Latest Episodes

October 21, 2015

The Chunt for Red October is finally here! What better way to celebrate than to interview a pair of vampires in need. At least I think they’re in need.

Credits

Arnie: Arnie Niekamp
Chunt: Adal Rifai
Usidore: Matt Young
Chip von Pierre: Jeff Murdoch
Bippy von Pierre: Jo Scott
Otok Barleyfoot: Nick Baer
Mysterious Man: Tim Sniffen

Producers: Arnie Niekamp, Evan Jacover, Ryan DiGiorgi
Editor: Ryan DiGiorgi
Theme Music: Andy Poland
Episode Art: Tyler Schmidt

Sponsors
MakeSpace via The Chicago Podcast Cooperative
eSportsPlus (use promocode HOOBASTANK to play for free)

October 20, 2015

The Shrimps take on The Lady Jaguars at Pan Pacific Park. Matt Gourley and Mark McConville call the action. Get your doilies bitched.

The Shrimps on Twitter: @pistolshrimpsbb
The Shrimps on Instagram: thepistolshrimps

Matt Gourley on Twitter and IG: @MattGourley
Mark McConville on Twitter and IG: @MarkMcConville

October 20, 2015

Rapper Max Wonders joins Jensen and guest co-host Drew Unga to talk about Treated Crew, why he loves Billy Ray Cyrus, where Max sees himself in a year, Forest, Connan Mockasin, tourist and velcro hats, Allison Road, Todd Rundgren, The Documentary 2, how we’re late on Life is Strange, clinical strength deodorant, Tame Impala, and many other things you should know about.

October 20, 2015

Job interviews are stressful enough without getting hit with broad theoretical questions. Today, Stephen and James put each other to the test, and we listen to how they fare.

October 20, 2015

Randy, Jason, and Daniel Van Kirk are joined by Playing House regular, Brad Morris. Brad discusses the words of motivation that he shared with President Barack Obama, coming up in Chicago’s Second City, and all things Cubs. Then, Daniel covers stories that include a real life Goldilocks and a man that simply got too high. Lastly, Ozzie Guillen calls in to complain about the facilities at Wrigley Field.

October 20, 2015

Sean and Hayes have taken a stand and decided to do the Hollywood Reporter Most Powerful Showrunner Questionnaire on the show instead of in the magazine. Then STEPHANIE ALLYNNE appears to dish on her wedding plans and answer questions for the Popcorn Gallery about strange food.​

October 20, 2015

Christina Lee & Andrew talk about why online daters are so blunt about their racism. Make sure to leave us a message about anything you think is racist at (323) 389-RACE.

October 19, 2015

Vin Diesel, star of The Last Witch Hunter joins Josh this week for a very rare podcast appearance! Vin talks about his indie filmmaking roots, writing the script for his first short film Multi-Facial in five days, the story why he passed on taking a role in Reindeer Games, and his dream project Hannibal.

October 19, 2015

Hollywood’s own Jake Fogelnest (writer for Hulu’s Difficult People, Billy on the Street) joins Devin & Amy this week to discuss Fast Times at Ridgemont High: one of the definitive teen movies of the 80s. From the real uncomfortable way sex is portrayed to Sean Penn’s portrayal of Jeff Spicoli to the terrific 80s soundtrack, this movie has it all. Tune in as Devin, Amy, and Jake talk about a movie that presents teenagers as they really are — and head to the forums on Wolfpop to cast the deciding vote!

October 19, 2015

Is New England slowly becoming one big graveyard? Today we examine where America’s prior inhabitants are ending up.

October 19, 2015

Paul F. Tompkins welcomes all unseen visitors back to SPONTANEANATION! This week, Paul’s special guest is Laraine Newman, alumna of The Groundlings and Saturday Night Live! They chat about Laraine making sacrifices with her husband, a dinner party that was hijacked by vegans, and the first & last time she got drunk. Paul is then joined by Maria Blasucci, Marc Evan Jackson, and Jeremy Carter to improvise a story set at the Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum in Fort Mitchell, KY. And as always, Eban (only the best) Schletter scores it all on piano!

Don’t forget! The next LIVE SPONTANEANATION is happening Saturday, November 7th with special guest Keegan Michael Key and more! There will be special moments that you can only experience LIVE so get your tickets now over at www.paulftompkins.com/live!

October 19, 2015

TV’s Fred Savage of The Grinder and comedian extraordinaire Wayne Federman join Scott to give listeners big auditioning tips on this week’s Comedy Bing Bong! We’ll hear all about Wayne’s new 3-CD comedy album “The Chronicles of Federman,” Fred’s new TV show The Grinder which is one of Scott’s Pick to Click, and what we should do to prepare for El Nino. Plus, Swiss narco-sculptor H.R. Giger returns to tell us why he got kicked out of hell!

