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

Four of the five members of The Kids in the Hall chat with Trey Elling, ahead of the South By Southwest premiere of their new Amazon Prime documentary THE KIDS IN THE HALL: COMEDY PUNKS. Amazon is also releasing a brand new season of sketches from the Canadian troupe. Throughout this conversation, you'll hear from: Mark McKinney (0:45) Kevin McDonald (3:40) Dave Foley (6:25) Scott Thompson (10:09)

Patagonia ambassador, writer, and fly fisherman Dylan Tomine chats with Trey Elling about HEADWATERS: THE ADVENTURES, OBSESSION, AND EVOLUTION OF A FLY FISHERMAN. Topics include: What he loves so much about fly-fishing (1:49) The allure of steelhead trout (6:24) Why he's a catch-and-release fly fisherman (7:32) Drinking his yerba mate tea out of a dried goat scrotum in Argentina (8:39) The importance of the Skykomish River (11:42) Reasons for the steelhead population plummeting in the Skykomish (12:53) Whether the federal government is helping conserve steelhead populations (16:12) Viable solutions to help steelhead populations rebound (17:17) The prefect fly-fishing conditions (21:04)

Tony-nominated actor of stage and screen Raúl Esparza chats with Trey Elling about his role in Hulu's new limited series, CANDY. Topics include: What drew him to the role of Don Crowder in CANDY (0:22) How much homework he did on the real-life figure the character is based on (1:30) His current assessment of NYC as a longtime resident of the city (6:00) How Austin and Texas have a soft spot in his heart (9:17) An invaluable lesson Raúl learned from acting at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago (10:02) Whether he thinks what happened in CANDY was premeditated (11:20)

Actor Jim Piddock chats with Trey Elling about CAUGHT WITH MY PANTS DOWN: AND OTHER TALES FROM A LIFE IN HOLLYWOOD. Topics include: The moment he knew he was a good actor (0:24) How the sudden death of his dad affected Jim in his mid-20s (9:53) Dustin Hoffman's direct and indirect impact on Jim's acting career (18:37) Jim's uncomfortable experience with Larry David (22:51) Landing his role in Best in Show and just how funny those scenes were with Fred Willard (34:22) Invaluable advice he received from Harold Ramis (43:10) The importance of exiting your comfort zone (46:45) What Eric Idle means to him (50:57) Jim's answer to the question, 'What does it all mean?' (54:42) The charities that will benefit from the book's sales (59:17)

Jessica Biel and Melanie Lynskey chat with Trey Elling about co-starring in CANDY. This new Hulu limited series is based on the real story of suburban housewife and mother Candy Montgomery, whose skeletons contributed to the brutal death of fellow housewife and mom Betty Gore. Jessica plays Candy, while Melanie plays Betty. Topics include: Jessica taking her career 'by the balls' (1:05) What drew Melanie to the part of Betty (2:24) Getting the 1980 Dallas accent correct (4:15) Whether Jessica tried to track down the real Candy Montgomery (6:30) If either Jessica or Melanie has been in a fight and how it turned out (8:32)

Journalist and author Sebastian Mallaby, the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, chats with Trey Elling about THE POWER LAW: VENTURE CAPITAL AND THE MAKING OF THE NEW FUTURE. Topics include: A definition of "power law" (0:35) An explanation of venture capital (VC) (2:05) The "Traitorous Eight" and their influence on the beginnings of Silicon Valley and VC (3:00) VC's investment in Atari factoring in "wild-man risk" (6:59) VC's responsibility in accelerating DNA-editing technology in the 1970s (12:02) Apple is an example of a successful venture network (14:41) The counterintuitive concept that weak ties generating a better circulation of info than strong times (18:34) What Don Valentine's achievements with Cisco in the `1980s unlocked going forward (21:38) Mosaic Communications (aka Netscape) serving as another major step in the Power Law's evolution (26:11) How Yahoo's insistence that its search engine remained free altered the way VCs approached internet technology investments (29:44) VCs' responsibility with the tech bubble bursting in 2000 (32:59) Google playing the investment game so well that created another massive shift with VC (36:08) The cause of Peter Thiel's disdain for VCs in the last 1990s and early 2000s (41:37) Why Thiel is so good at the VC game (44:52) VC's significant role in China's financial advances (49:08) Whether Venture Capital has fueled the rise of blockchain and cryptocurrencies (54:27) If VCs are making the world a better place, more often than not (55:33)

Grammy-winning musician Sheryl Crow and her longtime manager Scooter Weintraub chat with Trey Elling about SHERYL. The documentary on Ms. Crow's premieres May 6th on Showtime. Stephen "Scooter" Weintraub (0:49) Sheryl Crow (3:00)

Renowned primatologist Frans de Waal chats with Trey Elling about DIFFERENT: GENDER THROUGH THE EYES OF A PRIMATOLOGIST. Topics include: The reason for focusing mostly on chimps and bonobos (0:55) Whether young primates make gender-neutral decisions when playing (1:42) The difference between gender and biological sex (6:42) The effects of raising a genderless child on equality (9:21) Emotional differences between primate males and females (12:44) Bonobos as evidence that male dominance is not pre-destined (17:26) Bonobos' erotic tendencies (19:59) Frans' "Faces and Behinds" study (22:54) Female sex drive being exploited in pigeon racing (26:43) The biggest difference between make and female sex drive (29:46) Do primates rape? (31:57) How the 'alpha male' ideal has been misconstrued over time (36:28) Why it takes about one second for us to determine another person's biological sex (39:28) Are primates similar to humans regarding a desire to compete against the same sex? (40:58) Why primate and human males tend to get over conflict quicker than females (45:02) Whether primate males step up to tend to babies if a female isn't around (47:15) Humans, primates, and other animals having sex with no reproductive potential (49:51)

Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet, Naomie Harris, Bill Nighy, and Jimmi Simpson chat with Trey Elling about their new Showtime series, THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. The series is a continuation of the story told in the 1963 Walter Tevis novel and 1976 David Bowie film of the same name. Guest timestamps include: Naomie Harris, who plays "Justin Falls" (1:35) Bill Nighy, who plays "Thomas Jerome Newton" (2:54) Jimmi Simpson, who plays "Spencer Clay" (5:37) Co-creators Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet (9:20)

Comedian, writer, & filmmaker Neal Brennan chats with Trey Elling, ahead of his performances at the Moontower Just For Laughs Austin comedy festival. Topics include: Neal's unique style as a comedian & entertainer (1:45) His newfound love of the foreign film, The Worst Person In the World (4:31) Will Smith's assault of Chris Rock at the Oscars (6:42) If an audience member has ever approached him on stage (7:47) Any topics that he avoids with his standup in 2022 (8:36) People trying to 'cancel' Dave Chappelle (14:27) One of Neal's favorite arguments with Chappelle (18:04) Whether Half Baked was originally conceived as a dark comedy (19:22)