In this new spin-off series of the Talkhouse Podcast, host Nick Dawson introduces a new conversation format by setting out to ask questions that his guests have never been asked before in an interview. On the inaugural episode, he talks with Vera Drew, the writer-director-editor-star of The People’s Joker, one of the most acclaimed and talked-about films of 2024. In this wide-ranging chat, Vera and Nick talk about dreams, shoplifting, addiction, recovery, first love, self-love, self-care, polyamory, anxiety … as well as horny audiences, toxic yoga instructors and idyllic meetings with Elijah Wood and Lilly Wachowski. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast.

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Josh Modell sits down with Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury to preview the new season of Aquarium Drunkard's podcast, Transmissions.

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If you’re a regular Talkhouse Podcast listener you know that we most often feature musicians on the show, but we’re always happy when creative people in other fields share a chat, too—especially when they’ve had the kind of interesting careers that today’s two guests have.

Haley Joel Osment made a permanent mark on pop culture when he uttered the words “I see dead people” in 1999’s The Sixth Sense, made when he was just 10 years old. The line still reverberates today: Just listen to Kendrick Lamar’s "Not Like Us." Osment was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a psychic kid, and he has had a fruitful, relatively low-key acting career since—no scandals, no blockbusters, just a bunch of really interesting work. As you’ll hear in this podcast, he’s fully down to earth about his unusual journey—even ready to find a tiny bit of positivity in the recent L.A. fires, which completely destroyed both his and his parents’ house.

He’s chatting here with his actor-comedian friend Matt Walsh, who’s probably best known for playing Mike McLintock opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfuss on Veep. It was the perfect vehicle for Walsh, who made his name as an improv comedian in Chicago before his troupe, Upright Citizens Brigade, which also features Amy Poehler, took their show to New York. Walsh is one of those guys who brings the funny to every movie and TV part he’s in: If you don’t recognize his name, you’ll certainly recognize his face.

The reason these two came together today is that a movie they co-starred in is just coming out: It’s called Not An Artist, and it’s an ensemble comedy about a group of artists who gather at a mysterious retreat—organized by no less than The RZA—to decide whether they’re actually cut out to be artists. It’s available on demand now.

These two chat not only about that funny film, but also about Osment's experience with the L.A. fires, about Walsh’s Chicago background, weird Airbnbs, the magic of David Mamet’s dialogue and lots more. It’s a good one, enjoy.

Chapters:

0:00 – Intro

2:04 – Start of the chat

2:18 – Osment on evacuating during the 2025 LA Fires

13:00 – Walsh and Osment on making 'Not An Artist'

20:32 – Osment on early career and David Mamet 

28:19 – Walsh on UCB and early career

37:17 – Walsh on challenging himself as an actor

43:08 – Osment on working with Steven Spielberg

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Haley Joel Osment and Matt Walsh for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and be sure to check out all the great stuff on the Talkhouse Podcast Network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

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This episode originally ran on January 6, 2025 on the Jokermen Podcast. Subscribe to Jokermen.

The Jokermen and Josh Tillman discuss creative process, theories of schmaltz, The Beatles, mental health, fatherhood and breakfast, among other things

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We’re going a little bit country again this week on the Talkhouse Podcast—gotta keep you on your toes—with a pair of Nashville singer-songwriters who share a sensibility, some history, and sobriety, as you’ll hear. One of them, Margo Price, you’ve hopefully heard on the podcast before; the other, Lilly Hiatt, is a first-timer, but you’d never know it.

Price was a critical darling right out of the gate, and for good reason: Her debut album, released by Jack White’s Third Man Records, kicked some new life into country by looking both backward and forward. Since then, Price has released a series of great records as well as a phenomenal memoir called Maybe We’ll Make It. Last time she was on this podcast, Price was talking to former Tom Petty sideman Mike Campbell about a collaboration they did. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, and as you’ll hear in this chat, she’s got new music cooking, though nothing has been officially announced yet.

