trying to coax out from under the (metaphorical) bed. Across 10 weekly episodes starting January 14th, Clay will be talking to a motley crüe of people—including an NBA player, a cave diver, a Hollywood psychotherapist, and a pop st...

Chuck Klosterman, author and longtime culture critic, has just released his tenth book, a series of short stories titled Raised in Captivity . Which makes you wonder: how well can a longtime writer of criticism handle when critics come for his own work? Klosterman sounds off on what it’s like to be reviewed, how he stays informed without going insane (or drowning in takes), and why ignoring the tr...

After being electrocuted at age 19, BJ Miller had three of his limbs amputated. He went on to a career in palliative care, working with patients with terminal or life-altering illnesses. Recently he turned his experience into his first book, A Beginner's Guide to the End (co-written with Shoshana Berger) and started his own palliative care company, Mettle Health . On this episode, Dr. Miller and C...

You know A$AP Ferg as a rapper and A$AP Mob member. But in this episode of Airplane Mode, the man born Darold Ferguson goes back to the days when he was a young teen designing and selling tees, trying to build a business and maintain creativity. He talks about the ways he stays grounded and protects his mental health now that he's a world-famous artist. About what Pharrell taught him about failure...

When Mark Manson set out to write his second book, Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope (out now), he had to live up to the immense shadow cast by a first book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, a self-improvement bestseller that's sold nearly nine million copies by taking down mindless positivity and embracing life's difficulties. On this episode, he talks about the challenges of trying to...

With his Oscar-nominated documentary “Minding the Gap,” director Bing Liu proved himself a talent at deftly unpacking emotionally complex topics (in that case, three young skateboarders navigating the trauma left by domestic abuse). For his next project, the 30-year-old is tackling Millennial love. So when Clay asked him how we got to the point where we’re all ghosting each other, Liu had plenty o...

Raphael Bob-Waksberg—the visionary behind Bojack Horseman and author of a new collection of short stories, Someone Who Will Love You In All Your Damaged Glory —is an expert at exploring dark, complex ideas in in ways that leave you feeling more optimistic and less alone. On this episode, he talks about how he's overcome that nagging fear of not doing enough, learning to trust in his gut, and what...