On today's 16th anniversary episode, I talk to Emmy Award-winning TV and comic writer and podcaster Elliott Kalan. Originally from Millburn, NJ, Elliott started as a PA at The Daily Show in 2003 and eventually worked his way up to head writer. In addition to The Daily Show, he's written for the Academy Awards, MST3K, Netflix's upcoming Ghostbusters cartoon and many other shows. As a comic writer, he's written Spider-Man and the X-Men, Harley Quinn and his own Maniac of New York, and as a podcaster, Elliot has been one of the three hosts of the wonderful Flop House, which has been running since 2007. This is just a small sampling of Elliott's CV, and the latest addition is his new book Joke Farming: How to Write Comedy and Other Nonsense, which was just published by University of Chicago Press at the end of last year! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!

Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!

On today's episode, I talk to Jen Bender of Cusp. Originally from Long Island, Jen and her bandmates formed Cusp a little over five years ago in Rochester, before moving to Chicago in 2022. A year later, they released their first album You Can Do It All, followed by the Thanks So Much EP in 2024, and their latest, What I Want Doesn't Want Me Back, which came out in October last year and was one of my favorite albums of 2025! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!

Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!

On today's episode, I talk to musician Steven Brown. Originally from Chicago, IL, Steven moved to San Francisco in the 1970s, where he eventually joined the artist collective and commune The Angels of Light. It was though this group that he would meet his collaborators in the brilliant post-punk band Tuxedomoon. In 1980, they released their first album Half-Moon on Ralph Records, and eventually relocated to Brussels, where they began to release albums on the influential label Crammed Discs. In 1983, Steven began recording albums on his own, and his first record Music for Solo Piano, was released by Crépuscule the following year. Since then Steven has recorded numerous albums and soundtracks on his own and with Tuxedomoon, and his latest In This Very World will be released February 20th on Crammed Discs, and folks, it's great! (Plus if you live in LA, go see Steven at Zebulon on January 25th!) This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!

Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!

On today's episode, I talk to musician Kassie Carlson. Originally from Cape Cod, Kassie began performing in an early incarnation of Guerilla Toss after her hardcore band Western Syndrome played a show with them in 2012. They released their first EP Jeffrey Johnson later that year on Feeding Tube Records, and since then, they've released over a dozen more albums and EPs on labels like Tzadik, DFA and Sub Pop. Just last September, they released their sixth album, You're Weird Now, on Sub Pop, and folks, it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!

Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!

On today's episode, I talk to musician Amy Oelsner AKA Amy O. Originally from Fayetteville, Arkansas, Amy has been recording and releasing albums since 2004. In 2017, she began releasing albums on Winspear with the wonderful Elastic, which was followed up two years later by Shell and then 2024's brilliant Mirror, Reflect. Alongside her musical career, in 2019 Amy founded Girls Rock Bloomington, a music and mentorship nonprofit for girls, trans and non-binary youth that teaches positive self-esteem and self-expression through many events as well as an annual rock n' roll summer camp. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!

Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!

On today's episode, I talk to experimental musician and composer Claire Rousay. Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Claire grew up in San Antonio, Texas and began playing piano at the ripe age of 4-years-old. Dropping out of high school in her mid-teens, Claire began playing music professionally, and in 2017, released her first album Blip on Mended Dreams. Since then, she's released over two dozen other albums and EPs on Mended Dreams, as well as Orange Milk, Shelter Press and her latest, A Little Death, just came out in October on Thrill Jockey, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!

Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!

On today's episode, I talk to comics writer Brian Michael Bendis. Originally from Cleveland, OH, Brian knew from an early age he wanted to make comics. His late teens and twenties were spent making his own comics, some of them published by Caliber Press, and in 1996, a lot of this work was collected together at Image. This led to working on the Spawn spin-off Sam and Twitch, and in 1998, he began releasing Powers, which would go on to garner both critical and commercial success, as well as Harvey and Eisner Awards. In 2000, Brian co-created Miles Morales when he began writing Ultimate Spider-Man. The next year, Brian began a defining run on Daredevil and co-created Jessica Jones with the start of Alias. And this is essentially just the first decade of his career! Since then, he went on to write defining runs on comics like Avengers and New Avengers, events like House of M, books like Superman and Action Comics for DC, and most recently, for the 25th anniversary of Powers, Brian and artist Michael Avon Oeming are creating a new 12-issue series at Dark Horse, and it's great! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!

Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!

On today's episode, I talk to musician Marc Hollander. Born in Geneva, Switzerland right after WWII, Marc was raised in Brussels and started the band Aksak Maboul in 1977 when producer Marc Moulin commissioned him to write and record an album for his label Kamikaze. Aksak Maboul was one of the handful of bands that was part of the exclusive Rock In Opposition movement, and they produced two brilliant albums before going on hiatus in the early 1980s. In 1980, Marc founded Crammed Discs, which over the last 45 years has been one of the most interesting and eclectic independent labels in the world, releasing music from bands and musicians like Tuxedomoon, John Lurie, Fred Frith, Konono Nº1 and many, many more. In 2014, Marc ended the long Aksak Maboul hiatus by releasing the "lost" third album from the early '80s, and since then has made two further albums. Their latest, Before Aksak Maboul (documents & experiments 1969-1977), a collection that traces Marc's musical evolution from his first band at 19, Here and Now, up through the formation of Aksak Maboul, is out next week, and it's a blast! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!

Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!

On today's episode, I talk to journalist and writer David J. Roth. Raised in Ridgewood, New Jersey, David started out his writing career writing and editing content for the backs of Topps trading cards. This led to writing for The Wall Street Journal's sports blog, co-founding and editing his own sports blog The Classical, and contributing to Vice and The Baffler, as well as many other publications. In 2017, David became an editor-at-large at Deadspin, and two years later, he and the entire writing and editorial staff resigned, protesting major editorial interference from the private equity holding company that had bought the publication. The following year, David and a number of the other former Deadspin writers formed Defector Media, one of the exciting new worker-owned journalism companies, and in the last five years, it has become one of the most well-regarded sites online. In addition to all of this, David also hosts the wonderful Defector podcast The Distraction. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!

Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!

On today's episode, I talk to musician Thalia Zedek. Originally from Washington DC, Thalia attended college at Boston University for one semester before dropping out to pursue a musical career instead. Each band she formed saw a little more success than the last, and her breakthrough was the group Uzi in 1984. They only stayed together for a short time though, and she next joined the New York no wave band Live Skull, who stayed together until 1990. From their break-up until 2001, Thalia was in the band Come, which she formed with Codeine's Chris Brokaw; in their time together, they released four acclaimed records on Matador, and since then, she's been performing as Thalia Zedek Band. They've released nine albums, mostly on Thrill Jockey, and her latest The Boat Outside Your Window was just released in May of this year. On November 14th, Dromedary Records will release the lost EP of Via, Thalia's other Live Skull-era band, and it's a delight! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter. Check out my free philosophy Substack where I write essays every couple months here and my old casiopop band's lost album here! And the comedy podcast I do with my wife Naomi Couples Therapy can be found here!

Theme song by the fantastic Savoir Adore! Second theme by the brilliant Mike Pace! Closing theme by the delightful Gregory Brothers! Podcast art by the inimitable Beano Gee!