Beginnings
672 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 days ago - ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsWe all know the stories of how creative people get into the business of creating for a living, but how did they start using their imaginations in the first place? On the Beginnings podcast, writer and performer Andy Beckerman asks well-known and on-their-way-up comedians, musicians, writers, artists and thinkers about their earliest creative acts, their formative childhood experiences, and how they've developed both creatively and emotionally over the years. Beginnings is part therapy, part philosophy and almost all fascinating (95% according to FDA studies).
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Episodes
Episode 630: Chris Black
April 26, 2024 05:09 - 1 hour - 55.6 MBOn today's episode, I talk to TV writer Chris Black. Originally from Toledo, OH, Chris went to USC, which eventually led to him working in television. He started on the USA adaptation of Weird Science, and since then has worked on some of the best shows of the last three decades including Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Invincible, Mad Men, Severance, and a personal favorite of mine, Sliders. That is just a small sampling of his CV, and currently, he co-developed with Matt Fraction and sho...
Episode 629: Peyton Pinkerton
April 19, 2024 01:00 - 1 hour - 85.7 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Peyton Pinkerton. Originally from Pleasantville, New York, Peyton formed New Radiant Storm King in 1990 while at Hampshire College. Over the next two decades, the band released nine albums on labels like Grass, Rainbow Quartz and Darla, and in 2010 played their final show. Peyton has also played and toured with Silver Jews, playing on perhaps their best album The Natural Bridge, as well as with the Pernice Brothers. As a solo artist, Peyton has released...
Episode 628: Friko
April 12, 2024 05:29 - 53 minutes - 49.4 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Niko Kapetan AKA one-half of the band Friko. Originally from Evanston, IL, Niko had been writing songs since he was a teenager and formed Friko with his bandmate Bailey Minzenberger in 2019. After self-releasing a number of singles and EPs, the band signed with ATO Records, and in mid-February, ATO released their debut album Where We've Been, Where We Go from Here, and it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, f...
Episode 627: Rafael Toral
April 05, 2024 05:40 - 55 minutes - 51.5 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Rafael Toral. Born in Lisbon in 1967, Rafael has been intrigued by the potential of sound and the functions of music since he was a teenager. Working with electric guitar and electronics, in the 1990’s he pioneered a blend of Ambient and Rock and recorded acclaimed albums like Wave Field or Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance. In 2004, he began the ambitious 15-year project entitled Space Program, which used experimental instruments to explore ...
Episode 626: Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura
March 29, 2024 05:42 - 59 minutes - 55.3 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Tracyanne Campbell. Originally from Glasgow, Tracyanne founded Camera Obscura in 1996 with John Henderson and Gavin Dunbar. Their first album, Biggest Bluest Hi Fi, came out half a decade later to acclaim, and since then, they've released four other albums on labels like Elefant and 4AD. On May 3rd, Merge Records will release Camera Obscura's latest album Look to the East, Look to the West, and folks, it's a banger! This is the website for Beginnings...
Episode 625: Linda Smith
March 15, 2024 05:52 - 1 hour - 65.7 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician and home recording pioneer Linda Smith. While Linda had started playing out in New York in the late 1970s, it was really when she returned home to Baltimore that her artistic life blossomed. Starting in the late 1980s, she began recording what is now known as bedroom pop and releasing her albums on cassette. Through word of mouth and distros like K Records, she gained a great deal of acclaim, and in the 1990s, labels like Slumberland, Shrimper and Harri...
Episode 624: Dan Abnett
March 08, 2024 07:00 - 1 hour - 65.7 MBOn today's episode, I talk to seven-times New York Times bestselling author and award-winning comic book writer Dan Abnett. Originally from Maidstone, Dan began working in the editorial department of Marvel UK before starting to write his own comics. Dan's CV is too extensive to cover here, but a highlights reel includes his incredible work for 2000 AD, which includes comics such as Sinister Dexter and Brink, his revamp of the Guardians of the Galaxy with writing partner Andy Lanning, which ...
Episode 623: Mark Robinson
March 01, 2024 08:41 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician and founder of TeenBeat Records Mark Robinson. Originally from New Jersey, Mark moved to Washington DC as a child, and in high school formed the indie rock group Unrest. From 1985 to about 1994, the band released seven albums, many on Robinson's own TeenBeat Records, as well as Caroline and 4AD. Since then, Mark has played in a number of groups including Air Miami, Flin Flon, Grenadine, Cotton Candy and many others. As previously mentioned, Mark is als...
Episode 622: Madeline Link of PACKS
February 23, 2024 07:43 - 1 hour - 62.1 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Madeline Link. Originally from Calgary, Madeline Link initially started PACKS as a solo project, but it eventually coalesced into its current four-piece configuration. In 2020, they were signed to Fire Talk Records, and the label has since released all four of their albums and EPs. This includes 2021's Take the Cake, 2023's Crispy Crunchy Nothing and their latest, Melt the Honey, which came out towards the end of January and is just wonderful! This i...
Episode 621: Andrew Kenny of The American Analog Set
February 16, 2024 07:12 - 1 hour - 70.4 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Andrew Kenny. Originally from Fort Worth, Kenny formed The American Analog Set in 1995 and over the next decade, released six albums on labels like Emperor Jones, Tiger Style and Arts & Crafts, after which the band went on hiatus. In 2009, Kenny released the first of two albums as The Wooden Birds, but since 2011's Two Matchsticks, he has been rather quiet. That is, until this last year. In 2023, The American Analog Set released their first album in alm...
Episode 620: Juel Taylor
February 09, 2024 06:45 - 1 hour - 57.7 MBOn today's episode, I talk to writer and director Juel Taylor. Originally from Tuskegee, Alabama, Juel at first wanted to design video games, but in college he shifted his focus to filmmaking. He did different jobs in sound while he was waiting to break through, and in 2018, he co-wrote Creed II. Directing gigs on Boomerang and Twenties followed, as well as co-writing Space Jam: A New Legacy in 2021. This all culminated in Juel's first project as co-writer and director They Cloned Tyrone, wh...
Episode 619: ISMAY
February 02, 2024 08:11 - 59 minutes - 55.3 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Avery Hellman AKA ISMAY. Originally from the Bay Area, Avery grew up surrounded by music - their grandfather founded the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival - but didn't think they would pursue making music professionally until a crisis propelled them in that direction. Their first album Songs of Sonoma Mountain was released in 2020, and their latest album Desert Pavement was just released last week, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings,...
Episode 618: Jonathan Lethem
January 26, 2024 07:09 - 1 hour - 64.8 MBOn today's 14th Anniversary episode, I talk to MacArthur Genius Grant-winning author Jonathan Lethem. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Jonathan at first thought he was going to be a visual artist until some existential realizations about class and art in college in the early 1980s left him disillusioned. He dropped out, hitchhiked to California and started writing while he worked as a clerk in used bookstores. In 1994, Harcourt Brace published his first novel Gun, with Occasional Music, a...
Episode 617: Arnold Dreyblatt
January 19, 2024 06:59 - 1 hour - 57.1 MBOn today's episode, I talk to composer and artist Arnold Dreyblatt. Originally from New York City, Arnold is part of the second generation of New York minimal composers, having studied with Pauline Oliveros, La Monte Young, and Alvin Lucier. His first album Nodal Excitation was released in 1982, and since then, he's recorded almost a dozen more, including 1995's Animal Magnetism, which was released on Tzadik. Based in Berlin since 1984, Arnold was Professor of Media Art at the Muthesius Acad...
Episode 616: Evan Dando
January 12, 2024 08:01 - 1 hour - 56.7 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Evan Dando. Attending the CommonWealth School in Boston in the early 1980s, Evan met Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz, and in 1986, they formed The Lemonheads. The band released three great albums on Taang!, but it wasn't until after signing to Atlantic and releasing It's a Shame About Ray in 1992 that the band broke through. While there have been numerous ups and downs, personnel changes, a six-year hiatus, during which Evan released a wonderful album under ...
Episode 615: Tanya Donelly
January 05, 2024 06:43 - 1 hour - 55.9 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Tanya Donelly. Originally from Newport, Rhode Island, Tanya founded not just one, but three, incredible 20th century bands. As a teenager in the 1980s, she formed Throwing Muses with her step-sister Kristin Hersh and performed with them through 1991. During this same time, she founded The Breeders with Kim Deal and co-wrote the first album Pod. Tanya left both groups though to form Belly, where she was the principal songwriter and frontperson. Their fir...
