Podcast: Jack Kirby, King of Comics - Mark Evanier
Comic and television writer Mark Evanier was once assistant to Jack Kirby. Now he's compiled a monumental art book cum biography of the artist called "Kirby: King of Comics." Jack Kirby's dynamic aesthetic style and new ideas about how comic book characters should relate to each other and to their readers revolutionized comics. Download This Show (MP3)
Podcast: The Ten Cent Plague: David Hajdu on Comic Book Censorship in the 1950s
David Hajdu's new book is "The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America." David writes about the development of comic books as a medium, and how it was almost stopped dead by anti-comics crusaders in the 1950s. Download This Show (MP3)
Podcast: Bill James, Legendary Baseball Writer and Analyst
In the late 1970s, Bill James started writing "The Baseball Abstract," a new kind of baseball annual. James used statistical analysis to study baseball's conventional wisdom, and often found unexpected results. The first Abstracts were hand-mimeographed and mailed by James himself, but by the early 1980s, James was at the forefront of a new movement, which he called sabermetrics, that argued for objective analysis of the game. James and his cohorts were often derided by baseball insiders, but today James is an employee of the Boston Red Sox, and his ideas have helped transform how baseball teams are run. James also runs billjamesonline.net and has just released his first in a new series of annuals, The Bill James Baseball Goldmine. Discuss this episode on the forum! Download This Show (MP3)
Podcast: Sloane Crosley, author of "I Was Told There'd Be Cake"
Sloane Crosley started her non-fiction writing career after an acquaintance offered to publish a cleaned-up version of a mass email she'd sent... in the Village Voice. Her collection of humorous personal essays, "I Was Told There'd Be Cake," recently debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. Discuss this episode on the forum! Download This Show (MP3)
Podcast: Ego Trip! with Brent Rollins and Gabriel Alvarez
Brent Rollins and Gabriel Alvarez are members of the hip-hop media collective Ego Trip. The group produced the acclaimed magazine Ego Trip in the late 1990s. Since that time, they've written two hilarious and insightful books - Ego Trip's Book of Rap Lists and Ego Trip's Big Book of Racism. More recently, they've produced specials and series for VH1, including last year's White Rapper Show and their current series, Ego Trip's Miss Rap Supreme.
Alvarez has worked for many years as a hip-hop journalist, and was a contributor to the Adult Swim series The Boondocks. Rollins is one of the world's top urban designers. His works included the logo for the film "Boyz in the Hood" and the cover for many albums, including the seminal "Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Blackstar." Discuss this episode on the forum! Download This Show (MP3)
John Moe, a Volkswagen Bug-driving, latte-sipping lifelong Seattleite realized, upon becoming a real grownup, that perhaps his dismissal of conservatism wasn't less righteous than it was intellectually lazy. He spent a month steeping himself in conservatism of all stripes, from the Heritage Foundation to a Toby Keith concert. Discuss this episode on the forum! Download This Show (MP3)
David Mitchell is half of the British comedy duo Mitchell & Webb, with partner Robert Webb. The pair star in the acclaimed UK TV series "Peep Show" and "That Mitchell & Webb Look," the latter of which is running Friday nights on BBC America.
Podcast: Dan Kennedy, author of "Rock On: An Office Power Ballad"
Dan Kennedy is the author of two books of comic memoir, the most recent of which is "Rock On: An Office Power Ballad." The new book covers his brief career in the music industry, which began when he (a youngish, white Orange County native) produced a retrospective commercially for the anniversary of Motown Records, and ended in a round of mass layoffs. Kennedy has also written extensively for McSweeney's.
Podcast: Comedy by the Numbers with Dr. Gary Rudoren and Prof. Eric Hoffman
Prof. Eric Hoffman and Dr. Gary Rudoren are two of the world's foremost researchers in the field of humor. Their new book, "Comedy By the Numbers" contains "The 169 secrets of humor and popularity." They promise that you don't need to be funny to be funny -- just memorize their system, and you'll quickly be impressing the cool kids.
Podcast: Ben Karlin of The Onion, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report
Ben Karlin was an early editor of The Onion before heading to Hollywood to work on film and television projects. He eventually helped create the Jon Stewart version of The Daily Show as it's head writer and eventually Executive Producer. He was lead writer on the Daily Show's enormously succesful book, "America: The Book." He co-created The Colbert Report, then quit, in part to edit the new book "Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me." The book is a collection of essays on, well, the subject in the title.
