 A post-election but not-too-political wrap up with John Hodgman (Judge John Hodgman, Medallion Status). A True Tales deep dive into Roswell, NM. When conspiracies were fun!

Hail The Non-Monsters

Comedian Dana Gould takes a look at our world... through his eyes... for your benefit. Joined by fellow comedians and other interesting people with a focus on the weird and the real. Conversation. Music. Monologues. With Ken Daly, Andy Paley and more.

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Max Evry is here. Max is the author of a fantastic new book called A Masterpiece in Disarray, the oral history of David Lynch’s Dune. Those of you who have seen the Denis Villeneuve version may only be dimly aware of the David Lynch’s Dune. It was only his third film, and it’s the only film of his that he claims not to love in some form or another. David Lynch’s Dune was, at its time, the most expensive science fiction film Universal had ever made. It starred an unknown actor named Kyle MacLaughlin and the guy who had only directed two film and one of them was Eraserhead. If you don’t think that’s going to be an interesting story, I can’t help you.  Christina Ward, like Max, is a pal o’ mine. She is the Vice President and Editor at Feral House Publishing, and she has written a book called Holy Food: How Cults, Communes and Religious Movements Influence What We Eat. I learned a whole bunch of stuff I didn’t know including, what major religion used to suggest that after someone died, it was a good idea to eat cake off their corpse. True Tales From Weirdsville tells the stranger than fiction tale of California’s weird association with religious cults, focusing on two strange organizations that were both HUGELY popular, that both started out with seemingly good intentions, and how, one, specifically, went VERY off the rails. This is the tale of Aimee Semple Mcpherson’s Four Square Gospel Church, and Charles Dederich’s Synanon. You won’t believe your ears!

Howya Dune?

We have our usual stellar line up to get the season off to, in this case, a rockin’ good start.  Our old friend Greg Proops is back! Greg has a new album out called French Drug Deal. He is also in a new film called First Time Caller. He’s out on the road with Who’s Line Is It Anyway and is getting ready to record the follow up to French drug Deal AND, greg is going to tell us all about what it is like to perform the Nightmare Before Christmas LIVE concerts, which he does, and about which I am so jealous.  Also, Leland Sklar is with us. If you own a radio, you have heard Leland’s work. Leland is one of the preeminent session musicians on Los Angeles a bass player of world renown. To let you know how long Leland has been making music, he tells a story in the interview where he was doing a session with another guitarist, and that guitarist was just forming a new band, but was unsure what to call it so he asked Leland, “I don’t know, do you think The Eagles is a good name?”  Leland can be seen in a new documentary by Denny Tedesco, who made the documentary The Wrecking Crew. This new film is called The Immediate Family and it is available now to stream, and I can’t recommend it strongly enough. And we will be hearing all about it, in today’s episode.  True Tales From Weirdsville goes deep on of my favorite musicians who is also tangentially featured in Immediate family, Warren Zevon. That story is stranger than fiction.

Lucky 13

This is our annual holiday spectacular, with great guests, True Tales From Weirdsville and, of course, hours and hours of Christmas songs and holiday games. Not really.  Kliph Nesteroff is here. Kliph is a fantastic writer who has been here before discussing his books, The Comedians and We Had A Little Real Estate Problem. He is here to talk about his spectacular and, in my opinion, mandatory reading new book, Outrageous, A History Of Showbiz and the Culture Wars. It’s one of my top five books of this year, just phenomenal and I’m really excited for you to hear him talk about it.  Also, actor Steven Weber is here. You know Steven from Wings, the TV miniseries The Shining, Chicago Hope and so much more. He is also a hilarious guy, a monster kid, and a terrific storyteller, so happy to have finally nabbed him to be on. Steven Weber is here.  True Tales From Weirdsville takes the idea of no good deed going unpunished to a whole new level, it’s the making of Monty Python’s Life Of Brian.

Merry Podcast Baby

It’s that time of year again! It’s mid October. The leaves are turning, there’s a chill in the air and the whole world smells pumpkin spice, which, oddly, smells neither like pumpkin or spice, but what can you do? Regardless, all that stuff adds up to two very important things! It’s time for our annual Halloween spectacular, and Target has already put up its Christmas shit. Well, tough toenails Target! We’re sticking with Halloween up to, well,  Halloween, which is really just the night before the countdown to next Halloween, so there! Aaron Lee is with us today. He is what you’d call a fellow traveler. A horror movie nerd, comic book fan and The Cramps devotee who has come to unburden his sympatico soul with us. Aaron is a hilarious writer who’s been an essential writer on, among others, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, the upcoming TED TV and so many more. But it’s Halloween, so we’re talking monsters, with Aaron Lee. Also, my very dear friend Bill Corso is here. Bill is one of the most famous and successful make-up men in Hollywood today. In addition to being the governor of the make-up branch of the Motion Picture Academy, he is also the personal make-up artist of Jim Carrey, Harrison Ford and so many others. Here to talk latex, glue and other fun things to sniff, it’s Bill Corso!  True Tales From Weirdsville is going to take you down to the basement and unearth the down and the dirty in the world of James Warren Publications, which gave the world Creepy Magazine, Eerie, Magazine, Vampirella Magazine and, of course, Famous Monsters Of Filmland Magazine. It’s the weird and wonderful world of James Warren and Forrest Ackerman, two dudes who could not be more different if they tried to be.

The Bloody Hand Of Halloweenery

Two terrific guests on this episode, lordy. There is a new book out called The Exotic Ones, which tells the take of filmmaking duo Ron and Julie Ormond. They were contemporaries of Ed Wood and their story is every bit as bizarre. The book was written by the legendary Jimmy McDonogh, who wrote The Ghastly One about Andy Milligan. He’s also written biographies of Russ Meyer, Tammy Wynette, Neil Young and more. Jimmy McDonough is here today in all his psychotronic glory. And then we have our resident film critic Katharine Coldiron to further unpack the Ormond oeuvre but also to discuss her new book, Junk Film, Why Bad Movies Matter. True tales From Weirdsville is going to take you down to rabbit hole to uncover all things Kenneth Anger, and there is, as always, so much more. 

Hail The Non-Monsters

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