Episode 614: Doug Bielmeier
December 22, 2023 07:40 - 1 hour - 61.3 MBOn today's episode, I talk to composer Doug Bielmeier. Originally from Buffalo, Doug started out playing in indie rock bands before shifting his focus to composition, which he received both bachelors and masters degrees for. His music has been described as an "extension of Xenakis’s early electroacoustic tape pieces", and his albums include 2017's Betty and the Sensory World, 2018's Costa Mesa Rocking Chair, and 2019's Beast of Bodmin Moor. Doug also holds a PhD in education and is a profess...
Episode 613: J. Blakeson
December 15, 2023 08:53 - 1 hour - 57.5 MBOn today's episode, I talk to filmmaker J. Blakeson. Originally from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, J. started out making low-budget shorts of his own. This eventually led to him being able to make a slightly larger film, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, in 2009, starring Gemma Arterton and Eddie Marsan. Over the next 14 years, J. wrote and directed many other films and TV shows; some highlights include the Gunpowder miniseries for BBC One/HBO and 2021's I Care a Lot for which Rosamund Pike wo...
Episode 612: Arone Dyer
December 08, 2023 08:01 - 1 hour - 65 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Arone Dyer. Originally from Willmar, Minnesota, Arone began writing songs in high school and even won a contest to perform at the Minneapolis Lilith Fair when she was 18-years-old. But soon after, she developed carpal tunnel syndrome and had to give up playing guitar for many years. After moving to New York, where she took up work as a luthier and bicycle mechanic, Arone met Aron Sanchez, and the two eventually formed the group Buke and Gase, which is n...
Episode 611: Nina Nastasia
December 01, 2023 07:59 - 1 hour - 58.3 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Nina Nastasia. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, Nina began writing songs in 1993 but initially had no real ambitions to be a professional musician. She ended up recording many of those songs with Steve Albini, and they became her debut album Dogs, which was released in 2000. Albini sent the record to John Peel, who championed it on his radio show, and Nina began to garner both fans and acclaim. Since then, she's recorded and released seven albums on lab...
Episode 610: Jordan Morris
November 24, 2023 07:12 - 1 hour - 58.5 MBOn today's episode, I talk to writer and comedian Jordan Morris. Originally from Mission Viejo, Jordan attended UC Santa Cruz, where he met his future podcasting partner Jesse Thorn, and in 2007, the two started one of the longest-running podcasts still going, Jordan, Jesse, Go! on the Maximum Fun network. As a writer, he's worked on everything from @midnight to Earth to Ned, and has also penned two graphic novels. The first, the Eisner-nominated Bubble, was based on his scripted podcast ser...
Episode 609: Matt Fraction
November 17, 2023 05:51 - 53 minutes - 49.2 MBOn today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics writer Matt Fraction. Originally from Chicago, Matt started out in comics writing for publishers like IDW in the early 2000s and broke into wider recognition with his 2006 series Casanova. This led to both more creator-owned work like Sex Criminals, Satellite Sam, and November as well as stints on Marvel books like Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man, Fantastic Four and a defining run on Hawkeye with David Aja. Matt also works in television, and ...
Episode 608: Mike Sweeney
November 10, 2023 05:17 - 1 hour - 69.3 MBOn today's episode, I talk to Emmy-winning comedy writer Mike Sweeney. Since childhood, Mike wanted to be in showbiz, but family issues prevented him from pursuing stand-up until his late 20s. Stand-up led to writing on shows like Short Attention Span Theater and Politically Incorrect, and in 1995, he joined the writing staff of the then two-year-old Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In 2002, Mike became the head writer for Conan and stayed with the show through its transition to the Tonight Sh...
Episode 607: Marnie Stern
November 03, 2023 06:24 - 55 minutes - 50.8 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Marnie Stern. Originally from New York City, Marnie didn't start out trying to pursue music professionally, and her first album In Advance of the Broken Arm came out in 2007 on Kill Rock Stars when she was 30-years-old. It instantly garnered acclaim, and was followed by This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That in 2008, a self-titled album two years later and The Chronicles of Marnia in...
Episode 606: Derek M. Ballard
October 27, 2023 06:06 - 55 minutes - 51.5 MBOn today's episode, I talk to cartoonist Derek M. Ballard. Originally from Mobile, AL, Derek was an artist from the jump. As a storyboard artist, he's written for shows like Adventure Time and The Midnight Gospel, and as a cartoonist, he wrote comics for the wonderful and sadly defunct site The Nib. Most recently, he created a zine called The Shape of Comics to Come, and his first graphic novel Cartoonshow was just published by Oni at the end of the summer! This is the website for Beginni...
Episode 605: Will Butler
October 20, 2023 08:36 - 1 hour - 62.7 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Will Butler. Originally from Floriston, California, Will mostly grew up in Texas, and after college moved to Montreal to join his brother's band Arcade Fire. The band was a sensation: their debut Funeral is widely considered by music critics to be one of the greatest albums of the 2000s, and all of Arcade Fire's studio albums have received Grammy nominations. However, Will left the band in 2021 to pursue other projects. As a solo artist, Will has releas...
Episode 604: A. Savage
October 13, 2023 07:17 - 1 hour - 59.6 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician and painter Andrew Savage. Originally from Denton, TX, Andrew began playing music seriously when he formed the band Teenage Cool Kids in college in 2006. By the time the group officially disbanded in 2011, Andrew had already been writing music in a new band, Parquet Courts, which he started with his college friend Austin Brown. Since that time, they've released seven albums on labels like What's Your Rupture? and Rough Trade, and Andrew was even nominat...
Episode 603: Greg Rucka
October 06, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 64 MBOn today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics writer Greg Rucka. Originally from San Francisco, Greg grew up in Salinas, California, AKA "Steinbeck Country", and worked a number of jobs - EMT, fight choreographer - until his writing career took off. His first published novels were his Atticus Kodiak books, which were published by Bantam starting in the mid-'90s. Soon after, Greg began writing comics, creating Whiteout, Queen & Country and Stumptown for Oni, writing things like 5...
Episode 602: Fat Tony
September 29, 2023 07:47 - 58 minutes - 54.4 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Fat Tony. Originally from Houston, Texas, Anthony Obi started his musical career performing with a number of different rap groups in high school, but it wasn't until his early 20s that he began writing and releasing albums under the name Fat Tony. Since 2010, he's released over a dozen albums and EPs on labels like Young One and Don Giovanni, and his latest I Will Make a Baby in This Damn Economy was just released on Carpark Records at the end of August...
Episode 601: Rod Argent of The Zombies
September 22, 2023 07:22 - 57 minutes - 52.7 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Rod Argent. Originally from St. Albans, Rod became the founder, keyboard player and one of the principal songwriters of the seminal 1960s British rock band The Zombies at the age of 16. While the band only stayed together a little more than half a decade, they became international stars, and their final album Odessey and Oracle is both one of the most acclaimed albums of the 1960s and of all time. After The Zombies broke up, Rod formed the brilliant pro...
Episode 600: Ben Edlund
September 15, 2023 06:53 - 1 hour - 61.5 MBOn today's episode, I talk to comics creator and TV writer Ben Edlund. While still in high school, Ben began developing the satirical superhero The Tick, who became the mascot of the New England Comics newsletter. After a production error led to them needing a new title quickly, the New England Comics folks invited Ben to create a series around the character. The Tick has had numerous comic runs, as well as a cartoon in the 1990s and two live action series, the most recent of which ran on Am...
Episode 599: Will Oldham
September 08, 2023 07:12 - 1 hour - 59.2 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician and actor Will Oldham. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, Will was an actor before becoming a musician, appearing in John Sayles' Matewan as a teenager, as well as in films like Old Joy, Junebug and The Guatemalan Handshake, as well as TV shows like Wonder Showzen. In the early '90s, he began playing music as Palace - or more accurately, as different permutations of the name Palace - but a few years later, adopted the Bonnie "Prince" Billy moniker wh...
Episode 598: Geoff Garlock
September 01, 2023 07:11 - 1 hour - 96.2 MBOn today's episode, I talk to writer and musician Geoff Garlock. Geoff has been playing music since high school, first with the hardcore punk band Switchstance, and eventually with the seminal screamo band Orchid, who in their five short years together released ten albums and 7"es, mostly on Ebullition. After Orchid broke up, most of the members started Panthers, who released four albums on labels like Troubleman Unlimited and Dim Mak, but after they broke up, Geoff began pursuing comedy. He...