Podcast: Comedy: Morgan Murphy and Andy Kindler Live
Andy Kindler (above) is a legend in the world of alternative comedy. Since bursting onto the comedy scene in the early 1990s, he's appeared on innumberable television programs performing standup, including several appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman, for which he is now a field correspondent. Within the comedy world, he's best known for openly mocking the standup world in his annual "State of the Industry Address" at the Aspen Comedy Festival. Andy's set was recorded live at the Westside Eclectic in Santa Monica, California.
Morgan Murphy is one of the fast-rising stars of the comedy world. She wrote for and appeared several times on Jimmy Kimmel Live, before quitting to pursue standup full-time. She's toured nationally with The Comedians of Comedy and Neil Hamburger, among others. Morgan performed as part of TSOYA Live at the SF Sketchfest.
Podcast: Tony Millionaire, creator of Maakies and The Drinky Crow Show
Tony Millionaire is the creator of the comic strip Maakies, which runs in alternative newspapers around the country. The strip has also birthed two television adaptations: a series of shorts that ran on Saturday Night Live in the 1990s, and now a new longer-form series which premiers later this year on Cartoon Network [adult swim]. The strips are known for their combination of distinctive and often complex line art and typically profane humor. The newest collection of Maakies strips is "The Maakies with the Wrinkled Knees."
Podcast: Joel Hodgson, Frank Conniff and J. Elvis Weinstein of Cinematic Titanic and Mystery Science Theater 3000
Joel Hodgson, Frank Conniff and J. Elvis Weinstein are 3/5ths of Cinematic Titanic. The series of DVDs and digital downloads combines old, terrible films with comic commentary. If the description sounds familiar, you might be thinking of the long-running cult comedy classic Mystery Science Theater 3000, of which Hodgson was the original host. We talk with Joel, Frank and J. Elvis about their careers in comedy, why they got the band back together, and more. We even delve into their relationship with Rifftrax, a similar outfit run by some other MST3K expats.
Podcast: RadioLab's Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich
Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich are the host/producer and co-host (respectively) of the brilliant public radio program RadioLab. The show is a long-form investigation of life's Big Ideas, through the lens of science. It has won plaudits not only for its insightful and utterly comprehensible explanations of scientific principles, but also for its emotionally engaging narratives and bold production style. This American Life producer Ira Glass has said that when he heard RadioLab, he know immediately that "there's a new sheriff in town."
The Sound of Young America on Current: Patton Oswalt
You may or may not be familiar with Current. It's a news-and-information cable channel, started by Al Gore & Friends a few years ago to cater to younger audiences. The channel broadcasts what they call "pods," which are essentiall 3-5 minute news stories, often contributed by viewers, which are bracketed by VJ-like hosts. Current approached me a few months ago about putting together a pilot for a TV version of The Sound of Young America, and what you see above is the result.
We tried to keep it very simple and true to the spirit of the radio show and podcast. It's shot in my apartment, and they're actually shooting a radio interview. As you can see, they work in a lot of other visuals and so forth, as well. I was really impressed by the excitement producer Mark Reinhardt and his team managed to introduce into what's essentially a pair of talking heads.
What do you think? Current are as happy with the product as I am, and it looks like we'll be doing more of these in the future.
(In case anyone's worried, while Current will probably end up owning the TV productions, they won't get any control or rights to anything other than that, including any future TSOYA video projects. They've been really good about understanding my desire to control my work, and I feel very good about the partnership.)
Podcast: Seven Second Delay with Ken Freedman and Andy Breckman
Ken Freedman and Andy Breckman are the hosts of Seven Second Delay on WFMU, the legendary freeform radio station in Jersey City, New Jersey. For the past fifteen years, they've picked a "radio stunt" each week, then tried to execute it in just one hour of live airtime. They've chain-translated a Village Voice S&M personal add through 15 languages, then back into English, written the ultimate New York Times "Metropolitan Diary" column entry, then gotten it published, and failed more times than they can count.
When they're not on-air, Freedman serves as the station's manager. Breckman is a noted comedy writer, having written for David Letterman and Saturday Night Live (he penned the classic "White Like Me" sketch), and he is creator and showrunner of USA network's Monk.
The folks behind the Seven Second Delay blog have put together this guide to the show for listeners of TSOYA, including links to the various programs referenced during our interview. Thanks!
In the late 1970s, Bill James started writing "The Baseball Abstract," a new kind of baseball annual. James used statistical analysis to study baseball's conventional wisdom, and often found unexpected results. The first Abstracts were hand-mimeographed and mailed by James himself, but by the early 1980s, James was at the forefront of a new movement, which he called sabermetrics, that argued for objective analysis of the game. James and his cohorts were often derided by baseball insiders, but today James is an employee of the Boston Red Sox, and his ideas have helped transform how baseball teams are run. James also runs 