Lilly Hiatt has a famous last name in the music world—her dad is John Hiatt—but she’s cut her own path through Nashville, too. She rides a more adventurous side of the musical line, getting almost alt-rocky at some points. She’s opened for everyone from Drive-By Truckers to Hiss Golden Messenger to the Mountain Goats, which should tell you something right there. This week Hiatt is releasing a new album called Forever, which is the result of some serious self-reflection and a different, entirely scrapped set of songs. The album was mixed by Paul Kolderie, known for working on early Radiohead and Pixies records. Maybe that’ll also tell you something. Check out “Kwik-E-Mart” right here.

In this lively conversation, Price and Hiatt talk about getting back into the game, about working with their musician husbands—Jeremy Ivey and Coley Hinson, respectively—and they talk at length about getting and staying sober in a town where that’s not always so easy. I had never heard Nashville described as a “drinking town with a music problem” before. Enjoy.

Chapters:

0:00 – Intro

2:13 – Start of the chat

3:34 – Trying to stay in good health

9:36 – Finding balance in your work life

11:20 – Being married to a musician

16:06 – A day in the life

21:26 – On Lilly Hiatt's new album, 'Forever'

23:36 – On Nashville

26:36 – Favorite songs on 'Forever'

30:40 – On Price's upcoming record

33:05 – On sobriety

43:50 – Everything else on the horizon

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Lilly Hiatt and Margo Price for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the good stuff in the Talkhouse Podcast Network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

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I’m stating the extremely obvious here, but the music business has changed a bit since I started listening to and even writing about music—in some bad ways for sure, but also in some that are pretty fascinating and welcome. You can complain all you want about lowered attention spans, but social media has allowed a lot of talented voices to essentially skip past all the gatekeepers and get right to people’s ears.

Take today’s Talkhouse Podcast guests, Bayker Blankenship and Waylon Wyatt. They’re aspiring country stars from very small towns—Livingston, Tennessee and Hackett, Arkansas, respectively—who found fans—and each other—via TikTok. Both started out playing covers of big hits, but quickly pivoted to writing their own stuff, too. Blankenship has had viral hits with sweet, simple songs like “Tennessee Sunset” and “Maxed Out.” The two of them eventually met up in Nashville, convenient to both, and to the music world, and wrote a song called “Jailbreak,” which lit up social media. Check out that song right here.

These guys are much younger than your average Talkhouse guest—much younger, really, than most musicians who’ve gotten as far as they have, and it’s fun to hear them chat about their inspirations and their goals, which seem pretty modest at the moment: good tours, being able to meet fans, eventually getting a tour bus. I imagine they’ll have all that and more soon enough. They also cover a funny topic that I think more seasoned musicians have already dealt with—what to do when you’re on stage and nature calls. And they both talk about an abiding love for their mommas, which I’m sure their mommas will appreciate. Enjoy.

Chapters:

0:00 – Intro

2:05 – Start of the chat

4:38 – Upcoming 2025 gigs

8:40 – What to do when nature calls on stage

11:14 – Timing your sets

12:14 – Tour logistics

15:36 – Reflecting on finding success on TikTok

19:45 – Takeaways from 2024

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Bayker Blankenship and Waylon Wyatt for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the other great shows in our ever-growing network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

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So picture this: It's 1994. The Pixies had been music-world darlings for half a decade or so, releasing some incredible records before fizzling to a stop. Their enigmatic singer, Black Francis, changes his name (again—his parents named him Charles Thompson) to Frank Black and embarks on a solo career that feels a little vexing at the time. His self-titled debut felt deeply connected to his old band, but for the next one, he struck an even richer songwriting vein: The songs kept coming and they turned into the double album Teenager of the Year, recorded with a crack studio band that included Eric Drew Feldman of Pere Ubu both as a player and producer.

Teenager of the Year wasn't particularly well received upon its release 30 years ago, but it has slowly been recognized as a high point in Black's career, celebrated as his masterpiece by those paying the closest attention. It may not get the widespread attention that Pixies' Doolittle does, but the love it gets might even run a little deeper, both from its creator and his biggest fans. It's meaningful enough that Black and the original band that created it have just embarked on an anniversary tour during which they'll play the whole record, and it's being re-released on gold vinyl, a gold record that should have been. You can find dates online, they'll be hitting major US cities throughout January, ending in New York February 1 before heading to Paris and London.

As a high school student, Paul Banks came to the Pixies via a love of Nirvana, and eventually found his way to Teenager of the Year, an album that—as you'll hear in this conversation—was massively important to him. Banks would of course go on to form the band Interpol, for which he has been the singer and guitarist since 1997. Their latest is 2022's The Other Side of Make-Believe, but Interpol has also been revisiting a beloved album recently, touring on the anniversary of their classic second record, Antics.

These two have a great chat about Teenager of the Year here, plus they talk about Black's kids and their musical ambitions, lyric writing in general, and the time Black was asked to audition for the part of a serial killer in a David Fincher movie. They also get into some specifics about Teenager of the Year songs, including a great story about album opener "Whatever Happened to Pong?" Enjoy.

Chapters:

0:00 – Intro

2:28 – Start of the chat

8:30 – Paul Banks on 'Teenager of the Year'

13:52 – The making of 'Teenager of the Year'

15:51 – How Frank almost became the Zodiac Killer (on the big screen)

18:10 – On characters in music

21:10 – On writing lyrics

24:15 – Film and book recommendations

28:22 – The formation of Frank Black's solo band

33:00 – On "Pong" and Pong

38:30 – Paul Banks on when he decided to become a musician

44:15 - The freedom of releasing music

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Frank Black and Paul Banks for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform and check out all the great shows on the Talkhouse Podcast Network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range.

Find more illuminating podcasts on the Talkhouse Podcast Network.

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This episode originally aired on September 7, 2023.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of musicians who create with an air of mystery, but who have a fantastically straightforward chat here: Ethel Cain and Adam McIlwee.

Ethel Cain is a character created by Hayden Anhedonia, though one that’s been sort of all-consuming. Anhedonia began releasing music under the name in 2019, finding her sound and her vibe over the next couple of years before releasing the absolutely epic Preacher’s Daughter in May of 2022. The album, a concept collection about the life and ultimate demise of Ethel Cain, skillfully moves through sounds from a sort of Gothic Americana to slowcore to ambient sounds to who knows what, exactly, other than it’s thoroughly engaging. The album was pretty quickly hailed as a masterful debut, and Cain found herself not only the darling of the music world, but with some prominent modeling gigs as well. As you’ll hear in this chat, though, the spotlight has gotten a little bit bright for her taste lately. She’s currently on the European festival circuit, though she’ll head back to the States in October for sold-out shows at really interesting venues. Check out “Crush” right here.

Cain and today’s other guest, Adam McIlwee, go way back. He was an early supporter of her music, and appears on her Inbred EP under his most prominent alias, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal. Though he started his musical journey as part of the pop-punkish band Tigers Jaw, he’s moved in a dozen other directions since. He founded the emo-rap collective GothBoiClique back in 2012, which briefly counted Lil Peep among its members. As Wicca Phase, though, McIlwee combines synth-pop with more acoustic sounds and more hammering beats, depending on the track. His latest release under the name is self-titled, and it just came out in June. It’s well worth checking out. In fact, check out “Moving Without Movement” right here.

Now for two people who’ve created such interesting mystiques, this is a refreshingly down-to-earth conversation in which they talk about trying to carve out space as middle-class musicians who don’t expect to conquer the charts with their music—but who’d love to be able to make a decent living at it. They talk about what to do when you hit a touring wall—this chat took place not long after Cain fainted onstage in Australia—and how great Vicks Steam Inhalers are for singers. Hey Vicks, you might have a couple of spokespeople here if you play your cards right. Enjoy.

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Hayden Anhedonia aka. Ethel Cain and Adam McIlwee aka. Wicca Phase Springs Eternal for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the other podcasts in our ever-expanding network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

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One of the pleasures of putting the Talkhouse Podcast together is that the guests often leave their promotional hats at home and just dig into conversations about life, and that’s definitely what happened this week with Matty Matheson and Jennifer Castle.

Matty Matheson you’ll surely recognize either as a superstar chef and restaurateur who appeared on a bunch of VICE shows way back when—or if not that then as a star and consultant on the hit TV show The Bear, where he plays the sublimely ridiculous Neil Fak. Matheson has lived several lifetimes, building a reputation as a wild partier in his youth, which eventually led to a heart attack at just 29—that’s touched on briefly in this conversation. He’s also authored a bunch of super down-to-earth cookbooks, including the great new Soups, Salads, Sandwiches—you can guess what that one covers.

Matheson’s connection to singer-songwriter Jennifer Castle goes way, way back. They met working in Toronto restaurants and became good friends over the years: Castle sang at Matty’s wedding and she was a doula at the birth of his first child, a topic that comes up in this chat. Castle has been making music for the past 20 or so years, first under the name Castlemusic but more recently under her own name. Don’t let the gentleness of her indie-folk fool you; there’s a lot that cuts deep in her songs. Speaking of those songs, one of the songs from her latest album Camelot was featured in season three of The Bear—a great way for Matheson to help get the word out on the person he calls the greatest Canadian singer-songwriter ever. Check out “Blowing Kisses” right here.

In this lovely conversation, Castle and Matheson talk about how music and food can both bring people together, but they get really excited talking about two other natural pursuits: childbirth and farming. (Matheson co-owns a farm called Blue Goose that you’ll hear a bit about.) Matheson talks a bit about his family and his current book tour, and Castle shows off a touching gift that Matheson gave her many years ago. Enjoy.

0:00 – Intro

2:09 – Conversation starts

2:59 – Matty’s airport adventures

6:12 – “Eat little shrimps!”

8:10 – Matty loves Jennifer’s music, as you’ll see

12:10 – Matty gets melancholy about their shared Toronto past

21:25 – The birth of children and the birth of Blue Goose

36:58 – Living the creative life

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Matty Matheson and Jennifer Castle for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse

Find more illuminating podcasts on the Talkhouse Podcast Network.

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On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got a pair of performers—and also friends—who recently collaborated on a great single: Suki Waterhouse and Ashe.

Waterhouse came into the public eye as a model and later an actress, but she’s always had a passion for music: As you’ll hear in this chat, she started recording songs before she had any notion that they might end up out in the world. Her slightly subdued Sub Pop debut came out in 2022, after which she had a sort of unexpected viral hit with an older song called “Good Looking.” A second album, the more upbeat Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, came out just a few months ago, and she’s been on tour behind it while also juggling new motherhood. In fact, she Zoomed into this conversation while visiting her movie-star dude in Boston before heading out to play more shows. (You can Google the boyfriend if you must know.)

The other half of today’s conversation is Ashe, a Nashville-based songwriter who had a pretty big hit with her 2019 song “Moral of the Story” and another a couple of years later with Finneas, “Till Forever Falls Apart.” But the grind of success forced Ashe to hit the brakes on her career for a bit in order to regroup and hang on to her sanity. But a collaboration with Waterhouse lit the spark for Ashe once again, and she came back this year with a great record called Willson—and retook the stage to perform their song, “Pushing Daisies” at the Greek Theater. Check out that song right here.

In this lively chat, Waterhouse and Ashe talk about the intensity of performing live in front of thousands of people, about how Suki is having fun playing the more lively songs from her new record, and about the need to not overschedule yourself, even when the pressure is on. Enjoy.

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Suki Waterhouse and Ashe for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time!

This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/talkhouse

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