Mentor Buffet
Alexi Pappas
Alexi Pappas's Mentor Buffet is a podcast about mentorship: Who influenced the people who influence us? Who helped them along their journey?Alexi is an Olympian, filmmaker, actress, and bestselling author, and she's leaned on mentors to help her level up faster than she could on her own. After losing her mom to suicide when she was four, she needed to find other people to lean on. Now, it's Alexi's turn to peel back the curtain on mentorship. In each episode of Mentor Buffet Alexi sits down with people who inspire her—athletes, entrepreneurs, creatives, and beyond—to have conversations about chasing dreams and befriending pain, through the lens of those who have shaped them into who they are today.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jul 24, 2025 • 1h 1min
BAO NGUYEN'S MENTOR BUFFET
The filmmaker Bao Nguyen joins Alexi to talk about various mentors throughout his life, all of who have influenced how he sees his art—from an important middle school teacher to a Sundance-winning director. Shoutouts to Miss Tripp, Miss Grossman, Jeff Chang, Tony Bui, and Tran Anh Hung.
Jul 17, 2025 • 21min
Help Me Please 7
Alexi answers listeners' advice questions about making a big change in your life, dealing with an audience, and moving cities. She also shares what she's learning pitching a TV show.
Jul 3, 2025 • 51min
LESLEY PATERSON: What Is Love?
Alexi Pappas is joined by Lesley Paterson who is the Oscar-winning screenwriter of All Quiet on the Western Front and a world champion triathlete. She shares about her late husband Simon Marshall and other important people in her life.
Jun 27, 2025 • 17min
Help Me Please 6
Alexi answers listeners' questions about how to be high vibrational on command, how to balance striving and being present, and also one about a jealous boyfriend.
Jun 20, 2025 • 1h 2min
ZOEY GROSSMAN: Your Own Power Is In Your Art
Zoey Grossman, the first photographer to ever join host Alexi Pappas on Mentor Buffet, shares about her anxiety, the relationship between her and her subjects, and the times she feels the most magic. Zoey also shares her secrets for confidence and directing advice she got from Francis Ford Coppola.
Jun 5, 2025 • 46min
NICK DURR: Family Matters
Nick Durr, the accomplished Hollywood gaffer, joins Alexi Pappas to talk about mentorship in his family. His dad and brother are also gaffers, and Nick discerns what he’s inherited from each of them from what’s only his. Nick also talks about the start of his career, a consequential family trip to Thailand, and the importance of shittalking on set.
May 29, 2025 • 19min
Help Me Please 5
Alexi answers listeners' questions about accountability, codependence, and when to give up.
May 22, 2025 • 54min
ANGELA TRIMBUR: Bend With The Wind
Angela Trimbur joins host Alexi Pappas on Mentor Buffet the day after Alexi attended one of Angela’s dance classes and cried. Angela and Alexi discuss the motivation behind her dance classes, and recap Alexi’s experience last night at “Balletcore”—Angela’s class where everybody cosplays as professional ballerinas. Angela shares what she’s learned from her icon Twyla Tharp and about how empowering her friendship has been with Miranda July. She also explains her life motto, “Bend With The Wind,” recommends four books, and explains why she cherishes the moment right before a surgery.
May 8, 2025 • 42min
RICH ROLL: The Spirit Of Service
Rich Roll joins Mentor Buffet host Alexi Pappas to discuss his purpose: being of service. It's a truth he's discovered in sobriety: “Your life expands in proportion to the extent to which you’re in service to other people." Orienting himself toward service has led Rich to the mentors and friends that helped him publish his book, Finding Ultra, start his podcast, and eventually launch the network, Voicing Change Media, that has fostered Mentor Buffet to life. Rich also recounts recording the first episode of The Rich Roll Podcast with his wife on a mango farm in Hawaii.
May 1, 2025 • 20min
Help Me Please 4
Alexi answers listeners' advice questions about the difference between good and bad pain, being 23, and procrastination.
