The Sport of Life: Chats w/ Comedians, Filmmakers, Sports Figures, Musicians, & Intellectuals

Inside Texas writer, scholar, and humorist Paul Wadlington chats with Trey Elling about THINKING TEXAS FOOTBALL, his annual preview of the Texas Longhorns football season. Topics include: Why Paul is buying the preseason optimism (2:15) Quinn Ewers (4:59) The UT running backs (9:42) An talented WR corps (13:27) The Texas offensive line (15:45) The second most important TE (20:02) Impressive depth on the D-line (21:59) Anthony Hill (24:30) Replacing Overshown (25:40) The secondary (27:40) University of Texas Stress Disorder (33:01) How Texas can win at Bama in week 2 (35:15) The most difficult conference game (39:23) Tougher game: at Baylor or at home against Texas Tech? (41:06) College football players as university employees (45:56) The conference realignment end game (50:48) Longhorn prediction (56:16)

Austin native & actor Ben McKenzie chats with Trey Elling about EASY MONEY: CRYPTOCURRENCY, CASINO CAPITALISM, AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRAUD. Topics include: Finally releasing a book that was nearly two years in the making (1:00) How "The Emperor's New Clothes" & cannabis inspired the book (1:43) What clued him in on crypto as a scam (3:32) Being a skeptic in a sea of crypto hysteria at SXSW 2022 (5:32) Visiting the largest crypto mining facility in the US (10:02) Seeing the effects of El Salvador making Bitcoin a legal tender (14:55) Interviewing Sam Bankman-Fried in the summer of 2022 (19:22) A surprising aspect of the SBF/FTX/Alameda takedown (21:30) Ben testifying in front of the Senate Banking Committee (22:58) Is he considering a film adaptation? (24:30) What he loves about his hometown of Austin, TX (26:37)

Comedian, podcaster and actor Bryan Callen chats with Trey Elling, ahead of his headlining shows at Cap City Comedy Club, August 3-5. Topics include: Authors and their books (2:03) The return of BEST OF, WITH BRYAN CALLEN (4:24) The magnificence of the Redwoods (5:31) Awe (9:25) Sharing the stage with Alex Jones at Minds Fest (12:32) Cap City Comedy Club (13:47) Jon Stewart (15:22) Race (16:42) Gavin Newsom (18:32) The new comedy hour (24:05) Hitting 'both' sides of a taboo subject (25:49) What awed Bryan in Israel this summer (28:28) Gender identity politics (36:47)

High school creative writing teacher and first-time author BT Hayes chats with Trey Elling about EXPECTATIONS. Topics include: The feeling of being published for the first time (0:35) The basis of Expectations (1:32) A timeline for the book (2:10) Enjoying the research (3:28) Picking up teenage dialogue thru his day job (5:33) His fears for his own daughter manifesting in the book (7:25) Have his kids read the book? (9:07) A nervousness in sharing a morbid piece of work (9:24) Why the title is "Expectations" (11:13) Playing with preconceived notions (11:50) A lesson from writing his first novel (14:16)

Legendary former casting director Joel Thurm chats with Trey Elling about SEX, DRUGS, & PILOT SEASON: CONFESSIONS OF A CASTING DIRECTOR. Topics include: Joaquin Phoenix’s influence on the book (0:00:57) Growing up on a dairy farm in Brooklyn, NY (0:02:58) David Merrick’s influence on Joel’s career (0:08:16) How Pearl Bailey got Joel to Hollywood (0:13:03) LSD, a puffy shirt, & Jesus Christ Superstar (0:16:21) Learning how to handle people from Ethel Winant (0:21:12) The Minutes on CBS (0:23:46) Charlton Heston (0:27:18) Casting Susan Sarandon The Rocky Horror Picture Show (0:28:03) Why Aaron Spelling Leonard Goldberg made such a good team (0:30:49) The Boy In The Plastic Bubble (0:33:14) Grease as an example of Joel’s philosophy on money & creativity (0:38:45) Olivia Newton John’s “Slutty Sandy” scene (0:40:52) Getting the team back together for Grease Live in 2019 (0:43:26) The joys of working on Taxi (0:47:11) Airplane! (0:55:36) Why Peter Graves & Kareem Abdul Jabbar getting cast (0:59:06) Leslie Nielsen reinventing himself with Airplane! (1:00:55) Ted Danson, Shelly Long, & Cheers (1:03:10) Choosing Claire Huxtable for The Cosby Show (1:06:59) Joel bucking “casting couch” stereotype (1:11:39) What he would’ve done differently (1:20:25) Why he stopped casting in the early 1990s (1:23:24) Joel’s last casting job (1:25:30)

Standup comedian Ali Siddiq chats with Trey Elling, ahead of his headlining shows at Joe Rogan's Comedy Mothership on July 28th & 29th. Ali's new standup special, DOMINO EFFECT II: LOSS, is out now. Topics include: His impressions of the Comedy Mothership (0:54) Focusing on 'loss' in his new special (1:56) Letting your kids lament their trivial problems (4:54) Why he operates the way he does (6:53) The biggest challenge for parents in 2023 (16:36) The importance of playing sports (22:48) Good boxers--and athletes--remaining positive (29:02)

Actor Jake Johnson chats with Trey Elling about MINX, ahead of the season 2 premiere at the ATX TV Festival. The new season premieres on STARZ on July 21st. Topics include: Austin, TX (0:42) Acting in a 1970s period piece (1:27) The story being told in MINX (2:35) Where season 2 picks up (3:34) Jake's first job (4:10) Not putting success over relationships (5:15) A hilariously weird scene from season 1 (7:02) The key to a good story (8:39)

Daniel Wu, Ben Wang, and Gene Luen Yang chat with Trey Elling on the red carpet, ahead of the premiere of Disney's AMERICAN BORN CHINESE at South By Southwest 2023. Luen Yang wrote the original graphic novel that the series is based on, Wang stars as "Jin Wang", and Wu plays "The Monkey King". Gene Luen Yang (1:04) Ben Wang (3:46) Daniel Wu (8:41)

Austin-based standup comedian Brian Simpson chats with Trey Elling. Brian regularly performs at Joe Rogan's Comedy Mothership, including hosting "Bottom of the Barrel" on Tuesday nights. And he's taping his new special there August 25th thru 27th. Topics include: Austin's thriving standup scene (1:37) Serving in the Marines (5:40) Taping his special at the Mothership at the end of August (8:02) The first time he went up on stage (9:44) Being starstruck by Tony Woods (11:48) Why so many good comics come out of DC (14:12) Brian's biggest fear (15:26) What he loves about the Comedy Mothership (18:57) Making it (19:30) ATX food (20:36) ATX politicians (25:37)

Personal trainer and fitness expert Ben Carpenter chats with Trey Elling about EVERYTHING FAT LOSS: THE DEFINITIVE NO BULLSH*T GUIDE. Topics include: What separates this work from other fat loss books (0:30) Obesity tripling in the last 50 years (2:37) The ‘cafeteria diet’ (6:30) How the game is rigged against food consumers (8:27) Food quality vs quantity (12:35) The perils of ultra-processed foods (14:36) Why quick-fix diets are bad for weight loss (16:23) Exercise and weight loss (20:28) Paying too much attention to the scale (25:06) Quantifying food habits (27:03) Is sugar fattening (28:49) Why fruit juice is bad for you (30:51) Sugary drinks and dietary compensation (32:49) Sleep quality and weight loss (34:22) Eating fast (or slow) and appetite regulation (36:01) The best lifestyle choices for a healthy weight (37:17)