Strap on your headphones and get ready for this “movie for your ears”—this week we’ve got Jonathan Mitchell, creator and producer of one of our favorite podcasts, The Truth, which just celebrated its tenth year. We get into Jonathan’s history in public radio and the early days of podcasting, experimental electronic music, the process of breaking a Truth episode, and we even get into Jonathan’s new hobby: DIY stop motion animation!

This week we welcome our BFF Jamie Rivera to the pod! Jamie’s a performer and teacher at Magnet Theater, as well as an amateur toy photographer. What’s amateur toy photography? Give this episode a listen and find out!

We discuss the challenge of embracing hobbies deemed “juvenile,” the perfect way to receive a compliment, and learning to love the burn of Scotch (and the burn of making art)!

Check out Jamie’s toy photography on Insta: @jamrivfigs, and his tweets @mr_jamriv. Interested in signing up for one of Jamie’s improv classes? Or seeing him perform live? Check out magnettheater.com for both!

This week improviser, storyteller, and writer Rob Penty talks perfectionism and how it’s really about minimizing risk. Then, Rob and the Perfectionists somehow do a “sober drunk history” on psychological experiments. If you’re looking for a fun convo about hypochondria, OCD, Catholicism, and mindfulness meditation, you’ve come to the right place. Folks, if this one don’t have it, you don’t want it!

You can find Rob performing monthly on The Little Big Show at the Magnet Theater. Read his writing at www.actuallyitsrobpentydotorg.com. Rob’s ebook was designed by Carly Monardo and laid out by Nick Jaramillo.

We’re back, baby!!! Join us as we kick off Season 2 with our friends Jessica and Richard, hosts of our sister podcast “Made Up Talk Show” (also on the Let’s Hear It Network). We discuss the journey of starting a podcast from scratch and how to deal with the successes and failures along the way. We also talk ADHD and rejection-sensitive dysphoria. Let’s get into it!

Hold on to your hats, folks—it’s a crossover! This week, as a special BONUS, the PoP Pod crew is thrilled to present this episode of Made Up Talk Show, guest starring our very own Ellen Matthews and Dennis Pacheco!

Made Up Talk Show is a comedy improv podcast on the Let’s Hear It Network (the very network Pursuit of Perfectness is a part of!) in which guests bring in little known (i.e., completely fictional) podcasts. This week Ellen and Dennis bring in an obscure (again, completely made up) talk show about unconventional couples called How Did These Get Met?

The Perfectionists had a blast improvising wild characters and situations with the hilarious Jessica Coyle and Richard Krysztoforski. We hope you enjoy it! And hey, check out Made Up Talk Show!

What was it all about? Dennis and Ellen take a fond look back at Season 1 episode by episode and prepare to come roaring back in just three little weeks for an even bigger Season 2. Join us, won’t you?

This week the wonderful Amanda Rothman joins Ellen and Dennis to talk drama therapy, our need to take care of others (including, sometimes, our therapists), and how shame is a driving force behind perfectionism. They also go off on a tangent about The Matrix for … way? … too long? Is this officially a kung fu movie review podcast now? Maybe!

You can find Amanda Rothman on Psychology Today. Hire her!

Actor, improviser, and founder of Rubbish Comedy Collective Xave Padin joins the Perfectionists (Ellen and Dennis) to talk about the gift (and curse) of word-perfect script memorization and what it took to create a new comedy collective founded on equity, representation, and integrity. All that, plus Xave gives Ellen and Dennis the gift of a brand new podcast intro.

You can find out more about Xave and Rubbish Comedy Collective at rubbishcomedy.com.

The Perfectionists (Ellen and Dennis) get their very first live-in-the-studio guest, and what a get she is! Robyn Chapman is the editor of American Cult, a comics anthology about religious cults in America. She talks with Dennis and Ellen about the importance of self-compassion and how Kristin Neff’s book Self-Compassion helped her get through a particularly hard time. Then they discuss cults throughout American history and determine once and for all whether or not improv counts as a cult. (The answer may surprise you!)

Robyn runs a micropress called Paper Rocket. Find it online at paperrocketcomics.com.

Abby Russell is a content producer in the video game industry. The perfectionists (Ellen and Dennis, natch) have a delightful chat with Abby about Twitch streaming, comedy writing, and the high stakes (low stakes) world of improv.

You can find Find Abby on Twitch, Twitter, and Instagram. Her handle is @ybbaaabby on all the things.