October 19, 2015

Screws, in some form or another, have been around since the 3rd century BC, and it wasn’t until the 1500s that screws began to start appearing in what we now accept as their modern form. They’re a great, simple piece of technology that helps solve the problem, ‘how do we secure this to that?’

Throughout all that time, however, there was just one problem: no one had invented the screwdriver yet. It’s true. People would spend entire lifetimes – generations would come and go – and all they could do to tighten a screw was use a coin or a flat piece of wood or something. It was like society as a whole had left their toolbox in the car but was too lazy to go out and get it.

For every screwdriver we also get an iPhone: a device that, in an instant, crammed the future into the present and forever changed the course of human history.

So there are screwdrivers, and then there are iPhones. Some came 300 years too late and others surprise us 300 years before we expect them. Jack O’Brien is joined by Cracked editors Tom Reimann and Alex Schmidt to discuss the many screwdrivers and iPhones of history that you may not know about.

October 19, 2015

Writer, producer, comedian Christina Lee joins Andrew all this week to answer some racism questions. Today they discuss the name Criminals and Tacos for a Mexican food restaurant. Be sure to call us at (323) 389-RACE to ask if anything is racist.

October 16, 2015

New and old friends Alison Becker, Kevin Awakuni, Susanna Fogel, and Kevin Seccia join Nate this week for another spectacular Book Club episode of Reading Aloud! This week they get into “Purity” by Jonathan Franzen. It’s his most recent novel and it’s dense, it’s fun, and ultimately it’s a mess. Get into the Halloween spirit and get a head start on the next book club selection by picking up “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson and send in your thoughts on the book at readingaloudpodcast@gmail.com.

October 16, 2015

Welcome back to For the Love of the Game (Not that Kind of Game!) with your host Patti Pon-Pon (Margot Leitman)! It’s the podcast about game shows, game show hosts, winners, and losers. This week Patti is joined by Phyllis McCracken, her opponent on many game shows. They talk about their high school love triangle, going head to head in the “Weakest Link,” and the confusing rules of “Jeopardy!”. Later, Traci Reardon arrives to offer advice on grabbing the most cash in the Cash Booth as she answers game show tweets in another edition of “Help Me, Rhonda.”

October 16, 2015

LIVE from Largo in Los Angeles, Seth Morris returns to join Paul, Jason, and June to discuss John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis in 1985’s Perfect. They’ll talk about Travolta starting as an obituary writer, seeing a complete aerobics class, and Jamie Lee Curtis having a tender moment with a pool. Plus, everyone discusses the use of the phrase “sphincter muscle” and Jamie Lee’s first interaction with a computer during Audience Q&A!

Check out Blake Harris’ Oral History of Perfect over at www.slashfilm.com!

People of the internet: The League is back on FXX 10pm on Wednesdays! A while ago, Paul and Rob Huebel did a comedy special on a 60 foot glass bus that traveled around LA and now you’ll be able to see it. Go to https://itun.es/us/3M4J9 now to buy it! You can also see Jason in Sleeping With Other People in a theater near you!

The Hotwives (Casey Wilson, Danielle Schneider, Andrea Savage, Dannah Phirman, Tymberlee Hill, Angela Kinsey, Erinn Hayes) are back and this time they are in Vegas baby! Watch The Hotwives of Las Vegas on Hulu today!

Also, check out June in Grace and Frankie available on Netflix, Paul in Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp on Netflix, all the episodes of NTSF:SD:SUV:: on HULU for free, ScheeRL on YouTube here:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbNGyZuMGBm0cq73JN-QhcpQNc-Shtlb7, and Jason in The Dictator (he’s still in it!).

October 16, 2015

James weighs the emotional pros and cons of being an angel investor, and Stephen explains what investment he’ll never make again.

October 16, 2015

Randy and Jason kick off the show with why Matt Barnes may be the jealous type and why the next woman on Ronda Rousey’s hit list is Justin Bieber. Then, the Sklars welcome executive producer of The Jim Rome Show Kyle Brandt, who discusses the lost art of straight sports analysis, as well as parenthood and how it translates to coaching in sports. Additionally, the gang talks about the best MMA move of all time, why Texas Govenors should stay off social media, and why Houston may have a drug problem. Lastly, Doug Buffone calls in to explain why, when it comes to the Cubs, he doesn’t want to put his ducks in a row until he’s counted his eggs.

October 16, 2015

Howard discusses Baseball’s most reliable sticks, Van Halen, mean mugging, and much much more on this week’s Kitchen Countdown!

October 16, 2015

Our guest this week is the greatest poet in all of Foon: Spurt the Elder. But apparently there’s another Spurt too? I don’t know. Foon is confusing.

