Try! with Nate Dern

In this episode I talk to former Tonight Show graphic artist and current digital artwork creator, Bryan Brinkman. We focus on Bryan's work in the NFT space, discussing the success he has had there, with his work being featured on billboards in Times Square, Sotheby's auctions, and more.

You can follow Bryan on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/bryanbrinkman

And check out more of his artwork here:

https://www.bryanbrinkman.com/

And just to do my due diligence, while I believe that Brinkman is a good person using the space for good, there are also a lot of scammers out there in the NFT and crypto worlds, so if you're new to the space, please proceed with caution! For an overview of some of the risks and critique of the less than savory parts of the space, watch this YouTube video "Line Goes Up - The Problem with NFTs":

https://youtu.be/YQ_xWvX1n9g

Michael Cruz Kayne is a stand-up comedian, a writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and host of the podcast A Good Cry, where he talks about grief by sharing the experience of the loss of his infant son in order to talk with others who have lost loved ones about the grief podcast. He's a beautiful human and a good father. Since this is the first episodes of the podcast that I've recorded since the birth of my daughter Clover six weeks ago, I decided to insist that Michael try to give me parenting advice, so that's what today's episode is all about. We talk about the Philip Larkin poem "This Be The Verse" and Michael wonders if from day one parenting is just the most beautiful trauma. Give it a listen!

Michael's podcast "A Good Cry":

https://headgum.com/a-good-cry

My sister Courtney's parenting Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/beechstreetparenting/

Rachel Wenitsky (Friend Who Folk, Good Dogs on a Bad Day) is a comedy writer, a talented actor, an amazing singer and — dare I say — a good friend. But on this episode of the Try! podcast, we don't talk about any of that, we just talk about her recent passion for cultivating plants in her house. After a lack of plant survival success in Brooklyn, Rachel has found her green thumb taking care of over 50 plants in her new home in Los Angeles. We ask the question "Do indoor plants actually clean the air?" but for that answer, you'll just have to listen to the episode.

Comedy writer Arthur Meyer started taking piano lessons in December of 2019 after he left his job writing for The Tonight Show. I interviewed him then, and a year and a half later I interviewed him again to check in on his progress. We discuss how it's important to have a hobby, and how it can be fun to suck at something for a while. I also interview Arthur's piano teacher Nathan Reising to get his perspective on trying to learn something new, and the importance of enjoying the process of learning itself.

For more Arthur Meyer, check out: www.arthur-meyer.com

For Nathan Reising's piano lessons, check out: www.nathanreising.com

In this special episode that covers the last three years of our life, I talk to my wife Miranda Erokan about the process of trying to get pregnant and our journey at a fertility clinic. Miranda is a postpartum doula and childcare expert with lots of experience caring for infants and young children, she's loved babies since she was a baby herself, and she's known her whole life that she wanted to be a mother one day. So, it caught her (and me) by surprise when trying to get pregnant was met with unexplained infertility. Fair warning, in this episode, we talk about a variety of topics related to pregnancy and infertility that can get heavy at times, including: sex, reproductive organs, fertility clinics and IVF, and pregnancy loss.

To learn more about Miranda's postpartum services in the Los Angeles area and online, visit her website:

www.mirandaerokan.com

Or find her on Instagram: @miranda_erokan

Additional music for this special episode from Steady Holiday:

https://www.steadyholiday.com

Jess Dweck is a comedy writer (Big Mouth, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Tonight Show) and in this episode we talk about her many attempts trying to try something new during the pandemic, from cooking to playing the ukulele to rollerblading. We discuss Jenny Odell's book "How To Do Nothing" and playwright Tracy Letts' comment on coming to terms with feeling creatively lost the past year. Also, we both agree on the power of making a daily walk be a part of your routine.

Please, follow Jess Dweck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDweck

Dre Babinski is a Los Angeles-based actor, singer and songwriter that you also might know as the indie-pop musical artist Steady Holiday. In this episode, I talk to Dre about what it took to self-produce and release her new album "Take The Corners Gently." We get into how paradoxically focusing on the business side of being a creative can free you up to be less precious and more relaxed about the artistic part of being, well, an artist. And I play a few Steady Holiday songs. Take a listen, ya goof!

For more Steady Holiday, check out:

https://www.steadyholiday.com/

Avery Monsen (author of "All My Friends Are Dead") wrote a new children's book called "I Am The Longest Dog." Now he has to figure out how to promote the book so people know about it and maybe, just maybe, will also buy it. We talk about how it feels gross to have to promote something at all, and trying to tackle it as a problem to be solved analytically, while struggling to come to terms with the reality that the success of any piece of art is outside of the control of its original creator. I bring up my own experience publishing and then trying to promote a book.

"I Am The Longest Dog" is out now: https://bookshop.org/books/i-am-the-longest-dog/9781368053211

In this episode, I talk with comedy writer Karen Chee (Late Night With Seth Meyers) about trying to watch new movies, when really her deeper desire is just to rewatch the same ten or so movies from the "Karen Chee Cinematic Universe" that she knows she will love and be comforted by, such as "Paddington 2."

https://twitter.com/karencheee