Episode 597: Teenage Fanclub
August 25, 2023 07:44 - 1 hour - 74.1 MBOn today's episode, I talk to Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley of Teenage Fanclub. Emerging from the Scottish C86 scene of the 1980s, Teenage Fanclub formed out of the ashes of their previous group The Boy Hairdressers. While they immediately garnered positive reviews with their first few albums, released in America on Matador, it was with their third album Bandwagonesque that they broke through to a wider audience. In the thirty-some-odd years since, they've never lost that original creati...
Episode 596: Bush Tetras
August 18, 2023 07:49 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musicians Pat Place and Cynthia Sley of Bush Tetras. Both art students, Cynthia and Pat moved to New York in the 1970s and were soon sucked into the music scene. Pat became one of the founders and the guitarist of James Chance and the Contortions, and then in 1979, the two formed Bush Tetras. Their debut 7-inch EP, "Too Many Creeps", was released in 1980 on 99 Records, and even though they only stayed together for another three years, the band was an integral pa...
Episode 595: Locate S,1
August 11, 2023 07:33 - 1 hour - 56 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Christina Schneider AKA Locate S,1. Originally from Westchester, New York, Christina began her career making music in various projects, such as C.E Schneider Topical, Christina Schneider's Genius Giant, and Jepeto Solutions., and in 2018, she began recording as Locate S,1. She's released three albums, Healing Contest, Personalia and her latest, Wicked Jaw, which was just released at the end of July by Captured Tracks! This is the website for Beginnin...
Episode 594: Jad Fair
August 04, 2023 07:44 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician and artist Jad Fair. Originally from Coldwater, Michigan, Jad began playing music with his brother David in 1974 as the band Half Japanese. As an art rock group that charted its own path, Half Japanese soon began to be celebrated by tastemakers, and this led to their first record contract. Over the next fifty years, they released over two dozen albums and EPs, and as a solo artist, Jad has a discography as numerous as the stars in the sky. He's collabor...
Episode 593: Heather Trost
July 28, 2023 07:43 - 1 hour - 63.8 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Heather Trost. Originally from Albuquerque, NM, Heather really started taking music seriously in college, often touring whenever she wasn't in class. In the early 2000s, she met her now husband, Neutral Milk Hotel drummer Jeremy Barnes and joined his fledgling project A Hawk and A Hacksaw, making it a duo. Since that time, they have released six albums, the latest of which is Forest Bathing in 2018. As a solo musician, Heather has released four albums, ...
Episode 592: Matt Christman
July 21, 2023 06:38 - 1 hour - 56.2 MBOn today's episode, I talk to writer and podcaster Matt Christman. Originally from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Matt wasn't pursuing anything specific when he started the left political podcast Chapo Trap House with two friends he met online. But the show struck a nerve in the general zeitgeist and turned into a career for Matt. The show has been going strong for seven years now, and through Chapo and their producer Chris Wade, Matt has created a number of fantastic miniseries: Hell of Presidents, ...
Episode 591: David Bizzaro
July 14, 2023 07:05 - 1 hour - 66.8 MBOn today's episode, I talk to Emmy Award-winning puppeteer David Bizzaro. Originally from Fresno, CA, David moved around a lot as a child. He fell in love with theater, and eventually began working in a field adjacent to that, as a visual generalist, making videos and other things for the live shows of bands like The Flaming Lips. Puppetry, though, was something he came to in adulthood, when he needed to learn the skill for a TV ad. He found that puppetry just felt right for him, and since t...
Episode 590: Salami Rose Joe Louis
July 07, 2023 07:49 - 55 minutes - 51.4 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Lindsay Olsen AKA Salami Rose Joe Louis. Originally from San Diego, Lindsay worked in the sciences as a lab tech and made music on the side until Flying Lotus' label Brainfeeder released her third album Zdenka 2080 in 2019, which gave her the courage to pursue music professionally. This was followed up by Chapters of Zdenka the next year, and her most recent, Akousmatikous, was released in May, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subs...
Episode 589: Rob Mazurek
June 30, 2023 06:06 - 1 hour - 56.4 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician and composer Rob Mazurek. Originally from Jersey City, Rob started playing trumpet and cornet in high school after his family moved to Naperville, Illinois. He first learned the foundations of improvised music while studying jazz theory and practice with David Bloom at the Bloom School of Jazz in Chicago, and then became a mainstay of Chicago jazz in the 1980s. In 1994, Rob formed the Chicago Underground Collective with guitarist Jeff Parker and a cast ...
