David Sedaris has notes: on "welcome in," on the machine that took your coffee order, on the airport tip screen, on everyone under 40. But underneath the complaints in his new collection, The Land and Its People, is something softer: the person he married, the lost friends in his address book, the sense that he's entering the hard part of getting older.

David joins the show to talk about manners and tastelessness, why he'd rather say "this is the person I married" than "husband," and what he learned about landing a joke from watching Whoopi Goldberg.

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Kal sits down with psychotherapist Elliott Connie — host of the iHeartPodcast Family Therapy — to talk about Kevin Hart's Audible Original memoir Kids Make Me Angry.

It's a funny, heartfelt conversation about breaking cycles, healthy masculinity, and why the right question can change everything.

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Today, we're joined by novelist Daniel Mason to explore the quietly enchanted world of Country People, his warmest and funniest novel yet.

An academic California family lands in rural Vermont for a year while the father takes up scything and seeks out the “country people” who can maybe inspire him to finish his dissertation.

Daniel talks about the secret society of Hollow Earth believers at the story's heart, what drew him to writing a novel so different from his previous work, and why a man who has spent fourteen years not finishing his dissertation might not be a failure after all.

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This week, we're sharing an episode from Kal's other podcast, Here We Go Again With Kal Penn, all about brain rot and how to fight back. Manoush Zomorodi is a journalist and host of TED Radio Hour. Mostly, she's trying to figure out how technology is changing your body, your brain, and your behavior. She and Kal sit down to talk about how movement and boredom can be vital parts of warding off the more negative effects of scrolling and screentime. Check out Manoush's new book, Body Electric on Audible. 

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Today, we’re joined by comedian Emily Lynne to jump into the deranged fantasy world of Heads Will Roll: Heir Apparent, an Audible Original comedy she co-created with her sister Kate McKinnon.

An evil queen must produce an heir before 40 or die by demon; her cursed-raven best friend gets cosmetic surgery and ends up a toad. Emily dishes about casting Richard Kind, negotiating with her therapist, and the tiny horrible real-life moments behind the jokes.

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Earsay goes live at Audible Story House in New York for an episode about Dungeon Crawler Carl, the global phenomenon that started as a single line in a middle school notebook ("Alien Game Show") and grew into an eight-book franchise with a TV adaptation in the works.

Kal was joined by author Matt Dinniman, and Jeff Hays, the narrator who brings this immersive world and all its characters to life in the audiobook. They get into where the story and the performance comes from, why Carl is a deeper character than meets the eye, and how maybe it’s the cats who are really in charge.

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Today, we’re diving into Seek the Traitor's Son — the sweeping new romance/fantasy/sci-fi epic from Veronica Roth, author of the Divergent series.

Veronica shares why she spent years steering away from the things that actually made her happy as a writer, how COVID shaped the story's central premise, and what it means to write a male romantic lead whose superpower is radical empathy.

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Join Kal Penn for a special live taping of Earsay at Audible Storyhouse in NYC, featuring author Matt Dinniman and narrator Jeff Hays as they dive into the wildly popular Dungeon Crawler Carl series. 

Visit audiblestoryhouse.com for more information.

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A forensic anthropologist who secretly writes cozy mysteries. An actress-turned-director who adapts his book into a film he hates. A media tour forcing them together. Just Kiss Already!

Author Lily Chu joins the show and explores the book’s dual-narrator structure (voiced by Simu Liu and Phillipa Soo) — and how satisfying it is to hear two very different people experiencing two very different sides of the same love story.

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Wil Wheaton starred as the main character in the 1986 classic Stand By Me, which was based on the Stephen King novella The Body. Forty Years later, Wil has narrated the new audiobook version of The Body in a real true circle moment.

He joins Kal to jump into the differences between the darker novella and the film, and we hear about a vivid flashback to filming with River Phoenix that hit Wil while recording this audiobook. He also gets into his own parallels with the character he voices, and explains how his fellow cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation became the family he never had.

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