RiYL

Few things in this life make one rethink the state of the world quiet like parenthood. It’s a subject Hari Kondabolu knows well. The comedian’s dives into the topic on his latest standup album, Vacation Baby – though the subject of social consciousness is never too far behind. That’s something that has permeated his career from the beginning, including Politically Re-Active, a podcast cohosted with W. Kamau Bell, and 2017’s The Trouble With Apu. Kondabolu joins us to discuss his journey through comedy and politics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After Invisible Ink, the floodgates opened. Since the book's publication, Bill Griffith has been a graphical novel producing machine. In fact, he's working on one right know, as I write this. Nobody's Fool followed in 2015, painting a three-dimensional picture of Freaks star, Schlitzie. A few weeks back, Three Rocks hit shelves, doing the same for Nancy artist, Ernie Bushmiller. All the while, the cartoonist has continued to produce the beloved strip, Zippy the Pinhead, as he has for the last 37 years. We discuss those works and pay tribute to his late-wife, the pioneering cartoonist, Diane Noomin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tits & Clits changed the underground comics scene forever. Over its 15-year-long existence, the anthology published such now legendary cartoonists as Mary Fleener, Roberta Gregory and Trina Robbins. The series tackled then-verboten topics like female sexuality, abortion and more, driven by cocreators Lyn Chevli and Joyce Farmer. Both artists continued to have impacts on comics and social movements, though Chevli passed in 2016. In 2010, Farmer released Special Exits, a powerful and touching based on her parents’ final years.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Many of us yearn for stillness and peace, as an escape from the movement all around us,” Heather Woods Broderick says of her latest LP. “Yet movement is perpetual, happening all the time on some level.” But Labyrinths was conceived at the stillest moment for many: March 2020. It was a moment to improve her home production and build from scratch. The album arrived in an entirely different world, after things had reopened and musicians returned to their lifeblood of touring. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The imagery of a distant fire found its way into several of I Am Not There Anymore’s tracks, most notably “Claire’s Not Real.” Frontman Alasdair MacLean says he was inspired by trip to Spain in the summer of 2020, spotting an orange glow on the horizon. The Clientele’s long career is speckled in surrealist imagery, and real-life moments. The death of MacLean’s mother a quarter century prior permeates the record, as well. The musician sat down to discuss process and inspiration ahead of the new album’s release.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In many ways, Impossible People is a companion piece to Drinking at the Movies. The new book finds Julia Wertz confronting the period of her life detailed in its predecessor. It’s as much a story about getting one’s life together, as much as it is about recovery. Wertz returns to the show to discuss the book and the aspect of her life that informed it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last year marked 40 years since the Swans hit the scene. Those decades have produced some of the most forward-looking albums in an era when rock music often feels stagnant. Released in June, the Swans’s 16th record, The Beggar, finds the group continuing to push boundaries, even as most of their contemporaries have either seen fit to rest on their laurels or pack it in. Frontman Michael Gira joins us to discuss songwriting, god and his soft spot for Lana Del Rey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When we last spoke to Alex Winter, he was in the midst of a publicity push for his Zappa documentary – a longtime passion project about enigmatic musician of the same name. This time out, the actor-turned-documentarian has returned to the tech world. It’s topic that he has returned to several times, including 2012’s Downloaded and 2015’s Deep Web – the latter of which was the subject of our first conversation that same year. The YouTube Effect finds Winter and company exploring the light and dark sides of the world’s most powerful media organization. The documentary includes conversations with YouTubers, media experts and top executives at the Google-owned platform, in a bid to understand its influence and power. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Apologies for the literal jackhammering 10 feet from my window for portions of the recording. I promise it hurt me more than it hurts you.] “I feel very lucky that we all ran into each other at some point pretty early on in our lives,” John McCauley explains in the press material for Deer Tick’s latest. For nearly 20 years, the band has quietly been one of America’s best. From its folk-rock roots to earnest explorations of rock, the band has maintained a consistency that feels increasingly rare. That applies to both the group’s records and live performance, as well as the core group of musicians who clearly still enjoy the act of playing together. McCauley hops on from a hotel room, whether the other members are hanging out, waiting to start a Reddit AMA and seemingly enjoying life on the road. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Apologies for the poor audio quality on my end. I was unknowingly dealing with microphone issues.] Ruined’s premise is simple enough. One host loves horror movies. The other can’t bring herself to watch them. She does, however, want to know everything about what she’s missing out on.  Good podcasts are rarely so simple, of course. The Crooked Media program is as much a meditation on friendship and society as genre films. When not podcasting, Alison Leiby is a standup comedian, whose has performed her one-woman show, "Oh God, A Show About Abortion” off-Broadway and various East Coast cities. Halle Kiefer is a television writer and blogger for New York Magazine’s Vulture. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.