On today's episode, I talk to New York-based country music artist Laura Cantrell. Born in Nashville, TN, she came to New York to attend Columbia, and found that her abiding interest in country music helped her stay connected with her family roots. That interest was the motivation behind her long-running radio program The Radio Thrift Shop, which was on WFMU for thirteen years. She began her career as a recording artist as part of one of Mac McCaughan's first groups Bricks, and she even sings on TMBG's Apollo 18. Her first album of her own Not the Tremblin' Kind was released in 2000, and John Peel said of it: "[It is] my favourite record of the last ten years and possibly my life". Five more albums of hers have been released since then, and her latest is 2014's No Way There From Here, which is simply brilliant.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter, composer, and pianist Xenia Rubinos. Originally from Hartford, CT, Xenia was raised in a multicultural household by a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother. And bits and pieces of her heritage show up in her music, along with everything from Deerhoof-inspired riffs to Caribbean rhythms to math rock like Hella and everything in-between. This is all showcased on her debut album Magic Trix, which is amazing and available on Ba Da Bing! Records.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

Happy New Year's Eve, friends! Instead of a new guest this week - I didn't want them to get lost in the holiday shuffle - I thought I'd try something I haven't done in a few years. I used to do bonus episodes of the show called "Field Guides" where I'd talk to people about the actual steps they took to create a project. Like, I talked to Abbi and Ilana about how they actually made the Broad City webseries (back before it was even a TV show!) - and the idea is to try and demystify making TV, videos and other creative things on a professional level. So, my almost-wife Naomi Ekperigin and I are currently in the middle of creating a pilot presentation that could possibly become a TV series, so I thought we'd spend a little time talking about that, about how one gets the opportunity in the first place to make a TV show, about what does it mean to executive produce something and much more. Hope you enjoy it, and we'll see you next week for a new episode!This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Gabby Smith, the woman behind the band Eskimeaux. As Gabby puts it in an interview with Stereogum, Eskimeaux began slightly to spite an ex-boyfriend that accused her of not doing anything. So overnight in 2007, she recorded her first album. Since then she's released a number of records, and her latest is the beautiful Two Mountains, which is available from Yellow K Records. Gabby is also a founding member of The Epoch, a Brooklyn-based songwriting and art collective.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to comedy writer Daniel Kibblesmith. Originally from Chicago, Daniel has has done many cool comedy things in his career. This includes being a contributing writer for The Onion News Network, writing for Buzzfeed and ClickHole, producing exclusive videos for Funny or Die and The Best Show, co-authoring the humor book How to Win at Everything, and writing the amazing Twitter feed GOPTeens. And that's just a selection! Currently, Daniel is a writer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to painter and singer-songwriter Ed Askew. Born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1940, Ed left in the early '60s to attend Yale Art School. In 1967, he moved to New York in the middle of the burgeoning Greenwich Village folk scene, and met Bernard Stollman, the founder of the ESP-Disk label, which was dedicated to releasing uncommercial acts, which included Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman and Ed's own folk album Ask the Unicorn. With no organized tours however, and hardly any press support from ESP, Ed’s album soon descended into hardly-seen-or-heard obscurity status, before finally finding re-release in the mid-2000s on De Stijl Records. Since being rediscovered, Ed's past and current work has been celebrated with Pitchfork and many other high-profile music media praised his work, labeling him as a NY legend. His latest albums can be found on Spinning Gold Records, Tin Angel Records as well as Drag City.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to comedian Mehran Khaghani. Born in London to Iranian parents, Mehran grew up partly in Iran and mostly in the suburbs of Boston. In 2007, he began pursuing stand-up as a career and quickly became a Boston favorite, prompting his move to New York. And not only was Mehran on the latest season of Last Comic Standing, but he can now be seen performing regularly at the city's best stand-up club The Comedy Cellar.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Kevin Barker. From 1995 to 2002, Kevin was a member of the wonderful indie rock band Aden, whose four albums were released on the fantastic label TeenBeat. At the same time, Kevin had his own solo-ish project called Currituck Co. In addition to these groups, he's played with Antony and the Johnsons, The Essex Green, Hercules and Love Affair, The Ladybug Transistor, Vashti Bunyan, Vetiver and as part of Joanna Newsom's Ys Street Band.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to actor Aya Cash. The daughter of a poet and a Buddhist teacher, Aya grew up in San Francisco. After moving to New York, she was cast in a number of plays, films and TV shows, including Zoe Kazan's play Trudy and Max In Love, Law and Order: SVU, and The Good Wife. Currently Aya plays Gretchen, one of the lead roles, in the fantastic FX series You're the Worst.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode, I talk to musician Kurt Heasley. A Floridian by birth, Kurt spent his early years in Hopatcong, NJ and in Virginia Beach. In 1988, he recorded a demo tape which he gave to Slumberland Records boss Mike Schulman. Schulman was so impressed with the demo that he released Kurt's first records, which were recorded under the name The Lilys. Between 1992 and 2006, Kurt would go on to record eight albums as The Lilys including A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns, Eccsame the Photon Band, and Everything Wrong Is Imaginary, which span genres from shoegaze to psych-rock to mod revival. Although Kurt stopped making music full time to concentrate on other pursuits, he plays every now and then, including some recent shows in Philly and New York.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.