

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn
Jesse Thorn
Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture. Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney's, which called it "the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world."
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 29, 2024 • 44min
DeMar DeRozan
DeMar DeRozan is a basketball player for the Sacramento Kings. He's a six time NBA All-Star and an Olympic gold medalist. DeRozan just released a memoir: Above the Noise: My Story of Chasing Calm. He joins us to talk about some tough subjects covered in the book like his struggle with depression. He also gets into what it was like to be named dropped in one of the hottest songs of summer – Not Like Us by Kendrick Lamar.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Oct 22, 2024 • 1h 26min
The Bullseye Halloween Spooktacular: R.L. Stine, Andy Daly, and Elvira
Good gourd! It's a very special Halloween Spooktacular edition of Bullseye, where we're revisiting some of our best Halloween interviews. First up: R.L. Stine, creator of the Goosebumps series. Then, a very special visit from comedian Andy Daly with the song that changed his life: The Monster Mash! Finally, the "damned" finale: Cassandra Peterson, the woman behind Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Oct 18, 2024 • 18min
Music producer Nicolay on the Prince song that changed his life
Nicolay of the Foreign Exchange joins us to talk about the song that changed his life. A Prince track that, honestly, we were very surprised hadn't been picked yet.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Oct 15, 2024 • 52min
Rapper MAVI on his latest album 'Shadowbox'
MAVI is a rapper from Charlotte, North Carolina. In recent years, he's become one to watch. On his latest album Shadowbox his flow teems with self doubt and anxiety. The melodies and samples linger long after the record's finished. MAVI joins us on the latest episode of Bullseye to discuss the record. The themes in his albums are often filled with pain and loneliness, so get into how he's been doing lately to handle those feelings.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Oct 11, 2024 • 41min
Jordan Morris
Jordan Morris is a comedy writer, podcast host, and author. His new graphic novel Youth Group follows a teen who apprehensively joins a Christian youth group and comes to find that demons are real! Fear not, as the youth group is intent on exorcising the demons from whence they came. We get into Jordan's graphic novel and so much more on Bullseye.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Oct 8, 2024 • 39min
Barry Sonnenfeld
What do the films Men in Black, The Addams Family and Raising Arizona all have in common? They were all shot by cinematographer and director Barry Sonnenfeld. He's responsible for filming and directing some of the biggest movies from the 20th century. He joins us to talk about his new memoir and reflect on his many years in show business.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Oct 4, 2024 • 24min
Remembering Sérgio Mendes
Sérgio Mendes died last month. He was 83 and had been dealing with long COVID for several months. His band Brasil '66 was at the forefront of a bossa nova explosion that introduced the genre to listeners across the world. When Mendes joined us nearly a decade ago, he talked about how his music evolved over the years and he got into the show at Carnegie Hall that changed music history forever.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Oct 1, 2024 • 36min
Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert is most famous for the music he created with his band, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass. His career as a musician and producer has spanned over six decades, breaking ground on artists like The Police and Janet Jackson. In the nine years since Herb was last on Bullseye, he's dropped nine more records. We revisit our conversation with the music legend in honor of the recent release of his 50th studio album, 50.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Sep 24, 2024 • 51min
André 3000
André 3000 is one of the greatest rappers to ever grace a microphone. He is, of course, one half of the Grammy winning rap group Outkast. Between the years of 1995 and 2006, he and his partner Big Boi released some of the most iconic rap records of all time. Late last year André released an album called New Blue Sun. It's an ambient spiritual jazz record where André plays the flute. He just kicked off a Fall tour in support of the album. We are beyond thrilled to have André 3000 join us on the show to talk about his recent album. He also gets into where he currently stands on rapping. Plus, he shares with us what his time working in the fashion world was like.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Sep 20, 2024 • 37min
Small talk with Jessica St. Clair and Casey Wilson
Earlier this year, Casey Wilson and Jessica St. Clair put together an audio book called The Art of Small Talk. Think of it as a guide on navigating through brief conversations with strangers. In the audio book, they discuss why small talk is important and how it brings us as human beings, living our lives, closer together. On this episode, Jessica and Casey will get into how to perfect the art of small talk. They'll tell us what works for them and walk us through a few examples. They'll even coach Jesse on how to best engage in small talk at the dog park.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy