“American Experience” on PBS will have an episode devoted to Bonnie and Clyde next month. After watching a DVD screener, I invited director/writer John Maggio to join me and discuss: Why did people line up by the thousands for Clyde’s funeral? Notoriety would seem to be bad for business — did they chase fame? Did […]
Here’s my conversation with Katie Sanders, deputy editor of Politifact, one of the best fact-checking websites, which has reviewed various statements and pronouncements by politicians in 2015 to determine which qualifies as Lie Of The Year. This year, however, that singular label was expanded to encompass a series of untruths by one particular presidential candidate […]
Here’s my conversation with Alan Sepinwall, TV critic for HitFix.com, about the updated version of his book, “The Revolution Was Televised: How The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Lost, and Other Groundbreaking Dramas Changed TV Forever.” When he published the first edition in 2012, “Breaking Bad” and “Mad Men” hadn’t finished their runs, so he’s […]
This week on the showbiz segment of my show, Colin Jeffrey and I reviewed “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Colin offered the fanboy perspective (he’s probably seen the previous six Star Wars movies about fifty times) while I offered the non-fanboy perspective (e.g. in the future, why are we still fighting with swords and have […]
My conversation with Kliph Nesteroff, whose book “The Comedians” is a terrific history of the last century of American comedy, from vaudeville right up to today.
Jeff Smith — the former Missouri state senator sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for lying to the FBI — returned to my show today to tell more stories from his time behind bars and his book, “Mr. Smith Goes To Prison.” Among the topics we covered: Was his cellmate really […]