On today's show, I talk to SNL Weekend Update writer Josh Patten. Originally living in Washington DC to work on political campaigns, Josh took an improv class in 2006 and fell in love with performing. After moving to New York, he began taking classes at UCB and eventually became one of the featured performers at the theatre. In addition to improv, Josh is one of the best joke writers around, and a few years ago was hired to write for Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter!

On today's show, I talk to writer and casting director Katja Blichfeld. Originally from California, Katja moved to New York to pursue a career in casting and worked on all seven seasons of 30 Rock, garnering an Emmy for her work. She's also cast a number of other shows, including The Carrie Diaries and the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica. Outside of casting, Katja is also the co-creator of the highly-acclaimed webseries High Maintenance. Created with her husband Ben Sinclair, the show is now in development at a major cable network.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter!

On today's show I talk to actor and electrician Mike Maronna. Born in Brooklyn, Mike began acting from a young age. From 1993 to 1996, Mike starred as Big Pete on the seminal Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete & Pete and also starred as one of Macauley Culkin's siblings in the Home Alone movies. While he's acted in a number of projects since then, he fell in love with lighting while on the set of Pete & Pete and works in the Electric Department for Feature Films and Television. You can hear Mike along with Danny Tamborelli (AKA Little Pete) on their own podcast The Adventures of Danny and Mike.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter!

On today's show, I talk to comedian Jermaine Fowler. Originally from Maryland, Jermaine moved to New York when he was 20 to pursue stand-up and acting as a career, and he has quickly found success. He tours nationally and was one of the "new faces" at Montreal's Just for Laughs Festival, and he's also a castmember on MTV2's Guy Code and Guy Court. Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter!

On today's show I talk to MC, writer and actor Jean Grae. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Jean moved to America as a child and grew up in New York City. In the mid-'90s, she started rapping with groups like Ground Zero and Natural Resources, and in 2002 she released her first solo album Attack of the Attacking Things, and since then has released numerous albums and EPs, a comedy webseries, a book and performs all over the world.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter!

On today's show I talk to cartoonist Ruben Bolling. A lawyer by trade, Ruben is also the author of the amazing syndicated comic Tom the Dancing Bug, which has been running since 1990. While mostly a political cartoon like This Modern World, Tom the Dancing Bug has no standard format, sometimes critiquing the current plutocracy, sometimes just being surreal and absurd. The comic has been collected in three anthologies, and there's also a fan club called the Inner Hive which helps support Ruben as well. Join it today!Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter!

On today's show, I talk to comedian and musician Dave Hill. Dave got his start playing in indie rock bands in the 1990s, such as Sons of Elvis and Cobra Verde. While he still plays music today, his main focus is on writing, performing and hosting, dividing his time between Dave Hill's Podcasting Incident on Maximum Fun, The Dave Hill Explosion at UCB, The Goddamn Dave Hill Show on WFMU, contributing to This American Life, among many other projects. His first book, Tasteful Nudes, was published in 2012.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter!

On today's show I talk to contemporary artist Marcel Dzama. Marcel is a New York-based sculpter, painter, and filmmaker, originally from Winnipeg. He's exhibited his art internationally at places like MOMA in New York and the Kunst-Werke in Berlin, and collections of his are housed all over the world from Pittsburgh to Paris. Marcel's also created album covers for bands like They Might Be Giants and Beck, and two books of his works have been published by McSweeney's. His latest monograph Sower of Dischord is now available and includes contributions by Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter!

On the last episode I taped in Los Angeles, I talk to LA-based musician and comedian Brendon Small. Brendon is the co-creator, writer, voice actor, and composer for the amazing Adult Swim show "Home Movies", which ran for four seasons from 1999 to 2004. As well as doing voice work on a number of other cartoons including "Venture Bros." and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", he also co-created the hit show "Metalocalypse". He recently released a Metalocalypse rock opera called The Doomstar Requiem as well as an album by his non-cartoon band Galaktikon. Both are awesome, and both can be purchased at brendonsmall.com!Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter!

On the fourth anniversary of Beginnings, I talk to LA-based artist Jon Vermilyea. Jon graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2006 with a BFA in cartooning, and his violently psychedelic comics and art have been published in numerous places including Ganzfield, Vice, MOME, Complex and Marvel Strange Tales. Jon also animated the "My Girls" video for Animal Collective, and worked as a background designer on The Cartoon Network show "The Problem Solverz". Currently, he designs backgrounds for "Uncle Grandpa", and his latest book Fata Morgana can be purchased from Koyama Press.Check out the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter!