Well, here it is, the Season 2 FINALE of Faking It. This one is coming to you late as hell, but Gabe has a new baby, so we'll blame it on them. No special guest for this one, it's just your hosts talking about our present, very real political and epidemiological moment, looking back at the previous nine episodes of the season, and looking to the future of the pod. Tune in one last time! (And also don't forget to like, rate, and review us! It's not too late for that!)

In a shocking turn of events, this week on Faking It we endorse the War on Drugs. No, not the shameful policies that have led to the incarceration of millions of Americans, but the very good band! And most especially its drummer, Charlie Hall, who is here to talk to us about the trials of jazz drumming in San Francisco circa the late 90s, the netherworld of monitor mixes, and why you can't fake it as a drummer. It's another socially distanced episode with an affable friend!

Episode edited by Mark and Eavvon O'Neal

Self-isolation continues, but we refuse to give up on the Faking It dream. This week we pulled Kevin Nguyen in to talk about the joys and discomforts of football fandom, the genesis of his novel New Waves, and the downsides of niceness in literary communities. It's a wide-ranging, hilarious conversation between three people starved of in-person social contact who silently realize that all of life is now unsettlingly similar to a podcast.

Episode edited by Mark and Eavvon O'Neal

We're all self-isolating in our apartments, but that will not stop the pod. In this very special remote edition, we talk with our editor Eavvon O'Neal about his struggles as an emerging filmmaker, the triumphs and pitfalls of honesty, and learning on the job, including this job, a job for which no one gets paid. It's a very-meta quarantine episode and it's got the bits. It's also got a few sound glitches, but we're all doing our best here!

Episode edited by Eavvon O'Neal, duh.

This week on the show we're joined by Tamar Adler, chef, food writer, and host of the podcast Food Actually. Tamar tells us about feeling like, despite being a straight-A student, she never really felt like she learned anything. But perhaps more importantly, she comes in to question some of the very assumptions and premises of this podcast. GASP! Listen as Tamar rearranges the way we think about food and drink, encourages us to discard received ideas about the meaning of eating, and explains why you can't fake it in a kitchen. Tune in and learn how to live that #NagaLife.

Tamar Adler is the author of An Everlasting Meal and Something Old, Something New: Classic Recipes Revised. Her podcast Food Actually is produced by the Pushkin Network and is available only on the podcasting app Luminary.

Episode edited by Eavvon O'Neal and Mark

This week we're joined by Ben Sinclair, co-creator and star of HBO's High Maintenance. You'll be transported into Ben's past, where he managed to smuggle a bread knife into elementary school and dupe his classmates into thinking it was his grandfather's from WWII. Look, everything's fine now. Ben is fine, we're all fine. But this early, slightly threatening foray into fabrication and fakery set the stage for Ben's life as an actor and writer. Come for the childhood tales, stay for a story about shaving a baby's head.

Episode edited by Mark and Eavvon O'Neal.

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This week we're joined by artist / writer / director David Levine. David's work involves the line between acting and being, the question of what constitutes a performance, and the enigma of acting-as-craft. Plus once David lied his ASS off about The Empire Strikes Back. All in all, a pitch perfect amalgam of the high and low, the real and the artificial, the heady brew that makes this podcast what it is.

Episode edited by Eavvon O'Neal and Mark

In this episode we welcome Alena Smith to the podcast. Alena is a writer and creator of the TV show Dickinson on Apple TV, and she's here to talk about her slightly sketchy knowledge of the Harbinger of the Golden Age of Television: The Sopranos. But more than that, Alena takes us through the ins and outs of getting by in the television industry. What's a "general meeting"? Do you get a water bottle when you attend one? How many episodes of Breaking Bad do you REALLY have to watch? FIND OUT!

Episode edited by Eavvon O'Neal and Mark

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In this episode we welcome Amy Phillips, managing editor of Pitchfork. Amy takes us through some pivotal moments in her life, first as a passionate music fan, then as a fledgling critic, and finally as a working journalist. What kind of faking do you have to do (and avoid) to make it as a music writer? Listen in and find out.

Episode edited by Eavvon O'Neal and Mark

For our first full-length episode of Season 2, we sit down with the multi-talented Norman Brannon, guitarist and songwriter for Texas Is the Reason, among many other bands. Norman tells us about his early days in New York's hardcore scene, the faking required to get by among the punks and skinheads without getting shunned (or worse), and what it was like to navigate that world as a then-closeted gay Latino man. Lace up your Docs and tune in, friends.

Episode edited by Eavvon O'Neal and Mark.

You want to get in touch? Let's get in touch. You can email us at [email protected]. Follow @fakingitpod on Twitter for episode extras and other goodies. You can also follow Mark @marksussman and Gabe @jetsetjunta.

And of course we would LOVE it if you would rate, comment, review, like, and subscribe here and on iTunes.