Episode 588: John Grant
June 23, 2023 07:21 - 1 hour - 77.3 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician John Grant. Originally from Buchanan, Michigan, John moved to Germany in 1988 to study German, but eventually moved back to the States, where he formed the band The Czars, who released seven albums in the 12 years they were together. After a four-year hiatus, John began making music again under his own name, and the five albums he's recorded since have garnered both critical praise and commercial success. In 2013, John moved to Iceland, where he works a...
Episode 587: Zeena Parkins
June 16, 2023 06:41 - 1 hour - 56.9 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician and composer Zeena Parkins. Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Zeena is a pioneer of contemporary harp practices and has essentially "reinvented the harp". Since moving to New York in 1984, Zeena has collaborated with countless musical luminaries like John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Elliott Sharp and Bjork, recorded over a dozen fantastic albums and collected more accolades than you could count in a week, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. For 13 years, Zeena he...
Episode 586: J. Holtham
June 09, 2023 07:05 - 1 hour - 60.7 MBOn today's episode, I talk to TV and comics writer J. Holtham. Originally a playwright, J. moved to Los Angeles in the early 20-teens to pursue screenwriting, eventually landing a staff writer position on the show Pitch. Since then, he's written for Cloak and Dagger, Jessica Jones, Supergirl and The Handmaid's Tale. As a comics writer, the final issue of J.'s first miniseries Bishop: War College just dropped, and it is delightful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Pod...
Episode 585: Half Gringa
June 02, 2023 07:16 - 1 hour - 62.9 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Isabel Olive AKA Half Gringa. Originally from Carbondale, Illinois, Isabel has been playing as Half Gringa - a nod to a childhood term of endearment as “la Gringa” in her Venezuelan family and her bicultural experience growing up in the United States - since the late 20-teens. Her first album Gruñona was released in 2017 and her second Force to Reckon in 2020. Earlier this year, she released the Ancestral Home EP, and this summer she'll be on tour suppo...
Episode 584: Joey Alison Sayers
May 19, 2023 06:08 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBOn today's episode, I talk to cartoonist Joey Alison Sayers. Originally from Colorado Springs, CO, Joey has drawn comics for most of her life, but only really started publishing them as minicomics in her mid-20s. This led to many other opportunities, such as her strip "The Machine That Travels Through Time", which ran in Mad Magazine for almost a decade and "Thingpart", which was syndicated in a number of newspapers in the late-aughts. Currently, Joey writes the syndicated comic Alley Oop, a...
Episode 583: Bobcat Goldthwait
May 12, 2023 07:07 - 1 hour - 59.8 MBOn today's episode, I talk to comedian and director Bobcat Goldthwait. Originally from Syracuse, Bobcat's career is so full of hyphens that "multihyphenate" doesn't even scratch the surface. From acting in films like Police Academy and Scrooged to directing TV for shows like Community and Jimmy Kimmel to directing comedy specials for folks like Marc Maron and Patton Oswalt to directing his own films like World's Greatest Dad and God Bless America. But since the start of his career, Bobcat ha...
Episode 582: Carl Newman of The New Pornographers
May 05, 2023 05:59 - 54 minutes - 50.7 MBOn today's episode, I talk to musician Carl Newman. Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Carl began his musical career in the early '90s as a member of Superconductor, but it was really with his next band Zumpano where he began to find his voice, a style that would come to fruition with The New Pornographers. Since their first album Mass Romantic in 2000, the band has become one of the preeminent indie rock groups of the 21st century, with nine albums to their name, all of which are ...
Episode 581: Jeff Lemire
April 28, 2023 05:50 - 55 minutes - 51.5 MBOn today's episode, I talk to Eisner Award-winning comics creator Jeff Lemire. Originally from Woodslee, Ontario, Jeff wrote and drew comics for years while working day jobs, until he eventually self-published his book Lost Dogs in 2005. This led to making Essex County for Top Shelf, and since then he's written and drawn a veritable slew of fantastic comics, both creator-owned works for publishers like Image and Dark Horse and for-hire books for companies like Marvel, DC and Vertigo. This in...