In the second installment of John’s conversation with Cameron Crowe about his new memoir, “The Uncool,” the Oscar-winning writer-director explores his relationship with legendary rock critic Lester Bangs (and casting Philip Seymour Hoffman to play him in “Almost Famous”); the previously unacknowledged teenage suicide of his elder sister and how it fed into the complex family dynamics that compelled him to spend much of his adolescence on the road with rock stars; the end of his career as a music journalist at age 21; how writing “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” helped Crowe reclaim his lost youth and opened the door to Hollywood; and how Tom Cruise convinced him not to cut the most famous line in "Jerry Maguire."

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John sits down for an epic conversation with Oscar-winning writer-director Cameron Crowe about his new memoir, “The Uncool,” which covers his years as a teenaged rock music writer for Rolling Stone in the 1970s — years that served as the inspiration for his classic movie, “Almost Famous.” In the first installment of this special two-part episode, Crowe details his seminal experiences on the road with The Eagles, The Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, and other defining bands of the era, which shaped his unusual adolescence and turned him into a magazine journalism wunderkind, as well as the unique relationship he forged with Bob Dylan, which ultimately paid dividends for another of his hit films, “Jerry Maguire.”

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John welcomes California Democratic congressman Ro Khanna to discuss a raft of headlines this week—from Donald Trump seeking $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for its past investigations of him to his demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make space for a 90,000 square foot ballroom—that bolster Khanna’s argument that Trump and the GOP majority are running a government “of, by, and for the billionaires.” Khanna explains why focusing on MAGA corruption is his party's best path back to power; why he endorsed Zohran Mamdani when so many elected New York Democrats didn't; why he’s sticking with insurgent Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner despite the controversies swirling around him; and his unlikely (albeit limited) kinship with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Steve Bannon.

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John welcomes former CNN primetime anchor and current YouTube prospector Don Lemon to discuss Trump 2.0 and life after cable news. Lemon offers his take on the No Kings Day protests, Donald Trump’s efforts to prosecute his perceived political foes, the situation on the ground in Chicago, and the pros and cons of Zohran Mamdani. Lemon also discusses his testy interview with Elon Musk last year, which killed his nascent partnership with X in the crib; how he’s finding YouTube as a home for his brand of coverage; and whether he ever misses CNN. 

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John welcomes Dennis Ross, the longtime diplomat sometimes referred to as the Zelig of Middle East peace talks, to discuss the deal brokered by Donald Trump to end the war in Gaza. Ross—whose career at the center of U.S. foreign policy included stints in the Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, and Obama administrations—explains why the significance of Trump's achievement shouldn’t be diminished, even if his claim of delivering “the historic dawn of a new Middle East" is wildly premature; what will be required to build on this week’s momentum and lay the foundation of a lasting peace between Israel and Palestine; and what lessons can be learned from the last time a breakthrough in the region seemed to be at hand—the failed Camp David Summit 25 years ago, in which Ross played a pivotal role.

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John welcomes the host of Pablo Torre Finds Out back to the show to discuss a pair of freak-outs at the intersection of sports, politics, and commerce: the Republican outrage over Bad Bunny being chosen to headline next year's Super Bowl halftime show, and the NBA's panic over the unfolding scandal, exposed by Pablo's exclusive reporting, involving billionaire LA Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and the team's superstar forward, Kawhi Leonard. Pablo explains why the NFL's increasing financial and cultural dominance make it impervious to partisan controversies; what drove Ballmer to engineer an egregious scheme to circumvent the NBA salary cap; and why the former Microsoft CEO's status as the league's richest owner (indeed, the richest in all of sports) presents a vexing quandary for Commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA's investigation of Ballmergate.

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John welcomes former Republican National Committee chairman and current MSNBC host Michael Steele to the show to discuss the government shutdown, Pam Bondi’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Donald Trump’s militarization of law enforcement in America’s cities. Steele argues that Democrats have the upper hand in Washington’s fiscal standoff, Bondi beclowned herself on Capitol Hill, and Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker is holding his own against Trump’s incursion into Chicago; but in the larger battle over the future of the country, “Team Democracy needs to get its shit together.”

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John welcomes Puck's master of the media multiverse, Dylan Byers, back to the show to discuss Bari Weiss's elevation to editor-in-chief of CBS News and Jimmy Kimmel's east coast victory lap after the furor around his suspension and reinstatement by Disney and ABC. Byers also weighs in on the panic in Hollywood over OpenAI's Sora and the first signs of the remaking of the Washington Post's op-ed page as directed by Jeff Bezos.

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John welcomes former Obama White House comms director (and his ersthwile cohost on The Circus) Jennifer Palmieri to discuss the shuttering of the federal government earlier this week. Palmieri argues that Democrats were right to deny Republicans the votes it needed to further operationalize its agenda; that focusing on health care is fighting both the good fight (morally) and the right fight (politically) for her party; and that Donald Trump’s embrace of Russ Vought’s plan to lay off federal workers and cancel programs in blue states is only making it more likely that the GOP ends up being blamed for the shutdown.

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John welcomes celebrated First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams to discuss Donald Trump’s efforts to stifle and/or prosecute his political opponents. Abrams—who has argued more free-speech cases before the Supreme Court than any attorney and whose clients have ranged from the New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case to Mitch McConnell in Citizens United—explains why Jimmy Kimmel’s reinstatement isn’t likely to end Trump’s legal and regulatory assault on broadcasters and the news media; the indictment of Jim Comey marks a new and dangerous phase in the administration’s weaponization of the legal system; and we are now living in a world where no hypothetical abuse of presidential power is too outlandish to take seriously.

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