Credits

Arnie: Arnie Niekamp
Chunt: Adal Rifai
Usidore: Matt Young
Spurt the Elder: Andy Carey
Bungaree Chubbins: Tom Gottlieb
Mysterious Man: Tim Sniffen

Producers: Arnie Niekamp, Evan Jacover, Ryan DiGiorgi
Editor: Evan Jacover
Theme Music: Andy Poland
Magic Tavern Logo: Allard Laban

Sponsored By: Basecamp via The Chicago Podcast Cooperative

October 15, 2015

Welcome back to The Black List Table Reads with Franklin Leonard. Popular demand called for it, and we listened: Each earmovie is now a single episode. Today, we return to our first ever earmovie – the obscenely funny BALLS OUT, written by Malcolm Spellman (Empire) and Tim Talbott (Stanford Prison Experiment) – in one bingeable package. That’s right, the full earmovie. Narrated by Craig Mazin, it stars Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, Lauren Lapkus, Matt Walsh, Eugene Cordero, Casey Wilson, Chris Cox, and Joe Wengert.

October 15, 2015

Musician, DJ, and activist Moby joins Sarah and Susan to talk about Star Trek: The Next Generation, a Volkswagen commercial, an Amtrak journey, the end of Edward Scissorhands, and crying while composing one of his own songs.

October 15, 2015

It’s a Totally Biased reunion as stand-up comedian Hari Kondabolu joins Kamau and Kevin this week to discuss Denzel in Mississippi Masala, a 1991 romantic drama film which explores interracial romance between African Americans and Indian Americans. They’ll talk about this being a huge Indian American homework movie to Hari, the movie trying to coin “insane to the brains,” and a young cool Denzel cementing his sexiness.

October 15, 2015

English singer-songwriter Frank Turner joins Jon Gabrus, Mookie Blaiklock, Charlie Sanders, and Ben Rodgers for a stacked musical edition of improv4humans with Matt Besser! Frank Turner performs songs from his latest album “Positive Songs for Negative People” live in-studio that will inspire scenes about a personal poem about a relationship going mainstream, being cursed by an ex after a break-up, and artists meeting face to face with a terrible anonymous negative reviewer. Make sure to get the Upright Citizens Brigade television show season 3 now available on DVD, the UCB Comedy Improv Manual, and pick up Frank Turner’s “Positive Songs For Negative People” ft. “Get Better”, “The Next Storm” and “Josephine” at http://fthc.cc/PSFNPdeluxe!

October 15, 2015

Opting in with Todd Barry.

October 15, 2015

Ryan Hoover is the founder of Product Hunt, a website and online community that has been described as Reddit for tech products. The site recently added a section dedicated to podcasts, and Ryan tells Adam what exactly Product Hunt is, how it got started, and how it works. Unlike many other sites, Product Hunt focuses on individual podcast episodes, rather than shows or series, and Ryan explains the motivation behind that emphasis. He also details how he wants Product Hunt to be home of conversations between podcasters and listeners, and what aspects of the site encourage that interaction. Because discovering new and interesting episodes is a key objective of Product Hunt, Adam asks Ryan how the site can uncover fresh episodes, rather than being focused on the same shows that dominate the charts. Finally, Ryan talks about what podcasters need to do to help build community and engagement.

October 14, 2015

Leonard and Baron respond to Jessie Maltin’s concept of naming “chicken soup” movies: films that make you feel better when you’re sick, and others that you might discover when you’re housebound. Examples range from Marx Brothers comedies to 10 Things I Hate About You.

October 14, 2015

Accomplished film and theatre actor Ray Baker joins Matt this week to talk about his many film/TV roles including helping Arnold Schwarzenegger go on his mind journey in Total Recall. Ray tells us about surviving Schwarzenegger’s choke hold, playing a bad guy in a 21 Jump Street/Booker crossover episode, and working with Meryl Streep in Silkwood. Finally, James ‘Jimmy Blades’ Bladon joins Matt in another exciting installment of I Was There Tune to discuss the unveiling of their new theme song project called ’Stay Tuned vol. 1.’ A project that might even involve you! For more info on STAY TUNED vol. 1, visit this link: http://mattgourley.tumblr.com/tagged/stay-tuned-vol.-1

October 14, 2015

Howard and Kulap welcome Mike O’Brien who explains life as a writer on SNL, as well as why random hook ups are the key to learning your way around a new city. Additionally, the gang discusses the latest wedding fashion trends, some of the unique techniques behind great acting, and why Hollywood shouldn’t be so afraid to tell new stories. Later, Mike reveals who the best kissers were on his show 7 Minutes in Heaven. Lastly, the gang receives some special gifts from the home of John Cougar Mellencamp.