Don't Get Me Started

Comedian / writer / improviser Mary Sasson comes on the show to talk about her obsession with her home city of Pittsburgh. We talk about the accent, the three rivers, Andrew Carnegie, and which cities are the stars of America's mental landscape! Also Anthony talks about a book on directing by Arthur Laurents, and Will discusses former comics publisher cat yronwode.

Writer/actor/podcaster Sean Clements comes on to tell us of his long-time love for the band The Mountain Goats! We go over their original lo-fi stuff, the later highly produced stuff, the way that the right band can teach you what you're already feeling and the nerve-wracking moment you meet your heroes. Also, Will talks about Rose Wilder Lane (the Karl Rove to Laura Ingalls Wilder's George Bush!) and Anthony wonders about the moments when you feel that you are becoming a cliche (cut to Anthony grilling a burger wearing cargo shorts and his buttoned-up shirt).

Neil Casey joins us for his second appearance on this podcast to discuss his obsession with flying, specifically the world of general aviation (meaning unscheduled flights generally from small airports). We talk about radio protocol, the appeal of open air space, the similarity of planes and boats and just a drop of physics to boot. Also, Anthony talks about the secret behind the Magic Eraser and Will discusses the idea of the Fixed International Date Calendar.

Comedian Dan Black talks about his long time, passionate obsession with professional wrestling. We get into the Attitude Era, the Reality Era, how the fans change the sport, a number of specific wrestlers and their appeal, and how Dan sent us several videos that we should have watched as homework to more fully appreciate the sport (we didn't). Also, Will discusses the possibility of a lost Shakespeare play and Anthony discusses the movie "Toys."

Actor and adventurer Eli Newell stops by to talk about exotic travel, meaning travel to places American tourists generally don't go including: Jordan, West Africa, some crazy islands off of Central America and many others. We also get into: being chased by packs of wild dogs, being cornered by angry mobs, the proper way to bribe an usher at a baseball park and more! Anthony talks about the restaurant Tallyrand, and Will discusses the new equipment they're using to record the podcast.

Actor and writer Fran Gillespie describes the amazingly specific, comforting and relatively new world of ASMR, or Autonomous sensory meridian response, which certain types of quiet soothing sounds creating a peaceful physical reactions in the listener. We listen to many YouTube videos of people speaking in barely audible whispers while doing things like: crinkling shirts, brushing hair, typing on keyboards, turning pages of books. It is AMAZING. Also, Will discusses Albert Einstein's "miracle year" and Anthony discusses the sounding-happy-but-nope-it's-actually-sad song "Tobacco Road" by the Nashville Teens.

Eric Appel, writer/director who worked on a million cool TV shows and before that made a million cool FunnyOrDie videos, talks to us about Disney Theme Parks! We go deep, as always. Also, Anthony King talks about his obsession with new iPhone app Periscope, which lets you live-stream yourself at any time, and Will talks about the Great Extinctions, which is times when most life on Earth ended!

Jeff Hiller, a for-real star of stage and screen (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, 30 Rock, Ghost Town) talks to us about the maybe-not-totally-recognized genre of celebrity autobiography, particualry the audio book version where the author read their own. Anthony talks about the William Shatner/Ben Folds musical collaboration "Has Been" and Will discusses being off of Facebook.

Comedian Michael Hartney talks about his lifelong obsession with Superman. If you, like the hosts of this podcast, thought Superman to be a character who somehow is just not really that interesting when it comes to superhero characters, get ready to have your mind completely changed and to become a huge advocate for how cool Superman is. Also, Will discusses Los Angeles legend Griffith J. Griffith (and the no-longer-often-discussed time he tried to murder his wife) and Anthony discusses NPR Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal.

Comedian / musician Geoff Garlock talks to us about the musical genre of Extreme Metal, by which he means several different metal genres that your average Joe has maybe never heard of. Geoff's parade of insane-sounding proper nouns is something to behold. Also, Will talks about The Maltese Falcon (book) and Anthony talks about Dean Smith and the possibly lost era of Great Men.